About a Boy

I'm not like my other friends. Shocking!

They are voracious readers, mostly of novels. I've always had a tough time getting into most novels, most likely because I choose poorly when it comes to them. Just ask my friends - I don't see them letting me pick a book any time soon for our off-again/off-again (no, not a typo) book club.

Last time my selection was A Dive From Clausen's Pier. I blame Terry Gross for making even bad books and authors sound interesting. I can't even tell you how many books I've bought from listening to Fresh Air - and so far I have yet to be remotely thrilled with any of them. My friends rightfully slammed me for my choice. I don't think we've had a joint book read since. It was that bad.

Because of my bad choices - and this has been a life-long pattern, by the way - anymore I normally stick to history, memoirs, biographies and auto-biographies. You can't go wrong reading seven books about Patty Hearst, Mount Everest or the Vietnam War, can you?

So I just finished reading Patti Smith's book - Just Kids.

Not an auto-biography, not quite a memoir. It centers as a telling of her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. She strays a little off the direct relationship here and there, but she always brings it around quite nicely. For the first two-thirds, Smith rarely talks about herself where it does not involve Mapplethorpe.

But what I'm loving is her writing style. I have always loved her as a songwriter/artist, but those are snippets into how well she can put pen to paper - and you just know that is how she wrote it.

I'd say, "oh to live from 1968-1973.....", but I was alive. I just was not living at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City. I was saying to Rebecca, because even though this is not a book club book, she was reading it at the same time I did, I am totally envious of Smith and Mapplethorpe.

Perhaps it is just her prose, but to be in that hotel - and running into Grace Slick, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin in the hotel bar, all at the same time? It can't just be her telling of it, it had to be incredible.

Or to have William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg staying in the same hotel and become your friends???? Or Sam Shepard to be your lover? I'd say "surreal", but that would be reserved for running into Salvador Dali in the lobby while you're holding a stuffed raven and have him comment on it.

That doesn't even cover her friendships with Todd Rundgren (really?), Jim Carroll or a relationship with a member of Blue Oyster Cult (really, really???). This was all before she ever became famous in her own right.

You'd think it was some really great acid trip, but it's not. At times it almost borders on namedropping, but she never quite goes over that line.

I suppose this book can be as much about her unorthodox relationship with Mapplethorpe as it is with Smith's fascination with 19th century poet, Arthur Rimbaud. You do not go too many pages where Rimbaud is not referenced somewhere.

Now, I like Patti Smith as an artist and always have (even seen her perform live, if you remember), but I think anyone would find this book fascinating. I can let Becky chime in when she finally gets around to catching up on my blog.


Song by: Patti Smith

All Good Things

I have done this in some form or another for the last 2-3 years, I think. Pick the top best songs of the year, that is. Possibly I've done it longer, but I'm just too lazy to go back and take a gander. I could have limited it five, I suppose, but I don't think I can make it to 10 without diluting the list.

Not surprising, most you will not find on the radio or even on the iTunes top 100 downloaded of the year. Ok, maybe two of them ...and I'm a little all over the place. Again, not surprising. Except for #1, none of the rest are in any particular order.

Haunting Me - Raul Malo
Hands down, the best song of the year.

We Let Her Down - Chris Isaak
One of the better things he's ever done, and just slightly different than his usual stuff. But just slightly.

Motherless Children - Rosanne Cash
Of all the songs on her great disk, this is the one I keep coming back to. Not up, but good.

Gimme Sympathy - Metric
Pure Pop - but with slight edge.

Shining Light - Annie Lennox
Doesn't quite make up for her last disappointing record, but it's a good one-off.

Black Cloud - Morrissey
A tough call. His disk is full of really really good songs. But I'm going for this. However, his "That's How People Grow Up" has some lyrics that just put a smile on my face.

The Day We Fell Apart - Kelly Clarkson
Possibly one of the best songs to spin to. A bonus track that probably should have been the first single.

Uprising - Muse
I call it 'anthem rock', but something about the guitar draws me to it.

Just Say Yes - Snow Patrol
No radio splash from it. Chorus better than overall song. And it kind of makes up for that over-played "Chasing Cars".

