Last call for self-nominations for your own blog post of the year.
Batocchio will be by to take the nominations.
Also too, feel free to explain your principled support for Ron Paul in the comments.
And I think we need another unrelated topic…one of you wrote recently that ’80s hit “Sussudio” has held up surprisingly well. By chance, I had had the same thought a few weeks earlier when I heard it in supermarket. What are your thoughts on this weighty topic?
Update. Too awesome not to pass along:
“Do you like Phil Collins? I’ve been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that, I really didn’t understand any of their work. Too artsy, too intellectual. It was on Duke where Phil Collins’ presence became more apparent. I think Invisible Touch was the group’s undisputed masterpiece. It’s an epic meditation on intangibility. At the same time, it deepens and enriches the meaning of the preceding three albums. Listen to the brilliant ensemble playing of Banks, Collins and Rutherford. You can practically hear every nuance of every instrument. In terms of lyrical craftsmanship, the sheer songwriting, this album hits a new peak of professionalism. Take the lyrics to Land of Confusion. In this song, Phil Collins addresses the problems of abusive political authority. In Too Deep is the most moving pop song of the 1980s, about monogamy and commitment. The song is extremely uplifting. Their lyrics are as positive and affirmative as anything I’ve heard in rock. Phil Collins’ solo career seems to be more commercial and therefore more satisfying, in a narrower way. Especially songs like In the Air Tonight and Against All Odds. But I also think Phil Collins works best within the confines of the group, than as a solo artist, and I stress the word artist. This is Sussudio, a great, great song, a personal favorite.”
Baud
I support Ron Paul because what America needs right now is more Republican ideologues.
Linda Featheringill
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/12/how-gary-johnson-just-made-life-easier-for-barack-obama.php
Gary Johnson is apparently going to try for the Libertarian Party nomination.
I dunno. Should we donate or something?
[That guy takes a really bad photo. Does he have other qualities?]
Egg Berry
I haven’t read any Paulites invade the comments here to defend Dr. HE’S NOT A RACIST! Maybe their Google alert isn’t set up properly.
El Tiburon
What is it with republicans and giving their kids goofy names. Rand Paul?
The you got the Romneys: Mast, Tripper, Zipper, and Fondue.
The Palins have Tugboat and Jetski and Tubplugger.
And yes I know this is a terrible Tbogg ripoff so see ya in the funny pictures.
S. cerevisiae
The entire Earth supports Ron Paul since it has a solid surface and he is above the center of gravity.
Veritas
Is this the end of Paul’s campaign?
Congressman gets outraged when asked about racist newsletters.
Old Dan and Little Ann
Ezra Klein just said reneged on Rachel Maddow, but he made the ending sound rhyme with pledge. WTF.
Raven
@Old Dan and Little Ann: I was going to post that but I couldn’t figure out how to state it.
MikeBoyScout
Ah, I have a topic for the Open Thread.
How about we help out?
Tonight I’m going to write Letters to the Editor of my local papers about House Republican obstruction leading to a tax increase on January 1st 2012.
Can the rest of my verbose BJ buddies do the same?
lethargytartare
if by “has held up surprisingly well.” you mean “is still as mind-bogglingly awful in retrospect as it was when it was vying with Ronald Reagan to cause the most harm to the US,” well, then I certainly agree.
Raven
Rachel says Obama is going to attach a signing statement to the Defense Auth Bill. Stay tuned.
El Tiburon
@MikeBoyScout:
You really are a boy scout. My wager is the BJers not perusing porn are probably passed out from shotgunning Old Milwaukee.
gaz
My kitteh has set up his adorable little sovereign libertarian utopia. On my lap. He’s currently trying to annex my face.
meh.
I want it back. I’m not even sure I have a lap anymore. Since I got Groucho, it went MIA.
Garbo
I’ve never been a fan of Sussudio, but I will express my concern that the advent of digital music and more music being sold as standalone singles will eventually lead to the death of the “album” as we knew it. Two that came to mind, that have a cohesive concept and sound, are Phil Collins’ Face Value, and Genesis’ Duke. So, outside of live performance, we won’t get the chance to enter a world of the artist’s creation for a period of time anymore. Anyone agree?
Southern Beale
What the hell I name my blog “Southern Beale” Blog Of The Year. Shoot, why not? So, who do I have to screw to … aw, never mind.
So I just took this survey that Universal did about television viewing. Lots of questions related to the economy and what you are cutting back on, specifically, “I could not live without my TV service” and questions of that nature.
Methinks the plutocrats are worried that people are so broke, they’re canceling their cable service. Oh noes.
gaz
@Garbo:
Maybe for some. Would never happen with others.
The Residents
The Art of Noise
Recoil
Particularly The Residents.
The album IS the reason for these groups. They don’t make sense in singles format.
Martin
Ron Paul can’t be a racist – the free market would have corrected it by now.
DCLaw1
I’m not here to express my principled support for Ron Paul, but I am curious: does anyone (not media gasbags) think he stands a chance of at least disrupting Romney’s trot to the nomination?
DCLaw1
And please don’t quote or link Nate Silver.
gaz
@DCLaw1: no
SiubhanDuinne
@Old Dan and Little Ann: @Raven:
I heard that too. Only thing I can figure is that he’s afraid if he pronounces it correctly, some fool will think he’s using a racial slur. Remember that guy in the D.C. Mayor’s office a few years ago who used the word “niggardly” ( quite correctly and appropriately) and there was such a firestorm that he was forced to resign? I think maybe Ezra was trying to avoid that.
Or possibly I am over-analyzing.
amk
@Linda Featheringill: gj seems to be a paul-lite minus the crazification factor. Photogenic, he is not.
Richard W. Crews
Libertarians should lean Left
Excepting primaries, most elections are binary, Democratic or Republican; leaving Libertarians where? Libertarians are denied their platforms, yet vote Republican.
I see 3 major Ron Paul platforms and little actual Republican agreement. Republicans are rabid for war with Iran and are to the right of most Israelis on Mid-East matters. Democrats and Republicans both have heavy deficit spending, but the Dems seem to understand economics better and face it more responsibly. I must spend words to mention the Republicans inhumane lack of sympathy and decency as policy. It may be fiat money, but Democrats get something for it like infrastructure and economic stimuli; Republicans empower the already wealthy, And Paulites can forget about abolishing the Fed – ain’t gonna’ happen from either side. That leaves individual Liberty. Republicans are in our bedrooms and wombs, legislating the difference between conception and implantation while disregarding the woman’s opinion. Legislating who can marry who.
I see National Health Care as a basic of Modern Freedom, Freedom to change jobs, leave to care for loved ones, free to be an independent entrepreneur or student without fear of medical financial disaster. I see it as a modern Freedom. It elevates our citizens to world-class level.
Raven
@SiubhanDuinne: I think he was tipsy.
James Gary
Never before did I have an opportunity to mention that my sneeringly dismissive attitude toward Phil Collins and the man’s entire oeuvre is almost precisely congruent to my sneeringly dismissive attitude toward Ron Paul and the man’s entire outlook.
So: thanks, DougJ!
Garbo
@gaz: In a world where music discovery happens more and more at the granular, single level, via Pandora or Last.fm or the like, I wonder how long the album will survive. I know that seems like an impossible concept at my age (49), but so did the idea of consuming television content a la carte just a second ago.
Martin
@DCLaw1: Possibly, if only because if Paul hangs on long enough, he’s going to keep digging at Romney, challenging him, making him say stupid things.
I say this a lot, but things like elections aren’t won – they’re really more not lost. If you have no real opposition, you can’t help but win – you don’t even need to do anything. But if you have someone like Ron Paul or Newt Gingrich in the mix, throwing elbows and undermining your message, you stand a real chance of losing simply because you’re going to fuck up and not recover. And it doesn’t matter how viable your opposition is, they can kill you just as badly so long as they get an audience. Now, that doesn’t mean that Paul can win – I don’t think that’s true, but he can damage Romney bad enough to allow Gingrich or someone else to come out on top.
