Meme #2: For want of a song...

Step 1) Pick a band or singer

Step 2) Answer the questions using only song titles

Step 3) Post

Okay...here goes my second meme:

Artist: David Bowie

Are you male or female?: "The Man Who Sold the World"

Describe yourself: "Even a Fool Learns to Love"

How do some people feel about you?: "Space Oddity"

How do you feel about yourself?: "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow"

Describe your ex-girlfriend: "Queen Bitch" (Just kidding...couldn't resist)

Describe your current girlfriend: (Wife, in my case) "Lady Stardust"

Describe what you want to be: "Heroes"

Describe your current mood: "Tired of My Life"

Describe your friends: "Kooks" (kidding again...I love the few friends I have!)

Share a few words of wisdom: "Don't Be Afraid"


Found via: Crocodile Caucus

(Almost) An Hour with KRXO

An hour (or close to it) with Oklahoma's classic rock giant, KRXO, and this is what I get:

"What a Fool Believes"---The Doobie Brothers
Some of yer old school Doobie fans, the ones whose favorite songs are "China Grove" and "Black Water", may not be too awfully fond of the more Adult Contemporary stylings of the Michael MacDonald hits (this one is probably the biggest, but "Takin' It To The Streets" qualifies). They're certainly entitled to their opinion, but personally I quite like this song and would rank it over many of their other, more rockin' tunes. ESPECIALLY "Black Water", which is, as far as I'm concerned, one of the most annoying songs in all of rock.
Okay, no fair. I was planning on writing a post about "An Hour With KRXO", just to see what it's like to spend an hour with terrestrial radio (as opposed to XM Satellite Radio)...I haven't spent 5 minutes with KRXO since getting XM, and I was feeling a little bit guilty. After all, KRXO is THE classic rock station in Oklahoma, and I have spent many forgotten hours being reminded of my musical heritage by their DJs.
I had every intention of commenting on each song they played in a one hour time limit...note the Doobie Brothers quip at the top. That was going to be my starting point, and I could only hope that they wouldn't throw in any 38 Special or Styx into the mix (as I wasn't really in the mood to get too cruel).
But they foiled my plans by offering up what they like to call, "Get The Led Out", which is basically a long block of songs by Led Zeppelin. So I'm thinking, well, I might as well have just dragged out one of my Zeppelin CDs and tried to write a review, wouldn't have been much difference, now, would it?
Oh, well.
They kicked the set off with "Going To California", with the line about how Rob's "woman unkind smoked his stuff and drank all his wine". Back in my marijuana-consuming days I would have seen this as KRXO's way of telling me it was time to load up a bowl and fire it up, "the kllla Zeppelin tracks are on the way and you need to get your head ready". And no doubt the stoners who took the cue probably enjoyed "Since I've Been Loving You" more than I did when they played it. It's never been one of my favorite Led Zeppelin tracks (favorites being "When The Levee Breaks", "The Battle of Evermore" and "Immigrant Song", in case you wanted to know...oh, yeah, I like "No Quarter" a lot, too).
From "Since I've Been Loving You" to "Trampled Under Foot", which is another Page/Plant song that I just do not enjoy. Physical Grafitti gets a lot of credit from Zep diehards as being one of their best albums, but I beg to differ. It has a few really good songs in the mix, but it's too long and with dreck like "Trampled Underfoot" included they should have cut it down to one album.
Okay, 25 minutes into the hour and Get The Led Out is over (I forget that a "block of rock" is just 3 songs...that they give a flippin' TITLE to their Zeppelin blocks made me think it might be longer in duration).
~~~"After Midnight"---Eric Clapton
No disrespect to Slowhand, but I can't stand this stupid song.
But hey, I'M the stupid one, because I just realized something (it dawned on me when they followed "After Midnight" with "Lay Down Sally"...another Clapton song I hate...and I LIKE Eric Clapton)...this is THURSDAY! As in "TRIPLE PLAY THURSDAY"!!! In other words, they'll be spinning 3-song blocks o' rock from EVERY artist they play tonight! Oh JOY!
Reminds me of the game me and my friends used to play where we'd try to guess which song KRXO would play next in any particular block. The trick was to get at least one correct of the two that they would play after the first. It wasn't that hard, because the playlists at KRXO are so tight that you can count on them playing the same songs every time. And the fewer big hits an artist had, the easier it was to guess. For instance, with the Rolling Stones it would be pretty difficult. Lots of big hits and fazed cookies from that lot (although "Jumpin' Jack Flash" or "Honky Tonk Women" would usually be a fruitful guess). But with a group like Blue Oyster Cult it was easy to get both songs...made only somewhat more difficult if the first song in the block was "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", the obvious shoe-in. If that were the case, one need only guess "Godzilla" and you're guaranteed at least 2 out of the three.
Then again, that was a completely hypothetical example, since it's doubtful that KRXO would play anything else from BOC than those two songs. I can't think of another that they would play...even though I CAN think of several others that are worthy ("E.T.I.", "In Thee"). The Cars would have been a better group to pull an example from. "Just What I Needed", "Let's Go" and "Let The Good Times Roll" is a safe bet.
Well, I WAS planning on spending an hour with KRXO, but they've kicked off a Crosby, Stills & Nash block, and that's not something I'm prepared to endure (especially when they lead off with "Southern Cross"...yuck). Sure, they could find a loophole and throw in some CSN&Y for to redeem the whole thing, but I'm not about to hang around long enough to find out. I can't even describe how much I can't tolerate "Southern Cross".
BTW, ~~~375,000 in cash and prizes to the winner of Don Quixote's Talent Quest karaoke contest, but those $1.50 long necks is what keeps 'em coming back.

OT: Meme #1

This is a bit off topic, but I couldn't resist throwing my hat into the meme ring and posting my answers to this one.


"You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451 - which book do you want to be?"
Moby Dick or On The Waterfront...something with a lot of water so I can escape the fire when they come to burn the library I belong to.

"Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?"
Does Linda Blair count as a fictional character? I sure enough had it bad for her when I was a youngster. If not, then I'd have to say Regan (from The Exorcist), Chris (from Born Innocent) and Sarah (from Sarah T: Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic). Let's see, that's under-age drinking, juvenile delinquency and demon possession. Is it any wonder I had a thing for her?


"What is the last book you bought?"
I bought a compact sized large-print leather bound edition of the King James Version of the Holy Bible. I have so many translations, but I was really beginning to get into the KJV, so I figured I'd get a nice copy that I could carry around.

"What is the last book you read?"
How Now Shall We Live by Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey

"What are you currently reading?"
Somewhat simultaneously:
~~~Mastering The New Testament: Matthew by Myron S. Augsburger
~~~The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin
~~~Best Sermons: 1959-1960 Protestant Edition edited by G. Paul Butler
~~~Systematic Theology by Dr. Norman Geisler

"What five books you would take to a deserted island?"
1.) The Holy Bible (NIV Study Edition)
2.) The Holy Bible (King James Version)
3.) The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
4.) "The Knowledge of the Holy" by A. W. Tozer
5.) Bulfinch's Mythology

"Who are you going to pass this on to (three people) and why?"
Probably noone...I'm a hermit, you know.

Who knows, but that I might do this more often. You've been warned.
And just in case you're wondering why I didn't choose, for instance, The Grove Dictionary of Music or some other extremely in-depth, lengthy text on music...I thought about it. But then I figured this was a desert island I was never going to be rescued from...it would be torture to read about all the great music in the world without ever getting to hear it again, left with only the memories absorbed during the days of living in a civilized society to work with.

Short List from Deep Tracks 3.30.05

After yesterday's way-too-long exposure to the 70's music on XM's "Seventies on 7" channel, I decided to listen to channel 40 this afternnon, the Deep Tracks channel. Here's a list of 5 notable songs that I heard amongst the other very good stuff they always play...

