Friday Fives – some more music edition

I didn’t like any of the questions from my idiot editor.  So, I am going to my old fallback.  Setting my phone to full random on songs.  Going to tell my relationship to each song or band, in the order that they come up.

Bury Me – Dwight Yoakum

I just love this guy, and I am not a country fan by most definitions.  To me, his music is folk music.  I finally got to see him a couple years ago, at Red Rocks no less, and it was fantastic.  I don’t know how I came about his music, but for years I have been performing ‘Fast as You’ with my band, and alone camping.

It’s funny to me that he is an actor.  Being actor is about being a face.  Yet, find me one publicity photo of his face.  You can’t.  Wait… I googled a pic of him without that hat.  Never mind, Dwight, put that hat right back on.

I got to listen to him do a longform interview on the ACS.  He was stupidly likeable.  He didn’t just tell great stories, he sang old jingles and played guitar.

Estimated Prophet – Grateful Dead

One of the few Bobby songs that we all love and appreciate.  And their ain’t many.  Over the years, I have finally come to really appreciate Bob.  Basically, it took Jerry dying to realize what a treasure we always had in Bobby.  We took him for granted, and I will personally cop to it.   However, may I note that this was a big song he was doing when I was following the band in summers of ’90 and ’91.  He would do this caterwauling at the end that was just sad.  We used to call him ‘Bobby Cheese’.  Ok, maybe not ‘we’…. So much as ‘me’.

Side note, this comes from the album Terrapin Station.  My god I love this album.  Terrapin isn’t just my favorite Dead song… it is a super rare moment where the recorded original version is just perfection.  Most of their catalogue never really got great until it was played live.

Nice Boys – Guns & Roses

This is from the album before Appetite.  Can I tell you something?  I was listening to Guns & Roses BEFORE Appetite for Destruction came out.  Credit goes to Tim Ashton, of course.  They had an EP called ‘live like a fucking suicide’.  It was later re-released as side two of ‘Lies’.

Hello… sorry – Todd Snider

I love Todd Snider, he is a folk troubadour, a la Arlo Guthrie, and his father before him.  This isn’t a song, but an intro to one of his wonderful live collections… where he tells as many stories as he does sing songs.  Got to see him live a few years ago, and it was everything I hoped it would be.  One of my favorite clips you can find online is this.  Too Soon To Tell.

Buckets of Rain – Bob Dylan

well, it’s no surprise the list featured the Dead and Bob Dylan.  I still listen to Dylan almost daily.  This is from the masterpiece ‘Blood on the Tracks’.  This is a rather jaunty look at his miserable divorce… which the whole album is about.  Young Bob Dylan was a God, and I am thrilled he got the Pulitzer.  To me, 1974’s Blood on the Tracks is a mystery, of sorts.  This is the music Bob Dylan was making up to 1966.  This should be the successor to ‘Blonde on Blonde’.  However, Bob went weird for almost a decade.  For Bob to ‘go weird’… well that is saying something.  Lay Lady Lay?  What the hell was that?  What was that thing he was doing with his voice?

It’s like Bob went in to witness protection from 1966 to 1974.  Then, he comes back with Blood on the Tracks… and it is like he was never gone.

 

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Friday Fives

What’s your favorite holiday album?

Vince Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown Christmas.  Here, have a sample, you know this music.

Also need to make a special acknowledgement of Elvis’ Christmas Albums.  They are awesome!  They are completely phoned in.  Elvis doesn’t even bother articulating lyrics.  He just sings via guttural gesticulations.

What song’s lyrics, title, or theme best expresses the positive aspects of your general mood at this time of year?

River by Joni Mitchell

What song’s lyrics, title, or theme best expresses the not-so-positive aspects of your general mood at this time of year?

River by Joni Mitchell

What’s your favorite song about a non-December holiday?

Alice’s Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie

What holiday song makes you want to cover your ears and flee?

Paul McCartney’s ‘Simply having a wonderful Christmas Time’.  The reason is because the are NO LYRICS.  There is no VERSE or CHORUS.  There is no intro, bridge, or outtro.  He just says that goddamn fucking sentence over and over and over again for four minutes until I stick pencils into my bleeding ears.  Then I have to go to the hospital, again.  That does not make for a simply wonderful Christmas.  Especially when, in the Urgent Care waiting room, they play that song.  What I then do is staple my eye lids down.  This usually causes me to finally black out, and all is well again.  Is that what you wanted, Paul?  Did David Caruso put you up to this?  I will have you all killed!

It’s not garbage, it’s a reef!

I was watching a thing on old ships.  They interviewed these people who had sunk them.  No biggie, it happens.  Just like space junk, right?  No, some of these were on purpose.  Yay, they declared.  We made a reef!  Look how happy they are now.  Look at those happy little swimmy fish, who were like hobos just days ago.  Yes, these people who dump shit in the ocean think they are making these super awesome fish condos.  Yay for man kind, we really do make things better.

No we don’t.  That isn’t a reef.  That is not an ecosystem.  It’s garbage.  Your shit is rotting and rusting in the ocean, and I see that benefit no one.  These fish were fine before you sunk your ship.

Do you remember that song by Arlo Guthrie, Alice’s Restuarant?  It’s the great and true tale of what happened when Arlo and a buddy dumped a VW Bus full of garbage off a cliff.  Know what happened to him?  Yup, he got arrested.  They used all kinds of cop equipment, with the 5×10 color glossy photographs with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against them.  Know this song.  It’s like the Princess Bride of songs… not just a melody… but an ever quotable play.

Arlo had the wrong defense.  Arlo should have declared that mess a reef for bugs and insects.  Think how many birds feasted off that garbage.  By the rules of the ocean, Arlo was really a hero, here.  You know that tire fire that is always burning outside of Apache Junction?  That is an eco system, man!  It provides full time employment for about 300 fire fighters, all the cool rigs, and three full time ‘roach coach’ chuckwagon trucks that live there to feed the firefighters.  Hell, it’s a micro-economy.

I am going to start chucking my fast food out the window as I drive.  See how fast that attracts ants?  It ain’t litter, copper… it is an ant reef!

So, what is the difference?  The ones on land are called pollution.  Well, I call rusted metal in the ocean pollution too.  Especially since that is where all food and life emanate from.  I am more concerned about the ocean than Arlo’s garbage pile.  Have you heard of the ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch‘?  It is an area of garbage stuck out in the ocean.  It just sits there and swirls, and it is not breaking down. It never will. Oh, and it’s twice the size of Texas.  Everyone has their panties in a bunch about this.  Ninnies!  Let’s just call it the Great Pacific Garbage Reef®, and congratulate ourselves for what great stewards we are.

Dear Earth, you are super welcome.  I am going to start flushing hot wheels down the toilet.  It’s not garbage.  It’s a reef… for all those goldfish I keep flushing down the toilet.

* in the 8 years since I wrote this piece, the size has doubled.**

**  That is made up, but sounds dramatic… doesn’t it?  It’s probably true… who knows?  The truth is probably far, far worse.