It's My Life/Confessions, Pt II and Halo/Walking on Sunshine - the Glee Cast
Two for one. Or four for one. In theory these should not work on multiple levels. Bon Jovi? Katrina and the Waves? Beyonce? Mediocre singing? But g-d help me, the combined three and a half minutes proves to be very infectious.


Song by: Jackson Browne

We Three Kings

I am so not a fan of holiday music - especially xmas music. But g-d, when it's done right, even the traditional stuff can be a treat.

Those correctly done songs are few and far between and I suppose 'done right' or 'done correctly' is relative. I truly don't think there are enough good takes to even make up one full album (Alison Moyet's "The Coventry Carol" is a great song, but that's the only one I can think of off the top o'my head).

So I present to you, Blondie doing their version of "We Three Kings".

You can download it for free from their website, which I hyperlinked above.

I think I like this version, not so much for the content, but the execution. How is this not Blondie, circa Plastic Letters? It is so much more raw than stuff they've done recently - and by recently, I mean the last 25 years.

I also see on their site that they have a new disk coming in 2010. Yayyyy. I'm so hoping it is in this same vein. I mean, not holiday music, but their early style.

Yeah, I know most of you don't care about this - so this is mostly a post for Jon.


Song by: Blondie

Tiger Woods

Yes, there actually is a song called "Tiger Woods". I am not making this up. And yes, I own it.

Becky (and yes, she's hyperlinked b/c g-d help me if I forget!) turned me on to Dan Bern, wow, this has to be almost a decade ago. Trust me, the song has very little to do with golf and not exactly what you think it would be. The song is at least 10 years old, and why the man hasn't been actively using the recent headlines and the song title to bring attention to himself, well.....he clearly needs a better agent/publicist. It's all about timing and opportunity.

You've all heard the Tiger story anyway. Or stories (plural) and non-stories. My favourite one is Tiger's sex dream that involves Derek Jeter and David Boreanaz. Who knew straight men had fantasies about devil's three-ways? Especially when the guy fantasizing isn't even involved in the menage-a-trois.

But have you seen the CGI version of the "accident"? For this, you just have to love the Japanese (possibly Chinese or Taiwanese).

I'm personally waiting for the CGI of the chick-Boreanaz-Jeter porn movie.


Song by: Dan Bern

I Love Music

Saturday night we met our friends Christine & Bryant for dinner. I've seen Christine a few times in the last year, but not often - and it has maybe been two plus years since we've seen her husband.

The company was good, the food was good, the service was........ok. I cringed when the lispy / fey server would come over and ask us something. Yes, I should embrace our brethren, but truth be told, way way fey just makes me way way uncomfortable. Of course the end of the meal is always the worst when he used 'dessert' and 'espresso' in the same sentence.

His demeanor was not why I say the service was "ok". That is mostly due to him being completely inattentive.

Not that we didn't have enough to discuss: work, kids (theirs, not ours - obviously), family, old friends, etc - but we kept coming back to the music the restaurant played. It was as diverse as their wait-staff. Umm...wait, that probably isn't accurate, but I'll give you a small sampling - as we were there for 3.5 hours - in no particular order:

the Carpenters
.38 Special
Rufus Wainright
Heart (x2)
Michael Jackson (x2)
Julie London
Stevie Wonder
KC & the Sunshine Band
the opening number from Rocky Horror Picture Show !!!! (I know, right???)
Bill Withers (and it wasn't "Ain't No Sunshine")
the Arcade Fire
Diana Krall
Dixie Chicks
the Pretenders

No - I don't own any Stevie Wonder or KC................. or .38 Special (I thought I'd leave you hanging a few on that one), but the rest could have easily come from my music catalogue.

Bryant pointed out that when you trekked back to the restroom, you could hear blaring rap music from the kitchen. So they really were all over the place.

I'd kind of like to meet whomever does their playlist and shake their hand. ...and you know damn well, it was probably our server.


Song by: the O'Jays

Puttin' on the Ritz

Yesterday I attended a two hour spin session (a two hour spin session).