El Tiburon
@Garbo:
Perhaps artists will be even more liberated outside the corporate structure to experiment with the album experience a la 2112.
But the album was also a marketing construct as well: surround a single with some middling fare and force the consumer to throw down ten or fifteen bucks.
I know my days of really experiencing an album (Pearl Jam’s 10 comes to mind) are over. I don’t listen to the radio, mostly listen to podcasts (Sam Seder) and just don’t have the time form investing in an album.
DCLaw1
It’s going to be gross to see Romney ascend the GOP nomination throne, a self-satisfied smirk on his face, while the Republican electorate forces itself to smile, like a porn star after the money shot.
Linda Featheringill
@Raven:
I saw the report on the signing statement, quoting Holder. I don’t know what the statement will say, though.
amk
speaker stats
Jan-June 2010, Pelosi was able to pass 466 Bills.
Jan-Jun 2011, Boehner passed 166 bills .
gaz
@Garbo: I doubt you could find much material from The Residents online.
It isn’t a band you stumble upon.
I trot it out to make the hipsters feel inadequate. Most of them have never heard of the Residents. heh.
But they’ve been around for decades. And have a loyal group of adherents/fans (better to call them cultists, I think).
The people you speak of have never heard of this band. And that’s precisely how the band likes it.
middlewest
I certainly hope nobody missed the adorable history-making lesbian couple of the day.
Southern Beale
@DCLaw1:
I think it will be absofucking hilarious. The GOP faithful will be told to fall in line and I think most of them, save the most ardent Ronbots, will.
Just like with McCain. 2008 all over again.
DCLaw1
@Martin: True enough, but I see Gingrich sucking it up and playing ball quickly enough. His reluctance to air attack ads was a tip of the hand. Ron Paul could be a pain in Romney’s ass for some time, but I get the sense that the GOP electorate and establishment will, eventually, collectively shout him down.
We’ll see!
Raven
@middlewest: Sweet ladies.
DCLaw1
@Southern Beale: I will find it funny only if Romney loses the general.
Librarian
I don’t care how bad Sussudio is, it will always remind me of the summer of 1985, and that’s why I love it.
dmsilev
Re: Ron Paul, I think we should all start calling him Alberich. It makes a good shorthand for ‘insane xenophobic dwarf with a fixation on gold’.
gaz
@Garbo: In the general sense, I get your point.
Seems pretty obvious in fact. But so many artists like to actually exercise some control over their distribution.
For the ones that don’t want it to happen – they won’t let it.
Most probably don’t care – as long as you show up to the concert. But some care very much.
Those ones are the ones you won’t see scattered across iTunes, et al.
Linda Featheringill
@DCLaw1:
Ah-ha! You’ve seen that look, too.
virag
phil collins is the wellspring for all evil on earth. that fucking song is horrible, too.
Raven
I have a question. When you try to delete a post it asks for an explanation. Who reads that?
Veritas
@AMK
I’m happy when Congress passes fewer bills. It’s a sign of success. The last thing this country needs is more laws, more regulations, and more taxes.
Dee Loralei
I just made creme de menthe marshmallows. Tomorrow I’m gonna make some with a cherry liquer and others with grand marnier. I have some banana liquer too, I may just go crazy. too bad kahlua is brown, brown marshmallows wouldn’t look right.
DCLaw1
@Linda Featheringill: Never!
BBA
@amk: Meaningless figure. The ACA counts the same as the bill naming the Geraldine Ferraro Post Office, and we get a hell of a lot more of the latter sort of bill.
RossInDetroit
It doesn’t matter if the album survives. Music was singles long before the LP was developed so longer symphonic works could be conveniently recorded. Pop just liked it and adopted it. AOR was engineered by record companies to build stardom for a few megabuck acts they could cash in on with little overhead. When the album goes away we’ll be back where were around 1960. And that’s fine.
I say this as a guy who has about 1K vinyl records and 1K5 CDs. And no downloads.
Raven
@Veritas: This party just too a turn for the douche.
And you are the rudder. Schmuck.
beltane
I am neutral regarding ‘Sussudio’ though I tend to find Phil Collins’ music to be slightly irritating. My husband, however, has fond memories of dancing to that song as a teenager in the clubs of Caracas, Venezuela. As the son of an Dutch corporate executive, he got to experience living like a 1 percenter while in high school. When I hear Sussudio I am always reminded of how much I would have disliked him back then and how much my friends would have laughed at the white suit and pink tie he wore while clubbing back then.
Now we’re all a bunch of middle-aged f*cks so it really doesn’t matter any more, but I will take “Sledgehammer” over “Sussudio” any day.
gaz
Oh gawd (#44)
ladies and gentleman, the stupid has landed.
Raven
@RossInDetroit: Wanna buy my Techniks turntable?
Omnes Omnibus
@Librarian: That doesn’t make it right. First, the summer of ’85 wasn’t all that great. Second, of Collins’ oeuvre (of which I don’t have a very high opinion), Sussudio is the barrel scrapings.
Patrick Bateman
“There’s a girl thats been on my mind …all the time –
Su-Su-Sussudio!
Now she don’t even know my name…
But I think she likes me just the same – Su-Su-Sussudio!
Oho!
Ah…if she called me I’d be there-
I’d come running anywhere…
She’s all I need all my life…Su-Su-Sussudio!!!…”
WereBear (itouch)
I’m a Peter Gabriel fan. It wouldn’t be fair for me to weigh in on Phil Collins.
Swishalicious
Things that are awesome
[…]
Phil Collins
[…]
RossInDetroit
Thinking of Phil Collins reminds me of Paul Carrack. Roughly contemporary, also English and a far better singer.
Raven
@beltane: Take all that fucking bubblegum shit and give me 3/5 of a Mile in Ten Seconds!
Dee Loralei
Also I hated Sussudio. That song sucked.
Also, too, I’m supporting Ron Paul on the principal that Mitt Romney’s “invisible boot” of government skeered me. God that man is so smarmy. He needs to get kicked in the balls by that invisible boot he was speechifying about.
DCLaw1
For a fine, concise exposition of Phil Collins and Genesis, I turn to Christian Bale in “American Psycho.”
Comrade Mary
@gaz: Ha!! Not only are The Residents online, they’re on VEVO!
One of my faves.
RossInDetroit
@Raven:
I have about 30 turntables. My favorite is a B&O linear that I installed a wireless remote in. Because I’m too lazy to stand up and move the arm when Stairway comes up.
fasteddie9318
I support Ron Paul because Liberty, obviously. The Free Market. Also too, our courageous Founding Fathers.
Deep down you all know I’m right. If The Blacks would stop assaulting Decent White Folks and The Fags would stop infecting the rest of us with AIDS, they might have a chance to realize what’s right as well.
DFS
“Sussudio”: possibly the worst pop hit of all time. Either that or “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins.
Omnes Omnibus
@Dee Loralei: I won’t suggest that I, in any way, support any of those assholes for anything. Shunned, I say. Shunned!
gaz
@Raven: I might. I prefer vestax but money is tighter than usual at the moment. If you’re serious I’d be interested in picking up another deck. Make me an offer (and include the model). Must be direct drive.
Half of my most favorite stuff is on vinyl, and my previous decks got stolen in a burglary some years back.
If not, ah well – I’ll eventually find a decent set at a pawn shop. That’s how I got the last set too. heh.
amk
@Veritas: Except for the ‘fewer’ laws against 50% of the population & the majority of working people that the dickheads under that eunuch boner ‘passed’, right ?
Comrade Mary
And I’m not going to claim that Sussudio sucked, because that would insult the fine art of sucking.
