Strongly Worded Letter

Number Nine ... Number Nine .... Number Nine

I've mentioned before how much I enjoy listening to rebroadcasts each weekend of the American Top 40 radio shows from the 1970s and 1980s that are now syndicated across the country.

Last weekend was Casey's countdown of the hits from that same week in August 1971 and I was surprised to notice the astonishing staying power of that Top Ten some 37 years later. By my count, nine of the top ten songs from that week are still regularly played on rock and oldies stations today. Wow. 

Here they are.

10. Mercy Mercy Me                           Marvin Gaye

 8. Beginnings                                      Chicago
 7. It’s Too Late                                   Carole King
 6. Take Me Home Country Roads         John Denver
 5. Draggin’ The Line                            Tommy James
 4. Mr. Big Stuff                                   Jean Knight
 3. You’ve Got A Friend                        James Taylor
 2. Indian Reservation                           The Raiders
 1. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart   Bee Gees

The one song that doesn't get much airplay anymore was the novelty song at #9 that had been put together by a popular radio disc jockey named Tom Clay. Moved by the turmoil Americans had been hearing every night on the news - race riots, assassinations, Vietnam - he decided to promote love and tolerance on his 45. Clay recorded a medley of two recent popular songs, then edited in interviews he conducted with some children and added audio from the news.

What The World Needs Now/Abraham, Martin & John peaked the following week at #8 and here it is, courtesy of Casey Kasem. Please enjoy.

P.S. Oooooooh, no winner yesterday but thanks for playing. I am not kidding you when I report her name was Breeyaunauh.

The Black Death

I wasn't going to devote a blog post to comedian Bernie Mac's sad and untimely death this weekend but it was not because I did not admire him greatly - I did. But as is so often the case, I know there are many others who will do a far better job of eulogizing him elsewhere. My friend Frank wrote a personal tribute on his blog yesterday including links to some nice write-ups from Mac's hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune.

Then came word that Oscar and Grammy-winning soul legend Isaac Hayes had also passed away. Depending on your age you might know him best for his 1960s music career as a songwriter and performer in the Stax Records stable or his 1970s successes as a popular soul singer or his more recent work as the voice of Chef on the popular cartoon South Park.

I'm sure many people will seek out actor Samuel L. Jackson for comment about working with both Mac and Hayes recently on a film named Soul Men, due for release November 14th.

One Of These Is Not Like The Others.....

Some will joke that Jackson should immediately lie down somewhere safe in his house and not leave until the Summer of Death is over. I'm not worried about him and have never bought into the dumb theory that celebrity deaths happen in threes. We just count them that way.

Actor Morgan Freeman already dodged the Grim Reaper this week by surviving a serious auto accident so I guess it wasn't his time. But just in case there is going to be another black celebrity joining the All-Heaven Squad soon, here are my more likely picks.

1. Harry Belafonte
2. Aretha Franklin
3. Mohammad Ali

No Longer A Child Of The Universe

Possibly 99 percent of you who came across the obituary this week of radio and television host Les Crane would not have recognized the name. That is certainly understandable as Mr. Crane's public fame waned about 35 years ago but here are three fascinating things about the man we lost Sunday at age 74.

1. In the early 1960s he was one of the early pioneers of modern talk radio with his frank opinions and confrontational style on KGO San Francisco. He was one of the first to take live listener calls on the air too.

2. The first American television appearance of the Rolling Stones was on Crane's late night ABC show in June 1964.  That summer the program aired at 11:30 p.m., becoming one of the many shows to fall to young Johnny Carson's ratings dominance.

3. He was married five times - his fourth wife was Tina Louise, "Ginger" from TV's Gilligan's Island.

However even without any of that, Les Crane's passing would have been notable for his memorable Top Ten pop single from 1971. He even won a Grammy for his spoken-word recording of a 1927 poem called The Desiderata. This was the 70s version of that silly Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) song that was a hit by Baz Luhrmann about ten years ago.

As nearly vacant as the memories of my early years are, I vividly remember hearing The Desiderata (Latin for "desired things," by the way) on the radio during its chart run.

And like millions of other young people back then I also had a poster on my bedroom wall of the lyrics to the poem.

If you are old like me, click on the player below to relive your own memory of the song. And you are lucky enough to be young, hit play too and prepare to be embarrassed for my generation that this song was actually taken seriously at the time.

R.I.P. Les Crane. Go placidly amid the noise and the haste...

Rock In Peace

I had the FM radio on the other day - I don't remember what station - and they were playing Bob Marley's Could You Be Loved from 1980. Now there's a song that has not only aged well, it could have been released in 1990 or 2000 or even today and it would be hailed a a classic. And that is so true of so many of Marley's records; Redemption Song, One Love, No Woman No Cry just to name a few.

That the reggae giant was only 36 years old when he died got me to thinking of all the music he might have made had cancer not taken him and if he was able to avoid assassination.

But is he the #1 musical artist whose potential was barely reached before a life cut short? I started thinking of others who would have to be in contention for the title of biggest musical loss. Here are some my other candidates:

Hank Williams, only 29 when he died. Even non-country music fans know his remarkable contributions to America's permanent songbook; songs like I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, Hey Good Lookin', Your Cheatin' Heart, and dozens more. The Devil and the liquor took Hank.

Buddy Holly, plane crash, 22. Think about that - only 22! Yet 50 years later we still song along with That'll Be The Day, Peggy Sue, Everyday and more. Honorable mention on the same plane was Ritchie Valens of La Bamba fame, just 17 years old. Who knows what his future held?

Jimi Hendrix, another drinker so he only made it to 27. An A-level songwriter, A+ guitar player who brought fuzz and fire to his instrument. You can't help but think of Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain among other 27 year-olds who burned out rather than faded away.

Your turn. I want to know who you'd put at Number One on this chart: the musical artist who had the most to still contribute to the world before his death. Michael Hutchence? John Lennon? Selena? Jeff Buckley? Luther Vandross?  Ian Curtis? Biggie? 

Merry Half Christmas!

It doesn't matter a lick to me whether you consider today Half Christmas or Christmas and a Half but the fact is that we are six months from and six months to the Big Day!!!