It was hot, it was tough, and it seemed way longer than 120 minutes.

This was the brain-child of two of the gym's spin instructors - cute Andy being one of them. "Let's help people out after a fattening holiday meal/weekend!", they concocted. I swear it was like Abu Gharib, but with stationary bikes.....and music.

Jamie, the other instructor, is the Lynndie England of the work-out set. Of the 8-10 spin instructors, she is by far the hardest....or in the top two at the very least. No mercy. No compassion. And I'm guessing more of a core instructor than she is a cyclist. She's the kind of gal who gets off her bike and walks around and tells you that you're not working hard enough. I hate that. ...and not just because I feel like I'm being called-out. More like she has no idea what my limitations might be or my experience in the class.

...and she has horrible taste in music.

Seriously, music really does make or break the spin class. With decent motivational music, you can really make it through any routine. Anymore when I play music at home or in the car, I consider one of two things (or both): Can I spin to this? and/or How can they do this on Glee?

Andy has the best music of all the instructors, but he goes from Lady Gaga to Bon Jovi in a heartbeat. No one can tell if he's truly gay or not. I'm still very split on it and my gaydar is giving up nothing.

So when you team the two up together (Jamie and Andy) you get a really weird mix of songs. Andy was consistent on his choices (I swear, if I have to hear the Black Eyed Peas "I Gotta Feelin'...one more time......). Jamie was in a "jazz" mood. ....though someone needs to tell her playing Bette Midler singing "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy", Judy Garland's "Get Happy" or something by the Andrews Sisters is not "jazz".

One of her last song choices was Fred Astaire's version of "Puttin' on the Ritz". I guess we could be happy it wasn't Taco.

Now, in the area where I was spinning were two other regulars - and we all are men of a certain age. So while we know of each other, we don't know each other - not really. With no set-up, with not winks or nods before hand, when Mr. Astaire sang: "If you're blue/and you don't know where to go to/why don't you go/where fashion sits....", well, the three of us kind of did the Young Frankenstein response.

Not loud-loud, mind you - but loud enough where we knew all three had done it. Smiles, grins and guffaws all ensued. ...then we had to finish the climb we were doing and sweat and pain replaced the fun, but it was a great momentary distraction.

Now, I can link you to another post of mine - 3.5 years old where I reference this same song, and the Young Frankenstein version used for Clyde & Seymour's Spooky Kooky Castle and my history with that. I won't redo that whole thing here.

I made it through the two hours (one guy left after 15 minutes - what's that about?). My legs were a little rubbery at the end, but I made it. If nothing else, it was a good warm-up to SpinFest II, coming in January. There I'll spin for 120 minutes to raise money for the Cleveland Free Clinic. It's a good cause and I have to spin anyway - so what the hell.


Song by: Frederick Frankenstein & the Monster

Ooh Ooh Song

This iTunes meme was stolen from Kevin's Rants. He stole it from some other people, but I'm doing a coast blog at holiday time and what the hell - I'm not above thievery.

The data is true as it stands, but it's not really all inclusive - as I don't have 100% of everything I owned either ripped or loaded into iTunes. All of our music resides on a massive server, but I don't care for some of Denton's music (and vice versa), so I saw no reason bog down my hard-drive with that stuff.

That being said - away we go:

How many total songs?
9187 items in my library. That’s 25.7 days, and 43.95 GB of music.

Sort by song title – first and last…
First: “Abandoned Masquerade” – Diana Krall (The Girl in the Other Room)
Last: “6060-842” – the B-52's (the B-52's)

Sort by time – shortest and longest…
Shortest: :09, “Intro” – Prozzak (Hot Show)
Longest: 21:54, “Sleep Don't Weep” – Damien Rice (9)

Sort by Album – first and last…
First: Abbey Road by the Beatles
Last: 1992 Telluride Bluegrass Festival by Various Artists

Sort by Artist – first and last…
First: A-Ha
Last: 10cc

Top five played songs
175 - Like Fugitives – Rosanne Cash
174 – Everyone's Got a Story – Maria McKee
173 – Along Comes Mary – the Association
173 – Please Sister – the Cardigans
172 – I See You – Raul Malo

Find the following words. How many songs show up?
Sex: 40 items
Death: 22 items
Love: 654 items
You: 1157 items
Home: 126 items
Boy: 156 items
Girl: 215 items

First five songs that come up on Party Shuffle…
I don't seem to have Party Shuffle on my iTunes. What gives?


