Ain't It Funky Now

Another reason why I don’t get to listen to much newer music is that I’m a “repeater”. Once I get a hold of something I like, I find it real difficult to put it down.



Case in point the James Brown live album, “LOVE-POWER-PEACE”. I have been listening to this thing practically non stop for three years…..that’s right..YEARS.

It’s just so damn good. First off, it’s recorded in 1971 during what’s arguably the height of the Godfather’s powers. Second, most of the members of what would become George Clinton’s Parliament/Funkadelic are represented here, including the incredible Bootsy Collins on bass.

So it goes without saying that the band is smoking hot, beyond smoking. On fire is more like it. With James Brown as their boss, there’s no alternative. In fact the main reason these musicians left him was because of all of the rules and regulations he forced onto them while in his employ. The JB’s all wore tuxedos, no exceptions. If a band member missed a note or skipped a beat during a concert he would be fined, ON THE SPOT. While the music was playing James would be dancing. Then he’d turn around, facing and pointing at the guilty party while dancing, writing up a fine on his hand with an imaginary pen and paper. That’s right folks, he actually worked the fining of his musicians INTO his act. How freaking ballsy is that?

The MC introduces James before he comes out. Then there’s this pre-orgasmic period where about 10 seconds elapse before JB hits the stage. The crowd goes BANANAS at that very moment. The band is playing the whole time. In fact, they almost never stop during the whole set and if they do, it’s purely for dramatic effect. They move seamlessly from song to song without missing a beat, delivering the goods at a breakneck pace. "Brother Rapp" seguewaying into "Ain't It Funky Now" is light years ahead of tight. There is a saxophone solo during “Superbad” by St Clair Pinckney that I can only compare to the sound of a wild animal being strangled to death. Of course, at the center of it all is Brown. Singing AND dancing with no help and never out of breath.

This CD basically rules my world and will continue to do so. Amazingly, although the concert was from 1971 it was never released until 1992. It’s one of those frozen in time moments that affect me so profoundly while listening, it’s hard to take anything else very seriously. So I haven’t for the better part of three years now.

Preservation Act 1

(Part 3 of a series of essays examining the Kinks’ recorded output on the RCA record label during the early to mid 1970’s).

By the beginning of 1973, the plan was in place for the next Kinks record. However this was to be more than just Ray Davies’s newest batch of tunes. For nearly ten years there had been attempts by Ray to present a complete theatrical piece that would combine rock and roll with dialogue driven theater. First there was “The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society”. Even though this was more of an attempt at a unifying theme, it bears mentioning here mainly because it’s the chrysalis of what would become the “Preservation” concept. 1969’s “Arthur”, a tale of a disillusioned British patriot was supposed to have been made into a UK television drama, but the network backed out of the project at the last minute.

Initially, “Village Green Preservation Society” was to be the basic template for this new undertaking. The plan was to expand upon that theme by adding new songs to the existing piece of music along with extra dialogue. Ultimately , Davies chose not to perform revisionist history on a piece that worked well enough on it’s own. It made more sense to expound upon the idea by starting from scratch.

Work on what was then planned to be one double LP began around mid to late February of 1973, after approximately six weeks of writing. A U.S. tour interrupted the proceedings, but upon returning in May, it was decided that most of what was recorded could not be used. Starting over again, it became apparent the story could not be told properly without providing proper context. A “set-up” if you will.

So now instead of one double record, there would be a single record to preface the story. This would be followed by a double LP where the two warring factions duke it out over the future of the Village Green. One side led by Mister Flash, aim to chop up the land into subdivisions for profit. This would result in dozens of little “Shangri-la’s” that “all look the same”. The other side led by Mister Black, seek to preserve the green with an ulterior motive not revealed to us as of yet.

In addition to these two personas, a third character is introduced as The Tramp. He appears most prominently in Act 1. We first hear from him on “Sweet Lady Genevieve”, one of Ray’s several unknown, underappreciated masterpieces of pop. “Where Are They Now?”, also sung by The Tramp provides some subtext in that rock and roll has progressed and the folks and styles from the 50’s are no longer in vogue. It also sets up the next tune, “One Of The Survivors” which is the closest thing the record comes to providing a straight ahead “rocker”.

“Sitting In The Midday Sun” is the last tune on the LP delivered by The Tramp, and while it borrows liberally from a Beach Boys harmony-style approach (particularly on the bridge) the song is so quintessentially “Davies” it makes for a breathtaking marriage of styles. “Midday Sun” tells a tale of a bum who watches the world go by , declaring himself happier and more at peace with himself than those who have proper jobs. Asking the musical question , “Who needs a job when it’s sunny?” it’s hard to disagree with him.

“Cricket” is sung by yet another character known as The Vicar. It’s appearance here seems trivial but examining it closer reveals the dangerously righteous stance of the Church during these changing times. More importantly, an interesting question presents itself as to what side of the conflict will The Vicar align himself with.

The record concludes with Mr. Flash and his cronies singing “Demolition” where the plan to destroy the Village Green and sell it off piecemeal is laid out in detail. All of it is of course set to a musical melody that will be reprised in Act 2’s final piece, “Salvation Road”. A clever plot twist awaits us on the next record where we discover that Mr. Black is actually in cahoots with The Vicar. While they share the high minded goal of saving the Village Green, they also want to usher in a new moral code with them as the self appointed “National Guards against filth and depravity”.

The stage is now set for an epic duel of good against evil. Only problem is, it’s difficult to tell which side is which. Shades of grey combined with private agendas are building towards a scenario where regardless of the outcome, the entire population will lose. The Tramp is the only one “watching it all” who is intelligent enough to see this. In our next entry where we examine the incredible “Preservation Act 2”, the battle will commence.


Thanks to Peter Doggett for providing the factual information used for this essay on the 2004 reissue liner notes for Preservation Act 1.

Where Is The Love?

So I was at the company gym the other day at lunch doing my daily two miles on the elliptical. While working out we have our choice of about 8 TV shows to watch. I usually settle in on New Haven news channel 8 if for nothing else than to ogle over luscious anchor Sonia Baghdady. Today though I got there a little late so I had to settle for ESPN and get caught up on typical sports-stuff. I usually look to the other TV’s while listening to one of them and my eyes drifted towards something called “The Bad Girl’s Club” on the Oxygen Network.

Just looking at this (I never did bother to switch the sound over) appalled and saddened me at the same time. It’s a standard reality show where a bunch of braless twenty-somethings move into a house and compete with each other for some kind of prize. Plenty of bleeped out profanity, blurred naked images, and ill fitting clothes. With the sound turned off though, it really drove home not just how these young girls are being exploited but also how we as a society look to hatred and vengefulness for our entertainment.