~~~"On Top Of The World"---Cheap Trick
I like to say that Cheap Trick sounds like a slightly heavy tribute to the style of the Beatles, but the closing section of this song sounds so much like the Electric Light Orchestra that it could fool Jeff Lynne. Of course, ELO's modus operandi was always to emulate the Beatles more grandiose aspects, so it makes sense.
~~~"Bad"---U2
When Bono & Co. performed this song at Live Aid they established themselves as a musical force to be reckoned with, and it's to their credit that they have gone on since then to release so much quality material. This atmospheric number gives me goose-bumps every time. It's one of Bono's most powerful, impassioned vocals.
~~~"Eminence Front"---The Who
It's not the same without Keith Moon, that's a given, but the Who sound pretty good to me here. I recall seeing the video back when MTV was still about music and marvelling that Roger Daltrey was toting a guitar, playing that mean (and no doubt extremely difficult) 2 note motif. (<---*that was meant as a joke, btw*) I guess he had to do something while Pete was singing...and what's that all about? I'm not complaining, mind you...I like Townshend's voice and it's effective in this song. ~~~"White Punks On Dope"---The Tubes
What a messed-up bunch these guys were before hitting big with "She's A Beauty" and "Talk To Ya Later". Fee Waybill took theatricality to a new level during the early days of the Tubes, and this was one of their signature songs.
~~~"I Am the Walrus"---Spooky Tooth
First time I've heard this cover, and I actually thought it was some modern heavy music outfit like A Perfect Circle for the first few measures before checking the display and finding out it was Spooky Tooth. Kinda lost the modern feel not too long after that, but still a very intriguing re-working of the Beatles' original.

AUTECHRE: A Key to Appreciating Chaos

Autechre Draft 7.30

The new Autechre album, curiously titled Untilted, is set to be released on the 18th of April, and guess what?
I'm REALLY excited about it!
Thanks to all the brain-dancing folks at the Warp Records label, the timing could not be better, for you see, 4.18.05 is my 43rd birthday. If there's one thing that makes me feel like I'm not as old as my driver's license says I am, it's the fact that I really dig something as "hip" and "underground" as Autechre.
And I honestly DO love Autechre's electronic noodling---I don't have to work at it as if I were some 45 year-old grandfather of two who claims he can really relate to Trent Reznor's self-loathing angst or that Marilyn Manson reminds him so much of Alice Cooper's glory days that he might even consider buying a ticket and showing up the next time that gravy train pulls into town. Yeah, right...Better take the advice of the skinny kid with the 74 strategically placed body piercings who warns, "You'd better steer clear of the mosh pit, Daddy-O, or you'll get your dentures knocked out".
Then again, the artistry of Autechre has about as much in common with the nihilistic racket of NIN & Manson as John Denver's Rocky Mountain High has with the kind of high that keeps getting Scott Weiland in trouble.
Autechre's noise is a clatter unlike any other, as any true glitch connisseur will attest to. Pay no attention to the legions who would have you believe that they are merely a slightly less tuneful version of Aphex Twin (should that even be taken seriously as an insult, I ask? After all, I've heard AFX tracks that are about as tuneful as the sound of a lumberjack chopping down a cedar tree...).
Don't get me wrong, I LIKE Aphex Twin. A lot. But I LOVE Autechre. I don't even know if I could reasonably explain the preference, but it is there.
Perhaps you've noticed that not once in this post so far have I referred to Autechre's compositions as "music".
Therein lies a question for the contemplation of minds more enlightened than the one in my noggin.
IS IT MUSIC?
I suppose that all depends upon your understanding and definition of what constitutes music. I hate to get all postmodern on ya, but oh well...it's art, not ethics. And so "postmodern" is as good a tag as any to label it with. You take from it exactly what you expect to take from it. If you choose to hear it as disorganized, chaotic blips and blaps of unrecognizable sounds, that's your prerogative. Fact is, that's basically exactly what it is...the next step you are required to take is making the decision as to whether or not the seemingly random splotches of noise sound PLEASING to you, or do they foster annoyance and manifest collectively as a pain much like a migraine headache?
I can't say that I don't empathize with the latter camp, seeing as how your typical bottom-end booming loop-repetitive trance/acid house/techno produces a similar effect on me. But for some reason I happen to fall into the group that enjoys the noise. Perhaps it was my being exposed to Kraftwerk's Autobahn at a tender, impressionable age. Or more likely it stems from the occassion when, at the age of 15, I listened to Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music in it's screeching entirety through headphones (and from an 8-Track tape, no less). For whatever reason, I find that the programmed sequences of Draft 7.30, Autechre's last album, are definately what I would consider MUSIC...to my ears, at least.
No offense to those IDM/Glitch fans out there who have always been open-minded (or maybe it's tin-eared) enough to consider tracks like "Surripere", "V Al 5", "Tapr" and "Xylin Room" to be as musical as the catchiest Paul McCartney tune on the radio. But face it, guys, and I will face it right along with you---Autechre is a "love it or hate it" proposition and you can bet your prized laptop that the haters are gonna throw out that tired line once applied even to the craft of the Beatles by a generation convinced of Sinatra & Crosby's superiority, ie. "It's NOT music!"
Why bother arguing with them when odds are they're actually RIGHT this time? For instance, take "V-Proc" as an example. Yeah, there's a monsterous percussive beat that pulsates, but it jitters and sputters like a drum machine riding in the bed of an old Chevy truck speeding down a bumpy dirt road. Even if the sounds shooting from the center of those thumps were as releatively musical as the ones heard in the following track, "Reniform Puls", it wouldn't matter because yer brain has got to stay busy trying to decode some semblance of rythmic structure and it likely would never notice them.
With that in mind, I offer the secret to appreciating Autechre. You need only follow John Lennon's "Tomorrow Never Knows" advice to "Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream". If you can manage that (hopefully without chemical assistance) you may discover that Draft 7.30 is the perfect soundtrack for downstream floating.
It is a sonic Zen-world that is completely frustrating when you try to make sense of it. But if you can find a "Be Here Now" moment, all of a sudden you will notice that there are things occurring on so many different levels that one cannot help but be somewhat amused and perhaps not a little bit entertained by what's happening to your eardrums. It eventually seeps into your skull like a surgeon's scalpel, prodding and arranging all that useless brain matter, firing off electrical charges directly into the cerebral cortex with the uncanny effect of actually RELAXING the mind, despite the anarchic nature of the sounds bombarding it. When "Reniform Puls" winds down you open your eyes and turn your mind back on, and what do you know? It's as if your brain has just enjoyed a nice Swedish massage.
So who cares if it's music or not, right? The hard part about Autechre is not how "challenging" it is (and, yes, I have used that word to describe much of their work). The "challenge" is to completely be able to shut down your thought process long enough to mine the treasures that are buried in those shiny 5" discs. Lennon knew the key to that as well (although it is true that LSD played a role in his figuring it out)...no need to worry, like the man said, "It is not dying".
Perhaps, at 42-soon-to-be-43 I've switched my brain off and then back on again enough times to know how it's done, and to be fearless about doing it.
So I suppose that's why I've been listening to Draft 7.30 so much the last few days...When Untilted finds it's way into my headphones on my birthday, I want to make good and sure that my "on/off" switch is primed and in working order.

New Springsteen Song

Just heard the title track from Bruce Springsteen's upcoming album, Devils & Dust on XM's Deep Tracks channel. Let's just say that I hope this one will grow on me, cuz on first listen it really leaves me cold. Bruce-by-the-numbers, almost TOO remeniscent of songs like "Land of Hope and Dreams" and "Blood Brothers".
Good songs, mind you, but "Devils & Dust", at least at this point, isn't hitting me like they do. Here's hoping it's not one of the strongest tracks on the album, and also that it will grow on me. Such a consistantly excellent body of work doesn't need one more clunker to add to the few among it (that would be a few tracks from Human Touch and Lucky Town that I'm alluding to).

Playlist 03.29/30.05

Once again I'm up WAY too late, messing around with this blog. It's 2 in the morning and I really should be in bed. But hey, what's a few hours of missed sleep when there are names to be added to the "Music I Like" sidebar list, right?
Okay, so I got a little carried away. But you have to believe me, that is the SHORT list, of only the most significant bands/artists/composers that I enjoy.
Anyhoo, this is what I've been listening to all the while...


Philip Glass Akhnaten

Haven't played any Glass in some while. It was a toss-up between a Glass piece or Steve Reich's Music For Eighteen Musicians and Reich only lost out because I was afraid I might get hypnotized by 18. So I chose the third installment of the "Opera Trilogy", Akhnaten, which is the one I'm least familiar with.



Galaxy 500 Blue Thunder EP

Been a long, long time since I gave this one a spin. I bought it in the late 80's because I was curious to hear the cover of Joy Division/New Order's "Ceremony". I liked the arrangement well enough, and the other songs are very good, too, but I never really got into Galaxy 500. Probably would be worth checking into, better late than never and all.


Faces Long Player

I was SO excited when I found out this was finally being released on CD. It was an oddity of my record collection as a youth. Some of Rod Stewart's best work ("Bad n Ruin" choogles with the best of 'em), even if I'm not fond of his take on "Maybe I'm Amazed" (then again, I just don't like that song, period). The highlight of the album, to my ears, is the lazy "On The Beach", with the late great Ronnie Lane sounding like the skinny kid who always gets sand kicked in his face by the bullies. Tasty pre-Stones Ron Wood guitar sloppiness abounds and the whole thing hangs together by a very tentative thread, but hang together it does.

This Afternoon's Best (& Worst) on XM's 'Seventies On 7'

This afternoon I've been listening to XM's Seventies channel...ahh, the music I grew up with...the good, the bad, and the ugly.
The 70's were sort of a weigh station between the ground-breaking sounds of the 60's and the more experimental styles of the 80's, and as such the ratio of VERY GOOD music to VERY BAD music was pretty even, without a lot of happy mediums.
And so here's my lists of the BEST and the WORST songs I've heard today on XM Channel 7, "The Seventies on 7":

The BEST:

~~~"School's Out"---Alice Cooper
You can't go wrong with the Coop. My 8th grade reputation basically revolved around bringing pictures of Alice Cooper to class, showing them to the girls and giggling when they would say, "Ewww, GROSS!" How times have changed...
~~~"Wild World"---Cat Stevens
One of only a few Cat Stevens songs that I genuinely enjoy, along with "Peace Train" and "MoonShadow".
~~~"Without You"---Harry Nilsson
Mariah Carey ALMOST ruined this song for me, but Nilsson's original version is good enough to make me forget about the "Butterfly Diva"'s travesty of a remake.
~~~"The Show Must Go On"---Three Dog Night
I think Leo Sayer wrote this song, and his version is probably the better of the two, but Three Dog Night's take is the one I like.
~~~"Livin' For The City"---Stevie Wonder
One of the great 70's-era classics from Wonder...right up there with "Superstition" and "Sir Duke" on my list of his best songs.
~~~"Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"---Santa Esmeralda
I had this song on a K-Tel disco compilation album and it was one of the few songs I actually really liked (second only to the Andrea True Connection's "More, More, More"). A nice Latin feel applied to the Animals' original.
~~~"Dirty White Boy"---Foreigner
Though I'm not a big fan of Foreigner, I do recall enjoying a few of their songs when they were fresh. This one has a killer guitar line that makes up for the silly lyrics and testosterone-overkill vocals.
~~~"Superstar"---The Carpenters
The music of the Carpenters was one of the guilty pleasures of my youth. I think the first 45 RPM single I ever bought was one of theirs. This Leon Russell song is the perfect vehicle for Karen's angelic voice and Richard's lush arrangement.


The WORST:

~~~"Cook With Honey"---Judy Collins
Methinks it's SACCHARINE Judy's cooking with. A truly wretched song that makes me want to throw on some Ministry to get the bad taste out of my ears.
~~~"Southern Nights"---Glen Campbell
I don't have a problem with Glen Campbell as a general rule, but his crossover hits, like this and "Rhinestone Cowboy", are bottom of the barrell. Stick to country and stay sober, Glen.
~~~"Cherchez La Feme"---Dr. Buzzard
Believe it or not, this is the first time I've ever heard this song, and I thought I'd heard the worst the 70's had to offer. I stand corrected.
~~~"I Am Woman"---Helen Reddy
The Women's Liberation National Anthem. It's sad that there actually was a time when a song like this was RELEVANT. What's even sadder is the lameness of the song itself and Reddy's annoying voice.
~~~"Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)"---Reunion
Let's just call this a "novelty piece" and save me the trouble of bashing it as hard as it deserves to get slagged.
~~~"Copacabana"---Barry Manilow
Now, I'm no Manilow hater...I actually like a few of his songs ("Could This Be Magic", "Mandy", "Read 'Em and Weep")...but "Copacabana" is...uhh, let me get out the Thesaurus...rubbish.
~~~"In The Summertime"---Mungo Jerry
With a name like Mungo Jerry it's got to be awful. And it is. This is NOT one of those songs that I used to like but then tired of. I have loathed this song since the first time I ever heard it.
~~~"Let Her In"---John Travolta
If she's seeking sanctuary from having to endure this dreadful song, then by all means, LET HER IN! Have mercy, won't you?
~~~"Paper Roses"---Marie Osmond
Marie was always a little bit more country than Donny was ever a little bit rock and roll, but this attempt falls far short of the mark, despite it's hit status.
~~~"Da Doo Ron Ron"---Shaun Cassidy
Why couldn't he have taken a lesson from his older brother? Maybe taken up a more respectable trade he was more geared to and spared the music world this crappy re-make?
~~~"How Do You Do"---Mouth-MacNeil
If the title doesn't jar the memory of this song in your brain, count your blessings. This may be the worst of this very bad batch.

