Thank You for the Music, the Endless Music

Some of the (musical) things I’m thankful for:

The guitar solo on “Why Does Love Have to Be So Sad?” by Derek and the Dominos
Jeff Tweedy’s vocals on the live version of “Jesus, Etc.” from Kicking Television
Tom Waits’ ballads
The live version of “It Makes No Difference” from The Band’s The Last Waltz
“God Only Knows” by the Beach Boys
The beats the Beastie Boys use in their songs
The Beatles
“Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards” by Billy Bragg
Howlin’ Wolf’s vocals on “Built for Comfort”
How much of Bo Diddley’s work still sounds fresh
Blind Willie McTell’s voice
“Atlantic City”
All the different solos on “Kitty’s Back” from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s Live at Hammersmitth Odeon ‘75
The intensity of Buddy Holly (listen to “Oh, Boy!” and try to argue)
The perfection of “What Do I Get?” by the Buzzcocks
The lameness of Canned Heat’s “Amphetamine Annie”
Captain Beefheart’s originality
Chuck Berry (even “My Ding-A-Ling”)
The Clash and London Calling
My memory of the first time I heard “Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby” by Counting Crows
“Mother’s Lament” by Cream
Creedence Clearwater Revival
The epic that is Weird Al’s “Albuquerque”
Every time that Neil Young sings lead on Cosby, Stills, Nash & Young
“Pusherman” by Curtis Mayfield
The ridiculousness of David Bowie
Young, Loud & Snotty by the Dead Boys
The lyrics of the Decemberists
Ella’s scatting
My Aim is True, Get Happy!!, Armed Forces and This Year’s Model by Elvis Costello
“Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley
The Everly Brothers
The fact that Sinatra sounds amazing at 3:13 a.m.
That on one album, Zappa will sound amazing while on another, he’s terrible
All Things Must Pass by George Harrison
Hank Williams
The guitar playing of Hubert Sumlin
The fierceness of Husker Du
Jimi Hendrix’s guitar playing
The fact that John Cale is still totally overshadowed by Lou Reed
That Johnny Cash’s version of “John Henry” was the first one I ever heard
The Kinks
Lightin’ Hopkins’ guitar work
The humor in a Louis Jordan song
That maybe I haven’t given Lynard Skynard enough credit…
High Time by MC5
Miles Davis Quintet
How “Ice Cream Man” from the Modern Lovers’ Live never ends
The ridiculousness of the Mountain Goats…but in a totally different way than Bowie
Muddy Waters’ voice
Neil Young
Finding “new” artists—aka, artists not recording in the 1960s (Neko Case, Sufjan Stevens, My Morning Jacket, Wilco, etc.)
Nearly everything Nick Cave has recorded with the Bad Seeds
“Dry Your Eyes” by Neil Diamond from The Last Waltz
Once More, With Feeling
Every song recorded by Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett
How Patti Smith only has one album worth your time: Horses
“East/West” by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Graceland by Paul Simon
Bob Dylan
“Where Do You Go To My Lovely?” by Peter Sarstedt
David Thomas from Pere Ubu
The ultimate guilty pleasureness of Phish
Pixies
The fun in listening to The Queers
OK Computer by Radiohead
The Ramones making a sub-par song like “Do You Wanna Dance?” sound fantastic (oh, and “Beat on the Brat”)
How lonely the Replacements’ Let It Be sounds on a Saturday night
Blank Generation
Richard Thompson (why isn’t he more popular?!?!?)
The sloppiness of the Rolling Stones’ great albums: Let It Bleed, Exile on Main Street, etc.
“Twistin’ the Night Away” by Sam Cooke (his voice, too)
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ outrageousness
The distortion in a Sonic Youth song
The noise in a Stooges song
Every song that Sufjan Stevens plays the banjo on
“(Nothing But) Flowers” by Talking Heads
“Marquee Moon” by Television
The fact that Traffic is really lame except for a few songs (“John Barleycorn” and “The Low-Spark of High-Heeled Boys” come to mind as classics)
The Velvet Underground
That Van Morrison’s “St. Dominic’s Preview” is my top-played non-Dylan song on my iPod
Live at Leeds by The Who (mostly for two songs: “A Quick One…” and “Substitute”)
“Good Lovin’” by The Young Rascals

There are many more, but those that I've thought about recently. Happy Thanksgiving!

