Splotchy's Green Monkey Mix- Speed It Up!

For the last couple of months, I'd been watching from afar as bloggers had fun with the various incarnations of Splotchy's Green Monkey Mix. As I've mentioned, because of my stressful, overscheduled work situation, I didn't have the creative energy to participate. Thankfully, that situation has improved, and I was happy to participate in this round-- "Speed It Up."

The premise was ingeniously simple-- to make a list of eight songs, from slowest to fastest. Here's my list, and thoughts on the songs.

1. Who Knows Where The Time Goes?- Fairport Convention
This slow, beautiful song features the achingly sweet vocals of the late Sandy Denny. You may recognize her voice as the female co-vocal on Led Zeppelin's Battle of Evermore, on Led Zeppelin's fourth album (the one with Stairway to Heaven). A young Richard Thompson played guitar for Fairport Convention.

I've always loved this song, but as I've become a parent, it's really become resonant to me. The other day, I was getting into my truck to run out and apply for a job, when a neighbor asked me for a favor-- he and his wife were bringing home their newborn son, and he asked me to take a picture of them getting out of the car. It brought me back to when my now-ex and I were bringing Adam home from the hospital. I couldn't believe it's been over 13 years. Who knows where the time goes?

2. Flake- Jack Johnson
I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it. I love everything about it-- the story the song tells, the melody and especially Ben Harper's guitar at the end. It's got one of the greatest lines ever: "It seems to me that 'maybe' pretty much always means 'no.'"

This song is one of the two on the list that actually speed up, fitting with the theme of the list.

3. Pablo Picasso- Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers
Some people may be more familiar with the Burning Sensations' cover of it on the Repo Man soundtrack. This is the original.

The first Modern Lovers album is like what John Cale said about the first Velvet Underground album-- there were only a few thousand copies sold, but everybody who ever bought the record formed a band. The album, which came out in 1972, was a huge influence on punk and new wave.

This is also probably one of the top ten funny songs ever. Case in point, the first lines:

Some people try to pick up girls and get called an asshole
This did not happen to Pablo Picasso
He could walk down the street
Girls could not resist his stare
Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole
(not like you)

Rhyming "Picasso" with "asshole" is genius in and of itself.

Drummer David Robinson went on to be a founding member of the Cars, and keyboard player Jerry Harrison was later in the Talking Heads.

4. Free Man In Paris- Joni Mitchell
This song was a late-life discovery. I'd heard it a million times and never really given it any thought. Strange, given that her Hejira album is one of my "desert island" albums. I heard it one day around the time Adam was born and just fell for it.

The song itself is about her old friend music mogul David Geffen, who found himself suddenly rich and successful and a lot less happy. He was, as he said, a free man in Paris. The song tells the whole story.



5. That's All Right, Mama- Elvis Presley-
This was Elvis' first hit record. It's an almost straight-up rockabilly cover of a blues song. I grew up loving Elvis' later hits, like Suspicous Minds, In the Ghetto and Kentucky Rain and as I got older worked my way back to his early career. Whenever this one comes on satellite radio (they play it a lot on Little Steven's Underground Garage) I have to crank it and sing along with it. It's just one of the greatest songs ever recorded.

6. Brand New Cadillac- The Clash-
From the 1979 London Calling record, my favorite-ever record. It's the only song on the record that's a cover. It was originally a b-side on a record by Vince Taylor in 1958. It tells the story of a guy who sees his girlfriend in a "brand new cadillac," and questions her-- where did she get the Cadillac? It's obvious that she's dumped him for a guy with more money (this same theme was brilliantly explored the same year by the Brains in their song Money Changes Everything, which was covered by Cyndi Lauper). In the hands of Joe Strummer and the Clash, it becomes a song about class, wealth, romance and selling out.

The song also speeds up. Some years ago, the Rolling Stone had an issue where they listed what they felt were the 100 Greatest albums ever. London Calling was, of course, one of them. They told the story of recording Brand New Cadillac. It was done on the first take; the members of the Clash thought it was a rehearsal. Strummer begged producer Guy Stevens to re-record it, pointing out that it sped up. Stevens refused, saying it should speed up.