My Sonia Baghdady crush proves that I’m no prude, so I’m not here to sing “down with sex and sin”. I’m actually a big fan of both. What I have a problem with is the exploitation of it. That and the fact that these reprehensible behavior patterns delivered via fiber optics to every home on the globe didn’t come with any disclaimer indicating that this is no way to act.

Now word comes out of the United Kingdom that some fellow named Tom Morello is looking to get a song by his band Rage Against The Machine (gonna go out on a limb here and say they don’t do ballads) titled “Killing In The Name” to top the UK charts for Christmas week. I have not heard the tune, so I jumped onto the global scam that is the internet to seek out the lyrics. Initially it looks like a type of anti-war sentiment is at play here which I have no problem with (although Davies did it infinitely better when he wrote “Some Mother’s Son”).

Scrolling down the lyric sheet to what would my wondering eyes should appear but the word “fuck” repeated over and over again. Sure, lets make this #1 in the UK, why not. Aren’t we all smug and superior. Wouldn’t it be great if that during a time of peace on earth and mercy mild we can have a song at the top of the UK pop charts that demonizes war while at the same time spews profanity. What a swell idea.

Another thing, these words don’t even rhyme! The Sex Pistols at least were clever enough to rhyme “queen” with “fascist regime”. Plus they spewed more vitriol more intelligently than Rage Against The Machine could ever hope for. Worse than being profane, these lyrics are pedestrian and sophomoric. But, hey let’s make it #1 in the UK. How many copies do you have to sell to be #1 in the UK anyway like, 20,000?. Sure beats actually trying to express yourself legitimately by producing a piece of art that people will actually buy because its like, you know…. good.

Again, I’m no prude. I have no problem with the word “fuck”. I’m also against censorship. If these guys want to use the same word over and over again to drive home a point instead of picking up a thesaurus and actually writing a lyric, I have no inclination to try to stop them. Isn’t it funny and a little bit sad though that a slang word meaning intercourse has devolved into the most vicious form of hate speak? Isn’t it?

So in the spirit of the season I have to ask, where is the love? Why doesn’t love sell in the same way that backstabbing nubiles do? Why can’t we express ourselves intelligently without flipping each other the bird and snapping our fingers in each others faces? Why are recording artists driving up and down the east coast jumping ugly with Wal-Mart employees because they don’t see their records stocked on the shelves? More importantly, why is all this seemingly okay with everybody else, and is actually considered to be yet another form of entertainment?

This morning's commute

Wrote this for another blog and it came out pretty good so thought id share it here.
This is from my ipod on shuffle play connected to the car stereo.

Marvin Gaye-Lets Get It On

Almost ruined for good by that idiot Jack Black in “High Fidelity”, fortunately the tune is damn near indestructible.

David Crosby-Traction in the Rain

From his awesome solo album, “If I Can Only Remember My Name”. Came around to Crosby about five years ago after hearing “Draft Morning” from “The Notorious Byrd Brothers” LP. Used to think he was just a stupid hippie. OK, he probably is but he wrote some great songs. This album has tons of uncredited guest musicians that read like a who’s who of the California scene. Neil Young shows up here as do members of the Airplane and the Dead. Since they recorded for different companies, their contracts forbid them from appearing on another label.

Small Faces- The Autumn Stone

Steve Marriott could sing anything. The ballads are just as effective as the rave-ups. Tragic that we lost him so early in his life. One of THE unheralded greats.

Bob Dylan-Little Sadie

From “Self Portrait” in which every review I’ve ever read exclaimed that I should avoid like the plague. Not so. The record gets dismissed because it’s unpolished, and lots of flubs are left in. That simply adds to it’s charm. It’s very much in the same family as “The Basement Tapes” in that there are little if any overdubs. Dylan is such a complex figure, and the music he makes will always be secondary to the lyrics he writes and sings because of who he is. It’s really too bad about that because his instincts towards what sounds good MUSICALLY never gets the same examination. His recorded history proves in many instances how much of a perfectionist he can be. Entire albums have been scrapped and re-recorded, studio sessions document how he would change the key of a song in between takes. Here though, it seems that he is purposely NOT doing that in an attempt to break some new ground or better yet to piss people off.

Frank Sinatra-Always

Irving Berlin, songwriter. Not much more needs to be said. Although I do have a version of this sung by Marvin Gaye on his first album that is also pretty darn good. Frank’s version is pretty much the definitive one, tho’.

Sly And The Family Stone-If You Want Me To Stay

Here’s another band I need to hear more of. I know the “Stand” album and not much else, except for the obvious 45’s like this one. It is as they say, a stone groove.

Jethro Tull –With You There To Help Me (Live 1970-Isle Of Wight)
This version of the Tull live contingent is arguably the best. Martin Barre had just joined along with Clive Bunker on drums, John Evan on keys and Glenn Cornick on bass. This band was just flat out dangerous during this brief set.

King Crimson-Prelude (Song Of The Gulls)

This is from their fourth album, “Islands”. As bold as their first album(Court Of The Crimson King) was in it’s sheer power, this album is just as bold if not bolder in it’s restraint. There are several beautiful passages here including this one. Possibly my favorite Crimson long player.

Zappa-Cruising For Burgers

From the “Uncle Meat” album, this is one of the more accessible tracks. Overall “Uncle Meat” is a demanding listen, with much of it seemingly improvised. Repeated listenings though will reap rich rewards. The variations on “King Kong” alone make it essential.

Neil Young-I’ve Been Waiting For You

From his fine first album.

Jimi Hendrix Experience-Ain’t No Telling

Much has been written and will be written about Hendrix the guitar god and blues meister who was taken from us so early in his career. Here though, is what I will miss most. The “Axis” album features an almost pure pop direction, with most of the selections clocking in at just over two minutes. No extended jams, no psychedelic trips (“EXP” not withstanding, the LP opener which really does not qualify as a song). I like to think that had he lived, he would eventually return to the studio with an emphasis on song craft and studio wizardry, like he did here. Don’t get me wrong, I love Hendrix the axe man as much as anybody. It’s just that it overshadowed the simple fact that he really could do it all.

Nick Drake

When I think about Nick Drake, I’m compelled to obsess over what might have been. I arrived late to the Nick Drake party but honestly, we all did. He only sold about 20,000 albums during his lifetime and when he died, it didn’t even qualify as a “Rock And Roll Heaven” event. Amazing how all that changed over time. If you don’t know, Nick is now widely considered to be one of the most influential singer/songwriters ever. A Volkswagen TV commercial of all things that featured an audio snippet by him sparked renewed mainstream interest in his work about nine years ago.