Song by: Pat Benatar

When I Saw You

Last night, we took my 16 year old nephew to another concert. We've taken him to a few, but this one was quite low-key for him.

I got him to go see Don Dixon & Marti Jones. Yes, they are not big names and the only way most of you might have heard of them has been through this blog. In all my years of fandom, I've only seen them four times in 20 years - the last being about 16 months ago.

You might know Dixon from producing classic disks from REM's early days, or the Smithereens. You might really know him from being the guy who wrote and performed "Teenage Suicide: Don't Do It" from the movie Heathers.

Marti is his wife, but she's been putting out music for the last 25 years. She has a great alto and chances are you've never heard a things she's done. Some of her stuff is on iTunes, but most is out of print. Both she and Dixon have had a big following in DC and North Carolina. But they live up here and rarely perform.

Since they rarely perform, I dragged Denton but asked Matt. He's up for most things musical and I think he likes spending time with us. We weren't sure if he could go, as he is in the midst of having a pneumothorax. That is a collapsed lung, not a Dr. Seuss character.

Docs aren't sure what's going on with the man, but he's seemingly ok as long as he doesn't play tennis, cough or laugh. It's painful for sure, but he's seeing a specialist on Monday. And he can go since not only does my sister trust my judgement (I think), but that I know every frickin' hospital there is to know and what to do and how to manipulate those systems if I had to.

Anyway, like last time, Dixon and Jones played in this small "basement" in Canton that held maybe 100 folks - most of them friends and family. We felt like we were crashing a reunion.

It was just the two of them, no other musicians and they can pull that off quite well. And they did - and they didn't. Vocally, they've both sounded better, but musically they were just fine. Marti is a strong guitarist, Dixon a great bassist.

(the iPhone only takes so-so pics in a dark venue. sorry)

Neither has nothing new to promote. Hell, Marti is eight years out since her last disk. They performed songs I've never heard them do live before - actually most of them, so that was a plus. But I found they did best when singing together - not just backing each other stuff. In the course of their careers, they probably have 5-6 songs where they actually duet and when they did some of those, they truly shined.

I think Matt got something out of it - least of all being exposed to new kinds of music for him. But I probably wouldn't go out of my way to see them again. If they were in Cleveland, maybe. The hour to and fro (each) to Canton is questionable.


Song by: Marti Jones & Don Dixon

Poker Face

I'm not a Chris Daughtry fan - at least of his music. He's got a pretty good look though - for the most part. I'll admit it. Gimme a man with a shaved head and he steps to the head of the line.

I am definitely not a fan of Lady Gaga. I don't get it. I don't get her. I guess I'm gay - but not gay enough.

Of course, you're probably wondering why I know anything about her. I first came across her on Anderson Cooper/Kathy Griffin's New Year's Eve special. Whatever song she did was unmemorable. And now that I take Spin class, I'm forced to listen to "danceable" tunes that people instructors think are HI N-R-G. (fyi - if I have to pedal through Rhianna one. more. time.....so help me g-d!)

I will admit to wondering if Lady Gaga was really talking about "Poke HER Face". You know - penis-to-mouth kind of stuff. You just never know.

So, I was amused to hear about and eventually look for, Chris Daughtry doing a cover of "Poker Face".

Turns out it is not that amusing. When he gets to the chorus and sings/screams it - it is not so far-fetched to think that he couldn't have done this originally.....or anyone of his musical genre.

It just kind of proved to me that the song is banal in multiple formats.





Song by: Chris Daughtry

List of Burdens

You know I actually attempted to draft this before I even attended the event. What was I thinking? I ended up scrapping the entire thing and starting over. Lesson learned.

Last night we went down to Kent State (yes, that Kent State - more on that in another post) to see Rosanne Cash perform. I'm a long time fan and this would have been only the second time in 30 years (!!) to see her.