You may know that I am an extremely active Christmas music enthusiast. My other blog, ChristmasMusicEveryday.com offers a free holiday song streaming every day of the year. Since it debuted last Thanksgiving I have offered over 200 great songs, from my private collection of thousands, with no duplication of artist or title. My hope is that the site will expose others to the wonderful and varied nature of seasonal records, far beyond the same 12 standards that get jammed down our ears every December on radio and TV.

Speaking of TV, today's song of the day is called (I Want A) Television Christmas and it has a fascinating back story. Recorded by young Mindy Carson in 1949 it was a promotional disc (a 78, in fact!)  that RCA provided to retailers to help sell some of those newfangled "radios with pictures"  to the more adventurous and well-heeled members of the public that Christmas shopping season. 

I pulled that song out of my library the other day after a conversation with a new friend and fellow collector named Mitchell Kezin. He told me that is the song he plans to use  in the opening credits of the documentary film he is making called Jingle Bell Rocks!. He describes it on his website as, "an exclusive backstage pass into a fascinating underground world of alternative Christmas music...".

Why a movie about the people who make, play and collect the songs most people only make time for for four weeks a year? Here's Mitchell again:

"Today’s holiday season is a volatile concoction of the ridiculous and the sublime, the sacred and the profane. As we muddle our way through the stresses and expectations of the season, Christmas music can remind us why we go to so much trouble.

It can restore our sense of wonder, immerse us in nostalgia, instill a sentimental fantasy or create an entirely new musical experience of how the holiday ought to be. Some people love it, and others hate it, but almost everyone seems to have an opinion.

For those who love it, Christmas music helps us connect — to each other, to our pasts, to a centuries-old communal experience — all in a peculiarly modern way.

No other musical genre flows through the bloodstream of popular culture like Christmas music does. Our appetite for it seems insatiable, but it comes and goes so predictably each year that few, if any of us, ever stop to consider what it really means.

Featuring some of the merriest and most fascinating songs ever inspired by the festive season, JINGLE BELL ROCKS! opens our eyes and ears to an irreverent musical universe where cynical songs co-exist with heartfelt one-hit wonders, where the merry mash-ups of today challenge the chestnuts of old, and where perennial favourites keep company with a host of seasonal pop oddities. In doing so, the film reveals the many faces of the holiday — love and longing, irony and hope, sentiment and spirituality — and the uniqueness of the music that takes us there."

JingleBellRocks.com has much more information that I have room for here about what will be in the movie, how you can contribute to its progress and, quite simply, the best collection of Christmas music site links on the  internet, even if the one closest to my heart hasn't made the list yet. (Ahem) 

P.S. Warning! If you follow my friends and me into the wonderful year-round world of Santa and reindeer and candy canes and mistletoe and the Baby Jesus, you may never again fit in with the seasonally challenged who surround you. Just yesterday I got a funny look at a stop light in West Seattle for blasting Chuck Berry's Run Rudolph Run on my car stereo.

Equal Parts Sad And Angry

Wow, wasn't yesterday a black letter day for the world?

Thing One: By every account, one of the most decent men in television died unexpectedly of coronary thrombosis in his office at age 58 (!). Tim Russert was, to me, the face of NBC News as a political analyst who appeared frequently across their whole day's news programming. He was also the longest running host (since 1991) of the longest running show in worldwide television history (Meet The Press, on the air since 1947, and on radio before that!).

I try hard not to write posts for StronglyWordedLetter.com about subjects that are going to be covered so much better elsewhere and there are no shortage of tributes to Tim all over the internet, on TV, and in print this morning. I urge you to seek them out to read about this giant of American journalism.

On last night's Dateline NBC special remembrance, they showed interviews with Russert's colleagues and friends in the news business who all spoke of his decency, his loyalty, his passion for his work and family, his deep Catholicism, his love of baseball, his patriotism and so much more.

I didn't know some of the stories I heard but do know that as a viewer I was always impressed by how smart, articulate, fair and prepared he was every time I saw him on television. In a medium that is increasingly filled with Bill O'Reilly, Keith Olbermann, John Gibson and other blowhards like them, Tim Russert was a rare broadcaster, one that made you proud of how he used his platform to educate and enlighten the audience.

Thing Two: Are you kidding me that R. Kelly was acquitted of all 14 counts of child pornography yesterday? Even though I have been predicting it for years, I secretly hoped I was just being pessimistic about the American judicial system.

For those who didn't follow the case, Kelly is a popular R&B singer who managed to delay this trial for nearly six years before it got to court last month. He was accused of having sex with an underage girl. The principal evidence in the prosecution's case was A VIDEO OF R. KELLY HAVING SEX WITH THE UNDERAGE GIRL!!!          

The defense attorney lied argued that it was not his client in the video even though the whole courtroom could see that the man on the tape was the man in the suit sitting next to the defense attorney. At one point it was argued that a couple must have broken into R. Kelly's house and filmed the sex tape there, then digitally altered the video to make it look like the singer and his underage goddaughter. (!)

That the defendant is an internationally known celebrity didn't hurt him; he has even had numerous Top Ten albums and singles on the pop charts even since the charges were filed. You won't convince me that having eight  African-Americans on the jury wasn't as good as a Get Out Of Jail Free card either. Go ahead and argue that the racial makeup was appropriate for the trial's location, Chicago, and I'll even agree with you. It would be hard to find eight blacks in America who want to see R. Kelly in jail, much less eight in one jury pool. 

All in all, a truly sucky Friday the Thirteenth this year.

Weezer? I Don't Even Know Her

One of my favorite bands of the past fifteen years is Weezer. They are  modern and retro at the same time and are one of the very few musical acts whose videos I go out of my way to see too. Here's their latest masterpiece, for the hit single Pork 'N' Beans.  See how many YouTube "stars"  you recognize in it.

The new Weezer album just came out yesterday and for the third time now the band didn't bother to come up with a title so this one will be forever known as "the red album." One of the new songs that got my attention is called Heart Songs. It's a decade-by-decade playlist of singer/songwriter Rivers Cuomo's influences.

