It seems like everyone and his grandmother recorded “Hey Joe.” I don’t know who wrote it or who did it first, but the single we had lying around the Renfield household was by the Leaves. That’s the template for the garage-rock take on the song. The Standells are also in that vein. The Byrds cleaned it up a little. Love recorded a more garagey and psychotic take on the Byrds’ version ( I’m assuming Love’s came afterwards). Everyone knows Hendrix’s cover, which stands in its own category. As does the Mothers’, which came at the height of Zappa’s hippie-skewering phase. After all these years I still find this hilarious, especially the dueling monologues, one in each channel, during the closing mayhem.
So This Is Cool
Learned this past weekend on a trip visiting my 81-year-old aunt that my grandmother’s cousin (my first cousin, twice removed) was a songwriter in California. And that I’m named for him, by way of my dad. (Fucked up spelling and all.) Here’s one of his tunes that Bing Crosby recorded.
And here’s another that could be fun to work up as a rocker.
How Much For The Whole Collection?
This is the same guy who did the Clockwork Orange location tour I posted not too long ago. I’m slightly obsessed with his channel at the moment.
The Internet’s Inevitable Enshittification
How platforms decay, as explained by Cory Doctorow to NPR. Finally a name for what we may not consciously recognize but deep down know is going on.
… I think Facebook’s a good example. Facebook went through the whole lifecycle of platform decay. They started off by offering a really good deal to their end users. They said, “Hey, leave MySpace, come to Facebook. It’s just like MySpace, except we only show you the things that you asked to see, and we’ll never spy on you.”
And then once those users were locked in — because once you’re in a place with all of your friends, it’s really hard to leave — they started to take away some of that good stuff they gave them, and they handed it to advertisers and publishers.
To the advertisers, they said, “We were lying when we said we weren’t going to spy on these guys. We’re totally spying on them. Here’s all the data you need to target them for ads that we’re not going to charge you much money for.”
And to the publishers, they said, “We are also lying when we said we’d only show them the stuff they asked to see.”
And then once the publishers and the advertisers were locked in, well, they took away those surpluses. The ads got more expensive. Publishers had to put more and more of their content — not just to get recommended, but even to be shown to the people who subscribed them. And that’s the final stage, the stage where there’s just only the residual value left on the platform that the platform owner thinks will keep the users and the business customers they bring in stuck to the platform. And that’s when we’re at the beginning of the end.
Further reading.
And Now For a Bassist Who Sucks
Who’s the opposite of Jamerson or McCartney? Phil Lesh, of course. I could not listen to all of this, I just sampled here and there. What I did hear sounded like the noodlings of a tin-eared fifteen-year-old who recently took up bass. There is nothing remotely interesting going on musically or technically. What he needs is a nun to slap his hand with a ruler.
I’m Working Too Hard
Both proof that one needn’t be especially proficient as a musician to write killer songs AND an explanation for my recent blargh absence.
The Nerves weren’t around too long but are regarded by some as ground zero for the LA punk and power pop scene. Drummer Paul Collins went on to form The Beat (“Rock N Roll Girl,” “I Don’t Fit In”), bassist Peter Case formed The Plimsouls (“A Million Miles Away”), and guitarist Jack Lee’s song “Hanging on the Telephone” became a massive hit for Blondie when they covered it on Parallel Lines in 1978.
And here’s Collins a few years later with The Beat …
Kate Clover
Enjoy. We need more concerts in Los Angeles storm drain canals.
I May Be Climbing On Rainbows
But baby this song blows.