If I didn’t know any better, I would say I am the victim of a Gypsy Curse.
Lately it seems that just walking down the hall has become an obstacle-laden course of Rube Goldberg slapstick and Orwellian conspiracy. Getting from Point A to Point B without slipping on a banana peel, having a piano fall on me, or tripping over my own two feet and landing in an Acme Wood Chipper has become totally impossible.
…and I’m not even chasing a road-runner.
I’ve run out of epitaphs. The battlefield of pop continues to accumulate bodies. During this past week we were reminded of the passing of Karen Carpenter (33 years ago) and the officially recognized Day the Music Died (really? Then what have we been listening to in the intervening 57 years?).
I “discovered” these guys buried in one of the DBAWIS columns a few months ago. I have since hunted down as many videos as I can find to listen to them. Their performance on The Letterman show is still one of my favourites.
Rolling Stone Magazine recently released their latest ‘list’, “The 100 Greatest Songwriters” rollingstone.com). Let me repeat that title, “The 100 Greatest Songwriters”. Their descriptive line states “From Brill Building tunesmiths to Punk poets, from Woody Guthrie to Max Martin, the visionaries who defined music history.”
My bones are aching like they’ve been played by a mad vibraphonist. Ah, the perils of live performance. The agony of the feet.But ah, the joys as well!
Yeah, yeah, it’s been a week since the Saturday Night Live (SNL) special, and Bob’s given his views on the pros and cons. But I’m still thinking about what the show meant to me, in its heyday, and occasionally, since.
This year it falls to me to be the last voice of DBAWIS 2014. Still decked out in my new holiday outfit, and digesting our early family Christmas dinner,
So if I’ve got 41 new messages on Facebook, 3 books that have to be returned to the library, and the kugel will be ready at 7 p.m., how many nude photos did Jennifer Lawrence upload to the cloud? Answer: One tin soldier ran away.
Jaimie’s great column this week (125 Influential Albums) got me to thinking about the music that impacted on my life over the years. There are far too many to name-check, so I came up with the following, which is an updated column from 3 years ago when I was writing for the dearly departed FYIMusic. These albums not only engaged me when they were released, but continue to entertain and educate me now, decades later.
I’m not sure if these LPs are even available on CD or for download, but if they are, seek them out and have a listen. They are, without exception, the jumping off points for entire long lasting careers and even genre changing sub-streams of musical exploration. The long awaited conclusion of Segarini: Stockton, Daring-Do, and Cruisin’ the Miracle Mile runs tomorrow…finally.
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Bullseye Records of Canada
Segarini: Don't Believe a Word I Say 