Today's Happy (?) Hour Soundtrack

A couple o' tunes and a random thought or two.  First, Colbie Caillat...

I won't do what you told me
I won't do what you said, no
I'm not gonna stop feeling
I'm not gonna forget it
I don't wanna start over
I don't wanna pretend that
You are not my lover
That you're only my friend

That was me ten years ago.  We've grown up a lil bit since then*.  And then there's this...

Isn't this the best part of breakin' up
Finding someone else you can't get enough of
Someone who wants to be with you too

It's an itch we know we are gonna scratch
Gonna take a while for this egg to hatch
But wouldn't it be beautiful

Here we go, we're at the beginning
We haven't fucked yet, but my heads spinning

Why can't I breathe whenever I think about you
Why can't I speak whenever I talk about you
It's inevitable, it's a fact that we're gonna get down to it
So tell me
Why can't I breathe whenever I think about you

Oh, damn.  There it IS.  I was gonna go off on this tangent about how and why is it that heartbreak songs outnumber those that celebrate "true love" (if there is such a thing) by a factor of at LEAST 10:1.  That ratio is based upon today's Happy Hour soundtrack, which was the Joan Osbourne station on Pandora.  And further... I didn't keep an actual count of the songs, it's just a gut-feel sorta thang.  I think I'm erring on the conservative side as well, because if I really go with my gut I'd say the heartbreak songs outnumber songs celebrating love by a factor of 20:1.  But that's just me, and we're ignoring what Ms. Phair said.

We digress.  I think Miz Phair hits on it... the feeling one gets when one is caught up in an irresistible attraction and that feeling is prolly the demise of most relationships.  I've been on both sides of this phenomenon and neither side is pretty: someone always gets hurt.  It really makes me wonder why the hell we go through this shit but I think that's mostly a function of age.  It's much easier to let it all go... to give up the chase, to accept solitude... when you've got one foot in the grave.  Yet still... so much to lose, so little to gain.  Why?

*Which is only a small lie.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Oh, baby... it don't get no better than this:

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster from an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go 

Yeah.  A hard way to go, indeed.  But what a brilliant tune. 

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Faces...

Oh Cindy ain't you noticed 
that several of your friends have moved on
And the street outside is just a little too quiet
And your local paper's run out of news
I'm not persuading you or disengaging you
But Cindy you and me we've got to move

Faces weren't a band of any great significance but they WERE one of the best party bands, evah.  Loose, mebbe much too loose, but as I said: one for the Good Times.  I think Rod Stewart's gigs with Faces were his finest hour (outside of "Every Picture Tells a Story")... they beat the shit outta that "Great American Songbook" krep.  IMHO.

And yeah... we've run outta news.  Didja notice?

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

I will be your father figure (Oh baby)
Put your tiny hand in mine (I'd love to)
I will be your preacher teacher (Be your daddy)
Anything you have in mind (It would make me)
I will be your father figure (Very happy)
I have had enough of crime (Please let me)
I will be the one who loves you
till the end of time

Is all.

I Think I'll Pass

I saw this on the Shoebox blog...

A whole bunch of artists are doing brand new, totally different renditions of Bob Dylan songs. Kind of like Dylan does every time he plays them.

And then I trotted off to investigate.  The first few paragraphs of the review... and it IS a review... had me thinkin' "no frickin' way."  No way in HELL, to be frank.  I detest hip-hop or rap or Urban Whatever and the very thought of one of those asshat "artists" desecrating what is dear to me makes my skin crawl.  Then I had a "waitaminnit" moment as I read on.  A couple of 'em, actually... like these:

The savviest musicians here flip Dylan's messages for their own aims, just as Dylan reappropriated protest songs by civil rights heroes. Celtic-rock stalwarts Flogging Molly take on ''The Times They Are A-Changin' '' -- which itself was inspired by Irish drinking songs -- and reclaim it for Dublin. Sinéad O'Connor recasts 1981's born-again ''Property of Jesus'' as a fiery church-reform anthem. And Carly Simon smartly plays ''Just Like a Woman'' as a feminist ballad. When she sings ''You break just like a little girl,'' it sounds like she's telling Dylan to man up.

