Thanks to commentor Eemom for the following “In Memory of the Former General McChrystal” tribute:
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This, on the other hand, is from me to commentor Arguingwithsignposts, who needs to learn not to be snotty to old people…
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Reader Interactions
38Comments
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MikeJ
I prefer that song about Mrs. Brown’s otter.
wmsheppa
I think this song sums up the strategy the US has been using in Afghanistan for the last few years:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5puAN1PGQw
Send Lawyers, Guns, and Money, the shit has hit the fan.
adolphus
One of the many wonderful songs written by Shel Silverstein for Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show and one of the many standards Uncle Shel unleashed on the world. I miss Shel Silverstein.
hamletta
eemom cracks me up! I never thought of it, even though every 5th grader at WG Elementary knew all the words.
The late Mr. Silverstein used to hang out at my favorite hangout in the mid-’90s, but I never worked up the gumption to approach him. Of course, I’m too old to have caught his children’s work as an actual child, just bought it for the godchirren.
Spiffy McBang
That Herman’s Hermits singer looks like he’s tweaked out on a triple dose of Ritalin.
hamletta
As to ’erman’s ’ermits, the really great music hall song about the Tudors was the one my grandpop used to sing so sweetly to me:
With ’er ’ead
Toocked
Oonderneath ’er arrrm
She wallllks the bludy tow’r
With ’er ’ead tooked oonderneath ’er arrrm!
Steeplejack
Man, what does a brother have to do to get a shout-out? Or at least a “great minds think alike”? Damn, baby.
And you accuse Cole of not reading his own blog.
Mark S.
@Steeplejack:
I’d never heard No Milk Today before. That was a lot better than the two dogshit ones Oldies stations love to play: Mrs. Brown’s Daughter and Henry VIII.
alix
That is one of my fave songs. Thank you! (The Dr. Hook, I mean, but Herman’s Hermits too.) I love the old lady named Cocaine Katie who “embrwa-ders” on his jeans.
Very clever song. “Rock and roll… oh, that’s beautiful.”
asiangrrlMN
I got nothing. I just wanted to drop in and say hey. Steepman, I think I may have to ‘shop that pic of me as a six-year-old with my first rusty pitchfork. The idea is just too too tempting.
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Caught your reply on the other thread, and I’m miffed because apparently you think I can’t bring the funny without being juiced up. WTF?! The writo-cortex is the last thing to go. Even when I’m plastered (which is very rare), I still write like a lucid angel. The persona is not the reality.
Have been sulking and listening to one of the great old antiwar songs: Bob Seger System, “2 + 2 = ?” Still relevant today.
ETA: Song is a corrective to Herman’s Hermits overload, not a reaction to your comment.
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: Oh, I think you’re funny lots of time. It’s just that particular reply of yours (the whole thing including the gooey-talk to SamKitten) seemed a bit stream-of-consciousness looped funny to me. I was in stitches as I pictured me as a little girl holding an old plastic fork.
And, this song is groovy. I’ve never heard it before. I wouldn’t have thought it was Bob Seger. More edgy than other stuff I’ve heard from him.
ETA: Oh, I knew that. I saw you didn’t get any love from Anne Laurie.
hamletta
@alix: That’s “embrawdries.”
Back in the ’70s, I had a gorgeous Mexican folk-embroidered blouse my mom had picked up at the second-hand store, and my friend and I were waiting for the bus at People’s drug store. The lunch counter lady (yes, I’m that old) said, “That blouse is so purty! Did you embrawdery that yerself?”
In some dialects, “embroidery” serves as both noun and verb.
Steeplejack
@Mark S.:
This is a common problem with our musical heritage–groups being reduced to their “one big hit” as time moves inexorably forward. I don’t want to get into the position of defending Herman’s Hermits, because they were a bit too saccharine even back in the day, but they were a valid component of the British invasion and had some good stuff that deserves to be remembered. “No Milk Today” was one–written by Graham Gouldman, who wrote a lot of hits for the Yardbirds and the Hollies and went on to be a member of 10cc, I think (“I’m Not in Love”)–and “This Door Swings Both Ways” was another. Wretched clip here (song at 1:00). Also “Listen, People.”‘
Not saying these are the greatest songs ever. But they do fill in a little of the back-story to one of the groups that has been reduced to late-night oldies-infomercial hell. (Plus these might bring back some memories for the older Balloon Juice demographic.)
Steeplejack
@Mark S.:
Hmm, previous comment on Herman’s Hermits in moderation, for no reason I can discover. I didn’t accuse them of being sociaIists or of wearing shoes.
Anyway, I said that the legacy of old groups is sometimes distorted by the “what was their one big hit” syndrome on oldies/replay stations. My favorite (worst?) example from the ’60s is the Animals. All you hear now is “House of the Rising Sun,” which makes even me want to scream when I hear it now, but back in the day they were so much more: a really tight blue-eyed soul/blues band with one of the great white shouter voices of the time (Eric Burdon).
