"I think they are all homosexual communists in Satan's army...I espect as well they all live together and bathe together every morning and have the anal sex with one another, with the fisting and the guinea pigs." - Manuel Estimulo
"I can never quite tell if the defeatists are conservative satirists poking fun at the left or simply retards. Or both. Retarded satire, perhaps?" - Kyle
"You're an effete fucktard" - Jeff Goldstein of Protein Wisdom
"This is the most pathetic blog ever..." - Ames Tiedeman
"You two [the Rev and el Comandante] make an erudite pair. I guess it beats thinking." - Matt Cunningham (aka Jubal) of OC Blog
"Can someone please explain to me what the point is behind that roving gang of douchebags? I’m being serious here. It’s not funny, and doesn’t really make anything that qualifies as logical argument. Paint huffers? Drunken high school chess geeks?" - rickinstl
Willie and Waylon and all are great examples of the craft of Texas songwriting, as are Lyle Lovett and Rodney Crowell and Robert Earle Keen but for me, Guy Clark is probably the most influential of the Texas Songwriters.
Everybody recorded his stuff and he never really got the credit. Most of his albums are classics; his performances are exceptional; and, he's an honest man who practices his craft daily. Townes Van Zandt may have been Steve Earle's hero, but Clark his mentor and safe haven. Clark spent years picking up the pieces of Townes' wreckage, getting him to shows, sessions and out of jails and hospitals while pondering the inevitable.
Rodney Crowell started drinking coffee at Susanna and Guy's kitchen table while escaping from an abusive father and met Emmylou Harris there.
Rosanne Cash sat with Rodney, Steve and Emmy Lou Harris writing lyrics and trying licks with Guy. And, an old 2nd or 3rd hand Ovation Celebrity and "Desperadoes Waiting For a Train" got me back into guitar playing and through the mourning over the death of my dad.
I feel honored to have the opportunity to contribute to this one...
First heard Guy's writing here, although I didn't know it with this one. Like I said, everybody covered him! Now my dad loved Bobby Bare's version of New Cut Road, but I think this version by Emmylou is definitive..."Guy Clark isn't speaking to me..." was a great inside joke, since her band leader for the Hot Band backing this one was fellow Clark friend, Rodney Crowell.
The life of Texas songwriter Guy Clark is certainly ripe for documentary treatment. Without Getting Killed or Caught: The Life and Music of Guy Clark will trace the life of the folk pioneer from his early Texas beginnings, through his historic career and up to present day.--American Song Writer, 4-20-2015
Mentioning Crowell, the lyrics for this one were provided by Guy and the song cited in his lifetime award for poetry by the Academy of Country Music a few years ago.
The project is doing quite well through the Kick Starter Campaign and while it still has a way to go, it'll be worth it. Guy lost his muse, love and inspiration a couple of years ago when Susanna passed away from complications of Alzheimer's. After a relatively small stroke, he's settled back into his routine, but his health isn't great; getting this done has a sort of short event horizon. But, it is a story that I'd like to see and hear told.
He's cut back on his touring because the logistics are just too tough. But, he still writes everyday, drinks a bit less whiskey and a lot less coffee, and has a group of devoted friends who help him stay the stubborn, graceful, forgiving and transcendent writer, singer and thinker who influenced the music, writing, thought and performance of so many people. Lyle Lovett says it well in one of the pieces in the Kick Starter -- "I wouldn't have a career without Guy Clark."
Rock and Roll has come a long way from Pat Boone ripping off Little Richard...
There is this though --
Jerome Gee and his Happy Dancers...
The original..B0bby Womack and the Valentinos...
Womack wrote this one for the Valentinos and got pissed when Murray the K gave it to this stupid white English band, until he got his first royalty check --
The Valentinos of course were from Philadelphia. Jerome Gee and His Happy Dancers were from Boston. Bobby Womack was from Detroit. And these guys were from some place in England...
This guy was from Philly, I think..
Cover song by some guy from Dearborn...Detroit...Duluth..one of those cold states..
A couple of articles in the New York Times opinion section caught my attention this morning and are worth sharing. The first has to do with J.J. Cale who passed away this year after a career that from most points of view ended in obscurity. Which shows, I think, that most points of view are myopic or worse – but Cale wasn’t all that interested in most points of view.
JJ Cale was one of the Delaney and Bonnie and Friends generation of musicians from Oklahoma who wandered out to California, said why do I want to be here when I can be at home, and returned to Oklahoma to produce, direct, and record. He did wander back to California, but stayed out of the spotlight, letting his music speak for him in a quiet, controlled and mesmerizing kind of way, influencing people as diverse as Lynard Skynard, Eric Clapton, John Meyer and Grace Potter. There’s a Cale groove in some of Dylan’s work these days and earlier. He’s not going anywhere, except deeper into the American psyche through other players.
The Times article addressed the problem of Cale as to “why he never became a star.” It’s fairly simple, I think – he didn’t care to do the things needed in the way of promotion and self-aggrandizement that seem necessary. Cale was not a flash of fiery brilliance like Clapton with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers that resulted in instant cachet. He was a steady burn, influencing and exciting musicians and discerning audiences in a way that will outlast people who sold more records and made a lot more money.
The article tells a story of Cale’s invitation to be on American Bandstand. He said ok, got his band, climbed in the trucks and cars and drove from Oklahoma to LA. They got there and started to set-up, when the director came over and stopped them, telling them not to plug in their instruments because they were just going to play the record. Cale said something laconic like “Well we know how to play it, it will sound just like the record.” The director said something like, “No, you just need to lip synch it…” Cale said “I’m not going to do that,” and they started packing up the amps and the chords and the pedals and the instruments. Well, being a big corporation by this time, Dick Clark Productions panicked because he was supposed to be on the show and he wasn’t going to be on the show, and they called out the big gun, Mr. Clark. Clark raced downstairs from his offices and said, “J.J., your record will be number 1 after you play American Bandstand.” Cale politely said, “I don’t care about that,” and they drove off.
