{"id":263,"date":"2005-12-20T10:04:20","date_gmt":"2005-12-20T17:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2005\/12\/20\/im-listening-to-2\/"},"modified":"2005-12-20T10:33:31","modified_gmt":"2005-12-20T17:33:31","slug":"im-listening-to-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2005\/12\/20\/im-listening-to-2\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m Listening To"},"content":{"rendered":"

"Crest Of A Wave"
<\/strong>Rory Gallagher<\/p>\n

So I’m driving down Bundy behind some asshole in a Pontiac on the cell phone.\u00c2\u00a0 If you can’t drive fast while talking, PULL OVER!\u00c2\u00a0 I actually beeped.\u00c2\u00a0 Twice.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s taking your life in your hand in L.A.\u00c2\u00a0 But this guy was so wrapped up in his conversation he didn’t bother to slow down further, he didn’t bother to wave a gun out the window, he just poked his way down the highway.\u00c2\u00a0 Then, at wit’s end, after turning onto Ocean Park, I heard a sound.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t think you can understand the late sixties unless you were there.\u00c2\u00a0 We bought these albums and PLAYED them.\u00c2\u00a0 They were a refuge from life as we knew it.\u00c2\u00a0 We didn’t cherry-pick "Sunshine Of Your Love" from "Disraeli Gears", we spun the album from beginning to end, over and over again.\u00c2\u00a0 It was about the mood.\u00c2\u00a0 And the guitar playing.<\/p>\n

Somehow, it’s not a badge of honor to be a fluid axeman anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 The punk ethic has taken over.\u00c2\u00a0 The guitar is ACCOMPANIMENT, not an instrument unto itself.\u00c2\u00a0 But we were into guitar HEROES!<\/p>\n

Rory Gallagher was a minor guitar hero.\u00c2\u00a0 Who never broke through in America.\u00c2\u00a0 His finest moment was "Laundromat".\u00c2\u00a0 Eventually he drank himself to death.\u00c2\u00a0 And has been almost completely forgotten.\u00c2\u00a0 But DECADES later his music is a revelation.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not only the guitar playing, it’s his rushed vocal.\u00c2\u00a0 A classier, less flashy Alvin Lee.\u00c2\u00a0 Download this.\u00c2\u00a0 You won’t be beaten over the head, you won’t be wowed, this is not a Clive Davis special.\u00c2\u00a0 This is something that has to PENETRATE you.\u00c2\u00a0 Just imagine being alone in your bedroom.\u00c2\u00a0 Or sitting on the couch of your apartment.\u00c2\u00a0 Years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 Play it a few times.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll get it.\u00c2\u00a0 And you’ll know why we miss the old days.<\/p>\n

\n

"Brighter Than Sunshine"
<\/strong>Aqualung<\/p>\n

Speaking of the old days.<\/p>\n

I could give a flying fuck about this act.\u00c2\u00a0 I was so overhyped by the guy at the label.\u00c2\u00a0 He peppered me with press.\u00c2\u00a0 He pushed advance CDs on me.\u00c2\u00a0 Let me ask you.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you want to go out with a girl who THROWS herself at you?\u00c2\u00a0 Especially one with no obvious endearing traits?<\/p>\n

You’ve got to understand.\u00c2\u00a0 We don’t pay much attention.\u00c2\u00a0 Yours is not the only album we listen to.\u00c2\u00a0 If it doesn’t jump out, we’re not interested.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not our job to sort through the morass.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s someone else’s gig.\u00c2\u00a0 The DEEJAY’S!<\/p>\n

That’s a profession you know.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not just someone who reads cards, emitting snappy dialogue between tracks picked by some higher-up at the station.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to get your music heard, exposed, don’t e-mail it to me, don’t send it to me, get it to a DEEJAY!<\/p>\n

The number one deejay in America today is Mike Marrone at XM’s Loft.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s built a whole culture at his station.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s not punching the clock, he’s INTO IT!\u00c2\u00a0 He slogged through this Aqualung album and found a track that RESONATES!\u00c2\u00a0 This is the kind of stuff you’d hear in someone’s dorm room and want to buy the album.<\/p>\n

That’s the way it used to be.<\/p>\n

\n

"I Predict A Riot"<\/strong>
Kaiser Chiefs<\/p>\n

A GREAT radio track.\u00c2\u00a0 A great DRIVING track.<\/p>\n

An incredible breakthrough in…1965.<\/p>\n

Back then, we were only interested in the single, we didn’t expect any more.\u00c2\u00a0 Except maybe ANOTHER single.\u00c2\u00a0 Who knew Ray Davies was a GENIUS?\u00c2\u00a0 We just hoped for another track.<\/p>\n

