Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. XXXI--Al Green: Take Me to the River

This is how great Al Green is (other than the whole being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame/Named as one of Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time/Considered one of the greatest soul singers ever couple of thingies):  I had one hell of a time deciding on which tune of his to use for Friday Night Jukebox.  I started out with "Tired of Being Alone" because it was the song that made me an Al Green fan.  Then I changed my mind to "Let's Stay Together" because it's Green's signature song.  I finally decided on "Take Me to the River" because--and I hope this doesn't sound like too much hyperbole--it's about as close as music can get to a religious experience (it also didn't hurt that the Talking Heads did one of the best cover versions of any song ever--gave me two great versions to listen to this week).

The Reverend Al Green (and yes, he truly is a Reverend preaching still in Memphis, TN) had a relatively short (1969-1974) run of his greatest critical and commercial success (though Green has recorded numerous gospel and secular albums through the years).  But what a run it was--as noted above, he is regarded as one of the all-time soul/pop/rhythm and blues greats, taking soul vocals to an altogether 'nother level.  The suicide of a woman he was having an affair with in 1974 turned Green toward the ministry and a 1979 injury while performing live completed his calling to a greater glory.  Green released nothing but gospel albums for well over a decade before returning to his soul roots, but never achieved success like his early years.

Released in 1974 on his Al Green Explores Your Mind LP (and what a great album title that is), "Take Me to the River" was not released as a single (alas, no bullets this week).  It still became well known, boys and girls, because back in the day radio stations used to play what were called "album cuts"--songs from LPs that were worth the listen even if they weren't your typical Top 40 fare (though the Talking Heads did manage to take it to #26).  The song begins with the Reverend Green dedicating it to his cousin Junior Parker over a driving rhythm section (drums and a wonderful bass line) which is soon followed by an overarching organ which envelops Green's fervor.  And Green's vocals only soar from there, mixing in some nice horn work from the Memphis Horns, until you reach the point where you understand where the Reverend is coming from:  love can indeed be a spiritual awakening.  Green closes the song repeating the phrase "Wash me in the water" with that great guttural evocation that only great soul singers can pull off and leaves you feeling that you've been dunked in the baptismal waters of the River Jordan.

Yup--I really love this one.

And all of which leaves me "Feeling good!"

Enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee

The man in the mirror

Mike Huckabee, this past weekend, told Fox News that President Obama's Iran deal would march the Israeli people "to the door of the oven."   President Obama responded to Huckabee's ignorant comment by saying it would be "ridiculous if it weren't so sad."

President Obama's later excoriation of the republican party was spot on, because it is indeed really sad that Mike Huckabee has zero chance to be our next President but when his charade of a run is over the chickenshit former governors of Arkansas will go back to making millions of dollars as a political pundit and writing really bad books.  Meanwhile, millions of kind and decent working class Americans will continue to struggle financially living paycheck to paycheck if they can pay their bills at all.

Republicans constantly whine about what's wrong with America.  If they really want to know what's wrong with America they should take a good fucking look in the mirror--the fact that it pays to be an asshole is neither a noble nor a particularly proud American concept

Peace,
emaycee

Scott's walking papers

Not wanting to miss a chance to show he'd be just as inept as Jeb! Bush at running this country, Scott Walker declared last week that he would be ready to bomb Iran on the first day of his Presidency.

Don't know about you, but it seems to me that Wisconsin isn't nearly far enough away from the White House.  Maybe we can deport him?

And Walker is supposedly one of the republicans' "serious" candidates.

