Well Bless Their Heart

Hey, there! I was looking at blogstats and noticed that you dropped by. 'Sorry I missed you because there is so much I'd like to say: how my respect for your candidate has diminished with each passing day, how ineffectual your tactics have become, how desperate your choices appear, etc.

Come back soon.

October 10, 2008 Earworm

Longer than the landmarks that it conjures in my mind, "Driver's Seat" by Sniff 'n' The Tears still reminds me of night time journeys in someone else's car, usually speeding downtown on Baltimore's I-83, the Jones Falls Expressway, passing the soda distribution plant with its giant Suburban sign with it's iconic golfer forever trapped in mid-swing and a self satisfied grin and the London Fog factory, with it's creepy clock tower that always seemed to be waiting for a circle of bats. That clock tower terrified me as a child for reasons only a little boy could explain and that no one else would understand and I would bury my face in my coat as we approached the bend in the highway that would bring it into view.

By the time "Driver's Seat" was all over the airwaves, I would no longer need to cover my eyes, but I still found myself glancing at the tower anxiously, as if some unseen action by the Scooby Gang might cause my adolescent fears to come alive. But if my heart were still pounding, it was in anticipation of what was waiting for me downtown, where I-83 - my expressway to freedom - ended. And what was waiting for me would guarantee that I would never find myself forever trapped in mid-swing and a self satisfied grin.

Now, grab an Almond Smash, get in the driver's seat, and get the weekend started.

How's that, Kmatt? 'Been on JFX lately?

October 09, 2008 Earworm

The shock of seeing Chrissie Hynde fronting a whole new set of Pretenders on the Today Show was quickly overshadowed by the fact that the song they performed, "Love's A Mystery", made me want to drive to the store to buy the new album, "Break Up The Concrete". This excitement for a new Pretenders' release hasn't happened for me since 1994's "The Last Of The Independents" was previewed by "Night In My Veins"*.

This time out, the album is touted as a flirtation with rock-a-billy which is true but the real point is that Chrissie's cut to the chase and returned to the basics that made the first Pretenders album so entertaining. Oh, and they've thrown in some weeping country guitar.

"Love Is A Mystery" tries to tell us that it's harder now for couples to stick together than in the past which is an odd thing to hear from a woman who has more than thirty years of failed relationships behind her. Yet it's probably that history that allows her to toss off a long over-due classic Chrissie lyric like "Lovers of today are becoming too well versed - 'get the feeling you're on the stage, badly unrehearsed" in her typical matter-of-fact fashion, and still sounding as though she already has her eyes on her next potential co-star.

Good show.

*the single for "Night In My Veins" contains one of the best versions of "Angel Of The Morning" that I've ever heard.

October 08, 2008 Earworm

Time marches on and those of us just reaching the age where we begin to recognize exactly what that means are either grabbing on to door frames in a frantic attempt to slow it down just long enough to think it through. Unfortunately, time is having none of that "let me 'process' this" bullshit, smug in its knowledge that we're all over-dramatizing as usual and that the situation is not "make or break" because, well... it just doesn't work that way. And time is like Carrie, Freddie, and Jason; it keeps coming back.

Having left so much behind in my life, I've given up on trying to reclaim it all. There's just not enough room. So, I make lists in my head where the worst and the best of any particular scenario are noted and I look for the lesson in the former and then try to grab the impetus for the latter for later use. I'd like to report that this is working beautifully and life is just falling into place but I'm far too neurotic for that. But it is better since I've begun this approach to facing down (gasp) middle age.

Jason Collett looks too young to be dealing with such thoughts but "Hangover Days", from his 2005 album "Idols in Exile", is doing just that. The memories of the beginning of a romance are beautifully whittled down to a few key points - "it was in your basement apartment, with all of it's earth and sea" - until they no longer justify the effort it takes to withstand the changes that time has wrought.
No, it isn't easy this way, but it is easier.

"Killing time but it won't stand still".

October 07, 2008 Earworm

(pictured above: Otis Redding, Johnny Daye, Steve Cropper)

This is practically cheating but today's earworm is "What'll I Do For Satisfaction" by Johnny Daye. After listening to Janet's "What'll I Do" for the eleventy-hundreth time, I began playing Johnny's track almost as many times.

Johnny Daye was white soul singer from Pittsburgh with four singles under his belt - two on Johnny Nash's Jomad label and one on Philly's own Parkway - before being taken to Stax by Otis Redding in 1967. I've not had the pleasure of hearing his earlier cuts but I am hard pressed to imagine that they could be any better than what was found in the grooves of Stax 238 and 0004 (the follow-up, "Stay Baby Stay", which should have re-defined blue eyed soul).

Johnny Daye apparently retired from singing after 1968, most likely falling by the wayside at Stax after the death of Redding. In 2007, his vocals were featured on two songs on the solo album by former Jaggerz/Q member Robert Peckman, receiving much praise and hope for more material to come. Personally, I'd like to hear a duet with Lynda "What A Man" Lyndell...

October 06, 2008 Earworm

The background chatter of Palin and Biden last week was constantly disrupted by my co-worker's building excitement for Janet Jackson's concert, scheduled for Sunday, October 5th. As Janet's "illness" caused more and more shows to be canceled, we teased him every few days by telling him that we'd just read that she'd canceled Atlanta as well. As the joke wore thin, his response finally became little more than, "If you jinx this, I'll put a curse on you...", followed by various threats to our health. Having found every album Miss Jackson* has released this decade to be boring, I was able to avoid the hype until Friday. Pulling out "Control", "Rhythm Nation", and "janet" and all the associated singles, remixes, etcetera, I went to work with the notion that our small, shared workspace would be filled with enough music to keep the co-worker, and the day, moving to a quick conclusion. Sadly, a meeting scheduled for one hour turned into one lasting more than four, and by the time it was over, I was too busy to notice what was playing.

Of course, Janet canceled. I feel bad for the guy because I remember how great the tour was for the "Janet" album. It was so good, in fact, that after seeing the show I immediately bought a ticket for the next nights performance. Like Madonna, Janet may not be the best dancer or the best singer, but it didn't matter because modern day divas do not give concerts in the traditional sense; they put on spectaculars in which the music merely serves as fuel for the narrative. To some, this is the scourge of rock and roll, but I stopped caring about the ideology of rock and roll long ago and, if I'm going to bother seeing an act in a giant arena, I know I'm going to pay a giant price and for it, I expect more than a strobe light and a laser. Besides, there are thousands of bands with barely enough funding to plug in their amps playing thousands of dives at my disposal should I find myself wanting to get close and personal to "credibility".

So, now I've got a head cold, suggesting that a jinx and a curse may be more powerful than I'd thought, and I've been unable to get "What'll I Do" out of my head. Combining an awesome 1967 Stax flop, "What'll I Do For Satisfaction" by Johnny Daye, with a bit of The Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction", it's by far my favorite track from the "janet" album and the one which comes the closest to traditional rock and roll that she ever got. Considering that the original material was created by various white soul boys, this should surprise no one, but how deftly the singer handles the material is shocking. There are none of her little girl whispers or mannerisms here, it's all delivered with a directness that points directly to the vacant spot that needs filling yet avoids being vulgar by never actually showing her hand. To me, it's her finest four minutes and the last time that she wasn't tiresome.

"What'll I Do" was not released as a single in the states but in other territories it was the ninth (ninth!) single to be pulled from "janet". Unfortunately, it's success did not prompt her to further explore the terrain she had conquered.


*because I'm nasty