Five Best...Songs from I'm Not There

#5. "As I Went Out Morning" by Mira Billotte

One of the more "obscure" songs on the soundtrack, it's also one of the few women on it. Although I've never heard of Mira Billotte, I'm damn surprised at how good she is. Just like how it appears on John Wesley Harding, the song is commanded by the bass line and drumming, making the guitar almost pointless, while Billotte clearly knows how to maneuver her way through a Bob Dylan song--something that many people have tried and failed at.

#4. "Simple Twist of Fate" by Jeff Tweedy

It's not a surprise that I'm a huge fan of Wilco, and this became the first song I listened to after buying the album (I already possessed a copy of Dylan's "I'm Not There," so it wasn't a big deal for me.) Tweedy does an impressive job of sounding like Dylan in his straining vocals, and the backing musicians make the sadness of "Simple Twist of Fate" come into the foreground.

#3. "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues" by Ramblin' Jack Elliott

I've never been a big fan of Ramblin' because I could just easily listen to Woody Guthrie, and get basically the same song but better. But here, when he's impersonating Dylan, I might have to change my mind. Unlike the Highway 61 version, this one goes acoustic; something that I didn't think would work, but in the execution, you realize how much Ramblin' respects "Tom Thumb's Blues," and does it justice...and then some.

#2. "Ballad of a Thin Man" by Stephen Malkmus

The original "Ballad" is not a favorite of mine; in fact, I normally skip it while listening to Highway 61 Revisited. But as for the version on The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4, I'm left in awe at how good Dylan sings and plays the piano, and how amazing of an organ player Garth Hudson is. Thankfully, Malkmus covers the live version, not the studio one, and he just totally owns the track.

#1. "Goin' to Acapulco" by Jim James

It's haunting how much James sounds like Dylan on this Basement Tapes track. The voice is a little more echo-ing and slightly more nasal, but he sings with the same style that made Dylan's vocals from those sessions so great. The addition of the horns as a key instrument makes the song sound contemporary and from another decade at the same time--no small feat.

Honorable Mentions
"Stuck Inside a Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" by Cat Power
"Pressing On" by John Doe
"When the Ship Comes In" by Marcus Carl Franklin
"I'm Not There" by Sonic Youth

At 9:15 p.m. tonight, I'll be in the Film Forum finally seeing I'm Not There. I bought tickets for my girlfriend, Nadia, and I months ago, and my excitement is reaching a point that only a movie like The Simpsons Movie could attain.

When I first heard about I'm Not There, I was understandably questionable. I mean, do we need something that contains the words "Dylan" and "surreal?" But as the movie premiere has gotten closer and people I respect have told me that they loved the movie (Greil Marcus, for instance), I'm expecting something wonderful for 2 hours and 15 minutes tonight.

Other Bob Stuff:
Cover story from the Village Voice
Review from the New York Times
My current Facebook picture

Embarrassment

A few days ago, I posted something I wrote from a class I took in the Fall 2006 semester and today, I'm posting a piece that I wrote just a few days ago for my non-fiction class. The reason is because many of the events in them deal with music, and feels like a shame to just let the piece the die after getting it graded. So, here's Embarrassment:

I remember the embarrassing things that have happened to me in my life easier than I remember the good things, like my first kiss or the first time I got an “A” on a paper. There aren’t as many embarrassing moments as there good ones in your life, so they’re much easier to not forget. And boy is that ever true:

I remember the time when I thought the way to impress a girl was to buy her a ticket to a Britney Spears concert. It could just as easily been Pearl Jam (who were playing only three days before at the same venue), but I instead went with Britney, who was in the midst of her Oops, I Did It Again tour. After not calling Allison, the girl I was looking to woo, for practically the entire summer (which, I guess, I thought was the right thing to do), we got together the day of the concert, and right before going through the turnstiles, she noticed that she had lost her ticket. And I bought her another ticket…well, that would have been the smart thing of me to do, but instead she bought herself the ticket—and she had also paid for her original ticket too. So, for a show that I’d later find out she didn’t even want to go to, she paid over 100 bucks. You can imagine how the rest of the night went.

