Author: Renfield

spider gourmand
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Suckers Wanted

Julian Lennon will auction NFT’s of some of his prized memorabilia: John’s black cape from Help, a Les Paul ( I guess Yoko owns the Epiphone Casino), Paul’s handwritten notes for “Hey Jude,” and some other treasures.  He’s keeping the originals.  In Julian’s words,

I actually felt very bad about keeping all that stuff locked away, and I just felt that this was a unique way to continue dad’s legacy and show people the collections I have…

Aw, how nice.  John’s legacy needs so much  help these days.  And I’m sorry he feels bad, but the money should help that.

You can’t have your cake and eat it, but with NFT’s you can have it and sell it!

There’s a sucker born every minute.  –PT Barnum

Never give a sucker an even break.  –WC Fields

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Righteous Gemstones

Any of you bastards watching this?  I’m through most of S1, and much of it is hilarious.  Bogs down a little in a couple of middle episodes involving flashbacks and a ho-hum subplot, but it picks up again and looks like it’s  heading for a strong finish.  I’m hearing S2 is good.

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Born Fighter

Not his greatest song, but it has one of the funniest first verses I’ve ever heard and a Dave Edmunds solo (2:00) that curls what’s left of my hair.  When I searched YouTube for this song, I ran across a ’79 documentary of the same name.  Here is a clip where Lowe and Edmunds talk a bit about Phil Spector, then work on takes of that same solo.  I haven’t watched past where the solo recording ends at 15:00, so I don’t know if the rest is worth watching.  Nick Lowe seems rather, um, “relaxed.”

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Oh, Not Whoa

Sometimes aesthetics call for an “oh” instead of a “whoa,” as in the chorus of this forgotten Wings song.  This overlooked album track is pretty good, with a good guitar riff, a decent enough hook, and some Stax horns.  Far better than this album’s single, “Listen to What the Man Said,” which is just dishwater.  The post-Beatles careers of Lennon-McCartney revealed that they needed each other, or at least assertive bandmates.

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The Makes Nice

In ancient times when colossi bestrode the earth and people downloaded instead of streamed, I downloaded a couple of albums by this band.  I have no idea who they are/were or any recollection of where I heard about them, but they’re pretty good.  Here’s a good Who rip-off, and here’s another one like the one above.  More songs on YouTube if you’re so inclined, some may be better.  It looks like they only made two albums.

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Whoa Indeed

Paul McCartney + Todd Rundgren + Memphis = Van Duren.  Van made probably the best album from the ’77-’78 local power pop “scene.”  I use quotes because that “scene” consisted of three bands, a revolving cast of girfriends, about 20 midtown weirdos, and no clubs that would book those bands more than once.  So barely a scene at all.  Which is why everyone tried relocating, with varying degrees of failure.

Great song, although he might have overused the “whoas.”

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Just Don’t Dance

It can’t be New Year’s without seeing someone make an ass of himself.  Who’s better at that than Mike Love?  This begins as a funny/sad skit, but the real comedy begins at  2:27 with 70’s footage of Love trying to preen and prance around like Mick Jagger. He also apparently hit a Goodwill dumpster trying to copy Mick’s look.  Jesus.

People who shouldn’t dance (I’m one) should know better by the time they reach adulthood.  The most blessed of us never really wanted to anyway.  I get that singers feel awkward just standing there.  Fine, but if they can’t dance, give them a prop guitar.  I’m guessing the other Beach Boys preferred letting him make a fool of himself to arguing with an asshole.