His career is marked with personal and professional missteps. Some were of his own doing, others were not. Getting the personal stuff out of the way first, Nick took a lot of recreational drugs. He was also diagnosed with depression which resulted in him being prescribed legal drugs. It was these pharmaceuticals which he presumably overdosed on, taking his life.

Nick was an amazing, eccentric talent. The people that were put in charge of developing him did their best, but ultimately did not have the vision to do right by him. Nick wrote mostly on acoustic guitar, but he used alternate tuning techniques. Standard guitar tuning is typically E A G D B E. Nick however, might tune his guitar C G C F C E , then adding a capo to the fret board. Keep in mind that he’d only do that for one song. Another song might employ an entirely different structure. This made performing almost impossible as Drake would spend long stretches between songs tuning during the few times he could be coerced into actually giving a concert.

No one it seemed, had the vision or the budget to just buy 25 guitars for the guy and hire a roadie to keep them all tuned. For some reason this was never considered an option. No wonder the guy hated performing. Imagine being up there for long stretches at a time trying to tune in front of a bunch of people who were probably milling about impatiently.

Then there were the records themselves. Several online sources collaborate the theory that Drake was unhappy with the orchestral treatments that were employed on his first two albums. Listening to them now that may be hard to understand given their beauty. However you can also hear that these recordings were not something that was in step with any prevailing pop trend or style. They were truly unique for their time and remain so.

Record producer Joe Boyd was Drake’s professional mentor at the time. In addition to using orchestra on some tracks, other recordings were given an “English folk-rock” treatment, courtesy of another band Boyd was working with at the time, Fairport Convention. So there is this clumsy oscillation between two different musical styles that in retrospect seems all well and good. It’s actually all quite incredible. Taken into context however, in 1971 this approach (or approaches) had to have been confusing to critics, programmers and listeners.

However, his third and last LP, “Pink Moon” remains a stark contrast compared to the rest of his recorded output. Recorded in two days, (some reports say as little as two hours!) it contains one solitary 30 second piano overdub on the title track. The rest is just acoustic guitar and voice. Sublime finger picking combined with lead vocal, it’s simply one of the most hauntingly beautiful works of art ever committed to tape.

The artist at this time however was by all published accounts, no less than an emotional wreck. The phrase “clinically depressed” gets used a lot to describe Drake’s final days. He’d moved back in with his parents, too disconnected from life and disillusioned with the record business to do much of anything else. Around noontime on November 25th 1974, his mom found him dead in his room. He had overdosed on medication prescribed to him by psychiatrists to overcome his depression.

Was it intentional, or was the sickness overpowering him to the point where he took more pills than was prescribed as a desperate attempt to feel better? The answer to that question will never present itself, so it’s better instead we focus on the music. Some 35 years since his passing, the work of Nick Drake continues to both entertain and inspire.

If you’re dead , I wanna hear your stuff.

I’ve been looking at some of my aural preferences in the pop genre, and an interesting trend is in play. I tend to gravitate towards pop artists with mental problems that died penniless and in relative obscurity. Aside from the obvious ones I’ve written about (Judee Sill, Gene Clark, Curt Boettcher) combined with some I’ve yet to write about (Nick Drake, Dennis Wilson, Syd Barrett) you could say that a serious chunk of what I listen to falls into this category.

The other category is just plain dead and there are several corkers here as well. James Brown, Steve Marriott, Marvin Gaye, Lennon, Hank Williams and many others are all freaking dead. OK, so much of this is happenstance. I am after all 47 years old and time does march on. Even though everybody in “The Wizard Of Oz” is dead there is no curse on the movie. It’s just that it was made in 1929.

Somewhere along the way I became pretty jaded towards new music. This is pretty much my problem as opposed to music’s. There is plenty of good new music being released if one has the time and/or inclination to find it. Alas, therein lies the rub. During the post punk wars of the early to mid eighties, I had plenty of free time to find these bands, and plenty of disposable income to blow on records. Most of what was out there I hated too, but thanks to college radio I found stuff like Husker Du, The Replacements, The Smiths and others that made the ‘80’s a memorable decade. However, It was still a million miles away from the mainstream.

Eventually real life got in my way. But something else happened, too. I started in on the “how did I miss out on THIS?” kick. I found that by going backwards I could find lots of things that floated my boat and then some. By gravitating towards music message boards on the internet combined with the input from my infinitely musical younger brother, I was able to unearth metric tons of music that had been around forever that somehow missed me. Some was ultra obscure, but there were good chunks that were popular and right under my nose.

For example, I could never get past the tye-dye culture and the hippie-dippie mentality of The Grateful Dead. I could not hear the music because I couldn’t bear to witness the lifestyle. Once that barricade was broken though, an entire floodgate was opened (Airplane, Love, CSNY, Moby Grape, Buffalo Springfield) and I suddenly had a backlog of music to listen to just like the old days. All it took was a little de-snob-ification.

So I started to go back even further. Between Sinatra, Fitzgerald, Williams, Armstrong and others, I had lots of catching up to do. I figured that if something new came down the pike it would find me and if it didn’t, it probably was not that good to begin with. Well, this was wrong too.

One of the main reasons I started to ignore new music in general was because I was unhappy with the trend towards pop idols manufactured in board rooms for maximum consumption. To me this was a step backwards for the industry as a whole. Like living through Pat Boone and Frankie Avalon all over again. The edgier stuff was just too damn edgy with most of the lyrics I could only decipher as “kill all the white people”. It became easier and more fruitful to just go backwards and dig deep.

This year though, some newer things happily found their way towards me. These artists have bolstered my spirit and given me a glimmer of hope about the future. Did I finally come around, or is it just that newer more diverse types of music are actually finding an audience in an industry that now is taking more risks to keep itself afloat? I’d like to think the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Anyway, it’s nice to be back. I’m still more apt to go backwards than forwards, but at least I’m willing to dip my toe in the water again.

IFC's Dinner With The Band

IFC's Dinner With The Band

The Independent Film Channel has had some kick ass original programming in it's short lifespan and it's newest offering "Dinner With The Band" is no exception.
Master Chef Sam Mason hosts the show from what looks like an abandoned Brooklyn warehouse with a different musical guest each month.