And that was my first date.

I remember when I was on a bus to Camp Nassau, which is where I spent two summers of day camp, with this incident happening in the summer of 1999. Sitting in the back, I noticed two sheets of paper on the ground, and picked them up. I wasn’t sure what I thought they were, but I read the first two lines: “Somebody once told me the world is gonna roll me/I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed.” I went on to read the whole song, and soon after heard some kid much bigger than me yell out, “Where the hell are my lyrics to ‘All Star’?” I didn’t know the song’s title, but had to assume that there wasn’t another set of stray lyrics on the bus, so I shyly held them up over the seat so that he could see them. Getting out from his seat, the kid grabbed the papers and said, “Why the hell did you have these?” I responded back, “I, um, I found them. I’m, uh, sorry…” With the knowledge that everyone in the area was looking at him, he fiercely responded back, “Damn right you are. Do it again, you’re dead.” The typical response of a 13-year-old boy looking to prove himself. To this day, I can’t listen to Smash Mouth—although that’s partially because they stink.

And that was the first time I almost got beat up.

I remember when my girlfriend at the time couldn’t go to the prom because she was a year younger than me and her Mom wouldn’t let her go. So instead, I had to take her best friend, Allison—a different Allison, mind you. I had never met Allison #2, but it didn’t really matter because a) she wasn’t my girlfriend and b) she wasn’t who I wanted to go to prom with. I had also never seen a picture of her, and was forced to rely on one conversation over AIM to shape what she was like. Needless to say, things didn’t work out well, I heard snickering behind my back at prom while we participated in the most awkward slow-dance ever and she ended up making out with my friend later that night in a drunken haze—something that I wasn’t all that irritated over.

And that’s the closest I’ll ever get to a blind date. And get involved with someone named Allison.

I remember practicing for my graduation from elementary school where everyone had to act out what actual graduation in front of our parents was going to be like. For some reason, I was very nervous and before we even really started rehearsing, I felt myself silently burping and sweating, but didn’t do anything about it. When it started to get worse, I tried to get permission from my teacher to go to the nurse but she didn’t see me. I knew something bad was going to happen, so without permission, I ran to the nurse and made it just in time to vomit into a nicely placed trashcan—right in front of one of my other classmates whom I had been arguing with for essentially the whole year.

And that was the last time I would ever wait to puke.

I remember, to continue with the semi-disgusting embarrassing stories, the time I was in a program in elementary school called After School Activity Program, or ASAP, and I peed my pants while making a snack called Ants-on-a-Log, which is simply celery coated with peanut butter with raisins acting as the “Ants.” I didn’t have another pair of pants, so I was forced to pillage through the school’s lost and found box, and ended up with a pair of gray sweatpants that I, even at that young age, knew weren’t stylish. It also made it obvious to everyone that something had happened to my old pants, and it didn’t take much stretch of the imagination to guess what that was.

And that was the last time I peed my pants.

I remember the first time I tried taking a girl’s bra off. It was with my longest lasting girlfriend, Hannah, and on the floor of her living room. After making out for quite some time, I reached under her shirt and stealthily tried to get her bra off in one quick move, like you see in the movies. But sadly, because I hadn’t done this before and was suffering terrible allergies from her cats, I had moves closer to Woody Allen than Marlon Brando. After not getting it after the first try, I instead went to rubbing her back, hoping that she hadn’t noticed what I was attempting to do. A few minutes later, I tried again. And again, I had no success. Waited 3 minutes, tried again and failed. Hannah pulled away and asked, “Are you trying to take this off?” pointing to her bra. I sheepishly answered affirmatively, and she did it for me. I was happy to reach my goal, but upset that this was going to happen all over again because she didn’t actually show me how, she did it herself.

