Containing, among other things, my humble effort to bring my fellow sixty(ish) year olds up to date on some current, and frankly, not so current, pop music.
People are always (never) saying to me, "Hey Jaybee, thanks for those suggestions for morning music you gave last year. You've given me a reason to get out of bed! (The story of my life.) Ya got any more?"
How can I refuse?
What follows are several more records that can get you through those critical morning hours between say 6 and 9am on a Saturday or Sunday morning when you're asking yourself what the hell am I doing up this early? Don't worry, you're just turning into one of those old geezers who prowls the neighborhood in search of empty soda cans. (By the way, there is a "weeding the garden" ensemble – short-shorts, tucked in dress shirt, dress shoes and knee high white socks - in your future.) Before you get to that point, let me help you delude yourself into thinking you're still young and vital.
Frank Sinatra: In the Wee Small Hours-
As a committed Frankie skeptic, I held out quite a long time before getting this CD. And for once, I can take him. Here is Frankie the wuss. What a relief! For my money, it beats the hell out of Frankie the obnoxious tough guy who rock and roll damned near made obsolete. Yeah, you heard me. I strongly recommend it, but only for when you're feeling strong enough for the both you. Frankie's having a rough time of it.
Mississippi John Hurt: Rediscovered
If you like acoustic Hot Tuna, you will probably enjoy this. His voice is gentler than Jorma's and his guitar playing is just as good. Now playing: Mississippi John Hurt - Candy Man via FoxyTunes
Neil Young: Harvest Moon
I find this record somewhat over-rated, but it will appease the spouse. And hidden at the end of it is the haunting, ten minute "Natural Beauty".
Nick Drake "Pink Moon":
There isn't as much orchestration on this record as there was on his first one. Its starkness is probably due to the fact that Nick was to commit suicide not long after this. And yet, the music itself is not despairing. He's just going gently into that good night. Now playing: Nick Drake - Pink Moon via FoxyTunes
Bob Dylan: Time Out of Mind
Some people might place this on their Middle of the Night Music list, but I like it early in the morning. It speaks of hurt, regret and pain. Perfect for your depression. What better way to start the day?
Scott Joplin: Complete Rags
It might seem a bit jaunty for first thing in the morning, but in fact, it's very nearly perfect for it. Ok, maybe 9am instead of 7.
At times you might think your listening to the soundtrack to the Little Rascals, but no, the guitar is too intricate, the violin too melodic, and the piano is giving them both a run for their money. From France, of all places.
Okay, now that I've got you this far, you're on your own. I can handle middle of the night and early morning, but haven't got the slightest idea what to do about daytime.
My wife informs me that the playlist I’ve titled “Easy Listening” might better be named “Kill Yourself” music.KY having a more positive connotation, I’ll have to resist my habit of acronymizing everything.“Kill Yourself”, or as I like to call it “Dark Night of the Soul” music is a favorite genre of mine, but giving it it’s own playlist hadn’t crossed my mind.
So why is my idea of Easy Listening music another person’s “Kill Yourself” music?Maybe because most other people’s idea of Easy Listening makes me want to kill myself.
During a particularly low period - which coincided with my discovery of Limewire - I tracked down several very old songs that meant a lot to me, but that I had never gotten around to buying (see the “One Great Song on a Lousy CD” post I haven’t written yet).Well, one thing led to another - I hadn’t heard these emotionally laden songs in a very long while, but now I was downloading and listening to one after the other – and I was sprinting down Desolation Row.And you never know when these mood altering songs might come in handy, so I burned a CD with the best/worst of them.
Listen to them at your peril:
Who Knows Where the Time Goes? – Judy Collins
Fairport Convention’s got the rockier version, with Richard Thompson on guitar, and Sandy Denny’s vocal, but it’s Judy Collins’s version that gets to me every time.I’m not sure why – she sounds peaceful enough.Maybe it’s because it seems like she’s out there…all alone.
Send in the Clowns – Judy Collins
Judy again (hey, I thought I was cooler than this).I’m not familiar with the other versions of this song, so I’m sure there are better ones.But there she goes again, putting me somewhere that’s just not safe to be for very long.
Philadelphia – Neil Young
From the movie, and miles better than Bruce’s “Streets of Philadelphia”, which is not bad at all.Living alone is bad enough, but dying alone?
Hallelujah - Rufus Wainwright
If you prefer the Jeff Buckley version, I understand.Either way, love’s a bitch – in a great way.
Birds – Neil Young
I can’t believe this song isn’t more famous.Okay, it’s tucked away on side two of “After the Goldrush”, but it’s an incredible kiss-off song.Whoever she was, I’m sure she was flattered.
Dying to Live – Edgar Winter’s White Trash
Just when you think there’s no reason to go on - about two thirds of the way in - he gives you one.