It was a different mode this time. Three years ago she had a band. This time it was her and her husband, John Leventhal (not my brother-in-law, but another Jon Leventhal). Leventhal has produced most of Cash's music since 1993's The Wheel. He is an incredible songwriter, arranger and multi-instrumentalist.

Yup, just two of them, two mics and an acoustic guitar each. It was pretty amazing in that regards - especially Leventhal who made his six-string shine. Picking and strumming at the same time, making it play like a guitar and bass all at once. Cash herself is an underrated guitarist. It's easy to get lost when you're playing with a full band, I suppose.

Cash was in fine form vocally. Possibly the strongest I have heard her. I wasn't sure what she'd be doing, as I didn't think she was really promoting her 3.5 year old disk, Black Cadillac, and her new disk, The List isn't out until October.

It turns out she was seemingly promoting both. Each of these got seven songs covered. That did not leave a lot for the rest of her other eight album catalog. Only five songs to be exact. I found that a little disappointing. Five of her disks went completely unrepresented.

Kent Stage is this little venue. If it holds a thousand folks I'd be surprised. If it were two-thirds fill I'd be even a little more surprised, though still disappointed more did not come out to see her. She's more than proven herself as an artist in her own right and not just her father's daughter - though she did cover two of his songs. Lineage is a hard thing to break.

There were highlights of course. She started out with "I'm Moving On", a song from her upcoming disk. I had heard it streamed from her website (scroll to the bottom of the page). And while I like much of what she does, it was kind of nice to hear her touch on her country background again. If you listen to the stream, imagine how it was done live - Leventhal played it all on one guitar. It was pretty incredible.

I'm a big fan of "September When it Comes", which she recorded first solo (Transatlantic Sessions) and then as a duet with her father. I was not a fan of the latter, but the former was terrific. She pulled it of flawlessly.

The other stand outs for me were both from the to-be-released, The List - which is a covers disk of what her father told her were essential country songs she had to know. "Motherless Child" (done by a plethora of folks before her) and "500 Miles", which I'm sure many have done, but I played it by Peter, Paul & Mary hundreds of times as a child.

I will say, the seats were sooooo uncomfortable. Getting back in the car for our 50 minute drive home I felt I needed a big massage to work out the kinks in my lower back.

Anyhoo....I know she doesn't play often, just a dozen or so performances per year. But if she's in your neck of the woods, you should certainly try to catch her. Or them.


Song by: Rosanne Cash

Death or Glory

Poor poor Farrah Fawcett. Upstaged in death.

Lucky lucky Governor Sanford. Knocked out of the news cycle after just 48 hours.

Clearly I missed part of the news yesterday afternoon as it turns out, because I left work to go to yoga. My yogini (Kris swears that's a real world/title) was happy happy happy to tell everyone who walked into class last evening - "Did you hear Michael Jackson died?"

My first thought was "Oh my!". The immediate second thought was, "who cares?"

Like Grease or E.T., I might be the only person who never owned a copy of Thriller. I didn't care - for it or him. Oh, you might not know - I've never seen Grease or E.T. Yes, I'm the one!

I will cop to liking parts of Off the Wall, but that's about it. I will say that when I saw some of his crap belongings at the Rock and Roll Hall O'Fame I was disgusted. There were shoes on display that said they were designed by Michael Jackson, the King of Pop (and the phrase was copyrighted). I am telling you - they were Bass Weejuns.

By that point, any talent the man displayed had been replaced by freakish behaivour and looks.

Admittedly, in 1984, I purchased a child's watch with the cover of Thriller on it down on Canal St in NYC. It was for a joke - and mainly because I couldn't find a good Menudo one.

Though the strap is broken, I still have that watch. And it still works! (I tried to get a good pic of it this morning but it was a no-go.)

I'm sure there are millions of tributes in blog-land to him. And possibly to Farrah too - but I'm not one of them. I will go off on a tangent, though.

