With the utter shit show the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation process has become for republicans (especially for Iowa Senator Shitheel Chuck Grassley--he can forget the Aw, Shucks, I'm Just Like Your Grandpa routine, as he's now officially a Misogynistic Sexual Assault Enabler), it's not all that surprising that a poll from the L.A. Times shows Democrats with a 62% to 34% advantage among women for the upcoming midterm elections.
There might be enough white Americans for republicans to overcome losing 90% of the African-American vote and 75% of the Latino vote regularly, but there aren't nearly enough white American men for republicans to survive losing over 60% of women. While I'm sure the republican party will survive in some form, they are pretty much on their way to joining the Whigs in the ash heap of American history.
And the sooner the better--any party choosing a pig like Brett Kavanaugh to be the hill they die on isn't interested in making America great any time soon.
If you haven't been following the race between Democrat Beto O'Rourke and republican turd Ted Cruz for the U.S. Senate seat from Texas, you are missing one of the most inept campaigns ever run by a republican candidate. So far, the Cruz team has sent forth critiques of O'Rourke because he a) eats at Whataburger (Texas fast food restaurant for those not familiar) b) drinks beer, c) played in a rock band when he was in college, and d) occasionally drops an f bomb.
The horror!
But the good news for the Cruz campaign is that they now have footage of O'Rourke going to Whataburger after his debate with Cruz last week, and while in the car he says the Who's "Baba O'Riley" is the best song ever (no arguments from me) and actually plays...air drums:
Mr. O'Rourke is running a hell of a campaign and some folks are already talking about him running for President eventually. That talk might be a bit premature, but if he does, he's got my vote--hell, I'll even play air guitar in his air band...
It's back to my adopted home city for another in a long line of bands from the Motor City who have put their stamp on pop music.
The Romantics formed in 1977 right here in Detroit, Michigan, and played their first show on Valentine's Day opening for the New MC5 (not to be confused with the old MC5, who could really kick out the jams, motherfuckers!). Over the next decade they would have a fair amount of success, especially in 1983 when they had a top 20 album and a top five single (the not particularly good, "Talking in Your Sleep"--there was a lot of hit and miss in the new wave era). While they won't be entering the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame any time soon, they were voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame in 2011 (shit you not, had absolutely no clue such a place existed and I've lived in Michigan for 17 years now). Through the years they have released 6 LPs (the last in 2003), two EPs, and one live album, and have toured regularly. While they have appeared in somewhere near a million different incarnations (only a slight exaggeration) since their inception, thanks to two hit singles they are still together and performing to this day. I've said it before and I'll say it again, playing music for a living can be a great gig with a little luck and a knack for writing an arresting tune.
"What I Like About You" was the first single released from their rather inventively named debut album The Romantics in 1980 (egads, has it been that long?). The song would go on to reach #49 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, though it would reach #2 on the Australian charts (so many cool kids in Australia...). The song would actually become a much bigger part of the pop music lexicon in the late 80's when it was used as the background music for a series of Budweiser commercials. As some famous pop singer once said, whatever gets you through the night....
"What I Like About You" is the type of song that music critics probably hate and fans of pop music anthems adore. It's little more than a I'm Cray-Cray-Crazy For You Baby song, but it is otherworldly catchy and absolutely chock full of musical goodies. Right from the beginning with the in unison screaming of "Hey" (featured throughout) and the "Uh-uhs" through the hand claps, and all of it backed by some fine jangly guitars. There's a nice instrumental break in the middle that closes with some hyperkinetic harmonica (and emaycee always loves him some harmonica), before the band breaks into the final verse, closing with the lead singer whispering "That's what I like about you" repeatedly before the hand claps return to bring us to the end. And once again all the little pieces come together to make an unforgettable single for a pop lovin' doofus like me.
Lyric Sheet: "What I like about you/You keep me warm at night/Never wanna let you go/Know you make me feel all right, yeah..."
While republicans will probably still get to seat Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court, it's hard to see how this is anything but a loss for their party. Women--already exceedingly pissed and voting increasingly Democratic--are going to be even more irate in lieu of a man sitting on the Supreme Court who a) will most likely vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, and b) is probably a rapist. Which will likely lead to an even bigger blue wave than currently anticipated.
