Fox News is flipping out over Dr Seuss and Neanderthals. Because those are the REAL problems facing America.

The Neanderthal thing is of course silly. And, you know, so is the Dr Seuss thing, but it’s the more bloggable of the two, since it involves books, censorship and the whole cancel culture “debate”.

So:

1. Let’s start with the acknowledgment ( Read more... )

While I was putting together the “Albums You Probably Haven’t Heard” list, I kept coming across albums that weren’t necessarily obscure or overlooked per se, but were well-known only because of the one hit song on it.

Which got me to thinking about one-hit wonders, and the baggage that accompanies this label. Lots of people equate “one hit wonder” ( Read more... )

After doing that list of Great Unloved Albums By Good Artists, I was inspired once again by
( Read more... )

For those who don't know, my dad was the guitarist for The Bluenotes, the rockabilly house band for Colonial Records of North Carolina in the 50s and early 60s. They backed artists like Doug Franklin and George Hamilton IV, and released a few singles of their own. Dad also wrote and arranged many of the songs they recorded.

A lot of Colonial 45s are ( Read more... )

You can thank Bedsitter23 for this. He had been putting together a playlist of “unheard” albums, and that got me to thinking about a related category: great unloved albums by otherwise good artists/bands. You know, the duds that disappointed fans and offended music critics, the albums that just don’t make the top of the average fan list - and yet I ( Read more... )

I know concert guitar solos are supposed to be uncool, indulgent and pretentious - and sometimes they are - but sometimes they’re thrilling.

This is one of those.

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As a teenager I listened to Live Killers a lot, and the stuff Brian May was doing with his guitar and his amps onstage sounded alien and dangerous to me. (The psychedelic breakdown during ( Read more... )

Millennials and Gen Z may not know this, but MTV used to play music videos.

From the early 80s until somewhere around the mid-90s, MTV became a cultural touchpoint of sorts for almost every teenager in America whose household could afford basic cable (or knew someone who had cable at their house), particularly once it started producing dedicated ( Read more... )

Terry Jones has passed away and it’s very sad, not least because he’d reportedly been suffering from severe dementia the last few years.

If you haven't guessed by now, I’ve been a Monty Python fan pretty much since high school (so 35 years or so, then). It’s hard to pick just one of his wonderful performances and characters, so here’s a less ( Read more... )

Two weeks ago it was Neil Innes - this week it’s another influential Neil who left us - Neil Peart of Rush.

And, you know, damn.

Where to begin?

Everyone - well, maybe not everyone, but a lot of people had their favorite band in high school - the one that they obsessed over, listened to repeatedly, that band who meant something to them beyond the ( Read more... )

Like most of this blog, I’ve let this series lapse, and I don’t know that I have the time to keep it going regularly after this instalment, but Ric Ocasek is gone, and this seemed like a good time to mention that my first Cars record was the 45 single for “Let’s Go”.

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Most people of course know The Cars from the MTV hits from Heartbeat City - “All I ( Read more... )