I expect about as much from the Kaiser Chiefs as I got from the early 80s English MTV bands.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, not much.<\/p>\n

Oh, they could surprise me.\u00c2\u00a0 But shit, all those U.K. bands blend together.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s the fashion, the hysteria, and then you’re left with…nothing.<\/p>\n

\n

"Blue Sky Blues"<\/strong>
Ryan Adams<\/p>\n

What to do with Ryan Adams.\u00c2\u00a0 An arrogant prick who’s so fucked up he’s not in touch with his genius, all he knows is he IS a genius.\u00c2\u00a0 This guy puts out album after album, and there’s always a gem or two on each record and the rest is…bland and irrelevant.<\/p>\n

This guy should not be putting out albums.\u00c2\u00a0 He should be selling track by track.\u00c2\u00a0 GIVING THEM AWAY!\u00c2\u00a0 On his WEBSITE!\u00c2\u00a0 Then we’d forget the crap, and maybe the cream would rise to the surface.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe people would trade the good stuff.\u00c2\u00a0 Because, when Ryan Adams is good, he’s VERY VERY good.<\/p>\n

But his new album "29" is not so good.\u00c2\u00a0 Or, it’s just not good enough.\u00c2\u00a0 You just don’t want to play it.\u00c2\u00a0 But OH there’s this track, "Blue Sky Blues".<\/p>\n

They used to make tracks like this back in the early seventies.\u00c2\u00a0 Before strings got a bad name.\u00c2\u00a0 This is SO intimate, and then when the change comes and the curtain pulls back and you hear the strings, you melt.<\/p>\n

I try to live in the present.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t do such a good job.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m always remembering the past.\u00c2\u00a0 Fantasizing about the future.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the kind of song "Blue Sky Blues" is.\u00c2\u00a0 A quieter Elton John song.\u00c2\u00a0 A Randy Newman song with a better singer.<\/p>\n

"Blue Sky Blues" won’t change your life.\u00c2\u00a0 But it will be your best friend at two in the morning.<\/p>\n

There’s no place for this on the radio.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s something to only be played at home.\u00c2\u00a0 When you’re in the exact right mood.<\/p>\n

\n

"Please Don’t Go"<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don’t know what I was doing in the fall of ’79.\u00c2\u00a0 But it certainly wasn’t listening to AM Top Forty radio.<\/p>\n

Top Forty didn’t hit FM until ’82.\u00c2\u00a0 By ’79, it was a completely irrelevant format.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, I hate those who weren’t there.\u00c2\u00a0 Who point to the Joel Whitburn books, point out statistics.\u00c2\u00a0 It just wasn’t happening in singledom in that era.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody had an FM radio in his car.\u00c2\u00a0 AM was OVER!<\/p>\n

I know this song.\u00c2\u00a0 By the act K.W.S.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe from KROQ.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe from MTV.\u00c2\u00a0 It was hip.\u00c2\u00a0 K.C. & the Sunshine Band were not.<\/p>\n

Please don’t go
Please don’t go
Please don’t go<\/em><\/p>\n

Babe, I love you so
I want you to know
That I’m going to miss your love
The minute you walk out that door
Please don’t go<\/em><\/p>\n

There’s that heavy bass beat.\u00c2\u00a0 The cheesy synthesizers.\u00c2\u00a0 A club hit back before all the deejay\/mixers.\u00c2\u00a0 When they still used to play complete songs at the danceterias.<\/p>\n

Maybe this is evidence of gay culture.\u00c2\u00a0 Only gay men could be so upbeat about their baby leaving them.\u00c2\u00a0 If this song were done by straight people, it would be a cry in the beer weeper.\u00c2\u00a0 But FUCK, if it’s all over, what are you supposed to do but DANCE!\u00c2\u00a0 God, if your moves are that good, maybe they’ll come BACK!<\/p>\n

Actually, there’s another upbeat dance version of this song, by an act entitled Double You.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s VERY similar to the K.W.S. take, but the singer is testifying, he’s a bit more self-conscious how he sounds.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas in the K.W.S. version, it’s straight from the heart emotion.<\/p>\n

