Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Top Ten Of The Week-Change

It's finally over.  Come tomorrow we can all turn on the TV and not have to see another political commerical for a couple months.  We can finally put to end eight years of dumbass arrogance, of finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of the worst two term president that we have had the misfortune to suffer through.  I hope to God that in someway, there will be happier days in store, I hope that we can somehow get back into the good graces of the rest of the world and maybe start making good on promises of getting off the oil that we have to buy from oil bandits such as Sucko Chavez and the rest of the OPEC bandits to.

I didn't vote a straight party line, just for the ones that I thought that would work in my best interests and most got elected.  I still think if McCain would have chosen right VP instead of the flakey Palin, it would have been much closer.  But Obama wins it and we have seen the first black president of the US.  I hope all the best to him.   Still, some idiots got relected once again, notibly Steve King, which means I don't plan any trip to Council Bluffs anytime soon.  Or any red state.  Which means I'll hang around either Wisconsin, Illinois or Minnesota.  Or Nevada.

And I never thought I would see the day ever again of going to the gas station and seeing gas prices under 2 dollars a gallon.  First time since 2005.  It's at a 1.97.  Even with cheaper gas, we still remain skeptical at best and probaly won't do any major drives anytime soon.   But at least it's nice to fill up under thirty bucks for a change.

The songs of the week.

1.  Heaven And Hell-The Who 1970  B side to Summertime Blues, this is actually one of a few John Entwistle songs that The Who did play live.  John did a much slower version of said song on Smash Your Head Against The Wall, but nothing compares to Keith and Peter pounding along.

2.  Low Ridin' Man-Geronimo Black 1972  And now another musician has departed this earth.  Jimmy Carl Black, former drummer of Mothers In Invention and leader of this band has passed away after losing his battle with cancer.  He was 70.  I know we all get older but this year it seems that we have been losing a lot of our favorite artists as they become senior citizens and their bodies begin to fall apart due to wear and tear of life.  This weekend, Yma Sumac, the five and half octave singer died and she was 86 years old.  Yma probaly was the inspiration of Mariah Carey, but that was one thing.  Jimmy Carl is another and it's strange to see his appearance on 200 Motels, playing the cowboy last weekend and now he's dead.  And 200 Motels was one of the strangest movies that I've ever seen.  But I love his most famous line about Frank Zappa by saying that when Frank joined the band, he was going to make them rich and famous.  JC Black says he was half right, but we sure in the fuck never got rich.  But they did become famous.  RIP

3.  Mood Indigo-Nina Simone 1957  Another artist who you could not pigeonhole, Nina did any song that came to her mind, Tin Pin Alley, Avant Garde, pop, soul you name it.  But when she did this song, she was playing straight up jazz on a Duke Ellington number.  Everybody should own a Nina Simone album.  That includes you Russ. ;-)

4.  Spice Of Life-Lizzy Williams 2005  Congrats to Lizzie for getting nominated for a award for best folk song.  And a heartfelt thank you from myself for keeping in touch and taking a look at our top ten when she gets time.  I don't want to sound too patronizing but I continue to say that Lizzie remains more committed to her My Space friends than most other bands out there.  And I still cannot wait for her next album to come out over here, be it album or EP.  I'll always will save a place in my shelf for the next Lizzy Williams album.

5.  American Life In The Summertime-Francis Dunnery 1994  Cult artist that used to be the leader of It Bites, and then moved to a solo career.  He has played guitar in Robert Plant's touring band of Fate Of Nations 1993.  Made a couple albums for Atlantic then others.  Speaking of which, his old band It Bites is still around but with a different lead singer.  They kinda of remind me of Marllion but with a more pop rock edge than progressive.

6.  If You Can Want-Smokey Robinson And The Miracles 1968  This was a top thirty hit, and I should know.  There's a snippet of this song that was on one of my old cassettes that I was messing around with.  Found their Greatest Hits CD for three bucks which I was happy but not too happy when I found out that the damn record label used the 45 mono mixes.  45 mono mixes only sound good on 45s, not CDs that's for sure.

7.  Annie Use Your Telescope-Jack's Mannequin 2008  Goddam that Bob Lefsetz.  He blows up praise bout this band, gets me to check out their songs on My Space and gets me to buy this record only to find out----that I bought a freaking Emo album.  Andrew McMahon played in Something Corporate and that should have been the tipoff, never did like that band.  Have to say, this is a good song and McMahon knows a decent hook, but I just can't stand that whiny voice of his.  Gag.

8.  Don't Look At Me-Rick Nelson 1981  I really like Rick's Playing To Win album of said year but Capitol Records didn't promote it whatsoever and this turned out to be the last album that Rick would make in his life.  The songwriter of this song is actually the one that wrote Girls Just Want To Have Fun for Cyndi Lauper.

9.  2 + 2 = ?-Bob Seger System 1968  A excellent protest song by Bob and actually the first single that he did for Capitol.  The first version of this song has a freaky guitar break at the end before Bob goes back to rocking out.  However there is a second version of this song was done in stereo with instrments going left and right, unlike the original mono mix 45 to which I heard on EBAY while somebody trying to unload their original copy.  I guess that why I like this song alot, they don't overkill it, like they do with Old Time Rock N Roll or Main Street.  And back around 1968, Bob rocked a lot harder than he did in 1975.  Jes saying.

10.  Landslide-AC/DC 1983  From the band of the month, this is perhaps the most fastest song that they ever attempted to do.  Sounds a lot like Motor City Madhouse by Republican Ted Nugent and a highlight off Flick of The Switch.  But they don't do this song live.  Appently Phil Rudd can't play that fast anymore.... ;-)

Well neither can't we.

Lizzy Williams speaks:

 Hey Crabby,

I thank you for the kudos's on the Award. It should be a very exciting night. The Award Show is geared around Music in Film and Television. These are the days when this kind of Media is the only way or one of the best ways for an Artist to gain some leverage for their music. I am really excited about it because it is possible it will lead to the song getting a decent placement. You'll be the first to know.