It's hard to see how Susan Collins' career survives this--she's always positioned herself as a moderate republican and now the truth is out: she's little more than a toadie for the republican party and she is more than happy to vote to give a monster a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court to keep her party's leaders happy. Maine Democrats have to be chomping at the bit to run against her in 2020--helped along by the more than a million dollars that have already been raised for her as yet unknown challenger.
Likewise, there has to be a smart Iowan out there who has witnessed an increasingly inept Chuck Grassley and just might like to point out how out of touch he is with Iowa women now that he has a) voted against the Violence Against Women Act, b) soon to have voted twice to put a sexual deviant on the Supreme Court (Clarence Thomas being the first), and c) hired a man fired for sexual harassment to be a spokesman. Time to put ol' Chuck out to pasture.
Of course, republicans could pull Kavanaugh's nomination--and depress their base just prior to the mid terms.
In the end, the nomination of Brett Kavanugh for the Supreme Court will likely go down as one of the most colossal political blunders in recent memory--right up there with nominating Donald Trump to be your party's leader....
Lost in the (much deserved) celebration last week when six out of the eight traitorous Democrats who had been caucusing with republicans in the New York Senate lost their primary bids, is that not only is this good for the state of New York but it's good for all Democrats.
Liberals have been trying to oust the eight since they first began caucusing as the IDC (Independent Democratic Cocksuckers Conference) with the republican party in 2013 without any luck. But thanks to Donald Trump's record unpopularity, left-leaning Democrats are turning out in droves and defeating weak-kneed Democrats. Three of the victories were considered upsets/surprises, which to me means pollsters are underestimating the turnout of our bluest supporters.
And as an added bonus, it's another nail in the coffin (admittedly it's was pretty much filled with nails already) of Andrew Cuomo and any national aspirations he may have. Cuomo often supported the IDC, and while he won his primary, he can't be filled with a lot of hope for his political future when so many of his like-minded turncoats got sent packing.
We'll see how this plays out in November, but for now it's another very good sign in a year of very good signs.
Nostrum Laboratories leader Nirmal Mulye said this week, in defense of convicted felon Martin Shkreli and his price gouging of drug prices, that companies had a "moral requirement" to make as much money as possible. So...if you can sell a drug for $10,000 to the one person that can afford it, the fact that ten other people will die because they could not afford it is just fine and dandy.
Thanks to Mr. Mulye for pointing out once again why we need to take corporations out of the healthcare equation completely. Because in any decent nation, whether or not you live or die should not come down to how much money you have.
And it certainly shouldn't come down to the decision of some greedy asshole.
No, it's not becoming Everyday Jukebox--I've just fallen three weeks behind and I'm trying to get caught up...and wish me luck with that.
Unfortunately, I've never had a job I liked (there are much worse fates), but I can guarantee you that if I ever win the lottery and get to tell a boss they can blow this job out their ass, this week's tune is going to be the one I'm playing in my car on the way home. Defiantly.
I've done a Jukebox about the Rolling Stones before ("Gimme Shelter"), and what I said then about the weekly brief band bio pretty much holds true still--there are many people who have written about the Rolling Stones who can do a much better job of it than I, and their history is a bit long for a paragraph. Most students of pop music would place the Stones right behind Elvis, Dylan, and the Beatles, and while I'd probably put the Who ahead of them, that's just a personal preference. I always thought the Stones were the greatest singles band ever--I've only heard a couple of their albums that (for me) held together well, but outside of the Beatles you'd be hard pressed to name another band that could fill a greatest hits album with more, well, greatest hits. Needless to say, they've been accorded just about every musical accolade you can think of (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Songwriter's Hall of Fame, Grammy Award, etc.), sold over 250 million albums, and just to put the icing on the cake, they've also had three of the top five grossing concert tours ever.
Released in 1978 on what many considered a comeback album (after releasing their seminal Exile on Main St.in 1972 the Stones had several what could kindly be considered uneven efforts), Some Girls, "Before They Make Me Run" was not released as a single, though it definitely should have been, especially if it would have meant they wouldn't have released "Miss You" as a single, which is quite possibly the worst song the Stones have ever done. In fairness, it seems to have taken the Stones a while to appreciate "Before They Make Me Run"--they never played it live until 1989, but since then it has become a staple of their live shows.