Turns out Stevens was right. The song's become a classic.

You may see the resemblence between the Elvis and Clash album covers. It was not accidental.


Ace of Spades- Motörhead-
This is one of the greatest songs ever.

When I was in college, living in the dorms in 1982, there was a guy on the floor who like listening to the worst pop crap really loud. I mean bad, bad, bad-- he apparently thought Loverboy was the greatest band ever in history, and would play them loud enough for the whole dorm to hear. Again and again.

My roommate and good friend Scott were usually a little hung over, and this did not sit with us well. We decided to do something about it. Scott had an excellent, very loud stereo-- his went to 11-- and we would put on Motörhead's No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith live set to combat the dreck that was being foisted upon us. If that failed, we would play #8 on my list (soon to follow)

Motörhead and the song Ace of Spades were responsible for one of the greatest moments ever in television history, on The Young Ones show. In history's greatest non sequiteur, Motörhead shows up in the boys' living room, play Ace Of Spades and disappear. No context, no explanation.



And don't forget the joker....

8. Religious Vomit- The Dead Kennedys-
If Motörhead didn't work with my Loverboy-loving dorm neighbors, or if Scott and I were just particularly hung over and feeling mean, we'd crank up The Dead Kennedys' Religious Vomit.

When I lived, briefly, in Salt Lake City in 1980-81, one of my housemates, who was from San Francisco, was telling me about a band from San Francisco that was called, get this, the Dead Kennedys. Can you think of anything more offensive, he asked?

Of course not. And of course I became a huge fan. What's better was that their music was even more offensive, to most people, than their name. Jello Biafra and the boys took on all the things I hated-- Ronald Reagan, the Moral Majority, religious hypocrites in general, nazi punk rockers, etc., and I loved them for it.

I fished around Youtube and found this clip of the Kennedys recording Religious Vomit. Enjoy.



Thanks, Splotchy, for sponsoring the Green Monkey Mix, and inviting me to participate!

Gentle On My Mind

I was running errands this afternoon before picking up my stepdaughter, and John Hartford's original version of Gentle On My Mind popped up on my Ipod. As always, I was struck by the beauty of the lyrics, wishing I could write a song a hundredth as good. Glen Campbell had a big hit with the song in the sixties, and used it as the theme song on his television show, the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour.

John Hartford, a bluegrass, country and folk artist, wrote a lot of the music that was used in the Coen brothers movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?. The soundtrack was a huge success-- I think I remember hearing that it was the best-sellling bluegrass album ever. He won a Grammy for his songs. He passed away of non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, which he struggled with for years, not long afterward.

I dug around Youtube and came across Hartford and Campbell duetting on the song, more in the style Hartford did it originally. Thought I'd post it, along with the lyrics to the song, just because I think you need to hear the song.




It's knowin' that your door is always open
And your path is free to walk
That makes me tend to leave my sleepin' bag
Rolled up and stashed behind your couch
And it's knowin' I'm not shackled
By forgotten words and bonds
And the ink stains that have dried upon some line
That keeps you in the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
That keeps you ever gentle on my mind

It's not clingin' to the rocks and ivy
Planted on their columns now that bind me
Or something that somebody said because
They thought we fit together walkin'
It's just knowing that the world
Will not be cursing or forgiving
When I walk along some railroad track and find
That you're movin' on the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
And for hours you're just gentle on my mind

Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines
And the junkyards and the highways come between us
And some other woman's cryin' to her mother
'cause she turned and I was gone
I still might run in silence
Tears of joy might stain my face
And the summer sun might burn me till I'm blind
But not to where I cannot see
You walkin' on the back roads
By the rivers flowin' gentle on my mind

I dip my cup of soup back from a gurglin' cracklin' cauldron
In some train yard
My beard a rustlin' coal pile
And a dirty hat pulled low across my face
Through cupped hands 'round a tin can
I pretend to hold you to my breast and find
That you're waitin' from the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
Ever smilin', ever gentle on my mind

At Least One Happy Ending

My regular readers have followed the ordeal of renovation hell that Kim and I endured this summer, including having no running water for over a week, including no shower or bath.

