Hi folks. Here’s my list, kept since the ‘60s. Be fine in 2009!
{;-) Bruce Scholten 30 Dec. 2008 (visiting Ulm, FRG)
COVER
* Seal ‘A Change Is Gonna Come’. Heard it thrice before realising it wasn’t Sam Cooke. No wonder people keep saying what an incredible vocalist is Seal. Barack Obama thinks so too: http://uk.truveo.com/a-change-is-gonna-come-seal/id/4123791762
* SONG OF THE YEAR - FEMALE
* Duffy ‘Mercy’. Great Motown-like sound! ‘I’ll Rain on Your Parade’ has same beat as Mercy, but still shoots you back to high school. Buy the CD: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE2orthS3TQ
*Runner-up: Grace Jones ‘William’s Blood’. Voice and rhythm to rival Nina Simone. For a treat hit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixMYI3Z7m0c OR her best ‘Slave to the Rhythm’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iixnisd7kyo&NR=1
* Runner-up: Adelle ‘Should I just keep Chasing Pavements?’ [Jan’08 big single] could be new star!
* Sharleen Spiteri’ (formerly of Glasgow’s Texas) ‘All The Times I Cried’: http://www.last.fm/music/Sharleen+Spiteri/+videos/6613587
* Dido ‘Don’t Believe in Love’. Yep, she’s a whiner, but one of the best. Clean percussion: http://www.didomusic.com/gb/home/
SONG OF THE YEAR – MALE/s
* Tom Jones ‘If He should ever Leave You’. This 1950s’ style was scorned for years as impossibly bombastic, the ken of Vic Damone & other croonsters. But Tom’s authenticity dispels that misimpression. Best of all he weaves a tale of chivalrous love from afar.
* Runnerup: * David Byrne & Bryan Eno ‘Strange Overtones’. Eerily brilliant. Hear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu9LhFXymxs&feature=related
See: http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/142771-new-music-david-byrne-and-brian-eno-strange-overtones-mp3
ROCK
* Oasis ‘The Shock of Lightning’. Exciting sound! As good as Bruce Springsteen’s 2007 top rocker ‘Radio Nowhere’. Hit: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=87IQhui_Yy8
* Runner-up: ‘Come in Come Out’.
* Kings of Leon ‘Closer’. Cool special effects; even cooler voice.
* Runner-up: AC/DC ‘Rock and Roll Train’. In my 20s I was too sophisticated for AC/DC. I was so much older then; I’m younger than that now.
* Runner-up: Queen ‘Celebrity’. Excellent vocal by ex-Free, ex-Bad Company’s Paul Rodgers. Slightly different machismo than Freddie Mercury’s. More please.
* Killers ‘Human (or are We Dancers?)’. Are the Killers reading too much Hunter S. Thompson? Refreshing song, synth & all. Wonder if it’ll last like Zagar & Evans 1969 hit ‘In the Year 2525’.
* Snow Patrol is one of many good bands on the charts, some going nuts like it’s 1965.
* Razorlight ‘Wire to Wire’: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wegOJS02znY.
* McFly? Often too derivative. Gimme Goldfrapp. Recycle Garbage!
* Kirk W. recommends Arcade Fire: ----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 4:43 AM Subject: The next band
I have seen & heard perhaps the strongest musical hyperrush ever. If you ever feel like raging at the powers and storming the gates, or at least want somebody other than a rap or metal group to do that for you, see Arcade Fire. “See” because you wouldn’t get it on CD, and you wouldn’t play it loud enough. TV (Austin City Limits) would be OK if you could banish distractions and crank it through speakers big enough. It’s like The Revolution Itself, and you’ll want to rip off your clothes & go nuts. Think a futuristic version of Pink Floyd, Talking Heads& B-52s, all onstage at the same time, all on the same page, mainlining adrenalin, all layering up equally on every instrument ever invented, including cathedral pipe organ. Yow! ...Kirk
POP MALE & FEMALE
* Estelle ‘American Boy’. Reportedly, the new UK star performed at Seattle’s Bumbershoot Festival on August 30, 2008.
* Runner-up: The Feeling ‘I Love it when You Call’ is good pop – like all their songs.
* Runner-up. Ting Tings ‘(I don’t wanna) Be the One’ Making all the Noise’.
* Runner-up: Elbow ‘Looking Like a Beautiful Day’. Guy Garvey’s warm vocal, interesting composition & backing cellos permeate the album. It took Elbow 18 years to win a Mercury Prize, but it was worth it: www.tdpri.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-122570.html
* Runnerup: Jason Donovan (yes, Kylie’s ex) ‘Dreamboats & Petticoats’ with guitar by Shad Hank Marvin on Let it be Me, a 1962-era album with a fine cover of Cliff Richard’s ‘It’s All in the Game’.
* Alesha Dixon ‘The Boy Does Nothing’. But boy does he clean up.
NEW FEMALE ROCKER
* Katy Perry – check this LA girl’s songs like ‘I Kissed a Girl’. Madonna seal of approval notwithstanding, she’s fresh: http://www.last.fm/music/Katy+Perry/_/I+Kissed+a+Girl
BALLAD
*James Blunt (31Mar08) ‘Carry You Home.’ Best single since Al Stewart’s ‘Guderian’.
* Runner-up: The Scripts ‘The Man who can’t be Moved’.
* Runner-up: Will Young ‘Changes’. Two plays and the song goes strong.
RHYTHM & BLUES
* Duffy’s ‘Mercy’ is as great as early Motown. Intoxicating rhythm. Boom! Boom! Go the drum.
* Tom Jones ‘If He Should Ever Leave You’ is a retro-1950s example from 24 Hours, a great album co-written with other writers and recorded with horns & a blasting orchestra reminiscent of Nelson Riddle. Mr. Jones is more hero than anti-hero! Http://www.musicloversgroup.com/tom-jones-if-he-should-ever-leave-you-lyrics-and-video/
SOUL MALE
* Al Green – ‘No One Like You’. Perfect new soul album Lay it Down:
http://www.last.fm/music/Al+Green/_/No+One+Like+You
* Lamaar ‘If She Only Knew’. Fetching harmonies make this almost as good as his breakthrough hit ‘If this was a Perfect World I’d have You’.
SOUL FEMALE
* Annie Lennox ‘Money Can’t Buy It’. Is this is a 2008 release? Is so it’s her best, wisest single in 10 years – in eUrythmics derived sound. Whatever gets you through the night: http://video.google.com/videosearch?rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GGLJ&q=*+Annie+Lennox+%E2%80%98Money+Can%25E2%80%99t+Buy+ It%E2%80%99.&um=1&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title#
* Runner-up: Leona Lewis ‘Bleeding Love’. She won one of those awful TV talent shows, a pearl before swine: http://www.leonalewismusic.co.uk/run/
* Runner-up: Jennifer Hunt ‘Spotlight’. ‘Whooh-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!’
* Runner-up: Beyonce ‘If I was a Boy’. Hardly.
* Runner-up: Dido. Actually shouts louder than she moans on early hits like ‘White Flag’. Mick Fleetwood loves ‘White Flag’ & drummed on her new album Safe Trip Home.
* Runner-up: Mary Wilson ‘Make Happy’. Supremely good beat. The old ways are the best ways.
SOUL DUO
* James Morrison & Nelly Furtado ‘Broken Wings’: http://nellyfurtado.me/tag/lyrics/
COUNTRY VOCAL FEMALE
* Dolly Parton ‘Better get to Livin’’. Good attitude.
COUNTRY VOCAL MALE
*Glen Campbell ‘Time of Your Life’. This legenday LA session guitarist & sometime Beach Boy is stunning us with his ironically titled album Meet Glen Campbell. Who’d a thunk Glen’d sing a Green Day song? See: http://www.prefixmag.com/media/glen-campbell/good-riddance-time-of-your-life-green-day-cover-vi/20158/. ‘Grow Old with Me’ has heart too.
* Runner-up: Teddy Thompson ‘In My Arms’. Son of twins makes good. We say him open for Lucinda Williams in 2007 in Gateshead’s fantastic SAGE. Excellent.
* Tony Christie (Way to Amarillo) ‘Born to Cry’ from the album Made in Sheffield written and produced with Richard Horley and Jarvis Cocker of Pulp. Roy Orbison would love it.
COUNTRY DUO
*Allison Krause & Robert Plant. Yet another hit from the hick album that put the Led Zep reunion tour on hold!
SUMMER SONGS
Here’s a new category celebrating songs that make summer pop memorable, songs like Bruce Springsteen’s (2007) ‘Girls in their Summer Clothes’. I still remember our strawberry-raspberry-cucumber pickers’ day at Birch Bay in 1964, hearing Roy Orbison’s ‘Pretty Woman’…
* Eva Lee ‘Mad about the Boy (I love him I love him, I love him)’ .