This illustrates in some ways that other examples might not the second article. The Times publishes articles weekly in a series called “The Stone” where contemporary philosophers reflect on issues of interest to them. This week’s piece by Texas Tech philosopher Costicas Bradatan, In Praise of Failure fits well with the story of JJ Cale. Bradatan indicates that failure is intrinsic to the human experience and that without failure, we would not be fully human and be limited in not only what we become but actually cut off from a lot of what we are.
Bradatan begins by reflecting on the role of failure in philosophy and points out that the philosopher and by extension, the practice of philosophy knows failure “intimately. The history of Western philosophy at least is nothing but a long succession of failures, if productive and fascinating ones. Any major philosopher typically asserts herself by addressing the “failures,” “errors,” “fallacies” or “naiveties” of other philosophers, only to be, in turn, dismissed by others as yet another failure…Failure, it seems is what philosophy thrives on, what keeps it alive. As it were, philosophy succeeds only in so far as it fails.” He then discusses three reasons why failure is significant in our thought, work and lives.
First of all , he says that Failure allows us to see our existence in its naked condition. When we fail, either dramatically or incrementally, we see the possibility of our own contingence. We really don’t have to be here, and without out our presence this debacle wouldn’t have happened. Contradicting Goethe who indicated that thinking being can’t reflect on the possibility of non-existence,” the experience of failure tells us that we really contingent on a lot of things –
Self-deceived as we are, we forget how close to not being we always are. The failure of, say, a plane engine could be more than enough to put an end to everything; even a falling rock or a car’s faulty brakes can do the job. And while it may not be always fatal, failure always carries with it a certain degree of existential threat.
Now, Sartre would respond that this is what makes existence nauseating, but Bradatan has a totally different perspective – while failure is the “eruption of nothingness into the midst of existence” we should see it as an indication that we are simply by existing a miracle. There is nothing pre-ordained about our presence. We are free to do that which we want in all areas because we really don’t have to be here at all.
In fact, Bradatan reflects that failure can be therapeutic – if we are honest with ourselves, we can see that we’re not the center of the universe, and that we’re just all bozos on this bus of existence. While he brackets the “most self-aware or enlightened” we are all if not poorly, sub-optimally adjusted to the reality we encounter every day. Failure might be a window into a different, more properly grounded future.
I find that somewhat optimistic. We are so overwhelmed with choice that the realization that what we’ve just done was a really bad idea doesn’t necessarily lead to us not doing that again. Education, awareness and technology allow us to keep making the same mistake again, blissfully assuming that the outcome will be different this time because, well, we’re different. We aren’t the problem – reality is. Our ability to ignore reality, to misunderstand it, to deny it gets us back into the mess we were originally crawling out of.
The next reason that he sees failure as philosophically significant is that “Our capacity to fail is essential to what we are.” Our ability to create rests on there being holes in what could be that we fill with our efforts. Some succeed, some fail but that’s due to our nature as evolving, imperfect and incomplete creatures. We are necessary as a species in so far as there is a need for continued motion; if perfection is achieved, then we’re not really necessary anymore. It’s in the gap between where we are – as individuals, as societies, as a species – and where we want to be and where we need to be that the possibility of the better exists. Steve Earle says it exceptionally well in his song, “I Ain’t Ever Satisfied” when he sings
Last night I dreamed I made it to the promised land
I was standing’ at the gate and I had the key in my hand
St Peter said, “Come on in Boy, you’re finally home”
I said “No thanks Pete, I’ll just be moving along.
Citing More’s Utopia as a reaction to what’s wrong as opposed to a blueprint for an ideal society, he goes on to say that the dreams of perfection are what keep us going. If we fail to seek something better, we will become victims of our own success. Should we achieve perfection and have nothing greater to strive for, well, as he says, “we may be something interesting but I am not sure we will have what to live for…virtually perfect and essentially dead.” Bradatan indicates that our ability to fail lies at the possibility of any achievement because if we couldn’t fail, we wouldn’t be here in the first place. Failure doesn’t just imply lack; it points to potential.
Finally, Bradatan says that “We are designed to fail.” This insight is really fundamental to the Western Philosophical and Religious tradition, although most of us might not initially see it that way. Our bodies, minds, energy and organs will all wear out someday. The essential question is not whether or not we’re going to die, but rather how to live with that in mind. He uses the model of The Seventh Seal where Bergman’s Knight is faced with Death in the guise of a man and challenges Death to a chess match. Death has nothing to lose because he will inevitably win, but the Knight knows that too. He’s not concerned about victory, he’s concerned about how he is going to lose. He is politely and resolutely refusing to go quietly into the good night. As Bradatan says, “He not only turns failure into an art, but manages to make the art of failing an intimate part of the art of living.”
Not so long ago, I reconnected with an overly refined friend of mine, the radical lesbian Catholic theologian activist who has some very interesting things to say in between the proper nouns. In a recent note, she mentioned that she had spent the weekend in Nashville at Vanderbilt Divinity School but hadn't heard a note of "country music, thank God!" before leaving for her annual vacation back to our home town and then on to Germany. Love her dearly, respect her dedication and integrity,but felt that deserved a response...especially since she was cautioning me on twisting the tail of my fans from some of my more political posts...since this is the gal who went to Argentina in 1980 to do pastoral counseling with the families of the disappeared, I thought cautioning me was a bit arch...anyway, the relevant piece of my response.