We appreciate having a modern kitchen and bathroom now, but the contractors my landlord hired were, unbeknowest to him, incredibly stupid. They still have work to do-- loose ends to tie up.

To add insult to injury, at one point, Mr. Kissell, an heirloom that had been in Kim's family for decades, disappeared from the back porch, where it had been hanging. Kim was livid. My landlord asked the contractors workers about it and they denied knowing anything about it. We knew that they must haved knocked Mr. Kissell down; we figured they probably threw him away, hoping, somehow, we wouldn't notice his absence.

Then, a couple of weeks later, Mr. Kissell reappeared, broken into pieces, in a box in the garage.

I went to Target and looked at all of the different glues-- I knew that plastic can be very problematic, even for Superglue. I found one that claimed to work even on difficult surfaces; you had to apply a compound to the surfaces before gluing.

It worked. Mr. Kissell lives.

My in-laws are driving in from Minneapolis for a celebration here in Chicago, and are staying with us. Kim emailed me, asking me to do a couple of household chores before they arrived, and asked if I could rehang Mr. Kissell.

I went down to my toolbox in the basement, dug out a spool of wire I'd bought 15 years ago to hang something else, my hammer and some nails. I threaded the wire through hooks in the back of Mr. Kissell, secured the wire and hammered not one, but two nails into the stud, behind the porch swing.

Now, even the stupidest contractor on god's green earth would have trouble knocking Mr. Kissell down, even if he tried.



While I was at it, I hung the Route 66 sign that our dear friends Greg and Christina got for us this summer. They and their daughter, who is my stepdaughter's best friend, drove as much of the old Route 66 that still exists. Very cool.

After the craziness of this summer-- home renovation craziness, job craziness, going back to college craziness, Mr. Kissell MIA craziness-- I'm looking forward to sitting on the back porch this evening with Kim, my in-laws and a glass of red wine and relaxing. I think I've earned it.

The "Keep Your Fingers Crossed" Friday Random Ten

I may have some good news on the job front. Keep your fingers crossed.

1. Shotgun Blues- Jason and the Scorchers
2. What Goes On- The Velvet Underground
3. Take Me Down To Lovers Lane- Robert Mitchum
4. Calling Dr. Love- Shandi's Addiction
5. Little Bit O' Soul- The Music Explosion
6. The Epic- Pat Metheny Group
7. Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me)- Steely Dan
8. The Usual- John Hiatt
9. Anarchy In the U.K.- The Sex Pistols
10. Bob Dylan- Who Killed Davey Moore?

Notes:
1. Great underappreciated band from the eighties.
2. I somehow missed this song, despite being a huge Velvet Underground fan, until we learned it in a class I took at the Old Town School of Folk music. It's since become a favorite. For all the tawdry content in their music, people forget that VU had a lot of just gorgeous songs.
3. From the great Robert Mitchum calypso album.
4. This is from a Kiss cover album that came out about ten years ago, and belongs in everyone's cd collection.
5. A garage-rock classic from the sixties.
6. I'm not a jazz fan, but love this album, American Garage. Bonus: it has an Airstream on the cover.
7. From Steely Dan's great first album.
8. Bob Dylan did a great, raucous cover of this song.
9. I love the Sex Pistols, but saw recently that Johnny Rotten was claiming that the Pistols were more punk than the Ramones. Yeah, in your dreams, Johnny. Bite me.
10. A classic early Dylan protest song, about a boxer who was killed in the ring.

The Elephant In the Room

A few years ago, an old friend related to me that parable of the "elephant in the room." My friend was talking about coping with an issue that he needed to deal with. The elephant in the room can be many things-- a relationship issue, a substance issue, many things. Every time the elephant moves, he knocks over furniture, breaks things, etc. You spend your whole life righting furniture, repairing things and generally cleaning up after the elephant, all the while not doing what's really needed-- getting the elephant out of the room. I've always liked that analogy, and have found it useful with a lot of situations. There's most definitely been an elephant in my room the last couple of months.