And there you have it...I've had about as much seventies music as I can stand for now (and probably for quite some while). As you can see, the bad stuff outnumbered the good today...but not by much, proving my theory about the ratio of good to bad being fairly even.

Music In The Blogosphere

People, let me tell you, I have spent WAY too much time in the last week working on this blog. Ever since I decided to shut down the RSdotcom Champions Music Club blog and resurrect the Listening Room it has been an obsession with me. By the time I get to bed after a long session of blogging my eyes are strained and sore. Then, when I finally do get nestled in between the sheets, I lay there like an insomniac with ideas storming through my brain about what I want to do with it in the future.
And yet, I concede that I am a novice to the whole blogging thing. The work I do here is usually a painfully slow process of trial-and-error. I have basically NO education in computers or anything related to them, and any knowledge I have about HTML, the internet, cyberspace, etc. has been gained through experience in the 6 years since my wife decided we needed a computer and we bought our first. I mean, I can't even TYPE the way it's supposed to be done...though I must say, I achieve a remarkable rate of words-per-minute utilyzing 2 fingers & a thumb on the right hand and 1 finger on the left.
That, plus the fact that I go through phases where I really love to blog that rotate with cycles of non-interest (plus the related "inspiration factor"), is my main excuse for this blog not being quite as top notch as I would like for it to be...as I hope it WILL someday be...while still allowing that I am proud of what I've accomplished so far.
Anyhoo, I only bring this up because this morning I have wiled away the hours by surfing the blogosphere checking out other music-related blogs. And let me tell you, there are some VERY good ones out there. I have added several to the "Blogs I Like" list (located beneath all the XM stuff in the right sidebar of this bloggy doggy). For convenience sake, here's a list of the blogs I saw today that passed my rigid quality control standards and were added to the "Blogs I Like"...I assure you that I plan to explore each one of these thoroughly in the future:

This Is Not For You

Freeway Jam

I Hate Music

Close Your Eyes

The Rambler

Everything is Something

Smacked Face

we're here to help you thru yr changes

i talk about myself on the internet.

B, Myself and the Music

Blogcritics


Lots of great writing and excellent design on those blogs. I wish I had time to describe each one of them for you right now. You'll just have to trust me that they are all worth checking out.
A couple, however, really peaked my interest.

I Hate Music is a hilarious site maintained by Tanya Headon, who describes it in these words:

My name is Tanya Headon and I hate music. All of it. The purpose of this weblog is a simple one: to detail, week on week, the failings and infinite wretchedness of the stuff, building into an encyclopaedia of musical badness.
Much of this music will generally be called 'good' by critics. Some of it you might be a fan of. Rather than get offended, think of this as the virulent opposite of all those smarmy Record Guides with their star rankings and chin-stroking critical weightings. Here, everything gets one star.
If you feel the need to disagree with me, you may. However, it is worth pointing out that while I have every respect for your musical taste, you are wrong.
I Hate Music was made possible by the people at Freaky Trigger. Hate them too.


Ha! That's priceless. Blame it on the cynical manifestations of my bipolar disorder, but I always did enjoy reading music criticism that lambasts sacred cows and reviewers that are not afraid to call a crap record what it is...even if I don't agree with them. After all, what do critics know?...~~he said, with tongue in cheek, even though he considered himself a music critic~~
There is some VERY FUNNY stuff to be found on this blog.

I also like This Is Not For You quite a bit. It is the work of a fellow Oklahoman who has been called by the Lord into the music ministry. From what I've seen so far of his blog, there is an emphasis on theology that is more prevalent than music discussion/criticism, but in all fairness, I haven't yet delved into his archives, which date back to 2002. His taste in music, as presented in the "Music" list in his sidebar, has much in common with mine and includes Beethoven, the Beatles, Handel, the Stooges, Nick Drake, Mozart, U2 and Blind Willie Johnson among others.
A very attractive web design on this one. This may not be the ideal blog for those of you who are just looking for straight music content, but if, like me, you appreciate a rich mix of music and theology, This Is Not For You is well worth looking into.

And one more I'd like to single out, that I was very impressed with, is Freeway Jam, the work of the enigmatically monikered "uao". His latest installment is a very thorough examination of the Jangle Pop genre, which covers all the bases from REM to the DBs to Guadalcanal Diary to the Bangles to Let's Active and many other touchstone bands in the bargain. He's also a bit miffed at the new Coca-Cola ads that mangle Harry Nilsson's "Coconut Song" and blows off some steam in a highly amusing post.
In answering the FAQ about what Freeway Jam, is all about, this is what uao had to say:

...uh, I don't know. We'll just have to see what it evolves into. It's about music, or music collections, or being a listener of music, or consuming music. It's other things too, at least in theory. I try to provide the visitor with a piece of information, an anecdote, a tip, and a joke every day (some days are better than others). The album art is a popular feature here it seems; it certainly can jog old memories. The playlists give me a fun excuse to listen to my collection, including stuff I've missed or not gotten to yet.

Fair enough. Sounds like something I'd be interested in, at least.
If you want to find out more about uao and his blog, click HERE.

So there you are. A few music blogs that blow this one to smithereens.
And yet, I shall persist. Whether or not this one evolves into a work of similar quality will remain to be seen...I only hope that you will check in every now and again to find out!

