I Pray For Rain

Just a micro-post, slightly too long for FB. I am getting The Box Tops' The Letter/Neon Rainbow album from Hennepin County Library's Freegal system for free at a rate of three tracks per week. I found the track "I Pray For Rain" to be one of Alex Chilton's best vocal performances ever. People using Freegal or people who like Big Star/Alex Chilton should check this out. That is all.

To log in through Hennepin County Library (requires a library card):
http://www.hclib.org/pub/search/LoginActionFreegal.cfm

Enter your barcode to enter the site.

Search for "The Letter/Neon Rainbow" using the "Album" search. Click on the album name when it appears. "I Pray For Rain" is track 12.

This album appears to have gone out of print in physical form, which is why I was getting it here in the first place.

The First 100 Albums That Occurred To Me, Roughly In The Order In Which They Occurred To Me

When I got out several pieces of paper and a pen to write down the 100 greatest albums of all time, these were the first 100 to occur to me.

The Beatles, Abbey Road

The Beatles, The Beatles (The White Album)

The Moody Blues, Seventh Sojourn

They Might Be Giants, Flood

They Might Be Giants, They Might Be Giants

Kirsty MacColl, Kite

The Beatles, Let It Be

The Beatles, Revolver

Scot Ninnemann, Moon June Spoon

Scot Ninnemann, Slight Change of Plans

Flip Nasty, Guitool

UFO Catcher, The Tale of a Sad And Lonely Boy Who Dreamed of Love

Kaptain Karl, Art Is A Lie, Baby

Kaptain Karl, The Chicago Tapes

Kaptain Karl, The Kepler Agenda

Jubilant Dogs, Abby

Prince, Purple Rain

Prince, Dirty Mind

Simon and Garfunkel, Bookends

Simon and Garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Water

Ben Folds Five, Ben Folds Five

Ben Folds, Rocking the Suburbs

Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited

Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde

Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks

Bob Dylan, Oh Mercy

Bob Dylan, Time Out Of Mind

Bob Dylan, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan, Bringing it All Back Home

Bob Dylan, Desire

Bob Dylan, "Love And Theft"

Bob Dylan, Live 1966

Lou Reed, Transformer

Lou Reed, Set the Twilight Reeling

The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground and Nico

The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground, Loaded

Liz Phair, Exile in Guyville

Trip Shakespeare, Across the Universe

Trip Shakespeare, Lulu

Matt Wilson, Burnt White and Blue

The Beatles, Rubber Soul

Billy Bragg, Worker's Playtime

Billy Bragg, Don't Try This At Home

Joni Mitchell, Hejira

Joni Mitchell, Blue

Joni Mitchell, The Hissing of Summer Lawns

Joni Mitchell, Court and Spark

Paul Simon, There Goes Rhymin' Simon

Paul Simon, Graceland

Paul Simon, Paul Simon's Concert in Central Park

Joni Mitchell, Ladies of the Canyon

Paul SImon, Hearts and Bones

John Coltrane, Giant Steps

John Coltrane, Africa/Brass

John Coltrane, Live at the Village Vanguard

Charles Mingus, Mingus Ah Um

Sarah McLachlan, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy

Sarah McLachlan, Surfacing

Enya, Paint the Sky With Stars

Steve Miller Band, Greatest Hits 1974-1978

James Taylor, Greatest Hits

Gram Parsons, GP

Gram Parsons, Return of the Grevious Angel

The Minnesota Orchestra, The Complete Beethoven Symphonies

Les Miserables, Original Cast Recording

The Byrds, Mr. Tambourine Man

The Byrds, Sweetheart of the Rodeo

The Band, Music From Big Pink

The Band, The Band (The Brown Album)

Bob Dylan & The Band, The Basement Tapes

Paul McCartney (or whatever), Band on the Run

Billy Joel, The Stranger

Billy Joel, Turnstyles

Billy Joel, Cold Spring Harbor

Paul McCartney, Tug of War

Paul McCartney, Venus and Mars

Paul McCartney, Flowers in the Dirt

Jimi Hendrix, Are You Experienced?

Jimi Hendrix, Axis: Bold As Love

Cocteau Twins, Heaven or Las Vegas

Elvis Presley, The King of Rock and Roll: The Complete '50s Masters

Elvis Presley, From Nashville To Memphis: The Essential '60s Masters I

Elvis Presley, Promised Land

Elvis Presley, From Elvis Presley Boulevard in Memphis, Tennessee

Elvis Presley, Memories: The 1968 Comeback Special

Elvis Presley, Elvis Country

Elvis Presley, Moody Blue

Elvis Presley, That's The Way It Is

Bruce Springsteen, Born To Run

Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town

The Kinks, The Kinks are The Village Green Preservation Society

John Lennon, Imagine

John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Double Fantasy

George Harrison, Brainwashed

George Harrison, All Things Must Pass

George Harrison, George Harrison

George Harrison, Could Nine

The Moody Blues, The Other Side of Life

"Weird Al" Yankovic, Dare To Be Stupid

"Weird Al" Yankovic, Alpocalypse

Lady Gaga, The Fame Monster

David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars

David Bowie, Hunky Dory

David Bowie, Low

David Bowie, Heathen

David Bowie, Reality

David Bowie, Station To Station

The Kinks, Muswell Hillbillies

Falco, Falco3

And I think that was 100.

Next time I sat down/stuff I thought of immediately afterwards:

John Hartford, Areo-Plane

Guster, Keep It Together

Guns -N- Roses, Appettite For Destruction

The Carpenters, 1969-1973

Big Star, #1 Record/Radio City

Big Star, Third/Sister Lovers

Evan Johnson, How Could I Know

Colin Spring, How I Came To Cry These Tears of Cool

Trip Shakespeare, Volt

Semisonic, Feeling Strangely Fine

Ted Hawkins, The Final Tour

I thought about looking over my CD collection and adding anything I forgot, then cutting up the pieces of paper and physically assembling the absolutely definitive list, in order. But I'm 41 not 14.

