About A Trapeze

This is a YouTube video featuring my friend, Maureen Johnson. She is forced to take a trapeze lesson after losing a bet with the internet. It's entertaining, thought-provoking and horrifying all at the same time.

Anyway, she asked me to write a song to accompany the video of her trapeze lesson. This song (which I cleverly titled "Trapeze") took me 20 whole minutes to write and record, so you all had better love it. Maureen was kind enough to show the words on the screen, as I'm not always so hot when it comes to musical enunciation.

Hope you enjoy it.

Stevie Wonder Visits Sesame Street, 1973

To honor the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street, I am posting a fairly rare clip of Stevie Wonder from 1973. Stevie opens the show, performing an alternate Sesame Street theme song that should have immediately toppled the already existing one, in my opinion. But, no! They kept that "Sunny Day" monstrosity instead. Whatever.

Let's go back together to a time when performers apparently sang into microphones strongly resembling night-lights and owned genuine Orange amplifiers. A glorious time, indeed.

Click on the image to watch the video. The file is about 20MB, so be patient; it's worth it.

Eric Charden - Pas Question?

My DVR is slowly dying, so I am going to have to erase all the media that I've been hoarding for the past three years. The shows I hate to lose the most are all the episodes of New York's greatest public access show ever, Media Funhouse, starring Ed Grant. However, I am going to try to post a few pop-culture tidbits from the show that I simply cannot part with.

This clip is Eric Charden singing a song titled "Pas Question?". Chances are, you've never heard of him. I know I hadn't when I watched this Media Funhouse episode featuring Charden on a French television variety show hosted by Tom Jones in 1966. The fuzz bass line is absolutely killer, and I guarantee you'll be singing along to this one in due time. That it is sung in French matters not, my friend. Trust me.

Click on the image to watch the video. Enjoy.

Meanwhile, you can catch Media Funhouse on MNN's Channel 57, Saturday nights at 1am (though technically, it's Sunday morning).

Stamp Out The Beatles

I want to voice my misgivings about the soon-to-be-released boxsets of The Beatles: one in mono, one in stereo.

The Beatles In Mono is "limited," though EMI will not say definitely to what extent, and lists for $299. The Beatles In Stereo lists for $259.

Now, I don't know what economy EMI are living in right now, but I would not even consider buying either one of those for anything near that price. I would consider, say, $75 for each.

For those of you asking "why mono?", The Beatles' monophonic mixes differ greatly from their stereo counterparts, and have been unavailable since late 1968.

Let me give you an idea of how outrageously priced these sets are. Recently, there was a boxed set of the 13th Floor Elevators titled Sign Of The 3 Eyed Men released on the tiny International Artists label. Here's a video of all its contents:



Lovingly compiled by long-time fan and biographer Paul Drummond, the sound is as good as it's ever gonna get for these guys. Previous CD releases have sounded comparatively horrible. It is absolutely limited to 4,000 copies. The cost? US$158 including shipping (it ships from the UK). Knowing a thing or two about manufacturing and shipping, I would assume that a corporation as monolithic as EMI would be able to finagle a more reasonable price than, say, International Artists. The cost to EMI for manufacturing and shipping each boxed set ain't anywhere near three hundred bucks, limited or not.

So, I'm calling "bullshit" on EMI's extortionary prices and so should you. No way would John Lennon or George Harrison endorse these practices. They'd be listening to the 13th Floor Elevators boxed set. They really would.

Ellie Greenwich, Dead at 68

Even if her name doesn't ring a bell, you've almost certainly heard her music.

With her husband, lyricist Jeff Barry (as well as with producers Phil Spector and George "Shadow" Morton), Greenwich co-wrote an amazing number of hits. Here are but a few:

"Chapel Of Love" - The Dixie Cups
"Be My Baby" - The Ronettes
"Then He Kissed Me" - The Crystals
"Da Doo Ron Ron" - The Crystals
"River Deep - Mountain High" - Ike & Tina Turner
"Leader Of The Pack" - The Shangri-Las
"I Can Hear Music" - The Beach Boys
"Hanky Panky" - Tommy James and The Shondells
"Do Wah Diddy Diddy" - Manfred Mann

Ellie Greenwich died on August 27th of a heart attack at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in midtown Manhattan.