Peace,
emaycee

Jeb!'s bush league week that was

I continue to believe that, in the end, Jeb! Bush will be the republican nominee for President in 2016.  But he is doing his best to turn me into a non-believer (and probably has Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton salivating at the chance to run against him):

• In a week when good news about Medicare was released, Jeb! decided to push Paul Ryan's bullshit voucher program, at a Koch Brothers sponsored event, no less.  Fortunately for the rest of us who aren't Koch Brother toadies, there was a nice elderly woman at a townhall that told Jeb! to blow it out his ass.
• Jeb! also penned an op-ed this week highlighting his "new" plan to save the country--which it turns out, is pretty much a rehashing of old republican ideas which worked so well for his big brother.  Other than that whole Great Recession, two disastrous wars, Hurricane Katrina response, asleep at the wheel on 9/11, couple of thingies.
• And just to close it out, Jeb! proclaimed that the whole police killing scores of African-Americans, as is being pointed out by the folks at Black Lives Matter, is actually an attack on white people.  Heaven help us all....

And with each passing day, Jeb! continues to make Mitt Romney look like an astute and media savvy candidate.

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. XXX--They Might Be Giants: Don't Let's Start

How many song titles, do you suppose, are there that start with back to back contractions?  I spent about thirty seconds on it, and came up with zip.

Hard to believe that it's been nearly twenty years since They Might Be Giants released their debut album, entitled, surprisingly enough, They Might Be Giants.  While technically a band, the duo of  John Flansburgh (guitar) and John Linnell (vocals/multi-instruments) have been the heart and soul of They Might Be Giants.  The quirky band has had a long and fruitful career--spanning more than two decades, they won a couple of Grammy Awards, released children's albums (the Beautiful Boy loved all three of them--have to admit I kind of liked them, too), and had a few gold records along the way.  They're probably best known for their uptempo cover version of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" (#61--with a bullet!--on the Billboard Hot 100), and their oddball music videos.

"Don't Let's Start" was the first single ever released by TMBG--and what an auspicious start it was.  While it had no chart success (neither did the album) the music video of the song (it was #89 on MTV's Top 100 Videos of All-Time in 1999--admittedly a double edged sword award) gained TMBG a few fans who would eventually turn into a devoted following.

As for the song itself, it's filled with staccato bursts of jangly guitars, some driving drum beats, and the gutturally nasal (um, is such a vocal possible?) vocals of John Linnell.  The lyrics have been described as dark/depressing, but the band cautions reading too much into them (they claim the lyrics were often devised just to match up with the melody).  Funny thing about the melody, though--for such somber lyrics, the music sure is upbeat (as are Linnell's vocals).  To tell you the truth, this is a very hard song to pinpoint--which is probably what makes it so great.  That and a couple of my all-time favorite lines:  "No one in the world ever gets what they want/And that is beautiful/Everybody dies frustrated and sad/And that is beautiful."

I'm really not a very maudlin person, but those are just a couple of great lines in so many different ways.

I have no idea what "Deputy dog dog a ding dang depadepa" means but it ranks right up there with "Coo coo ca-choo" ("I Am the Walrus"/"Mrs. Robinson") for brilliant rock lyric gibberish.

Enjoy (actually a pretty great video, too):

Peace,
emaycee

You can't make this shit up, Part II

Of Donald Trump, Rick Perry said this week, "Let no one be mistaken:  Donald Trump's candidacy is a cancer on conservatism, and it must be diagnosed, excised and discarded."

He also said, "I will not go quiet when this cancer on conservatism threatens to metastasize into a movement of mean-spirited politics that will send the Republican Party to the same place it sent the Whig Party in 1854:  the graveyard."

Concerning the first quote, if republicans excise the wing of their party that Donald Trump appeals to they are going to end up (as Perry notes in the second quote) in the graveyard.  That's the base of their party, for Christ's sake--they'd be a shell of a political party without them.

As to the second quote, Perry acts as if "mean-spirited politics" from republicans is something that began with Donald Trump.  Where the hell has Perry been the last thirty-five years?  Try these incendiary republicans:  Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay, Dick Armey, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Steve King, Ted Cruz, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Laura Schlesinger--and that's just off the top of my head.

One supposes that  "mean-spirited politics" only matters when it makes republicans a national laughingstock.

Peace,
emaycee

You can't make this shit up, Part I

Scott Walker last week called the Minimum Wage a "lame idea."