[...]

By contrast, Kronos Quartet and Philip Glass sound almost revolutionary on their gorgeous, avant-classical ''Don't Think Twice, It's All Right,'' the only song that appears twice here. It takes major innovation (and some musical-saw interludes) to create a wholly original take on an artist who reinvents his own songs every time he plays live.

Interesting... yet those artists still ain't enough to make me pay the freight.  There's simply too much possibility for too much disappointment.  Make MY Dylan Dylan, please... straight up, no ice, no mixer.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack (And Some Miscellaneous Ramblings)

The musical equivalent o' Comfort Food (The Wiki, she has EVERYthang)...

Take it easy, take it easy
Don't let the sound of your own wheels
Drive you crazy
Lighten up while you still can
Don't even try to understand
Just find a place to take your stand
and take it easy

Comfort Food...which is easy to eat and it makes ya feel good.... and I suppose it's the same with Comfort Music.  I actually heard the Eagles version o' this tune earlier but I much prefer Mr. Browne's original version, seein' as how I'm one of those Sensitive Seventies Kinda Guys (the comments to that post are pretty interesting, btw).  Or I used to be, at any rate.  Not so much, today.

But.  Comfort Music are the sorta tunes where ya know ALL the words and ya have this tendency to sing along, which we did, of course.  And the Eagles version of the tune ain't half bad, all things considered.  Ya pays yore money and ya makes yore choice.  I LOVE this tune, as it seems to remain relevant after all these years.  Time was when I really had "seven women on my mind" but that's not quite the case any longer.  But I've found a place to make my stand and I'm definitely takin' it easy these days.  More so than I prolly should, actually.

―:☺:―

 

A few Random Notes...  We spent the better part of our day cleaning house before adjourning to the verandah for Happy Hour this afternoon.  Which was mainly because we were graced with a three and a half hour visit yesterday with Isabel, the two-year old daughter of our neighbor.  And her babysitter, of course.  Our living space is not quite child-proof, which necessitated extreme vigilance on my and the babysitter's part(s) lest Young Isabel cause damage to herself on the many sharp glass-and-chrome edges that abound in El Casa Inmóvil de Pennington, and there are many.   Said glass and chrome is also very susceptible to lil fingerprints and other such tarnishing, and that was what we spent some time cleaning up today.  It must also be said that Young Isabel, despite all our attentiveness, managed to whack herself on the noggin by spinning one of my bar stools on its axis and not QUITE getting out o' the way when the bar stool was in close proximity to her head... which resulted in a fairly large bump on the young girl's head and much wailing and crying.  But no serious damage was done and I managed to make it better with a kiss or two.  Imagine that, if you will.

 

I think I've acquired a surrogate grand-daughter.  Imagine that, yet again.  Imagine also that her mom might come along.  Yeah... there's a fantasy I can live with!

 

―:☺:―

 

So... I noticed Miller Lite has a new ad they're running and it begins with words to the effect of "there's a place for strong dark beer but on the other six days when you want sumthin' lighter..."   Wrong.  I can sorta relate, from a cigar perspective, coz there ARE days when I want sumthin' other than a full-flavored, robust maduro or the like.  But BEER?  Frickin' NEVER.  I'd rather drink Perrier than Miller Lite or its bros-in-arms.  As a s'matter o' fact I'd be hard-pressed to tell the difference between Perrier and "light" beers with the possible exception of Blue Light, but there's an exception to every rule.  Miller makes some pretty cool ads, but this ain't one of 'em. 

Wherein I Play the Proud Grandpa

Grandson Sean in his first public performance... at his high school's talent show:

As captioned by SN1 on The Tube O' You:

Jack, Caitlyn and Sean play Norwegian Wood...Starts out kinda rough, but gets better after they start singing. Focus is restored quickly. First video...let me know what you think!

Sean is sitting, on guitar and vocals.  The performance took place on the evening of 1/19/2012.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

We were in a country sorta mood, so here are two songs from Mile Marker 383...