Sam is a bit of a clumsy interviewer, but that's obviously not his strong suit. He's there for the cookin' and he did some bold things in the kitchen like sprinkling instant freeze-dried coffee grounds on onion rings. Flat iron steak and an interesting mustard/bacon/coffee (yep, more coffee) gravy rounded out the menu.

Then his guest this week, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings played their first of two tunes for the show. The first. "Let Them Knock" was a soulful vocal performance by Ms. Jones with the obligatory tight R&B big band accompaniment.
Jones can really sing, displaying range to spare while delivering pitch perfect soul. She was also delightful in the kitchen , very genuine and funny.

The show claims that these musical guests are among Sam Mason's favorite independent groups in and around NYC , and if SJ and the Dap-Kings are any indication he has very good taste in music. Sam rounds out the half hour with a drink recipe that put a nice bow on the proceedings.

All in all, another great show on IFC. The basis of which combines food and music.
Hmmmm...kinda reminds me of a blog I know about......

Gene Clark

Gene Clark was in the Byrds. No he’s not the dude with the funny glasses, that was Roger McGuinn. He’s not the guy in the suede fringe hunting jacket either, that was David Crosby. Gene never really had a persona or image. What he was though was the principal songwriter in the band between 1964 and 1966, writing or co-writing tunes such as “Here Without You” , “Set You Free This Time” , “I’ll feel a Whole Lot Better”, “She Don’t Care About Time” and most notably, “Eight Miles High”. Despite writing songs like this and being the lead singer casual fans of The Byrds probably could’nt even give you his name. All they know about is the guy with the funny glasses and the 12 string Rickenbacker singing Dylan. And that is a damn shame.

The Byrds burned brightly like a comet in the ‘60’s. Their influence reached across the globe. Even the Beatles were not immune, with George sporting a 12 string Rick of his own around the time of Rubber Soul. That album cover by the way shows The Beatles in suede hunting jackets through a fish eye lens, which was eerily similar to an album released by The Byrds just months prior.

Comets unfortunately burn out though, and there were just too many egos in the band to keep it going. The other members resented the fact that Gene’s songwriting royalties were netting him more dollars than the rest of them. So Gene was the first to leave in 1966. Looking at his early solo stuff with collaborators Doug Dillard and Chris Hillman, there is a definite leaning towards a country/western, bluegrass style. This was no accident. Clark after all was born in Tipton, Missouri and devoured Hank Williams records in much the same way as Brian Wilson glommed onto the Four Freshmen.

Much of what would become Country folk/rock in the early to mid seventies owe a considerable debt of gratitude to Gene. Bands like The Eagles, Pure Prairie League, even the later incarnations of Fleetwood Mac drew off of his influences.

Gene however, would never attain the solo success he so richly deserved despite continuing to work and releasing a sizeable solo output much of which was ignored by record promoters and radio. After kicking around the late ‘60’s writing songs for The Flying Burrito Brothers and others, Clark would finally release his first proper solo album in 1971. It was a long road to get there. The Burritos wanted Gene to replace Gram Parsons, but Gene had a drinking problem combined with a fear of flying that quickly scotched those plans. He even replaced Crosby in the Byrds for a month or two, before leaving the band again after one of his panic attacks.

So in 1971, Gene Clarks solo album came and went. It was only commercially successful in the Netherlands , of all places. Sometimes referred to as the “White Light” album, it is a revelation in the Psych/folk genre if there is such a thing. The album includes the gorgeous “For A Spanish Guitar”, the only song I’ve ever heard Bob Dylan ever quoted as one he wish he had written. If that praise is not high enough , check out Gene’s cover version of Dylan’s “Tears Of Rage” which is damn near if not the definitive version. Clark’s unwillingness and/or inability to do promotional tours of the material didn’t help matters either, and also contributed to the records quick disappearance.

A few years later, after recording more material that would not initially even be released and even rejoining and recording with yet another reincarnation of The Byrds , Gene Clark was signed to Asylum records as a solo artist in 1974. This would result in one LP, arguably his magnum opus. Titled “No Other”, it was produced with a large budget of session musicians, back up singers and eight of the greatest songs ever placed on a single LP. It seemed like Clark’s work was always ahead of the times by about two to three years. Listening to it today, it confounds the mind how this album could not have been a hit especially when compared stylistically to records like Rumours, Hotel California, and even Steely Dan’s Aja which all would be released just two to three years down the road.

There would be more albums and more collaborations as the years went on, but always in relative obscurity and without mainstream success. Serious health problems like ulcers and years of heavy drinking would eventually claim his life on May 24th 1991. His songs can be found on albums like Tom Petty’s “Full Moon Fever” and most recently the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss Grammy winner had three Gene Clark compositions included. Among critics and his peers, Gene Clark is a legend. However in the eyes of the general public he has still yet to have his day in the spotlight.

Something different to do with Pork Tenderloin

Cut on an angle into one inch thick slices. Drege in seasoned flour. Sautee in olive oil on medium high heat for about 3 minutes per side in an oven safe skillet. I had 2 tenderloins so I did this in 2 batches.

While thats cooking , prepare the sauce

1 cup orange juice
3 tablespoons wine or cider vinegar
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 clove minced garlic
1 teaspoon chili powder
about one and one half leeks, minced

Mix this up and pour it over the pork after sauteeing. Finish in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. The sauce will thicken into a glaze. The chili powder gives it a nice little kick, almost like a General Tso's chicken phenomenon. Served with Broccoli and carrots sauteed with a little more diced leek to bring it all together.
I would definitely make this again.

Scallops Provencale

Really great -super easy - 1 pound of sea scallops-you may have to butterfly them if they're nice big ones. Drege 'em in flour, shake off the excess and fry them in 2 to 3 tablespoons of butter on medium high till golden brown on both sides. Salt and pepper in the pan. Add 1/2 cup of chopped shallots, 2 cloves chopped garlic and a quarter cup of chopped fresh parsley adding a bit more butter if needed. After it sautees for 2 minutes add a third cup or so of white wine. Sautee for one more minute or until you get a nice sauce. Serve it up.

Frank

Frank Zappa and the curious tale of Lumpy Gravy

Earlier this year, The Zappa Family Trust released “Lumpy Money”, a comprehensive sonic document of two records Frank Zappa released in 1968. One was called “We’re Only In It For The Money”, and the second titled “Lumpy Gravy”. One record (WOIIFTM) was an aural bitch slap towards the flower power generation. It also had some scathing commentary about our nation at that time, in that even though the hippies were only “younger, dirtier versions of their parents” they still didn’t deserve to be beaten, herded into jails and in some cases murdered.