But then again, only Gabriel emerged from the primordial sludge that was Genesis to do anything interesting.
Chills.
Raven
@gaz: It’s an Sl-1400 direct drive. I guess I didn’t know turntables were called “decks”.
amk
@BBA: yeah, the thugs passed the ‘fewer’ of more useless bills.
jl
I want a special category for best BJ front poster blegs.
Cole’s bleg about the disastrous designer composter, and following diatribes and complaints should be in the BJ Hall of Fame. (Edit: oops, that was years ago now, wasn’t it?)
If I were a mean person, I would suggest the front poster blegs for help after they broke the blog. So, I will let more charitable minds evaluate that suggestion.
Gin & Tonic
@RossInDetroit: I, too have lots of vinyl and lots of CD’s, but I’m way too lazy to count. Tell me, do you count, or do you just use a tape measure and approximate? Just curious as to, say, how many LP’s there are per linear foot or something similar.
RSA
I have a nostalgic feeling about one Phil Collins song, In the Air Tonight (freshman in college watching Miami Vice–what can I say? That song has aged better than the TV show.)
Dee Loralei
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m only supporting him hypothetically, and only because that lying RomneyBot2000 speech pissed me off. Have a marshmallow!
Gin & Tonic
@RSA: Yeah, but it guest-starred Frank Zappa one time, so I forgive them all those sherbet-colored suit jackets.
RossInDetroit
@Gin & Tonic:
I don’t catalogue, if that’s what you mean. Not that anal. I’ll count one shelf and multiply by the number of shelves. I’ve really slowed down in recent years and maybe buy 2 CDs a month. But for 30 years I was a pretty heavy consumer.
gaz
if it’s “MK I”, i’ll give you $40
if it’s “MK II” i’d go $80-$100.
If it includes a PRO-grade diamond needle without much wear, I’d add $60 to either of those figures.
Omnes Omnibus
@Dee Loralei: I don’t like marshmallows. May I have a gummi bear instead?
DougJ
@Raven:
Me and the other FPers read them, in theory.
Steeplejack
“Sussudio”? Oh, Lord, no. Give me “Easy Lover” any day.
Raven
@DougJ: Aha, and then decide or is it just a formality?
SiubhanDuinne
@Dee Loralei:
Do you have any Navan? it’s a deLISHus vanilla liqueur and I think would be really nice in homemade marshmallows.
gaz
@Gin & Tonic: I measure collections by the milk crate.
I’m not alone.
4jkb4ia
@DFS:
Those are fighting words. “Danger Zone” is just completely awful. “Sussudio” is a pure pop song, and that’s why it’s held up. Not that it is a great pop song or that even Phil Collins hasn’t written better.
Amir Khalid
As I’ve said here before, Phil Collins was the guy who joined Genesis and turned it into a mere pop group. His post-Genesis work, for all its ubiquity back in the 1980s, never really grabbed my attention. If Sussudio has “held up well” for you, okay. But for me, it was never up there to begin with.
DougJ
@Raven:
I figure if someone wants their post deleted, I delete it. But I am sometimes curious why whey want something deleted.
My favorite was a nasty attack on me that I was ready to respond to, only to see the deletion with the reason “I was being too much of an asshole”.
Raven
@RossInDetroit: I got rid of about 15 beer cases full last year. Have a friend who is way into it and he came and separated them into “a little, a little more and take these to the Project Safe thrift store and write them off”. I had 2 concerns 1. there was something in 45 years of records that was worth some fabulous sum (there wasn’t) 2. there would be enough seeds and stems in some of the doubles to get me thrown in jail. The woman at the thrift store said they drew quite a crowd and I didn’t hear from the heat.
DougJ
@Steeplejack:
But it’s not surprising that Easy Lover help up well
Ain’t no ballpark neither.
gaz
@DougJ: way to out me asshole! (kidding)
Raven
@DougJ: That was probably me, or should have been!
Southern Beale
The last Genesis album I liked was “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway” which might have been their first album.
beltane
There really was an abundance of horrible music in the ’80s. Anything by Huey Lewis & the News stands out on that front.
Raven
@gaz: I can’t imagine it would be worth the trouble of packing it up. There seem to be quite a few on ebay.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Raven: Airplane! Oh hell yes!!
I recall staying awake late at night around 1967 so I could hear the local Top 40 AM radio station play the latest psychedelic stuff out of San Francisco at midnight. I think “Somebody to Love” was the only thing that made it into the daylight hours in South PA.
Dee Loralei
@SiubhanDuinne: No, but that’s an idea LOL. I don’t even like marshmallows, but got a wild hair to make them.
@Omnes Omnibus: no gummi bears here. How about a buttered rum caramel? Or Brandied candied orange peel?
Raven
@beltane: Walkin on a Thin Line was good.
handy
Is this snark? Are there a contingent of Paul supporters flooding the comments section here? Not that it matters. No way in hell Paul gets anywhere near a Repub nomination.
The album has quite a few more years life left in it, I reckon. Its status in pop culture overall has lessened in the last decade, but I don’t seem artists nor labels abandoning the format anytime soon.
beltane
@Southern Beale: That’s because Peter Gabriel was with them for that album. Two different bands really.
Omnes Omnibus
What I would like to know is why this thread has caused me to start playing Kate Bush (no, it is not a euphemism, you juvenile pervs)?
Comrade Mary
@beltane: Odd that you phrase it that way, as Huey was rumoured to be frontally gifted.
Steeplejack
@DougJ:
Now I’ve gone off on “Yah Mo B There.” Had a great video to it, but I can’t find a version of that on YouTube that doesn’t have some dickweed drum remix added. WTF?!
EriktheRed
As someone who enjoyed earlier Genesis as well as Duke and a few albums after, he was losing me early on. Then he finally lost me with this:
I don’t find major sellouts to be all that “satisfying”.
gaz
@Raven: I kind of figured once you told me the model, but I figured it was worth at least following through.
Raven
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: Did you have and “underground FM? I was traveling abroad in those days and AFKN-AFVN did have much. There was this dude in the Nam but I was gone.
DCLaw1
Speaking of Genesis, could someone please explain the genesis of “also too?” I am too lazy to find out, and too derelict a blog reader to know it already.
EriktheRed
@El Tiburon:
JUst naming his son “Rand” disqualifies him in my book.
Omnes Omnibus
@Dee Loralei: Yes, please to both.
@DCLaw1: Palin.
RossInDetroit
@Raven:
Seeds and stems in the crease. I had completely forgotten (yes, it’s been that long). I don’t collect. I’m an accumulator. Most of my vinyl I’ll never play again. The records were consumables that have been fully depreciated. But I can’t get rid of them. I have a few that have some value, but for the most part it’s not worth the trouble to box and haul them to recover the shelf space. It’s mostly (95%) stuff that if someone wants it they already have one. Or three.
Raven
@gaz: No harm no foul. I’ll just put it up there with all my other shit and plug in my iPod. I’m so goddamn deaf all that shit about records means zip to me.
Comrade Mary
@DCLaw1: Look for the Lexicon pages (three of them!) in the right sidebar.
From A-H:
gaz
@EriktheRed:
There are some artists who can “sell out” and maintain their integrity. Particularly in the 80’s
Two spring to mind. David Bowie is one.
The Art of Noise is another.
The Art of Noise made the music for Max Headroom/Pepsi.
They “sold out” when I was still young enough to wet the bed. heh.
Nevertheless, I wouldn’t hold it against them. They managed to remain cool.
handy
I always like to think that Collins drumwork (with that signature reverb effect) on the Peter Gabriel track “The Intruder” had a huge (and not positive) effect on pop rock drumming in the 80s. I mean, probably not, but it justifies the hate-on I have for anything Phil Collins since 70s Genesis.