“It’s My Life” (song at 0:45).
“Don’t Bring Me Down”:
(Great fuzz-tone guitar, too.)
fucen tarmal
all this other people’s nostalgia makes me miss my own nostalgia, which, oddly enough is making fun of your nostalgia.
this by mike watt, with eddie vedder singing….
bago
Old People?
http://blip.tv/play/AeaDFAI
Seriously. WTF.
Steeplejack
I’m going all in on the Animals tonight–“Shake.” Great Hammond B-3 organ starting at 1:10. Bass and drums are tight. And this is one of the few clips from the era that appears not to be lip-synched.
Goin’ out on “See See Rider.”
Okay, not quite done. Here’s Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels–their take on the same song.
MikeJ
@fucen tarmal:
Old people music.
fucen tarmal
@MikeJ:
absolutely, worse yet, middle-aged old people music, and mike watt was old even in the mid 90s….but with even older people music still trying to hang around, like 40 years of the same stuff isn’t enough , and led zepplin being used to sell cadillacs, old people cars, it still retains a relative relevance…
Steeplejack
@MikeJ:
Didn’t Courtney kill him and take all the money? Oh, wait, that was Kurt. Sorry, my bad. Having an old-person moment here.
fucen tarmal
@Steeplejack:
wah-wah, because we know your pop favorites from the music of your life, were all so well adjusted….
btw courtney didn’t kill him, and contrary to rumors from people who would have preferred to simply hate the record she put out, she wrote her own song. last thing people can say when they want to tell you you suck, is that someone else wrote your songs….there is an admission there.
NobodySpecial
Musically related: So happy the nice folks from Robbers On High Street have a new single out! Been waiting forever…
Steeplejack
@NobodySpecial:
Thanks. Pretty good. You kids can wait until the song ends before you get off my lawn.
fucen tarmal
completely not on the subject of music, apparently e s pee disney commenters are now heckling commentators. pam shriver was talking loudly during a match at wimbledon, about how james blake now sucks, he heard it while he was playing and told her to be quiet, i’m paraphrasing….mayhem ensued.
tennis gossip, because you have to be well-rounded, is that pam shriver stays drunk every year at wimbledon….lets see how the world wide leader reacts.
James in WA
I like eemom’s comments for the most part, but her stance with regard to Abby Sunderland really struck me as being short-sighted. As in “I’m a parent so I know and have a valid opinion about kids and you aren’t and thus you don’t know and can’t possibly know anything about children EVAR and therefore fuck you.” I kind of signed off on her after that.
fucen tarmal
er that should be commentators are heckling competitors, its late, early, late-early and i am out of ambien,
Nicole
Whatever. I wasn’t born yet when they were big, but I still like Herman’s Hermits. Though I remember being terrified as a kid by the video for “I’m Into Something Good” (back when VH1Classic meant 60’s videos and not 80’s) because the lead singer would grin brightly on the chorus, revealing a terrifying set of scraggly fangs. I really thought all the girls were screaming in fear. I sometimes wonder if Peter Noonan (that’s his name, right?) was Mike Myers’ specific inspiration for Austin Powers’ bad teeth.
I also like The Grass Roots. And I’m not ashamed of that. But I draw the line at Barry McGuire.
arguingwithsignposts
Called out on the front page! Wow. It’s like I’m on the cover of the Rolling Stone. :)
debbie
I caught Pearl Jam on a recent Austin City Limits. When did Eddie start enunciating?
arguingwithsignposts
@debbie:
I liked Pearl Jam when they first came out with “Ten” back in the day, and then kind of got burned out on the media saturation (not their fault, I realize), and recently have returned to give them huge props for keeping on keeping on when many of their peers from that grunge wave broke up, died, or whatever.
Their principled stand against the ticket mafia was also cool.
And a nice cover of “Won’t Back Down”
ETA: I think Eddie started enunciating about the same time Michael Stipe did. LOL
WereBear
@Steeplejack: Yep, the Animals were utterly unique, and very soulful.
I know it’s not my imagination that my favorite era was Really Good Music, because it wasn’t the music of my own adolescence. It was the music of the previous generation’s adolescence that I happen to like.
And if any whippersnappers don’t get it, perhaps they should spend some time with what came before, those ’50’s pop hits from the likes of Pat Boone and Paul Anka.
But only an hour or so, because I’m not a cruel person.
debbie
Speaking of the Animals, I don’t think the Beau Brummels get enough respect (Laugh, Laugh, You Tell Me Why).
debbie
Speaking of the Animals, I don’t think the Beau Brummels get enough respect (Laugh, Laugh; You Tell Me Why).
Steeplejack
@debbie:
I always liked “Just a Little.”
Paul in KY
I think if Herman’s Hermits had never done the ‘Henry the VIII’ song that they might be in the Rock Hall.
It detracts from some of their other hit songs, IMO.
Pinklady6
loove this. thanks for putting it up!
Kered (formerly Derek)
The Animals fucking rule.