* Noah and the Whale ‘In Five Years Time’. There will be love, love, love.’ A silly song to sing around campfires at Kalaloch Beach.
* Kid Rock ‘All Summer Long’ referencing 1977 or so when he was halfway between boy and man, and a girl in northern Michigan was far advanced. All to a Lynyrd Skynrd riff.
BIG BAND
Michael Buble. This Canadian is no second-rater. Yep, I mentioned him in 2007. Probably 12 months from now too, should, should we be spared (Pace! BBC’s Sarah Kennedy!).
COMEBACK
* Grace Jones ‘William’s Blood’. This is so scary good.
OBITS
* Richard Wright, keyboardist for Pink Floyd. Died September 2008. Part of our pINK heart gone. See David Gilmour’s Live in Gdansk for the keyboards. We’ll never forget him in Hec-Edmundsen or Paramount Northwest.
* Levi Stubbs, 72, passed away Oct. 16, 2008. Lead vocalist with the Four 4 Tops for hits like ‘Reach Out, I’ll Be There’, Smokey Robinson called him a friend. Once in northwest Washington a disk jockey wannabe loved the 4 Tops so much he devised the moniker Levi Soul. The nickname didn’t fly, but Levi Stubbs’ songs still do.
* Isaac Hayes died August 10, 2008. At 65, Hayes said he was grateful every day he heard his songs get radio airplay. Best known for his soundtrack on the 1970s Blaxploitation flick Shaft. Recent voice of Chef on South Park, though apparently he left in a huff over dissing of Scientology. Reportedly found in his home gym next to a running machine (Those things are dangerous!). In 1964 Stax hired Hayes as a studio musician, backing Otis Redding and others. Isaac Hayes first caught my ear in 1969 with ‘Hot Buttered Soul’ - just 4 beautiful songs including Burt Bacharach’s ‘Walk on By’.
* Mitch Mitchell, 61, in a Portland, Oregon hotel room ca. 13 Nov. 208. Authorities cited natural causes. Mitch’s jazz based drums filled the trio Jimi Hendrix Experience. Only about 20 when he joined, and served on Are You Experienced, Axis Bold as Love, and the supreme Electric Ladyland. I felt it was a mistake for Jimi to forsake Mitch for the heavy Buddy Miles downers like ‘Machine Gun’. Not to be too hard on Miles, who died in Feb. 2008 of heart failure, 3 years after a stroke. Buddy Miles was named after drummer Buddy Rich, played in his dad’s bands, and co-founded Electric Flag.
BOOKS
Robert Greenfield (2006) Exile on Main Street: a season in hell with the Rolling Stones. USA: DaCapo Press/Perseus Books. ISBN 10: 0-306-81563-8.
Finished after midnight 27oct08. Well written book that seamlessly inserts Stones song phrases to illustrate the text. Now I’m vague on the author’s connection to Villefrance, France, but on page 30 he writes: ‘Neither Mick, Keith nor Anita attended Brian’s funeral. The psychic toll exacted of those who do not bury and honor their dead can never be overestimated, not even in the topsy-turvy world of the Rolling Stones.’ This is where Gram Parsons met his match. These preface quotes are apt:
‘Once, if my memory serves me well, my life was a banquet where every heart revealed itself, where every wine flowed.’ Arthur Rimbaud, Une Saison en Enfer
‘I think it was just a bunch of stoned musicians cooped up in a basement, trying to make a record.’ Mick Taylor, then of the Rolling Stones
‘It was a shell out of which all sorts of amazing, amazing behaviour happened. People became themselves. You couldn’t lie there. The vibes were just too strong. You’d be found out in a second.’ Tommy Weber, house guest at Villa Nellcote.
Pages 242-243: ‘Asked by John H. Richardson in Esquire magazine to list some of the things he learned over the years, Keith said, “To me, smack is the big deal. That is such a cheeky, cheeky, cheeky little drug. That one can get you right by the tail before you know it, man. It’s a real leveller. I’m a fucking superstar but when I want the stuff, baby, I’m down on the ground with the rest of them. Your whole lifestyle becomes just waiting for the man and talking to junkies about whether the shit’s good or not – ‘It’s not as good as the last lot is it? I’m not going to pay him then.’ And guys pulling shooters on you, ‘Give me your stuff!’ and all that. You just become a wreck. Which is kind of disgusting in a way, but at the time, I can’t say I regret going there.”’
Slash with Anthony Bozza (2007) Slash. London: HarperCollins. 461+pp.Read late July 2007, picked up with a Lee Child ‘Jack Reacher’ novel in Newcastle. It’s a fast read of a fast life. As he says, ‘Just because it sounds EXCESSIVE doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.’ Slash? Good guitarist, poor role model for troubled youf.
**
Donovan Leitch (2003?) Donovan: Autobiography of Donovan
Read July-August 2008. Glaswegian folkster meets Dylan & sings with Jeff Beck (Barabajagal 1969) before cleaving to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Transcendental Meditation. Much work w/ studio dude Jimmy Page too. Believe it or not, the Sunshine Superman and film maker David Lynch publicly called for TM to be part of the UK secondary school syllabus. Who knows, it might stop the knifing fad. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7lN4ZlTYFk
Patrick Humphries (2007) The Many Lives of Tom Waits. London: Omnibus: 354pp.Finished 14the July 2008 Bastille day. Waits has done more TV & cinema than I realised. I admit he’s a worthy artist (Frank Becks insists its so, but he’s young enuf 2 like bohemianism for itself.). I liked the remark that Tom dinna miss the booze & bars much ‘because the stories I heard in AA were better’. He seems smokeless & teetotal since meeting his wife at Warners. Didn’t seem she was an artist, but has emerged as an important collaborator – enuf to send their 3 kids to college. At least she doesn’t thrust herself like Sharron Osbourne who saved Ozzie by overwhelming him. ‘I learned I didn’t need to be a murderer to write murder mysteries,’ says Tom. All power to him. Rod Stewart’s rendition of his ‘Downtown Trains’ is enuf worth for any writer.
Peter Biskind (2004) Down and Dirty Pictures. London: Bloomsbury.Necessay reading on devt of independent ‘indie’ productions via Sundance and similar indy film festivals. Details rise of NYC muscular Jews Ben and Harvey Weinstein’s MiraMax distribution co named after folks. (Dad a diamond merchant, scary mom a housewife.). Both brothers, esp. Harvey a yelling bastard, but essentially good for film quality. Quentin Tarantino was ‘the son’ Harv never had. Harv almost destroyed directors & producers like Anthony Menghella. Had odd partnerships as subsidiary of Disney. Many of his Indywood films are more violent than Jack Reacher novels. Harvey became Friend of Bill Clinton (FOB). Asked Tina Brown to head TALK magazine, a $24m failure in the 1990s. Good index.
Graeme Thompson (2004) Complicated Shadows: The life and times of Elvis Costello. Edinburgh: Cannongate: 342pp + pix.
Well written book about Declan Patrick MacManus, fairly boring if talented musician, a 4th family generation muso with his son the 5th. Ray Charles excused Costello’s 1979 Columbus Incident, the outburst to Stephen Stills & tattling Bonnie Bramlett.
Stills (formerly his hero) asked: ‘If you hate us so much why are you in our country?’
Elvis: To take your money and your women.
Page 1 quotes Elvis Costello who “‘branded James Brown a ‘jive-ass n*&&er’ and Ray Charles as ‘nothing but a blind, ignorant ni*%%er’. Costello oughta ‘watch out for them bricks’. Never keen on half measures, Elvis also described the British as ‘original white boys’ and Americans as ‘colonials’.”
Page 5: “Ray Charles was later asked for his opinion on Elvis Costello’s comments, and showed class that few on the battle-lines displayed ‘Anyone could get drunk once in his life,’ said Charles. ‘Drunken talk is not meant to be printed in the paper.’
Well, Ray got MORE than drunk in his life. But I prefer his music and willingness to entertain to Costello’s baseless anger. The only beautiful song Costello wrote was ‘Allison, My Aim is True’. He should thank his Dad, who inspired him, that he got a chance to work with Burt Bacharach.