Top Ten Most Inspiring Keyboard Moments

Number. Title - Artist - Keyboard Player - Album - Year

Description/Justification

10. One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces - Ben Folds Five - Whatever And Ever Amen - 1997

My reaction upon hearing this in 1997 was, "Hey! Someone is making great piano music in a way that no one else has since Billy Joel and Elton John started dramatically overproducing their records in the 1980s! Hallelujah! Must acquire everything by him."

9. Let It Be - The Beatles - Paul McCartney - Let It Be - 1970

I have basically fetishized every aspect of this entire performance. The way the left hand octaves interact rhythmically with the right hand block chords. The way the F chord has an e in it which goes down to a d that sounds like a mistake at first. The actual mistake on "Mother Mary" during verse three. The way the gospel riff happens exactly one and a half times total. This song provides the crossover with my top ten guitar solos list. Fascinating alternate version from the movie.

Shoot, I could make this whole list Beatles songs. I could ALMOST make the whole list from Let It Be. So let's give honorable mentions to Billy Preston, electric piano on One After 909 and Get Back and Paul again for The Long And Winding Road. Don't know who did the Moog solo on Because from Abbey Road. George Martin's double speed classical solo on In My Life, which was copied by me on Jubilant Dogs' Stratosphere.

8. Green-Eyed Lady - Sugarloaf - Jerry Corbetta - Sugarloaf - 1970

I love the snaky riff, but what grabbed me the most was the punchy, breathy SOUND of this thing. I'd never heard anything quite like it and I still haven't.

7. Hungry Heart - Bruce Springsteen - Danny Federici - The River - 1980

The solo, (1:39) in a different key from the whole rest of the song. Little grace notes sliding up to the main notes. Like the previous entry, the sound of this solo is awesome - part ice rink, part silent movie, all rock and roll. Listen on headphones. It's panned all the way across the stereo picture but isn't monolithic. The Phantom never sounded sweeter.

I can't believe I didn't put any Roy Bittan on the list. Let's just give honorable mention to his work with Springsteen (duh) but also Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell and Bob Seger. While I love his playing, I can't honestly say he's literally inspiring to me because, like Eddie Van Halen on guitar, his playing seems impossibly out of my reach.

6. Scenes From An Italian Restaurant - Billy Joel - Billy Joel - The Stranger - 1977

Mainly the part (2:48) where everything drops out except the rolling octave bass in the piano (I think, like me, Billy Joel listened to Let It Be a few dozen times or more) and then the right hand comes in, tumbling down the stairs a couple times but landing on its feet.

See also the fast piano intro and outro of Miami 2017. I have played them many, many times and never quite perfectly.

5. James - Billy Joel - Billy Joel - Turnstyles - 1976

The always groovy Fender Rhodes. The melodic and harmonic shifts you didn't expect but recognize as perfect. The little scales. I have played the intro approximately 95 percent of the times I have sat down at an electric piano.

I could make the whole list Billy Joel, too, of course. The gorgeous flow of "Summer, Highland Falls", the simply perfect intro triads of "She's Got A Way", the guitar-doubled arpeggios of "She's Always A Woman", and even the funky, electric live version of "Los Angelenos" from Songs In The Attic.

4. Philosophy - Ben Folds Five - Ben Folds - Ben Folds Five - 1995

So many little grace notes ripping up to the main melody notes. It's like Floyd Cramer times a thousand and speeded way up. It displays such a huge range of feelings, the piano basically sings this song and everything else is background.

3. Bennie & The Jets - Elton John - Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - 1973

The solo! The solo! (2:22) This also has a whole lot of little grace notes ripping up to the main notes, which I seem to love. Huh! Never thought about that quite so overtly before. Love the way it starts folky then builds to a honky tonk scream.

2. Streetlife Serenader - Billy Joel - Billy Joel - Streetlife Serenade - 1974

It's the long bridge passage in the middle (2:24) with just piano where a mournful, graceful melody plays then gives way to a cascading fountain of notes before the singer comes back in. I explicitly copied this idea on my song "Eddie Gee". Now that I think about it there are two such passages in just this one song! This is my favorite Billy Joel piano moment of all.

1. Still Crazy After All These Years - Paul Simon - Barry Beckett/Richard Tee - Still Crazy After All These Years/Simon & Garfunkel The Concert in Central Park/Paul Simon Concert in the Park - 1975/1981/1991

Not many people who study twelve-tone serialism come up with an evergreen top forty hit. Even fewer have it played on a silky, liquid Fender Rhodes electric piano. The 1991 live (skip to about 49:50) version has Richard Tee and Michael Brecker (both now jamming in another world) taking the song to the next level.

Since You Asked...

A friend writes: "I'm wondering what you think of this video

I found myself agreeing on a few things, like the "nothing is free" and "personal responsibility" aspects.

It also reminded me of the things a parent might say to a child..."

Well, since you asked, here is the heart of my entire political philosophy.

As far as fiscal policy goes, he's got some good ideas. "Forgiving" student loans by paying them with taxpayer dollars is wrong. (And what a perfectly sad picture of the wretched occupy kid! To misquote Jewel, I hate him 'cause he's pieces of me!) I even think bailing out GM was a bad idea, even though it won Obama Michigan and probably Ohio. I am on the fence about Obamacare, but I'm willing to wait and see. Basically, there's still an awful lot about Democrats I like less and less as I get older and this guy kinda nails it.

I am a fiscal conservative. No doubt about it. I am Taxed Enough Already. Government is overly huge and incredibly wasteful and gets more so all the time.

HOWEVER

Believing this causes me to vote for Democrats. What? Why? Aren't they the ones who tax and spend?