Telephone Road is ten miles long
Fifty car lots and a hundred honky-tonks
Jukebox blastin' and the beer bottles ring
Jimmy banging on a pinball machine 

Come on come on come on let's go
This ain't Louisiana
Your Mama won't know
Come on come on come on let's go
Everybody's rockin' out on Telephone Road 

and...

I got sixteen days
one for every time I've gone away
one for every time I should have stayed
you should have worn my wedding ring
I got sixteen days
fifteen of those are nights
can't sleep when the bed sheet fights
its way back to your side

the ghost has got me running
the ghost has got me running
away from you, away from you, away from you.

I've got both of these tee shirts... bein' as how I spent a couple o' few weeks in Houston in the way-back and then there's that "16 Days" thang, about which: yeah.  Several times.

We had such a brilliant day here on The High Plains o' New Mexico today, a rare day in which I could open all the windows AND the door without the fear of bein' invaded by 1,267 flies, and that's because the cold winter nights have killed off all those pesky critters.  Which also allowed me to listen to my own record collection, which was a Great Good Thang.  I mean... Pandora is great and I love it to death, but there are times when ya wanna hear exactly what ya wanna hear.  No?

Hey, Norman!

Why not?  It's only an 11 hour drive; if I leave NOW...

Speaking of... last night's win in Dallas puts the Beloved Wings at the top of the Western Conference by a single point and just one point behind Noo Yawk for the league lead.

LGRW!

"Dee-troit, Dee-troit... gotta helluva hockey team*..."

*Paul Simon's original not available on The Tube O' You.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

We haven't done this for a while...

And I've dropped out, I've burned up, I've fought my way back from the dead.
I've tuned in, turned on, remembered the things that you said
I'll be your crying shoulder,
I'll be love's suicide
I'll be better when I'm older,
I'll be the greatest fan of your life.

This is one of the better "one hit wonders" in my lifetime.  The Deity At Hand knows there are hundreds... if not thousands... of these one-hit artists out there but this tune resonates me with me.  Powerfully.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Just because we haven't shared our soundtrack of late doesn't mean we've been without one.  Oh, no... there's always music in our life, even if it's only in our head.  This tune was part o' today's abbreviated outdoor Happy Hour, abbreviated because (a) we got a late start and (b) it was three clicks to the right o' "chilly."  But... here's what we were listening to:

That's the Ann Peebles version of a song Etta James does best, and it was Etta we were listening to today.  Alas, the Tube o' You doesn't have a suitable version of Etta doin' the tune, only a couple o' poorly-recorded live versions.  But Miz Peebles does an entirely credible version of the song, as you may have noticed.

I've been privileged to see Etta James on a number of occasions, the most memorable o' which was in a small pub in Camden Town (in London) back in the day, which is to say sometime during 1980 - 1983.  When I say "small," I mean SMALL... as in "could mebbe seat 100 people, with another 50 standing."  The Second Mrs. Pennington and I arrived at said pub about two hours before show time in order to secure seats before Etta's performance, knowing full well how small it was from previous experience with that venue.  The end result was we were both very well-oiled by the time Etta took the stage (and I use the term "stage" loosely)  but that did NOT diminish the experience in the least.  Miz James did two sets that night, if memory serves, and that evening was one of my very best musical experiences... which included the opportunity to say "hi" and thank her personally for her performance.  It don't get no better than that, Gentle Reader.

Oooh! And Aaah!

From the Usual USAF Source:

Wake Up to the Rhythm: Neatly tucked away on shelves in Wake Island Airfield's base operations building, airmen uncovered an immaculate trove of 9,000 vinyl records—the 1970s collection of Wake's former radio station. Inconspicuously locked behind a door stenciled with the station's call letters KEAD, "it's a little time capsule," said Colin Bradley, a communications contractor. "I have not run across a collection that well preserved or that intact in my career." Originally provided by Armed Forces Radio and Television Service to entertain the troops, the island's 611th Air Support Group detachment is working to send the unique collection back to AFRTS in Virginia for preservation. Requiring an estimated $10,000 worth of packaging and 75 16-inch boxes to ship, the records will complete AFRTS' local museum collection, with any extras headed to the Library of Congress or National Archives. (Wake report by Capt. Amy Hansen)