First wife Mary forgotten, as he also blew his affair with beautiful Bebe Buell. Cait O-Riordan, 2nd partner, the Pogues’ bassist who got a PhD in classics put up with him for years. Eventually he married boring Diana Krall, and plastered himself all over the 1995 Meltdown Festival on London’s South Bank. OK, I protest too much. His Brodsky Quartet collaborations are interesting. Still gotta finish 4 pages. Later: Interesting that he learned music notation. But a boring book. **
RADIO
MOST IMPORTANT SHOW
* Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour. Brings popular music full circle, uniting blues, country, jazz, pop, rock, whatever. Uncle Bob is funny as a crutch! Not sure if it’s downloadable in the United States of Clearwire, but in Britain it’s free on: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/
MOST WELCOME BACK
* Danny Holiday (KPUG Bellingham c.1962-6) relaunched The Rock & Roll Time Machine (TRRTM) at public station KSER in his native Everett, Washington. Listen online: http://kser.org/onlinestream/index.html or find it via Danny’s webpage: http://www.kser.org/content/new-weekend-music. Thanks to Danny for this Oct. 2008 playlist:
Jailhouse Rock-Elvis-Master take in studio Elvis 1 cut 5
I Got A Woman-Alternate take Evis 2 cut15
Take You’re Time-Buddy Holly CD 2 cut 10
Peggy Sue Got Married-Naked version cut 5
Needles And Pins-Jackie DeShannon Cut 3
When You Walk In The Room Pats CD cut 19
Best Part Of Breakin’ Up-Ronettes CD 2 cut 9
River Deep Mountain High-Tina Turner CD 3 cut 11
Leave My Kitten Alone-Beatles CD 2 cut 22
Saw her Standing There-Alternate take cut 2
Waitin’ In School-Ricky-cut 1
String Along-Dan’s Favorites-1 cut 1
Easy To Love, So Hard To Forget-Chiffons- CD 1 cut 14
Out Of This World CD 2 cut 6
Unfaithful Diane-Don Deal Dan’s Favorites-cut 10
Deceiving Doreen-Don Deal CD cut 31
What’d I Say-RC cut 15
Memphis-Chuck Berry CD 1 cut 23
Memphis-Lonnie Mack cut 1
More Than I Can Say-Bobby Vee cut 19
Susie Q-Bobby Vee cut 9
My Boy Elvis-Janis Martin cut 4
Bumble Bee-Lavern Baker cut 24
Off The Hook-Stones Dan’s Favorites cut 5
It’s All Over Now cut 1
Wake Up Little Susie-Everly Bros Alternate take cut 4
This Little Girl Of Mine-Alternate cut 20
Such A Night-Clyde McPhatter CD 1 cut 6
Such A Night-Elvis cut 1
It’ll Be Me-Jerry Lee Lewis CD 1 cut 16
Milkshake Mademoiselle CD 2 cut 5
You Really Got A Hold On Me-Beatles CD 1 cut 24
Tell Me Why CD-2 cut 6
Rock-A-Beatin’ Boogie-Danny Cedrone and the Esquire Boys cut 5/6
Skinny Minnie-Bill Haley cut 8
Pollyann-Billy Saint Dan’s Favorites CD-2 cut 8
Mystic One-Jack Bedient Dan’s Favorites 1 cut 11
IF NECESSARY
Rock & Roll Medley-Ventures-Live cut 15 cue in **
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
* Paul McCartney for an airy, near psychedelic CD with the FIREMEN!
* Ringo Star is ‘Grouch of the Year’ for telling us a little too insistently that he’ll accept no more gifts or autograph requests after Halloween 2008. Ringo, we love you, yeah, yeah, but ya need a better press advisor. Peace & Love! Peace & Love!
BANDS TO LISTEN FOR IN 2009
* Glasvegas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scHAGj1PXOM
* Mirror the Ghost, of Seattle. Singer Jakob Bevan Spiegelgeist predicts new musical directions in 2009. Who knows? MtG might adapt Hank Williams to their aural machine. Hear ‘em on: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=11234639
What’d you like about 2008? Stay safe in 2009.
{;-) bruce.scholten@btopenworld.com
Tuesday 30 December 2008
Thursday 2 October 2008
FRAN DRESCHER - WRITE IN FOR VEEP 2008!
Don't settle for like, just a Palin imitation.
Vote for what you really want - 'Nanny' Fran Drescher!
Wednesday 1 October 2008
Obama-Biden 2008! Let me count the ways…
My sister-in-law Sara, an independent voter and journalist who’s met and interviewed many of the candidates in New Hampshire, asked why I’m voting Obama-Biden. She should know better than to put a nickel in me. Let me run thru McCain-Palin first.
McCAIN-PALIN 2008?
I admire fighter-pilots, like G.H.W. Bush (shot down twice but swam to fight again), GW Bush (draft dodger, frequently AWOL, but had the skill to land a difficult F102 Delta Dagger. Sadly, his 2001 defense posture was so weak that USAF didn't scramble fighters as soon as one plane hit the World Trade Center!!! Fools! Magazine articles had mooted jumbo-jets as flying bombs for a decade.) McCain's crashed a lot and finally was shot down, but he stuck up for his men Hanoi Hilton. McCain, I think is a stand-up guy. He was a better candidate that GW Bush in the 2000 primaries, when he was shot down by Karl Rove's scurrilous tactics. McCain had much honour.
Unfortunately, McCain's gradually lost worth as a role model by caving in to the worst elements of the post-Eisenhower Republican Party. McCain won my (and The Economist magazine's) admiration when he bucked GW Bush's tax cuts for the rich (which were Reagan's social income redistribution by any name). McCain knew that Cheney-Bush (everyone knew who brought the brains to the table) were spending more than we could afford to feed the Halliburton war machine while placating his red state constituency (I'm pro-farmer, but USDA subsidies are skewed too much to agribusiness and too little to family scale farms, or sustainable organic practices that keep water cleaner and use less petroleum.).
McCain also acknowledged climate change before Bush, and just might be less tied to the oil industry than W.
McCain defended women's right to control reproduction. Since then he's caved on taxes, taken chirpy anti-abortion cheerleader Sarah Palin as running mate, and gotten in the way of the $700 billion bail-out negotiations in DC. McCain lost honour.
McCain allowed a whispering campaign abainst Obama, hinting that he's a Muslim in sheep's clothing foretold by the Book of Revelation. It's time such whisperers grew up. They might listen to Martin Luther who began the Protestant Reformation on Oct. 31, 1517. Luther reportedly said: 'I would rather be ruled by an intelligent Muslim than a stupid Christian.' Obama's no Muslim, but he has the talent to get people of any or no faith to start thinking again.
On foreign policy, McCain seems a cog in what Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex. Apparently, McCain advocates a League of Democracies to bypass the United Nations (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-ross/mccain-advocates-dividing_b_130233.html). That's stupid. For starters, would countries where elections were stolen be ineligiblet? The 1960, 2000 and 2004 elections might get the USA thrown out! Anyway, it's gonna be tough for any president to to project American Exceptionalism when the country is completely broke (see Paul Kennedy 1987 Rise & Fall of Great Powers).
OBAMA-BIDEN 2008!
In my perception, Barack Obama is tied with Bill Clinton & maybe Adlai Stevenson as the most intelligent speaker in American politics. He can rejoin arguments like Roger Federer returning Tim Henman’s serve. (Though Obama's debate coach might wean him off the phrase 'Sen. McCain is absolutely right...') But the real reason I'm voting Obama-McCain is because their Democratic Party understands the superiority of social democracy over the golden calf of neoliberal capitalism (i.e. laissez-faire economics).
I've been studying economics since 1970, and there may have been a time when Democrats were liable to the tag 'tax & spend'. But since then Dems have learned what Eisenhower knew: in the long run you can't spend more than you earn. Billary proved it 1992-2000, leaving the economy with a huge surplus that could have been applied to 'save Social Security' or whittle down the national debt. Billary encountered huge debts run up by Reagan, not to mention folks like Caspar Weinberger. (see David Stockman's 1986 Triumph of Politics). Neocon (aka neoliberal) Reagan told voters to get the leviathan of government regulators off their backs. (A message borrowed by Margaret Thatcher that seems to have led directly to mad cow disease. See 'Dirty Cows' 2007 BA Scholten in DIRT, Ben Campkin & Rosie Cox, eds) Reagan espoused Milton Friedman's monetarism, and Paul Volcker's tight Fed policies did manage to rein in stagflation, but Reagan went on to spend and spend, nodding to partisans for a Balanced Budget Amendment, but running up the budget deficits that gave David Stockman nightmares.
McCain says economic policy is not his forte but calls himself 'a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution.'
The result? Until recently, contemporary 'Republicans' were saying 'Reagan proved deficits don't matter.' (Ike would not be amused) The 1980s of Dynasty and Dallas greed-is-good-glitz preceded the Fall of the Berlin Wall, tempting American neoliberals to think no problem was impervious to deregulated markets. Think again. Check Millennium Development Indicators (MDIs) and see if 2/3 of the world is not marked by market failure.
I study agricultural economics and can document that – because of Peak Oil and a badly flawed US biofuel programme – following a decade of improved diet, in the last year hundreds of millions of people worldwide have returned to food poverty. Yes, markets work, but in the long run they work only with proper regulation.
Marx expected capitalists to make a religion out of the market, as Republicans who left Eisenhowerism for neoliberalism have done. My favourite maxim is:
'All for ourselves and nothing for other people seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind [Look to bottom for the source].'
