Monday Music - Grateful Dead, Johnny Cash

Music history lesson: You will notice that the traditional "Little Sadie" shares some of the same lines from Johnny Cash's "Cocaine Blues"... the first song is ominous and haunting; the second song more whimsical and defiant.

Both versions are great.

Warnings for woman-killing, drugs, etc.

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Little Sadie - Grateful Dead (acoustic, live in Austin, TX 2/23/70)



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Cocaine Blues - Johnny Cash

Choctaw Bingo and other Saturday earworms

Lots of people prefer the original by John Prine, who wrote it... but I am partial to the version by the Man in Black.

Paradise - Johnny Cash



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A great song about a drug dealer, although some have posited that it's actually about capitalism and bosses (Joe Strummer was red to the end). How fascinating that they are interchangeable!

Quite simply, some of the tightest rock music ever recorded.

Hateful - The Clash



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Mimi Farina wrote this song about Janis Joplin, upon hearing of her passing in 1970... it was recorded by her sister, Joan Baez, in 1972.

Great photos of Janis in the video.

In the Quiet Morning - Joan Baez



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You knew it was time for Steely Dan again, right? I tried to stay on topic about the economy and the budget and everything. ;)

Great graphics!

Black Friday - Steely Dan



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As Charlie Daniels used to say, Time to Get Loud, Children. Starting at about 2:25, this boogies so hard, it will knock the mud right off your boots.

And check out Mary Huff's outfit, I MUST get one. (My late mama had that exact hairdo, exact color.)

Southern Culture on the Skids - White Trash/Greenback Fly



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James McMurtry played Asheville recently, and I am told the entire audience knew all the words. (Well, of course they did.) I was fortunate enough to hear this performed live a few years ago, in a venue fulla rednecks jumping up and down. At the time, I realized, this was a quintessential southern moment, so it isn't surprising that "Choctaw Bingo" has turned into a southern anthem, of sorts.

Ann and Lynn come down from Baxter Springs
That's one hell raisin town way up in Southeastern Kansas
Got a biker bar next to the lingerie store
That's got them Rolling Stones lips up there in bright pink neon
And they're right downtown where everyone can see em
And they burn all night
you know they burn all night
you know they burn all night

And yes, you really should listen to all 8+ minutes, if you want the whole Choctaw Bingo experience. It's actually far better live, with raucous yelling and jumping-redneck accompaniment, but I could not locate a good live version, so going with the studio rendition for now.

Choctaw Bingo - James McMurtry



Have a great weekend everyone.

Oldies for your Wednesday

I've been pretty busy this week, and consequently, ain't got nothing but some oldies. I know you kids just love that stuff! :P


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Trivia time: How many of you knew that Dionne is Whitney Houston's aunt? I think their voices are very similar, but of course, we know who is first and best.

Walk on by - Dionne Warwick



Speaking of voices, this voice always made me swoon. (You can see Johnny Cash playing guitar in the background.)

I very nearly named my daughter after this song, but I somehow knew that she'd get pissed at me over being named for a country song. (Note: I was right.)

Amanda - Waylon Jennings



The Partridge Family TV-show was based on this band, The Cowsills, also a family. This song is a real gem! I don't mind telling you I think it's one of the best and sweetest pop songs of the 60s! (The ersatz singing TV-family never even came close.)

Trivia: Little Susan Cowsill was 9 years old, making her the youngest singer to sing on a top-ten song to date (1967). I was Susan's age, and wanted so badly to be her!

Barry Cowsill died in Hurricane Katrina, at age 51.

The Rain, The Park And Other Things - The Cowsills



I was upset that this song was used in JACKIE BROWN for the scene where Samuel L. Jackson pulls into a junkyard with a dead body in his trunk. Honestly, does Quentin Tarantino have to ruin EVERY damn thing? Certainly, I would have used the song for some sexy, steamy scene.

Quincy Jones, producer, made this sound super-pretty and dazzling; an aural cotton-candy confection. I'm sure it was quite the disappointment when performed in person! (Although you must admit: the outer space jumpsuits really make the song, too!)