RossInDetroit
Christgau on Phil Collins:
DCLaw1
@EriktheRed:
Well, what do you want? He had already named a used sock “Galt.”
beltane
@Raven: OK, I had to watch a video for that song because I never heard of it before, and I saw a crowd of people cheering for Huey Lewis and the News. Who these people? Gen X Republicans?
Raven
@RossInDetroit: Yea, I was gonna burn them but in the heyday of Napster I reclaimed much of what I had. The vast majority were totally trashed because we just played em and threw them in a pile. You got Bob Seger Mongrel?
Raven
@beltane: Don’t you know me I’m the boy next door?
gaz
@Raven: lol. spoken like a true music afficiondo. Most of whom have permanent hearing loss from all the concerts. heh.
The irony sucks, doesn’t it?
EriktheRed
@gaz:
I had their Freakshow CD ROM when I owned a Mac a long time ago. It was twisted, like their music.
Villago Delenda Est
@beltane:
I really like “Jacob’s Ladder”, myself.
As for Collins, well, there’s “Easy Lover” and there’s his cover of “Can’t Hurry Love”. Also, too, “In the Air Tonight” which is just so haunting…
I’m ashamed that I used to blare “Heat of the Moment” out the windows of the BOQ in Wiesbaden…
wengler
American Psycho was Christian Bale’s best role to date and this scene was an absolute masterpiece in the film.
I think Huey Lewis and the News also gets this treatment.
DCLaw1
@Comrade Mary: Thanks. See how lazy I am? Still haven’t looked at that lexicon.
eemom
If there were a list of Top Ten Things That Sucked About The 1980s, Phil Collins and Sussudio would each get a slot.
Fucking hated that guy’s voice. Fucking hated the sound of his band. Fucking hated that particular song most of all.
I have, also, this question: are you people who celebrate Christmas all DONE doing Christmas shit already? How do you have time for this stuff?
RossInDetroit
@Raven:
Not a huge Seger fan, though I’ve met him and he’s a very nice guy. I was buying a lot of Prog Rock back then, followed by Reggae and then New Wave. Never got into the radio-friendly stuff.
intelligentdasein
Ok, Ron Paul is a racist, creationist nutjob who knows nothing about economics or the constitution. I still think the argument can be made that not only would Ron Paul be a better strategic choice in the general election, he would actually get more liberal priorities done.
For one thing, sort of like how Zizek makes the distinction between subjective violence, the obvious violence one sees in random outbursts of terror, and objective violence, most notably in this case the violence required to keep a system running smoothly, I think we need to distinguish between subjective and objective racism. Again, yes, Ron Paul is racist. However, what does it mean when Obama actively upholds the government’s position on the drug war, which with a combination of a massive increase in the prison population and a ridiculous disproportion between white and black drug users that are arrested, has effectively created a caste system not much better than Jim Crow? Not to mention the other abuses of the police state Obama has actively encouraged, that of course always come down harder on minorities and the poor. The only people who have been fighting for the largest threat right now to ethnic minorities in America have been for the most part, outside the Democratic Party, either libertarians or radical leftists. For example, when the Pelican Bay hunger strikes were protesting solitary confinement, guess who were the only people spreading awareness about it on my campus? Those fucking cultists in the RCP.
Then of course, Ron Paul is one of the only politicians now that believes in habeas corpus rights and he has a pretty much Chomsky-ite approach to foreign policy. Also, he seems to be the most likely person to prosecute the massive fraud in banking right now. Yes, in the long term he is the enemy, but in the short term I think he might be the only viable force that can make the left stop, think, and get its shit together.
gaz
@EriktheRed: sweet.
gooble gobble, gooble gobble one of us, one of us. =P
hah.
Raven
@beltane: You heard Billy Joel’s tune? Or maybe Curtis Mayfield>
eemom
@wengler:
ugh. He’s on that list too.
Cheryl from Maryland
@RossInDetroit: Archives count documents by linear feet, so I think that is a good model for serious collectors.
Raven
@RossInDetroit: Mongrel was the only thing I liked, the System rocked. That was 69, reggae didn’t exist.
4jkb4ia
I am so out of everything I don’t have an iPod yet. But albums will die if streaming music makes it impossible to want to be a real fan of an artist and a sensibility. This was brought home listening to Taylor Swift, of all people.
(My husband changed the password on iTunes after I bought the second EP from a group he never heard of. (It was MGMT, for crying out loud!) But iTunes isn’t the only place to buy music.)
Omnes Omnibus
@eemom: I wrapped all the presents this evening. For the past several years s-t-b-x-Mme Omnibus did and I simply lent a finger once in a while. Prior to that my sis-in-law got rope into doing mos of them and my mom did the ones sis-in-law wasn’t supposed to see. What a creature of the patriarchy I am.
RossInDetroit
Why listen to Phil Collins when there’s Squeeze from the same era? Far more interesting song writing and better singing. Though the cover of can’t Hurry Love was pretty great.
burnspbesq
@Omnes Omnibus:
If Phil Collins had done nothing else of substance, “Easy Lover” would get him into Heaven.
Karen
I wasn’t sure what was meant by nominate your own blog post but since no one at Open Salon has either haven’t seen it or thought it sucked so they didn’t comment can I nominate mine?
http://open.salon.com/blog/i_plan_and_god_laughs/2011/11/26/gladiator_nation
Bueler?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@eemom: We don’t. which is among the many reasons I’m well known as a grinch type. I’m not Christian, but was raised with the secular gift giving nonsense, and endure the endless rounds of work events. My singular joy is getting gifts for families adopted so that they can have a Christmas.
Raven
@burnspbesq: Hey, was that your doggie back there?
AA+ Bonds
How Romney Got (Even More) Rich Off Government Money
EriktheRed
@handy:
I will admit I think Phil Collins is a good drummer, at least.
JGabriel
First Day of Winter, NYC, Current Temp: 61 Degrees Fahrenheit.
But there’s no such thing as global warming, because it snowed last year on boxing day.
.
SFAW
Because you’re a person of refined musical taste.
Of course, her “song” at the end of “The Golden Compass” kinda wiped out a lot of her great stuff (as in “One Awshit wipes out a thousand Attaboys”), but still …
Steeplejack
@wengler:
By coincidence, American Psycho is on IFC at 10:30 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. (EST) tonight.
Raven
Eric Clapton, Tina Truner ,Phil Collins, Mark Knopfler & Jon
Loading…
Omnes Omnibus
@gaz: Gabba Gabba Hey!
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
strangest supermarket experience, was hearing she-bop by cyndi lauper, original, but rung through hellaequilizers to be muzaky enough. still strange to go from pmrc hit list to corporate big box ambience.
as to the updated quote about genesis in the 80s, and sussudio all i can say, although technically unrelated, is this.
air supply literal mv making love out of nothing at all
gaz
@handy: Ilan Rubin can play rings around Collins. Probably do a 10 minute solo while simultaneously beating Collins to within an inch of his mediocre existence with his left stick in the process.
But neither are fit to lick the boots of Clyde Stubblefield. The best fucking drummer to ever take a stick to some skin.
Raven
@JGabriel: It’s fucking hot and steamy in Georgia.
RossInDetroit
@Raven:
Prog Rock did. Yes, Ambrosia, Kansas, ELP, King Crimson, etc. A friend of mine was in Trillion. After that I got into Reggae and Bluebeat.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Raven: It was pre-FM in my pathetic neck of the woods.
Heard a lot of underground FM when I went off to SoCal for college: KPPC Pasadena (hosting the Credibility Gap with Harry Shearer and Michael McKean), followed by KMET (“A Little Bit of Heaven, Ninety-Four Point Seven – KMET – Tweedle-Dee”). Left as disco took over the airwaves, moved East and got hooked on WHFS out of Bethesda.
Lancelot Link
Anyone who publicly hates TelEvangelists as much as Phil Collins does can’t be all bad.