Here are the last six presidential administrations (basically my life), in order by the size of the percentage increase in the national debt on their watch:

Ronald Reagan 188.6

George W. Bush 89.0

George H. W. Bush 55.6

Jimmy Carter 42.3

Barack Obama (through 2011) 41.1

Bill Clinton 35.6

source

Historically, Republicans waste more money than Democrats. Republicans do not like wasting money on American poor people. Democrats do not like wasting money on wars. Whoever is in office, some of my taxes will be wasted. But I'd rather have them be wasted here on something that helps our people instead of there on something destructive. Ergo, I am a fiscally conservative Democrat.

This naturally leads me to where this video goes horribly off the rails: foreign policy. Yes, there are bad societies who do horrible things. But it's not our job to kill them all and replace them with good societies. We simply can't go to war with Darfur, China, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Libya, Alabama, Mississippi, Pakistan, and Egypt just because they aren't free democracies with full rights for all citizens. The cost is just too high in blood and treasure.

Instead, we must be a model of freedom that other societies will see and want to emulate. Revolutions will happen. They will grow towards us and our way. If we learned anything yesterday and in the last thirty years, it is that the tide of time swells toward freedom. Like the United Federation of Planets, we will welcome these countries to the big table when they are ready. But we must not bomb them in the meantime unless we want dreams of revenge against us to become inextricably linked with their dreams of freedom.

Let's move on to domestic policy and a word about the Republican narrative of personal responsibility, entitlements, and the culture of poverty. The story goes something like this. Ever since FDR and LBJ created all these entitlement programs like social security, the American people have become more and more dependent upon them. FDR inadvertently created a monster, a lazy person who just sits at home and lets the government money roll in and uses it to buy high speed internet, Cheetos, and beer. Times a few hundred million. They choose to live in a culture of poverty supported by the government. This narrative is not completely false. The situation must be reformed.

I believe in personal responsibility. I believe in working hard and having a good life come as a result. I believe in if you snooze you lose. But take a person who is born into poverty. Say they work their way up. The person takes responsibility and doesn't ask for nothin' from nobody. Works two or three jobs. Gets married, stays faithful. Has children they love. The person is scrimping and saving $25 a month for higher education to get a better job someday, providing for their children, basically living on a razor's edge like so many Americans are. Then the person's spouse is killed by a drunk driver. All the personal responsibility in the world isn't going to bring that spouse back, continue to bring in that spouse's income, or fill the permanent hole in those kids' lives.

Bad things happen to good, hardworking, personally responsible people. And when they do they don't deserve to be abandoned by their government.

There has to be a safety net. My theoretical person needs social security and maybe even welfare and food stamps and those things should be there for that person. That is not a waste of my taxes. That could mean those kids go to college instead of living under a bridge. Yes, Democrats perhaps tend to cast the safety net too wide, even to lazy people who just lean back and use the safety net as a hammock. But it's better to cast the net too wide than than to shred it and let everyone who gets unlucky fall.

I finally understand what my seventh grade history teacher Mr. Peck was talking about when he contrasted the "culture of poverty" ideology with the "cycle of poverty" ideology. I tend to believe that government aid will help people break out of the cycle more often than it will encourage them to loaf in the culture. Man, Mr. Peck was a good teacher.

Finally, ever since I started paying attention to such things as a teenager, Republican presidents have brought war and recession while Democratic presidents have brought peace and recovery. That's hard to ignore.

That's about all I got. Like all of us, the guy in this video has got some good ideas and some horribly bad ideas.

Billy, Ya Let Me Down

So Billy Graham. Has he always been a conservative tool and I just wasn't paying enough attention? All these people that I thought about positively during my Christian upbringing. I even put one of his delightful book titles in a GUH song. Geesh. James Dobson, whose book we read as a family to help my transition into puberty. Turns out? Right wing tool. I couldn't listen to him on the radio for two minutes without becoming furious.

These people who take the extremely powerful name of God and use it to promote their pet political agendas really piss me off, especially when I find those agendas un-American, restrictive, and hateful. What makes me maddest is that if someone was to ask me if I was a Christian I would say definitively yes, but I would feel the need to add "...but I'm not a misogynist, homophobic, idiot asshole."

I believe the bible is the inspired word of God; a beautiful, wonderful, endlessly engaging, guiding, and challenging holy scripture that I elevate above all other books. I'm also able to admit that a lot of it is really specific to the time and place it was written and a lot of it is just fucking weird and you can't possibly live by it all.

Perhaps unfortunately, what you CAN do, if you want to, is take any position you want to and support it with cherry-picked quotes from the bible. Whatever else you can say about it, the bible is versatile.

Plus, this country was not founded strictly on biblical values. And despite my own personal love for the bible, I think that's a good thing. Countries that try to mix holy scripture with governance never look like good places to live from where I'm sitting. America was founded to promote life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Some people think that means running as far away from the bible as they can get and I respect their right to do that.

My favorite moment from any of the debates, Presidential or Vice-Presidential, was Joe Biden admitting that his Catholicism told him that abortion was wrong but that he didn't think he had the right to force that belief on someone else. I agree on both points. This is the line that we people of faith must walk as we vote and help to create public policy in this wonderful, amazing, miracle of a country we live in. (I also have a fervent love of America but again there feel the need to add "...but I'm not a etc.")

So how can we solve the original problem, that is that the very words "Christian" and "American", which are both so precious to me, have come to suggest a hateful, misogynist homophobe who would have us living in an Iranian style theocracy? How about if someone says something like this:

I'm a Christian who believes in the bible and I think it's time for America to acknowledge marriages regardless of the gender of the two people involved.

I'm a Christian who believes in the bible and I don't think states or the nation should be making decisions about women's bodies for them.

Whew! I feel better! I think that's what I needed to do. Okay, now you.

My Favorite Bob Dylan Album And Why

Desire is my favorite Bob Dylan album. Why? The stories. The high drama. The wildly inaccurate tales of actual people like Rubin "Hurricane" Carter and Joey Gallo. The legend of Dylan's time with a gypsy tribe in Spain. The myth of Isis. Bob and Sara on the beach with their kids. The Greek and the natural disaster on Black Diamond Bay. All these stories and the characters are beautiful and full like a Megan Bell painting and yet they leave plenty of space so they go on and on in your imagination after the music fades.