As a long time enthusiast of a certain 1975 Great Lakes shipwreck you can imagine my delight by the opening words of Heart Songs,

"Gordon Lightfoot
Sang a song
About a boat
That sank in the lake
At the break
Of the morning..."

The lyrics go on to name check a wide array of musicians, from Devo to Eddie Rabbitt, from Quiet Riot to Grover Washington, Jr., from Joan Baez to Michael Jackson. Everything changed for Rivers when Nirvana happened. If you remember their Nevermind album cover, you'll get the reference.

"Back in 1991
I wasn't havin' any fun
'Till my roommate said
'Come on and put
a brand new record on'
Had a baby on it
He was naked on it
Then I heard the chords
That broke the chains
I had upon me..."

Press play below to hear Heart Songs for yourself and maybe answer this question that has been puzzling me for nearly 24 hours now. Why do the lyrics suggest Debbie Gibson sang I Think We're Alone Now?

"I gotta admit though
Sometimes
I would listen
To the radio
Debbie Gibson
Tell me that you think
We're all alone..."
   

There's no way a pop music junkie like Cuomo doesn't know that remake was a #1 for the other 80s teen princess Tiffany . Is he being clever in some way that I am too dumb to get?

The Dead Zone

There were two show business obituaries this week of men whose names were not well-known but whose contributions were enjoyed by hundreds of millions of people the world over.

Earle Hagen was 88 and composed music for more than 3000 hours of television including the theme songs for The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mod Squad, That Girl, and, most famously, the Andy Griffith Show. If you are whistling in your head right now then you are thinking of the right song but did you know there are words to that one too?

They start like this:

"Well, now, take down your fishin' pole and meet me at the Fishin' Hole.
We may not get a bite all day, but don't you rush away.

What a great place to rest your bones and mighty fine for skippin' stones,
You'll feel fresh as a lemonade, a-settin' in the shade.

Whether it's hot, or whether it's cool, oh, what a spot for whistling like a fool..."

Click here to hear Andy Griffith himself singing the theme.






Fellow composer Alexander Courage was also 88 when he passed this week. He wrote music for Lost In Space, The Waltons, Falcon Crest, Eight Is Enough and many more. But his most famous composition was the theme from Star Trek, over which William Shatner intoned those famous words, "Space. The Final Frontier...."

That it is another iconic instrumental television theme that also has lyrics doesn't begin to tell the rest of the story. Snopes.com has the sad tale of how Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who wrote the words below, was able to use them to rook Mr. Courage out of half of the royalties he should have received for composing the music. Click here for the full story.

"Beyond the rim of the starlight
My love is wand'ring in star flight

I know he'll find in star-clustered reach
Love, strange love a star woman teaches.

I know his journey ends never
His star trek will go on forever.

But tell him while he wanders his starry sea
Remember me, remember me."

Kiss On My List

Were you a card carrying member of the mighty KISS Army back in the 1970s or was that just me? Hell to the yeah, I was. I think it was the only music fan club I was ever a member of until ... uh ... Barry Manilow's in the 1990s. Oh, and the Cowsills this decade but I haven't even received a newsletter in a while so I am not sure what is happening with that.

Today's is an audience participation post. Here are my five favorite songs from those three musical artists. In the comments section today leave your 5 favorite songs of any artist you like, any era, any genre.

Oh, and don't judge! Love!




My Five Favorite Kiss Songs Ever:

5. Strutter
4. Love Gun
3. Hard Luck Woman
2. Beth
1. Detroit Rock City



My Five Favorite Barry Manilow Songs Ever:

5. Looks Like We Made It
4. Weekend In New England
3. When October Goes
2. This One's For You
1. Tryin' To Get The Feelin' Again



My Five Favorite Cowsills Songs Ever:

5. We Can Fly
4. Hair
3. Indian Lake
2. Love, American Style
1. The Rain, The Park And Other Things

More Than A Feeling...It's A Job!

This truly is one of the most remarkable rock and roll fantasy stories I have ever heard. Helpful back story for my younger readers (Hi Melissa!): The band Boston had the best selling debut album of all time in 1976. That one sold 17 million copies (!) and they followed it up with several other multi-platinum efforts and hit songs like More Than A Feeling, Don't Look Back, and their #1 charting ballad, Amanda.

Now, highlights from the recent USA Today article:

"One day you're trying to get Home Depot shoppers to apply for in-store credit. The next you're rehearsing with Boston and getting ready for a national summer tour.

'I never could have dreamed this,' says Tommy DeCarlo, 43, Boston's new  frontman, who is taking leave from his credit manager job at a Charlotte Home Depot to perform with the band. "That first gig is going to be something."

Bands ranging from AC/DC to Lynyrd Skynyrd have found new singers in the wake of tragedy (Delp committed suicide last year), inevitably choosing road-tested replacements. DeCarlo's rocking Cinderella tale includes the fact that he never has even been in a band.

'I did sing After the Lovin' at my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary,' says the affable DeCarlo, who is married and has two teenagers. 'I think they enjoyed it.'

All Boston founder Tom Scholz knows is he can't believe his ears. 'During rehearsals, it can get downright eerie,' he says. 'I forget it's not Brad. It makes me feel like someone was at work up there.'

In tribute to Delp, DeCarlo posted MP3 files of himself singing Boston over a karaoke soundtrack on his MySpace page. (He had hocked his prized keyboard in 2006 to buy his kids' Christmas gifts.) An impressed visitor to his page urged him to contact Boston management and offered up an old e-mail address. Doubtful but with nothing to lose, DeCarlo sent off a note with a link. Destiny intervened.

'My wife was at her computer playing our tunes, and I asked her whether it was us playing live,' Scholz says. 'She said, 'It's some guy in North Carolina singing your songs.' I said, 'I know Brad's voice, and that's Brad.' She turned it up, and only when I heard the backing track did I know it wasn't us.'

Scholz flew DeCarlo and his family up for an audition, which led to a Delp tribute show and the tour invite. DeCarlo and the band's other new member, Stryper frontman Michael Sweet, will appear on Boston's next album in early 2009.