Jealous Guy – John Lennon
A beautiful song about being a jerk, and the harm it does.To be alive is to hurt other people.
Harvest – Neil Young
The slow pace and laid back playing could fool you into thinking it’s just an ordinary country tune.But there’s the screaming in the rain, and the uncertainty that it’s all going to be all right.
Urge for Going – Tom Rush
Alone again, naturally, because nothing lasts.Pull that coat closer when he sings “winter’s closing in”.
Streets of London – Ralph McTell
You think you got problems?Hopefully, you’ll feel some consolation, but probably not.
That’s the Way – Led Zeppelin
Young love torn apart.Their most poignant moment.
John Barleycorn - Traffic/Can’t Find My Way Home - Blind Faith
OK, thematically, they don't fit, but musically they do.
Handbags and Gladrags – Rod Stewart
Talk about guilt.This pampered rock star (well, pre-pampering) gets to play an overworked geezer lecturing a spoiled brat.And somehow you feel guilty about it.
Percy’s Song - Arlo Guthrie
This is where I just lose it.I think it’s Arlo’s delivery as much as it ‘s Dylan’s tale of injustice.It just builds and builds until you’re devastated.
Still with me?Did we lose anyone?
Do you remember when Judas Priest got sued because their music supposedly caused two young people to attempt suicide?And if you try hard, you can probably think of a few songs that refer to suicide.Some of them have even caused legal problems for the artists.But we both know that that’s a crock.There isn’t one song above that mentions it, but several that make it cross your mind.
Only a cultural event of seismic proportions could cause me to depart from my usual meanderings on music.I’m referring, of course, to “The Little Rascals-The Complete Collection”.No, not the Young Rascals.I’ll get to them some other time.“The Little Rascals”, also known as “Our Gang”.
I’m occasionally tempted to go back and relive certain things from my childhood, like comics and TV shows.The results have been mixed.On one hand, reading the earliest reissued Spiderman comics has been a joy because I never read them all to begin with.It was a blast filling in the story gaps and bringing back some of the original pleasures.
Not so with some trips down TV memory lane via DVD.I rented “The Time Tunnel”, which you may remember was on ABC on Friday nights.It was a precursor to “Quantum Leap”, with the time traveler having the extraordinarily bad luck of ending up on the deck of the Titanic (I guess it beats landing half a mile to the left of it, though.), the fall of Jericho, Pearl Harbor, etc. The effects back then were cheesy and the sets minimal to the point of non existent.I got to the third episode and gave up.
“The Man From U.N.C.L.E.”, alas, was even worse - so much so that I’m even thinking of passing on my old fave “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” and “I Dream of Jeannie” (although a Barbara Eden screen-saver isn’t a bad idea.)
Ah, but the eight disc “The Little Rascals - Complete Collection” has been a joy nearly from start to finish.
Only in Rascal-land, can you give a kid (with a history of run-ins with the law, no less) a box of matches, tell him to go burn some paper, and everything turns out all right anyway.
Only in Rascal-land can a little boy in all innocence complain about getting kissed and hugged in bed by his sleeping older brother (who is hot for teacher), and suggest that he just sleep with the teacher instead.
Discs one and two cover the Jackie/Wheezer/Chubby/Mary/Farina Era.In it, Farina transforms from complete stereotype to veritable wise man.Chubby is surprisingly tough, even if often dressed like a girl.Wheezer evolves from cute baby to annoying younger brother to jaywalker and finally to black marketeer.Jackie is the supposed ringleader, but it’s Mary who is tough, tough, tough.
Meanwhile, Officer Murphy does for Irish cops what Stepin Fetchit does for African Americans.
And then there’s the Miss Crabtree trilogy.First, there’s her intro as the replacement for the supposedly irreplaceable Miss McGillicutty, then her getting surrealistic answers to history questions (Q: Who was the Hunchback of Notre Dame?A: Lon Chaney), and finally when Jackie and Chubby try proposing to her.
But there was also time for social justice, as the rascals save Grandma from losing her store and her house.
The relationships change, with Mary being Jack’s love interest (and kicking his ass), and then his sister (not much better).
Now you may not like the overall film quality, but where else can you get a Boston cream pie (in the face) with your Shakespeare?
Disk three introduces some new characters, like Brisbane - a real hard case, and pretty boy Dickey Moore. Wheezer’s still hanging in there.And then there’s Dorothy, the annoying little sister who repeats everything you say (am I being redundant?), who morphs into one tough chick, kicking ass here, sticking up for Stymie there. More crazy answers - and a donkey - for Ms. Crabtree. Even dog Petey has some close calls. A train ride from hell (or heaven, if you’re a kid), Stymie as the inventor of chiropractic, two of the ugliest babies ever and the dawn of the Spanky era. And mush.