Shame about the country music, but a lot of the stuff based in Nashville is really just pop music with bluejeans and big hats. Lots of sequins, but lacking the charm of the Nudie Suits. (Always kinda wanted one in black leather, with Vikings and M16s picked out in ruby and purple sequins or something. )
[caption id="attachment_22" align="aligncenter" width="588"] Mr. Clark[/caption]
"You're missing a lot of stuff in Country/Americana music. Lots of it is pretty silly, but some of it is interesting and a lot of the stuff is very good indeed. As Steve Earle is fond of saying, "It's amazing how much pinko shit you can put in a bluegrass record..." Here are a few...
While looking for some pictures to
tie this piece together, I discovered this – The Greek Christmas Goblins not to
be confused with Krampus. Krampus is there to screw with the bad children, but
the Kalikantzaroi
are there to screw with Christmas.
Who says Santa
Claus is the only one trying to come down your chimney during the
festive season? According to Greek mythology, a gaggle of goblin-like spirits
are trying to slide into homes -- and instead of presents they are intent on
leaving a trail of destruction. As the
Greeks tell it, it wouldn't be hard to confuse theTwelve
Days of Christmas with the Twelve Days of Hell. That is if you believe
in the Kallikantzaroi.
Well, there’s definitely reason when we think about it to
see this as a definite possibility. The
recent madness in Sandy Hook is a marvelous metaphor for the impact of reality
striking the sensibilities this time of the year. I spend a couple of weeks
before and after braced for the next bad deal – invade someplace?
Pestilence? Riots? Tsunami? Tiffany,
Goddess of the Defeatists and Malcontents, is definitely driven to
distraction by the all the sugar consumed and her consequent inability to fit
into her skinny jeans, so she wrecks havoc on the world around us…part petulant
teenage fit, part evil deity exercise program.
There’s a young artist up in Denver, Katey Laurel, who for some odd reason decided to
follow me on Twitter. Since we don’t actually know each other, I always
react to “Follows” like Henri the Cat would if he actually typed his tweets to
his peeps….I check out who they are. If they are interesting, I follow them.
Katey has a gorgeous voice, excellent guitar taste, plays very well and is very
much an upbeat and positive type of the sort that gets Henri and me feeling
nervous. But, talent, music and beauty cover a multitude of sins. In our
occasional correspondence, I referred to her as
“hippy Dale Evans” which she seemed to like. Snarky as that sounds, I
can’t see a downside.
However, AXE’s world does have some standards. One of them
is a vomit-reaction to anything approaching a sentimental attitude at Christmas
that could be mistaken for commercialism. When I was a practicing Catholic or actively
non-practicing Catholic, I felt that Christmas was a silly feast. If you buy
the whole Christian mythos – and a number of other mythos with similar stories
that pre-date Christianity – the true center is neither word becoming flesh nor
dwelling amongst us but the 36 or so hours between the death of Jesus on the
Cross and the stone rolling away on Sunday morning at dawn. The whole torture,
suffering and death thing serves as a horrible prologue for something outside
of human experience.
But, human beings love cuddly, warm and bright at least for the most part. I’ve
never had a Goth girlfriend, but I suspect that even they feel the need for
warmth, security and brightness in the night. So, Christmas evolved and despite
the best efforts of the Puritans and Roundheads and the Jansenists and bunches
of other people, Christmas is the center
of everyone’s world for six months of so. Good Friday and Easter get a token
nod, maybe some Lenten fasting and abstinence but there’s no real hysteria and
commercial upside to Easter. Eggs, chocolate and hats do very well. Not like
Christmas…
So, Katey decided to do a Christmas song every day.
Bleech…and post them on her blog. What is nice and authentic about them is that
she just turns on her web cam, sits down with the guitar and plays the song,
and then does whatever a Colorado-Hippy-Cowgirl type does for the rest of her
time. It would be a lot of fun to just sit around with her and play by the
way…she’s got a marvelous voice and an attractiveness in the purest sense that
would make her easy to accompany. What
wasn’t cool was her suggestion that she’d like to do a Christmas album for next
year. My immediate response, on Twitter, was”Are you changing your name to
Bambi?” She obviously got the joke, because she not only favorited it, she
re-tweeted it. However, after hitting send, I thought why not do an
existentialist Christmas album.
Objectively, Christmas is a really schizoid kind of holiday.
For six weeks or so, everything operates at a level of hysteria such that the
entire world is torn between glee, despair, love, hate, anger, angst, joy and
fear. The emotional roller coaster is shadowed by the looming debt, the stress
of “loved ones,” the joys of travel in the US today and so on. It’s
unavoidable…inescapable…insatiable. And then, of course, on the 26th
the post Christmas commercial blitzkrieg takes center stage, the toys don’t
work, the tree comes down, the crumbs are vacuumed, the cats come out of hiding
and every one gets ready for the cycle to begin again. Poorer, older, fatter
and more depressed…sugar high, crashing blood sugar low.
People die around Christmas. It’s not just the uptick in
suicides which may or may not be mythical. A lot of old and sick folks stop
fighting around Christmas and just go. It’s a time of ends and beginnings. The
coldest and darkest time of the year, 3 days into winter which is already
turning from darkness to light.
I fleshed out my
suggestion to Katey for a more Either/Or Christmas album. I could see this as a single
artist project, an ensemble or a larger collaboration. Do a traditional
Christmas song and then counterpoint it with a Christmas song of angst, anger,
despair or whatever that would model the dark side. Perhaps a Harlequin
Christmas although I like the Either/Or concept. I stole the title from
Kierkegaard, one of my favorite thinkers…and, for K at the end, there was an
effort to synthesize the aesthetic and the ethical realms into the religious
realm, the Both/And.
