Unfortunately (and I truly hope I'm wrong), to me it's beginning to look more and more like Democrats are going to be having a couple of big sads in the next couple of weeks. With Murkowski and Collins looking more and more like yes votes on republicans' Let's Fuck The Middle Class Tax Cuts, and Roy Moore pulling ahead of Doug Jones again in Alabama, we may be in for a karmic bite in the ass after our big victories across America earlier this month.
If they should come to pass, remember this: Democrats are going to have a field day in 2018 (and likely 2020) with ads all across America reminding Americans that republicans passed a wildly unpopular bill, and as if that wasn't enough, that they supported a child molester to help ensure they could give tax cuts to the richest of the rich Americans. Americans overwhelmingly support raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations, and unless there's a sea change in America's moral fiber, I'm pretty sure that even more Americans, amazingly enough, aren't too fond of pedophilia either.
Trump may have unwavering support among his base, but they only make up 30-35% of Americans--that leaves a good 65% of Americans to open a can of whoop ass on republicans in next year's mid-term elections.
And poof...control of the House will be gone, and with it, any chance of Trump accomplishing anything for the last two years of his Presidency.
Donald Trump tweeted today about the U.S. Senate race in Alabama and said that Democratic candidate Doug Jones was a "Schumer/Pelosi puppet." If that means A) He's not a child molester, B) He doesn't want Vladimir Putin to be the President of the United States, and C) He's not going to give our hard earned dollars to rich people, I think we all should be Schumer/Pelosi puppets.
Truth be told, my love affair with this week's tune began the first time I heard the chorus, when the word "dancing" was rhymed with the city of "Lansing." Whether this was because I live in Michigan, or because it's incredibly clever, only the Gods of Pop Music know for sure....
The Magnetic Fields are the brainchild of one Stephin Merritt, and were formed in 1989. Merritt is an offbeat songwriter, and the band helps to showcase his lyrical talents. Near as I can tell, the band has had zero in the way of what would be considered mainstream musical success--no hit singles, no million selling albums, no Grammy nominations let alone awards, and no record breaking world tours. Nevertheless, they've released eleven albums over the course of their twenty-eight year career, the latest being released just this year. Their album 69 Songs (which oddly enough, features 69 songs spread over three CDs, including this week's tune) is considered their best album and was released to extreme critical acclaim in 1999, including finishing second in the hipster's newspaper of choice, The Village Voice, year end Pazz and Jop poll. The three CD box set sold a whopping 83,000 copies (still 83,000 more CDs than I've ever sold). Sadly, they are another in a long line of bands that had their been world enough and time, I may have become a huge fan of, but I'll settle for having heard their delightful 69 Songs album, and the joy it brought me for months on end.
"Nothing Matters When We're Dancing" was never released as a single, though if it could have been transported back to the 40's or 50's and been given to Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett or Nat King Cole it probably would have rocketed up the charts. Featuring a deliciously strummed ukulele (another of those not oft used instruments that in the right place can take a song to another plane), Merritt's distinctive baritone, and some oh so perfect harmonies in the chorus, the song tells the tale of two old lovers lost amongst each other as they dance to the last song of the night in some old dilapidated dance hall. I'd be the first to admit it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea--a balls out rocker it ain't--but every time I hear it it adds a little sunshine to my day and I'll be singing it over and over for days on end. Sometimes a pretty song is just a pretty song....
Lyric Sheet: "And nothing matters when we're dancing/In tat or tatters you're entrancing/Be we in Paris or in Lansing/Nothing matters when we're dancing..."
The journey that The Carpenters took as a band, from syrupy sweet, goodie-goodie, middle of the road musicians that none of the cool kids listened to, to a band that was covered (mostly excellently) by a number of alternative acts on If I Were a Carpenter(that many cool kids listened to) was most certainly not the road most traveled. And I would be remiss if I didn't admit that I pretty much followed the same path with their music--in their heyday I thought their music was pure shit, but as I've aged, I've come to appreciate just how good of a pop band they really were.
Formed in the mid-sixties in Southern California, brother and sister Richard (piano and producing) and Karen (drums and lead vocals) Carpenter had a hell of a run until the early eighties. Between 1969 and 1981 they would release ten albums (five of which went platinum), toured extensively (performing over a hundred per year between '71 and '75), and for most of those years, it was hard to go more than a month or two without a hit Carpenters single on Top 40 radio. Over the course of their career, they would sell over 100 million records, win three Grammy Awards, have 3 #1 singles, five #2 singles, and numerous gold and platinum albums. Sadly, as is often the case, fame took its toll--Richard developed an addiction to Quaaludes in the late seventies, and Karen suffered from anorexia nervosa, complications from which would lead to her death from heart failure at the far too young age of 33 in 1983. As noted above, their legacy has grown exponentially through the years--Richard for his production skills (I'd always thought he was window dressing for his younger sister, but after doing my half-assed weekly research, I realized he was really the brains behind the group's success), and Karen for her other worldly vocals. Petitions have been started to get the band inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but supposedly they're not rock and roll enough for the Hall--as compared to those balls out rock and rollers and Hall inductees Abba and Madonna...