On disc four, we learn that even five-year-old chicks go for the guy with the nice fire truck.We also learn more about Spanky’s complex relationship with monkeys, the evils of Limburgher cheese (although anyone familiar with Abbott and Costello or the Three Stooges would already know this) and the downside of hooky.
On disc five, Spanky is the unchallenged ruler of the group, even though he’s at least a foot shorter than everyone else.(Even Wheezer never rose to such heights.)He and Scott comprise a duo whose dialog seems lifted from Waiting for Godot.
Who knew that (eating) lemons was good for your freckles (which were crucial for telling the good kids from the bad kids, moustaches not yet being an option)? Let alone that two people who liked to eat them would be sitting next to each other?In front of the kid trying to play the trumpet?(Oh yeah? You try it!)
And horseradish.How else would I have ever learned about horseradish?
By the way, at this point in time, Buckwheat appears to be a girl.
There’s also more Shakespearean influence, this time in the sophisticated dialog:
Rascal 1: Oh yeah?
Rascal 2: Yeah!
And what’s that on the horizon?Why, it looks like a planet with a radio tower on it.No, it’s, it’s… Alfalfa, or as I call him “Crazy Eyes”.It takes a while before he becomes citified, but before he is, he pioneers a new use for lard while the world waits for Brylcreem to be invented.
Disc six is more or less the Alfalfa show.He breaks into song at the drop of a hat, and believe me, there are a lot of them dropping.He always starts off in a high register and goes up from there.If he ever did the “Star Spangled Banner”, my beer bottle would shatter.
But there’s more:In walks Darla, who rocks everybody’s world.She, Alfalfa and Spanky will form what to my mind at the time was an ideal threesome.To be with Darla, us guys were even willing to be Alfalfa, and we’d have settled for being Spanky.
And don’t forget Porky.Otherwise he’ll eat your lunch.Literally.
With his hair now released from confinement, Buckwheat is now officially a guy.
And look out!Here comes Butch!
On disc seven, neighborhood bully Butch casts a shadow over the proceedings comparable to that of the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz.It is because of him that I took an immediate dislike to David Johanssen.
Sexual politicals are now in full swing as the He Man Woman Haters club tries to get off the ground a couple of times, with at best mixed results.
Porky is revealed as the true originator of “Otay!”He and Buckwheat together create their own unique language, whose single grammatical law is to drop as many consonants as possible.
And I couldn’t quite notice that there’s quite the bit of cross-dressing.
Disc eight contains some very early silent episodes that are cute, but a little slow for me.It also has a lot of commentary that I can take or leave.So you could safely skip it.
As the series progressed, and the film quality improves, the episodes become shorter and less anarchic.The adults become more and more in charge of the situation.The plot lines start repeating with only slight variations.And the rascals themselves go from very poor city kids to almost middle class suburbanites.
Some other things I learned:
1. It’s really not a good idea to have the kids hang out in a train yard
2. Place the burglar alarm more than a foot off the ground
3. Try to keep the mothballs out of the soup
4. Children (and by extension, chimpanzees) don’t necessarily make the best caddies.
If you’ve never seen the Rascals I can’t guarantee that you’ll love watching them now, but if you’ve seen them before and want to relive them, you’re in for a treat.And if you think you’re above it all, I challenge you to use the word "isthmus" in a sentence.
So marvel at the fashion sense, be appalled at the poverty, appreciate the integrated cast, but be shocked at the casual racism, even in this well meaning setting.But above all have a good laugh.
When you watch these discs, I guarantee you’ll say “Isthmus be my luck day!”
“If you throw a garbage can down a stoop, and it sounds good, it’s music.”
Some original BS from jaybee.
And not the plastic ones, either - those old aluminum ones. And, in case you’re wondering, no, I didn’t invent the term Heavy Metal.
It was a long time ago, so I forget exactly how the conversation got to this point, but there I was discussing music (even then!) with a friend. He was an older gentleman – you know, in his forties - and a playwright. Believe it or not, he disagreed with me.
I guess someone who worked hard to craft every line of a play would think a similar effort would have to be involved in the creation of music. After all, how could something so random - so blatantly non-musical as a garbage can - even potentially have the same emotional impact via music as the most finely wrought prose? But I say you gotta focus on the result, not the process, and ignore the utter unfairness of it all.
And it’s just a theory after all. I don’t actually have any garbage-cans-thrown-down-the-stoop records (although I don’t doubt they exist) but I do have quite a few that come close. Check out the “drums” on Elvis Costello’s “Watching the Detectives”. The story goes that they used a garbage can. Perfect!
There used to be no greater insult you could hurl at a musician than to say that what they played was “noise”. This created an issue for those of us who liked any music created since 1963, and some would say 1956.
