Sunday, April 30, 2023

And it's a big difference


 

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

Unprecedented


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Their vote is going to be a dagger for the GOP


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Don't we know it


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Something is rotten in the Supreme Court


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

 

Saturday, April 29, 2023

Who's a radical?


 

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

Her lies resulted in a child being tortured and lynched


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Texas is for child molesters


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

She literally makes Mommie Dearest look like a great mother


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

The GOP: Classless every minute of every day


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Friday, April 28, 2023

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CDXXXIV--The Belle Stars: Sign of the Times

 Regular readers (both of you) will recall that I've written a time or two about songs that I discovered thanks to promotional singles that were sent out back in the day by record labels.  This week's featured tune is another such song, though it was helped liberally by heavy rotation on MTV back when the "M" in MTV still stood for "Music...."

The Belle Stars (a nice play of words on Belle Starr, famed outlaw of the old west) had a very brief though fairly productive career in the 1980's.  The eight piece all female band formed in London in 1980, and released several cover versions as singles, three of which charted in the U.K., which lead to their first--and only--album.  The band released their first original song and it became their biggest hit...and from there it was all downhill.  The band would release four more singles without much chart success and by 1985 five of the band members had left.  The remaining three would record one album, but after the first single did not chart, the album was shelved and by 1986, the Belle Stars were no more.  While the band only had on studio album, they have managed to release not one, not two, not three, but four--yes, four--greatest hits albums.  Also, their cover version of "Iko Iko" would reach #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 after it was featured in the movie and opened the soundtrack for Rain Man.

Fun Fact:  Much to my surprise, my weekly half-assed research found that the Belle Stars opened for The Clash three times in May of 1981...which goes to show that concert opening acts make for some strange bedfellows.

"Sign of the Times" was released in 1982 and was the fourth single released from their first and last album, the oh, so inventively entitled The Belle StarsThe single would reach #3 on the U.K. Singles Chart, and #75 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.  The album peaked at #15 in Great Britain but only reached #191 in America.

One of the recurring themes of Friday Night Jukebox has been my love for female vocalists, and when you add in some tasty harmonizing you have a recipe for an emaycee fave.  There's some nice bursts of jangly guitars, and the drums provide a pulsing beat to a break-up song with attitude.  The chorus is to die for--it's so catchy it's contagious.  While there are obviously major differences, one can almost see the blueprint for the Spice Girls in the Belle Stars, and in this one, girl power turns into a glorious piece of pop pie.

Lyric Sheet:  "This is the sign of the times/Piece of more to come/This is the sign of the times/Time to be alone..."

Enjoy:




Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee



We have a winner...and a loser


 

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

Democrats' plans always work better than GOP "plans"


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Who's the leader of the club that sues for you and me, M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Nope


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

The stench of treason


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Thursday, April 27, 2023

The losingest loser ever



Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Shouldn't his medical license be revoked?


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

CNN has become an utter clown show


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

How pathetic--they are ready to destroy America because they're poor losers


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

The GOP just lost the House in 2024


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Not so hard to understand


 Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee


The GOP doesn't serve America's interest, period


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Hungry kids or fat GOP politicians?


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Religious freedom is ChristoFascism


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

He'll also be the last Chief Justice to preside over the Court as we now know it


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Fuckin'-A, bubba


 

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

Christo fascist freaks


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Alito is a disgrace to the Supreme Court and our Constitution


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Tax the rich, tax the rich, tax the rich...


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Karma can be such a mother fucker


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Monday, April 24, 2023

How many more days in hell?


 

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

The difference between blue states and red states


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Protecting fetuses but not the humans they become


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 


 

Woke is the new politically correct


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

It's flat out child exploitation to benefit Corporate America


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 


 

Sunday, April 23, 2023

At last, an organization for GOP intellectuals


 Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

No kidding--Whitmer is acing it and DeSantis is a piece of shit


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

More GOP fascism, this time in Montana


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Sinema better enjoy it--her political career is over


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Conservatives should be laughed out of the country


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Saturday, April 22, 2023

Two Americas


 

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

But please tell me more about Hunter Biden's laptop


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Seriously--red state madness should be on the news 24/7


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

MAGA's legacy very well could be that It killed the GOP


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

The company you keep


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Friday, April 21, 2023

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CDXXXIII--The Association: Windy

While musically the sixties will rightfully be remembered for its many groundbreaking acts and albums (The Beatles or their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Who or Tommy, The Beach Boys or Pet Sounds, virtually every album by Bob Dylan or the Velvet Underground, among a plethora of others), it was also a time for some really great pop records.  From Phil Spector's Wall of Sound to Motown, from the British Invasion to folk rock, the sixties were loaded with great pop tunes...much like this week's featured song.

The Association formed in Los Angeles in 1965, broke up briefly in 1978, and has been performing together since they reunited a year later.  To be frank, there have been so many incarnations, with original members quitting and rejoining and numerous new members joining, that it would take a lot more than a paragraph to summarize their history.  For their career, the Association released seven studio albums (the last in 1972), have been elected to both the Vocal Group Hall of Fame and the Pop Music Hall of Fame (no lie, never knew either existed until this week's half-assed research), and had three million selling singles.  The band still tours regularly as part of many sixties' nostalgia tours.

"Windy" was the first single released from their deliciously entitled 1967 album, Insight OutThe single would reach #1 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album would hit #8 on the Billboard 200.

Fun Fact:  Ruthann Friedman, who wrote "Windy," had released her debut album in 1970 and was touring in support of it when a family tragedy called her home, and she stopped playing music. She got a degree from UCLA, married and raised a family, and started her own business.  In 2006 a record company re-released her only album and due to its popularity, Friedman began practicing the guitar again and by 2008, at the age of sixty-four, was performing around Los Angeles.  She's released three albums since and is still playing music clubs in the L.A. area.  Proof positive you are never too old....

