Category: Music
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Dion DiMucci
The guy has amazing staying power, and in his 70s he still looks and sounds damn good in live performances. Here he is in 2004 singing I Wonder Why. How can an old man still sing a heart-felt Teenager in Love? Because some of us old men still have young yearning hearts. In an interview…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Cats
Before we get on to tonight's feature presentation, a little tribute to John McCain. Here he is in Bomb Iran. But the old neocon needs a history lesson. The Regents did it first, in 1961, before the Beach Boys covered it in '65. The Regents in their dotage, live. "I tried Peggy Sue, but I…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: The Brown-Eyed Girls
Summer subsides once again into the sweetness of September. Judy Collins, Cravings: How I Conquered Food, Doubleday 2017, pp. 112-113: . . . and writing Albert Grossmann that no, I did not want to join a trio of women he was bent on calling the Brown-Eyed Girls. He had put Peter, Paul and Mary together, telling me that…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Destinations and How to Get There
I got 'em all. How about you? Graphic credit. HT: Ingvarius Maximus of Alhambra Gladys Knight and the Pips, Night Train to Georgia Monkees, Last Train to Clarksville Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven AC/DC, Highway to Hell Eagles, Hotel California Wilbert Harrison, Kansas City The Bonny Banks O' Loch Lomond James Taylor, Carolina in my Mind…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Help
Canned Heat, Help Me. "Help me consolate my weary mind." I love that 'consolate.' Alan 'Blind Owl' Wilson at his best. I saw him and the boys at the Kaleidoscope in Hollywood in 1968. Wilson was a tortured soul and ended up a member of the 27 Club. He quit the sublunary sphere on 3 September…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: The Worst Song and Singer Ever?
Yoko Ono. The only thing good about it is that it lasts only 44 seconds. YouTuber comment: "Sounds like a cat, with its nuts trapped in a vice." Warzone is less awful, but still crap. Paul McCartney's comment: Get back, Jojo (Yoko), get back to where you once belonged. Go home. Wikipedia: In an interview…
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Sloop John B
The boys are old now, but they still sound great. Live studio version. Brian Wilson and Al Jardine.
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Shortest Album Cut Ever
Michael Bloomfield, Easy Rider, 53 seconds. Or do you know of anything shorter? UPDATE (8/5). London Ed knows of something shorter: Depends what US meaning of ‘cut’ is, I am reading it as ‘track’. Contender for shortest track is "A Concise British Alphabet – Pt. 1" at 10 seconds by British 1960s psychedelic band The Soft…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Time
The problems associated with time are the toughest there are. I need a break from breaking my head against them. I'm nursing a Jack and Coke and on the prowl for some 'timely' tunes. Chad and Jeremy, Yesterday's Gone New Christy Minstrels, Today Beatles, Tomorrow Never Knows. "Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream…
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Sea of a Heartbreak
I've loved the great Don Gibson crossover number all my life ever since first hearing it in 1960 over one of the Southern California pop stations, probably KFWB 980 on the AM band. Here is a very creditable live cover by one Joe Brown which I have just now heard for the first time. But…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Nonsense Titles and Lyrics
I'm a serious man, as serious as cancer some would say. But it's Saturday night, a night on which I allow myself a drink or two and some nostalgic indulgence. Tonight, the unseriousness of nonsense titles and lyrics. The Rivingtons, Papa Oom Mow Mow The Trashmen, The Bird is the Word. It is not about…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Hours of the Day
Mamas and Papas, Twelve Thirty Benny Goodman, One O'Clock Jump Lovin' Spoonful, Six O'Clock Thelonious Monk, Round Midnight Rolling Stones, Midnight Gambler The Vogues, Five O'Clock World Blind Boy Fuller, Ten O'Clock Peeper Eric Clapton and B. B. King, Three O'Clock Blues Skip James, Four O'Clock Blues
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: An Appeal to Obstructionist Democrats
Wilbert Harrison, Let's Work Together. Canned Heat cover. The original beats all covers. Youngbloods, Get Together Jackie De Shannon, Put a Little Love in Your Heart This one goes out to Maxine Waters. You reap what you sow. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind. Jackie De Shannon, What the World Needs Now is Love. Love trumps hate, Nancy Pelosi. And…
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Happy Birthday, Bob
Bob Dylan turns 77 today. Scott Johnson offers two fine columns in celebration. Not Dark Yet Not Dark Yet, Cont'd Thanks, Bob, for all the music and all the memories, and for your wonderfully individual and self-reliant appropriation and celebration of Americana. It wouldn't have been the long strange trip it's been without you. May…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Assimilation and Name Change
Immigration without assimilation is a recipe for disaster. We're headed in that direction. And in Europe it is even worse. But in the meantime we enjoy some tunes from performers who ditched their Italian surnames, not so much from a desire to assimilate, or because of ethnic prejudice, but to make themselves more marketable. But…