As economists Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman point out, there's no such thing as a perfect market or perfect information. Perfect competition is marred by monopolies and oligopolies. So we need democratic regulation of markets. Lack of deregulation led to the present Wall Street meltdown, and Treasurer Henry Paulson (a standup Chr. Scientist if ever there was one) last week asked taxpayers to stabilise it (more income redistribution) without oversight or review! Can you imagine the economic apocalypse we'd face if, as many Republicans demanded, Wall Street controlled all Social Security funds?
It's worth noting that Washington, DC's attempt to bail out Wall St. runs counter to the Washington Censensus that neoliberals enforce worldwide, by thrusting SAPs (structural adjustment programmes, often mandated by the IMF) down the throats of scores of countries trying to invest in agriculture, health care or school food programmes. Exceptional hypocrisy and hubris characterise many peoples' view of the US Government, sadly. Let’s return to the 1950s model of America as lighthouse for others – a country self-reliant in food an energy, a moral force for the Geneva Conventions in war, and the extension of human and civil rights to all people.
Glad I got that off my chest! More reasons to vote for a Democratic ticket:
* Once you go Black you can't go back. Somebody said that. Maybe it's true. Other reasons?
* Although he can seem a bit green on foreign policy (publicy suggesting he'd attack Bin Laden inside Pakistan), Obama can grow with advice from Joe Biden et al. For now I trust Obama to build the UN instead of destroy it, which McCain seems to favour. Not to lie about WMDs or the range of IRBMs. Not to invade Iraq amid lies about Saddam harboring Al-Quaeda when the real fight is in Afghanistan. ('Saddam attacked my Diddy & all we did was bomb the crap outa him after April Glaspie said it was OK to invade Iraq. Besides, he was our boy, boosted from obscurity by the CIA into Ba'ath leadership, and Don Rumsfeld and the Brits made sure ole Saddam had plenty o' gas & superguns to invade Iran in autumn 1980!)
* Obama might understand Joseph Nye's delineation of 'hard' and 'soft power'. Sure Machiavelli and Nixon thought it was good when others fear the mad prince. But the bullying presidential persona is getting old. Better to return to a likable face like Billary, Carter, Ford or Ike.
* Obama's familial links to Kenya and Indonesia might make him more cosmopolitan. It's past time that American presidents remembered historical antecedents to present conficts with, say, Iran. From US-UK television coverage, one would think US-Iran conflict springs from a unilateral takeover of the US embassy in Teheran in 1979, by Revolutionary Guards hypnotised by the evil Ayatollah Khomeini. These folks, and certainly their mullahs, are still pretty wacko, buzzing US destroyers with speedboats in the Gulf of Hormuz. But they have a genuine grievance.
In 1953 the nascent CIA sent men, money and arms to foment unrest against the elected govt of Dr. Mossadeq who was demanding renegotiation of the oil license granted to the Anglo-Iranian Oil company. (Much like the CIA moved on Pres. Allende in Chile in 1973, or of course earlier sins in Guatemala, the Dominican republic, ad nauseum. Hell, about 5 years ago Washington supported a coup against Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president who denounces CIA support for goons killing labour leaders protesting conditions at Coca Cola plants in his country. What would Edmund Burke or Patrick Henry say about this?)
Back to Iran, 1953: The Brits asked Washington to help them dislodge Mossadeq. The Yanks said nope, that's neocolonialist imperialism, and we're Yankee revolutionaries. Months later, the evil Brits returned saying, 'Mr. Sam, has it come to your attention that Mossadeq is supported by socialists and communists?' That's all it took. In the sprit of 1776, the US overthrew the Iran government, installed Shah Reza Pahlavi or some palaver on the Peacock Throne. (Kermit Rossevelt gleefully told an aircraft steward that this was the most productive operation in OSS-CIA history costing a mere $670,000. The steward was a Boston publisher ruined by McCarthyism, the father of an engineer correspondent of mine.)
The Shah's new pro-UK/US government recruited Norman Schwartzkopf Sr. (yes, the young general's dad) to set up SAVAK, the security force specialising in the use of dogs in family interrogation. The Shah proved less controllable than Washington liked (he joined pesky OPEC), and lost the support of the fundamentalist proletariat who kicked him out in favour of the Ayatollah. Boy, those Muslim fundamentalists hold a grudge! Why can't they be like American Christians? Every time Canada overthrows our govt we turn the other cheek.
Ah, a good rant is like a teddy bear - I'm loath to let go. Just one more point: To the best of my knowledge, the US and UK armed Saddam (love the pic of Don Rumsfeld hugging Saddam) and tempted him to attack Iran in 1980, starting a war costing roughly 2 million lives. I could use more documentation. Jimmy Carter was still in office, so was he involved? Perhaps like JFK and the Bay of Pigs, he had to go along with the Spartans in his crew. But my point here is that, having been attacked by the US or its proxies at least twice since 1953, any Iranian president worth his salt is gonna try to obtain a couple nukes to keep Israel at bay. (Life is so unfair! Fidel Castro's 2006 autobiography notes that the US gave Hiroshima-level nukes to apartheid South Africa, but no one else. Except Israel? I don't know.) Whether or not s/he acknowledges these things out loud, American officials should bear them in mind when negotiating with Iran, a country with many bright people who wish better relations with America (whom they trust more than the UK or Russia, according to my correspondent) - but feel disrespected by Washington.
* When Obama forms his foreign policy vis-à-vis Russia, he might consider that Moscow is as nervous about US-NATO missile bases in central Europe as Washington was about USSR missile bases in Cuba.
* Obama will probably try to establish universal health care in the US, which spends 15% of $14 trillion GDP on health, but misses too much of the population. Fear of losing health insurance augurs up daily angst for millions of Americans.
* Electing Obama would send a signal to the world that America is not stuck in the past. It would be a JFK moment that could change our luck. (Yes, I've read 20 books on JFK and realise he had little time to accomplish much, but he was on the right track.)
* Joseph Biden may have a loose mouth, but he'd make a better president that Sarah Palin. An Obama cabinet would probably include people of stature like Bill Richardson, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Joseph Stiglitz, maybe even an Attorney General like Alan Dershowitz rather than Bush’s cronies John Ashcroft or Alberto Gonzales on whose watch the US was tarred as the jailer of Gitmo and Abu Ghraib.
* Supreme Court nominees by an Obama administration would likely promote democracy over theocracy.
* An Obama-Biden administration would put serious effort toward sustainable energy, conservation and transport to heighten America’s quality of life – and mitigate harsh climate change.
* Democrats, like Labour or Liberal-Democrats in the UK, or the Social Democratic Party in Germany, are more likely to care about everyday people, small farmers and small business owners than Republicans, Tories (Conservatives), or CDU burghers who mix with tycoons.
* Of course no party maintains a hold on truth or honour forever. GOP Republicans are the party of Lincoln that freed slaves, and taught us lessons about economies regulated to provide education, clean water and opportunity (Ike's Interstate Highway System did more that disperse population in event of a nuke attack. It provided construction jobs and improved transport efficiency. Maybe now we should focus on maintaining what Ike started - and building better train and light rail transport in urban & periurban areas).
* Some of my most respected friends, people I email weekly, are too pure to vote for either Republican or Democrat candidates. One whom I met early in the Vietnam era, when we were both still plastering Au H2 stickers on cars, had this post-debate letter printed yesterday in the Denver Post:
'A pox on both their houses. You couldn’t fit a credit card between John McCain and Barack Obama’s foreign policy positions. No real differences on Russia, Georgia, NATO, Israel, Iran, Vietnam, North Korea, or, as Obama called it, “projecting power around the world.” No criticism of having U.S. military bases in 130 countries. Neither candidate has learned the No. 1 lesson of the 20th century: Empires are over. This is Rome, 300 A.D., or London, 1935.
McCAIN-PALIN 2008?
I admire fighter-pilots, like G.H.W. Bush (shot down twice but swam to fight again), GW Bush (draft dodger, frequently AWOL, but had the skill to land a difficult F102 Delta Dagger. Sadly, his 2001 defense posture was so weak that USAF didn't scramble fighters as soon as one plane hit the World Trade Center!!! Fools! Magazine articles had mooted jumbo-jets as flying bombs for a decade.) McCain's crashed a lot and finally was shot down, but he stuck up for his men Hanoi Hilton. McCain, I think is a stand-up guy. He was a better candidate that GW Bush in the 2000 primaries, when he was shot down by Karl Rove's scurrilous tactics. McCain had much honour.
Unfortunately, McCain's gradually lost worth as a role model by caving in to the worst elements of the post-Eisenhower Republican Party. McCain won my (and The Economist magazine's) admiration when he bucked GW Bush's tax cuts for the rich (which were Reagan's social income redistribution by any name). McCain knew that Cheney-Bush (everyone knew who brought the brains to the table) were spending more than we could afford to feed the Halliburton war machine while placating his red state constituency (I'm pro-farmer, but USDA subsidies are skewed too much to agribusiness and too little to family scale farms, or sustainable organic practices that keep water cleaner and use less petroleum.).