Even if DeCarlo's Boston idyll proves short-lived, he's unlikely to forget this summer. His colleagues won't let him.

'It's like we've got our own American Idol winner right here in our store,' says DeCarlo's manager, Mark Ortiz. 'When he plays nearby, we'll all be there, orange aprons on.'

Me again: Isn't that an incredible story?  The fact that he was never even in a band before Boston makes it so much more bizarre  than the real life story of the Judas Priest cover band singer who took over the real thing. That tale was turned into the Rock Star movie, starring Mark Wahlberg.

Tommy Decarlo's Boston plays Seattle July 10th (with Styx!). I am tempted to go and see  Mr. Home Depot for myself.

Hail Hail Rock And Roll!!!

"If you tried to give Rock and Roll another name, you might call it Chuck Berry."

So said  John Lennon and he was spot on.  I'd place Chuck in the Top 5 most influential musicians of the 20th century alongside giants like Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Rodgers, and the obvious #1  K.C. & The Sunshine Band.    

A few nights ago I had a dream that Chuck Berry had died. He didn't: he's alive and still rocking at age 81.  But in my dream I was sad that it didn't seem like many people cared or acknowledged him as the true Founding Father of Rock and Roll. Johnny B. Goode, Roll Over Beethoven, Maybellene, Sweet Little Sixteen, and many many more hits are his legacy that should be remembered forever.   

Well, after my troubling dream, I pulled out my Chuck Berry on Chess Records boxed set and moved it into my car where I have been listening and re-listening to little else for the past week. I picked up a cheap used copy of Chuck's 1987 autobiography too and eagerly packed it in my backpack where I devoured it, half each way on the airplane, during my recent business trip to California.

Did I enjoy the read? Yes. Do I wish Chuck had more to say about his legendary songbook and how those songs were written instead of story after story about all the white women he nailed on the road? I do.

For instance, we got just two lines in the book about his song Rock And Roll Music, one of the definitive classics of the genre, and a cover hit for both the Beatles and the Beach Boys too.   

Instead, from page 305 of the autobiography, here are Chuck's food likes and dislikes.

     "First of all, I do not like liver. It dries my throat and feels and tastes like a mixture of cardboard and sour-pickle patties. I don't get near okra or gumbo because it's just the opposite, slimy and gooey; I can't even hold it in my mouth, let alone swallow it. At a point of starving I'd eat celery, carrots, cooked onions, eggplant, grapefruit or salami, but only as survival nutrition. I'd rather my taste buds suffer than my heartbeat flutter.

     I especially have a taste for pork though I'm not too fond of hog jowls or chitlins; I enjoy beef as in T-bone steak or stew, but absolutely no brains, tongue, and all that. I like fillet of catfish and salmon best of all freshwater fish, sweet and pungent shrimps of sea foods.

     Peaches are my favorite of all fruits; home fries and/or candied yams of vegetables, soupy chili of all bowl portions; date or apple-filled oatmeal cookies of the cookie kingdom; 'pea' in the nut field; raspberry in preserves (never jelly) and grape in soda pop. The only sandwiches I care for are egg and bacon on lightly toasted bread or apple butter thickly spread on lightly toasted white bread.

      I like Butternut or Snickers in candy bars; pineapple in fruit juices; and I drink orange juice all the time, anytime. White sliced French bread, soft vanilla pound cakes, and Dutch apple pie are especially good for treats at any hour of the day. For hot cereals it's oatmeal and for cold cereals it's corn flakes with a very ripe banana. I prefer fried (fresh) rabbit over chicken, duck, or turkey.

     To finish things off, I like assorted mints, Colgate toothpaste, and well water. Darn, I'm getting hungry." 

       

Thanks, Chuck. That is so much more interesting than one word in your book about Back In The U.S.A., Little Queenie, Come On, Run Rudolph Run or dozens of other songs you wrote but didn't mention at all.

 

Too Good To Be True?

It's called Muxtape and it is all the rage with the kids. As you can almost guess from the title, it is a site where music lovers share what used to be called mixtapes.

I can't figure out how it is legal or how it makes money but it is as simple as uploading 12 songs and presto!,  you're done. The site is extremely minimalist with no search function for users or particular songs that I can find but it is elegant and easy to use.    

I quickly put one together with some (mostly) recent rock songs that were already in my itunes but my mind is already racing ahead to lots of fun potential mixes I can make. Click here to check it out. You can click on Song One and let it play all the way through or skip from song to song if you prefer. Please enjoy!   

Never Gonna Give You Up

I stumbled upon (in an old school way, meaning I didn't Stumble Upon them) a local blog called Citizen Rain this weekend whose home page states, "We serve up the day's most interesting links from 295 Seattle blogs and the media." I will certainly be bookmarking their page especially when the first story I read there was this gem:

                                                    

"Ever heard of 'rickrolling?' According to the (Spokane) Spokesman Review, it's a prank in which someone clicks on a internet link and ends up watching a video by Rick Astley – the 80s singer (pictured here) famous for the song Never Gonna Give You Up.'

"The Spokesman today reports that an Eastern Washington University student pulled a fast one on a New York Times reporter writing a story about 'rickrolling.' Twenty-two-year-old Pawl Fisher posted a YouTube video of someone lip-syncing Never Gonna Give You Up at an EWU women's basketball game. If you watch, it looks like the entire game comes to a pause as cheerleaders, athletes and audience members start rocking out to the song."






"The video ended up in a March 24 NYT article, with the reporter writing: 'A routine timeout turned into a 1980s flashback, as two men on the sidelines briefly hijacked the proceedings with a popular prank known as rickrolling.' But the incident never really happened – Pawl is an aspiring film-maker. He crafted the scene with film editing. 'My intention was never to punk the New York Times,' he told the Spokesman. 'My intention was to punk the whole planet.'"

"Ever heard of 'rickrolling?' According to the (Spokane) Spokesman Review, it's a prank in which someone clicks on a internet link and ends up watching a video by Rick Astley – the 80s singer (pictured here) famous for the song Never Gonna Give You Up.'