Except for Charlie's Angels, I'm not sure I saw her in anything. Like all those things I listed above - I didn't care to. I wasn't going out of my way - that's for sure. ...oh, and I didn't buy her poster in hopes of concealing my homosexuality. Trust me, I know a few guys who did.

But I certainly had a thing for her then-husband - Lee Majors. I didn't realize it at the time, but what a huge gay-crush I had on him, not just in the Six Million Dollar Man, but he was frickin' hot The Big Valley, as Heath, the bastard son of Victoria Barkley's dead husband. Heady stuff for the '60s. I love how they acknowledged illegitimacy at least in the first episode that introduced him. Granted, it was never discussed again.

I'm not sure she traded-up with that freak, Ryan O'Neal and his family. He was never hot. He was no Steve Austin, a man barely alive. Of course, Lee did wear those leisure suits - so he wasn't that big of a catch.

...and poor Ed McMahon. He's not even on the radar....even for the Angel of Death. Even in the 'it comes in threes' rule, he is still the side-kick.


Song by: the Clash

Once I Had a Love

Yes, I could have called this 'Heart of Glass', but that would have been too easy.

For those who are not Blondie-o-philes, you might not know that "Once I Had a Love" was the original title of the song.

As you know from this here blog, I'm a big fan of music. What you don't know is that I'm just as big of a fan of how it is made. Not just the songwriting process, but especially the recording process.

I love knowing how the the music is put to tape (or now, a computer) and put together via recording, mixing and mastering. It has been a l-o-n-g time since an entire band has sat in the studio all at the same time, playing a tune beginning to end. Anymore it is about editing: taking the best take from each instrument, or worse, splicing parts of them together to make a song.

Because anymore, it is commerce and not music or art.

I'm way amazed that any band can play their own songs live. That is assuming things are not pre-recorded and playing through the monitors without the need for the actual musicians.

Oh - back to my original post stuff.....but it's all tied in. My friend, and fellow Blondie fan, Jon, sent me this little link the other day, which of course, just fed into all of it.

There is a website that breaks down Blondie's "Heart of Glass" almost track-by-track (which is different than song by song). Using 1977-78 state of the art analog equipment and Mike Chapman's production skills, they used a 24 track recording system to put together a number of drum, guitar, percussion, synthesizer and vocal tracks that make up the now classic song.

None of you might have the slightest interest in this, but I found it quite fascinating. ...and I think Jon knew I would. So thanks to him (and now to me), you can enjoy it.

Or not.


Song by: Blondie

Don't Stop the Music

I've always been an 'early adopter'. When it comes to music. Not children. Never children. Not that there's anything wrong with them.

My first portable music device was the Sony Walkman II. It was so much more portable than the original - so maybe I'm not a first generation adopter, but I was the first one I knew who had one. ...well...except Lori Silverstein. But we hung together my freshman year of college, so we'd be at the main liberry trying to study while tunes pushed through those headphones. It turns out most everyone else could hear whatever we played too.

But after that I died, I got other cassette players - and then of course a few portable CD players, which really weren't that easily portable. And then finally graduated to .mp3 players.

Steve Jobs has enough of my money to pay for all his alternative therapy treatments that won't extend his life one hour - but if he thinks it will, more power to him. Keep positive Steve - the Apple shareholders need you.

I am embarrassed to say (well....kind of) that I have a new iPod. Another iPod.

This house now has four, not including the iPhones. FOUR!

To be fair, we only really paid for two. Denton got me the 30 gig one for my birthday years back. It was the 2nd generation version before there was video. Big as a house, it is. It now resides in his car hooked up to his mocked up iPod dock. Way too much Chicane and Coldplay for my liking. Don't get me started on Lime, Cher and Teena Marie. As far as I'm concerned, that iPod can stay in that car - and when we go out together, I drive!

About five years back I got the first generation Nano. It was so cute - it still is. And it's a workhorse. Holding about 900 songs and their cover art, it has seen me through hundreds of work trips, work outs, bike rides - you name it. When it's at home, we have it hooked up through a Bose radio in the kitchen. It really has outlasted it's prime, I'm sure.