Omnes Omnibus
@SFAW: I had no idea that she did such a thing, and I shall pretend that I still don’t.
AA+ Bonds
Phil Collins, an old guy
AA+ Bonds
He’s that person that boomers started banging to after they lost the ability to maintain their erections, is how I see it
4jkb4ia
@Raven:
That an actual Vietnam vet approved of it is the nicest thing I have ever heard about “Walking on a Thin Line”.
handy
@gaz:
I wouldn’t even know anything about any of that. I just have this thing about Collins and it’s quite visceral.
And eemom’s right. Throw that Godawful Huey Lewis on the pyre as well.
Raven
@RossInDetroit: God, I was at the Palm Beach Pop Festival in Nov 69 and King Crimson was the house band. They played at least twice a day and I’ll never get the Court out of my head. Check the photos
“Rolling Stones,Janis Joplin,Johnny Winter, Spirit,Many More Bands” The Chambers Bros, Rotrary Connection. .
Janis did a song with Winter.
Raven
@4jkb4ia: I guess I took what he said in the intro in that video to heart. Least he gave enough of a fuck to do a song.
JGabriel
@Comrade Mary:
Actually, I’m pretty sure I don’t come along until the Book of Daniel.
.
Omnes Omnibus
@Raven: Now you are just showing off. I was in kindergarten where they had strict attendance policies or I would have been there.
Waldo
Sussudio does indeed hold up. It’s just as horrible today as it was in the ’80s. And no, I didn’t actually go and relisten to it. It’s currently in heavy rotation on my playlist of repressed memories. Thanks.
Lojasmo
genesis died when Gabriel quit. Congress died when Paul was elected.
Morzer
I support Ron Paul because he knows a man who knows a man who knows where a whole lot of Peruvian passports fell off a truck somewhere. Just call him:
http://reason.com/blog/2008/01/11/old-news-rehashed-for-over-a-d
burnspbesq
@gaz:
So far off it’s ridiculous. Go listen to some Tony Williams and see if you still think those lame-ass rock drummers are all that. After that, you can move on to Elvin Jones, Art Blakey, Paul Motian, Jeff Watts and a couple of dozen others.
Amanda in the South Bay
I was a bit too young to have really experienced the 80s, but I always thought the lyrics were “sue sue sue me now,” you know, like how everyone in the 80s was an LA Law style yuppie lawyer or something.
gaz
@handy: True that.
I’ll decode my rant as well.
Ilan was the youngest drummer (at 11) to play woodstock – he’s in Guiness. (IIRC) Played drums for NiN through most of it’s existence. (Say what you will about NIN, Rubin is phenomenal).
Clyde of course, was James Brown’s drummer. You simply cannot fuck with the man.
Gin & Tonic
@gaz:
Max Roach, since you asked.
Raven
@Omnes Omnibus: I’d been home for 3 months. Hitched with a couple of buddies all the way from Champaign to Palm Beach. We froze our asses off and stayed wet.
Peter
OK, my nomination.
And a snarkier, more political one.
Thanks for doing this, Doug.
Raven
Keith Moon
Ginger Baker
Peter
@Gin & Tonic: I think I might have to go with Elvin Jones.
gaz
@Gin & Tonic: I’ll give you that. If anyone could compare to Clyde, it would be him.
It’s a tough call though. Seriously
RossInDetroit
@Raven:
Steve Shelley, without whom Kim and Thurston would not be able to find their way back from their perambulations.
SiubhanDuinne
@DCLaw1:
Heh. You need to look at the linked video, though. You won’t be sorry.
Wait, maybe you will.
burnspbesq
@Peter:
Wouldn’t you have loved to have a hidden tape recorder at a Jones family reunion?
Raven
Bernard “Pretty” Purdie
Jim Keltner
Veritas
So it’s looking more and more likely that Romney will win the nomination quickly and cleanly with a one-two Iowa-New Hampshire knockout double punch.
Bad news for Obambi, huh?
The prophet Nostradumbass
@DCLaw1:
There was I guy I used to see on some of the local Bay Area and California Usenet groups whose real name was “John David Galt”. And, yes, he was a glibertarian twit.
Omnes Omnibus
@Peter: Best drummer I have seen live is Jason Marsalis. At Preservation Hall. he was 30 years younger than everyone else in the pick-up band he was in but he owned the evening. Stunningly good.
Raven
@Veritas: Where you been douche bag, your mommy been nursing you?
Peter
@burnspbesq: Oh yes. Very much so.
How has nobody put John Bonham at or near the top of the (non-jazz) pantheon?
gaz
@burnspbesq:
Uber FAIL for referring to Clyde as a rock drummer.
WOW.
Peter
@Omnes Omnibus: He’s good, but I have a sort of aversion to Marsali mostly on account of Wynton. I saw Elvin a bunch of times when he had Ravi Coltrane in his group and he was just an elemental force of nature. Art Farmer was also pretty badass and underrated.
beltane
@JGabriel: In Northern Vermont it is almost 40 degrees with no snow on the ground. I don’t think there has been a Christmas in living memory (and even in dead people’s memories) without our permanent winter snow cover on the ground.
DCLaw1
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks for the starbursts!
So many starbursts…
Good god, I think watching that killed more brain cells than huffing gas.
Bondirotta
I have been thinking about this For an hour – And I would indeed be impressed by Someone drinking Johnny Walker with Hitch in Kabul. It may be irrational, but I would.
So there.
Raven
@Bondirotta: Is there an echo in here?
Peter
@beltane: A morbidly obese Al Gore was singing “I’m dreaming of a wet Christmas” outside my window last night. We nearly broke 50 here.
RossInDetroit
It’s been 40s and rainy in The D here. No more than a few flurries so far. Even I’m looking forward to snow cover for all this winter brown. And I HATE the snow. But this is the ugly time of year without it.
DCLaw1
Just saw DougJ’s update with the quote from “American Psycho.” Yes, that’s what I was referring to earlier. In the book, Bateman goes even longer in his exposition. The detail in that novel – especially of the characters’ clothes and accessories – is dizzying.
burnspbesq
In the current generation of jazz drummers, conventional wisdom is that Tain is the guy, but I’m kinda partial to Brian Blade.
Omnes Omnibus
@Peter: I am not a drummer person. He was one of the few drummers I have seen live – and I have seen a lot of concerts – who truly made an impression on me.
gaz
@burnspbesq: I have a hard time separating miles davis’ genius from those who he played with.
Tony Williams *is* arguably one of the best drummers out there – very influential.
Without miles tho, I don’t know. Miles made everybody better than they were. He brought game, and it rubbed off on everyone. Miles was easily the world’s most accomplished crack head.
OTOH – I doubt James Brown’s music would have been half as catchy as it was without Clyde. He defined James’ sound from all the way in the back of the stage.
I won’t begrudge anyone saying Tony Williams was a master. But I just haven’t heard enough of him outside of Miles to really be able to separate his talent from that of Miles. And a lot of Miles work wasn’t drum heavy. Also I’ll concede that part of it is, admittedly is probably the fact that you have at least a decade on me. I don’t have exposure to Williams outside Miles work. But I have most of everything Miles ever produced, including the Columbia Studio Recordings box set, and his album (Aura) that columbia released years after his death.
Huge Miles fan here. He overshadowed williams for me – which may be why he didn’t immediately come to mind when speaking of drummers.
To call Clyde a rock drummer is blasphemous though. Seriously.
virag
@WereBear (itouch):
i blame peter gabriel for phil collins. and for paula cole. and so much more. peter gabriel is almost as evil as billy ray cyrus.
Shabby
Not a blog post, but after reading CNN’s story on the payroll tax cut I just had to share this.