"The Spokesman today reports that an Eastern Washington University student pulled a fast one on a New York Times reporter writing a story about 'rickrolling.' Twenty-two-year-old Pawl Fisher posted a YouTube video of someone lip-syncing Never Gonna Give You Up at an EWU women's basketball game. If you watch, it looks like the entire game comes to a pause as cheerleaders, athletes and audience members start rocking out to the song."






"The video ended up in a March 24 NYT article, with the reporter writing: 'A routine timeout turned into a 1980s flashback, as two men on the sidelines briefly hijacked the proceedings with a popular prank known as rickrolling.' But the incident never really happened – Pawl is an aspiring film-maker. He crafted the scene with film editing. 'My intention was never to punk the New York Times,' he told the Spokesman. 'My intention was to punk the whole planet.'"

If I Can Dream

How many thing are there that you would pay three million dollars for? I know it's a hypothetical question for most of us because most of us don't have three million dollars but if we did, what would we be willing to spend all of it on?

Three things come immediately to mind for me.

1) The moon.  It would be cool to own the moon. And I would send that punk Neil Armstrong back up there to pick up all that trash he and the other hooligan astronauts left all over my lawn.

2) Sofia Vergara. Even among her peers of other South American supermodels, she is exceptionally exceptional. Ideally, I could buy her outright for just two million of my dollars so I could invest the other million into cloning her. For obvious reasons.      

3)The World's Greatest Music Collection, also known as Ebay Auction #320230084120. For reals, it ends today and is currently at $3,000,000. 

Here's their description of the bounty:

"Organized and cataloged, the collection is meticulously maintained and housed in a climate-controlled warehouse. Every recording in this amazing collection has been personally acquired by the collection’s owner over the past fifty years and represents a lifetime of work and his desire to see the music preserved for future generations. Deteriorating health and related financial concerns are forcing the owner to sell the collection at far less than its true value. The estimated value of the collection, on a per-item basis, is in excess of $50 million."

Some of what the winning bidder receives:

The entire record collection of more than a million- and-a-half 45 RPM Records, a million plus albums, more than 300,000 compact discs, thousands of 78s, cassettes and 8-Track tapes.

A few other interesting items singled out in the collection are the first CD ever made (of 300), the first flat phonograph record (from 1888), antique recording and listening devices, 10,000 phonograph needles and hundreds of cartridges.

Here is the staggering statistic that really got my attention. More than six million song titles are in the collection. That represents 99% of all of history's charted music and 50-60% of the uncharted songs.  It is the greatest collection of recorded music in the world. 

Imagine the mix tapes I could make. Sofia will be so impressed.

Fine China

In direct opposition to what you hear on the most radio stations in most cities in this country, there is so much great music being released every month that it is almost impossible to keep up with it all.

An early candidate for my favorite album of the year is the solo debut from singer/songwriter China Forbes, called 78. I say solo debut because China's day job (night job?) finds her fronting the popular band Pink Martini. The shared qualities between her songs and their songs is that every one of them is melodic, literate and sublime.

Please check out her MySpace page or website and give her a chance. Or just click play on this page to hear one of her new songs, especially selected for today. She's on a brief tour too, including a stop at Seattle's Triple Door on April 11th. See you there?

Easter Sunday
I'm gonna turn the TV on
There's no holiday
from being left alone again
I'm crossing the parade
I don't know a single soul
Maybe I should stay Easter Sunday
I even almost went to mass
I just want to stand
With a chorus of irrelevants
I got no family
Someone thought they found a future
Went away from me on Easter Sunday

Somewhere on 8th Avenue
All the lights are out
And no one's on the street tonight
No one saw me home
It was just like any day
And everybody's on their own
The boys pile in their Chevy Nova
There's no room for me
The boys peel out like badass rebels
Who's around for me Easter Sunday

I tried to make a dozen plans
Traditions I don't understand
I didn't mean to turn you off

Walk, Don't Run

I had something completely different I planned to write about today but  after spending four hours watching the 23rd annual Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony last night I have a few random notes I want to type.

Praise Allah for the VH1 Classics channel. Wish we could get them to air the Grammys and the Oscars too. 

Why? Totally commercial free and no annoying orchestra to play off the presenters and honorees. Look, Lou Reed is always boring but ultimately always worth it so just let him talk until he's done. He welcomed Leonard Cohen into the Hall, another guy who talks too slowly and eruditely for CBS.

Speaking of Mr. Cohen, his 1976 song Hallelujah is having a good week! Between the annoying kid with the dreadlocks performing it on American Idol and Damien Rice singing it on the Hall Of Fame show last night, I see that a version of it is the #1 selling song on iTunes.

Also, VH1 has figured out how to run their In Memoriam segment and not have the audience applaud for some who have passed on in the past year like it's a popularity contest.

Oh, Justin. Despite some decent reviews for your movies, you are not a good enough actor to A) try to tell jokes or B) pretend to be a grownup who belongs in that room. Next time, skip your speech and let us get right to Madonna and her weird accent talking about angels whispering to every blade of grass.

Why does Paul Schaeffer always seem gay even though he's not?

Best musical performance of the night: Ben Harper and James Cotton, doing bluesman/inductee Little Walter's classic My Babe.

Worst hair: (Tie) Bruce Springsteen and Mick Jagger, singing Satisfaction together in a video clip from 1988. Wow, the 80s, right?

Tom Hanks is an entertaining human.

Biggest potty mouth: Billy Joel, while inducting John Mellencamp got bleeped about seven times. Madonna only two. I would have lost that bet.

Speaking of John Mellencamp, what  a story he told about being born with spina bifida! He had eighteen hours of spinal surgery at age six weeks. When it was over, and he survived, the doctor charged John's parents a dollar.

My favorite inductee to watch have the best night of their lives? The Ventures, from Tacoma, Washington. 

Some Ventures fun facts: Because of the ceremony, Governor Gregoire declared yesterday Ventures Day in the state of Washington. The Ventures are the best selling instrumental band of all time, by far. They have released more than, wait for it, 250 albums! In 1963 they had five albums in the Hot 100 at the same time.