McCain also acknowledged climate change before Bush, and just might be less tied to the oil industry than W.
McCain defended women's right to control reproduction. Since then he's caved on taxes, taken chirpy anti-abortion cheerleader Sarah Palin as running mate, and gotten in the way of the $700 billion bail-out negotiations in DC. McCain lost honour.
McCain allowed a whispering campaign abainst Obama, hinting that he's a Muslim in sheep's clothing foretold by the Book of Revelation. It's time such whisperers grew up. They might listen to Martin Luther who began the Protestant Reformation on Oct. 31, 1517. Luther reportedly said: 'I would rather be ruled by an intelligent Muslim than a stupid Christian.' Obama's no Muslim, but he has the talent to get people of any or no faith to start thinking again.
On foreign policy, McCain seems a cog in what Eisenhower called the military-industrial complex. Apparently, McCain advocates a League of Democracies to bypass the United Nations (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-ross/mccain-advocates-dividing_b_130233.html). That's stupid. For starters, would countries where elections were stolen be ineligiblet? The 1960, 2000 and 2004 elections might get the USA thrown out! Anyway, it's gonna be tough for any president to to project American Exceptionalism when the country is completely broke (see Paul Kennedy 1987 Rise & Fall of Great Powers).
OBAMA-BIDEN 2008!
In my perception, Barack Obama is tied with Bill Clinton & maybe Adlai Stevenson as the most intelligent speaker in American politics. He can rejoin arguments like Roger Federer returning Tim Henman’s serve. (Though Obama's debate coach might wean him off the phrase 'Sen. McCain is absolutely right...') But the real reason I'm voting Obama-McCain is because their Democratic Party understands the superiority of social democracy over the golden calf of neoliberal capitalism (i.e. laissez-faire economics).
I've been studying economics since 1970, and there may have been a time when Democrats were liable to the tag 'tax & spend'. But since then Dems have learned what Eisenhower knew: in the long run you can't spend more than you earn. Billary proved it 1992-2000, leaving the economy with a huge surplus that could have been applied to 'save Social Security' or whittle down the national debt. Billary encountered huge debts run up by Reagan, not to mention folks like Caspar Weinberger. (see David Stockman's 1986 Triumph of Politics). Neocon (aka neoliberal) Reagan told voters to get the leviathan of government regulators off their backs. (A message borrowed by Margaret Thatcher that seems to have led directly to mad cow disease. See 'Dirty Cows' 2007 BA Scholten in DIRT, Ben Campkin & Rosie Cox, eds) Reagan espoused Milton Friedman's monetarism, and Paul Volcker's tight Fed policies did manage to rein in stagflation, but Reagan went on to spend and spend, nodding to partisans for a Balanced Budget Amendment, but running up the budget deficits that gave David Stockman nightmares.
McCain says economic policy is not his forte but calls himself 'a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution.'
The result? Until recently, contemporary 'Republicans' were saying 'Reagan proved deficits don't matter.' (Ike would not be amused) The 1980s of Dynasty and Dallas greed-is-good-glitz preceded the Fall of the Berlin Wall, tempting American neoliberals to think no problem was impervious to deregulated markets. Think again. Check Millennium Development Indicators (MDIs) and see if 2/3 of the world is not marked by market failure.
I study agricultural economics and can document that – because of Peak Oil and a badly flawed US biofuel programme – following a decade of improved diet, in the last year hundreds of millions of people worldwide have returned to food poverty. Yes, markets work, but in the long run they work only with proper regulation.
Marx expected capitalists to make a religion out of the market, as Republicans who left Eisenhowerism for neoliberalism have done. My favourite maxim is:
'All for ourselves and nothing for other people seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind [Look to bottom for the source].'
As economists Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman point out, there's no such thing as a perfect market or perfect information. Perfect competition is marred by monopolies and oligopolies. So we need democratic regulation of markets. Lack of deregulation led to the present Wall Street meltdown, and Treasurer Henry Paulson (a standup Chr. Scientist if ever there was one) last week asked taxpayers to stabilise it (more income redistribution) without oversight or review! Can you imagine the economic apocalypse we'd face if, as many Republicans demanded, Wall Street controlled all Social Security funds?
It's worth noting that Washington, DC's attempt to bail out Wall St. runs counter to the Washington Censensus that neoliberals enforce worldwide, by thrusting SAPs (structural adjustment programmes, often mandated by the IMF) down the throats of scores of countries trying to invest in agriculture, health care or school food programmes. Exceptional hypocrisy and hubris characterise many peoples' view of the US Government, sadly. Let’s return to the 1950s model of America as lighthouse for others – a country self-reliant in food an energy, a moral force for the Geneva Conventions in war, and the extension of human and civil rights to all people.
Glad I got that off my chest! More reasons to vote for a Democratic ticket:
* Once you go Black you can't go back. Somebody said that. Maybe it's true. Other reasons?
* Although he can seem a bit green on foreign policy (publicy suggesting he'd attack Bin Laden inside Pakistan), Obama can grow with advice from Joe Biden et al. For now I trust Obama to build the UN instead of destroy it, which McCain seems to favour. Not to lie about WMDs or the range of IRBMs. Not to invade Iraq amid lies about Saddam harboring Al-Quaeda when the real fight is in Afghanistan. ('Saddam attacked my Diddy & all we did was bomb the crap outa him after April Glaspie said it was OK to invade Iraq. Besides, he was our boy, boosted from obscurity by the CIA into Ba'ath leadership, and Don Rumsfeld and the Brits made sure ole Saddam had plenty o' gas & superguns to invade Iran in autumn 1980!)
* Obama might understand Joseph Nye's delineation of 'hard' and 'soft power'. Sure Machiavelli and Nixon thought it was good when others fear the mad prince. But the bullying presidential persona is getting old. Better to return to a likable face like Billary, Carter, Ford or Ike.
* Obama's familial links to Kenya and Indonesia might make him more cosmopolitan. It's past time that American presidents remembered historical antecedents to present conficts with, say, Iran. From US-UK television coverage, one would think US-Iran conflict springs from a unilateral takeover of the US embassy in Teheran in 1979, by Revolutionary Guards hypnotised by the evil Ayatollah Khomeini. These folks, and certainly their mullahs, are still pretty wacko, buzzing US destroyers with speedboats in the Gulf of Hormuz. But they have a genuine grievance.
In 1953 the nascent CIA sent men, money and arms to foment unrest against the elected govt of Dr. Mossadeq who was demanding renegotiation of the oil license granted to the Anglo-Iranian Oil company. (Much like the CIA moved on Pres. Allende in Chile in 1973, or of course earlier sins in Guatemala, the Dominican republic, ad nauseum. Hell, about 5 years ago Washington supported a coup against Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president who denounces CIA support for goons killing labour leaders protesting conditions at Coca Cola plants in his country. What would Edmund Burke or Patrick Henry say about this?)
Back to Iran, 1953: The Brits asked Washington to help them dislodge Mossadeq. The Yanks said nope, that's neocolonialist imperialism, and we're Yankee revolutionaries. Months later, the evil Brits returned saying, 'Mr. Sam, has it come to your attention that Mossadeq is supported by socialists and communists?' That's all it took. In the sprit of 1776, the US overthrew the Iran government, installed Shah Reza Pahlavi or some palaver on the Peacock Throne. (Kermit Rossevelt gleefully told an aircraft steward that this was the most productive operation in OSS-CIA history costing a mere $670,000. The steward was a Boston publisher ruined by McCarthyism, the father of an engineer correspondent of mine.)
The Shah's new pro-UK/US government recruited Norman Schwartzkopf Sr. (yes, the young general's dad) to set up SAVAK, the security force specialising in the use of dogs in family interrogation. The Shah proved less controllable than Washington liked (he joined pesky OPEC), and lost the support of the fundamentalist proletariat who kicked him out in favour of the Ayatollah. Boy, those Muslim fundamentalists hold a grudge! Why can't they be like American Christians? Every time Canada overthrows our govt we turn the other cheek.
Ah, a good rant is like a teddy bear - I'm loath to let go. Just one more point: To the best of my knowledge, the US and UK armed Saddam (love the pic of Don Rumsfeld hugging Saddam) and tempted him to attack Iran in 1980, starting a war costing roughly 2 million lives. I could use more documentation. Jimmy Carter was still in office, so was he involved? Perhaps like JFK and the Bay of Pigs, he had to go along with the Spartans in his crew. But my point here is that, having been attacked by the US or its proxies at least twice since 1953, any Iranian president worth his salt is gonna try to obtain a couple nukes to keep Israel at bay. (Life is so unfair! Fidel Castro's 2006 autobiography notes that the US gave Hiroshima-level nukes to apartheid South Africa, but no one else. Except Israel? I don't know.) Whether or not s/he acknowledges these things out loud, American officials should bear them in mind when negotiating with Iran, a country with many bright people who wish better relations with America (whom they trust more than the UK or Russia, according to my correspondent) - but feel disrespected by Washington.