Why? The players. Rockin' Rob Stoner and his dancing bass. Emmylou Harris, who felt like she was not keeping up and broke down in tears and must not have noticed the powerful spell she was casting over the whole thing, especially Joey. Scarlet Rivera, whose violin and Bob's harmonica should be a train wreck on paper but merge and wail like a mystical spirit on tape.

Why? Because like so many other Bob albums, the recording method shouldn't have worked but it does. Too many players on too few tracks resulting in an erratic mix, confusion, discord, legal issues over the lyrics about actual people, and as always no rehearsal, chord sheets, or lyric sheets for the players. Just follow Bob. Watch his hands. Listen hard. It shouldn't work, but the performances are magnificent, spontaneous expressions of joy and sorrow.

Why? The collaboration. As a devoted fan who wants Bob to be well and happy, who believes that after all he's given us that he deserves to be well and happy, I like that he wrote a bunch of these songs with someone. Jacques Levy, a playwright, contributes to the cinematic quality of the best songs on the album. I imagine them having fun, late nights writing and creating together and I'm glad for Bob.

Why is Desire my favorite Bob Dylan album? Because all those things occurred to me when I was asked the question. I could just have easily said Time Out Of Mind and how it seemed eerily to speak directly to me the first time I heard it in September of 1997. I could have said Highway 61 Revisited and the way I involuntarily barked laughter, disturbing the peace and quiet of the St. Olaf music library, the first time I heard Jesus say, "The sun's not yellow, it's chicken!" I could have said Blood On The Tracks, of course. And who knows what will happen this afternoon, when I listen to Tempest for the first time? I could go on, honestly and sincerely, for at least this length about any and all of them. So yes, Desire is my favorite Bob Dylan album. But ask me again in five minutes.

Ballad Of A Thin Man

Ah, God this sucks. We shouldn't even be playing this game. How did I screw up that throw? Should have been a double play. Dammit! I just threw away the whole thing. Career over. This is horseshit. These guys should be sitting on a couch somewhere watching us play a division winner, not running the bases after I throw the ball into rightfield. All right. Shake it off, just like a thousand times before. Back in the game...

Yes! We're going to get it back! This'll even it up! McCann, Bourn, Prado, Heyward, me. Everybody hits. Here we go! Another shot at the...what? Oh, fuck me. Infield fly rule? Are you kidding me? We shouldn't even BE here!

Hey, what was that? Did something just fly onto the...oh, that's great, fans. Stay classy, Atlanta. You people. Ugh. I should get on a microphone and tell these drunk assholes where they can shove their beer cans. Oh, this is disgusting. Well, we can't all go out like Elway. Fuck.

Judiciary Election Thrills!

Against my better judgment I spent time researching the candidates in today's primary election. I blame my friend Justin Bell, esquire, for telling me that if people really understood politics they'd be as excited about the judicial branch elections as they are about the executive (President/Governor) and legislative (Senate/House) branch elections.

So I read the websites for all of today's candidates. By the end of it I was indeed wound up about the judicial elections, as well as the primaries. Why?

Democratic primaries:

For U.S. Senator I support Amy Klobuchar. As I understand it she will be the Democratic nominee. This is not why I decided to go.

For U.S. Representative District 5 I support Keith Ellison. He did a direct mail piece and some facebook ads that ultimately made me check out the candidates and wonder why he was bothering with campaigning in the primary. Well!

Ellison, who is a Muslim, is facing a Tea Party DINO (Democrat In Name Only) who is accusing him of all kinds of things. As soon as I saw "Sharia Law" on the front page of the guy's website I decided I'd continue researching and maybe even vote. I like to vote against any candidate who uses hate and fear. And I like what I see of Ellison. His interview with Stephen Colbert and the fact that he embedded it in his website doesn't hurt either.

For State Senator District 46 I support Ron Latz. He is running unopposed in the primary.

Judiciary elections:

For Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court I decided to support Jill Clark. The incumbent has scads of supporters, some of whom I like (Walter F. Mondale, etc.) but she was appointed by Pawlenty. Jill Clark has a very good website where she clearly outlines her candidacy.

In these judiciary elections the winner will not be decided until November. However, the candidate field will be whittled to two. As I understand it the incumbent usually wins the primary, gaining one of those two spots. This basically means I'm voting for either Jill Clark or Dan Griffith. Griffith had a lot of smart, meaningful things to say about judges and how they are chosen but I just heard and saw too many buzzwords suggesting he resents the poor and is basically a Republican.

For Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court I decided to support Alan Nelson. A clear, well written website splash page (and more importantly its content) made this an easy choice for me. That's actually where I learned the electoral procedural information in the previous paragraph.

For Judge, 4th District Court 22 I narrowed it down to either Deborah Russell or Elizabeth V. Cutter. I asked J. Bell if he had any information and he did not. Deborah Russell would be a fine candidate and I will vote for her if she makes it to November. However, she used two spaces after a period on her website. Thus today I voted for Cutter.

Cutter had a lot of evidence to back up this bold statement on her about page: "Liz is dedicated to issues of fairness, justice, and integrity across a wide spectrum." Plus she is a musician.

So that's what I did today for the first time ever. I actually researched and cared about judicial elections. Then I ran across the street and voted my conscience and my beliefs. When I got home I told bride who I had voted for and encouraged her to do the same since we have similar visions for America and Minnesota.

For someone who once wrote in the Twins lineup on the judicial part of the ballot, today was progress.

Update: 8:44 p.m. The Dems we voted for and Elizabeth Cutter are winning in landslides. Nelson and Clark are losing pretty decisively and will not make it to November. It doesn't look like my vote, even combined with bride's, if she even voted my line, is going to make any difference. Was it all worth it?