I didn't know until last night that their first hit, Walk Don't Run, which they recorded 48 years ago (!) was a cover of a Chet Atkins song. 

They played that one last night along with my favorite, the theme from Hawaii 5-0. If you haven't heard it in a while, press play now and feel the awesome power of The Ventures!

 

This Rhyme Brought To You By......

I was listening to some country music on the radio the other day and heard Rodney's Atkins singing Watching You, which was the #1 country song of last year. It's a story about how kids are little mimics and pick up everything their parents do and say, not just the good lessons and behavior the parents might hope for.

There's a line in the first verse that goes, "Drivin’ through town just my boy and me with a Happy Meal in his booster seat..."  I wonder how much that free plug might be worth to McDonald's in sales of their Happy Meals?   

That's exactly the question a new company called Lyrics Marketing wants to find out. Here's what they do, courtesy of their website, "At Lyrics Marketing we take product placement to the next level by integrating products into song lyrics! This partnership places a brand in the minds of music lovers around the world, while songwriters/artists create additional revenue for themselves by doing what they already do. Put the power of music to work for you!"

Is this a brilliant win-win idea or just another example of commerce defeating art? Is it The Man keeping the beautiful, creative people down or is he throwing them a lifeline by giving them a way to earn a living in an otherwise difficult business economy?

Singer-Songwriter Jill Sobule has been getting a lot of press lately for her creative way of financing her new CD by offering her fans the chance to buy levels of input into its creation. For one price she'll sing your name on the album; for more you get to sing on it yourself! Perhaps she should contact Lyrics Marketing and pitch them her new song called, "I Was Sipping On A Coke While Driving My Honda Civic Past The Best Buy Store Across The Street From The AppleBees On My Way To See 10,000 BC, Opening March 8."

Full Disclosure Alert: the brains behind Lyrics Marketing is a successful advertising agency owner in Atlanta who has been one of my best friends for more than thirty years. I'm sure he would be interested in your comments on his new business venture as free market research. So fire away!

   
      

    

"Not The Way This Record Was Supposed To End!"

As I was posting my song-of-the-day on ChristmasMusicEveryday.com this morning, I realized the format over there does not allow me to write very much about today's featured artist.

Do you know the name Dickie Goodman? He has been recognized by Billboard magazine as the #1 Novelty Artist of all time. He is admired greatly by those who followed in his footsteps (Weird Al and Dr. Demento are both in Dickie's top 8 friends on MySpace) but the public at large (that's you) may have forgotten him.

Dickie invented the "break-in" record. Pretending to be a news reporter at the scene of a developing story, he would conduct interviews with witnesses or participants at the scene who would answer his questions with snippets of popular hit records at the time.

His first hit record, 1956's Flying Saucer capitalized on America's fascination with alien spacecraft. Between breathless news reports of a War Of The Worlds type invasion scenario, Goodman's on-the-spot reporter interviewed the visitor from space who responded with short clips of popular records by Fats Domino, Little Richard, Buddy Holly and many others.

You can guess what happened next. Lawsuits from seventeen record labels charging copyright infringement and unauthorized use of their material. The judge made a landmark ruling that is still enforced today: that the new work was substantially different from the original record and was a parody, protected by fair use laws. Dickie Goodman's precedent was referred to hundreds of times decades later when sampling older songs to make new ones became popular in the 1980s.

What I love about Dickie's songs is that they were all so topical. Santa And The Satellite, which you can hear for free today on my other blog, reflects the country's obsessions with both Sputnik and Elvis Presley, the top stories of 1957.

He did records on the Caped Crusader craze (Batman And His Grandmother, 1966), the  moon landing ( Luna Trip, 1969), Blaxploitation movies (Superfly  Vs. Shaft, 1973), the #3 smash on the blockbuster film Jaws (Mr. Jaws, 1975) and many, many more.

Sadly, the man who brought so much laughter to two generations of record buyers took his own life on November 6, 1989. His son Jon manages his father's catalog now and there are several excellent CD compilations of hits in print, plus Jon's biography of Dickie called The King Of Novelty.

As The Numbers Get Smaller, The Hits Get Bigger

Most weekends I enjoy listening to rebroadcasts of the old Casey Kasem hosted American Top 40 shows on the radio. Satcaster XM airs episodes from the 70s on Saturdays and 80s countdowns on Sundays.  Yesterday I also stumbled upon a show from February 1978 on terrestrial radio too, on Seattle's B97.3.

I thought it would be interesting to get your vote on which survey from this week of the year in the last five decades has the "best" Top 10, whatever you interpret that to mean. It can be the one with the most songs you like. Or the list with the most songs you consider that are classics, that stand the test of time.  Or the list that is the most fun or best captures the era. It's not scientific but I enjoy lists (Hello, Aspergers!) and seeing some of these titles jogs some fun memories too.

   
Week ending February 10, 1968

10. Bend Me, Shape Me
American Breed
9.  Woman Woman
Gary Puckett & Union Gap   
8.  Nobody But Me
Human Beinz
7. Goin' Out Of My Head/
      Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You
Lettermen
6. I Wish It Would Rain
Temptations
5. Chain Of Fools
Aretha Franklin
4. Judy In Disguise
John Fred & Playboy Band
3. Spooky
Classics IV
2. Green Tambourine
Lemon Pipers
1. Love Is Blue
Paul Mauriat


Week ending February 11, 1978

10.How Deep Is Your Love
Bee Gees
9. Dance, Dance, Dance
Chic
8. Emotion
Samantha Sang
7. Baby Come Back
Player
6. Sometimes When We Touch
Dan Hill
5. Just The Way You Are
Billy Joel
4. We Are The Champions
Queen
3. Love Is Thicker Than Water
Andy Gibb
2. Short People
Randy  Newman
1. Stayin' Alive
Bee Gees


Week ending February 13, 1988

10. She's Like The Wind
Patrick Swayze
9.  Don't Shed A Tear
Paul  Carrack
8.  Say You Will
Foreigner
7.  Hazy Shade Of Winter
Bangles
6. Need You Tonight
Inxs
5.  What Have I Done To Deserve This
Pet Shop Boys
4.  Hungry Eyes
Eric Carmen
3.  I Want To Be Your Man
Roger
2.  Seasons Change
Expose
1.  Could've Been
Tiffany