XM Satellite Radio...Worth Every Penny

This, my friends, is why I LOVE XM Satellite Radio.
One of my top ten all-time favorite Bruce Springsteen songs, "Drive All Night", and one that I have NEVER heard on terrestrial radio in the 25+ years since it's release. Nothing but a three chord progression repeated for 7 or 8 minutes with no bridge and no real dynamic changes...just the sound of a man opening his heart and pledging it to his true love in a slow dance that you wish would never end. Factor in the exquisite, moaning wail of Clarence Clemons' tenor sax and you've got one of the most intense love songs ever recorded...raw and pure, a treasured memento of a priceless moment.
And it's right there on XM's Deep Tracks channel 40. Where else are you gonna hear it, unless you just happen to be listening to The River? It is truly a "deep track", tucked away on the 4th side of the LP's vinyl, towards the end of a 2-CD set that's already crammed with gems like "Independence Day", "Hungry Heart", "The Price You Pay", "Point Blank", and "Stolen Car", just to name a few. But, for me at least, "Drive All Night" is the album's capstone, the culmination of everything that preceeded it, melting it all down into a plea for the most basic of all human needs: love.
But I know that if I start rhapsodizing about The River it would consume much more time than I hope to spend on the computer today, and what I actually wanted to post about was XM Satellite Radio ...
I think I mentioned that I LOVE XM, didn't I? One look at the right side of this blog should be enough to make that evident. Those are my favorite XM channels, but by no means are they the only ones I listen to. There are over 65 commercial-free music options in a line-up of over 150 channels that XM offers.
I've had my XM gear since last December. Since that time it has dominated my listening and I can honestly say that I can count the times I've heard a song repeated on one hand...there are some channels that will put a song into rotation due to the format ("Top Hits"-type fare), but most of the genre channels have such deep catalogues to choose from that there's no need to play the same song again in a long time.
When I first got XM the monthly service fee was $9.99, and I felt that was more than reasonable. Of course, my luck being such as it is, the rates increased within the first few months after I subscribed. Now it costs $12.99 per month and you get the XM High Voltage channel and XM Online access thrown into the bargain. Truth be told, I could care less about XM High Voltage, which is nothing more than an outlet for their version of Howard Stern's schtick, the Opie & Anthony show. As for the XM Online, I've tried it out and it's pretty neat, with a couple of channels that aren't in the basic XM line-up, but if I'm listening to music while on the computer I guarantee it's through my hi-fi and not the puny little speakers hooked up to my computer. So as far as I'm concerned neither of the "added value" items they've given to make up for the rate hike are worth an extra penny. I'd have been much happier if they would have conjured up a couple more music channels...an IDM/Glitch/Experimental Electronic music channel would be great, or maybe a Praise & Worship Christian channel that would seperate that particular style from the glossy Christian pop/hits that it shares airspace with on The Fish...I could probably think of several options if I took the time to do it and thought they would actually listen to what I had to say.
Regardless, if I didn't think that XM was already worth the higher rate without ANY bonuses I might be complaining. As it stands, I feel that the music programming alone is well worth at least $12.99 ($9.99 was too good to last), and I'll no doubt hold my tongue until the inevitable hikes make it up to the 20 buck mark, at which point I will still pony up, but not without a fuss.

3.23.05 Playlist

Tonight I alphabetized my CD collection. It took about 4 hours from start to finish to organize 1,500 CDs, though I will admit that 1,000 were already in alphabetical order. The trick was getting the other 500 inserted into their proper places within the books.
While doing this chore I listened to the following:

Autechre Gantz Graf

One of Booth & Brown's more challenging pieces, I am very fond of the video of the title track (included on the DVD which comes packaged w/ this 3 song disc). Loses a bit of it's appeal without the visuals, but I haven't given it too many chances to work it's magic without them. Definately later-period Autechre stylings, only a bit more accessable than Confield.
The new Autechre album, Untilted is slated for an April 18th release, and since that IS my birthday, I know what I'll be listening to as I celebrate.


The Band Rock of Ages

Only played the second disc of the remastered version, which is full of performances from the concert that were never previously released, including some stellar tracks featuring Bob Dylan. Very good stuff.


Coldplay A Rush Of Blood To The Head

I'm not a huge Coldplay fan, but this album is excellent. I have their debut, Parachutes, but I never seem to want to listen to it. If ever I'm in the mood for this brand of post-modern guitar jangle I always pull out A Rush Of Blood..., and it never fails to get my head to bobbin', if you know what I mean. Most folks like to compare Coldplay to Radiohead, but I hear much more of a U2 influence throughout this album.

Okay...it's almost 3:00 in the morning and I have messed around with these blogs almost all day. I need to go to bed and try to get some sleep.

Tangerine Dream's Holistic Trippin' Mechanisms

In one of my more recent electronic meditations I found my spirit disconnected from my body long enough to get lost in a deep, dark sea of confusion. From a distance I could hear the sound of a fog-horn calling, screaming from it's belly for purpose.
My soul flittered and flopped like a fish just popped out of the water, from hither to yon and on and on, back and forth, up and down, here, there and everywhere. This is how it is when I'm immersed completely within my electronic meditations.
Waiting patiently for the day when electronic medications become a reality to compliment our electronic meditations. That will be the day when the world as we know it will cease to exist...that small push into a new definition of existance, facillitated and first imagined during a freemason's electronic meditations...we will find our souls tunneling through miles of cable to find rest in cyberspace, our memories preserved, our senses intact, our minds as sharp as ever they were, our intellect and reason a precious gift to the computer-generated construction that will have to substitute for flesh and blood as a home for YOU, just for now, until the Washing and the re-entry to begin it all again.

Electronic meditation # 38,786,453: The sky implodes around me, swirling through a vacuum that sucks the whole thing down into a hole in my head where I'd always pictured my "Third Eye" as being, now horrified to discover no eye whatsoever, only a portal to the other side of a deep abyss waiting to suck in and re-assemble the world, to regenerate with hacked changes the patterns left unrecognized and therefore capable of producing bliss. When it's all dragged down as deep as it can go, I'm left with nothing but what I've stuffed into my head the last 42 years.
And that had better be enough, someone said.
Electronic Meditation Tip-of-the-Day: Tangerine Dreams are only officially considered "Tangerine Dreams" when accompanied by the music of Tangerine Dream, preferably the freaked out early stuff, like Electronic Meditation.
So, like, check it out...The other day I'm driving down the road and there's this SUV in front of me. Nice looking set o' wheels if you ask me, but a gas guzzlin' son of a gun. Electronic Meditation is playing in the car stereo and I notice a sign on the back of the SUV that read: "Official Tribble Extermination Vehicle". Then I started thinking about how a friend of mine had defined human beings in general as "Glorified Pattern Recognition Machines (GPRMs)". I thought this was interesting enough, and I supposed that the GPRM driving the SUV in front of me was maybe just a little TOO much of a Star Trek fan. It was at this point that I made a concentrated effort to put some distance between myself and the SUV and to switch off the Tangerine Dream CD in the player before being completely overcome with the desire to wreck the car by forcing it into the next available telephone pole. Something about mixing electronic meditation with driving just did not mix well with me, that was all I could figure. So I tossed the CD out of the car...
...Where it landed on the side of the road, unharmed, and was noticed and picked up by the 86th driver to come upon it from behind me.
The person who snagged it put it in his CD player immediately, intrigued by a band calling themselves Tangerine Dream, and already infatuated with the concept of meditation enhanced by the use of electronics.
That was the last mistake he ever made...
The sounds assembled and sequenced by Mr. Froese and his Tangerine Dream co-horts were of such an eerie nature that the guy found himself totally freaking out as he drove down the highway, his eyeballs growing larger in their sockets, his nose dripping a flourescent pink snot. A nervous breakdown behind the wheel of his late model Chrysler Plymouth automobile with Pioneer CD player currently pumping electronic meditations to the public at large, or at least to those soon to be gathered round it's wreckage at the site of another telephone pole...

So, you say that Pink Floyd just ain't "out there" enough for you? Hawkwind leaves you high and dry? You say you're a rocket man burning out his fuse up there alone? You say you need some music that's gonna provide a suitable soundscape for the dark recesses of space you plan to explore in the coming months with your eyes closed? Well, my friend, you need yourself some Tangerine Dream, and more to the point, you need to get yo self the hook up to some electronic meditation. I think you'll find that enlightenment comes much quicker with this type of electronic meditation than with the standard nonstop chanting of "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare" or even the powerful "Om Mani Padme Hum"...
And with your new sonically-enhanced enlightenment you will come to the realization that all the atrocities committed with electronics throughout the ages are finally and completely atoned for through the rainbow-washed dulcet tones of Tangerine Dream.