Wow.  This lil item rings bells with me seein' as how I did a short stint (not quite a year) as a deejay at an AFRTS affiliate station (a very loose affiliate) in Sinop, Turkey back in the '70s.  Our station... KBOK (which was a play on words, "bok" bein' Turkish slang for excrement)...  received between $50 and $100 every quarter to buy records from the base exchange and YrHmblScrb was in a position to buy a lot of those records.  That money went a LONG way back in the day, seein' as how yer average LP only cost two and a half Yankee Dollars back then.  

Our station library was at least as large as Wake's and I took the opportunity to "borrow" records on a daily basis and tape them on my reel-to-reel recorder, an endeavor that produced about 100 reel-to-reel tapes with an average of five albums per reel.  It's too damned bad that I was "under the influence" during most of those taping sessions, coz the resulting tapes were mostly over-modulated and nearly un-listenable, in retrospect.  This, of course, was during the Golden Age of rock 'n' roll and I scored me some mighty fine music during that year.  Those tapes still exist... along with my Revox A-77 tape deck... and are in the care of SN2.  Mebbe I'll retrieve 'em some day.

Bare Trees, Gray Light

That's today.  Cold, too... and the first thang I thought of when I opened the blinds and looked out on the world was this:

I was alone in the cold of a winters day
You were alone and so snug in your bed

Great album, this... which is before Buckingham & Nicks came along and ruined the band for me.  I'm a party of one in this regard (as usual) because prior to B&N's arrival Fleetwood Mac never had much success, compared to what they had after Lindsey and Stevie joined up.  If ya wanna take that thought further down the line I much preferred the Mac's first incarnation, when they were a pure blues band.  They certainly have had more than a few changes over the years.

But... back to Bare Trees and Gray Light... I said it was cold, dint I?  Well, it IS:

Winter's beating down the freakin' door.

December

Already?  Yeah... already.

December promise you gave unto me
December whispers of treachery
December clouds are now covering me
December songs no longer I sing

Except for this one.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

We're listening to "The Very Best of Linda" this afternoon...  and the tune below is but one of the cuts on this most excellent album.  I love Linda's singin' but I can't handle her politics.  It's a great good thang that I can keep her singin' and her politics separate, innit?  But we digress...

It's so easy to fall in love
It's so easy to fall in love
It's so easy to fall in love
It's so easy to fall in love
Oh-ooh It's so easy to fall in love

No.  No, it's not.  You don't know what the f*ck you're talkin' about, Darlin'.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

We're listening to Hall and Oates' "Abandoned Luncheonette" this afternoon and the temptation is strong to post the Usual Suspect from this album...

The most well-known track from the album is "She's Gone," one of the act's best-loved songs; Daryl Hall, according to some reports, has called it the best song he and John Oates wrote together. Both performers were undergoing romantic problems at the time the song was written; a 1985 article in Rolling Stone said the song was about Hall's divorce from wife Bryna Lublin.

While "She's Gone" did not become a hit when first released as a single, the song gained momentum from two later covers, one by Lou Rawls, and one by Tavares. After the latter cover topped the Billboard R&B chart in 1974, the original was re-released and became a Top 10 pop hit in 1976, reaching #7, while the album reached #33. This song was included in Hall & Oates's 1983 greatest hits compilation, "Rock and Soul," as well as in numerous other compilations.

But we won't.  Let's do this, instead...

Were you ever so in love 

You couldn't wait to get to sleep and dream  

About the one you wish was there beside you 

In the past few days I've grown 

To love your giggles on the phone 

And how we hug so nicely 

I didn't grow to love her giggles on the phone at that time (mainly coz neither one of us HAD a phone), but I sure as hell "knew her better then."  About which... If you read the above quote from The Wiki carefully you'll note "She's Gone" became a big-ass hit in 1976, which prompted me to purchase "Abandoned Luncheonette" and kicked off a long running love affair, in a couple o' ways.  The first and most obvious is my love of Hall & Oates' music, the second is the fact that The Second Mrs. Pennington and I were in the middle of the beginning of our courtship and 23-year love affair in 1976.  "Abandoned Luncheonette" got a LOT of airplay in our house during that year and on down thru the following years, for the memories that's in it.  That said... it's pretty hard to listen to "She's Gone" these days.  Still.  After all these years.  For obvious reasons.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

We're still mucking about in the archives and today we played Pete Townshend's White City album, which is where this song comes from...

