Jethro Tull’s 1977 album Songs from the Wood remains one of my alltime favorite albums, weaving a rich tapestry of paganesque folk imagery amidst lively musical accompaniment. Where I live, here in South Florida, there’s no sense of seasonality, no winters, no real sense of an Old World or the passage of time. This album…
This has got to be one of the most surreal Christmas songs of all time. The improbable pairing of famed golden-oldie crooner Bing Crosby and in-the-prime-of-his-Berlin-period David Bowie is just enough to make head scratches, but to put them together in a video that is just replete with 70s network television contrived cheesiness (“Hi, I’m…
Ray Davies was NOT particularly happy with the music industry, and certainly let his feelings known on The Kinks’s 1970 album Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One — which will hereby be shortened to Lola vs. Powerman for the purposes of this review, because even with cut-and-paste, it’s still a bother to reproduce…
The harmonies on this one get me every time. Monkees Riu Chiu Lyrics Riu riu chiu, la guarda ribera; Dios guardo el lobo de nuestra cordera, Dios guardo el lobo de nuestra cordera. El lobo rabioso la quiso morder, Mas Dios poderoso la supo defender; Quisola hazer que no pudiese pecar, Ni aun original esta…
Boots is a big fan of this one. I really dig it too. Can you just TELL it was produced by Jeff Lynne? I picture a bunch of long fluffy beards, leather vests, and indoor shades going on here. EVERYONE’S a Wilbury! (I want a Rickenbacker too…)
So I completed my first 18-mile run over the weekend. Unfortunately I had to do it solo, as we hit a friend’s wedding in Bokeelia from Friday through Sunday, so I was without the support of my awesome running compadres in FIT. Now that I train with a group, I have no idea how I…
I remember this one from the early days of MTV. It’s always stuck with me throughout the years: its earnestness, mostly, but especially its driving musicality. It builds into such a rich, epic crescendo, even if it’s a slightly haunting one. Everything is packaged, compartmentalized, and sold right back at you, until you’re left with…
To chart my hard rock/heavy metal development, I would have to start as a budding young KISS devotee as a child in the late 70s. In 1981 I discovered AC/DC, having pretty much worn out my dog-eared “Back In Black” cassette tape through massively repeated listens on any boombox I could get my hands on.…
That title has nothing to do with anything. But I’ve always wanted to stage a 1930s-styled Busby-Berkley musical entitled “The Happiest Pants in the Universe”. Has a certain ring to it, no? … NO? OK then. Shit. Well this WAS going to be a basic life update of sorts, and it is, but it was supposed to…
Yes, I’ve been rather silent lately. When I started this blog, I insisting upon making it a habit never to update just for the sake of updating. Not that my life has been entirely dedicated to ho-hummery over the past two weeks or so, but that “hey, dig me!”-expressive urge has been rather limp, what…