* When Obama forms his foreign policy vis-à-vis Russia, he might consider that Moscow is as nervous about US-NATO missile bases in central Europe as Washington was about USSR missile bases in Cuba.
* Obama will probably try to establish universal health care in the US, which spends 15% of $14 trillion GDP on health, but misses too much of the population. Fear of losing health insurance augurs up daily angst for millions of Americans.
* Electing Obama would send a signal to the world that America is not stuck in the past. It would be a JFK moment that could change our luck. (Yes, I've read 20 books on JFK and realise he had little time to accomplish much, but he was on the right track.)
* Joseph Biden may have a loose mouth, but he'd make a better president that Sarah Palin. An Obama cabinet would probably include people of stature like Bill Richardson, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Joseph Stiglitz, maybe even an Attorney General like Alan Dershowitz rather than Bush’s cronies John Ashcroft or Alberto Gonzales on whose watch the US was tarred as the jailer of Gitmo and Abu Ghraib.
* Supreme Court nominees by an Obama administration would likely promote democracy over theocracy.
* An Obama-Biden administration would put serious effort toward sustainable energy, conservation and transport to heighten America’s quality of life – and mitigate harsh climate change.
* Democrats, like Labour or Liberal-Democrats in the UK, or the Social Democratic Party in Germany, are more likely to care about everyday people, small farmers and small business owners than Republicans, Tories (Conservatives), or CDU burghers who mix with tycoons.
* Of course no party maintains a hold on truth or honour forever. GOP Republicans are the party of Lincoln that freed slaves, and taught us lessons about economies regulated to provide education, clean water and opportunity (Ike's Interstate Highway System did more that disperse population in event of a nuke attack. It provided construction jobs and improved transport efficiency. Maybe now we should focus on maintaining what Ike started - and building better train and light rail transport in urban & periurban areas).
* Some of my most respected friends, people I email weekly, are too pure to vote for either Republican or Democrat candidates. One whom I met early in the Vietnam era, when we were both still plastering Au H2 stickers on cars, had this post-debate letter printed yesterday in the Denver Post:
'A pox on both their houses. You couldn’t fit a credit card between John McCain and Barack Obama’s foreign policy positions. No real differences on Russia, Georgia, NATO, Israel, Iran, Vietnam, North Korea, or, as Obama called it, “projecting power around the world.” No criticism of having U.S. military bases in 130 countries. Neither candidate has learned the No. 1 lesson of the 20th century: Empires are over. This is Rome, 300 A.D., or London, 1935.
- Kirk Peffers, Denver'
I'm not that pure. 'Harm mitigation' and 'choosing the lesser evil' appeal to me. Voting for Ralph Nader brought us Alfred E. Newman, er... Bush Jr., indebtedness to China and the soverign funds of the UAE, decreases in food safety, poor relations with the UN, and squandered 9/11 sympathy on a costly war in Iraq, zeal for Al-Quaeda and hatred for us. Perhaps the Surge is working, but some said that about the 100 Years War. At what overall cost? We'll see. Bush is actually having a worse time in Iraq than Reagan had in Grenada.
McCain would be an improvement on Cheney-Bush Jr. But I fear McCain's more of a war-monger than Obama. The latter cares more about health care than Halliburton-Brown & Root-Bechtel's profits.
**
On the other hand, I kinda like Nanny - the sitcom with Fran Drescher who looks just like Sarah Palin. God forbid anything happened to McCain, but someday we might wake up with Palin in a French maid outfit. There's an election coming!
Vote early! Vote often!
{;-) Bruce A. Scholten 1 October 2008
‘All for ourselves and nothing for other people seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.’ - Adam Smith (1776)
Adam Smith (1776/1937) The Wealth of Nations. New York: Modern Library, 1937. Book III, Chapter IV: 388-389:
**
I'm not that pure. 'Harm mitigation' and 'choosing the lesser evil' appeal to me. Voting for Ralph Nader brought us Alfred E. Newman, er... Bush Jr., indebtedness to China and the soverign funds of the UAE, decreases in food safety, poor relations with the UN, and squandered 9/11 sympathy on a costly war in Iraq, zeal for Al-Quaeda and hatred for us. Perhaps the Surge is working, but some said that about the 100 Years War. At what overall cost? We'll see. Bush is actually having a worse time in Iraq than Reagan had in Grenada.
McCain would be an improvement on Cheney-Bush Jr. But I fear McCain's more of a war-monger than Obama. The latter cares more about health care than Halliburton-Brown & Root-Bechtel's profits.
**
On the other hand, I kinda like Nanny - the sitcom with Fran Drescher who looks just like Sarah Palin. God forbid anything happened to McCain, but someday we might wake up with Palin in a French maid outfit. There's an election coming!
Vote early! Vote often!
{;-) Bruce A. Scholten 1 October 2008
‘All for ourselves and nothing for other people seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.’ - Adam Smith (1776)
Adam Smith (1776/1937) The Wealth of Nations. New York: Modern Library, 1937. Book III, Chapter IV: 388-389:
**
Saturday 5 July 2008
Sunday 6 January 2008
2007 BEST ROCK & POP CULTURE
AOVE: It felt like 2008 began when the Hinchliffs of Edmonds, Washington USA and Durham, UK celebrated their ancestry by frosting cows for the Xmas Cookie Party.
BELOW is my annual Best Rock & Pop list – more haphazard than usual! Please send your list, and have as much fun as you can in 2008 without hurting anyone.
ROCK SONG OF THE YEAR
* ‘Radio Nowhere’ by Bruce Springsteen. Turn it up. Take that - ClearChannel! Everyone likes ‘Girls in their Summer Clothes’, but boys need rockers.
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
* Magic by Bruce Springsteen. The more I listen, the more I hear.... some anger, too.
ROCK SONG OF THE YEAR
* ‘Radio Nowhere’ by Bruce Springsteen. Turn it up. Take that - ClearChannel! Everyone likes ‘Girls in their Summer Clothes’, but boys need rockers.
ALBUM OF THE YEAR
* Magic by Bruce Springsteen. The more I listen, the more I hear.... some anger, too.
SONG OF 2007
* Annie Lennox ‘It’s a Dark Road’ …and smiles galore before we sleep.
BIG BAND
* Michael Buble. This Canadian is no 2nd-rater. He can belt any kind of song like the Rat Pack – or Bobby Darin. I’d love to hear him cover Paul Anka’s cover of Kurt Cobain’s ‘Teen Spirit’.
LATIN
* Enrique Iglesias: ‘Tired of Being Sorry’. This caballero sure sings a lotta songs about crying.
DOWNLOADABLE MUSIC MOMENT
* www.dailymotion.com/video/xe5w0_ray-charles-jerry-lee-lewis
TURN YOUR SPEAKERS UP, STRAP YOUR SELF TO YOUR CHAIR AND BOOGIE….Brace yourself! Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis & Fats Domino - TOGETHER! Directed by Paul Schaeffer and a cameo by Rod Stewart. Carl Perkins (Blue Suede Shoes) is also here. Sit back and enjoy something we’ll never see again, 3 playing pianos on the same stage at the same time. Ron Wood (Small Faces, Rolling Stones) and others on guitar! Thanks to Chris 4 this!
SOUL
* Beverly Knight: ‘No Man’s Land’. She is Britain’s Aretha Franklin.
FOLK
* Amy MacDonald: ‘This is the Life’, even better than ‘Mr. Rock and Roll’ earlier in 2007. Strong songs that stick in your mind like old ones by Canadians Gale Garnett or Gordon Lightfoot.
HIP-HOP, R & B
* Craig David. ‘Hot Stuff’. Makes even me dance, and not just because it samples David Bowie’s (1983) ‘Let’s Dance’: www.djbooth.net/index/tracks/review/craig-david-hot-stuff/
* Runner-up: Justin Timberlake’s ‘Cry Me a River'.
* Runner-up: ‘Apologize’ by Timbaland? Sorry I'm so hazy on hip-hop.
* Runner-up: Rhianna: ‘I love you so’. Good song & she does some even better. Def Jam’s Jay Zee (‘American Gangster’) says breaking talent like her makes him feel like Clive Davis. And she was special on Dick Clark’s American Music Awards in November.
POP
* Mika: 'Relax, Take It Easy'. Freddie Mercury has a talented, light-hearted successor.
* Goldfrapp. She's magic in a rock frock!
* Goldfrapp. She's magic in a rock frock!
WOMEN WHO ROCK
* Kylie Minogue. ‘Too Hot’. Good to have her back. And front. She could sing the phone book and I’d buy it. Nice Liz II gave her an OBE. See: www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/288564
* Gwen Stefani's 'Been a Real Bad Girl'. Maybe an artist too. Great 2007 trajectory!