Good thing getting TV through the Air and internet at the library don’t involve the government.
steve
“”El Tiburon – December 21, 2011 | 9:39 pm · Link
@Garbo:
Perhaps artists will be even more liberated outside the corporate structure to experiment with the album experience a la 2112.
But the album was also a marketing construct as well: surround a single with some middling fare and force the consumer to throw down ten or fifteen bucks.
I know my days of really experiencing an album (Pearl Jam’s 10 comes to mind) are over. “”
It’s now a different world than the studio dominated one. In all the ways you mentioned. The album never really made money for the band, it was a Big Music scam. The band still makes its money from touring (barely) and selling it’s own merch (so-so). I think the result will be fewer manufactured superstars but many more working joe musicians.
burnspbesq
In which Tain makes his case, and Joey Calderazzo shows himself to be criminally underrated.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02loTBckxmw
burnspbesq
@gaz:
Run, do not walk, to the nearest good music store and grab a copy of “Emergency” by the Tony Williams Lifetime.
Amir Khalid
@Veritas:
Obama has been gaining in approval in the past week, helped greatly by House Republicans’ stupid intransigence over the payroll tax issue. Meanwhile, there’s really not a strong Republican candidate in this Presidential election cycle. Not even Willard Mitt Romney, who couldn’t get above 25% of Republican voters on his side, and that was at his peak. Romney loses his nerve under close questioning, as seen on Fox News, and is infamous for his flip-flops. And how do you expect a politician who is afraid of one faction in his own party to lead a nation?
If Romney does get the nomination it will be by default, because the others are even more glaringly unsuited for the office. He is really the least-weak GOP candidate, rather than the strongest; should he be nominated, he would only get to be the one who loses to Obama in November.
SteveAudio
I didn’t get to see Genesis until after Gabriel left, and Collins came out front.
It was fucking sacrilege seeing and hearing him sing “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway” gyrating and snapping his fingers like some 3rd rate Vegas Wayne Newton wannabee.
Sad, really.
cintibud
Billy Cobham anyone?
gaz
@burnspbesq: I’ll definitely take you up on that. thanks for the recommend.
handy
All this talk about drummers. Man thereminists just can’t buy a break.
Yastreblyansky
OK, I am nominating a short one and a longish one.
This is a very sweet project, people, thanks.
gaz
@handy: heh LOL.
I tried to build one of those. And failed badly.
There’s a MIDI one now. I want it. also badly.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Speaking of Ron Paul…
I was over at Redstate a few ago looking through the selection of insanity when I came across a diary where one of the editors rips into Paul and the Paulettes. As expected, the crazy is full on in the comments, I’m sure that at least one person is going to get BLAMMED! and there are lots of real ‘nuggets’ dropped all over in the comments.
One nugget that caught my attention was one long timer there who was talking about having family in Alabama since “The WAR” who had reflexively voted Dem since “The War of Northern Aggression”, who later had to actually learn about the Republicans before switching their vote to them.
Which I’m sure happened somewhere around the early 60’s.
I would call the place a trainwreck but IMO trainwrecks are a horror to behold, not fun to watch. The other day Erickkk, Son of Erickkk, opined that even though Perry’s communications guy was a horror, he had “cojones” to post Erickkk’s criticism of him, word for word. Oh, and this somehow meant that Perry’s guy was now serious. One last (actually, first) note by Erickkk was that although Perry walks on water, this was not an endorsement of him.
It’s pretty good shit for free entertainment!
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Amir Khalid: That was a well written, reasoned reply to a troll who doesn’t deserve notice. Nicely done. My turn:
FOAD, Veritas, with your repetitious claptrap. And take your little “Obambi” sneer with you.
Gin & Tonic
@beltane: How’s Jay look?
Amir Khalid
@handy:
Not a lot of people use that instrument. But I remember Jimmy Page using one with Led Zeppelin in the concert film The Song Remains The Same. I think it was on Dazed and Confused, or maybe Whole Lotta Love.
burnspbesq
@cintibud:
Sure.
And let’s not forget Jack DeJohnette.
amk
Any prezinint, willard ?
Odie Hugh Manatee
I just saw the Calista/Noot christmas video clip on The Mr. Ed Show and for some reason I tried to imagine Noot and the Mrs. engaging in marital relations.
All I could do was laugh because the first thing that came to mind was the image of Ken and Barbie ‘doing it’.
Plastic on plastic.
Gin & Tonic
@gaz: If this has turned to Miles’ drummers, respect to Tony, but I think Philly Joe was a more necessary part of the earlier quintet than Tony in the later one.
Redshift
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason: I’m just amused that V-bag doesn’t understand that you have to pass legislation to get rid of taxes and regulations, too.
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
but you’re so dang cute we’ll just have to forgive you. : )
‘sides, in keeping with my usual brazen bigotry, “the patriarchy” to me has always been a signature buzzword for know-nothing PeeCee sheep-bleaters who have no idea what the fuck they are actually talking about.
gaz
@Gin & Tonic: If anything, I’d have to agree if only because I prefer Miles’ earlier work.
Yastreblyansky
Try again?
Two self-nominations:
a shortish one
and
a slightly longer one
Mike in NC
DougJ –
You know the old saying from Hamlet: “Brevity is the soul of wit“? It also applies to you and your assorted troll personas: Veritas / RealityCheck / Loose Change, etc. etc.
Sometimes you just need to lighten up and take a break, OK?
burnspbesq
Whoa. Not bad for a one-off.
Michael Brecker, Pat Metheny, Joey Calderazzo, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wRUEjwF9rA&feature=related
beltane
@Gin & Tonic: It should be OK on the mountain thanks to the snow makers. If it was up to nature there’d be nothing, and the X-country places must be getting nervous. One of the X-country centers by us actually closed up shop this year. But the people whose exposure to the elements is limited to sticking their arm out of the car window at the Burger King drive-through say there’s no such thing as global warming so I guess all is well.
SFAW
The estate of Desmond Dekker would like to have a word with you.
Would that I could.
AA+ Bonds
Religious Conservatives Taste Billions In U.S. Taxpayer Money, Immediately Become The Republican Party
beltane
@Odie Hugh Manatee: More like Mr. Potato Head and Barbie “doing it” but I see your point.
The prophet Nostradumbass
Some of the comments on this post are hilarious. Ronulans really are like cult members.
worn
@lethargytartare: This (of course).
Man the best part of BJ is the skill with which others so often and succinctly express my thoughts.
Anya
@eemom: My husband and I were married this autumn and this will be our first Christmas as a married couple. So I really went overboard with the shopping, decoration and all things Christmas. I’ve been shopping for the past 10-days — trying to find unique gifts at independent small stores. I love shopping so it’s really fun.
Vixen Strangely
I notice not too many self-nominations for best blog-post. Just as a blog-having person–um, how does one go about saying “oh yeah…f’ing nailed it?” in that “lit up a smoke afterwards and went outside to watch the evening sky in a purely self-satisfied way” sort of way? Not saying I never did, just that I can’t admit it. Also, I get like 20 hits a day. No feedback.
But I have a couple things:
Class, Cluelessness and Damned Statistics
(Influenced in part by the conversation here.)
President Obama Announces Troops out of Iraq by Year-end
Not sure how a post about Iraq ended up being about Michele Bachmann, but I meant it.
merrinc
@Lancelot Link:
Jesus, he loves me and he knows I’m right. Been talking to Jesus all my life.
AA+ Bonds
@AA+ Bonds:
Salafipost, m_c I summon thee……..
gaz
@burnspbesq: sweet.
I love Pat Metheny
for my money Different Trains, Electric Counterpoint / Kronos Quartet / Steve Riech / Pat Metheny – the song FAST
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0T6wq1YQnI&feature=related
is a beautiful minimalist piece. I listen to it sometimes when I need to just chill the fuck out.