Still, when I heard K.C.’s original last week on XM, I was BLOWN AWAY!<\/p>\n

It’s MAJESTIC!\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not cry in your beer.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like the last dance at the PROM!\u00c2\u00a0 The closer in a John Waters film.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s atmospheric.\u00c2\u00a0 The music SWIRLS!\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, it’s slow, but it’s not depressing.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s kind of like your entire high school years encapsulated in 3:51.<\/p>\n

At least in my lifetime
I’ve had one dream come true
I was blessed to be loved
By someone as wonderful as you<\/em><\/p>\n

The funny thing is this is untrue.\u00c2\u00a0 When we ultimately reflect, we realize they really weren’t that great, there’s a reason it didn’t work out.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe they were a social climber, maybe they were insensitive, maybe they were just a prick.\u00c2\u00a0 You realize this decades later when you reconnect.\u00c2\u00a0 But when it’s ending, you think you’re never going to have this kind of connection again.<\/p>\n

K.C. seems to know the person he’s singing to in this song ain’t never coming back.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s all right.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s caught up in the reverie of those incredible moments when they were together.<\/p>\n

This is a gem.<\/p>\n

\n

"Turn Up The Radio"
<\/strong>Autograph<\/p>\n

This seemed so CHEESY twenty years ago.\u00c2\u00a0 But, two decades later, on the radio, this sounds FANTASTIC!<\/p>\n

Maybe it’s the subwoofer in my car.\u00c2\u00a0 It POUNDS!\u00c2\u00a0 You know how it feels, in the back of the arena, when you can feel the bass in your gut.<\/p>\n

It sounds nowhere near as good at home.\u00c2\u00a0 Radio isn’t just advertising for records, like the major labels think.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a medium unto ITSELF!\u00c2\u00a0 It lives and breathes.\u00c2\u00a0 We used to be addicted.\u00c2\u00a0 Boy did that culture die.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the most interesting thing about satellite radio, not an unfettered Howard Stern, but deejays able to recreate theatre of the mind, whole environments.<\/p>\n

Daytime nighttime, anytime
Things go better with rock<\/em><\/p>\n

When rock ruled, this seemed hokey.\u00c2\u00a0 But now that rock’s on the ropes, seen as done by those in control of the media, these lines are a rallying cry.<\/p>\n

Sure, hip-hop’s got bottom.\u00c2\u00a0 And grooves.\u00c2\u00a0 But usually no melody.<\/p>\n

You might want to dance.\u00c2\u00a0 I want to SING ALONG!<\/p>\n

I want the sound to ENVELOP me.\u00c2\u00a0 I want to thrust my arm in the air, look to the sky and sing from the bottom of my heart.<\/p>\n

Maybe this is why Bon Jovi is still big.\u00c2\u00a0 Despite not putting out a decent track in eons, despite Jon Bon Jovi being an edgeless fake nice two-dimensional icon.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re all living on a prayer.\u00c2\u00a0 But, what gets me going on "Slippery When Wet" is the opening cut, "Let It Rock".\u00c2\u00a0 Still, the high point is "Wanted Dead Or Alive".<\/p>\n

I’m a cowboy.<\/p>\n

It’s all the same, only the names will change
Every day it seems we’re wasting away
Another place where the faces are so cold
I’d drive all night just to get back home<\/em><\/p>\n

One of the highlights of my life is singing this with someone I can’t remember at my ex-wife’s brother’s twenty first birthday.\u00c2\u00a0 Face to face.\u00c2\u00a0 And back to back.\u00c2\u00a0 Like Rod Stewart and Ronnie Lane doing "Maybe I’m Amazed".<\/p>\n

Life’s a journey.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s personal.\u00c2\u00a0 The music is supposed to ride shotgun.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s supposed to help get you through.<\/p>\n

We love the musicians not because they’re cute, or pretty, but because they create this aural companion out of thin air.\u00c2\u00a0 They channel God and end up with a composition which we can carry with us at all times, whether it be on a CD, iPod or just in our head.<\/p>\n

I used to think the music was enough.\u00c2\u00a0 Until I hit forty and fell off the edge of the planet.\u00c2\u00a0 No, you need people to get through.\u00c2\u00a0 But music can really help smooth out the rough spots.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

"Crest Of A Wave"Rory Gallagher So I’m driving down Bundy behind some asshole in a Pontiac on the cell phone.\u00c2\u00a0 If you can’t drive fast while talking, PULL OVER!\u00c2\u00a0 I actually beeped.\u00c2\u00a0 Twice.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s taking your life in your hand in L.A.\u00c2\u00a0 But this guy was so wrapped up in his conversation he didn’t bother […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-4f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}