PiL will represent Ireland in Eurovision with Hawaii, an ode by Lydon’s to his wife. It apparently IS a love song.
Forgotten Gem
Probably my favorite EJ song. It’s the second half of a medley that opens Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. It (along with the opening song, the instrumental Funeral For a Friend) got quite a bit of airplay on FM radio when the album was released. This was the glory days of FM, when stations played deep tracks. You never heard it on AM, which stuck to singles. It gets left out of “best of” compilations, and many EJ fans don’t know it. I don’t get why. This song has everything going for it, including a killer bass line. It’s one of the songs I used to teach myself bass when I got one in 10th grade.
Mad Punks
I was reminded of this today and felt it needed a reposting. As the story goes, I first saw this issue of MAD at my friend Geoff’s house when we were in the third grade. I was a sensitive, sheltered kid, and remember feeling nauseated after reading MAD’s “Punk Rock Group” of the Year. Punching fans! Vomiting and urinating onstage! Self-mutilation!
But a few years later, when I actually got into punk in middle school, I spent an inordinate amount of time looking for it at Memphis Comics and Records. (I never had any success, mostly because I only had a rough timeframe for when that issue would have been published, and no Internet to assist me.)
I did, however, finally find it when my in-laws gave me every issue of MAD on CD one Christmas. These days, I’m positively obnoxious about reposting it.
BONUS: Here’s an interview with artist Harry North.
This Shit Is Punk Rock
This looks pretty good. Renfield, didn’t you play there?
“Nightclubbing” is the first-ever documentary about the renowned New York City nightclub Max’s Kansas City (1965-1981) which had an indelible impact on the worlds of music, fashion, art, culture and the creation of the city’s punk rock scene.
Featuring rare footage of Iggy & The Stooges, New York Dolls, Sid Vicious and Wayne/Jayne County & classic footage from Johnny Thunders/Heartbreakers, unique archival footage and exclusive interviews with Alice Cooper, Jayne County, Billy Idol, Steve Stevens, music journalist/Patti Smith Band guitarist Lenny Kaye, late New York Dolls guitarist Sylvain Sylvain, Warhol superstars Penny Arcade & Ruby Lynn Reyner, Suicide’s Alan Vega, Bad Brains H.R. & Dr. Know,
Stimulators’ Denise Mercedes, Nick Marden (and their then-12-year-old drummer, future Cro-Mag Harley Flanagan), Twisted Sister’s Jay Jay French, D Generation’s Jesse Malin, Blondie’s Frank Infante, Dead Boys’ Jimmy Zero, Stiv Bators’ girlfriend Cynthia Ross, Mickey Leigh, Shrapnel/Monster Magnet’s Phil Caivano, Punk Magazine founder & Ramones album cover illustrator John Holmstrom, Mink Deville’s Louis X. Erlanger, American Hardcore author Steven Blush and a who’s who of New York’s rock scene of the time, including Elliott Murphy, Bob Gruen, Peter Crowley, Neon Leon, Leee Black Childers, Donna Destri, Sonny Vincent, Phillys Stein and the fabulous Jimi LaLumia.
These Were Great
Here’s all the Get a Mac ads that ran … 16 years ago?!
The original American advertisements star actor Justin Long as the Mac, and author and humorist John Hodgman as the PC, and were directed by Phil Morrison. The American advertisements also aired on Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand television, and at least 24 of them were dubbed into Spanish, French, German, and Italian. The British campaign stars comedic duo Robert Webb as Mac and David Mitchell as PC while the Japanese campaign features the comedic duo Rahmens. Several of the British and Japanese advertisements, although based on the originals, were slightly altered to better target the new audiences. Both the British and Japanese campaigns also feature several original ads not seen in the American campaign.
The Get a Mac campaign is the successor to the Switch ads that were first broadcast in 2002. Both campaigns were filmed against a plain white background. Apple’s former CEO, Steve Jobs, introduced the campaign during a shareholders meeting the week before the campaign started. The campaign also coincided with a change of signage and employee apparel at Apple retail stores detailing reasons to switch to Macs.
The Get a Mac campaign received the Grand Effie Award in 2007. The song in the commercial is called “Having Trouble Sneezing” by Mark Mothersbaugh.
Speaking Of The War…
If the Russian army has seemed inept to you, that’s because it is.
If you’re interested, here is the best site for war information. It’s geared towards military, and its contributors are mostly data-driven soldiers or wonks. As a result, there wasn’t the usual media and government surprise about the Russians’ difficulties. As far back as November, they were pointing out the Russians’ logistical shortcomings, and this week they reported a Marine Corps University war game that, prior to the invasion, predicted very closely how it would go.
As an old Cold War brat of the 7th Army in Germany, I remember that there was no respect for the Red Army back then. They had scary bombs and large troop numbers, but our army considered them 3rd rate in all other regards. In 2022, the only thing that’s changed is that they’re much smaller. Putin’s “build-up” has been in weapons, not in building a viable army, which hasn’t attempted anything like this since their 70’s-80’s Afghanistan disaster. I don’t think this cold war will be long, because Russia won’t have the money or manpower to sustain one, or even occupy Ukraine (assuming they win). That’s not to say this won’t get very dangerous.
Amateurs talk strategy, professionals talk logistics.
-Omar Bradley
Never interfere with your enemy while he’s making a mistake.
-Napoleon
Speaking o’ Memphis
Here’s a radio show of some 60’s-70’s rarities. I love the ones by the Breakers and Flash and the Memphis Casuals. I bet they kicked ass live (I’m not old enough to have seen them, although I did see about half of the others on this list). Unlisted after the Tommy Hoehn song is a pretty terrible cover of “I Walk the Line” by a band called Hot Dogs, who had some good songs; why on earth was that chosen? I find Chris Bell’s acoustic version of “I Am The Cosmos” too slow, sludgy, and depressing–which I guess makes sense, as he was chronically depressed. It’s the sound of Quaalude abuse. The official single version moves along better, although there’s still about as much sludge as I can endure.
New Clothing Line For The Nihilistic Child
Werner Herzog seems to have taken a break from directing in order to design a new line of children’s clothing.
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Hey Look Everybody, It’s Jonny!
I think he wrote a song for a certain Bastard’s birthday.
Two Assholes Lost In The Woods
For your Friday distraction, here’s a fascinating oral history on possibly the greatest Sopranos episode ever, which aired 20 years ago today.
Two mobsters chase a seemingly invincible man through the South Jersey forest. Then he vanishes, leaving only a trail of blood. As day turns into night and cold turns into much colder, the gangsters give up their search and go into survival mode. They bond, bicker, and threaten each other, until they’re finally rescued in the light of the next morning.
This gets me every time.