JAC's Top 5 Male Country Vocalists of All Time

My father, who hated the rock and roll that I grew up listening to and loving, used to tell me that one day, when I was older, I would develop a love for country and western music. He also believed that I would eventually "grow out" of that noisy rock 'n' roll.
I can't say that a lot of what passes for rock music these days is to my tastes (Good Charlotte, A Simple Plan, Linkin Park, the list goes on, I can't stand 'em), but I still enjoy the rock that I grew up with, so he was wrong on that count...
But he was on the money with the prediction that I would one day appreciate and very much enjoy country music. And of course the songs and artists I love the most are the ones he was talking about, the ones he loved with a passion, the "classic country legends". There are quite a few of the newer country acts that I like, but very few hold a candle to the established C&W megastars of the 60's, 70's and 80's. And the worst of the lot, like Big and Rich and Shania Twain are worse than any of the crap rock groups on TRL.
Even though I did focus primarilly on rock until my mid-teens (when I branched out into classical and jazz), I was nevertheless exposed to LOTS of country music, because my dad listened to it exclusively all of his life. So even though I claimed to hate it all those years, I nevertheless gained a familiarity with the artists and their songs which allowed me to recognize them by their voices and styles.
I guess you could say that, by default, I have a rich background in country music, so I have decided to list here the top 5 male country singers of all time, as far as I'm concerned. These are the ones that come to mind immediately when I consider the topic. And, of course, this is entirely subjective...I realize that C&W fans more knowledgable than I would likely say that I should have included Hank Williams and/or Johnny Cash in the place of one or the other of my choices. I love Hank and Johnny, too, but to my ears, these five are the tops:

George Jones
No-Show Jones was my father's absolute, hands down favourite country singer of them all, so I admit to some bias in this choice. Nevertheless, there's no denying the rich, expressive quality of the man's singing voice. I will never forget the day when my dad and I were watching an HBO concert that showcased Jones and turning around to see him in tears. I was still a teenage brat (I was only watching because Elvis Costello was featured in a duet with George and I wanted to see that), but I really gained a deep respect for George Jones and the power of his voice that day. It doesn't get much better than "He Stopped Loving Her Today"...

Porter Wagoner
Another of my father's favourites (I might as well just say right now that all 5 of my choices were probably among my dad's Top 10 of all time)...Porter doesn't get the kind of radio airplay on "Pure Country" stations these days like the others in this list do, and I have no idea why not. He holds his own with the cream of the crop. And who can resist those Nudie suits that he and his band, the Wagon Masters, used to wear? Wagoner is responsible for one of the most bizarre country songs of all time, "The Rubber Room", about a hellish experience in a psych ward. For that alone I give Porter Wagoner the "thumbs up", but even a cursory listening to his body of work should convince you that he is one of the greatest. And just in case you didn't know, Dolly Parton wrote her biggest song, "I Will Always Love You" for Porter. Sometimes it gives me the creeps when I hear Whitney Houston doing that song and imagine Whitney singing it to Porter...but that's just me...

Merle Haggard
Not only one of the greatest country singers of all time, but also one of the genre's most prolific and talented songwriters. Merle was in San Quentin prison when Johnny Cash performed there and was inspired to write and perform country music when he was released. To say that he was successful in this quest would be a gross understatement. Songs like "Sing Me Back Home", "Silver Wings" and "Today I Started Loving Her Again" will forever be regarded as country standards, sung by countless honky tonk bands in dive bars. The songs are so good that you don't even have to be a good singer to get away with doing them, but Merle Haggard has the voice that puts them over the top. There's a playful quality to Hag's voice that is endearing, and it seems like it just gets better with age.

Waylon Jennings
The late, great Waylon Jennings was the one singer in the "Outlaw Country" stable who sounded exactly like what you'd expect an outlaw to sound like: rough, tough, edgy, mischevious...and he didn't care what anyone thought about the fact that he "never could toe the mark, never could walk the line". He was an outlaw, fer cryin' out loud, you shouldn't EXPECT him to! The combination of his voice with Willie Nelson's was the catalyst that propelled "Outlaw Country" into the history books. Listen to "Ramblin' Man" and "Waymore's Blues" and you'll hear the sound of the country.

George Strait
Strait is the "new kid on the block" of my list, even though he's been releasing pure country for well over 20 years. He's also the only one who still sells out arena concerts and has big hit songs in the charts consistantly, but that's not what qualifies him for my list. He is, plain and simple, the incarnation of practically everything about country music that I find enjoyable and entertaining. "Amarillo by Morning", "The Chair", "Cheyenne", the list of his excellent songs is a very long one, and each is infused with Strait's expressive baritone that sounds like it was honed around the campfire after a long hard day of cattle rustlin'. His only crime, as far as I can see, is that he was the one who inspired Garth Brooks to begin singing...Oh well, I don't hold that against him.

Sun Kil Moon...Kozelek's Ghosts Escape Fire

Sun Kil Moon...Ghosts Of The Great Highway
(2003, Jetset Records, TWA 53)