(There are other parts to this piece – it spans a few tracks)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4JVz5dsHpY
But the first one, – I got a wonderful fuzzy feeling inside – to me it’s an instrumental way of saying “You know what? Everything will be okay now. Just breathe, and enjoy)
The feeling hasn’t been diminished by subsequent listens.
amk
@The prophet Nostradumbass: This one in particular is touching
First hope, then certainty, then wishful thinking aka kumbaya and finally doom & gloom.
That poster ran the whole gamut of emotions from A to B.
jheartney
While I haven’t much interest in loud assertions about who is “the best drummah evah!” I will say that while Phil Collins was a much better drummer than singer (see his Brand X recordings before you disagree), Genesis didn’t really take a dive until a few albums after Gabriel left, as it was Steve Hackett’s departure that rendered them unlistenable. As for Collins’ pop career in the 80’s, I’ll just say some things are better left unmentioned.
Anne Laurie
@Raven:
From my experience, FYWP sends an email to the person who put up the original post. But only about half the emails I get include a reason, and most of those ‘reasons’ are one word, usually duplicate. Anyone who requests a deletion from me gets one, because goddess knows I’ve written enough words I wanted (or should have wanted) to call back afterwards!
eemom
@Anya:
Congratulations on your marriage, and bless your youthful and joyous heart, my child.
[Sigh]
I am an ancient, jaded crone who has been married 20 years. I love my husband and love my kids, but I am too fucking OLD for Christmas.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Veritas:
If you were a “real conservative” then Romney winning would have you wetting your pants and crying like a baby.
Troll fail. That or a Romulan. Maybe you’re a Romulan troll. Either way, with the right shitting about the chance of a Paul win in Iowa making a joke out of the early caucuses, you should be a bit more worried about what’s happening over on your side of the field.
Eye on the ball and all of that. If you really are a winger then you wouldn’t want to let Obama pull another Lucy on your Charlie Brown kicking the football, would ya?
@beltane:
I sit corrected. :)
The Moar You Know
Where’s the goddamn love for Buddy Rich?
Savages, the lot of ya.
Amir Khalid
Because late December is a really really slow news period, Slate is running a slideshow of American football players whose necks are — gasp! — wider than their heads!
Villago Delenda Est
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Uncle Joe Stalin would look upon the Paultards with envious eyes. The cult of personality around Paul would be most familiar to him.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Anya:
Enjoy it while you can. The wife and I blissfully trimmed back on that stuff years ago. After twenty years (twenty five now) you collect a lot of shit and have a lot going on at that time of the year that’s more important than another commercial holiday. No need for the pressure to add even more.
We love it this way but do enjoy remembering the ‘old days’. We were excessive too. :)
steve
ha! Tbogg:
PS Brooks is on Ch. Rose for whole hour starting now. When I finish typing this, it’s time for some more drinky-drinky.
jurassicpork
Most my blog posts go ignored from a commentary standpoint so I don’t see the point in tooting a horn that no one hears.
However, I will post a link to this, a plea for a little assistance. I have to send Mrs. JP to Florida right after Christmas for a family emergency and the plane ticket really set us back. If you can help, it’d surely be appreciated. I’ll even throw in a free copy of each of my two completed novels, American Zen and The Toy Cop.
Lysana
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Oh, him! I met him a few times at science fiction events in this area. Could be nice, but get near politics and he went right down that road.
And granted my blog has been fallow since this post, but I really do like it: Not All Perspectives on Race Are Created Equal Burnout is a stone bitch is the short reason why the blog went dead. I burned out on most writing not consisting of blog comments or tweets. Really a bad place to be.
handy
@gaz:
Pat Metheny came out one time with a righteous takedown of Kenny G. For that alone he has my utmost.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@The Moar You Know: I saw Buddy Rich’s band at Disneyland, of all places, on a band trip while I was in high school. I think it was the loudest big band I’ve ever seen.
4jkb4ia
@Raven: Any snark is really the result of being influenced to believe that there is “Born In The U.S.A.” and everything else. Something like “Goodnight Saigon” is “I went to hell, and came back”. (Girls and boys went away, came back! Empty after a weekend–talk on the phone consisted of their hushed voices speaking. Ahem. Yes, I’m glad this is DougJ’s thread.) “Born In The U.S.A.” surrounds that going to hell with the bleakness of what the person who sings it could possibly have expected. Dave Marsh said that it’s hard to find a postwar work of art that admits so directly that the Vietnamese won, but I think “Goodnight Saigon” does say that.
Also “Born In The U.S.A.” speaks to some of Bruce’s broader themes. The disillusionment of the guy in that song and the disillusionment in “My Hometown”, the last song on the record, illuminate each other.
Absolutely, if you have no illusion or no feedback that you are making art, unlike Bruce and Billy Joel, it’s very admirable to give enough of a fuck to do that kind of song in 1985.
Calouste
I won’t disagree that Sussudio sucks, but anyone who thinks that it was the lowpoint of the 80s has successfully managed to brainbleach out Whitney Houston.
cay
I made a mixed tape (the horror) back in ’89, and I had Sussudio on vinyl and ran the needle across the track after a brief intro. I credit that to my husband’s undying love! (That and “Our Lips Are Sealed” at 33). :)
The prophet Nostradumbass
@handy: Are you talking about this? I had always had a level of contempt for Kenny G, but after reading that, holy shit, what a douche.
Gin & Tonic
@gaz:
Probably late in the thread, but I saw him a couple of times at the Jazz Workshop in Boston when he was still a student at Berklee.
Gin & Tonic
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Thanks for posting that link. What a remarkable piece of work.
Old Dan and Little Ann
At summer camp one year my counselor tried to convince our cabin of mostly 8 year old kids that he dated a girl named Sussudio. I knew he was full of shit.
b-psycho
I’m nominating two, because it’s a tie.
Anya
@eemom: You’re never too old for Christmas. I also celebrate Eid (I am a product of a Muslim father and an Episcopalian mother).
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Maybe after few years I’ll stop going crazy. But I find Christmas both exciting and comforting.
Mike G
@Calouste:
Whiney Houston? Ugh. The monster that begat her screamy 90s schlock-offspring, Mariah Carey and Celine Dion.
Throw in Collins/Genesis, Huey Lewis, Bon Jovi and Kenny G and you have a hell’s circle of 80s Corporate Suck Rock.
pseudonymous in nc
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Richard Thompson put those sentiments to song.
Since we’re talking drummers, Janet Weiss is fucking good.
The prophet Nostradumbass
@pseudonymous in nc: Oh, yes, Weiss is pretty damn good. I was indifferent about Sleater-Kinney until my brother dragged me to a concert of theirs in San Francisco (turned out to be just about their last), and oh, my, she’s a fucking monster on the drums.
And, that Richard Thompson bit is pretty funny. Michael Bolton gets some well-deserved derision as well.
handy
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
That be it.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Anya:
Oh I know… I was just saying to enjoy it while you can, we sure as hell did! Now we prefer to bask in the afterglow of that glorious time. It is more than enough to keep us warm at this time of the season. We still do some christmas ‘stuff’, just more focused.
It’s nice not hauling a tree, decking it (and the house) out and buying tons of junk that eventually just gets stuffed somewhere out of the way. I’m enjoying it while I can as we’re sure that will all go out the window if the kids decide to have kids!
handy
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
SK’s still around (mostly).
Satanicpanic
For the life of me I can’t think of more than 5 popular bands/performers that were good in the 80’s. And I can think of at least a dozen great musicians/singers who did their very best to destroy their legacies in the 80’s. No other decade sucked nearly that badly. Was it all the cocaine?
pattonbt
@Veritas: Youre on the whole Romney thing again. Is it a tick with you or something? Do you have Romney Tourettes?
Garbble, garbble, garbble, Romney, garbble, blah, garbble, blah, Romney. Rinse and repeat ad nauseum.