And that was the first time I acted like an idiot while kissing someone. And definitely not the last.

I remember another time with Hannah where we, once again, were kissing and things were about to progress to the skill I had now accomplished mentioned above, when, for no reason, I asked Hannah a question about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. I can’t quite remember what the question was exactly, but that’s sort of beside the point. At that moment, while kissing a girl I loved her, I felt the impulse to ask her about a boy wizard, with no attempt at humor meant for.

And that’s the last time, well, I’d ever do that again.

I remember the first time I took a hit from a bong. It was on my friend Tom’s porch that hung over the driveway and had a good view of the street mere feet away from the house’s ground level. He and I were hanging out with a mutual friend, Josh, when Tom asked if we wanted to “smoke up.” Not being one to pass up an opportunity for free weed, I said sure, and expected him to take out his handy red and black glass pipe. But, instead, he told us to follow him out of the living room where we were sitting onto the outside porch—but not before grabbing a small plastic soda bottle. I didn’t know exactly what he was doing by grabbing that, but I had an idea. After decorating the bottle with a slash and some tin foil, I definitely knew what we were about to do. Sitting in a circle on the unusual turf carpeting of the porch, Tom and Josh put the bong together while I sat around looking pretty and wondering what I was going to do. When they were finished, Tom got the first hit, passed it to Josh who also took a hit and then passed it to me. I had been watching them but was a little too nervous to really have paid attention. But I knew what I had to do, so I got ready to take a hit and…exhaled. I knew something was going wrong because I was feeling nothing and they looked pissed at me. Turns out, when you exhale, nothing happens and you get the weed soaked, making it rather useless.

And that’s the last time I would ever use a bong with Tom.

I can remember going to the hospital in a stretcher although I was perfectly conscious. During my brief stay at SUNY Purchase, I became very depressed (hence the “brief” part) and thought it would be a good idea to, what they would call later, “harm myself” by taking pills. When I did this, I was commuting from my Uncle’s house because they kicked me out of school housing due to a previous similar incident. He brought me to the ER and, after getting tested, the doctors decided I needed to be in a psychiatric center (another term I like to use), and they called an ambulance. I really wish my Uncle could have brought me, but they wouldn’t allow that. So, I was put into a straight jacket, cutting off all movement that I wouldn’t have used anyways because I was very calm, solemn even. Walking through a hospital while being escorted by two ambulance drivers in that jacket is something that I won’t soon forget, for although the other aforementioned events were embarrassing, this was a new kind of embarrassment. Those were individual moments that are mostly forgotten by everyone but me (although I’m sure Allison remembers the concert…), but this one played a heavy role in my life, and was a different kind of judgment than people thinking that maybe you peed your pants when you’re a 8-year-old kid because you’re wearing different pants than you were before.

And that’s the last time I would be in a straight jacket and go to the “psychiatric center.”

I remember when I was trying to get some private time with my current girlfriend, Nadia, at my William Street dorm. I live in an Open Double in the Open part, which means that the room I have my bed in also has another bed 10 feet away and the entire kitchen. There’s another room in the dorm that is closed off, and has only one person sleeping in it. Nadia and I had planned a good time to go into the other room when the roommate, Baxter, who lives in there would be gone. Once we knew he wasn’t coming back (and the other roommate wasn’t in the Open part, for he could “tattle” on us), we went into the room, and started to, ahem, mess around. After about five minutes, I thought I heard the main dorm door open and close, and was immediately on alert. Turns out this caution served me well, because it was Baxter and, just like in the movies, he started turning the doorknob to his room very slowly. I raced over to the door, and barricaded it with my body so he wouldn’t come on. He kept trying to open it, and I said something like, “Hey, I’m just watching a movie in here,” which gives no explanation for why I was keeping him out of his room, a room I didn’t have permission to be in anyways. After this, he gave up trying to open the door and said, “I’ll come back in a few minutes.” Nadia started to laugh, while I wanted to do the same but couldn’t bring myself to do so because of how much of an asshole I felt right there. We straightened ourselves out, and went back to my bed and watched TV. After a few minutes passed, the door opened. I expected to see Baxter, so I was surprised to see his friend. I knew that he must have known what had happened so I told him, “Tell Baxter that I’m so, so sorry. And don’t worry, we weren’t doing that.” The friend grabbed something from the room, laughed and left. For some reason, I thought leaving a note on Baxter’s pillow would be a good idea; sort of a twisted Tooth Fairy action, I suppose. Roughly an hour later, Baxter came back with two friends, and I just said, “I’m so sorry.” He laughed and told me, “It’s alright. I figured what was going on because I know Nadia’s here a lot. It was my friend,” he pointed to the guy who came in earlier, “who thought you were in there by yourself, if you catch my drift.”