Words spoken by a man who has made his living from the taxpayer teat and Koch Brothers largesse and never actually had to support a family on $7.25 an hour.

As Chris Rock once said, Minimum Wage means "...if I could pay you less, I would."

Peace,
emaycee

Oh me oh my oh, it's the Governor of Ohio

Ohio Governor John Kasich became the umpteenth republican to join the race to be their party's nominee for the Presidency in 2016 touting his ability to beat Democrats in a right-leaning swing state, though how this would translate into his beating Democrats in blue states or other swing states he didn't say.

Kasich faces an uphill struggle as he's polling around 1% and isn't well known outside of political geeks and the good folks of the state of Ohio.  There are those who think Kasich may be the best candidate republicans have (considering the field, that's really not saying that much) because he's somewhat moderate (Kasich accepted Obamacare's Medicaid expansion) and often talks about our duty to help the poor.  Unfortunately for Kasich, Think Progress was right there to remind us that Kasich ran in 2010 as a Tea Party candidate and is your typical conservative, and Digby was also there to tell us that if Donald Trump had chosen not to run. Kasich would be the front runner for the biggest nutjob in the race.

Combine that with Ohio's lackluster economy under Kasich's command, and you have yourself another bozo who will not be the next President of the United States..

Alas, Kasich is probably the last major republican to announce for the Presidency, depriving us all of the opportunity to say to ourselves, "Ooh, another republican candidate--wonder how incompetent this dipshit is?"

Good times.

Peace,
emaycee

Base comments

In a shocking turn, Donald Trump made headlines again this weekend with his controversial comment concerning John McCain not being a war hero because he was captured.

Let's leave aside the facts that a) it's Donald Trump, for Christ's sake, and b) any republican acting outraged is guilty of of rank hypocrisy in light of their band-aid stunt with regard to John Kerry's war record at their 2004 convention (one of the most heinous acts I've seen republicans commit, and that's really saying something because they specialize in heinous acts), Trump's comments concerning McCain's war record are his modus operandi thus far in the campaign.  He is only trying to appeal to the republican base, and the republican base absolutely hates John McCain.  McCain is and always has been a moderate on immigration, his name is front and center in the McCain-Feingold Act, which tried to reform campaign finance back in the days before Citizen's United made corporations into people, and worst of all his half-assed campaign put the black guy in the White House.

It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if his poll numbers went up in lieu of these comments.  It's not enough for republicans to have their party members just be republicans--you have to be a racist, human hating, corporation loving, science hating imbecile or you're just not good enough to be one of them.

Peace,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. XXIX--The Pretenders: Brass in Pocket

So it's Saturday instead of Friday--don't shoot me, I'm only the piano player....

Anyhoo, every now and again you come across a song that gets even better with age--for me, one such song is this week's tune, "Brass in Pocket" by The Pretenders.  I usually listen to a song two to three times before I write each week's Friday Night Jukebox, and the smile on my face tonight as I listened had to be worth at least a thousand words.

But you'll have to settle for this.

Released in 1979 on their debut album, entitled appropriately enough, The Pretenders (and for my money one of the best debut albums I've ever heard), "Brass in Pocket" was the third single released from the album mostly because Chrissie Hynde didn't much care for it.  Despite her misgivings, it would go on to reach #14 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100--and probably remains their signature song.  Sadly, original guitarist James Honeyman-Scott (who co-wrote the tune with Hynde) and original bassist Pete Farndon would both die drug related deaths by 1983.  Nevertheless, the Pretenders went on to have a long and successful (and continuing) run, including being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.

I can usually hear about two strums of Honeyman-Scott's guitar and recognize that the song playing is "Brass in Pocket."  It's really fairly simple guitar--jangly, rhythmic, and its almost as if (much like the singer of the song ) the guitar is making a bold pronouncement.  The heart and soul of "Brass in Pocket," though, is Chrissie Hynde's vocal (and it's not nearly the only Pretenders' song for which this is true).  Confident, defiant, soulful, arrogant, plaintive--and still yet, a touch of vulnerability touches the listener as well.  I tried hard today to think of a female rock vocalist who is better than Chrissie Hynde, and I couldn't.  She's as good as I've ever heard.  And on no song do her vocals shine brighter than "Brass in Pocket." As the song states, she most definitely is "so special."