“Lumpy Gravy” was an entirely different animal. A structured collage of sounds interspersed with spoken word dialogue and musical fragments. These fragments were actually taken from a session recorded more than a year previous. “The Mothers Of Invention” were Zappa’s band and they were signed with MGM records. Capitol Records however, had signed Frank Zappa as a solo artist. Both parties believed that his MGM contract allowed him to work on outside projects as long as he did not sing or play on the finished product. The product was a radical departure from his MGM output. This was a full-blown orchestral piece, using no less than 40 musicians at any one time.

MGM records disagreed with Zappa’s interpretation of his contract and sued Capitol. It would be nearly 18 months before the two parties would settle out of court, with MGM agreeing to purchase “Lumpy Gravy” from Capitol. However, the original 20 minute 47 second piece no longer existed in it’s original form. During the legal hassles, Zappa had dramatically altered the piece by chopping it up, shuffling around the pieces and adding spoken dialogue along with other recordings from his vault. The final result was a masterwork from a tape editing standpoint, with all of it done personally by Frank with splicing tape and razor blades. Musically however, it was entirely different from it’s original aim.

It would be many years before Zappa would be recognized as a composer of “serious music” as opposed to a rock and roll band leader and guitarist. The original Lumpy Gravy sessions however prove in no uncertain terms that this guy was so ahead of the curve back in 1967 that it wasn’t even funny. Restored to it’s original order on the aforementioned box set, it is easily THE highlight on a collection jam packed with highlights.

The music also puts into context the direction Zappa was going in with albums like “Uncle Meat” and pieces like “Peaches En Regalia” which would be released on his “Hot Rats” album only a year later. The original “Lumpy Gravy” suite if you will, contains both the playfulness and exuberance of “Peaches”. It also features much of the experimental spirit of the “Uncle Meat” LP. It is most importantly, a lost nugget in Zappa’s musical history. Previously only available as a low fidelity bootleg, the box set returns those historic sessions to their original glory. Kudos to Gail, Dweezil and the Zappa family trust for doing so, and I cant wait to see what they have in the pipeline for future release.

Frank

Depending on who you ask, “In The Wee Small Hours” is the first successfully executed concept album. Meaning that one unified theme is a common thread throughout each and every song. That being the theme of lost love and isolation. Sinatra had attempted previously to release something that would be more than just an album of songs. Now with the birth of the new 33 1/3” LP format and it’s long playing capability, Frank’s vision would at last bear the desired fruit.

The title track and album opener is a sublime combination of orchestra and voice. Two verses, no chorus. The second verse is not even initially sung. It is instead played by searing violins that carry the melody Frank introduced us to in verse one. The tune does not leap out at you to convince you of its greatness. No, instead it casually spills out of the speakers and presents itself quite matter-of-factly.

Other selections, like Cole Porter’s glorious “What Is This Thing Called Love” get similar treatment. A lone clarinet slithers across the intro. This is the sound of sex itself. When sounds like this can emote wave upon wave of visual imagery one truly wishes that the music video had never been invented. This is what music is supposed to do to you. It’s supposed to make you close your eyes and fantasize. Sinatra’s vocals here are the best examples I can cite when I say that his voice is being used as an instrument. It slides like a trombone and bellows like a bassoon. Always with the orchestra and never overpowering, it is nothing less than a staggering mixture of sounds.

No shortage of great songwriting on this album either, and Duke Ellington’s “Mood Indigo” carries on the album theme. This selection is the one ballad that even approaches an up tempo, highlighted by some wonderfully perky saxophone. Nelson Riddle’s arrangements feature orchestral flourishes words will ultimately fail to describe. They are like delicate lace curtains intricately woven, but always in perfect taste.

Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart are dutifully represented here with three tracks penned by them. Of these, “Glad To Be Unhappy” is currently the personal favorite. Another casual masterpiece, with lyrics like “Since you took it right on the chin, You have lost that bright toothpaste grin….My mental state is all a-jumble.. I sit around and sadly mumble….Fools rush in, so here I am… Very glad to be unhappy”… He starts by referring to someone in the third person, but we soon find out that the singer is singing about himself, perhaps looking in a mirror. Again, here is searing visual imagery accomplished only by the use of words packing an emotional wallop. That’s why they called them standards, folks.

Certainly on an album of standards, it goes without saying that you have to include the great Hoagy Carmichael. His “I Get Along Without You Very Well” fits the theme of this platter like a glove. Here, Sinatra is most convincing as a man in denial trying to move on from a break-up. His personal life’s trials (Ava Gardner) parallel the lyrics eerily here as if it was written about him. The emotions being poured out are palpable. His voice breaks up just a little when he sings “except in spring” as if about to cry……whew.

So this record serves as a signpost, a signal to the then record buying public and the music industry as a whole that a record can be much more than a mere collection of tunes. It also continued the sweet rebirth to Frank’s recording career on the Capitol label after being dropped by Columbia. Both a critical and commercial success , it spent 18 weeks at #2 on Billboard, and is regularly cited among trade periodicals and other printed media as among the greatest records of all time.

Here's something to do with chicken...

Lord knows we have enough of it. So get some panko bread crumbs. Heat a skillet then add the oil. Mix about 1/8 cup of good vinegar and add two tablespoons of dijon. Add 1 tablespoon dried sage and one tablespoon dried thyme. Add 1/4 teaspoon dry mustard and mix it all together. Chicken breasts were cut in half and then pounded down with a mallet to about half their original thickness. Dip in mustard sauce, then the panko till coated well. Drop into medium-hot skillet. 5 minutes a side. If they're not done, finish them in a hot oven for 5 more mins or till that god forsaken chicken is done.

Our vegetable tonight was roasted broccoll, which is so great and easy. Put yer broccoli in a pan and toss it with a little olive oil and italian spice blend. Salt and Pepper it. This dish can be ready in 20 minutes at 450 degrees or in 45-50 minutes at 350. Either way it always comes out awesome. You can also do it with any vegetable, so CALL ONE TODAY!

The Kinks-RCA Years-(first of a series)

Whenever you read just about anything online or in print about the Kinks, all of the opinions dovetail together oh so nicely. British invasion band rides the wave. Dave Davies invents Heavy Metal by taking a razor blade to the speaker on his amplifier. Ray Davies’s practically unbeatable run of quality singles in the mid-sixties.
The mysterious banning of the group in America. The wilderness years at RCA. Their sudden rebirth as stadium rockers. The highs and lows of the band are well documented, and everybody seems to agree with each other on what those are. In some cases, even the band members themselves.