I sent her a tentative song list, and she said she was going to check out the
videos I linked. Now, it is probably not a terribly commercial idea – do you
think? – and I can understand it if she doesn’t jump all over it. Still, I
think Katey and a couple of other guitars, maybe a blues harp, maybe a violin,
some simple drums and a string bass, and Christmas would be honestly and
respectfully portrayed.
Although I never made it to the Stilge Nacht, Helige Nacht
church in Austria, I have attended Midnight Mass in small village churches in
Germany and Austria where the light was from candles and a fireplace and the
instruments were guitars, flutes and zithers. The starker, simpler arrangements
are special. At the same time, some of the greatest commercial songwriters in
the glory days of Broadway, Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley touched the Christmas
theme. So, why not…
So, here’s my partial play list, proposed from the Dark Side
of the Force for Christmas... The
Guardian has a marvelous piece on how Fairytale came to be. This is one of the most popular contemporary
Christmas songs, and one of the few Christmas songs I have ever bothered to
learn how to play. Part of it is the Irish part of it of course – an early
version has some lyrics beginning “it was a cold dark night in County
Claire/and I looked to the west and wondered what’s over there…” Part of it is of course, it’s America…”it’s
got cars big as bars, it’s got rivers of gold? but the wind blows right through
you it’s no place for the old/when you first took my hand on that cold
Christmas eve/You promised that Broadway was waiting for me”…Failure, loss,
despair and love gone bad: “I could have
been someone/Well so could anyone, You took my dreams from me when I first
found you…”and, maybe hope triumphant…”The Boys of the NYPD Choir still singing
Galway Bay and the bells were ringing out on Christmas Day!”
Robert Earle Keen is one of the non-Gonzo
Texas Alternative Country musicians, closer to Townes Van Zandt in substance
and Guy Clark in style with some Lyle Lovett tones. Which makes a lot of sense,
given that Clark and Lovett were roommates and band mates and fellow English
Majors at Texas A&M. Like Clark he confronts reality in a sort of
off-kilter way that is truer to the whole thing than fantasy or straight
reporting could be. The Robert Earle Classic, Merry Christmas from the Family
is so true to Christmas gatherings and families and family issues. This is the
other Christmas song I’ve bothered to learn. Now, if you love Texas, the song
is pretty whimsically real, but it doesn’t have to be Texas…I was the Irish
boyfriend at a Sicilian Christmas decades ago, and yes they were connected.
“Sister brought her new boyfriend/He was a Mexican/We didn’t know what to think
of him/ Until he sang Feliz Navidad, Feliz Navidad…”
A
Christmas
Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis is Neko Case singing Tom Watts...Despite
being an acquaintance of mine, Neko Case one of the most talented
singer-songwriters working these days or any days. Powerful voice, expressive
and alternatively yearning, defiant and reflective. Hell, simultaneously
yearning, defiant and reflective. Her twitter remarks are worth the price of
admission alone. She’s a unique talent, responding to a piece of my snark with
“Crusader AXE, if I wanted a father, I’d buy one.” However, she complains about
Christmas and indicates that this is just not her happiest time of the year,
she’s the kind of great soul, kind heart and love-filled spirit sheathed in a
protective coating of red-headed angst and cynicism that makes her perfect to
deliver this song. ”Everyone I used
to know is either dead or in prison/Came back to Minneapolis and this time I
think I’llstay…” Waits
version is perhaps more authentic, but less affecting and less humane. Valid
still, but Neko owns this song.
The
Hives are 90s garage-punk rock from LA and everybody knows Cyndi Lauper.
However, there is more happening here than it seems, and frankly, I’ve heard
arguments like this from lots of people. This is a lot realer than we’d like it
to be. I’m kind of amazed at Lauper – she’s gone a long way musically from
wince-producing to very interesting at times. This was part of the journey, and
I could see Katey laughing her ski boots off but never considering it as a
possible song for the album. Think that would be a mistake though…
When
I heard Dylan say he was going to do a Christmas album with new songs one
morning while listening to Theme Time radio while driving to work, I spit
coffee all over the dash board. And then he produced this…the guy remains
unpredictable and true to his own vision. He’s not unwilling to share it, but
we’ll never understand it in advance. That’s how a scrawny Jewish Kid from
Northern Minnesota was able to change the world – we never saw it coming. Steven
Van Zandt repeatedly tells the Al Cooper legend of how Koop ended up, a guitar
player overshadowed and intimidated by
Mike Bloomfield’s presence in the recording studio so fakinghis way on to the
Hammond B3 for the session that produced Like a Rolling Stone. While that may
define Chutzpah, Dylan gave an insight into the vision that day when he told
the producer to turn up the organ, he wanted to hear the organ louder. The
Engineer apologized and said basically that Cooper wasn’t an organ player and
wasn’t supposed to be there anyway. Bob
said, “I’ll tell you who’s an organ player and who isn’t. Turn up the organ.”
And the rest is rock history. While I
don’t envision rock and roll polka coming anytime soon, this is a helluva lot
better and definitely a subversive take on the whole Santa thing. And, how could it be a music recommendation from Crusader
AXE that didn't include Dylan?
There are dozens of other songs that fit this mold, but from
my point of view, these are probably the best fitting for me. There is an
underlying ethical and existential tension in the whole Christmas story – for
if Jesus was the son of God and fully God and fully man, he would know his
future, even while an infant. So, there is a bit of the dark side in all the
religious carols. Now for me, anti-theist but cultural Irish Catholic, I find
that so incredibly awesome and awful that I can’t approach it. Mr. Deity has fun with it
in the whole “Jesse is a quitter!” thing but it’s a philosophical and theological
problem that I don’t think has been addressed except in Kierkegaard’s Attack on
Christianity.