Check your own races here if you are so inclined.

Beatles Fan? There's Something You Should Know

There is an album available now called Silver Beatles At Home 1960. It strongly suggests (with my scientific psychology major I have insurmountable internal prohibitions against using the word "proves") that before The Beatles were The Beatles The Beatles were The Velvet Underground.

The tape is of four teenage kids (Paul, John, George, and Stu Sutcliffe) goofing around with a tape recorder. The sound quality is terrible. The music is fascinating. It's almost all based on simple blues changes and a lot of it is instrumental. It's impossible to imagine these Beatles creating a song like If I Fell, to say nothing of Eleanor Rigby or Martha My Dear. Ironically, it's easy to imagine them going immediately to Tomorrow Never Knows, a monolithic slab of a song if there ever was one.

They are much closer to The Velvet Underground song What Goes On than The Beatles song What Goes On.

If Andy Warhol had heard this band in 1960 instead of Brian Epstein in 1962 they seriously would have become The Velvet Underground. Wild. Obviously two years of going to Germany and the Cavern Club and having to learn actual songs and having to entertain people for hours at a time made The Beatles what they became.

I highly recommend listening to a few tracks at amazon.com.

My fellow residents of Hennepin County can get it free at a rate of three songs per week using Freegal. (That link may only work if you log in first.)

Hurry, because this album will disappear as soon as The Beatles legal team gets their way, just like The Complete Decca Sessions did last year. It is part of that "Grey Market" of semi-legal bootlegs that bands don't actually want released but that were recorded before they had their legal team in place.

Seven Easy Questions

In the Saturday Star Trib there was an article about an event called The Great American Think-Off that started in New York Mills, Minnesota. To illustrate the point that they were wrestling with "big questions" the Strib created a colorful graphic with the questions below. In the interest of saving everyone some time I have answered these questions. It took me about two minutes. In the interest of clarity, I have added appropriate capitalization and corrected syntax where the Strib had tortured it.

Q: Has anyone ever had a better run of four albums than Joni Mitchell's Ladies of the Canyon, Blue, For the Roses, and Court and Spark?

A: No.

Okay, that one I just put in myself because I've been listening to those. I challenge anyone to disagree. Please put your candidate for superior four album run in the comment section. Now to the Strib:

Q: Does God exist?

A: Yes.

Q: Does life have meaning?

A: Yes.

Q: Is the nature of humankind good or evil?

A: Evil.

Q: Is the pen mightier than the sword?

A: No.

Q: Should assisted suicide be legal?

A: Yes.

Q: Head or heart: which should you trust more?

A: Head.

And done. Whew! You're welcome.

The Two Bruce Springsteens

In the early '70s there was this skinny guy who wrote these epic story songs about really fantastic characters. You never knew where the songs would go or which of his huge, wild band was going to play the next solo. They blasted out of your stereo speakers and played long, unpredictable jams in concert.

From 1979 until now there's been this guy who writes these wordy folk songs about people who seem all too real. They're mostly people struggling in hard economic times or broken relationships or both. Once in a while they are happy. They're just like you and me. There's a highly predictable verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo or bridge, verse, chorus structure.

Since summer 2011 I have had a CD player in my car. What I've been doing is putting one CD in and leaving it for weeks, really listening to the music. It's been great and I highly recommend it. Bob Dylan's John Wesley Harding, They Might Be Giants' John Henry (just a coincidence - didn't see that 'til just now), R.E.M.'s Reveal, and the Minnesota Orchestra's Beethoven Symphonies 1-8 (not ready for 9 yet) have been the heretofore neglected pieces of music I've really enjoyed getting to know in more depth. Recently I've been listening to Bruce Springsteen's Lucky Town.

Turns out there are also two of me. Here's how one part of me hears Lucky Town.

- Ugh. Why is every single melody 3-3-3-3-2-1-2-1-1-1-1-(down to)-6-5-5? (These are scale degrees. If you don't know what I'm talking about listen to my very sincere tribute to Bruce Springsteen.)
-These chord changes are the same in every song just in a different key.
-The drummer must have gotten really sick of playing that same medium rock beat on 7 out of the 10 tracks. I wonder how he got up the energy and enthusiasm. Maybe the huge amount of dollars per thump?
-The quiet songs are inaudible and if I turn up for them the next loud song blasts me away. Ah, early CD mastering. Still preferable to current CD mastering though.
-He might should have kept the E Street Band on hand for this one.
-Why is he trying so hard to become Bruce Cockburn? He was BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN!?!?!?!
-Boring, boring, boring. I can't take another repetition of this whole album.

Here's how another part of me hears Lucky Town.

(Weeping) "Yes, Bruce, I too treasure the beauty, mystery, terror, and joy that comes with being an adult and being in a loving marriage and raising a family! Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh-ha-ha-ha!" (Further laughing and crying)

I don't know how that works, but there it is.

---------------------------------------------

Check it out yourself for a penny plus shipping at amazon. It's super cheap used because it was one of those "artist does something slightly different after a huge hit album so the public buys it right away then sells it when it doesn't sustain popularity because the public doesn't really care about music as music only about music as a cultural signifier for part of their fickle, shallow, hollow, insubstantial identity" albums. (See also: R.E.M.'s Monster, which, if they were really super environmentally friendly, they would just take out of print since there are four or five copies in every single used record store and they could save the petroleum used to manufacture new copies.)

In Which I Find More Really Great New Music

You know me, always looking for good music I am not aware of. So today I'm at art class and the teacher is playing something that I think is really great.

After class I'm like, "What was that CD you were playing?"
She looked at me for a second and said, "Adele? 21?"
I was like, "Ohhh, yeah. Wow that was really good! I haven't heard that before."
"Yeah, I try to find good music that will help the students be sort of mellow and do their art."
"Yeah, that was perfect for that."
We talked a little bit more. I felt like sort of a dope. I hope she didn't think I was making some hipster joke or something. I knew ABOUT that album, but I'd never heard that album. So, hey, in case I wasn't the last person on Earth to hear it and you actually are:

There's this really good album you should check out called "21" by this singer from England named Adele.