There seems to be some debate as to the theme of the song--some believe it's Keith Richards' defense of his heroin use, others believe it's a paean to giving up his addiction (I hold with the former, for what it's worth), but either way, I've always found the song to be a big picture song, and to be a song about defiance of those who would keep us down. The song is pretty much a Keith Richards production--though the credits go to The Glimmer Twins, Mick Jagger is said to have only added backing vocals. Obviously one of the things that stands out about the song is that it's one of the few Stones' songs that Richards provides lead vocals for, and while he might not have Jagger's swagger, he does an incredible job of singing about his life. He also keeps it simple--it's just guitars, bass, and drums. Richards and Ron Wood compliment each other smashingly on guitar (just listen to the intro), while Bill Wyman's bass and (especially) Charlie Watt's drumming keep the pace fast and furious (to quote a phrase). In the end, it's a quintessential Stones song--while they very well may be sons of the devil, who knew Satan's offspring could write such a heavenly tune?
Lyric Sheet: "Gonna find my way to heaven, 'cause I did my time in hell/I wasn't looking too good but I was feeling real well..."
This week's tune was released just a short while after I began managing my first Camelot Music store, and not only did it teach me that the business end of music was often forgettable, but it also taught me that music artists can make some serious magic when they combine the best of pop with the best of soul. The first lesson probably explains why I never made it to Executive Vice President (there was a lot more to it than that...), while the second led me to many a fine R and B tune over the course of my life.
William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. has been in the music business longer than I've been alive. Starting out in my adopted hometown of Detroit, Michigan in 1955, Robinson began making music when he was still in high school with The Five Chimes, who eventually became the much better known the Miracles. In 1957 Robinson met one Berry Gordy, who helped him and the Miracles release their first single ("Got a Job"), and it would lead to one hell of a collaboration. Between 1960 and 1970, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles would release 26 singles that reached the top 40 (including Motown's first million selling record, "Shop Around"). When Robinson wasn't writing songs for the Miracles he kept plenty busy writing hit songs for other Motown artists--"My Guy" for Mary Wells, "My Girl" for the Temptations, and "I'll Be Doggone" for Marvin Gaye, among many others. In the early 1970's Robinson departed the Miracles to focus on his duties as VP of Motown, but eventually returned to music and went solo, and while not quite having the success he did with the Miracles, did pretty darn well for himself (including winning his only Grammy Award). He last released an album in 2014 (the obligatory--these days--duet album) which reached #12 on the Billboard 200. Robinson was elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 (though, oddly, the Miracles weren't until 2012), and also elected into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 1989.
"Being with You" was released in 1981 on his appropriately enough entitled LP,Being With You. It would go on to reach #2 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100. Surprisingly, for all the hits Robinson has had throughout his career, he's only had one #1 single--the classic "Tears of a Clown."
Fun Fact: Robinson got his nickname from a favorite uncle who used to take him to cowboy movies (which Robinson loved) when he was a child. The uncle wanted to give him a cowboy name and came up with "Smokey Joe." Eventually Robinson dropped the Joe and just became Smokey.
Somewhat like last week's (yesterday's?) tune, there's a subtlety to "Being with You" that's easy to miss at first listen. With Robinson's silky smooth vocals and a dreamy melody, one could easily mistake the song for a walking on the beach, holding hands with the wind in our hair kind of love ballad. Alas, this one's about a man whose friends are warning him about the woman he's crazy about, but he doesn't care because he likes being with her (thematically, it's somewhat similar to Wilson Pickett's "When a Man Loves a Woman"), and he's willing to give them up rather than lose her. Robinson shows a maturity as a songwriter, though, as the protagonist does wonder whether he's been made blind by love, and if he's being a fool. There's some nice saxophone work throughout, Robinson coos wondrously in the background (one could probably write a post just about Robinson's vocals--a gift from the gods of music), and even some twenty-six years into his career, he can still write a tune that you'll be singing and humming for days. While Robinson has had any number of singles that could be called classics, this one is a nice reminder that although artists get older, they can still make a little magic.
Lyric Sheet: "Or can it be, that like love I am blind?/Do I want it so much 'til it's all in my mind?"
Another week, another artist favorite brought to you (and me) by my daughter...