I want the first call on your kiss
Answer me one question:can you promise me this
I want my defences laying in your hands
I don't want to rest in the palm of another man
I don't want your secondhand love

We won't go into the deeper meaning, if any, of the lyrics to this tune... I like it for its instrumentation and melody, not to mention Townshend's impassioned vocals.  Let's just say I relate and leave it at that.  I relate to the entire album, actually.  "White City" came out a couple o' years after I left Ol' Blighty but the song-cycle resonated with me (and still does), given as how I'd passed White City any number of times when driving into London from my home in High Wycombe... and on the tube, of course.  White City was and prolly still is one of those "no-go" zones you find in any large city in the industrialized world and I never ventured into the place, kinda like certain areas of Dee-troit, which calls up more of those "I can relate" feelings.

Still and even: one of Townshend's best efforts.

―:☺:―

 

Comin' up later: Hockey Night In Portales (and Leavenworth, Kansas), wherein the Beloved Wings (4-0) face the hapless Blue Jackets (0-5-1) at The Joe.  Tonight's game is as close to a gimmee as the Wings have had in this young season and I'm anticipating a victory.  The Wings will be tested tomorrow night, however, as they play a back-to-back game against the Caps, in Washington.  I watched the Caps (6-0) methodically take apart the high-flying Flyers (4-1-1) last evening and they thoroughly thrashed the Flyers... it wasn't even close.  I got a great deal o' satisfaction out o' that game; it pleases me GREATLY to watch Pronger lose.  Yea, verily: Schadenfreude Я Us.  And speakin' o' Schadenfreude... there was more o' the same in last night's nitecap as I watched... gleefully... the 'Hawks (4-1-1) paste the Hated Avalanche (5-2), at home in their barn.  I dunno what to say about a team that can win five games on the road, only to come home and lose.  Again.  What to do?  Play more games on the road?  I guess...

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

Some Grateful Dead...

If a man among you
Got no sin upon his hand
Let him cast a stone at me
For playing in the band
Playing
Playing in the band
Daybreak
Daybreak on the land
Playing
Playing in the band
Daybreak Daybreak on the land

I'm a Deadhead... sorta.  By that I mean I have a LOT o' the Dead in the library but I never really followed them on tour.  I DID attend their concerts back in the day when said concerts were within a couple o' hundred miles o' me, where ever I might have been.  That means I drove a couple hunnert miles down to the Bay Area when I lived in southern Oregon, yadda, yadda.  Today?  We pulled Volume 11 of "Dick's Picks" out of the archive and settled back with a couple o' brewskis and a Kuba Kuba to enjoy the sultry afternoon zephyrs.  And we thought a bit...

Which brings us to this:  why in the Hell can't we get a candidate for President of these United States who answers the mail for ALL of our issues, and not just some?  Ron Paul is prolly the poster child for this sorta sentiment, in that I really LOVE his Economic Plan but get off the bus when it comes to his Libertarian isolationism.  By that I mean THIS makes a lot o' sense:

Cuts $1 trillion in spending during the first year of Ron Paul’s presidency, eliminating five cabinet departments (Energy, HUD, Commerce, Interior, and Education), abolishing the Transportation Security Administration and returning responsibility for security to private property owners, abolishing corporate subsidies, stopping foreign aid, ending foreign wars, and returning most other spending to 2006 levels.

But then he screws the proverbial pooch by sayin' shit like this: 

Avoid long and expensive land wars that bankrupt our country by using constitutional means to capture or kill terrorist leaders who helped attack the U.S. and continue to plot further attacks.

[...]

Follow the Constitution by asking Congress to declare war before one is waged.