The other two are Shuffles. I got the 2nd generation one for Denton from a rebate I got because of the first iPods shoddy battery. It never went bad, but Apple paid up 'just in case'. He got it for the holidays two years ago. I think I dolled out about $19 for it. But it was good for his workouts.

And now, I have the new Shuffle. I got a MicroCenter gift certificate from my parents this last holiday season that I could not find thing to use it on. I don't need any more blank disks or firewires. We went to the store about six times and left empty-handed.

I didn't need the Shuffle, but I could not bare to go back to that store one more time to look around and leave with nothing. And you know, it's new, it holds as much as my Nano and it works better at the gym - when it comes to size.

Look. Look how small it is.

Yeah - I suppose it is bound to be misplaced. Hell, on day one I had trouble finding it in my gym bag. But it clips easily on my shirt and makes it nicer to use the machines and weights.

The headphones take a bit of work - as that is where all the controls are. One click for forward, another to pause, two to go skip a track and three to go back a track. Oy.

I'm using the Shuffle specifically for workouts. While it probably would behoove me to have music that is conducive for warm-up and cool-down, I haven't loaded that stuff onto it. Right now it is just music to get the blood flowing and to keep my adrenaline flowing.

But I think that's it for my Apple music playing devices. I'm good for another year.


Song by: the Michael Stanley Band

Never Going Back Again

What can I say - I'm a glutton for punishment.

Last night I agreed to take my 17 year old niece and one of her friends to go see Fleetwood Mac in concert. Not that anyone is counting - but this would be the 8th time I've seen them in my life.....and the last four really should have just not been done.

Had it not been for Katie, I would not have even entertained the idea. But, I'd taken her brother to concerts, but never her. This is something she wanted, I well, I want to do well by her. I almost forewarned her that this was not the band of the music she listened to. That band was in their 20s and 30s. Not 60s. But I kept my mouth shut (I know, right?!) and let her have her moment.

Let's start out that it is possible that Katie and Marsha were the two youngest folks there. I'd say the mean was my age or slightly higher. I'm sure some of these people were at the Richfield Coliseum, along with me, back in 1977 for the Rumours tour. Scary....on all levels.

I will give them this, three of the four remaining members (no Christine McVie again/still), play incredibly well. And then there is Stevie Nicks. I pine for the days before her three pack a day habit, klonopin and coke rehab stints ravaged her voice. Or even for the days when she could sing higher than Lindsey Buckingham. We're about a decade or two beyond that.

Nicks had her moments for sure, but the songs have been rearranged to meet her ever shrinking vocal range. She tackled "Storms" from Tusk - which was a first for me. And I've always rated that as one of my favourite Fleetwood Mac songs. This version almost ruined that for me. At least she looked good - for 60.

Buckingham though - I say this everytime: wow! He is the most underrated guitarist out there. And while his work on the live version of "Big Love" is innovative, I always find myself smiling (I know, right?!) when he does his incredible solo during "I'm So Afraid". After 30 years, it has never gotten old.

There were some highlights for sure - but I'm not sure for the larger group (almost a sell-out) - and all of them from Buckingham. The aforementioned "Big Love and "I'm So Afraid" for sure, but the never before seen and perfectly peformed "I Know I'm Not Wrong" and then a marching band less "Tusk". He also did his solo "Go Insane" - which was pretty frickin' good.

Then there was the bad - other band members attempting to do Christine McVie songs and "World Turning". I've always liked the song, but hate it live - mostly for the insufferable 15 minute drum solo by Gandalf the Grey Mick Fleetwood.

Oh, and then there were the six girls/women sitting/standing next to me. The screams that came from them - they weren't as much of enthusiasm as if they sounded like the last sound Nicole Brown Simpson may have made.

The set was simple but the show was slick. Too slick, in fact. Where are the says of unscripted anything and just deviating from the set-list? The video screens and camera work was DVD ready worthy - and you half expected them to sell it on disk on your way out of the arena.

I could see that Katie enjoyed it though - and that was the important thing. She'd watch the video screens to see Lindsey Buckingham's guitar work. I'm glad I went for her, but I don't think I'll be going back again.



Song by: Fleetwood Mac