What's weird about it is that during the class I discreetly texted myself some of the lyrics in order to look them up later on the internet (which I don't have or want on my phone because it's a PHONE) but then I thought, "No. That's so isolationist/information age/sitting at home on the computer instead of getting to know the people in your community!" So yes, I made contact with another human being and, yes, I'm sure she belived I had just crawled out from under a rock.

I Found Some Genuine Good New Music

You know how I'm always like, "What good new music is there?" I mean, I love listening to new stuff from my long time favorite artists and the nth iteration of something with which I'm already familiar. People are like, "Yo La Tengo" or they're like "Arcade Fire" and I'm like, yeah, okay, I can see why people like that. But I'm not like BUWHAAAAH!

But now I am. Somehow I can't remember I came across this:

album: Alopecia
artist: Why?

Hennepin County Library

Amazon.com

I do not know how to link to iTunes.

That is some really, really creative new music that is not really quite like anything I've ever heard before. I really connected with that. And it's from here!

Can You Help?

This morning I thought of a rhyme. Then I thought of a way to make those things that rhyme into a rap song that brags about my identity using irrelevant similes. But I didn't get very far. Please help me complete my rap song.

I'm suckin' on the BLOOD of the INNocents like DRACULA
I'm jumpin' through TIME and solvin' CRIME just like Scott BAKULA

See where it was going?

The Moody Misanthrope

On Mondays it's kindness to all that I meet
On Tuesdays I'm still pretty fine
By Wednesday I'm starting to go a bit mad
in this dippity bapping of mine

By Thursday I might snap a bit at a chap
and on Friday, well, best not to call
The high expectations of weekends, of course
disappoint me and fill me with gall

By Saturday everything seems like a loss
My demeanor turns onward to rotten
On Sunday I drink 'til I can't think at all
So by Monday next all is forgotten

The Onion: News Before It Happens, Part 4

Longtime fans of memphisevans.com know I am a huge fan of The Onion satirical newspaper. They have, once again, published a story BEFORE it actually happened. Here they are:

The Onion, November 30, 2011:
54 Iraquis Die In Not Our Problem Anymore

Yahoo! News, December 22, 2011
Wave of bombings across Iraqi capital kills 60

By the way, neither I nor The Onion are making light of this tragic event. My readers can tell that, right? You get satire, right? The real point being that tragic things are still going on and it is sad, even if we ignore it. I ask because my teacher friend Kaptain Karl has realized that some 90% of high school students do not understand or even recognize satire. It makes me wonder if that statistic is any different in the adult population.

To see previous examples of the remarkable predictive power of The Onion, you can search for other blog entries here with "the onion" tag if you know how to do that. Sometimes I can find that, sometimes I can't. I don't know how to capitalize "the onion" tag.

Now THAT was a GUH show!

Well that was awesome. I really enjoyed that. In light of the less-than-totally-successful Great Uncle Helmer portion of the joint show last Tuesday, I took a half hour or so today and dedicated myself to the success of this all-GUH, two hour night at J&S Bean Factory. I made a set list and printed out lyric sheets for the two songs I didn't have memorized. I organized the instruments and gear I would need. Seems simple, doesn't it? But sometimes I forget or neglect these easy yet important steps.

Unlike Tuesday, the staff cleared the space for us and made us feel welcome. We had enough people there that the place (which is cozy) seemed about half full, then a few more people showed up. So it was totally worth us setting up and playing. (U.T.) the people who were there were enjoying the music, not just the free WiFi. (U.T.) we had plenty of time to plan and execute a set list that ebbed and flowed with the true lifeblood of GUH, now a twenty year collaboration.

We started with Chimney and (U.T.) didn't somehow forget the words of our most oft-played song. We got a good sound going (U.T.) that was appropriate for the room, but not killing anyone. I felt comfortable singing into my microphone. I gave myself a little bit of echo just so it wasn't the dry sound of a banquet toast and I could hear myself and Karl clearly. We started by playing eight straight songs we know very well, right off the set list. It sounds so basic when I put it like that. Of course! Why wouldn't that be a good show? Duh!

We brought up our special guests Scuffy and Scrappy Pucker on banjo and flute and they were terrific. I played bass and Karl played guitar. Two-Dollar Bill Turner was missed at the show but we played a 10-12 minute version of his Total Peace that almost made up for his absence. Here's the crazy thing: Even at 10-12 minutes, it was NEVER BORING. Sometimes I look at a Grateful Dead live CD, I get disheartened just by looking at the track times, and I take it back to the library unheard. (Europe '72, I'm talking to you.) This was not that.

At the beginning of the song Karl said he didn't know it on the guitar. I told him play C and G, but up two frets but with the open strings still ringing out. Done. I sang the two verses in the wrong order but it wasn't an issue. Scuffy started the soloing and we all sat back and answered him when it was appropriate. I stomped on the floor and reduced my bass part by several notes to leave lots of space.

Later in Scuffy's solo I played a long, ascending e dorian scale on whole notes, building tension much like the choir towards the end of the Stones' You Can't Always Get What You Want, only with answer and commentary from my mates. I sang along with my bass part off mike. I got to the highest note on my bass (D) then bent up to reach the E that is the song's key center. It all sounds rather dry and intellectual in these music theory terms but it was really quite thrilling and I was on the verge of shouting. I looked at Karl to end the soloing on a high note and start the vocal, but he was looking at Scuffy. That actually happened several times, to the benefit of all concerned.

Scrappy took a solo spotlight for a while and it was great to hear some extended ideas from her as it rose and fell and rose. Then Karl played probably THE finest guitar solo of his life to date.