"Windy" opens with a bitchin' bass line before the drums kick in and the band begins harmonies that are just this side of heaven.  As noted above, the song has a plush sixties feel to it (Wikipedia called it sunshine pop, which, truth be told, I'd never heard of either), and the Association's six members all harmonize like the twelve apostles would have had they been a pop band instead of the saviors of the world.  Friedman said that originally, she thought the song was about the type of man she'd like to be involved with, but eventually realized it was about the type of person she'd like to be.  And that's not a half bad end note....

Lyric Sheet:  "Who's peeking out from under a stairway/Callin' a name that's lighter than air?/Who's bending down to give me a rainbow?/Everyone knows it's Windy..."

Enjoy:




Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

Damn proud


 

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

Blubbering idiots


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

GOP priorities don't much align with reality, do they?


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

This is how far down the rabbit hole MAGA has gone


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Anybody who doesn't think this is the GOP plan is kidding themselves


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Thursday, April 20, 2023

Apparently, Jesus had a sense of humor, too


 

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

Conservatives sure seem to have bought a few of them


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

One of the worst Presidential decisions in our history


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

How many more dead in Ohio, Jim?


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Dog shit on a hot day is less disgusting than the GOP


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Not such a Grand Old Party anymore


 Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

Do believe some of Corporate America is catching onto this as well


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Equal justice regardless of which doofus


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

The truth of the self-made entrepreneur


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Just say no to theocracy


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CDXXXII--Sam Cooke: Having a Party

 My introduction to this week's tune was actually a cover version of it by Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes (they were featured in Jukebox Vol. CCCLXIV), and I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that it took me a while to warm to the original version.  Eventually it registered that the original was the gold standard and Southside Johnny's version was a loving cover....

I wrote about Sam Cooke a thousand years ago in Jukebox Vol. XXXVII (for those not good at Roman Numerals or arithmetic, that was 395 posts ago), and since Mr. Cooke has sadly been dead for almost sixty years, there really isn't much I can add to his bio, though I did see a great documentary on Netflix called Remastered:  The Two Killings of Sam Cooke which called into question the police's designation of his murder as a justifiable homicide.  Highly recommended to anyone who is a fan of one of the greatest soul singers this planet has ever known.

"Having a Party" was released as a single in 1962, and later that year was part of his ingeniously entitled compilation The Best of Sam CookeThe single reached #17 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.

Fun Fact:  My introduction to Lou Rawls, who sang backing vocals on "Having a Party" and would go on to quite a successful music career himself, was a bit different--when I was a kid growing up in the Bay Area Rawls sang the National Anthem at my beloved 49ers home games. 

Every now and again, we ("we" meaning me) here at Friday Night Jukebox do a post on a song that's just plain fun.  Cooke's silky-smooth vocals capture all the joy of being young, in love, and having a good time dancing with your baby. It also has one of those special moments that make a song larger than life, and that's when towards the end Cooke sings "...tell 'em one more time."  After its recording "Having a Party" would aptly be the final song of Cooke's concerts, and it dawned on me while doing my weekly half-assed research that the tune would be a hell of a song to play at one's funeral--a nice and fine way to celebrate the party that is someone's life...and to tell the great DJ in the sky to keep those records playing....

Lyric Sheet: "Having a party (Man)/"Everybody's swinging (Yeah)/We're dancing to the music (Yeah)/On the radio (Tell 'em one more time)..."

Enjoy:





Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

Never stop--the risk is too great


 

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

The corporate cowardice is staggering


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Traitors among us


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

It's the guns


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Clarence Thomas is like a pig at the trough


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Monday, April 17, 2023

Russia is bankrolling the NRA to help kill our children


 

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

Sometimes their idiocy does seem to work in our favor


Republicans = Nazis

 Peace,
emaycee

It most certainly is not freedom


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Women (and girls) are just property to the GOP


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

70% of America thinks he's nuts, too


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Sunday, April 16, 2023

Democrats do indeed deliver!


 Republicans = Nazis


PPeace,
emaycee

Worst. Speaker. Ever.


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

The beginning of the end of Twitter?


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

The party of "law and order" amirite?


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee 

The GOP is absolutely fucking cuckoo


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Saturday, April 15, 2023

You goddamn got that right


 

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

You couldn't sabotage a campaign any better than DeSantis destroyed his own campaign


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

What the fuck is the matter with these people?


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Racism is in the GOP's DNA and it needs to be called out at every turn


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

This will be McConnell's legacy--helping to destroy the GOP with his court packing bullshit


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Friday, April 14, 2023

The GOP in a nutshell


 

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

You might be in a cult if...


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Oh what a tangled web Clarence Thomas has wove


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

And the Confederacy fought the war to protect slavery


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Patriots on the left, traitors on the right


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Thursday, April 13, 2023

The heart of the matter


 Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

This is straight up Nazism from the GOP


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

In other words, the GOP is really shitty at looking after its constituents


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

The GOP is forever in thrall to the elite


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Adderall Adolph needs to go a little easier on the snorting


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Lying liars


 

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

The future is bright


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

One of the most massive fuck-ups in American political history, and the GOP owns it


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

In GOP America, your life means nothing if you're not a white, Christian, republican


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

More likely wiping away tears of laughter


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

What is it with republicans letting foreigners destroy our country?


 

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee

Run up the score in 2024


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Biggest electoral mistake America has ever made


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee 

Law and order, my ass


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

The GOP has no morals--none


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

Monday, April 10, 2023

Yeah, so tell me again the GOP is the party of law and order

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee
 

We're gonna need a bigger majority


Republicans = Nazis

Peace,
emaycee