Well, I’m here to tell ya, it just isn’t so. One period in particular that sticks in my craw is between 1971 and 1975. All kinds of excuses come into play here. Ray was drinking too heavy, his marriage was falling apart, the band was rebelling against it’s leader, all great excuses except for one thing. The music doesn’t require any excuses. It’s as good an era as any in the band’s history, overshadowed only by the period that preceded it. By the way, that period is one of the greatest for any group ever. Tremendous LP’s and a run of singles that included “Sunny Afternoon”, “Dead End Street”, “Waterloo Sunset”, “Autumn Almanac”, “Mr. Pleasant” “Wonderboy” and last but certainly not least “Days”, this is an astounding run of quality work over a two year period. Impossible to top by almost any other pop group, much less The Kinks themselves.

So what we are going to attempt to do here is analyze the RCA years. We’re going to kick it off with “Muswell Hillbillies”, which is the first release during this timeframe. The record has a reputation of being a booze-soaked affair, but go back as early as “Face To Face” in 1966 and you can hear lots of slurred words and sloppy arrangements. Ray was no stranger to self-medicating but by now it was a source for the material itself, with “Alcohol” being the obvious example. This is what “sipping at your ice cold beer” leads to. It’s sadness tempered only by it’s humor, which by now Ray was a master at.. The comedic element in his writing is one of his most overlooked traits. There is nobody in the history of pop that can make you chuckle like Ray can.

Even the LP opener, “20th Century Man” is delivered in such a deadpan style to make it genuinely funny. It keeps the song afloat and puts a mask over the fact that it’s a absolute downer. “Napalm, hydrogen bombs, biological warfare”. Ray is painting quite the grim picture here. Notice how his voice is recorded to make him sound so small, like the voice on the dust speck from “Horton Hears A Who”. Speaking for the common man, but also skillfully demonstrating that no one is going to listen. Just about every song on this album carries the theme of alienation and despair sung in a comedic, cabaret style. This will be the main constant during this period . If only Marlene Dietrich could have covered a couple of these tunes. Or at least Lily Von Schtupp.

The record did not chart in the UK and sold poorly in the US. However, it received many positive critical reviews and has actually gained stature over time as one of The Kinks’ best records. Not bad for what can be arguably described as a departure from the formula success of “Lola”. Forging a new path along the shift in the pop landscape toward country rock with the success of bands like “The Band” , The Dead, Allman Bros and the like, Ray was applying his unique style and tailoring it more towards what the kids were buying and what the radio stations were playing. The result being an absolute gem of a record that does not fit easily into any commercial category. In other words, an absolute sales disaster.

Our next entry (at a later date) will be the second RCA LP, the half studio/half live “Everybody’s In Showbiz, Everybody’s A Star” in which Ray starts writing about food, the humdrum of stardom, pens another classic, and takes a horn section out on the concert trail.

ENO

Taking Tiger Mountain (by strategy)


The first time I heard Eno’s second solo album was when I was about 15 years old.
It was recommended to me by an older sibling who intrigued me with talk of this English conjurer who was too busy to be in a band, and strove for a higher form of aural expression. Eno was more interested in treatments of sound, and playing his tapes in order to experiment with pitch, timbre, and effects.

Tipped off that this album could be taken out at the town library of all places, I hopped on my 10 speed bike, library card in hand. I could tell right away that this was going to be a demanding journey (the album, not the bike ride). The record jacket itself was daunting, with it’s mosaic depictions of our hero in varying sizes and clarity. It turned out that the cover art was a metaphor for the ingredients inside. This music is very much a mosaic. Some of it very big, some of it very small. Songs appear that strike you right away, while other tracks insist that you explore them, too distorted to even make an initial impact.

Luckily, I was up for the challenge. One of the first things I picked up on was the element of whimsy. With an opening track titled “Burning Airlines Give You So Much More”, this was going to be either a terrorist manifesto, or groovy tongue-in-cheek beat poetry. Fortunately, the latter won out. I would later discover that Eno’s lyrical approach was basically him riffing random syllables on top of his backing track over and over to himself. Once he hit on a combination that complimented the music, he plugged in words that most closely matched those syllables.

The comedic elements don’t end there. Over the course of this LP we are confounded by all sorts of random sounds. Typewriters, whistling, goat-bleating sax riffs, blatantly spooky keyboard sounds, drums and other instruments intentionally recorded to sound like toys, and guitar solos that have been severely manipulated with pitch control and other types of “Enossification”.

Underneath it all though, is a very complex beauty. The basic tracks anchor the whole statement. They are extraordinary in their musicality. The backing vocals seem to emulate Gregorian Chant, but in a much higher octave. Today, we would refer to them as “soundscapes”. Eno was on the precipice of defining an actual approach toward music that had never been explored before. This would eventually be coined by him as “Ambient”. Music that exists in the background, at a volume level so low as to not call any attention to itself. The very beginnings of this approach can be found here, buried under all the mischievous overdubs and off-kilter dark lyrical themes. Eno was soon to discover that by peeling everything away, an entirely new musical language was available.

Avocado Video

If you can make it through this cinematic marvel, you will hear applause at the end from my dog. This video is not for instructional purposes. This is merely documentation of a random occurence. Do NOT prepare avocado this way. Honestly. Dont.

Listen To The Band

Everything is a myth. This needs to be established first and foremost. Even the reality that exists behind the myth is probably a myth too. Case in point “The Wrecking Crew”. In the genre of pop music these people are most commonly known as the studio musicians that played on just about every hit record that came out of Los Angeles, CA during the 1960’s and early 1970’s. I’m going to repeat that for emphasis. Just about EVERY hit record that came out of L.A. employed the same core group of musicians. Forget about all the glitz and glamour of the teen magazines and the album covers. Most pop stars simply did not do the heavy lifting when it came down to the business of making a record. There was a system in place and they were not part of it.

I promised myself that when writing this I wouldn’t fall into the trap of providing a laundry list of bands to back up my statements. However, to provide the appropriate context, I’m finding it necessary . So here goes. Artists such as The Beach Boys, Mamas and Papas, The Monkees, Nancy Sinatra, Herb Alpert, The Association, The 5th Dimension, The Carpenters, The Byrds, Johnny Rivers, Jan And Dean, The Ronettes, Bread, The Turtles, The Grass Roots and dozens of others all used paid professional studio musicians to make their records.

This “scam” if you will was perpetuated by the record companies themselves. The environment grew out of the ashes of the old Hollywood studio system. With no staff orchestras on the payroll, there became a growing need to hire musicians to do commercials as well as movie and television soundtracks. Add the birth of rock and roll to the equation, and you’re faced with the classic scenario of supply and demand.

