Bob Continues to Explain Why the American Music Awards Were So Darned Magical

Miss Part One? Click here

There were only 4 responses to my request for comments favouring a Part 2 concerning the 2019 AMAs, 3 of which half-heartedly clamored for one (probably because they are nice people and thought if they didn’t it would hurt my feelings), and the 4th from an old friend and fellow scribe/music hostage/old guy complaining about how impossible it is to read these columns because of the white words and black background.  The words are actually light grey and the black is called “Midnight Black”, but try as I might (and believe me, I’ve tried), it can’t be done. AND, If I change it, 2500 columns will be affected and look like poop, so, sorry Richard. Also, having Glaucoma makes reading black print on white difficult for me, producing headaches and the occasional sneezing fit, so …I will send my friend a copy of the book when it’s finally done, which will be black on white, but with not many pictures, because other than my own personal pictures, the pictures I use in these columns I swipe from other sites and some want me to PAY for them! I mean, really …have you EVER?

Now then …where were we ….?

Pat Blythe – Just stuff…..and music

Saw the hip doc yesterday….time for a checkup. After 14 years my bionic hip is still in rock solid shape. Yes, there’s a little wear and tear but after all this time I can still do the hippy hippy shake. I’m extremely fortunate it’s lasted this long and the doc ….he’s smiling.

I decided to walk from Queen and Victoria over to Sherbourne and Bloor (downtown Toronto). I haven’t strolled around these parts in years. It evolved into a walk down memory lane. Chris and I moved into our first apartment together on Sherbourne between Dundas and Shuter. It had brilliant orange balconies and we were situated on the top floor. Complete with sunken living room, 12-foot ceilings and a huge bedroom we were set. We hunkered down there for two years before we became Beach residents.

Bob Explains Why the American Music Awards Were So Darned Magical

So rarely does an Awards Show come along that enthralls as well as entertains, educates as well as enlightens, and stinks up a room less than a Tour Bus full of Used KFC Buckets, 2 Weeks worth of Green Day’s unwashed sweaty stage socks, and the urinal odor of R. Kelly’s bedroom, but this year’s AMA’s managed to do just that.

Not by much, really, but still ….

Bob Yodels Up the Canyon Part Five – The Review

Looking back, the musical and lifestyle Centre of the Universe that came into being in the mid ’60s wasn’t heralded by an anthem grown and harvested locally.  It was heralded by an edited 10 page-long poem written by a boy from Wisconsin, and set to music played by young and mostly forgotten studio musicians and recorded in New York.

In August of 1965 THIS is the song that Echoed in the Canyon from Sunset Strip to the San Fernando Valley. This is the song that fueled the moment.

It couldn’t be more ironic ….

Gary Pig Gold – HIS NAME WAS LARRY

 

IRWIN CHUSID (author, Songs In The Key Of Z):

Outsider music is a slippery genre. It’s musicians who tend to be self-taught, untrained, working certainly way outside the channels of mainstream music. There are very important qualifications; they are sincere about it. They mean it. They’re not doing it to be funny. They’re not doing it to be outrageous. This is a sincere musical expression. Wild Man Fischer in many ways is a poster child for outsider music.

Bob Yodels Up the Canyon Part Four – You Had to Be There

For no discernible reason, when it comes to music, I have constantly found myself in the right place at the right time.

Not in terms of my own, personal, trajectory through the music industries obstacle-ridden path or being able to overcome its many hidden pitfalls, false promises, and mustache twirling villains, but of being in the presence of popular music’s odd and unpredictable turning points and occasional legendary upheavals.

No, I wasn’t in Liverpool or London or the Brill Building/Folk Scare/Hip Hop eras of New York City, but the ones a little closer to home and then, in Canada.

One of these strange little coincidences took place in Southern California, on the Strip known as Sunset, and in the Canyon known as Laurel …and therein lies our tale …and the reason I feel that Echo in the Canyon is a poor assessment of the time and place, lacking in both passion, and connective tissue.

Bob’s Annual Halloween Column and Mandatory Accordion Lesson Rides Again

This was originally published in 2011. It has been updated with additions and is presented here with the full support and co-operation of the “So You Want to Be A Diabetic” foundation and proud manufacturer’s of  Atomic SugarBalls, sweet jumbo compressed Sugar Globes made from 100% Cane Sugar and covered in a thick candy shell made of 200% reclaimed sugar from the bottom of millions of boxes of Sugar Frosted Flakes…They’re GREAT! . Recommended by Dentists, Doctors, and the  American Council on Obesity, Diabetes, and Acne.