Once late at night many years ago we were sitting around mocking and laughing at a guitar solo Karl had played during a show and when the laughter subsided he quietly said, "Justin...when I was playing that solo...I felt...like I had wings." It was the perfect thing to say and we just about got kicked out of the Faribault 24 hour Perkins for laughing. Well tonight Karl made good on that boast and I think we ALL felt like we had wings.

We played a Good For A While that I wish I had on tape because I accidentally hit the perfect wording for the last line before the title in verse three but now I can't quite think of it. (And I think we'll be? And I wanna be? bet we'll be? And I think we could be? Dammit. I don't think I'd even recognize it now if I did remember.)

The Haiku joke was much more successful than it's been in previous years with people actually paying attention, Karl really building it up, and me telegraphing it a little more.

We nailed the complex old favorite Velvets and Karl played a mind-bendingly perfect harmonica solo on "The Wicklund Rose". His New Song Showcase number "She Called Him A Dark Poet" had people laughing at every single line. I then asked him to play Don't Remember Me, one of my top five favoritest Kaptain Karl Kompositions. I stood back up and we rocked Shadowy Figure so hard my foot literally stuck to the floor. My New Song Showcase "(Don't Worry About) The Disco" was just as good a performance as it was on my birthday but this time everyone in the room was paying attention. Ring-A-Ling-Ding-Ding-Ding and Behind The Curtain (by kind request) enthusiastically ended the show almost on time.

Thanks to everyone who came, listened, played along (S.P & S.P), donated toys, and took CDs. Thanks to the woman who videoed some of the show (wish I knew where that was going up) and told us we were good. Thanks to the staff at J&S Bean Factory. Thanks for J. Bell for tirelessly organizing the Toys For Tots drive every year. Most of all thanks to Karl for setting up this particular show and playing it like a champion.

Complete Set List

Well, That Was Technically A Show

So usually when I really enjoy a show I write a blog post about it. But what about when a show is mediocre? I never write about it. Until now.

I'm pleased that Grand Avenue Dunn Bros. has live music. So very many places I used to play are shut down or don't have music. (R.I.P. Professor Java's in Hastings and Java Hut in River Falls - two of my old favorites.) I'm not as thrilled that they have WiFi, which lends itself to scenes like this:



Having seen this photo (taken last week) I was not excited about the potential audience for this show. Laptop slaves. Been there. Am there right at this moment kinda, but at home. Karl and I got to the place and there was a couple in some deep discussion at a table on the stage. We set our guitars down near them and they didn't move. Eh. Fine. We had like an hour before starting. I already felt hostile toward any potential stranger audience and they could all just fuck off. Not a great frame of mind.

Eventually the couple left and we got set up but no matter how much I goofed with the equalisation knobs and sliders everything sounded boxed in and mid-rangey. We started quietly with "Pale Blue Eyes" and I felt like there were so many other songs I would enjoy playing but I couldn't think of them. Longtime GUH fans will be familiar with those shows where we are not particularly sincere and laugh at ourselves a lot while strangers look on in pity, confusion, or disgust and longtime GUH fans are mildly entertained or perhaps merely resigned. This was sort of like one of those.

Karl made a remark about a PBS telethon and that caused me to depart our set list and begin to play "The Boxer" for which I forgot the words. I have played that song dozens of times and the words always come to me and I feel alive in the song. Not this time. No one seemed to get the joke of "PBS always plays Simon & Garfunkel's Concert in Central Park at pledge time" either.

This is where not doing any preparation for the show also hurt us. With a rehearsal or two we could have done new songs I'm really excited about like "I Am The Devil" or "geez I can't even think of one when I'm sitting here three hours later" I guess I would have liked to play "Good For A While" especially since Scrappy Pucker of the Mississippi Seven was there, although in her humility she had her flute hidden in a large bag so we didn't see it and we thus didn't even think to ask her to come on up.

Doc's Kids played and they were good. The contrast between BPZ, calling on people, even strangers, and getting everyone smiling and singing along, and me, standing perfectly still and looking at a high spot on the back wall, is tremendous. I did have fun playing along with DK on casaba and claves. Karl's trombone solo on "Peru" was epic and rhythmic, a fun contrast to his short, tasteful, melodic solo at the Acadia last week. Sitting back down, the sound was boxy and mid-rangey out in the room, though, a far less welcome contrast to the Acadia show, where the sound was great.

(Oh, I would also have liked to play "The Wicklund Rose". That's the one I was trying to think of earlier. But I didn't rehearse it. Or anything. In fact, except for a brief GUH set at the Acadia, I hadn't even played a steel string acoustic guitar in months. All this shit is my fault, btw. In fact most of it is probably just in my mind.)

For GUH's second set Karl was making some jokes as I started Isolation For Christmas and I couldn't stop giggling. I heard some laughter in the audience during that song, which was strange but good. We finished with Powerful Statement and it was over. We were supposed to leave time for Doc's Kids to play another set but I guess we went long. They only played two songs after that. This has been a tough year for the Doc's Kids Toys For Tots Drive for a lot of reasons and I think the performers were kind of wiped out tonight. Still, it was great to see my friends. And there's one show left, for which I think I'll rehearse a bit if I can get time in the next two days. Should be good. Potentially redemptive. You should go! Facebook Event

Oh also I've had a sore throat and something I ate for dinner was not agreeing with me. (Still not.) So if you were there I'm sorry you didn't catch GUH at our best. If you weren't there, well, you picked the right one to skip. Whoo! See you Friday.

2012 Presidential Election Results - Today!

I just realized something, much to my relief. President Obama will be re-elected in 2012! Whew! Not saying it won't be a lot of work for a lot of people - it will. But that work will be rewarded. "How do you figure?" you say.

History. Whether we learn from it or not, we are doomed to repeat it. I am 40 now, old enough to remember 2004. That was the first and last time I actually went door-knocking on behalf of a political candidate, something that went against my deeply held beliefs about the evil that is unsolicited solicitation, but something I found necessary given the greater evil occupying the White House at the time. My new young wife and I were on fire for the Democrats. Can I even imagine such a thing now? Anyway...