There are two iconic mainstream Christmas related songs that
I think could fit in this compilation on the dark side. The first is Bing Crosby’s “I’ll be home for
Christmas.” A 1943 release, the
whole I’ll be home for Christmas malarkey is actually a pretty good wartime
meme…wars are always expected to be done by Christmas, and they never seem to
end quite that way. I sense, and this is
probably just me reading into it, a connection thematically between this and
the country song, “The Green, Green
Grass of Home.” Still, I’ll be home for Christmas is all positive buildup
until the end, with “I’ll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams…”
The next one is another in Crosby canon, “White
Christmas.” Katey commented on Twitter
to how she can’t see how people in warm areas can get in the Christmas spirit
without snow. Well, Christmas is largely about Walmart’s bottom line these days,
so in SOCAL and similar locations, it
just removes a distraction from what it really important.
It would be possible on a concept album to use these two
numbers with a pretty simple arrangement to bridge the dark side to the cheery
sides. Thus, the Either/Or. Worth considering, I think.
Asked if she understood the charges levied against her – hooliganism motivated by religious hatred – Alyokhina was defiant."I don't understand the ideological side of the question," she said, pausing for dramatic effect as she stared down the judge from behind the glass. "I don't understand on what basis you're making statements about my motivations." Another dramatic pause. "And I don't understand why I'm not allowed to explain this."
Miriam Elder, The Guardian
I haven't written about Pussy Riot for a couple of reasons. First of all, musically they make the Sex Pistols seem accomplished. Secondly, there isn't that much to say -- they're musicians, poets, students, intellectuals who did something that was perhaps in poor taste. In response, the Putin regime, channeling the Moscow of Ivan the Terrible, did a show trial and they were sentenced to prison. The church even admitted it was stupid to do so; Medvedev said they shouldn't be punished; Putin said they should be punished lightly. Now, two years in Camp Cupcake, the Martha Stewart alma mater, isn't exactly the gulag; two years in a Russian women's prison is in fact the gulag. Appeal is coming up this coming week, and Amnesty International among others has been collecting funds and signatures world wide. This is a stupid PR hit for the Russians...or is it?
The Russians have never cared all that much about what anybody else thinks of them; they are less concerned with it now than they were during the Soviet Years, since they were actually committed to the cause of International Communism, and things like Stalin's Purges, the Katyn Forest Massacre and all the rest probably wer not really helpful in their quest for world domination. Today, not so much...they have oil, a semi-benign dictator and relative internal piece. The intelligentsia is unhappy with the government -- shrugs the Security Forces and Putin agrees, saying What else is new? This is a way of thumbing their noses at the world and reassuring/scaring their own people that the nonsense years are over, with the KGB alumni association in charge, nothing but good times ahead.
[caption id="attachment_224231" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Pussy Riot performing at the Moscow venue of CBGB[/caption]
If this offends you, as it does me, consider a donation to Amnesty International for the defense of Pussy Riot. I have a FREE Pussy Riot t-shirt that is at least as good if not better than most of the band crap that I have, and cost about as much. And then, there's this... Maria Alyokhina,one of the group in jail is a poet and a new book of some of her poems is due to be released in October. Given how well poetry sells in the US, we're not looking at 51 Shades of Grey here. But, I could easily imagine these sung by Joan Baez or Shannon McNally or Neko Case. And, I could easily picture them with an accompaniment similar to the ballads of the Afghansi...which they should be.
What Follows Fear
Oh, what are we?
Fear is what follows in conclusion.
And what does it make us?
After we’d smashed into drops, into walls
Whose eyes found us?
Just yours, good God, yours alone.
Guide my hand
When I throw a fistful of words
and I betray you right away
Wait for me. On the seashore
On the quay
I will escape them
I will run away
In Light of Current Events
Bad things aren’t scary to do; everyone does them.
It’s not hard to hide in a crowd, no one will notice.
One piece of trash more, one piece less.
What’s there to be said—it’s the times we live in, they’re like that.
We got unlucky. But, no.
You cannot be afraid or ashamed to do good.
You cannot.
There’s so frighteningly little of that around these days.
Cynicism’s in fashion.
Ironic smiles and dull melancholy.
Know this: if you don’t do it, possibly, no one will.
A lot of them just don’t have the time to look at what they’re doing, let alone the time to take stock.
They have time to look at others, they have time to assign blame.
If you choose to do good, if you choose to help come what may, know this: you have lost.
You have most certainly lost.
But this doesn’t mean that you mustn’t do it.
It is important to remember who we are.
It is important to know that your conscience is what matters.
It is important to follow your conscience.
It is important not so much to change things, but to know that you are changing them.
In Snows Over Bridges
I change into things:
I hang like a convict
I’m dining with kings.
My broken-down carriage
Careens down your street
And under the snow
I’ll lie down for a bit.
I’m dining with freaks,
I change as I go,
I stand like a king
Under bridges in snow.
When my child sleeps, the night,
Time altogether, seems to stop, and turn to water,
Into a sea that unites all with all; even, possibly,
Me with you.
And the greatest treasure would be safe in it,
Afloat on a simple raft. I’ll attach every tree to a place
Where people will find it, recognize it and remember.
They say that home is where you are always missed.
When I hear things like this
I feel like twisting the speaker’s neck
Into a tight tourniquet, and then, steadily,
Making him look
At the rocking of the baby’s cradle.
Then I want to take his hand and say: see
How the lilac’s blooming, can you feel the scent?
Not a thing will be left of us, but this will go on.
Will go on.
Death to Prison, Freedom to Protest by Pussy Riot
The joyful science of occupying squares
The will to everyone’s power, without damn leaders
Direct action—the future of mankind!
LGBT, feminists, defend the nation!