We get it, you like Romney. You like pretty packages of nothingness. Great. Look over there, shiny object! Go get it boy! Have fun.
gaz
@Satanicpanic: *Reagan* and coke.
=P
Greed makes for shitty art. heh.
No coincidence that the mouth breathing fascists lurv this decade so much they want to reanimate the Gipper’s corpse.
Maybe says something that their modern worldview was birthed during one of the most culturally vacuous decades in this country since before we chained up the black folk and dragged them to our shores. (Shit we needed it, for the music alone – not like we could make our own – heh)
Anyway. Yeah. I don’t think the fact that this decade spawned the modern conservative, and the worst music are a coincidence.
JMochaCat
@dmsilev: You win best nickname for a 2012 candidate! May I quote you?
gaz
@gaz: Should have added the word honky in that rant at least twice, in the interest of completeness. oops.
moderateindy
This post actually gives me a little perspective. Now when I wonder how the fuck anybody can think the way today’s modern conservative does, I’ll think about this post. How can anyone be passionate enough about Genesis and Phil Collins to spend that much time thinking and analyzing his body of work. And I don’t even think that he sucks. In fact he has a few decent tunes, but I can’t think of another major act/ artist that embodies the concept of apathy the way Genesis and Collins does.
Ron Paul.I would support Ron Paul, but I’m afraid it may not be constitutional!
Interesting RP story..Last election cycle there was a message board for a local jam band that I follow. One girl was a huge RP supporter. It’s funny, but this hippie band seemed to have a ton of fairly conservative followers, particularly when much of its fan base was fairly young. Anyway, this girl and her husband were basically working poor. She was a big supporter of RP’s ideas and seemed upset that her hard earned money was going to Blah blah blah. Anyway, a while later she was on the board asking for help because she had been diagnosed with cancer. I never had the balls to ask her how she felt about RP and the libertarian ideology after that, but I was curious if she had changed her mind about her hard earned money going to a social safety net or whether she thought that having to go hat in hand to friends, family and strangers when you fell ill and didn’t have insurance was a good way to run a society.
Egg Berry
@Satanicpanic:
See if you can pick 5 off this list.
JMochaCat
@Comrade Mary: On the “Also, too,” maybe Palin has been reading John Norman? “Yet, too, at the same time…”
Martin
@Satanicpanic: The 80s gave us They Might Be Giants. That alone was enough to redeem the decade, just as the 90s gave us Radiohead.
Yutsano
@pattonbt: Noun, Verb, Willard?
(I just made myself ill…)
Mike G
@Egg Berry:
Oh man, I’m having musical PTSD.
What was the guy who founded Whitesnake thinking?
“I want to start a band named after my penis.”
The prophet Nostradumbass
@Egg Berry: That Whitney Houston is on that list at all discredits it for all time.
That Black Flag is down around number 183 is another disgrace.
Egg Berry
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Hey, I wasn’t agreeing with the rankings, just trying to jog the memory.
The Dude Abides
The Oils aren’t even on that list!
PS – I agree with post #231. A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering were still of Gabrielesque caliber. Then Hackett left the band, and it was mostly downhill from there.
Raven
@SFAW: I’m sorry, I meant in the states.
rea
@Amir Khalid: “Phil Collins was the guy who joined Genesis and turned it into a mere pop group.”
He was in the group all along. Back when they were good, he played drums and kept his mouth shut.
harlana
yikes, I hate that song – not a big fan
Lojasmo
@Veritas:
Not familiar with “obambi” but I will be happy to SE president Obama clobber soulless dreck Romney in the general.
Jess Sane
The music I like is the only good music.
Everything else objectively sucks.
SFAW
I did too.
“Israelites”, Desmond Dekker and the Aces, 1968
Top-40-type airplay for awhile (in those days, I hadn’t yet discovered FM radio)
SFAW
Re: Kenny G –
Youse guys better stop bein’ mean to one of the top music-industry personalities of our time!
But thanks for the Metheny and Thompson links, they brightened up an otherwise dreary day.
Hewer of Wood, Drawer of Water
@lethargytartare: You said it better than I ever could have. The only thing I would add is that, like Reagan, Sussudio was a threat to the whole world. We in Canada were also subjected to it
Nethead Jay
@The prophet Nostradumbass: Daamn, that’s a nuclear-level burn :D
S. cerevisiae
The best thing to come out of the eighties was Stevie Ray Vaughn, and unfortunately he didn’t survive the decade (and died in a tragic accident just as he was getting his shit together).
Nemesis
Paulites and American Psycho. Well done, indeed.
kd bart
282 comments and no one posted this:
“Do you like Phil Collins?”
“I have two ears and a heart don’t I?”
-30 Rock
Paul in KY
@gaz: Travis Barker & Neil Peart are both pretty damn good (as is the old drummer for Blondie).
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: 2 bands at Bonnaroo this year used them. One was called Kylesa & I can’t remember the other one.
burnspbesq
@Satanicpanic:
“For the life of me I can’t think of more than 5 popular bands/performers that were good in the 80’s.”
I was fortunate enough to be in law school in Los Angeles from 1979-82. These were the hot, unsigned local bands at the time. Perhaps you’ve heard of a few of them.
X
Los Lobos
The Blasters
Oingo Boingo
Social Distortion
The Plimsouls
Til Tuesday
The Motels
On the other coast, there were Marshall Crenshaw, the Smithereens, The Bongos, the Feelies, Sonic Youth, and Yo La Tengo.
The myth of 80s suckitude is a myth.
not a lawyer.com
Lawyers know shite about music….fuckwads
Alex S.
Rumor has it ‘Sussudio’ is a rip-off of Prince’s ‘1999’.
J.W. Hamner
Like others have said, I don’t think I can really grade my own posts and I don’t really get enough hits nor feedback to have a good indication of “what the people like” for a My Best Post nomination…
However either this one on Thomas Keller’s Fava Bean Agnolotti with Curry Emulsion or The Foodie vs. Gluttons thing were my most popular because of “big site linkage”… the first from a Something Awful forum, the latter from a BJ link by the author of this thread.
mzrad
I’m thrilled about the shark fin ban getting signed into law in California this year.
Did my post help in some small way? I hope so!
http://centralcoastfoodie.com/2011/05/the-fins-of-a-shark/
Datacine
I liked that song the first time it was released, as “1999” by Prince.
burnspbesq
@not a lawyer.com:
I made a record and performed at Lincoln Center while I was still in high school, and paid part of my college expenses as a musician. What’s your CV look like?
Yutsano
@burnspbesq:
Pics or it never happened. :)
/chose not to do music professionally
Jebediah
@burnspbesq:
I saw them on the tv (Guitar Center Sessions?) and the Mike Ness has aged distressed me. His playing seemed OK but he seemed to be skipping words here and there in most songs, I guess so he could get to the end of a phrase more or less the same time as the band. Made me think that when he said he has been clean for decades he perhaps fibbed. But when I saw them ~20 years ago they were great, and were walking around the place after and being very generous with their time in talking to whoever wanted to talk to them.
burnspbesq
@Yutsano:
http://www.proartechorale.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=46&Itemid=57
Good Friday, 1973. St. John Passion, conducted by John Nelson. Avery Fisher Hall.
Also got to sing Carmina and the Bloch Sacred Service that year. Learned more in six months under John Nelson than I did in high school or college.
handy
@burnspbesq:
And nearly all of those were just on this side of the pond.
burnspbesq
@handy:
And just rock. The 80s also gave us the best work by Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas, Tony Rice, and Bela Fleck, and the first records by Alison Krauss and Vince Gill.
Stentor
@Garbo: Every time someone start discussing Phil Collins & the music of Genesis, I can’t help thinking about the movie American Psycho where Christian Bale’s character is doing the same thing while banging those two hookers.