Monday, November 12, 2012

Crabb Bits: Neil Young Birthday, Boycotting Things

Some observations for ya.  I was going go do my Monday afternoon walk before work but it's too cold.  25 degrees and a NW wind at 30 MPH with a wind chill of 8 above?  Saturday we had 70 degree temps and nice walk by the Mississippi, today cranking up the heat here.

Happy Birthday to Neil Young whose latest album with Crazy Horse made it up to number 8 on the Billboard top 200 and will be sinking like a stone soon afterwards.  I finally got through the rest of Psychedelic Pill and it's one long constant jam with three songs popping over 16 minutes, the grand statement of 27 minutes of Driftin Back.  I did like Walk Like A Giant till Young decided to extend the ending by about 10 minutes too long.  Too bad back in 1977 he couldn't extend Like  A Hurricane to such epic proportions, he'd probably made that a 40 minute freakout.  Two different versions of the title track isn't that bad I imagine, the alt take leaves out all that flanger effects.  Kinda wished Neil would have went with shorter songs but still Psych Pill is a better effort than Americana although I'm thinking it's more of a strong B plus or weak A minus for a final grade.  In honor of Neil's birthday I'll go with his 2002 Are You Passionate? record made with Booker T and the late great Duck Dunn playing together. Neil is 67 years Young.

The big mushroom cloud you saw on Twitter last night was a interesting conversation between me and some dude and a radical liberal trading points and insults about boycotting Applebee's or Papa Johns Pizza.  The guessing comes from a story that Papa John can't afford to give health insurance to his employees but rather have us taxpayers pay for it so he continue to support and put his name on NASCAR races and flood NFL games with Papa Johns commercials.  The radical liberal was telling me that the dude disagreeing with me about boycotting Applebee's was an Applebee's CEO in disguise but I kinda doubt that although you never know, they just might be.  The Applebee's supporter mentioned about sorry about my bad experience eating there (which may have been the tip off he was a Applebee's CEO...maybe) but it wasn't at his place.  To which I said no, your place is too far away.  And after I went to bed the flaming liberal dropped a few f bombs on the Applebee's supporter.   Drama at the highest level. 

In terms of boycotting an Applebees or Papa Johns that's up the consumer.  I might have a difference of opinion if I worked at either one, the former I ate at and a couple times I had to run to the toiley simply of the fact that the old body doesn't work like it used to about 20 years ago when I could eat a whole plate of pasta and not having to worry about Montezuma's Revenge.  I do get suspicious when Papa John complains he can't afford to pay health care to his employees whereas he makes all these commercials and finances NASCAR races, and can't afford to buy the expensive cars that he likes to tout in his specials.  Papa Johns in the house?  Not here, not ever.

Less said about Donald Trump the better.  I know the Whore-monger attention loving idiot wants to start a new revolution with his rich cronies but does he remember history about rich folks and revolutions?  They seem to lose their heads in the process.  I have no use for Trump, he's scum, his shows are shit and anybody that sponsors his reality crap series need to be boycotted as well.  Let me know when he dies so I go dance and take a dump on his grave. 

When I read Billboard or the Daily Double, I still wonder who the hell is Robbie Williams?  He seems to be very popular across the pond but over here, he's in the dollar bins.

Speaking of Boycotting:   I haven't listen to Backtracks, the KUNI Saturday Night showcase since Bob Dorr quit being friends with me but I haven't taken down my tribute to his show back in March and I saw one of the readers was reading that blog today.  He does a great job picking the music,  he also gives himself too much credit for doing that too.

With seven more top tens to go and the annual Best Of 2012 forthcoming, I'm really beginning to run out of ideas to try to make the Crabb site a place to be in Music Reviews and Research.  And trying to stay committed to finish the year out with fresh reviews and top tens without doing repeats of past top tens.  But then again there's not much difference between the new and repeats.  But every trip to Madison or Davenport does have moments of worth nothing.  At least for me.  Whatever the case the 2009 Best Ofs seem to continue to get the most viewed (for God's sake read the 2011 version), perhaps the humor was more funnier than the 2011, who knows.  I been known to take the ratings that Blogspot has up way too seriously even though we on the decline for less readers again this month.  And to sum up the Madison Bargain hunt this time out, very disappointing for CDs, most found at PawnAmerica sucked.  But hey I got a jewel case to replaced the cracked ones in the collection.

Things found over the weekend.

Sparks-Angst In My Pants (Ragged Records)
Luna-Pup Tent (Ragged Records)
Mason Profit-Rockfish Crossing (Ragged Records)
Essential Fishbone (Co Op Moline)
Operation Ivy (HP Books)
Herb Alpert-Whipped Cream And Other Delights Reissue (HP Books)
Neil Young-Are You Passionate? (Co Op Moline)

2 comments:

TAD said...

Crabby: All I've heard off PSYCHEDELIC PILL was the vocal part of "Walk Like a Giant," which sounded sorta like the return of "Like a Hurricane," but it was still pretty good. & he does give us Older Guys some hope. Anybody who can still Crank It Up at 67 is OK by me....

drewzepmeister said...

I've heard "Ramada Inn" off of the album as well. For whatever the reason is, I really enjoy Neil Young's work with Crazy Horse and long winded jams. A combination of the both would right up the alley for me. This album is on my wishlist for Christmas!