ROCK
* Kaiser Chiefs: ‘Love’s not a competition (but I’m winning)’. These guys have depth!
ARTIST OF THE YEAR
* Amy Winehouse ‘Valerie’. Amy covers the Zutons’ song like it was written about her. And I don't even like the song. See: www.buzzjack.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=53657. Too bad Amy’s a real drama queen, a la Billie Holliday. Pray for her. Meanwhile, buy her first album, Frank. It's better than her newest Back to Black with 'No-no-no'.
ROCK: So many good bands out there!
* Arcade Fire, Athlete, James Blunt, Hoosiers, Kaiser Chiefs, Killers & esp. Snow Patrol.
SONG OF 2007* Annie Lennox ‘It’s a Dark Road’ …and smiles galore before we sleep.
POLITICAL SONG
* Rufus Wainwright ‘Going to a Town' (I’m so tired of America)’. His excellent album Release the Stars reminds the listener of his travelling dad Louden Wainwright III, and perhaps Herman Melville... and of course Walt Whitman. His 2007 album is worth buying too - like marzipan, you wonder when Wainwright’s voice will become cloying. But so far, this box of bittersweet treats bears repeating.
FUNK ROCK* Prince ‘Love My Guitar’ #1 funk rock. Is this guy talented? The guitar is an ensemble piece with a little red Corvette.
ROCK SINGLE
* Bruce Springsteen – ‘Radio Nowhere’ Best rock single.
* Kaiser Chiefs: ‘Love is not a Competition (but I’m winning)’. Special guitar and vocals on this song cross a fine line between the 1965 shouting of Dosey, Desey Mick & Tick to the wistful competence of the Zombies’ ‘Time of the Season’.
LOVE SONG
* Regina Spector ‘Samson’ – love ballad.
* Natasha Beddingfield – ‘Where’s My Soulmate?’ Embarrassingly listenable.* Katie Melua ‘Charlie Chaplin’. Was Katie born 9 million talkies too late?ANSWER SONGS* Regina Spector ‘Samson’ – love ballad. Runnerup* Plain White Tease – ‘Delilah’. Talented, penniless youth seeks to hold damsel.
COMEBACK
* Led Zeppelin were good in London with Jon Bonham's son Jason on drums.
* The Eagles How Long album. 95 minutes of proof Phil Spector doesn’t understand country rock. Wags say the good thing about the Eagles is that they haven’t changed in 28 years. The bad thing about the Eagles is that they haven’t changed in 28 years. One might buy this record for the Joe Walsh songs - he's still a guitar god writing beautiful songs.
* The Eagles How Long album. 95 minutes of proof Phil Spector doesn’t understand country rock. Wags say the good thing about the Eagles is that they haven’t changed in 28 years. The bad thing about the Eagles is that they haven’t changed in 28 years. One might buy this record for the Joe Walsh songs - he's still a guitar god writing beautiful songs.
* Runnerup: Paul McCartney ‘Party Tonight’. Paul could write songs in his sleep. Funny that Michael Jackson recently cut his credit on ‘Ebony & Ivory’.* Seal ‘Amazing’. Hello, my name is Seal and I’m a pop star.
VOCALIST FEMALE
* Joss Stone. Since she began recording songs she likes, she’s closer to the heights she’ll attain. Most of her songs are still wrong – tho' her cover of Janis' 'Piece of my Heart' is good.
VOCALIST MALE
* David Gray ‘Baby, You’re the World to Me’. He might never equal ‘White Ladder’, but his singing on just about all his songs is too good to overlook.
COUNTRY VOCALIST
* Richard Hawley, a session guitarist with Jarvis Cocker’s Pulp (‘Common People’, etc.). Richard’s got a big voice halfway between Roy Orbison and Scott Walker. Enjoy his cover of Rick Nelson’s ‘Lonesome Town’: www.richardhawley.co.uk/
* Runner-up: Teddy Thompson. Richard & Linda's son has the best country voice since Hank Williams. He was stunning with Lucinda Williams in Newcastle in 2006. Listen for him.* Runner-up: Cherry Ghost, with vocals that can be mistaken for Richard Hawley. In Blighty they call this pop, but it’s country to me.
COUNTRY DUET
* Robert Plant & Allison Krause ‘Killing the Blues’ from the album Raising Sand EPK, with T-Bone Burnett. Their harmonies on the Everly Brothers' "Gone, Gone, Gone" remind us that good music is always around us, if only we could perceive. ‘Im Gone’ also a chart-topper. 'Please Read the Letter that I Wrote' will tear your heart out. & gets the lead out of country music: http://www.rollingstone.com/videos/video/16314251/raising_sand_epkLook for Allison’s music with her band Union Station.
FUNK ROCK
* Prince ‘Love My Guitar’ #1 funk rock. Is this guy talented or what? The guitar seems to be an ensemble with a little red Corvette.
LOVE SONG
* Regina Spector ‘Samson’ – love ballad.
* Natasha Beddingfield – ‘Where’s My Soulmate?’ Embarrassingly listenable.
* Katie Melua ‘Charlie Chaplin’. Was Katie born 9 million talkies too late?
ANSWER SONGS
* Regina Spector ‘Samson’ – love ballad. Runnerup
* Plain White Tease – ‘Delilah’. Talented, penniless youth seeks to hold damsel.
COMEBACK
* Led Zeppelin were good in London with Jon Bonham's son Jason on drums. Stay tuned.
* The Eagles How Long album. 95 minutes of proof Phil Spector doesn’t understand country rock. Wags say the good thing about the Eagles is that they haven’t changed in 28 years. The bad thing about the Eagles is that they haven’t changed in 28 years. One might buy this record for the Joe Walsh songs - he's still a guitar god writing beautiful songs.
* Runnerup: Paul McCartney ‘Party Tonight’. Paul could write songs in his sleep. Funny that Michael Jackson recently cut his credit on ‘Ebony & Ivory’.
* Seal ‘Amazing’. Hello, my name is Seal and I’m a pop star.
VOCALIST FEMALE
* Joss Stone. Since she began recording songs she likes, she’s closer to the heights she’ll attain. But most of her songs are still dead wrong – a waste of talent.
VOCALIST MALE
* David Gray ‘Baby, You’re the World to Me’. He might never equal ‘White Ladder’, but his singing on just about all his songs is too good to overlook.
COUNTRY VOCALIST
* Richard Hawley, a session guitarist with Jarvis Cocker’s Pulp (‘Common People’, etc.). Richard’s got a big voice halfway between Roy Orbison and Scott Walker. Enjoy his cover of Rick Nelson’s ‘Lonesome Town’: www.richardhawley.co.uk/
* Runnerup: Paul McCartney ‘Party Tonight’. Paul could write songs in his sleep. Funny that Michael Jackson recently cut his credit on ‘Ebony & Ivory’.
* Seal ‘Amazing’. Hello, my name is Seal and I’m a pop star.
VOCALIST FEMALE
* Joss Stone. Since she began recording songs she likes, she’s closer to the heights she’ll attain. But most of her songs are still dead wrong – a waste of talent.
VOCALIST MALE
* David Gray ‘Baby, You’re the World to Me’. He might never equal ‘White Ladder’, but his singing on just about all his songs is too good to overlook.
COUNTRY VOCALIST
* Richard Hawley, a session guitarist with Jarvis Cocker’s Pulp (‘Common People’, etc.). Richard’s got a big voice halfway between Roy Orbison and Scott Walker. Enjoy his cover of Rick Nelson’s ‘Lonesome Town’: www.richardhawley.co.uk/
* Teddy Thompson. Richard & Linda's son has the best country voice since Hank Williams. He was stunning with Lucinda Williams in Newcastle in 2006. Listen for him.
* Runner-up: Cherry Ghost, with vocals that can be mistaken for Richard Hawley. In Blighty they call this pop, but it’s country to me.
COUNTRY DUET
* Robert Plant & Allison Krause ‘Killing the Blues’ from the album Raising Sand EPK, with T-Bone Burnett. Their harmonies on the Everly Brothers' "Gone, Gone, Gone" remind us that good music is always around us, if only we could perceive. ‘Im Gone’ also a chart-topper. 'Please Read the Letter that I Wrote' will tear your heart out. & gets the lead out of country music: http://www.rollingstone.com/videos/video/16314251/raising_sand_epk
Look for Allison’s music with her band Union Station.
HIP-HOP/ R&B/Pop
* Craig David. ‘Hot Stuff’. Could make even me dance, and not just because it samples David Bowie’s (1983) ‘Let’s Dance’: www.djbooth.net/index/tracks/review/craig-david-hot-stuff/
* Runner-up: Justin Timberlake’s ‘Cry Me a River'.
* Runner-up: ‘Apologize’ by Timbaland? Sorry I'm so hazy on hip-hop.