Death to prison, freedom to protest!
Make the cops serve freedom,
Protests bring on good weather
Occupy the square, do a peaceful takeover
Take the guns from all the cops
Death to prison, freedom to protest!
Fill the city, all the squares and streets,
There are many in Russia, beat it,
Open all the doors, take off the epaulettes
Come taste freedom together with us
Death to prison, freedom to protest!
Maria, or Masha as she's called, has been a pain in the ass to authorities throughout. She's pretended that this is a fair process and that she is a free citizen in a free country. While it may not change the results of the trial or influence the decision of the appeals course (I'm no Kremlinologist but I'd say release with time served is the most likely result -- odds being 60-40 against, to paraphrase Wilson Minzer) buying a copy of the book might not be a bad way to help her. I'd be hard pressed to recommend buying Pussy Riot recordings because they are frankly awful...but, a cover akbum of Masha's poems might be a lot of value. In lots of ways...
I generally hate Christmas music. Happy, happy, joy, joy -- elves, lollypops and sugarplums. . I am looking for a Bluegrass or Rock version of the Messiah. A goth or punk version would be fun.
Not that there aren't some great Christmas songs. A lot of them are in Latin or German, and reflect emotions other than "oh boy, oh boy, this is gonna be great!" They reflect a sense of yearning, hope and melancoly. If you're a believer, you realize the agony necessary for the promise of the Messiah to be fulfilled...and, if you're a realist, your recognize that the agony will go on far longer than the Passion. If you tend toward the agno-anti-atheistic side of things, you can scoff, or appreciate the need for balence and forgiveness and hope in a future that remains dark and beyond a present tied to a past full of pain, disappointment and loneliness. We are spared despair by those moments of anticipation, fulfillment and hope, and I believe that the best Christmas songs capture all of that. Even though few were written in minor keys, they can be played that way...from Away in a Manger and Silent Night -- which I once got to hear in a 9th Century Catholic Church played on zither and guitar and sung by the children of Berchtesgarden, a somewhat haunting moment --to White Christmas and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.
Christmas is the Holiday that is most human. Perhaps since so much of it results from Christianity ripping off the various Solstace feasts and festivals; perhaps because it speaks not to the past in our western mythology but rather to the past living through and to a future, real or not; perhaps because it is child-centered regardless of the worst Church bureaucracy and commercialization have been able to do to it since the Milesian Bridge -- it is just that way. In China today, Christmas is celebrated as a lead-in to the Spring Festival, which starts in early January. The nicest Christmasy-Christmas I've spent in recent years was in Shanghai, where there was enough Christmas stuff around to not make me homesick, but it was weird enough in many ways to make me smile. The Chinese in Shanghai and I suspect other parts of China don't really get the whole realm of sacred versus profane thing. I saw this my first evening wandering around a Shanghai mall, where the anchor store, Carre-Foure, had a large number of displays with Santa, Reindeer, Angels, Cribs and Wisemen. All together -- with a tree and presents. Go figure.
So what are my thoughts on the best contemporary Christmas stuff?
The Guardian had a piece with some of their critics favorite Christmas songs and Fairytale of New York came in 2nd on their poll; Planet Rock did one of their listeners and the Fairytale came in first. It's one of my favorite pieces of Celtic stuff, as well as of Christmas songs. The reason that it didn't win the Guardian poll, by the way, was that one of the judges felt it wasn't really a Christmas song and it got zero points. Well, he's a fucking idiot. Yearning, past happiness, despair in the present and acceptance of a confusing future, forgiveness and redemption. If that isn't the best of what Christmas offers, then screw it. It should be.
While I was screwing around last night, I found a new Shane McGowan and Popes compilation and they had this one. I thought it was almost as good as the Fairytale. It looses points in my estimation because it feels overproduced and it takes the Toora-Loora-Loora melody without a lot of modification. However, I think people like Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan would have little problem with it, seeing the borrowing fo the tune as part of the folk process, and who am I to argue. (In case you're wondering why I cite Dylan, I recommend listening to Dominic Behan's The Soldier's Song and then to With God on Our Side; closer to home, listen to All I Really Wanna Do and then to Muddy Waters' I Just Want to Make Love to You --same song, same phrasing, different instrumentation, voicing and lyrics.) and, as with a lot of McGowan's material, the lyrics drive the train. The Pogues were a better band, and he needs someone like Kristi McCall or Sinead O'Connor of Delores O'Riordan singing harmony to make it perfect. But, it's close. Same emotions, stronger on the hope perhaps and on the acceptance than Fairy Tale. But in the same veing.
On a far more contemporary note, there's my young, sort of little friend Sheri Miller. She hasn't recorded this one yet, and doesn't want me to publish her lyrics for it until she's got a polished version and video. I can understand that -- the version is I've posted is from several years ago, and Sheri is still evolving artistically. He most recent effort included a wider variety of musicians, including people like Steve Cropper. This is more of a straight folk, kinda Shawn Colvin kind of thing, and she's done a variety of stuff in her short career. She recently wrote something about Rock and Roll Landmarks, and I'm not sure where she went with that. Although she got a kick out of Keith Moon's antics in various LA hotels and the idea of Sun Studios and Stax in Memphis among my various recommendations. I wish I had thought to mention the Edgewater Hotel in Seattle, by the way -- the hotel is on pilings over Elliot Bay, and supposedly John Lennon tried to fish out his bedroom window the first time the Beatles came through Seattle. Anyway,However, she's working on another album and says that this number, Merry Christmas...Jesus it's been a helluva year will be a great fit. While I'm looking forward to it, I think the rawness and starkness of this version combined with the lushness of her voice should be a performance classic in years to come. After this, musically, I can forgive her anything, even Spoons.