Although not very well known, this is my favorite version of "I Can Hear Music" by Larry Lurex, which is actually Freddie Mercury, Brian May and Roger Taylor recording under a pseudonym. The three, after recruiting bassist John Deacon, were soon to release their first album, Queen.

Click here to listen to the song.

- Ellie Greenwich, `Chapel of Love' co-writer, dies [AP]

Rest In Peace, Teddy

Though we never got to know what sort of President Edward Kennedy would have been, we certainly got to know him as a senator. After 46 years as Senator of Massachusetts (a record broken only by Senators Robert Byrd and Strom Thurmond) he worked tirelessly on political reform, especially healthcare reform. The fact that we may now be on the cusp of the most radical healthcare reform in several decades must be somewhat bittersweet to the Kennedy family, its reform being, in Ted's words "the cause of my life."

Diagnosed with brain cancer in May 2008, Ted nevertheless looked more healthy in the past 15 months than he had in years, at least on television. I was, perhaps foolishly, optimistic about his recovery based largely on his appearance. I guess I'm easily fooled when I want to be.

Kennedy's political life was forever changed by two events: Chappaquiddick in 1969 and, ironically, Sen. Robert Byrd's successful attempt to unseat Kennedy as Senate Majority Whip in January 1971. Though the defeat was embarrassing and painful at the time, Kennedy would later tell Byrd that the defeat was a blessing, as it allowed him to focus more on issues independently from the Democratic party framework. Kennedy became chair of the Senate subcommittee on healthcare and played a leading role with Jacob Javits in the creation and passage of the National Cancer Act of 1971.

Politically, Kennedy never fully recovered from Chappaquiddick. It pretty much ensured that no attempt at the presidency would be successful. In 1974, in its "Encyclopedia Of Humor," National Lampoon ran the following copy (written by Anne Beatts) in its mock Volkswagen ad:

If Ted Kennedy drove a Volkswagen, he'd be President today.

It floats.

The way our body is built, we'd be surprised if it didn't.

The sheet of flat steel that goes underneath every Volkswagen keeps out water, as well as dirt and salt and other nasty things that can eat away at the underside of a car. So it's watertight at the bottom.

And everybody knows it's easier to shut the door on a Volkswagen after you've rolled down the window a little. That proves it's practically airtight on top.

If it was a boat, we could call it the Water Bug.

But it's not a boat, it's a car.

And, like Mary Jo Kopechne, it's only 99 and 44/100 percent pure.

So it won't stay afloat forever. Just long enough.

Poor Teddy. If he'd been smart enough to buy a Volkswagen, he never would have gotten into hot water.

As cruel (and, let's face it, brilliantly funny) as the joke is, it illustrates how Ted has been perceived unfairly as a public joke, politically speaking. Perhaps history will treat him more kindly.

- Edward Kennedy, Senate Stalwart, Dies [New York Times]

Ron Asheton Dead at 60

Well, here's another bummer announcement.

Ron Asheton, guitarist for The Stooges and Destroy All Monsters was found dead at his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan on Tuesday and appeared to have been dead for several days before the police found him.

I think I speak for at least hundreds of people (mostly guitarists) when I say that Ron's guitar playing had a pervasive influence on punk and post-punk music, second only to Pete Townshend's. Ron's playing would have been legendary even if his sole output was "TV Eye," a song from the Stooges' 1970 album, Fun House, and one of my favorite riffs of all time.

I wanted to share this with you. It's an outtake of "TV Eye" (take 7, I believe) with an introduction featuring Iggy Pop impersonating an evil wrestler who's admiration for the Stooges almost rivals mine. It's a great performance all around. Enjoy it.

Click on the photo to listen.

- Stooges guitarist Asheton found dead in Michigan [Reuters UK]

Rock Massacres, Vol. 7: Pete Townshend

This extremely rare massacre took place in 1974 while The Who's Pete Townshend was rather long-windedly waxing poetic about the positive attributes of Rock Music. Interviewer Melvyn Bragg, usually possessing a keen eye and ear for journalistic detail, swears to this day that this mishap never occurred. Well, as much as I admire Bragg as a journalist, I must respectfully disagree here, as the footage clearly tells the tale.

As for Townshend, he was so inebriated during this interview that he didn't realize what had happened until The Who started assessing footage to be used in The Kids Are Alright almost three years later (The Who, perhaps mercifully, opted not to use this part of the interview for the film).

Click on the image to view the footage. Enjoy.