Category: Music
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Not Dark Yet
Tomorrow, Bob Dylan turns 81. Can one get tired of Dylan? That would be like getting tired of America. It would be like getting to the point where no passage in Kerouac brings a tingle to the spine or a tear to the eye, to the point where the earthly road ends and forever young must give…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Heart Failure
There is heart failure of the electrical and hydraulic sort and there is custody-of-the-heart failure. Which is worse? Well, which is better, our spiritual or our physical health? Johnny Cash: "I keep a close watch on this heart of mine." Elvis Presley: "I can't help falling in love with you." Andrea Bocelli in Las Vegas…
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Holy Saturday Night at the Oldies
Herewith, six definite decouplings of rock and roll from sex and drugs. Norman Greenbaum, Spirit in the Sky Johnny Cash, Personal Jesus. This is one powerful song. Clapton and Winwood, Presence of the Lord. Why is Clapton such a great guitarist? Not because of his technical virtuosity, his 'chops,' but because he uses them to say something. You don't…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Rydell Remembered
Bobby Rydell has died at age 79. In the late '50s, early '60s a number of Italian-American singers changed their names to avoid anti-Italian prejudice and to assimilate. Rydell was among them. Assimilation, however, is a thing of the past, and the current lack thereof is a good part of our nation's decline. But I…
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Your Vehicle
Keep it roadworthy. But it's only a vehicle. And life's only a road. And don't forget to take it easy. We're going to the end of the line.
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Sartorial Songs
In Chapter 42 of his Essays, Montaigne remarks that We praise a horse for its strength and speed, not on account of its harness; a greyhound for its swiftness and not its collar; a hawk for its wing and not for its jesses and bells. Why then do we not value a man for what is his? .…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Some 1940’s Proto-Rock
Freddie Slack and Will Bradley Trio (1940), Down the Road A Piece. If you like to boogie woogie, I know the place.It's just an old piano and a knocked out bass.The drummer man's a guy they call Eight Beat Mack.And you remember Doc and old "Beat Me Daddy" Slack. Man it's better than chicken fried in…
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St. Valentine’s Day at the Oldies: Love and Murder
We'll start with murder. David Dalton (Who Is That Man? In Search of the Real Bob Dylan, Hyperion 2012, pp. 28-29, hyperlinks added!): Most folk songs had grim, murderous content (and subtext). In Pretty Polly a man lures a young girl from her home with the promise of marriage,and then leads the pregnant girl to an already-dug…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Varia
First off, a big 10-4 to the Canadian truckers and their American confreres. The purpose of government is to serve the governed, not oppress them and violate their rights. Political legitimacy derives from the consent of the governed. Pseudo-cons such as George F. Will and his ilk yap and scribble about this concept, but that…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Varia and Americana
I post what I like and I like what I post. Elmore James, Dust My Broom Doors, Crystal Ship Clancy Bros., When the Ship Comes In. Elvis Presley, Marie's the Name of His Latest Flame Elvis Presley, Spanish Eyes Bob Dylan, It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Take a Train to Cry, Cutting Edge take. Albert King, Crosscut Saw Mississippi Sheiks, Sitting…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: More Americana
Tim Hardin, Lady Came from Baltimore Arlo Guthrie, Percy's Song. Dylan's 1963 original Byrds, Pretty Boy Floyd Marty Robbins, El Paso Bob Dylan, Red Cadillac and a Black Moustache Bob Luman, Let's Think About Livin' Charley Ryan, Hot Rod Lincoln, the original. Before Johnny Bond, before Commander Cody. Dave Dudley, Six Days on the Road…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Americana
Buffy Sainte-Marie, I'm Gonna be a Country Girl Again Hoyt Axton, Greenback Dollar Nanci Griffith, Boots of Spanish Leather 16 Horsepower, Wayfaring Stranger Stanley Bros., Rank Strangers Bob Dylan, I am a Lonesome Hobo. Have you heard this version? Bob Dylan, As I Went Out One Morning Highwaymen, The City of New Orleans Kenny Rogers,…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Out with the Old, In with the New
Happy New Year, dear readers. I wish you all the best for the coming year. Neil Young, Old Man Bob Seger, Old Time Rock and Roll. Does it really soothe the soul? Or does it stimulate something 'south' of the soul? If the soul has a bodily locus or point of attachment, where would it…
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Such Sweet Sorrow
Part of what makes "parting such sweet sorrow" (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet) is the realization that one may never see the beloved again alive. Death presides over all of life; in leave-taking he steps out of the shadows. You see the glint of his scythe from the corner of the eye. In the twilight glow,…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Women and Girls
Where would we be without them? Languishing in the sphere of the merely possible. On the other hand, "Pretty girls make graves." (Jack Kerouac, Dharma Bums) Roy Orbison, Pretty Woman. Mercy! See how many of the sidemen you can identify. A great song that blends the the tender & romantic with the thrustingly Dionysian. Bob…