Week ending February  14, 1998

10. Dangerous
Busta Rhymes
9.  How's It Going to Be
Third Eye Blind
8.  No, No, No
Destiny's Child
7.  A Song For Mama
Boyz II Men
6.  I Don't Ever Want To See You Again
Uncle Sam*
5.  Been Around The World
Puff Daddy
4.  Truly, Madly, Deeply
Savage Garden
3.  How Do I Live
LeeAnn Rimes
2.  Together Again
Janet Jackson
1.  Nice And Slow
Usher

Week ending February  12, 2008

10. Take You There
Sean Kingston
9.  New Soul
Yael Naim
8.  Sensual Seduction
Snoop Dogg
7.  Clumsy
Fergie
6.  Love Song
Sarah Bareilles
5.  No One
Alicia Keys
4.  Apologize
Timbaland & One Republic   
3.  Don't Stop The Music
Rihanna
2.  With You
Chris Brown
1.   Low
Flo Rida & T-Pain

So who wins, readers? Which decade has the "best" Top 10?

 

* Has anyone heard of this song? I sure haven't.

Not The Same Old Lang Syne

I had something totally fun and Christmasy to write about today but I just heard Dan Fogelberg died over the weekend and believe he deserves a few words.

I know exactly what you are thinking: "Who?"

Here are a few lines from the Associated Press story on his passing,

"Dan Fogelberg, the singer and songwriter whose hits Leader of the Band and Same Old Lang Syne helped define the soft-rock era, died Sunday at his home in Maine after battling prostate cancer. He was 56.

His death was announced Sunday in a statement by Anna Loynes of the Solters & Digney public relations agency, and was also posted on the singer's Web site.

'Dan left us this morning at 6:00 a.m. He fought a brave battle with cancer and died peacefully at home in Maine with his wife Jean at his side,' it read. 'His strength, dignity and grace in the face of the daunting challenges of this disease were an inspiration to all who knew him.'

Fogelberg was found in 2004 to have advanced prostate cancer. In a statement then, he thanked fans for their support: It is truly overwhelming and humbling to realize how many lives my music has touched so deeply all these years. ... I thank you from the very depths of my heart.'

Fogelberg's music was powerful in its simplicity. He didn't rely on the volume of his voice to convey his emotions; instead, they came through in the soft, tender delivery and his poignant lyrics. Songs like Same Old Lang Syne - in which a man reminisces after meeting an old girlfriend by chance during the holidays - became classics not only because of his performance, but for the engaging storyline, as well.

Fogelberg's heydey was in the 1970s and early 80s, when he scored several platinum and multiplatinum records fueled by such hits as The Power of Gold and Leader of the Band, a touching tribute he wrote to his father, a bandleader. Fogelberg put out his first album in 1972."

All of the songs mentioned in the piece are worth seeking out if you don't know them and he had several uniformly excellent albums such as Souvenirs, Phoenix, The Innocent Age and my favorite, Twin Sons Of Different Mothers, his collaboration with Tim Weisberg.

I think maybe the wedding favorite, Longer doomed Fogelberg to soft rock hell in many listener's minds but he was an extraordinarily talented musician and songwriter who deserves a better legacy.

Sometimes this time of year you might get lucky and catch Dan's holiday classic, Same Old Lang Syne on the radio and I defy you to turn it off before you see how the story ends.  It gets me every time. And today you got lucky to catch it on this blog. You are so having a better Monday than he is.

The Funeral

I'll admit it caught me by surprise a couple of Sundays ago while watching football on the TV when I first saw the commercial for the Ford Edge and recognized the music as being by the Band of Horses, a group I like very much.

It shouldn't have. These days, as many people, and virtually all fans under 25, believe "music should be free, man!" it is harder and harder for any musician to make a living. The band has already made something off of that song by licensing it to an episode of Criminal Minds too.

I don't have a problem with it. They created it. They own it. And they are free to do what they want with it. Do I wish i could make my own visual image instead of seeing an iPod commercial in my mind every time I hear those songs by The Fratellis, or U2, or Mary J. Blige? Sure. But even though I believe music is art, it is also has to be commerce if that's how you earn your paycheck.

A quick Google search, by-the-way, finds many music fans not willing to accept the way Band of Horses chooses to exploit  promote their songs. I found blogs that called them, "Sellout!" "Band of Hypocrites!" and my favorite "Band of Whores!"

Here's the song, video-free if you care to hear it.

America's Least-Loved Christmas Song

From the New York Times this week:

"America’s least-loved Christmas song is a Danish recording of Jingle Bells, performed in dog barks. The song — which enjoyed brief success in the United States in 1955 and 1970 — took last place in a test of 579 Christmas recordings, performed by Edison Media Research. Edison played the songs for a national sample of 200 women aged 30 to 49, recruited via e-mail, who said that they either liked or loved Christmas music.

All five of the best-loved Christmas songs are more than four decades old. The newest recording among the top 10 is John Lennon’s 1971 song  Happy Christmas (War Is Over).

'It is certainly a place where the rules about who’s relevant are suspended for a month,' said Sean Ross, a radio analyst with Edison. 'Even the Christmas songs that we think of as contemporary, things like Wham’s Last Christmas, are 20 years old at this point.'

Elmo & Patsy’s 1984 novelty track, Grandma Got Run Over by a  Reindeer, was hated by 17 percent and loved by 47 percent. 62 percent love Nat King Cole's Christmas Song."

Okay, me here. Even though the golden age of Christmas songs was indisputably way back in the 1930s and 1940s, I am still very surprised at how few holiday tracks have gained any real traction in the modern era, say, post 1990.

It's not that any fewer songs are being released; if anything even more artists are trying to cash in on Christmas albums than ever before. I have two theories:

1) Radio is so fragmented now that since we aren't all listening to the same stations anymore there is no such thing as a newer classic that everyone knows.   