For those wondering, "brass in pocket" is a British slang phrase referring to having cash on your person.

Because I live in metro Detroit, I'm going to use the line "...Been driving, uh, Detroit leaning..." for this week's lyric link....

Enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee

Back to the future

"This bill opens the door and invites the entrance into the political field of a power so vast, so powerful as to threaten the integrity of our institutions and to pull the pillars of the temple down upon the heads of our descendants."--Congressman James Wadsworth (R-NY)

Another Obamacare rant?  Nope--Rep. Wadsworth was lamenting the Social Security Act (Social Security--the most successful government program in our history--turns 80 this year) in 1935.  Has a familiar ring to it, though, don't you think?

The republican party:  continually wrong for 80 Years.

Peace,
emaycee

Beam me up, Scott

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker declared his candidacy for the republican nomination on Monday, surprising absolutely no one, and promising to be a leader who will fight and win for us.

One thing is for certain:  Walker has the republican facade down pat--presumably the Wisconsin Governor said he would fight for us with a straight face knowing full well that (as his record in Wisconsin clearly shows) he's going to fuck over working class Americans every chance he gets.

Walker is running on the kinda/sorta Chris Christie position that he can beat Democrats on their own turf, winning the governorship of a state twice that hasn't voted for a republican Presidential nominee since 1988.  Unfortunately for Walker, neither of his victories was prohibitive in decidedly republican years, and that doesn't bode well for him in years when Democrats turn out in big numbers.  He's also patting himself on the back for knocking those pesky unions for a loop--which did absolutely nothing for Wisconsin's economy.  Walker's Wisconsin ranks 35th in job growth and has had a decided drop in household income during his tenure.  Not to mention that Walker fought so hard for public employees that they've seen a 10% drop in their pay--any wise opponent, be it Democrat or republican, is sure to point out that ordinary Americans would prefer he take his boxing gloves to some other fucking country because none of us can financially afford to have him "fighting" for us.

Methinks, though, in the end what will kill Walker, at least nationally, is that like Chris Christie, he's an asshole.  Even worse, he's a wimpy asshole--he's always given me the impression that he could be easily bitch slapped by kindergartners.  He's just so fucking pasty.

Peace,
emaycee

Eight years of stupid was enough, thanks

“You don’t have to be the world’s policeman, but we have to be the world’s leader — and there’s a huge difference,” Bush said. “This guy — this president and Secretary Clinton and Secretary Kerry – when someone disagrees with their nuanced approach, where it’s all kind of so sophisticated it makes no sense. You know what I’m saying — big-syllable words and lots of fancy conferences and meetings — but we’re not leading, that creates chaos, it creates a more dangerous world.”

Because the stupid his big brother gave us with the debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan worked so well--sticking us in two quagmires and taking away much needed economic resources for a whole hell of a lot of nothing.  "Stupid is as stupid does" works fine as a line in a movie, but as a basis for U.S. foreign policy?  Not so much.

Good to see, though, that Jeb! is continuing to do well in his quest to run a campaign with more spoken gaffes than Willard "47%" Romney.  Jeb! is well on his way....

Peace,
emaycee

Yes, yes it does

Phil Mickelson ( who, after his last political debacle--whining about paying taxes after getting paid millions to hit a little ball into a hole with a stick--you'd think would wise up and stay out of political debates) said this week that Donald Trumps racist comments didn't negate all the good he's done for golf.

Leaving aside the inflated sense of importance Mickelson conflates with hitting a little ball into a hole with a stick, this is akin to saying "Just because Hitler killed six million Jews doesn't take away all he did to help Germany rebuild its economy during the Great Depression."