Sun Kil Moon mastermind Mark Kozelek kicks off the album Ghosts Of The Great Highway with a boxing reference. "Cassius Clay", he says, "was hated more than Sonny Liston". This he states matter-of- factly, as if it's a foregone conclusion. Then he moves into more subjective territory, allowing that some like Judas Priest guitarist K.K. Downing more than his Priest co-hort Glenn Tipton, and that, among those with a preference, Jim Nabors is sometimes favoured over Bobby Vinton.
Boxing legends, heavy metal axemen and easy-listening music crooners...what in the world do they have in common?
Kozelek fills us in..."I like 'em all," he sings.
And that's Mark Kozelek for you. An enigmatic, mixed-bag of a songwriter who is impossible to pin down. Just when you think he's perfected slo-core mope-rock with the Red House Painters he throws out Songs From A Blue Guitar, basically a solo album (none of the other RHP members were involved) and featuring an extremely repetitive distortion drenched droner, "Make Like Paper", which would have sounded perfectly at home on the loudest Neil Young/Crazy Horse LP never released. On that same album he managed to throw in references to Young's "Cortez The Killer" and Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" in a lengthy cover of Paul McCartney's "Silly Love Songs" that bore even less resemblance to the original than Johnny Cash's reworking of "Rusty Cage" did to Soundgarden's blueprint. And if that weren't enough to convince you that Kozelek was out to confound his core audience, perhaps the head-bangin', fist-pumpin' version of Yes' "Long Distance Runaround" will do? Or maybe the gorgeous version of The Cars' "All Mixed Up" that makes the original sound contrived, turning it into a genuinely passionate, heart- rending ballad...
Kozelek followed Songs For A Blue Guitar with another Red House Painters album (this one featuring all but one original member), the bittersweet Old Ramon. Then he dropped two solo EPs (one of which consisted entirely of old Bon Scott- era AC/DC songs re-cast as tender folkie ballads...did I mention that Kozelek has a knack for absurdity?) and a lackluster but well-intentioned limited edition live LP (White Christmas Live).
So I wouldn't blame those RHP fans who fell in love with their first self- titled album (aka Rollercoaster) for maybe feeling like Kozelek had alienated himself somewhat from the very ones who put him on the map, as it were. After all, it's a long way from the dulcet tones of "Grace Cathedral Park" to the stripped-down starkness of his arrangement of "If You Want Blood".
But somehow I doubt that he lost too many true believers, because with the exception of his beautifully poetic lyrics, the man's greatest asset is his voice, pure, crystalline and melancholic. It's the kind of voice that bleeds passion, that exudes feeling, that sometimes, when it hits you just right, is almost cruel in it's ability to pierce through the hardened heart to elicit emotions not generally shared with everyone. Private sentiment, sheltered and barricaded, seeps through like blood on a thin white sheet at the sound of Mark Kozelek's singing.
Would it surprise you to know that Kozelek, he of the beguiling, angelic voice and intimate, sonnet-like lyrics, is a hardcore boxing fan?
Indeed, he is, and that brings us back to Ghosts Of The Great Highway, his most recent album using the moniker of Sun Kil Moon (though it features ex-members of Red House Painters, Black Lab & American Music Club, most Kozelek devotees focus primarily on his contribution, since all songs were written and arranged by him and his signature is stamped upon every moment).
The album references professional boxers in no less than 4 of it's most powerful songs, including the opener, "Glenn Tipton". It's a subdued introduction to an album that covers quite a bit of stylistic territory...an acoustic number remeniscent of the late John Denver's early work, but with a bizarre lyrical twist---after lamenting a lost father and a late friend, waxing poetic on the inevitability of change, the narrator goes on to confess, "I buried my first victim when I was nineteen, went through her bedroom and the pockets of her jeans". There, he says, "(I) found her letters that said so many things that really hurt me bad." And even though he insists that he's "never breathed her name again", he still concedes, "I like to dream about what could have been"... "Sunshine On My Shoulder" this AIN'T!
"Glenn Tipton" is actually a logical choice to begin this album, as it most resembles the solo work Kozelek has done on his Badman Recordings projects Rock And Roll Singer and What's Next To The Moon, more or less providing a sense of closure to that aspect of his work, at least at this point in time, clearing the way for the more lush soundscapes that follow.
Long-time Red House Painters fans who pine for the melancholy arpeggios of their seminal albums will likely think their wish has been granted with the subdued "Carry Me Ohio". Indeed, this is the closest to the formative "RHP sound" Kozelek has come since his departure from the 4AD label. Melodically simple, the intensity builds throughout the song with the addition of more instruments and more distortion (though distortion, as it is used here, is anything but noisy).
"Carry Me Ohio" is a love song that acknowledges a potential soulmate but bemoans a state of affairs that seems to sabotage any attempt to reciprocate affection, for whatever reason. "Sorry that I could never love you back, I could never care enough in these last days", Kozelek apologizes, while at the same time offering up the admission, "Can't count all the lovers I've burned through, so why do I still burn for you? I can't say". The chorus is a prayer to "heal her soul, and carry her my angel, Ohio", sung in a lilting falsetto that sends shivers down the spine. Glockenspiel and guitar bell-tones waft through the song like a soft breeze on calm waters. It's a mournful affair that longs for "words long gone" and "the star I just don't see anymore", but it's obvious that the real loss is the ability to love and to allow oneself to be loved in return...
The tranquility, however, is shattered with the sound of loud electric guitars as the next song, "Salvador Sanchez", blares from the speakers. Sorry, old-school RHP fans, but the nostalgia was short-lived. And as far as I'm concerned that's just fine, because "Salvador Sanchez" is one of the most moving and powerful songs Mark Kozelek has ever written and recorded. Once again he has channeled Neil Young & Crazy Horse with uncanny success in this loping peon to Latin American boxers who "fell by leather, all alone but bound together". Now I don't pretend to know the slightest thing about boxing and it's colourful history, but this song makes the subject seem so alluring that I'm almost tempted to delve into it.
Kozelek describes the song's namesake as a "sweet warrior, pure magic matador". He then proceeds to sing of several other fighters, including Pancho Villa and Gozo of the Phillipines (who I personally had never heard of until now, but no doubt they are long lost kings of "the Ring"). One he describes as "crying for suns lost on distant shores" until his opponent "struck him, delivered him". You can almost see the blood flying in a black-and-white slow motion instant replay.
The grunge of "Salvador Sanchez" fades out and gives way to a series of three delicate, pastoral pieces that benefit from lovely, unobtrusive string arrangements. "Last Tide"/"Floating" and "Gentle Moon" are the kind of songs that sound as if they were written especially to showcase the fragile, lovelorn quality of Kozelek's voice. He's proven many times in the past that he's capable of writing incredibly poetic lyrics, and the words to "Last Tide" are likely no exception, but his diction is so slurred here, almost mumbled, that they are barely decipherable. You'd think that would be a drawback, but no, it adds an elusive charm to the number (much like early R.E.M. and everything by Sigur Ros, you find yourself so caught up in the music that you don't even really care what the words are, or if it even has "real words").
When "Last Tide" segues into "Floating" the lyrics become more audible, but they're more or less just a repeated mantra of "Come to me my love, One more night, Come on" with a few variations. Still, it winds things down sweetly and leaves the listener wanting more of the same...
Which is exactly what you get. "Gentle Moon", like "Last Tide", is enhanced by a string quartet and delicate acoustic guitar picking, with a chiming, minimalistic electric guitar ringing a two-note pattern that adds a shimmering radiance throughout. The lyrics are mumbled again, quite difficult to decipher except in the chorus: "Our souls escape fire, they rise higher...Gentle moon, find them soon". I'm guilty of using the adjective "beautiful" way too much when I try to describe music that affects me like this does, but what else can I say? "Beautiful" fits "Gentle Moon" to a tee.
The seventh track on the album, "Lily And Parrots", is the weakest, in my humble opinion, though I've read that the label was pushing it as a potential single when the album first came out around this time last year, with indie radio play and all. Perhaps it's my own personal taste that keeps me from appreciating the tune, but the hard rock stylings just don't ring true and sound completely out of place in the grand scheme of the album. I've listened to Ghosts Of The Great Highway at least a hundred times since it was released and I can honestly say that I've skipped over "Lily And Parrots" at least 90% of the time. And the thing is, it's NOT a bad song...there's an acoustic version tacked on at the end of White Christmas Live, as a bonus track, and it's quite nice actually. But the arrangement here sinks it.
Once again I must reiterate that this is my own personal opinion of the song...I've read many people praising it as one of Kozelek's best "rockers" on fan websites and e- mail groups. Needless to say, I disagree...I've also read reviews that pan "Salvador Sanchez" as the album's low point, and that just confounds me cuz it's the song I always crank up and sing along with. Different strokes, indeed.
Then again maybe another reason I skip "Lily And Parrots" is because by this time I'm ready to experience the centerpiece of Ghosts Of The Great Highway, the sprawling 14-minute epic "Duk Koo Kim".
The song is yet another ode to a prizefighter, this time an elegy to Korean contender Duk Koo Kim, who was killed by blows sustained in a boxing match with Ray Mancini (by the way, Mancini himself has been the subject of his own song, "'Boom Boom' Mancini" by Warren Zevon, which also mentions Duk Koo Kim). But to be honest, it's not really so much about Duk Koo Kim as it is a reflection on immortality and the love that allows us to face the inevitable, that we come to need every bit as much as the air we breathe.
Kozelek sings of watching a film of the Mancini/Kim fight and being deeply touched by the sight of the "boy from Seoul" laying alone in the square, "without face, without crown". "The angel who looked upon", he observes, "never came down". The sheer intensity of such a moment causes him to consider the seeming randomness of death, and he muses, "You never know what day could pick you... out of the air, out of nowhere".
Earlier in the song he sang of being woken from a dream the same night as he watched the fight film. It's not apparent if this sleep followed or preceeded the images of Duk Koo Kim's fatal loss, which he's witnessed on the screen. The dreams (or is it a single dream?) do seem inspired by something disturbing. In them he watches a typhoon from the roof of his house, "bringing the clouds down to the sea, making the world look gray and alone, taking all light from view". He also dreams of being "lost in war", unable to feel his feet or hands, knowing that he was dying, "but an angel came down", he says, "and brought me back to you". The same angel, perhaps, who looked upon the broken body of Duk Koo Kim, but chose not to descend for him.
It just seems to me that the tragedy of Duk Koo Kim is the inspiration for these reflections on death and how the Grim Reaper could care less about his victim's ambitions, aspirations or anything else he might have going for himself in life. And in the face of all these hard thoughts Kozelek comes around to a simple invocation, "Come to me once more my love, show me love I've never known...sing to me once more my love, words from your younger years"...
I've never been all that good at discerning the "meaning" of a song, and the interpretations that I've just shared may be wildly off the mark (pardon the pun), but then again, I'm not sure that it matters whether or not I really "get" it, because what I DO "get" is a flood of feeling as I listen to "Duk Koo Kim", and that's really what music is primarilly about, isn't it?
It took several hearings before the song really sank in for me, and I'm sure it's sheer length will be daunting to some, but there is no doubt in my mind that "Duk Koo Kim" is the awesome highlight of Ghosts Of The Great Highway. There's really no way to adequately follow it, but there are two more tracks left, and in their own way they underscore the impact of all that came before them.
"Si Paloma" is an instrumental track with a Latin American feel that sort of breezes along like a soft afterglow. Then the album concludes with "Pancho Villa", which is nothing more than "Salvador Sanchez" stolen from Crazy Horse and re-cast into a setting more akin to "Last Tide" and "Gentle Moon". It's a bit disarming when you first realize that it's the same song, because the arrangement totally alters the feel, but Mark Kozelek has been doing this ever since the beginning of his career with his own material ("Mistress", "New Jersey", "Have You Forgotten") and with others' work (Simon & Garfunkel's "I Am A Rock", the batch of AC/DC covers and even Francis Scott Key's "Star Spangled Banner"). This tactic, for the most part, has yielded striking results, and "Pancho Villa" is no exception. It reminds you of all that came before it and makes you want to listen again.
And so, as Sun Kil Moon, Mark Kozelek has outdone himself. All that there is to love in his work with Red House Painters as well as his solo efforts are here in abundance, along with something extra...something I can't quite describe, but which takes his music to a new level. I'm still not sure what any of it has to do with ghosts or a "great highway", but I do know this: Ghosts Of The Great Highway has proven to be the perfect soundtrack for those long road trips I've frequently embarked upon in the last year since I've had this album, so maybe it has something to do with that?