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Steve Earle has kind of a classic Chrismas protest song here, showing his Woodie Guthrie-Townes Van Zandt roots. I had a senior moment earlier, thinking that it had originally been titled Christmas in Taneytown, a city in Maryland between DC and Baltimore and Gettysburg. For some reason, I thought this might have had something to do with Larry McMurtry's book store that he owned before going back to Texas. Well, the song resounds even today, and adds Phil Ochs to the list of his antecedents. It also reminds me of some Guy Clark stuff and some Robert Earl Keen stuff. But, it is a Christmas song -- calling us to do, be and build something better.
Speaking of Robert Earl Keen, it would be blasphemous for someone like me to not cite Merry Chrismas from the Family as a marvelous contemporary take on things.And then, there's the Jeff Foxworthy vision which I first heard on a Christmas in Germany, and have chuckled over at least once a year -- especially those years where I own a Mustang GT.
Thinking again of my Celtic roots, I thought of the Chieftains. This is one of their carols, with Nanci Griffith providing the vocal. They have a history of recording with interesting talents, and here is a more normal carol, but with Ricki Lee Jones providing the vocal. However, again, the minor key and the sense of resignation.
How can you think about Ricky Lee Jones without a nod to Tom Waits? I suppose it's really not that hard, but this is a fascinating little piece by a major artist who irritates and illuminates. And then irritates again -- I suspect he wouldn't want to have it any other way. Now, in mercy for the season, I'm using Neko Case's cover -- his voice is an acquired taste, where as her voice is insanely good.
Finally, I thought of blues and R&B. As you probably know, Hubert Sumlin died recently and Etta James is dying -- and in the tradition of the music, friends paid for Hubert Sumlin's funeral and Etta James family is squabbling over her estate. Now, I heard this piece earlier this week on Little Stephen's Underground Garage at XM21. James Brown is definitely telling us to get a grip and a perspective -- particularly at this time of economic injustice and oppression. Still resonates, and I hate to say that, but I find that very sad indeed...
Here's Etta James take on the holiday --
Sumlin isn't really identified with any Christmas music; there is a school of thought that "Sittin On Top of the World" is kind of a Christmas song. That school is wrong. If that's a Chrismas song, I can make the case that St Valentine's Day is a Christmas song. And, Sumlin wasn't in Howlin Wolf's band when he cut "Sittin..." for Sun Records before going off to Chicago and Chess. However, the Drifters cut this piece, and it's definitely worth considering..
I got a job working construction For the Johnstown Company But lately there ain't been much work On account of the economy Now all them things that seemed so important Well mister, they vanished right into the air Now I just act like I don't remember Mary acts like she don't care
But I remember us riding in my brother's car Her body tan and wet down at the reservoir At night on them banks I'd lie awake And pull her close just to feel each breath she'd take Now those memories come back to haunt me They haunt me like a curse Is a dream a lie if it don't come true or is it something worse?
Bruce Springsteen
It's always nice to find something that independently confirms your thinking. After annointing Bruce Springsteen Existential Poet and Political Prophet, I discover that Rolling Stone did a poll recently to get the reader's point of view on what were the Greatest Springsteen songs.I can't quibble at all, although the order isn't the one I'd use. There are some things that might surprise you -- The River is very higher than perhaps some might expect, Darkness at the Edge of Town is lower. I also suspect a lot of folks will disagree with number 1 versus number 2. Number 1 is Thunder Road, and Number 2 is Born to Run. I happen to agree completely, although Born to Run is the most obvious tie to Bruce. But, when I saw the No Nukes Movie, they used Thunder Road, and I was stunned...exceptionally fine performance, incredible song, ecstatic performance. That was it, I was a Springsteen fan for life. As a guy from upstate New York, Thunder Road said everything there was to say about yearning, and life and fitting in, and failing, and making your own way.
One of the things about Rolling Stone is simple -- they have access to all sorts of stuff. This piece's versions of the songs are what they consider the definitive performances. In some cases, I'd disagree...I think the definitive performance of The River was the one from No Nukes. But, they have access to stuff I don't...the version they show of Darkness at the Edge of Town is kind of amazing...the contemporary Bruce has the same issues as the Bruce who wrote that song, only with the maturity that comes from being 60 or so...
Anyway, here's the first performance of The River, from the No Nukes Concert. Compare it to the other version on the list and decide for yourself. Be curious to know what the six or seven people who read this who are not crazy or robots think of the list and the performance. MR. Fun, who is dealing with Fatherhood, may choose to introduce his daughter to music with this list...
Well, she was an American girl Raised on promises She couldn't help thinkin' That there was a little more to life somewhere else After all it was a great big world With lots of places to run to And if she had to die tryin' She had one little promise she was gonna keep Well, it was kind of cold that night She stood alone on her balcony Yeah, she could hear the cars roll by Out on 441 like waves crashin' on the beach And for one desperate moment There he crept back in her memory God it's so painful when something that's so close Is still so far out of reach O yeah, all right Take it easy, baby Make it last all night She was an American girl
Tom Petty
I've been confused by Republicans for 50 years now. But, the musical issues surrounding them are just really strange. I know that they only know some of the lyrics to the national anthem, but they know all the lyrics to "Proud to be an American..." Maybe they ought to stick with that.
The latest use of Tom Petty's American Girl by Michelle Bachman is amazing. These are the lyrics by one of the great American Rock 'n Roll band leaders, songwriters and performers. What part of these lyrics are the kind of thing you use in a campaign rally? Where's the hope, the city on the hill kind of thing? Not there...this is a song about disappointment, despair and carrying on. Michellina is definitely a carrying on sort of person, but she's hardly the type to despair or give in to disappointment. She's definitely a "glass half full" sort of insane person.
