At the moment it looks as if party names are rallying around Harris. It’s too late to gin up a Draft Whitmer-Shapiro-Pritzger-Kelly-Beshear movement; someone would have to step out and say they have a better chance of beating Trump and here’s why...
Marsh's singles book is an absolute delight. Discovering that book when it was reissued in 1999 was one of those things that really changed my life as a listener. I graduated high school that year and had begun to reject a lot of the stuff I'd enjoyed on oldies radio since I was old enough to take charge of my own listening environment. I had a huge blind spot when it came to R&B and soul, and couldn't have possibly thought less of the music of the '80s.
Taking that book to college that fall, getting my own computer a few months later, and having access to all kinds of music via Napster (which *really* got good in 2000-2001) made me reconsider a lot of my prejudices and rekindled my love of Motown, girl groups, and Brill Building pop. Plus it introduced me to any number of songs I'd never even heard of before. I've bought *a lot* of music because of that book. Every few years I listen to all 1,001 songs in order and it's just a rush of great memories and rediscoveries.
I concur, casting Gregory Peck as Ahab, was a big miss by director John Huston who, but for box office, could have cast himself as the lead. Robert Ryan would have been great, as he was as Billy Budd's nemesis Claggart. But for me, Ahab has to be Sterling Hayden, who really could master a ship in real life and did. He adopted the old sea captain look later in life with his chin beard and overall craziness. And despite being a good, liberal, was intimidating as hell.
For punk/post punk perusal, I'd highly recommend the various volumes of Ira Robbins' Trouser Press Record Guide and George Gimarc's 2 volume "diaries".
Absolutely second the suggestions of Whitburn's massive references and of the Book of Rock Lists, especially nowadays where one's curiosity of "what does THAT sound like?" is satisfied with a few clicks.
Thanks for the anecdote about Bob's mother and her Rolling Thunder appearance was in Toronto though I do not know which night. I wonder if her knowing who wrote what about her son means she made it known to you she knew about the the first four words of your Self Portrait review.
For rock and roll record guides I don’t think you can do much better than Robert Christgau’s collections of his Consumer Guide columns for the 70s, 80s and 90s. For movies Pauline Kael’s 5001 Nights at the Movies has something of the same feel. I recall how great it was to follow baseball and movies in the 80s when you had the Bill James Baseball Abstract and the new Kael anthology every year.
I pulled out David Ossman’s solo album How Time Flies and I had forgotten that it was about the turn of the 20th century. I’m sure I resolved to listen to it when the event rolled around and it had completely slipped my mind by then. It’s about an astronaut’s futile attempts to bring his genuine film of space aliens to the attention of a population mesmerized by the products of Waltsdeadnow Productions. I also remember Ossman in one of the later Firesign productions with the radio spot for Confdenz in the System: “Available in easy-to-swallow propaganda and fast-acting thought control.”
The music doesn't mean anything to me, but the Taylor Swift phenomenon is interesting. First she becomes ruler of France and you say to yourself, “Ruler of France, that’s impressive.” Then you turn around and she’s emperor of the world. I think a key to her success is that her persona is a combination of the glamorous and the ordinary. It’s as if Paul and Ringo were the same person.
The last frame of A HARD DAY’S NIGHT is actually a still of the back of a Beatle’s head (George, I suspect, though I wouldn’t fight about it). Which, in a way, affirms your overall point even more - “This could be you!”
Great answer on Lennon and Working Class Hero, about the tiredness. Spot on. It’s all-important that he’s talking about England, where class is still all-pervasive and imbued with existential historical tiredness- oh god they’re doing all that again - we think we’ve got over it as in the sixties, and fifty years later the Etonians are back again and we’re all back in our places. Our new government is the most representative in social origins ever. Let’s hope.
A great, lively read! I'm with Ben Merliss, having never found Sex Machine to be a particularly captivating Sly & The Family Stone track - and I'm a huge fan. I need to listen anew, however, as Sly was quite proud of the song in his memoir. As for the Higher box set, it gets my highest recommendation. It tells a story through its sequencing, even if the unreleased material isn't all stellar, and the included book is full of info and great pictures. If you can find the Amazon exclusive version, you'll get a bonus CD with more songs.