And that’s the last time I would go into Baxter’s room.

Many of these events were quite inconsequential; I mean, all kids vomit in school at some point or do something awkward while making out with someone. But I can remember all of these events quite clearly, as if they were all recent occurrences while, in fact, many of them are from years and years ago. Although I’m ashamed of most of these (for varying reasons), I am sort of happy with them because they can make for one heck of a story.

Here, There, Everywhere

From an article found on SportsIllustrated.com:

Why are the Dolphins taking yet another chance on running back Ricky Williams, who has played just 12 games in the NFL in the past four seasons? How's that song go, "When you've got nothing, you've got nothing left to lose?"

To quote Bob Levinson, "Bob is Everywhere."

Five Best...Songs from Making Movies

#5. "Solid Rock"

Because the heart that you break
That's the one that you rely on
The bed that you make,
That's the one you gotta lie on
When you point your finger, 'cause your plan fell through
You got three more fingers pointing back at you

#4. "Espresso Love"

She gets the sun in the daytime,
Perfume in the dusk.
And she comes out in the night time,
With the honeysuckle musk

#3. "Skateaway"

She gets rock 'n' roll, a rock 'n' roll station
And a rock 'n' roll dream
She's making movies on location
She doesn't know what it means
But the music make her wanna be the story
And the story was whatever was the song, what is was
Roller-girl don't worry
DJ play the movies all night long

#2. "Tunnel of Love"

And the big wheel keep on turning, neon burning up above
And I'm just high on the world
Come on, and take a low ride with me, girl
On the tunnel of love

#1. "Romeo and Juliet"

A lovestruck Romeo sings the streets a serenade
Laying everybody low with a love song that he made
Finds a convenient streetlight, steps out of the shade
Says something like, "You and me, babe, how about it?"

On a separate Dire Straits note, I walked into the Lemongrass Grill restaurant sometime last night around 1 a.m. I was hoping to get some chicken pad thai, but was instead treated to "Sultans of Swing" being totally butchered by a balding man in his 40s with a slew of Asian woman all around him.

And I also couldn't get my pad thai. What a terrible, terrible experience it was.

Should I 'A" or Should I 'B?'

(From an essay I wrote in my Sociology of Popular Music course)

After noticing the bare cupboards, the decision is made to go to the grocery store. Do you go to Store A which although closer, the overall appearance depresses you, or Store B with its sunnier disposition and better sounding music? The question is practically rhetorical and the decision is made to go to Store B.

As you walk from the parking lot to the store, you begin to notice the flowers all around the perimeter of it and the “light” pop music coming from inside its walls. Is it John Mayer? Dave Matthews? If not them, it’s got to be someone like them.

In the vestibule, you pick up your cart and notice that the song has skipped over to the Counting Crows’ “Mr. Jones.” Humming along to it (“I wanna be Bob Dylan”), you go through the 13 or so aisles while in a pleasant mood. You’re glad you picked B over A (after all, they play fake contemporary music) and before you know it, you’re finished with the groceries.

Paying for your food, you notice over the doors that it says, “Welcome!” in roughly a dozen different languages. After pondering why they write that in an area you notice when you’re leaving, you glide through the mechanical glass doors, put your groceries in the car, and drive away.