So, there really was no “Wrecking Crew” per se. The moniker was in fact coined by session drummer Hal Blaine long after the fact. It was simply the way things were done. If you were in California and you wanted to make a record, you had to hire musicians. If you wanted the optimum chance to get the maximum return on your investment, then you hired the BEST musicians. Similar policies were in place at Motown studios in Detroit, as well as New York and Nashville.

Some of these people were new to the scene such as Glen Campbell. Others were making a steady living in Hollywood for a very long time. Someone like Larry Knechtel who played on sessions for Billie Holliday in the early 50’s as well as Beach Boys albums in the mid ‘60’s. Some had jazz backgrounds, others had country chops. This was a true melting pot of styles. In many instances they were encouraged to go over and above the sheet music that was handed to them. Commonly referred to as charts, it was understood that these were rough outlines of what was expected of them , and if they felt that they could embellish, then feel free to go for it.

The music is a permanent part of our lives. The story behind it, not so very well known. The accolades given for it, somewhat misplaced. So what you end up with is a group of cracker-jack musicians not being credited for collaboration on some of the most revered musical works of the pop era. Like I said, everything is a myth.

It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding, Ho,Ho,Ho.

It used to be that I would give my ‘60’s musical icons lots of leeway in regards to anything they would release in the present day. McCartney, Wilson, Stones, you get the picture. My reasoning being that they gave us enough great stuff, so that anything else they do should be looked at as if we’re lucky to still have them around. Around 10 years ago or so, Bob Dylan laid waste to that line of thinking by releasing a run of albums that arguably approach the quality and timelessness of even his best work. Although “Time Out Of Mind” suffered in my opinion from the broad brush strokes of Daniel Lanois’s production, it was still the best batch of Dylan songs in a dog’s age. Plus it won a “Best Album” grammy, so what the hell do I know. Proving this was no fluke, Bob followed up with the immaculate “Love And Theft” , and then the beautifully bluesy “Modern Times”. This trilogy of records proves that ‘60s icons can in fact create vital works of art if they decide to get off their ass and do so.

I’m embarrassed to say while writing a Dylan piece that I have not heard his latest, “Together Through Life” as of yet, but I have heard that it’s solid, if not spectacular. Off the heels of this, Bob’s next move is to release a Christmas album towards the middle of next month. With all the proceeds going to charity, and his recent run of solid records it would be more than ok for Dylan to “mail this one in”. Fat chance. If the 30 second sound clips recently uploaded onto Amazon.com are any indication, this record is destined to be a Christmas classic. What shines through here initially is a steadfast loyalty to THE SONGS. All of the arrangements are traditional, all instruments organic. No attempt is made to try and put forth a musical style. By taking this approach, Dylan appears to have created something timeless in a vein where timelessness is all too often the exception and not the norm. Honestly, we shouldn’t be surprised.

Soon----TOFU SHIRATAKI NOODLES

If I can find them.
They are purportedly the low carb answer to Lo Mein Noodles.
We shall see.

Breakfast

I love eggs but sometimes I lose my appetite for them right while in the middle of eating them. Usually it's my own fault through either under cooking them or worse, over cooking them. It's hard to explain, but suffice to say that cooking eggs is an art. This time I got it right, so i'm attempting to document it here. I started by sauteeing some green pepper and scallion over medium high heat. Salt and pepper this mixture using butter as the lubricant, about 1 tablespoon. Once peppers start to look tender,crank up heat to high. Wait a minute or so to get that pan super hot. Pour beaten eggs on top of the mixture. After about 5-10 seconds you have to mix the whole thing together just as if you were going to make scrambled eggs. The eggs cook quickly, so you have to work quickly. Once it starts to solidify stop mixing and turn down the heat to medium. I might even take it off the heat briefly just to try and control the cooking process. Use a spatula to push it together from the sides. Now bring it back to the heat. As soon as it looks like the eggs can handle it, I added some Jarlsberg (cheese) and folded it over to a half moon. If you are using two eggs, the omelet should be done. However, the omelet pictured above is a four egg behemoth. Two reasons for this. One, I probably have a big breakfast once a month so I wanna make it memorable. Two, my dog will bark at me if I dont give her some. So this is what I did. I took the pan off the heat and left the pan on the stove for about five minutes. It continued to cook in the pan while it was off the heat. It ended up perfect. Now the trick will be in trying to replicate the process next time.

Musings On Fish

The unfortunate pancake

WARNING-INTENTIONAL RUN ON SENTENCE AHEAD
Memo to self...
If your doctor gives you a physical exam,declares you fit as a fiddle, and decide to celebrate by having pancakes for the first time in like, a year then dont use pancake mix with a 2008 expiration date.

The Mexican Monologues

Native Peppers

Need a good Tuna recipe.

Internet comes in handy in these cases, i'll give it that much.
Found a great marinade that calls for 2 limes, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon honey, 1 crushed clove garlic, and grated ginger. Instead of fresh ginger (which I did'nt have handy) I used this prepackaged ginger product that looks like a tube of toothpaste. Really handy to have around, so I squeezed out a liberal dollop of it. It does have some sweetner added, so if you want you can use a little less honey. Added salt,threw it over the steaks in a plastic bag and let marinade for an hour, tho' it could go up to 4 hours.

Tuna steaks are tricky to cook, at least for me. I like my tuna pink or "translucent" in the middle, and it's a very narrow window timewise between undercooked, perfect, and overcooked. The first time , I overcooked it and it was the equivalent of what comes out of the can. So this time I was determined to do better. I used medium high heat for the gas grill, and cooked them for 8 minutes on one side. You can rotate them after four minutes if you want to get those nice cross-hatch grill marks. I turned them over and went about 2 minutes tops, before pulling them off. The wife doesn't eat tuna, so I can be a little adventureous here.
The result was pretty good. Nice crusty outer shell, and good texture in center. The only thing i'd change going forward is maybe going 6-7 minutes on the first side instead of 8. I will definitely make this again and try to have pics next time.

Disclaimer: This is not a recipe. This is an actual account of a random occurance.

Hank Williams Essay

You say Country, I say Western. Let’s call the whole thing incredible.