Petty was ripped off before when George W Bush used I Won't Back Down which is not a song for the msot powerful man in the world. It's for a guy with his back against the wall, outnumbered and facing demons. Bush never faced demons or worried a lot about the impact of his inane insanity. He wasn't a guy to get all concerned with thinking about stuff.
Of course, the great song ripoff of the last election was the Huckabee use of More than a Feeling by Boston. He had one of the various rhythm guitarists in his little band ensemble and that guy told him it would be ok for them to play it at functions and rallies...until the Tom Scholz found out and got pissed. Which kinda sorta made sense, because he wrote it, arranged it, played all the guitar parts and produced it. "BOSTON has never endorsed a political candidate, and with all due respect, would not start by endorsing a candidate who is the polar opposite of most everything BOSTON stands for. In fact, although I'm impressed you learned my bass guitar part on More Than a Feeling, I am an Obama supporter." Now, I'm pretty sure that music get used in local elections in ways that would make Willie Nelson give up weed and have Keith Richards take up pottery. But Huckabee is supposedly a musician, and even on bass, you have to know the lyrics enough to get the articulation right. What part of these lyrics have something to do with a fundamentalist Republican right wing asshole wanting to make the USA into a slightly more tolerant theocracy than Iran?
I looked out this morning and the sun was gone Turned on some music to start my day I lost myself in a familiar song I closed my eyes and I slipped away It's more than a feeling (more than a feeling) When I hear that old song they used to play (more than a feeling) I begin dreaming (more than a feeling) 'till I see Marianne walk away I see my Marianne walkin' away
So many people have come and gone Their faces fade as the years go by Yet I still recall as I wander on as clear as the sun in the summer sky When I'm tired and thinking cold I hide in my music, forget the day and dream of a girl I used to know I closed my eyes and she slipped away She slipped away...
Tom Scholtz
Classic American 70s pop with a Tom Rush twist. As music from that era goes, not bad. But it's about personal despair, pain and loss. That's why so many people relate to it, and that's why it makes no sense. There's no excuse for Huckabee on this one...of course, he "pardoned" Keith Richards for his drug conviction in Arkansas. Problem is that Keith remembers the event well, but doesn't actually recall being arrested or charged or anything like that. And as he points out in Life, he didn't have problems with visas to the USA for years, and a state conviction for felony drug possession should have resulted in far more than a police escort to the airport. And, given the attitude of the legal establishment in 1975, if they'd been caught, they'd have been locked up for a while. Keith doesn't deny that the car was loaded with shit. He just believes that the cops didn't find it. Big Mike pardoned an urban legend; so much for music.
Then, there's the case of John Mellancamp. John McCain's campaign decided to use his music in 2008 --Pink Houses and Our Country. Reagan's re-election campaign asked to us Pink Houses in 1984. Mellancamp is a liberal Democrat, and he's to the left of most of the Democratic establishment. You'd think somebody would have gone to Farm Aid to pass out bumper stickers and American Flag decals and free Budweiser and maybe kinda noticed?
Now, because of their vague understanding of history, the Republicans would never ask or try to use Bob Dylan songs. Which is too bad, because Bob is pretty a-political these days, but he hates to let people screw with his music. The thought Bush and McCain at a rally in New Orleans with "If It Keeps on Rainin' the Levee's Gonna Break" and "Jokerman" is just too weird to not cause Hunter S Thompson to get out of his grave and stroll over to New Orleans to see...
Of course, the entire debacle of these fools trying to be with it was really taken to the stars by Reagan, again in 1984 when he heaped praise on Bruce Springsteen for Born in the USA. Bruce really felt that Reagan didn't get it..even a little bit. This is not "Morning in America." He described it this way, the song is about "a working-class man" [in the midst of a] "spiritual crisis, in which man is left lost...It's like he has nothing left to tie him into society anymore. He's isolated from the government. Isolated from his family...to the point where nothing makes sense."
I was at a football game in 1970, the first game at Holy Cross after Kent State. Some idiot scheduled the Marine Silent Drill Team for Halftime...tone deaf or stupid? Politicians should generally avoid music, and if their advance people feel the need to warm up the crowd, it's probably better for their karma to stick to Sousa Marches and not try to reach out to the depths of anyone's soul. Sousa Marches can get your blood flowing and make you enthusiastic -- they don't have lyrics. The lyrics of the last 50 years don't stack up real well as mindless pap. The whole "You can dance to it, I give it an 8" thing kinda died when John Lennon wrote No Where Man and Dylan discovered his affinity for Stratocasters.
I'd definitely stay away from Bruce. Because his music is Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger with a backbeat, and a lot of personal angst and pain. This is really his poltics -- American Existential and liberal Democrat. But mainly, Musician...
Some folks are born into a good life, Other folks get it anyway, anyhow, I lost my money and I lost my wife, Them things don't seem to matter much to me now. Tonight I'll be on that hill 'cause I can't stop, I'll be on that hill with everything I got, Lives on the line where dreams are found and lost, I'll be there on time and I'll pay the cost, For wanting things that can only be found In the darkness on the edge of town
Kind of like the Anthony Wiener thing...like Bowie in that filem, did he not realize that power and glamour were kind of incomplete promises?
So, when I saw this trailer, I was surprised. I think it's very cool, by the way. And, ultimately, I feel old. I'm looking forward to the film, and it makes me aware of how age trips up on you. I saw something this week that reminded me that Sergeant Pepper came out 44 years ago. I was 16, and I saw it in a Woolworth's window while waiting for a bus to go up to my first real job. Bought it on the way home...and, frankly, still not sure why it's "The Greatest ALBUM OF ALL TIME..." Anyway, here is the trailer to the last Harry Potter film. Enjoy...
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