2) Radio programmers are less likely to take a chance on playing a newer Christmas song than ever before due to increased scrutiny  by shareholders who don't like to take a chance that human interference might screw up their spreadsheets. "We already know they like White Christmas so just keep playing that one!"

Perhaps Christmas Shoes by Newsong has become something of a standard since it came out in 1999 but that doesn't make it suck any less. It is truly awful, as was the Rob Lowe TV movie they made  out of the song's sappy story. Not that I saw it. I'm just sayin'.

Mary Did You Know is a brilliant song that seems to get more popular every year and is being covered by more and more artists too. Even that was written back in 1984 though (by gospel singer Mark Lowry). 

The one recent number that has all the qualities of a standard, a song they'll still be playing in 50 years on whatever replaces radio, is 1994's All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey.   

Please visit www.ChristmasMusicEveryday if just reading about the song is making you jones to to hear it right now.  It's today's  free stream.

 

Now Hear This

I believe I have mentioned before that  I  am a year round Christmas music enthusiast. These last few weeks have been my favorite time of the year for one reason: almost every week there is a new holiday CD being released. Some of the best of this year's crop include those by Raul Malo, Jars Of Clay, Reliant K, and especially Over The Rhine.

The real tragedy for the audience is that most radio stations don't play very much Christmas music and those that do largely stick to the same safe titles and artists every year. You can get 24 hours a day in some cities of all the Christmas songs you know (and many of them deserve the plays - they are classics for a reason) but it is very difficult to hear anything beyond the regular playlist.

My small effort to give something back to the genre that has meant so much to me is to start a second blog, devoted only to one thing: sharing Christmas music to like-minded fans.

I plan to put as little work as possible into it by just posting an mp3 every morning with the title, artist, year and a brief note on the song. Sure, you'll hear Gene Autry (pictured) some days but I hope you'll also hear some songs and artists you don't know. And there is no reason a great song in December won't still be a great song in July. 

I started posting mp3s on Thanksgiving but wanted to give it a few days to get the bugs out before announcing it here.  My new site is ChristmasMusicEveryday.com.

Please enjoy.    

Jesus, Do I Love Christmas Music

I really do. Year round. Full time. All kinds. One of these days I am going to get my dream blog, www.Christmas MusicEveryday.com up and running.

In the meantime, here is an unusual Christmas music item too neat to save for that happy day.

You know the singer/songwriter Sufjan Stevens? I am a huge fan of his, especially his song, John Wayne Gacy, Jr." from his 2005 CD (Come On Feel The) Illinoise. I think it is one  of the best ballads every written about a mass murderer and one of my Top 40 favorite songs of all time.

So here's that:

 

But wait, Bean! What's the Christmas angle? Well, on the heels of last year's outstanding Sufjan holiday album comes this word from his label, Asthmatic Kitty:

"Sufjan Stevens is busy working on a very special gift right now, for a very special person. And in the spirit of Christmas, that person will give Sufjan a similarly special gift.
               

Here's how it works: write an original Christmas song, record it, and email the song to us. Asthmatic Kitty will pick a winner, and that person will trade rights to their song for rights to Sufjan's song.

Just like a gift exhange, Sufjan's song becomes your song. You can hoard it for yourself, sell it to a major soft drink corporation, use it in your daughter's first Christmas video, or share it for free on your website. No one except Sufjan and you will hear his song, unless you decide otherwise. You get the song and all legal rights to it. We get the same rights to your song."

That's the spirit! Click here for more info and if you do write or record a song, I'd love to hear it too!

Invasion Of The Body Snatchers

My TIVO was weeping heading into the weekend under the weight of all my unwatched shows  on its back so I tried to alleviate some of the pressure by catching and releasing a few of the programs it held.

Weeds, which has had the most consistently excellent season of any show on the air that I watch this season continued its great run. Californication got better every week and had a terrific and very satisfying season finale too. Real Time With Bill Maher is still worth watching too. I already miss Mad Men. Still love The Office, am getting  bored with whiny Grey's Anatomy and  this week's Friday Night Lights was the best episode of the season so far.

The subject of this post, however, concerns the most disturbing thing my TIVO was holding for me. Thursday night's Tonight Show was automatically recorded as are all shows whose descriptions include the keyword "Manilow."

But who or what is this thing on my TV screen singing instead of  Barry Manilow? I ask you.   

We used to have a guinea pig named Bedhead who looked exactly like this guy.

Donna is guessing facelift, eyelift, cheek implants and extreme skin tightening. What do you think?   
 

Maybe I Do Have The Worst Taste Ever....

Blender magazine has published their latest list of the 50 Worst Songs Ever and once again this year I appear to be at least partly responsible for some of these records being hits. Here's my breakdown:

Songs I Love: 4
Songs I Like: 18
Others: 28

Let me at least defend my top four on the list.

At #44 on their worst songs ever list they list Meatloaf's  "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That) accusing it of not "making any sense" because it doesn't say what the Loaf won't do. That's the magic of it and just one reason why it's great. One can imagine anything to be the singer's dealbreaker and I just assume it was watching "So You Think You Can Dance."

Blender says the forty second worst song of all time is "The Sounds Of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel, saying it "sounds like a vicious parody of a pompous and pretentious mid-60s folk singer." We might know some of those pompous and pretentious pretenders by name if they could have written anything as good as this.

They call "The End" by the Doors the the 26th worst song ever. Are they right that is is "bombastic and lugubrious" and that it "sounds like it was recorded in a large metal shipping container and mixed by drunks?" Yes. But I love psychedelic music and the "anemic jazz noodling" of the guitar works for me. Plus, Apocalypse Now, bitch!

Their #12 worst song ever is "Kokomo" by the Beach Boys. They call it  "a gloopy mess of faux-Carribean musical stylings."  I say it always sounds like summer whenever you hear it. I didn't see the movie Cocktail, from whence it came, I so don't have that dragging down its memory either. Plus, the Beach Boys are close to my favorite band ever and the harmonies on this are their best of the 80s.

I wonder if somewhere there is somebody writing his blog and defending "I'm Too Sexy" (#49) or "Achy Breaky Heart" (#2).