I’ve noted a couple of times as I have worked through the original 30-Day Song Challenge and The Sequel how powerfully I associate music with family and my childhood. If you’d grown up where I did, you’d perhaps understand why the movie Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? was more than just a really good comedy. The soundtrack was loaded with
Read moreThe guy can’t sing (phrasing, anyone?) He can’t write songs. And while I’ve heard guitarists defend him, I’ve personally never seen or heard him play anything that strikes me as being more than sort of marginally competent. I would ask you to explain to me what the big deal is, but I’m afraid you’d try. So here’s a song by
Read moreThis morning, a pop quiz. One question. Compare and contrast the following two videos. First video (the money shot begins around 0:13).
Read moreEvery once in awhile a story comes along where it’s impossible to fathom what the fuck somebody could possibly be thinking. Usually it’s something political, but today it’s sports. In case you haven’t been tracking along, FIFA, the governing body of world soccer, has been swamped with corruption allegations of late. It began with the decision to award Copa 2022
Read moreDr. Jack Kevorkian has died at the age of 83. Kevorkian, who claimed he had helped about 130 people to kill themselves between 1990 and 1999, died at William Beaumont hospital in Michigan, close friend Mayer Morganroth said. Nicknamed Dr Death, Kevorkian came to prominence in 1990 when he used his homemade “suicide machine” in his rusted Volkswagen van to
Read moreWell, Tim Tebow’s new memoir is out, and it’s being joyously welcomed by those who think that sanctimonious 23 year-old jocks have something important to say about life. I got to hear some deep thoughts on the book and on the admirable life of young Tebow from the crew of The Stupid Show as I drove around yesterday afternoon, and
Read moreHere’s one I’ve been waiting on. Few things reveal more about a society than its music. Plato explained that when modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the state change with them. Argue chicken and egg on this if you like, but Jimmy Swaggart bitched about it and Pop Will Eat Itself sampled his rant in the intro to
Read moreI’ve always felt strongly attuned to Nathaniel Hawthorne’s famous short story, “Ethan Brand.” The title character forsakes his life to search the world for the unpardonable sin. He finds it. It ends badly for him. The nature of the sin? He remembered with what tenderness, with what love and sympathy for mankind, and what pity for human guilt and woe,
Read moreWinning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing. – Vince Lombardi I would prefer even to fail with honor than win by cheating. – Sophocles If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying. – Variously Attributed Ask yourself is it right or wrong and act accordingly. – Otto Graham There sure has been a lot of news about cheating in sports lately,
Read moreIt’s Memorial Day weekend. As we honor our fallen, let’s also reflect on the larger question of war and on the reasons these dead heroes are too often asked to give up their lives. S&R invites our readers to offer their own favorite poems of war and memory. Or stories. Or personal recollections. Whatever. I’ll start. This one, from Yehuda
Read moreWhen we think about rock & roll and its various derivative styles, we pretty much think of the US and UK. And why not – just about every thread of the popular music universe has arisen in one of the two countries. But when you invent something cool, everybody is going to want to play, which is why you can
Read moreWhen we’re kids we like the damnedest things, don’t we? There was a moment, I guess during the summer of 1972, when my two favorite songs were the Jackson 5’s “Rockin’ Robin”…
Read moreSo many places I haven’t been, so many places I want to go, so many songs about places. But I guess the place I haven’t been that I want to see the most is Scotland. My favorite Scottish artist is Fish. And as he sings here, when he was still with Marillion, he was born “with a heart of Lothian.”
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