We had a sitting president who made about half the population absolutely furious nearly to the point of murder. Certainly to the point of suspending their beliefs about giving the POTUS the benefit of the doubt or, in my case, leaving people alone to enjoy their homes. Nevertheless, the best the opposing party could do was a stunningly boring flip-flopper from the Northeast and a sleazy, cynical, calculated, career politician from the South.

See where I'm going now? I'll spell it out for you. Bush 2004 = Obama 2012. Kerry 2004 = Romney 2012. Edwards 2004 = Gingrich 2012. Game over. I've seen this movie, only this time I am happy about the ending. Whew!

(Unless, of course, the Republicans again manage to take the election out of the hands of the American People and leave it up to their crooked voting machine cronies.)

Really Fun Show

Really fun show tonight (actually last night now) at the Acadia. (It's all for the 2011 Toys For Tots drive and there are a few shows left. Great Uncle Helmer and Doc's Kids at Grand Ave. Dunn Bros. in St. Paul on Tuesday Dec. 13 at 8 p.m. and Great Uncle Helmer only on Dec. 16 Facebook Event. Bring a new toy or $10 and get an exclusive CD featuring several local artists.)

Tonight began with Mischa Suemnig, who I had never seen live before. He was really good and I'm glad I showed up early for his set. It continued with Doc's Kids, who were out of their minds great. They struck the perfect balance between antics and musicality. They also made clear that vulgar language would be acceptable on this night, which I always enjoy.

Next up was Shotgun Johnson & The Mississippi Seven, in yet another configuration we've never done before and likely will never exactly do again. Tonight was (counterclockwise):
J. Bell: bass
Srappy Pucker: flute
Kaptain Karl: guitar and vocals
Memphis Evans: ukelele and vocals
Scuffy Pucker: banjo and squeezebox and vocals
Two-Dollar Bill Turner: keyboards and vocals

Drums and cover tunes are banned at The Acadia and we enjoyed their commitment to quiet, original music. I personally got really into Good For A While and sang it absoluetly perfectly. (I can say that, can't I? It's my song. I think I get to decide.) I usually unintentionally goof some lyrics but I did not. I think I conveyed emotion with my music, which I don't always do.

I prefaced Hey Where My Shed Done Gone with the country authenticity story. I prefaced The Devil Is Knockin' At The Door by saying it was our gospel number. On the latter I didn't play an instrument and my phrasing was all over the place but in a good, conversational way that suits the song. I could see and hear people respond and enjoy the humorous yet passionate song.

I really enjoyed sitting next to Scuffy and sharing an amplifier. (I was using his uke as mine does not have electronics.) On the songs I didn't sing, especially Total Peace and Don't Be Dumb, we really had some musical conversations going. It was very satisfying. Everyone wants more banjo and uke interplay in their music these days, right? That could be all over the radio for all I know or care. (Thankfully I have a CD player in my car now and have been obsessed with Beethoven Symphonies 1 & 6.)

Then Sarah VanValkenburg played a good set of original material she developed with the help of J. Bell who, in addition to doing all the hard work for this T4T thing every year, taught guitar before becoming an attorney. Karl and Justin and I sat right up front and, while we were chatting because we don't get to see each other and catch up as often as we'd like, we were certainly enjoying the catchy tunes.

Karl and I played next as Great Uncle Helmer. After Chimney Karl went in to some spooky weird sounds that were hilarious and inspired me to play Winter Ghost, which people responded to well. I've played that song so many times I don't really feel the words anymore (the song is old enough to vote this year) but I did enjoy playing the guitar parts and having people obviously enjoy it.

As GUH always do with Toys For Tots shows, we did New Song Showcase, since Karl and I basically play only these few shows as GUH nowayears but we both still write quite a lot. I did "(Don't Worry About) The Disco". I felt it so very strongly I was tearing up a little and I had every word memorized and flowing out of me. I fingerpicked it in C, very different from the daffy recording I made last year. I felt as though if someone were to pay attention to my performance without any distractions they would understand something very important about me. It's not necessarily true but that's how it felt.

I do not always feel that way. During some musical performances I feel confused, secondary, misunderstood, disconnected, or intentionally hidden behind a mask. During others I am merely a technician, a vessel, a sideman, a hired hand in the background, or sometimes all of these things at once. But tonight during Good For A While, The Devil Is Knockin' At The Door, The Disco, and even Hey Where Mah Shed Done Gone, people had an opportunity to see me as real and as pure and as good as I get.

We finished with California, No Time To Kill, and Don't You Need Me with all of MS7 and DK onstage. I played bass and something about the bass, amp, and microphone gave me a shock when the band dropped out and I tried to sing the first line of California. Instead of "Went up on the mountain" I cut loose with a very naughty word not heard from me onstage since Urban Rust played a poorly thought out bill with Amish Armada. (***********r)

So it was a great start to the 2011 Toys For Tots drive and I'm hopeful we'll have similar moments at the remaining two shows. Thanks to everyone who came out and gave toys, everyone who played music, and especially J. Bell for setting it all up and unknowingly taking home the half dozen Urban Rust CDs I sneaked into the toybox. Ha ha!

Mississippi Seven setlist:
Ghost Train D tr
C'mon Lizzie G bo
Kansas City, NE C tr
(Let's All Get Drunk In) St. Paul D wa
Good For A While G da
Illusions of Banjeur G tr
Into The West D ba
Hey, Where My Shed Done Gone? A ca
North on the Soo Line C wa
The Devil Is Knockin' (At The Door) G sw
Total Peace e dorian so
The Rainmakers C ca
Don't Be Dumb G tr
Between the Weather and the Scores C ba

tr = train
bo = boogie
ca = cajun
wa = waltz
da = da...dat-da
ba = ballad
sw = swing
so = soul