Rainbows and waterfalls run through my mind.

Strawberry Letter 23 - The Brothers Johnson

Welcome to the Working Week

I had planned to blog about my wonderful Sunday dinner, which consisted of scrumptious saag paneer, aloo gobi, dal saag, and aloo matar, all topped off with fabulous potato samosas. But of course, after all of that, I was too stuffed to do anything but stare at the tube.

60 Minutes featured two interesting but softball interviews with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Katie Couric, of all people, interviewed Hillary. I just shook my head. If you want to be taken seriously, I'd suggest someone other than sweet Katie as an interviewer. Ugh.

Afterwards, Mr Daisy forced me to watch Social Distortion: Live in Orange County, which rocked pretty good. I love Mike Ness' version of Johnny Cash's RING OF FIRE!

And it's Monday already! Welcome to the working week; I know it don't thrill you, hope it don't kill you.

Elvis Costello - Welcome To The Working Week (Live)

[via FoxyTunes / Elvis Costello]

Blog Carnival... BlogRush... How we changed

I am thrilled to be included in the ERASE RACISM Blog Carnival. Regarding my post about John Brown, Charles Modiano writes:

As I was reading more of this informative piece, all I kept thinking was, how has there never been a motion picture on this man’s life!!! This was also my sentiment when I personally wrote “History’s Hit Job on Thomas Paine” (the only founding father to unequivocally denounce slavery without personal hypocrisy). What does it say that in 2007, we continue to glorify slaveholders of times past, but routinely ignore or bury the legacy of those whites who most fiercely resisted that “peculiar institution”.

Incredibly, this never occurred to me! No movie about John Brown! Maybe they just don't know what to do with him?

Johnny Cash, may his soul rest in peace, perfectly played John Brown in the rather tepid miniseries NORTH AND SOUTH, based on the John Jakes novels. He properly narrows his eyes and intones "We shoot to kill," at one juncture, and you believe him.

For my money, the man to play John Brown would be Tommy Lee Jones, looking all intense and grizzled and shit. Wouldn't he be GREAT? I'm sure he could glare at you and sagely warn "We shoot to kill," with the same gravitas as Johnny Cash.

I hope some Hollywood casting guru is reading this? You think? Nah.

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The new sensation in Blogdonia, BlogRush, is messing up my posts, and I think I know why. I took out the "no follow" feature on my blog, so search engines could also search comments as well as posts (this modification is called "do follow"). As a result of this twiddling of mine, BlogRush, which supposedly syndicates your "last 12 posts," has instead been syndicating the last 12 COMMENTS instead. So you get posts with titles like "Hey Daisy!" instead of the titles I have assigned.

Consequently, when I logged into the all-hailed Phase 2 of BlogRush, I discovered all of my posts have little icicles on them... which means nobody clicks on them and they are therefore NOT HAWT. :(

I hope they fix this, and I dutifully emailed them about it. Certainly, I can't be the only "do follow" blog out there? (I learned to do that from reading other people's blogs, after all!) Also, if you see goofy titles in the BlogRush widgets, you'll know why.

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Cleaning under my couch, which I do every couple of years or so, yields about a dozen books I had long ago written off as lost. Thus, it's just like shopping! I should probably do it more often.

Casey Walker's MADE NOT BORN: The Troubling World of Biotechnology is definitely a Halloween-related book. O, Brave New World that has such people in it.

In this book, I discovered the following poem, by Jerry Martien:


HOW WE CHANGED


first we made a genetically
improved cat

a cat with wings

before we knew it the cat had
eaten all the birds

so we had to make a genetically
faster flying bird

only it wouldn't
sing unless we gave it
money

so we made a genetic
dog
who'd sing whenever
someone told him to

we couldn't shut him up

the dog got on all the radio and
tv talk shows

logo
the famous genetically
engineered singing
canine

cloned a new
song for every day

and while the birds
bombed the cats
we all sang along with the dog.

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Listening to: Laura Nyro - Eli's Comin'
via FoxyTunes