The career of Josh Ritter could honestly be one big Fun Fact. Ritter began his love affair with music in Idaho after hearing Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash's version of "Girl from the North Country" (and it's one hell of a song to have as an inspiration). He bought his first guitar at K-mart, originally went to college to study neuroscience (I'd be willing to bet the number of pop stars who started out as neuroscience majors can probably be counted on one finger), changed and created his major of "American History through Narrative Folk Music" (which seriously sounds like a fantastic major), self-released his first album at the age of 21 while still in college, continued working on his craft at open mic nights, became somewhat of a sensation in Ireland (a #2 album on the Irish charts--so many cool kids in Ireland), and eventually was able to ply his trade as a full time job. Over the last twenty years, Ritter has released nine studio albums, five live albums (he's developed a solid reputation for his live performances), seven EP's, and twenty singles. While Ritter has only had a modicum of commercial success, his list of fans include Stephen King, Dennis Lehane, and Cameron Crowe, and he's managed, as have numerous FNJ faves befiore him, to carve out a fine career doing what he loves.
Released on his EP Bringing in the Darlings (which I believe is the first here on FNJ to not have a Wikipedia entry) in 2012, "Love Is Making Its Way Back Home" was not released as a single, and thus once again we have no shout outs for Billboard magazine. The EP, however, did chart, scaling as high as #122 (most assuredly with a bullet!), and reaching #5 on the Folk Chart, which probably explains why an old fart folkie like me found it so entertaining.
I have no doubt that Josh Ritter has written better songs ("Girl in the War" comes immediately to mind), but for someone like me whose musical education began with the pop, drop, and roll of Top 40 radio, it's not surprising in the least that I would become so easily attached to this song--the first time I heard it I knew it was going to be a song I loved for the rest of my life. But the thing I didn't realize until I began listening to it in preparation for this post was what a subtle masterpiece it was. Ritter takes a subject most of us are familiar with (the ups and downs of love in a long term relationship, and how, in the good ones, love does eventually make its way back), and manages to turn it into a song where you almost don't notice the message because the music is so goddamned catchy. Ritter's vocals are smooth and soothing (he reminds me at times of one of my first musical heroes, James Taylor--and here my daughter and her husband stick their fingers down their throats and make gagging noises), and the melody is what I suppose every pop song made in the afterworld sounds like. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the "ooh-oohs" that make up the background vocals from virtually beginning to end, and how Ritter can sing "keep on, keep on" over and over again and it never turns stale. Just a marvelous little ditty, and one that reminds me every time I hear it that devoting so much of my life to pop music has been worth every second of it.
Liner Notes: "Dark pines the moonlit road/Winter time the crunch of snow/I wonder will your smile show/That love is making its way back home..."
Another episode of so much music, so little time...
A number of years back one of my two older kids passed along this week's tune, which I happened to mention to my oldest son that I really liked, and he proceeded to go to the trouble of burning me a CD of the album which it was released on...and somehow, lo these many years down the road, I've never listened to it (and just like that, my chances at Father of the Year have disappeared). That will change soon, as it's now next in line on my drive to work playlist, but it would sure be appreciated if someone out there could find a way to get a couple more than just 24 hours in a day so I could get a little more time to get to all the music I've missed....
Thanks to a Wikipedia entry that had one of the weakest band histories I've ever seen (and in fairness, maybe there just isn't that much history to Rilo Kiley), this will be mercifully short. Rilo Kiley formed in 1998 in Los Angeles, released their debut album in 1999, released four more albums over the next eight years, took a hiatus in 2007 that they never returned from, and released their final LP (total of six) in 2013, though the last one was little more than the obligatory b-sides and unreleased fodder bands are wont to release on occasion. Depending on which story is true, the band's name either came from a character in a one of two dreams founding member Blake Sennett had, or was a name pulled out of a book about Scottish soccer players. While the band had virtually no commercial success, they did attract a small but devoted following, much like many other indie bands.
Fun Fact: Lead singer and songwriter (with Sennett) Jenny Lewis would go on to be in a band called Nice as Fuck. I don't know how important of a fact this is, but it makes me chuckle to think there's a band out there called Nice as Fuck.
Released on their The Execution of All ThingsLP in 2002, "A Better Son/Daughter" was not released as a single, and it what has become a theme of sorts over the past couple of months, we have no shout out for Billboard magazine this week. The album itself went on to sell 66,000 copies, which doesn't sound like much until you realize even if it had only sold one copy, it'd be one more than you ever sold.