These things, on the face of it, sound entirely reasonable until one examines them in the context o' Rep. Paul's further comments, such as taking issue with the killing of al-Awlaki.  I won't deny that there are "issues" there and I've linked to discussions about such in the past.  And then there's the matter of "sound money" (a return to the gold standard?  As if...) and all that Federal Reserve bullshit.  Those sorts o' things sound unhinged, to be polite about it.

The same goes for the sole Libertarian candidate in the race... Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson.  Some o' his stuff resonates with me, like ending the monstrously stupid "War On Drugs."  Stuff like this:

First up, Johnson said, would be an executive order removing marijuana from schedule I (the category containing the most highly addictive and harmful drugs). "Because I would be controlling the federal agencies, including the DEA," Johnson said, "I would do everything I can to defang the DEA." Later in the conversation, Johnson was asked if he would issue an executive order pardoning non-violent marijuana offenders. Johnson acknowledged that the U.S. had pardoned nonviolent violators of the Volstead act after the repeal of prohibition, and said, "I think that same thing is called for with legalizing marijuana." 


He called the DOJ letter ordering dispensaries to shut down "Obama's letter," because "the president of the United States controls all the agencies and the attorney general is appointed by the president of the United States." And that despite the coming crackdown, "We have a to celebrate this week with a poll that came out saying that 50 percent of Americans now support legalizing marijuana. We can say now we’re on equal footing with those who argue for the status quo."

That makes sense and Johnson is one of the very few politicians who has the guts to come right out and say it.  But like Rep. Paul, Johnson screws the pooch with his neo-isolationist bullshit and his opportunistic visit with the OWS asshats, among other thangs.

Am I out o' step here?  Why is it I can't find a candidate with what I would call a firm grasp on reality?  I don't know whether I should worry about the country or worry about myself.  But I have a good idea.

Tonight's ADWH Soundtrack

We're just in from After Dinner Whiskey Hour which was quite chilly this evening, Gentle Reader.  To wit:

Now 52 degrees ain't exactly cold, but it was enough to send me to the closet for a wool shirt and also made me abandon my usual and customary bare feet for shoes... for the warmth that was in it, yanno?  Which got me to thinking... I prolly might want to invest in one of these and fairly soon, too.  For winter she's a comin' and we can feel the chill.  But we digress... we should be on about the music.

About which, more Joan Osborne:

As I walk this land of broken dreams,
I have visions of many things.
Love's happiness is just an illusion,
Filled with sadness and confusion.
What becomes of the broken hearted
Who had love that's now departed?
I know I've got to find
Some kind of peace of mind
Maybe.

It may seem sacrilegious to cover an icon of a Motown song and Jimmy Ruffin fans may or may not agree.  Me?  I think Ms. Osborne's cover meets and even exceeds the original, in all respects.  This, my friends, is soulful indeed.

The Brain Works In Strange Ways

Well, mine does.  Blog-Bud Lou happened to mention today that she really liked the word "onomatopoeia" but there are precious few occasions when one can use it.  So the very FIRST thang that came to my mind?  This:

I swear to The Deity At Hand I hadn't heard that song in at LEAST 11 years (I have the album it's on, but said album is vacationing in Pennsylvania).  But Hey!  How many other songs are there where the chorus is a repeated "Onna, Onna, Onomatopoeia?"  None that I know of...

―:☺:―

In other BIG news... I'd mentioned in passing that I was gonna get a new teevee as my old one, while entirely adequate for the small space that was El Casa Móvil de Pennington,  was underwhelming in my new and larger digs. Like this:

Watching hockey on that tube was OK... but.  Underwhelming.  So it came to pass last evening that SN1 rang me up to tell me granddaughter Monique was downsizing and looking to get rid of her one-year old big-ass teevee at a VERY good price and would I be interested?  "Well, yes," sez I... "lemmee go look at it."  Cutting right to the chase, a little over an hour later Diego and I were drinking beer and watching the Red Wings dominate Vancouver on this monster:

It was Diego's very first hockey game and I may have made a convert.  As for me... watching hockey on a 53-inch 1080p HD teevee is almost as good as bein' there.  Really.