Fun Fact: Early in their career the Carpenters took a job on Main Street in Disneyland playing 20's music in one of the shops. As time wore on, folks would ask them to perform more modern numbers, which the Carpenters gladly obliged. Unfortunately, this did not please the folks running Disneyland, and the Carpenters were fired for being "too radical." Betcha Black Sabbath never got fired from an amusement park...
Released in 1971 on their oh-so-cleverly named Carpentersalbum, "Superstar" would go on to reach #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 (it couldn't surpass Rod Stewart's classic "Maggie May"). It was written by Bonnie Bramlett (of Delaney and Bonnie fame) and Leon Russell (of Leon Russell fame), and has been covered by artists too numerous to mention--though the Carpenters version is considered the definitive version.
"Superstar" tells the lonely tale of a groupie sitting at home listening to her love interest on the radio and wishing he were with her--which, as is often the case in the life of a groupie, ain't gonna happen. From the song's beginning--a yearning oboe (an oboe! this is why I love music so much--who'd ever think of an oboe in a pop song?), to the yearning horns, to the yearning orchestra, to Karen's Carpenter's yearning vocals--it's a song about, well, uh, yearning. There's a nice back and forth between the slow pace of the stanzas which builds to the crescendo of the chorus (which, by my unofficial count, holds the record for the most uses of the word "baby" in a chorus: seven)--but in the end it all works because of Karen Carpenter's wondrous vocals. She captures the sorrow and resulting loneliness of unrequited love about as well as any pop singer ever has, and it turns what could have been a desultory song into a classic about love, music, and loneliness.
Lyric Sheet: "Your guitar, it sounds so sweet and clear/But you're not really here/It's just the radio...
There's just no way around it--his sexual assault charge by Leanne Tweeden is colossally unbecoming and while his second apology is better than his first, in the end we as Democrats are running in post Donald Trump's victory elections on the idea that we represent American values better than republicans. We're not racists. We aren't misogynistic. We respect the LGBQ community. We're the party of inclusiveness, not assholishness. Franken has betrayed this and without his swift and decisive removal we are going to appear to be just like republicans. Party before country.
And that doesn't even cover what it means to the women in our party, who quite frankly, deserve better than what Franken has done.
A quick resolution will show that we don't and we won't tolerate such behavior.
So, apparently Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump that Russia didn't meddle in our last Presidential election, and despite the overwhelming evidence from our intelligence agencies, Trump told reporters this past weekend that he believed him.
Trump is either the dumbest son of a bitch to ever hold the office, or he just doesn't give a shit about the future of America or Americans.
Either way, for all of its faults, right now the Democratic Party and its leadership is all that's standing between America and utter catastrophe.
Angered by the fact that Keurig, the maker of fancy coffeemakers, had pulled their advertising from Sean Hannity's shitty Fox News show because Hannity defended known child molester and current Senate candidate from Alabama, Roy Moore, republicans have taken to making videos of themselves smashing Keurig's coffeemakers.
You know, for a party that prides itself on being the party of Big Business, it's followers really don't know shit about how to run a business...because I can guarantee you that Keurig made exactly the correct business decision in pulling their advertising, as surprisingly enough, there isn't a business school in the world that teaches that supporting pedophilia is good for business.
Even worse, these idiots are telling the world that they personally think child molesting is A-OK. Seems to me like something that their employers and neighbors would certainly want to know....
Every now and again a song comes along that literally within 30 seconds completely blows you away and you know that you are going to adore said song for literally the rest of your life. Such was the case for me with this week's tune--though it was about twenty years after its release (and for the umpteenth time, thanks to my beautiful daughter for burning a copy of it for me). I was a fan of the band prior to this song (especially their album Tim, and the singles "Merry Go Round" and "Talent Show'), but this song--and its complementing album--made me a fanatic.
The Replacements formed in 1979 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and would go on, much like the Ramones to punk rock, to be one of the forefathers of alternative music. Unfortunately--again just like the Ramones--this would translate into very little commercial success and the band was disbanded by 1991 (though they'd have the obligatory--unless it's The Jam--reunion tour in 2012). In some ways the band was its own worst enemy--the Replacements developed a reputation for being very inconsistent with their live shows and were known for playing (badly) while piss drunk, as well as performing shows where they'd play nothing but half-assed cover versions of songs by artists like the DeFranco Family and Bryan Adams (they so pissed off Saturday Night Live with a drunken shit show in 1986 that they were permanently banned from the show) . In the end, they managed six albums, were considered a great live band when they were in the mood, and settled for being one of the most influential bands to come out of the 80's, though lead vocalist Paul Westerberg has had a modicum of success on his own (his "Dyslexic Heart" was featured on FNJ earlier this year).
Released in 1984 on their Let It Bealbum, "I Will Dare" was the first single from the album, and both album and single went absolutely nowhere commercially. But like Vincent Van Gogh and his paintings, time was much kinder to the song and the album's legacy--"I Will Dare" is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll (though the band itself--is there no justice?--is not), and Let It Be is listed at #241 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and regularly makes top ten lists for albums of the 1980's.