Another successful trip to the supermarket.

* * *

The process of going into a supermarket is normally thought of in the context of getting food, paying for it, and getting out of there. The management of the company hopes you have a pleasant time without you even realizing you’re having one. Millions of dollars and hundreds of hours are spent on this task and if people don’t think about the schematics of the store, the task is complete.

For instance, is it any coincidence that the first food item you come across is the fruits and vegetables while the last thing you come across is frozen? By having the “greens,” if you will, at the beginning of the store, it shows the “freshness” of the store and how much they take care of their non-packaged food. The frozen food being last makes perfect sense because if you put ice cream in your cart first and then spend an hour shopping, there’s a good chance that it’ll start to have melted by that point.

The brightness of the store is supplied by fluorescent lights. It gives the store a very medical, sterile look which is important due to its associations with cleanliness. But over in the café area, which is next to the in-store Starbucks counter, where there are couches, chairs, tables, and televisions, the light comes from the windows and actual light bulbs. Over here, the music isn’t audible because the televisions (which are always set on CNN Headline News) provide the background noise instead. This is also the only area where the walls, instead of being white, sort of looks like mahogany.

The only other place in the store where the music is tough to hear is in the area where you’d find baby items, i.e. diapers, baby food, toys, etc. This makes perfect sense because you don’t typically associate toddlers with loud noises. It’s set up intentionally because in the next aisle, which is the health food section, the music from the overhead speakers can be heard.

As mentioned before, the music heard was John Mayer or Counting Crows and these artists are picked because of their catchiness and non-offensive message. A majority of the songs deal with love but nothing obviously lewd (I say “obviously” because they do play a song or two that it’s not possible to hear the sex factor unless you read between the lines, like “Brown Sugar” by The Rolling Stones) and almost all are artists that people can name. The store isn’t looking to impress you with their knowledge of Howlin’ Wolf but instead, they’d rather play The Beatles or Jackson Browne or Jack Johnson because people immediately recognize these artists. In the case of The Beatles, the store won’t play “Let’s Do It In the Road,” but rather “I Saw Her Standing There” which has the familiar “Wooooo” chorus. While working at Store B, I’ve noticed many people singing to the songs the same way they would as if they were in their own car. Once the holiday season comes around in early to mid-December, the store changes its play list over to nothing but Christmas music. This fits along with the theme of the store changing to remind the shopper of Christmas and New Year’s.

Every artist listed also happens to be white which has a direct correlation with the average shopper at Store B. It’s mostly white, female who are in their mid-30s. Obviously this isn’t true with all customers but the ones that most often enter into the store fit those specifics. If you’re looking to appeal to that group, it would not make sense to design the supermarket to have a “ghetto” feel or play hip hop music. Instead, you give it the impression of homeliness and play music that is most often associated with your potential customers.

The simple things—music, lighting, schematics—in any store, whether it is a supermarket or toy store, matter greatly to the shoppers within it. The funny thing (and intended too) is that for this to be accomplished, most of the time the person doesn’t even know.

Take the Quiz

Sometime last week, RollingStone.com released their Almost-Impossible Rock & Roll Quiz. It spans from the 60s until present time, so to do well, you must have a lot of knowledge of over 40 years of music. Some of the answers are rather easy (the one about the Mothers of Invention album cover, for instance) but some are, well, Near-Impossible.

For what it's worth, I scored a 36 out of 52. Not great, but not terrible either.



***DON'T READ THE BELOW UNTIL AFTER YOU'VE TAKEN THE QUIZ***

Five Best...Facts I Learned from the Quiz

#5. Buddy Holly falls between "Thalidomide" and "Ben-Hur" in Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire."

#4. "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder was originally written for Jeff Beck.

#3. Ex-NFL coach Jimmy Johnson gave the nickname "Beat Weeds" to fellow high school classmate Janis Joplin

#2. Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" was inadvertently inspired by Young Frankenstein.

#1. On the Monkees' 1969 hit, "Tear Drop City," Neil Young plays the guitar solo.