Bank robbers don't get a pass on their jail sentence because they once helped a little old lady across the street, and Trump doesn't get a pass on his racism because he built a fucking golf course.  Period.

Peace,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. XXVIII--Outkast: Hey Ya!

The Beautiful Girl had a birthday this week (can't say which one, but suffice it to say I wish I was still that young) and while tonight's tune bears no resemblance to us and isn't romantic in the traditional sense, it was the first new release (at the time) that I remember us both liking.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning it ain't.

Released in 2003 by Outkast on the double/split/separate solo/whatever you want to call it album Speakerboxx/The Love Below (Speakerboxx was Big Boi, The Love Below was Andre 3000),  "Hey Ya!" went on to top the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks (and I believe it's the first song featured in Friday Night Jukebox to reach # 1--most definitely with a bullet!).  It also won a Grammy and has been featured in numerous best songs of the 2000s lists.  And deservedly so.

I remember the first time I heard it thinking "What the hell is this?" (in that good "holy shit, this is amazing," kind of way), and flipping through radio stations in the days ahead trying to hear it again and again.  The song itself is hard to describe--it's a little bit funk, a little bit rock, a little bit pop, a little bit gospel--and somehow Andre 3000 managed to squeeze an acoustic guitar in there as well.  His vocals alternate between vibrant, questioning, playful, and exultant.  And--emaycee favorite!--the chorus is repeated often.  "Hey Ya!" is one of those singles that is a true marvel for not only its originality but also for its spontaneity.

Fun Fact:  Back in the day when I was still managing a Camelot Music store, Outkast did an in store appearance at one of the stores I ran.  While both Big Boi and Andre 3000 were thoroughly baked. they were most welcoming, kind, and above all, humble in their greetings of the myriad of young folks that came to see them.  Bravo, gentlemen!

For those wondering, no, I have never shaken "...it like a Polaroid picture."  And you wouldn't have wanted to see it even if I had....

Happy Birthday, Beautiful Girl!

Enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee

Idiot idea #2

Jeb! Bush is shooting for a 4% economic growth rate during his Presidency, and the way we're going to do it is by having American workers work more hours, and in turn, this would increase our pay.

Been there, done that, and got screwed in the process.  We already work more hours than everyone else in the rest of the world,  have raised productivity to all-time highs, and all we have to show for it is wage stagnation

Short response:  Fuck You,  Jeb!

And should the Democratic nominee in 2016 be Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, their campaigns should absolutely hammer Jeb! Bush over this comment until he's back in the dark cave from which this horrid idea originated.

Peace,
emaycee

Idiot idea #1

In their never ending quest to show just how much they don't care about the American people, the republican party just keeps putting forth bad idea after bad idea.  First up--Marco Rubio's economic plan which calls for helping people pay for college by selling themselves to private investors.  In a nutshell, students would have their tuition paid for by an investor, who would in turn take a percentage of their pay after college (Rubio calls for 4%) until the debt has been paid.

Leaving aside the fact that the idea reeks of indentured servitude (what is it with conservatives doing all they can to ensure Americans are working in some sort of slavery?),  the first major problem I see with it is with extreme conflicts of interest.  Can you imagine the potential pitfalls with a pharmaceutical magnate investing in a host of doctors?  Wall Street investing in business students conducting research on labor?  Please, we working class folks get fucked enough without stacking the deck even further.

The second major problem I see is...how exactly does this help the folks who need it most?  It's easy to imagine a host of investors wanting to underwrite Harvard MBA's and Yale law school students and Johns Hopkins medical students, but what about the man or woman going to BFE Tech who wants to be a nurse or an elementary school teacher?

Frankly, this idea floated by Rubio is just another in a long line of republicans puckering their lips for the wealthy elite while simultaneously trying to boot the rest of us in our collective asses.