Fun Fact: For those wondering, the Replacements titling of the album as Let It Be is both an homage to the Beatles and a big fuck you to the music establishment. The band seriously considered naming the follow up album Let It Bleed (classic Rolling Stones' album, for those not familiar), but for unknown reasons chose not to. If nothing else, the Replacements had plenty of chutzpah....
Fans of Friday Night Jukebox (both of you) will recall that emaycee loves him some jangly guitars and "I Will Dare" is awash with them (courtesy of Peter Buck, who himself at the time was the lead guitarist of another up and coming band, REM). Westerberg provides some cocky lyrics and a scowling vocal (he can scowl with the best of the scowlers--Jagger, Dylan, Joe Strummer, and Mr. Johnny Rotten). He also plays Mandolin on the song. The rest of the band powers the song's swagger, providing the drive and the bop til you drop catchiness of the single. In the end, it's a coming of age wonder of the brashness and boldness of youth, as performed by a brash and bold band coming of age itself--three minutes and nineteen seconds of the best that rock and roll has to offer.
Lyric Sheet: "How young are you/How old am I/Let's count the rings/Around my eye..."
Enjoy (and know that the whole album is most definitely worth your while):
The devil gets his due: for the first time since 1989, Democrats have won the Virginia governorship, the New Jersey governorship, and the race for mayor of New York. We picked up at least twelve House seats in Virginia, won both the Lt. Gov. and AG elections there as well, won the special election in Washington state (giving us control of all three legislative branches in both New Jersey and Washington state), and passed the Medicaid expansion in Maine.
It doesn't quite make up for last November's election debacle...but it's a fucking good start.
We're returning to the British Isles again this week (so many cool kids in England!) for a band that has had great commercial and critical success there and even less commercial success in the states than recent Friday Night Jukebox inductee Keane (or The Jam or The Waterboys....).
The Kaiser Chiefs originally formed in 2000 as Parva, bounced around with one LP for the next three years, and after being dumped by their record label, reinvented themselves as the Kaiser Chiefs and rose to meteoric success in their native U.K. They've released six albums, two of which went to #1, two of which went to #2, and one each that went to #4, and #10 on the UK Albums chart. Here in the states they've only managed to put two albums on the Billboard 200 (and both peaked at middling spots--#45 and #55). They've won three Brit Awards, had an album nominated for the Mercury Prize (a sort of British Pulitzer for English and Irish LPs), a #1 single ("Ruby"), and have toured extensively since their major label debut in 2005. All told they've sold over ten million albums and carved out quite a niche for themselves in their homeland.
Released in 2005 on their first album as the Kaiser Chiefs, Employment, "You Can Have It All" was actually the fifth single released from the album in the U.K., and was never released as a single here in the good old U.S.A. (and we're all the poorer for it). The U.K. single was actually a special limited edition Christmas release and was limited to 2000 records--needless to say, if you ever come across this baby in some used record shop, buy it! Some Brit kid will probably give you good money for it...
While some say the band is influenced by the punk movement of the late 70's and the new wave movement of the late 80's, I've always thought they would sound right at home with any number of bands that came out of the alternative scene of the early 90's (and many of which were influence by the same). And "You Can Have It All" would have made more than one playlist on the numerous Alternative radio stations that grew out of that scene. It's a slow paced song, relying heavily on the band's harmonies (compared to the Beach Boys, though I don't quite hear it) which are out of this world, telling the tale of a man who sees a woman on the bus and is letting her know that she can have it all (hence the title) and what she is going to miss should she leave the bus without him. It's either love at first sight or he's a stalker, but what the hell, it's catchy as all hell either way. The song concludes with the "you can have it all" chorus which I have been singing over and over for the last four days--it's ear candy that will add an extra bounce to your step and leave you feeling lighter than air...or not.
Rap Sheet: "I'll tell you what it's going to be like/I saw you on the bus and that was that/There's more to this than passing by/There's more to this than meets the eye..."
At a point in our history where Democrats are poised to make substantial gains against the dystopian nightmare that is the republican party, Donna Brazile (former Chairwoman on the Democratic National Committee--and one who helped lead us into stunning and unprecedented losses in 2016) has come out with a book in which she claims the Clinton campaign rigged the DNC in her favor (must come as a big surprise to the three million plus more Democrats who voted for Secretary Clinton over Bernie Sanders--of which I was not one) in the 2016 Democratic primary. Not really sure what Ms. Brazile was hoping to accomplish with her claim, but the one thing it has accomplished is reigniting the Hillary v. Bernie wars, which at this point in time should the the least of our fucking concerns.
The Democratic Party slogan: We Argue Over Semantics!
The republican party slogan: We Just Win Elections!
The average American gets paid just enough so he doesn't quit his job, and works just hard enough so he doesn't get fired.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." Source unknown
Uncle emaycee Wants You For the Coming Class War! Enlist today....
Capitalism: Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you can exploit his labor, become filthy rich, and keep the poor bastard living paycheck to paycheck for the rest of his life.