"A Better Son/Daughter" is a song about depression (though through my half-assed research I found a few people who thought it was about bi-polar disorder), and as one who's been there, does a pretty good job of capturing the paralysis, doubt, fear, and guilt that go with it. It also does well in showing the (sometimes in vain) hope that you can beat it and become whole again. The song sounds anthemic in nature to me, though I've seen some describe it as more like a battle march (which could be somewhat the same). Lewis' vocals begin as if she's singing through a bullhorn before coming in strongly as the character tries to tell herself how she's going to get better and what a better person she'll be. In the end, it's one of those brilliant, small masterpieces that not nearly enough people will ever get to hear (though it was featured on Orange Is the New Black), and is another in a long line of reminders of why I've devoted so much of my time to pop music.
Lyric Sheet: "And sometimes when you're on/You're really fucking on/And your friends they sing along/And they love you..."
In light of Nike's decision to put Colin Kaepernick at the forefront of its thirtieth anniversary campaign, Trump supporters are absolutely losing their shit (possibly because it's not their kids cops are killing with the government's blessing) and burning or ripping up perfectly good shoes and clothing because nothing hurts Nike more than idiots burning their own clothing and footwear that they themselves paid good money for.
And all of this because Kaepernick took a knee during the playing of the national anthem to protest the abysmal treatment of African-Americans in this country.
A protest guaranteed by the first amendment of our constitution.
And yet for all their symbolic idiocy, they should consider themselves lucky--unless things change, a day is coming when taking a knee during the national anthem is going to seem downright dainty.
These are the facts--union members make more money, have better benefits, more job security, and are less likely to be injured on the job. Why the hell else do you suppose the wealthy have been creating campaigns to malign unions for as long as they've been around? Heaven forbid a working man or woman should get a decent share of the pie.
Whether its stagnant wages or Donald Trump's tax cuts for the rich or Corporate America causing the Great Recession, unions are enjoying a resurgence these days (as I type this I remember my father telling me many years ago that unions would eventually make a comeback because the powerful would get too greedy)--witness the crushing defeat of right to work in Missouri and recent polls which show labor unions with an approval rating of 62%, their highest rating in fifteen years.
We obviously have far to go in rebuilding our middle class and reclaiming the wages and benefits that unions fought so hard for but the wealthy elite have stolen, but here on Labor Day there is at least some hope, as a great man once sang, that a change is gonna come.
So Happy Labor Day--and let the union supporting and worker celebrating Dropkick Murphys brighten your day with this little tune saluting those of us who actually do the work:
I noted a couple of posts back in Friday Night Jukebox that I spent my formative years (ages 14-21) in the small (but completely uninteresting) town of Kokomo, IN. Our newspaper there, The Kokomo Tribune, reflected the town itself and what many of its residents would consider an ideal America--Mom, baseball, apple pie, and hot dogs (not a caricature). Somehow when I started college at the regional Indiana University campus there in Kokomo, I came across the New York City weekly The Village Voice.
The big city newspaper in Kokomo was The Indianapolis Star, a conservative beacon in Indiana. Television consisted of five channels--the big three (only ABC, NBC, and CBS existed back then), one local channel that showed nothing but reruns, and if the weather was just right (no clouds) you could sort of get the PBS station on the TV. Radio was top forty out of the big city there in Chicago, and again, if the weather was just right, you could get one of them rock and roll FM stations out of Indianapolis. There was no internet.
You can imagine what it was like, then, when I started subscribing to The Village Voice, an alternative weekly before there were alternative weeklies. It introduced me to the punk movement and Neil Young (after a hella review of his Rust Never Sleeps LP) and the work of music critic Robert Christgau (whom I continue to have a love/hate relationship with to this day). It taught me that not all people who were gay were in the closet. That there were Americans who were a lot more liberal than that commie Jimmy Carter. That there were a lot of people angry just like me at the state of America. And that there was a lot more to America (both good and bad) than I had been taught in my high school history classes.
So it was with some sadness that I read this past week that The Village Voice is ceasing publication, though I'd quit subscribing sometime after my daughter was born (not a justifiable expense for a young family) roughly thirty-five years ago. Not surprised--printed newspapers have pretty much become a quaint nod to our past, which I suppose is what this whole post is.
Give 'em credit, though--in a world that is still screaming for the coolness quotient, they scored a perfect ten on their final cover (Dylan saluting, as seen at the top of this post).
If you gotta go, as the saying goes, at least leave a beautiful corpse.
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.