Peace,
emaycee

Greeks bearing a gift

Make no mistake--today's overwhelming victory for the no vote on further austerity measures in Greece is huge.  While I don't pretend to understand all of the ramifications (there is a nice primer on the Greek economic situation here), I do know this:  the banks basically told the Greek people that they were going to have to accept a new economic reality wherein they were going to have a permanently reduced standard of living, and the Greek people said "fuck you" to the wealthy elite to the tune of 61% to 38%.  It was basically a chance to vote to make rich people even richer or tell them to pound salt up their ass.

The Greeks chose wisely.

Conservative economic principles have failed on a massive scale in Greece (and pretty much throughout the world) and today they were called to the carpet and given a boot in the ass for their pathetic efforts.

Mark my words:  this has the potential to be a huge turning point for the poor, the working class, and the middle class, and one day we may very well be thanking the Greek people for their courage.

Peace,
emaycee

All around me a voice was a-sounding

I've been trying to find a spot to put this video for months--the Fourth of July seemed like an appropriate time because nothing says America quite like two old hippies (Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir) from the Grateful Dead joining forces with a Latino rock band--the incomparable Los Lobos--to sing and play Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land."  Replete with a sax solo and some mean accordion playing to boot....

From July of 1989, when I was still a very young man--Happy Fourth, and enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee

Checks, balances, and idiots

Yet another example of how ignorant the republican party has become:

Genius Bobby Jindal, overcome with grief between the Supreme Court upholding Obamacare and making marriage equality the law of the land (never mind the fifteen thousand decisions the Roberts' Court has handed down that were pro Corporate America), suggested this week that we could save money by disbanding the Supreme Court.

Ahem.

Not sure about Gov. Jindal, but I, back in the days when I was in junior high, was taught about the three branches of our government--executive, legislative, and judicial, for our republican friends--and the sheer brilliance of our Founding Fathers by creating checks and balances between the three so that any one of them could not run roughshod unilaterally over the American people.

Apparently to Jindal, the Founding Fathers were only competent when they were making America a Christian nation based upon the Bible.

Peace,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. XXVII--X: 4th of July

Truth be told, I'd never heard "4th of July" by X until last year on the Fourth of July--Digby featured it in one of her posts and I gave it a listen.  My first reaction was...not exactly being overwhelmed.  But for whatever reason the chorus was running through my head when I awoke the following morning and I gave it another listen.

Needless to say, upon further reflection it turned out to be a hell of a song, and I've spent the past year getting caught up on a lot of lost listening time.

Released in 1987 on their See How We Are album, "4th of July" is a burst of roots rock wherein the protagonist, in the midst of a fading relationship, is seeking one more chance and wants his lady love to take a walk outside because it's the Fourth of July.  Bolstered by rock solid and plaintive vocals from John Doe, the stylings of Exene Cervenka on the chorus, some driving drumming, a dandy bass line, and some pop, pop, pop guitar work, "4th of July"is both a eulogy and a celebration of relationships and all they provide.

Much like our Fourth of July is both a eulogy and a celebration of America....

And as the chorus reminds us, "Hey, baby, it's the fourth of July...."

Enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee

Five for fighting

Jim Webb joined the race for the Democratic nominee for President in 2016 today, becoming the party's fifth candidate and leaving us ten behind the republicans.

We've got our work cut out for us if we're going to catch up.

Webb announced without much fanfare, using only a written note on his website.  Webb appears to be seeking the votes of those who like their candidates dull, with undistinguished careers in Congress, and with very little to offer the Liberal wing. While Webb does have a Liberal bona fides or two (opposed the Iraq War, criticizes the role of money in our politics), he is more or less a Blue Dog Dem and they are currently going the way of the dinosaur and the dodo bird.  Like Lincoln Chafee, he seems intent on knocking down Hillary Clinton a peg, which ought to endear him to many Democratic primary voters about as much as Donald Trump.

Fortunately for Webb, Bernie Sanders joined the race and in about six months Jim Webb can go back to doing whatever it is the Jim Webb's of the world do with the rest of their lives.

Peace,
emaycee