OBITUARIES
* RIP: Lee Hazlewood. Never forget ‘Some Velvet Morning’ (1967), or ‘Going to Jackson’ (1968) with Nancy Sinatra. Hit: http://www.exclaim.ca/articles/timeline.aspx?csid1=114
* RIP: Ike Turner. Some respect is due to the man who with Jackie Benstrom mighta fathered rock & roll in ‘Rocket 88’ in Sam Phillips’ Sun Studio in 1951. I saw the Ike & Tina Revue at least 3 times, maybe 5. The first was at the UW’s Hec-Edmundsen in autumn 1969, where skinny psychedelic white students always found the revue pace too fast, treating even ‘River Deep’ as another shouter. Was Ike glaring at me? Maybe he thought my daddy was in the lynch mob that killed his daddy. But he did lots of good stuff too. Since his death we've heard quotes from Ike on BBC Radio 2 – his voice was so good. He didn't deny being a bastard to Tina, but he did say he was unable to recover from their break-up which is why he ‘went on a 15 year party'. Eventually he returned to music and earned respect for what he'd done lately -as well as that Rocket 88 Oldsmobile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbfnh1oVTk0
* RIP: Tony Wilson. Mastermind of Manchester’s electronica sound which nurtured bands like Joy Division/New Order. Listen to New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ (1983). It’s a dark counterpoint to the eUrythmics’ 1984 period.
BEST SINGLES OF ALL TIME
* Tornados (1962) ‘Telstar’
Produced by Joe Meek, nemesis of Sputnik and landladies.
* K.D. Laing. 'Constant Craving'. Roy Orbison understands.
BEST ALBUM OF ALL TIME
Wrecking Ball (1995) by Emmylou Harris.
BEST DJ
* Bob Dylan on his Theme Time Radio Hour on BBC Radio 2 (via XFM satellites?)..
No one opens the great American songbook better than Uncle Bob. He's put me in touch with my Dad's Ur-country & rockabilly music, completing a circle.
BEST TV
* Californication. At last David Dukovny earns his money.
* 30 Rock. Yep.
* Grey's Anatomy. How can a sad woman look so good?
KUDOS
* The Ventures. The Sea-Tac band are slated for admission to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2008, with Madonna, John Mellencamp, Leonard Cohen and the Dave Clark Five. Guitar god Joe Walsh (James Gang, Eagles) said: ‘I don't really know if it's a solo or not, but I'd have to say that “Walk, Don't Run” (1960) by The Ventures changed an awful lot of guitar players' lives.’
* Runner-up: Cherry Ghost, with vocals that can be mistaken for Richard Hawley. In Blighty they call this pop, but it’s country to me.
COUNTRY DUET
* Robert Plant & Allison Krause ‘Killing the Blues’ from the album Raising Sand EPK, with T-Bone Burnett. Their harmonies on the Everly Brothers' "Gone, Gone, Gone" remind us that good music is always around us, if only we could perceive. ‘Im Gone’ also a chart-topper. 'Please Read the Letter that I Wrote' will tear your heart out. & gets the lead out of country music: http://www.rollingstone.com/videos/video/16314251/raising_sand_epk
Look for Allison’s music with her band Union Station.
HIP-HOP/ R&B/Pop
* Craig David. ‘Hot Stuff’. Could make even me dance, and not just because it samples David Bowie’s (1983) ‘Let’s Dance’: www.djbooth.net/index/tracks/review/craig-david-hot-stuff/
* Runner-up: Justin Timberlake’s ‘Cry Me a River'.
* Runner-up: ‘Apologize’ by Timbaland? Sorry I'm so hazy on hip-hop.
OBITUARIES
* RIP: Lee Hazlewood. Never forget ‘Some Velvet Morning’ (1967), or ‘Going to Jackson’ (1968) with Nancy Sinatra. Hit: http://www.exclaim.ca/articles/timeline.aspx?csid1=114
* RIP: Ike Turner. Some respect is due to the man who with Jackie Benstrom mighta fathered rock & roll in ‘Rocket 88’ in Sam Phillips’ Sun Studio in 1951. I saw the Ike & Tina Revue at least 3 times, maybe 5. The first was at the UW’s Hec-Edmundsen in autumn 1969, where skinny psychedelic white students always found the revue pace too fast, treating even ‘River Deep’ as another shouter. Was Ike glaring at me? Maybe he thought my daddy was in the lynch mob that killed his daddy. But he did lots of good stuff too. Since his death we've heard quotes from Ike on BBC Radio 2 – his voice was so good. He didn't deny being a bastard to Tina, but he did say he was unable to recover from their break-up which is why he ‘went on a 15 year party'. Eventually he returned to music and earned respect for what he'd done lately -as well as that Rocket 88 Oldsmobile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbfnh1oVTk0
* RIP: Tony Wilson. Mastermind of Manchester’s electronica sound which nurtured bands like Joy Division/New Order. Listen to New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’ (1983). It’s a dark counterpoint to the eUrythmics’ 1984 period.
BEST SINGLES OF ALL TIME
* Tornados (1962) ‘Telstar’
Produced by Joe Meek, nemesis of Sputnik and landladies.
* K.D. Laing. 'Constant Craving'. Roy Orbison understands.
BEST ALBUM OF ALL TIME
Wrecking Ball (1995) by Emmylou Harris.
BEST DJ
* Bob Dylan on his Theme Time Radio Hour on BBC Radio 2 (via XFM satellites?)..
No one opens the great American songbook better than Uncle Bob. He's put me in touch with my Dad's Ur-country & rockabilly music, completing a circle.
BEST TV
* Californication. At last David Dukovny earns his money.
* 30 Rock. Yep.
* Grey's Anatomy. How can a sad woman look so good?
KUDOS
* The Ventures. The Sea-Tac band are slated for admission to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2008, with Madonna, John Mellencamp, Leonard Cohen and the Dave Clark Five. Guitar god Joe Walsh (James Gang, Eagles) said: ‘I don't really know if it's a solo or not, but I'd have to say that “Walk, Don't Run” (1960) by The Ventures changed an awful lot of guitar players' lives.’
BOOKS
* Tearing Down the Wall of Sound: The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector (2007) by Mick Brown. Knopf: 464 pages. ISBN 978-0-7475-7243-5. London: Bloomsbury.
Must artists suffer for art? No, but their friends do. This is necessary rock history from a good writer. Phil Spector? Yes, I idolise him too. But he’s a self-confessed neurotic who cheats his own kid at Monopoly - and probably murdered a B-movie actress of excellent character. Napoleon complex writ large!
Spector's first serious interview in decades was conducted by Brown in Dec. 2002 - in Phil’s Alhambra Castle. Months later the alleged murder occurred, and the interview became a poignant Telegraph Magazine piece - and this book rich in detail on Dick Clark, Ahmet Ertegun, Darlene Love, Ronnie Spector, Jack Nitszche and many others. Ever wonder why [Ike &] Tina Turner’s ‘River Deep – Mountain High’ wasn’t a #1 smash? Because so many people hated Spector. It must be said, Phil drinks too much.
* John Harris (2005) The Dark Side of the Moon: the making of the Pink Floyd masterpiece. London: Fouth Estate. In 186 pages he barely mentions pot, but it's good book indeed.
* David Buckley (2004) The Thrill of it All: The Story of Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music. ISBN 0-233-05113-9. Liverpool: Andre Deutschh. Group cover shot by Mick Rock. This good biog paints a mural from the Beatles to prog rock to glam to punk (enter Roxy) and post-punk. Buckley depicts Ferry is unsatisfied with his status as a sub-Bowie rock icon. I’d argue Ferry has a fine spot in the pantheon – to me Avalon was his apotheosis. Much of the book correctly examines the feud and repprochement of Ferry & Brian Eno (in 1972 a fine collaborator with Leon Russell, in 1992 the reinventor of U2 in Achtung Baby! and in 2007 Eno was named a cultural minister for the Irish government!).
To me, neither this book nor the super Ferry family’s pro-fox-hunting activities in the Countryside Alliance (or clothing adverts for Marx & Spencer) are the last word on Ferry & Roxy Music. But about Bryan Ferry one can surely say: not bad for a Geordie from Newcastle. If you listen to Ferry's 2004 solo CD Frantic, you might buy it. Check 'In Every Dream Home a Heartache' and his Dylan covers.
* Ewan McGregor & Charley Boorman (2007) Long Way Down.
A great read! The movie-set refugees ride BMW dirtbikes from John O'Groats, Scotland, to Capetown, South Africa. We were at Riders Day of Champs 2007 (at the British MotoGP at Donington) when they did a satellite TV simal-cast from a Riders clinic in Kenya. Info: http://www.riders.org/
KUDOS TO:
* Red Robinson, still broadcasting Canada! See: www.redrobinson.com// Red, you're great!
* To Martha's Hinchliff cousins for their visit and great chat about music (breakfast pic above).
Happy 200! - Bruce
Happy 200! - Bruce
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