The logic went something like this: 1. Music is nice. 2. Noise is not nice. 3. Ergo, calling music noise is not a compliment.
This put many of us on the defensive. Our logic went something like this: 1. I like pop music. 2. Noise is bad. 3. Hence, the music I like is not noise.
I can see why we would feel this way, but it ignored certain things, like the tons of experimental music that came out even before this time. For the sake of argument, I’ll stick to pop music.
“You Really Got Me” by the Kinks was powered by a guitar connected to a damaged amplifier. When Dave Davies played the song with said damaged amp, he liked how it sounded. The song became a hit. Apparently lots of people liked it. ----------------Now playing: The Kinks - You really Got Me via FoxyTunes
Then there’s the feedback that starts “I Feel Fine” by the Beatles. The Who. The Grateful Dead. The Velvet Underground. Jimi Freaking Hendrix (who, when I’d compare him to Eric Clapton back then, I’d criticize him for playing…guess what? Noise! )
Now, you may think that the argument above still applies, that somehow, once the music becomes enjoyable, it ceases to be noise. But I say that sometimes music is noise, and/or vice versa.
My argument goes like this: 1. I like it. 2. It’s got noise. 3. Hmmm…..noise! Good!
The title of this Year End Roundup is more of a plea than a statement. My son’s and my wife’s 2008 music keeps intruding on mine.In 2007, it was Queen, Aerosmith and the Killers.This year, it’s Avenged Sevenfold and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
So let them write their own entry.Here’s my year in music:
Loves:
None yet.It’s a shame that no music has indelibly stamped my year.But there was enough joy in real life to keep me going, so I’ll not complain.Besides, it’s when the going gets tough that the un-tough (me) go for their music.That’s when I’ll need it.
Highlights:
Nuggets: This four CD set Father’s Day present is the American version of the 1960’s British Invasion (okay, maybe a little later).Well, talk about your fun!There are not many “great songs” here, but there are a ton of “great records”.I still couldn’t tell you the names of 75% of them because not all of them have names like “Louie, Louie” and “Woolly Bully”, but most of them are in the same vein.Not for the pretentious.
Well, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, thanks to my son.He played their Greatest Hits for us and I was surprised how pretty it was.My original impression of them had been all energy and rhythm, but no melody or songs.I recommend this record or By the Way as a way of bonding with your annoying (not you, Mike) teenager.
The New Pornographers “Mass Romantic”: Neko Case’s striking “Fox Confessor Brings the Flood” led me to her other band, where she shows off her voice in a more chaotic pop setting.It can get to be too much, like a friend who’s had too much coffee, but when you’re in the mood – or had a few yourself - it’s quite a ride.
The Flaming Lips “The Soft Bulletin”: This one’s got a lot of good tunes, but I still prefer the more spare, gentle Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. But quite enjoyable.
Modest Mouse’s“Good News for People Who Like Bad News”:Or as I like to think of it, Bad News for People Who Like Easy Listening.With titles like “The Good Times are Killing Me” you’ve got to love this guy’s attitude.He sings how he feels and he doesn’t feel too great.But the guitars ease the pain, and his gentle side takes a bit of the edge off.They remind me of early Talking Heads, only from the Midwest.What?
Django Rheinhardt’s “Djangology” – This little $6.99 miracle effortlessly brings to you back to a time you never actually went through, except maybe by way of the soundtrack to the Little Rascals.But then that band didn’t have anyone playing an awesome guitar, violin or piano.
Discos Matador – Intended Play 2007, which was a free sampler from Matador records.My wife found this in my bag when I got home from the record store.I didn’t see the lady at the counter put it in.I was too worried about her reaction to what I bought.(As usual, she was totally unimpressed.Those sixty year old Russian women are awesome cool.)The ten or so bands, the high point among them Lavendar Diamond, range from good to excellent, and I’ll be looking forward to their other work.
Disappointments:
LCD Soundsystem’s “The Sound of Silver”: This 2007 “punk disco” Pazz and Jop winner is not a bad album, but I just don’t go to dance clubs, where I suspect it sounds fabulous.
My Morning Jacket’s“Z”: Strange as it may sound at this point, I don’t like this guy’s voice.It undermines some of his tunes, which aren’t bad, but rarely striking.
Challenges/Homework:
Burial’s “Untrue”: Well, I’ve listened to this 2007 electronica Metacritic winner about 20 times and still don’t think I hear it yet.It’s not bad – I’m just a little dense sometimes.
Steinski’s“What Does it All Mean?”: This is like a hip hop version of Nuggets.Steinski samples music and all sorts of other sounds and puts it all together for your dancing pleasure.Fortunately for me, I can sit and enjoy it anyway.
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