Live Aid...After All These Years

I spent all of July 1985 away from a television and so I missed what is very likely the most significant rock concert of all time, Bob Geldof's love offering to the Ethiopians, Live Aid. I read all about it in Rolling Stone and for 20 years I have regretted that I didn't have a chance to witness it. I thought I never would, since Geldof was adamant about the thing never being re-broadcast...
But alas, there is still a need in that region of Africa, and so Geldof has agreed to release all the footage that still exists of the show (the vast majority of both shows at Wembley and at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia) along with music videos of Band-Aid, USA for Africa and several other Live Aid related performances and footage, on 4 DVDs totalling over 10 hours of history to re-visit.
And boy, is there a cornucopia of top acts...U2's breakthrough performances of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and (especially) "Bad", David Bowie looking spry and healthy, The Who's Roger Daltry forgetting the lyrics to the bridge of "Won't Get Fooled Again" (yes, I couldn't believe it, either), Bob Dylan backed by Keith Richards and Ron Wood (with more than one acoustic guitar out of tune), Paul McCartney turning "Let It Be" into a hymn for the starving Africans, Teddy Pendergrass singing from his wheelchair in his first live performance since a car wreck left him parapalegic, Ozzy Osbourne fronting Black Sabbath for the first time since they parted ways, Eric Clapton launching into the most blistering version of "Layla" since recording it with Derek & the Dominoes (w/Nicky Hopkins playing that beautiful piano coda), Madonna looking relatively innocent belting out "Holiday" and "Into the Groove" during the exciting birth pangs of her career, Phil Collins flying on the Concord from his performance in England so he could also perform in America (in case you're wondering, he did "Against All Odds" in Britain and "In The Air Tonight" across the pond, as well as backing up Sting on vocals and Eric Clapton on drums...his work on "White Room" is a testament to his gift as a drummer), Mick Jagger getting frisky with Tina Turner to the point of actually removing his shirt, and just SO MUCH MORE. Worth the price of admission just to stare at Tom Petty's mutton chops, but then again, with the proceeds from the sale of the DVD going directly to the Band Aid trust, you don't have to be a die-hard music afficianado to feel good about slapping down the $30 asked for this bona fide essential.
I cannot reccomend the Live Aid DVD highly enough...I only wish that it had been released to satisfy the demand of music lovers worldwide, and not because the money is still needed in Africa... At any rate, there you are. Just let me know what you think of it when you've had a chance to ingest all 10 hours...

I kinda let this blog go when I left the Mad Laugh back in late December of last year...it had turned into a journal of my experiences with the band. Of course, that had never been the original goal of the blog when I first started it a year earlier, long before I'd joined the group. At that point I was content to pontificate about the music I happened to be listening to on any given day. But I started up another blog with a musical theme, which was to be an experiment in "team-blogging", and the good old Listening Room turned into the afore-mentioned Mad Laugh diary, then was abandoned completely.
I've jumped back into the blogosphere with a blog called Nausea & Bliss, which is more or less a somewhat bizarre photoblog at this point, but may eventually morph into an outlet for creative writing and other such means of expression. The team blog, which was called RSdotcom Champions Music Club, has been inactive for quite awhile and I plan on deleting it soon. With that out of the way, I intend to resuscitate the Listening Room. I want to bring it back more in line with it's original purpose (music blah blah blah), but then again, truth be told, I don't listen to as much music as I used to, so I may post some other stuff as well.
At any rate, I doubt too many people will ever read any of it, so I'll stop with all the formalities.
The next few posts will be pulled from the RSdotcom Champions Music Club blog, saved from oblivion before I delete it. They are basically written as "reviews" (though a couple are not yer typical music reviews, more like tributes to Lester Bangs' style, ie. my attempts to emulate his style). I hope you enjoy them.