Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Music

  • Saturday Night at the Oldies: Forgotten Psychedelia

    How many of these do you remember?   If you were too much of the '60s then you probably don't remember anything assuming you still animate the mortal coil; if you were too little of the '60s then you won't remember any of these for a different reason.  But among these five are three very beautiful…

  • Carpe Diem!

    I quoted Jim Morrison on the eve of the 40th anniversary of his death: "The future's uncertain, and the end is always near." This morning I discovered that Rob Grill, lead singer of The Grassroots, has passed on.  Their first top ten hit, "Live forToday," made the charts in the fabulous and far-off Summer of…

  • Time to Fire Up the BBQ

    But before I do, I'll wish my American readers a happy and healthy Fourth of July to the strains of Johnny Horton's The Battle of New Orleans.

  • Saturday Night at the Oldies: Jim Morrison

    Tomorrow it will have been 40 years since Jim Morrison of the Doors broke on through to the other side expiring in a Paris bath tub.  A too intense celebration of the Dionysian can lead to a premature exit from life's freeway, as more than one 60's 'icon' discovered.  The year before saw the drug- and…

  • Imagine! John Lennon a Closet Republican?

    Here.  Was the guy really the phony that Mark David Chapman thought he was?  Maybe he wasn't as preternaturally delusional as the lyrics of "Imagine" suggest he was. 

  • Saturday Night at the Oldies: Texas Towns

    A lonely soldier cleans his gun and dreams of Galveston.  Marty Robbins messes with the wicked Felina in El Paso and comes to an untimely end. Dean Martin is down and out in Houston.  George Hamilton IV pines after Abilene.  Johnny Cash spies a young cowboy all wrapped in white linen in The Streets of…

  • Saturday Night at the Oldies: The Best Guitar Slinger You’ve Never Heard Of

    That would be Danny Gatton.  Here he uses a nearly full bottle of beer to play overhand slide guitar.  That can get messy, so he throws a rag over the fret board and plays over it.  The guy has amazing chops. Red Neck Jazz.  Funky Mama.

  • Saturday Night at the Oldies: Libations

    The Champs,Tequila.  Arguably unique in that its lyrics consist of exactly one trisyllabic word. The Eagles, Tequila Sunrise.  Electric Flag, Wine.  Great video of the late Mike Bloomfield and his Gibson Les Paul in their prime.  Definitive proof that a Jew can play the blues. Canned Heat, Whisky-Headed Woman.  The Doors, Alabama (Whisky Bar). Johnny Cash,…

  • Who Put the BOP. . .

    . . . in the bop sha bop sha bop?  Who was that man?  I'd like to shake his hand.

  • Saturday Night at the Oldies: Do Clothes Make the Man?

    Back in '65, I could relate to the message of The Yardbirds, Mister, You're a Better Man Than I.  Continuing with the sartorial theme, we have Charlie Rich, Mohair Sam.  Now that we've got Charlie Rich cued up, may as well give a listen to his Lonely Weekends.   Here is Rich again, followed by April Steven's…

  • Saturday Night at the Oldies: The Fire Down Below

    This one goes out to Dominique Strauss-Kahn and all who allow the fires of lust to become the fires of delusion.  It goes well with Mark Steyn's The Unzippered Princeling and the Serving Wench.

  • Saturday Night at the Oldies: ‘Look’ Songs

    Doris Troy, Just One Look Beatles, I'm Looking Through You Derek and the Dominoes, I Looked Away Dusty Springfield, The Look of Love 

  • Saturday Night at the Oldies: John Fahey

    Layla. Requiem for Mississippi John Hurt. Candy Man. Desperate Man Blues.  Bio.

  • Saturday Night at the Oldies: Chimes and Bells

    Antar Blue, The Chimes of Freedom.  A very competent cover of the Byrd's version of the great Bob Dylan anthem.  The Byrds' version with lyrics.The Byrds, The Bells of RhymneyLaura Nyro, Wedding Bell Blues Donnie Brooks, Mission Bell  Fleetwood Mac versionDel Vikings, Whispering Bells The Edsels, Rama Lama Ding Dong Ding Dong the Witch is Dead! I'm beginning…

  • Saturday Night at the Oldies: Religious Themes

    Norman Greenbaum, Spirit in the Sky.Johnny Cash, Personal Jesus.Clapton and Winwood, Presence of the Lord.George Harrison, My Sweet Lord.George Harrison, All Things Must Pass.