Marsh's singles book is an absolute delight. Discovering that book when it was reissued in 1999 was one of those things that really changed my life as a listener. I graduated high school that year and had begun to reject a lot of the stuff I'd enjoyed on oldies radio since I was old enough to take charge of my own listening environment. I had a huge blind spot when it came to R&B and soul, and couldn't have possibly thought less of the music of the '80s.
Taking that book to college that fall, getting my own computer a few months later, and having access to all kinds of music via Napster (which *really* got good in 2000-2001) made me reconsider a lot of my prejudices and rekindled my love of Motown, girl groups, and Brill Building pop. Plus it introduced me to any number of songs I'd never even heard of before. I've bought *a lot* of music because of that book. Every few years I listen to all 1,001 songs in order and it's just a rush of great memories and rediscoveries.
I concur, casting Gregory Peck as Ahab, was a big miss by director John Huston who, but for box office, could have cast himself as the lead. Robert Ryan would have been great, as he was as Billy Budd's nemesis Claggart. But for me, Ahab has to be Sterling Hayden, who really could master a ship in real life and did. He adopted the old sea captain look later in life with his chin beard and overall craziness. And despite being a good, liberal, was intimidating as hell.
For punk/post punk perusal, I'd highly recommend the various volumes of Ira Robbins' Trouser Press Record Guide and George Gimarc's 2 volume "diaries".
Absolutely second the suggestions of Whitburn's massive references and of the Book of Rock Lists, especially nowadays where one's curiosity of "what does THAT sound like?" is satisfied with a few clicks.
Tangled: A Recording History of Bob Dylan by Glen Dundas (SMA services, Ontario, Canada 2004) -
while not a "record guide" is interesting reading.
Thank you for your answer to my question on WCH. This is a major reason why Green Day’s cover of the song was a failure.
Thanks for the anecdote about Bob's mother and her Rolling Thunder appearance was in Toronto though I do not know which night. I wonder if her knowing who wrote what about her son means she made it known to you she knew about the the first four words of your Self Portrait review.
For rock and roll record guides I don’t think you can do much better than Robert Christgau’s collections of his Consumer Guide columns for the 70s, 80s and 90s. For movies Pauline Kael’s 5001 Nights at the Movies has something of the same feel. I recall how great it was to follow baseball and movies in the 80s when you had the Bill James Baseball Abstract and the new Kael anthology every year.
I pulled out David Ossman’s solo album How Time Flies and I had forgotten that it was about the turn of the 20th century. I’m sure I resolved to listen to it when the event rolled around and it had completely slipped my mind by then. It’s about an astronaut’s futile attempts to bring his genuine film of space aliens to the attention of a population mesmerized by the products of Waltsdeadnow Productions. I also remember Ossman in one of the later Firesign productions with the radio spot for Confdenz in the System: “Available in easy-to-swallow propaganda and fast-acting thought control.”
I don’t think anything Terry Allen ever did surpassed his outlaw ballad “Cortez Sail”, which is like Out of the Past in six minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCajcmMjmPw&ab_channel=TerryAllen-Topic.
The music doesn't mean anything to me, but the Taylor Swift phenomenon is interesting. First she becomes ruler of France and you say to yourself, “Ruler of France, that’s impressive.” Then you turn around and she’s emperor of the world. I think a key to her success is that her persona is a combination of the glamorous and the ordinary. It’s as if Paul and Ringo were the same person.
The last frame of A HARD DAY’S NIGHT is actually a still of the back of a Beatle’s head (George, I suspect, though I wouldn’t fight about it). Which, in a way, affirms your overall point even more - “This could be you!”
Great answer on Lennon and Working Class Hero, about the tiredness. Spot on. It’s all-important that he’s talking about England, where class is still all-pervasive and imbued with existential historical tiredness- oh god they’re doing all that again - we think we’ve got over it as in the sixties, and fifty years later the Etonians are back again and we’re all back in our places. Our new government is the most representative in social origins ever. Let’s hope.
A great, lively read! I'm with Ben Merliss, having never found Sex Machine to be a particularly captivating Sly & The Family Stone track - and I'm a huge fan. I need to listen anew, however, as Sly was quite proud of the song in his memoir. As for the Higher box set, it gets my highest recommendation. It tells a story through its sequencing, even if the unreleased material isn't all stellar, and the included book is full of info and great pictures. If you can find the Amazon exclusive version, you'll get a bonus CD with more songs.