A few bloggers had noted a dearth of blog posts from me the last couple of months. There was a reason for this. I had taken a job at a restaurant in downtown Chicago, which at first turned out to be great. The money was great and I loved the people I worked with. Then things started getting difficult. They had a series of great reviews, which is good and bad in the restaurant business. Good in that it brings in new business. Bad in that it brings in waves and waves of new people. The restaurant struggled to keep up with it. I was being scheduled for two and three consecutive double shifts, as was a lot of the rest of the staff. I was working 50-60 hours a week, in addition to school. All the while, a very hostile management atmosphere was developing. I was exhausted all the time, frequently being scheduled for double shifts without a meal break. I'd get home from a 14 hour day and have dinner at 1:30 in the morning. And then get up at 7:30 to do it again. I was getting worried about making sure I kept up with school, and particularly spending time with Kim and the kids, which was not happening. And of course, I was too tired and uninspired too blog.

A couple of weekends ago, I ended up working a double on a Sunday, despite having requested that day off. I started early, so I didn't get to make my kids breakfast-- a tradition on the weekends. I was scheduled for a day shift and on call for the evening shift. The day shift was very busy, and of course I ended up having to work the night shift. Kim had to drive Adam to my ex's house, and I got zero time with him or my stepdaughter that day. The night shift was hellish-- the place filled up after the Bears game, and I was "in the weeds" as they say in the business, the whole night. And of course, I hadn't gotten a meal break in between shifts, so I was so hungry I was dizzy. I seriously thought about quitting that night.

Two days later, I had an incident with the General Manager that was truly the most bizarre moment of my life. Seriously. I mean, that includes run-ins with nuts and drunks on public transportion in Chicago. The restaurant and I came to an abrupt and unpleasant parting of ways. That's all I'll say about it.

The good: to be out of a job situation that was increasingly chaotic and stressful. The bad: to be looking for another waitering job at the second-to-worst time to be doing so. It's difficult because all of the restaurants are closing their patios with the end of the summer, and have sufficient, or even excess staff. The only worse time would be after Christmas, when business plummets for a couple of months.

Fortunately, I kept my part-time gig at Jury's. It's keeping my head above water. A lot of people have suggested more shifts there, but the problem is that it's a small mom and pop place where people never quit-- I worked there four years before I was finally not "the new guy." I've been picking up shifts here and there, but there's really no chance to go to full time there.

In the meantime, I've got a lot of lines in the water. I'm at a point that I may have to do something drastic, temporarily, like work at Whole Paycheck Foods. I've got kids to take care of.

So, after a couple of months of being too busy and beat to blog, I've been too worried and irritated to blog much, and didn't want to say anything about my situation. Enough of that. I'm spending time every day job-hunting. Sooner or later, I'll be working full time again (hopefully sooner). Aside from underemployment, things are good. I've got a lovely wife, whom I'm sitting with, watching Guys and Dolls with, something we'd long wanted to do. My kids are well. I'm enjoying school. Things will be okay. As my mother is fond of saying, "This too shall pass." We now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.

All The Cool Kids Were Doing It...

Since Beckeye, Coaster Punchman and now Bubs have been waxing nostalgic about the 80's, I thought I'd get in on it.

The summer of 1983, I was having the time of my life. I'd finally changed my major to political science, taking two summer school classes-- "Eastern European Politics and Government" and "Political Parties," which was by taught by Joe Connelly, my advisor and a very memorable guy. I worked in the food service of a dorm, so I had money for the first time in my college career, and was developing the friendships that would turn out to be lifelong, including the one with my friend Mark, who died last year.

In 1983, MTV still actually played music videos. This was one of them: China, by New Orleans natives The Red Rockers.

Am I A Bad Person For Laughing At This Story?

I sure hope he didn't plan on ever cooking food again on his grill.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21088150/from/ET/

Just Wondering...

On Friday night, after the blogger extravaganza, I came home and Army of Darkness was on American Movie Classics. I watched the last half hour or so of it, despite the fact that it's on my Netflix queue.



A couple of thoughts. First, I liked it a lot better than the first movie, The Evil Dead (I haven't seen the second one), and look forward to seeing the whole movie. I thought Army of Darkness was pretty damned funny. The second thought was wondering what percentage of people who saw it got the joke about the magic words at the end-- "Klaatu barada nikto"-- that they were the words said to Gort the robot in The Day the Earth Stood Still.