The premise is simple: Sum up any Rolling Stones lyric in Haiku form.
No contest. No judgment. Only pure poetry!
Here is my first:
Heartbreaker
Delicate flowers
Injustice for down and outs
Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo
May 252010
May 252010
Some of us are old…
Do you remember your first music-playing device, be it a record player, 8-track, cassette player, Walkman, CD player, or for our youngest Townspeople, mp3 player? Care to describe it? Does anything stand out in your memory about it?
I had a record player that was plastic, olive-green, and textured on the outside. Flip up the top and the plastic was off-white – also textured, to better pick up smudges from my dirty hands. The turntable itself was brown. I can’t remember for sure if the arm was brown or off-white, but I remember my shakey hands were always challenged by lifting the arm onto a specific track. The cord was a 2-pronged brown affair. I experienced my first electric shock on that cord, leaving one of my fingers between the prongs as I plugged it in. Ouch!
Continue reading »
May 252010
This clip, which Townsman dbuskirk shared with some of his close, personal friends this morning, brought back memories of some of Hall & Oates’ lesser, pre-pastel ’80s hits, but what stood out most for me was Daryl Hall‘s blue jumpsuit.
As the results of a solid 2 minutes of research indicate, Elvis Presley first donned the jumpsuit in 1969. Was this the first time the jumpsuit entered the world of rock ‘n roll? A piece on a 2007 Graceland exhibit on Elvis’ jumpsuits notes that the Elvis jumpsuit was originally a 2-piece ensemble, inspired by The King’s karate wear. As he prepared for his Las Vegas stint following the legendary ’68 Comeback Special, Elvis saw the jumpsuit as a more-interesting alternative to the standard tuxedo favored by “square” performers.
He was going there to rock. Wanting something different and special, he called upon Bill Belew, who had designed the now-classic black leather suit and other outfits for the ’68 special. Inspired by Elvis’ great interest in karate, Belew came up with simple two-piece gabardine suits with tunic-style tops and simple, long karate-style belts knotted to one side with the ends dangling from the hip.
It turns out that Elvis didn’t wear the actual 1-piece jumpsuit – which we all would agree is the mark of a true jumpsuit – until his 1970 Vegas run. For the record, therefore, it was not Elvis who introduced the jumpsuit to rock ‘n roll, but perhaps this guy:
May 242010
FUN BOY THREE LOSES BELT TO MANDY MOORE (SEE COMMENTS)!
PIuAUJ2VyP4]
Fun Boy Three covering “The End” challenges all comers to a Battle Royale!
Can you name one cover song more unexpected than Fun Boy Three covering this Doors classic? You may try, but proceed at your own caution. Note how there is not the slightest hint of irony in the band’s performance. This is the real deal, baby, and it’s chilling in its unexpectedness!
May 232010
mBblBEjp2Jc]
If you’re a little morbid, like me, or a lot morbid, like Jeff Conaway, maybe you’ve considered what song you’d like played at your funeral. Just a couple of weeks ago, for some reason, I began thinking about this. I’ve yet to reach a decision, but I may do so through this thread. How about you? Have you considered what song you would like played at your funeral?
I was at Citizens Bank Park last year, when legendary and beloved broadcaster Harry Kalas was memorialized. As his casket was led through a line of Phillies players and into the hearse, Simon and Garfunkle’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” was played. Kalas’ sons set it up, saying that it was his favorites on their old car 8-track player and the song their dad requested to have played when he died. I’m not a big Simon and Garfunkle fan or that song, but it was touching.
How do you want to touch your loved ones and admirers when you’re put to rest? Choose now so that the task of selecting your song is not left to Shawn Love!
May 222010
I’d like to try something we’ve never done before, in a way we may have never attempted had we done so to this point.
I’m going to throw out a question concerning a piece of rock arcana or trivia. Once that question is answered, in the Comments, the person who answers that question can throw out a new question. Then the person who answers that new question can ask the next question. And so on.
If the answer to the question requires multiple responses, as my first question will, the answers can come in piecemeal with any Townsperson who has contributed to the final answer – only after the full answer has been provided – can pick up the next question.
Got me? Let’s go…after the jump! Continue reading »
May 212010
Crackin’ up.
Continuing with the prescribed listening order from Townsman Kpdexter, it’s time I catch up on my overdue record review of Boston Spaceships‘ third release of 2009, Zero to 99. The first few times I spun this album it was among my least-favorite of the batch of 2009 Pollard releases that my man sent me, but over time some of the things I initially perceived as impediments to my enjoyment of the album became points of entry.
Boston Spaceships, “Trashed Aircraft Baby”
Unlike the first two Ships (as hardcore fans call them) album, Brown Submarine and The Planets Are Blasted, Zero to 99 is less focused and a bit noisier, more like what I’d come to expect from a typical Guided By Voices album. The opening track, “Pluto the Skate,” is the kind of brief F-U that Pollard left behind on the first two Boston Spaceships albums. “Trashed Aircraft Baby” revives use of his beloved Radio Shack mic. What sounds like some cheap bobo bass straining the limits of an early ’80s model Peavy amp stomps all over “Psycho Is a Bad Boy.” As I got acquainted with this album after listening to the first two I found the tight-ass in me missing the Quality Control processes that helped those first two albums go down so easily.
Continue reading »