My biggest musical pet peeve is labels. I hate ‘em with a passion. This is a not an easy argument to defend though, because you need labels to discuss certain types of music accurately. Then there’s the whole promotion thing. How do you advertise tickets to say, a jazz festival without labeling it as such? It’s a lofty goal, but I really try to avoid categorizing music into anything other than “good” or “bad”. My reason being that practically every one of my favorite tunes have elements of SEVERAL different musical categories. In other words, the best music transcends genres. I would further offer up that many people miss out on great music simply because of how it’s labeled.

Now, having said all this I furthered my musical journey earlier this week by jumping head first into Hank Williams’s 40 Golden Greats. It’s right about now where I start to realize why my “evolved” state of being regarding music categorization will never work on the population as a whole. You can’t hear this without thinking “Country”. However, de-construct it a little and we get more. There are subtle percussion techniques that pre-date rock and roll .This is 1947. People like Elvis and Bo Diddley evolved out of this. Stuff like Bill Haley’s “Rock Around The Clock”. Through the ‘70’s and onto the ‘80’s,where bands like Bow Wow Wow and Adam Ant took this rhythmic template to ride a “New” wave. Specifically, I’m talking about that “chunka, chunka, chunka” usually on the 2 and the 4 beat. My ears told me initially that this was Hank’s guitar. He’s actually using the guitar as a percussion instrument. Listen closer though, and the guitar is “doubled” with snare drum, more often than not played with brushes. Two instruments recorded together to form an entirely different sound.

You could argue that there are elements of opera in Hank’s voice. Some of that yodeling that he does is incredibly complex and difficult to sing. The pedal steel and fiddle players show off some virtuoso chops that I can only describe as jazzy. These lyrics of sorrow, jubilation, of love and love lost. Country Western cliché’s were born from these words. He didn’t just help create a musical style, he romanticized an entire class of people. They could relate to what he was saying. That’s why I wouldn’t call it Country. Because it’s much ,much more. These are touchstones in American culture and templates in popular songwriting structure. At least a handful of his songs could be considered “standards” and many, many more can be considered Country standards. There I go again, labeling things. I hate when I do that.

This Week

im diving head first into a 40 song compilation of Hank Williams's greatest.
Early indications are that i'm going to be impressed by it.

Tacos

Tonight it's gonna be tacos. I'll be putting together some guacamole, and chopping up some lettuce. We like the high fiber soft tacos starting with a base of refried beans to act as the "glue". Pretty much improvised from there. I like lots of lettuce on mine. Guacamole recipes are plentiful, but on ones that call for onion, I like to cut the amount required in half, and substitute shallots. Shallots have a milder flavor than onion, and my main pet peeve for Guac is not to have too many elements fighting each other. If im doing say, 4 avacodoes, i'll usually use 2 tablespoons of shallot, 2 cloves of garlic, and one whole juiced lemon or lime. This is all arbitrary. Taste as you go is okay, but always use a clean spoon. You can always add, but you can't take away. Salt and pepper of course.

Classic Movie Roles as Portrayed by vegetables #4

rosebud

Colon cleanser

Nature's Fireballs

A radish a day keeps........something away.

Cucumber.

In Search Of the Perfect Hamburger.

This extra wide coffee cup is just about the perfect size. I want the pattie as thin as possible. When I grill it, i'm not going to flip it over until almost all the pink is gone. The second side grills for 30-45 seconds , tops. Hopefully, i'll have great texture and juicyness. Im using 80-20 ground beef. You could go 85-15, but no more.

Thoughts on the name change

There's a famous quote "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture". Since the last couple of posts have been about music and with gardening season on the wane, I thought the blog name should also evolve. Funny thing about that quote, some sources attribute to Zappa, still others say it's Martin Mull of all people.

Gonna grill burgers tonight, and put them on those great 100 calorie high fiber pepperidge farm deli flats. Probably a salad. Been a while since i put up pics, so maybe there will be some. I have a new burger molding method to share

Chicken Pesto Melange

Take some boneless chicken breast and use enough pesto sauce to cover it. Top with sliced tomatoes and sprinkle liberally with Parmesiano Reggiano. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Throw it on the table.

Fun, fun, fun at the Autobahn ‘till her daddy takes the T-bird away.

Or how I finally discovered the passion behind Kraftwerk.

The music of Kraftwerk had always struck me as distant, cold and calculated. It isn’t that I’m not a fan. I’ve heard most of their stuff and believe it to be great, just on a different plane. Music that comes from the brain and not the heart. I was very, very wrong. It required me to re-think it a little, but this music is as emotional and as heartfelt as any love song or for that matter, protest song that you can name.

So what was it that changed my thinking? Well, while looking at some performances on their website what really struck me was how their fans are reacting to them. They are literally losing their minds hooting, hollering and participating. I figured the audience at a Kraftwerk show would be pretty tame and reserved, the way I believed their music to be.
The tune would end, and then there would be some polite applause. As these videos prove, that hypothesis was not even close.

http://www.kraftwerk.com/

So some obligatory internet research was mandatory. I must be missing something to be so far off base. The first clue I got was a quote from Kraftwerk leader Ralf Hutter that cites The Beach Boys as a musical influence. Like a “hot kiss at the end of a wet fist” there it was, everything I needed to know. The group’s biggest hit is “Autobahn”, a paean to the legendary German highway with no speed limit. Very similar to the way the Wilson brothers expressed their praise of the Pacific Ocean. It is in fact, a spot on comparison. Believe me, I’m not patting myself on the back over this. Quite the contrary, I’m kicking my own ass down the street for not picking up on it sooner.

Time to do some re-listening. I had a couple of their LP’s, specifically “Trans Europe Express” and “The Man Machine”. Just as I suspected. Although their approach strikes me the same, I’m now listening to the end result in an entirely different way. “Neon Lights” may not be just a casual glance out the window, but actually a sobering wish for simpler times. Tunes like “Man Machine” and “The Robots” actually predicted the future. These are warning signs, more accurate now than they’ve ever been. We ARE Showroom Dummies. “The Model” is an eerie portrayal of how lost we are as a planet with our priorities completely screwed up. These guys might as well be the freaking Clash!

We should talk influences here as well and this end of the stick was no surprise to me. These guys have influenced practically every pop genre you can name. Disco, hip hop, house, even those crazy early ‘80’s new romantics owe a lot to Kraftwerk. They continue to influence current bands like Coldplay, who requested and received permission to use riffage from “Computer Love” on their 2005 single, “Talk”. Electronic music of course owes their entire existence to them,(along with those other German pioneers Neu!) and the list of bands that have used samples of their work read like a who’s who of the genre.

It was the emotion that I missed out on. Or at least the level of emotion. My friends and I would listen to music daily, and Kraftwerk was a great way to mix things up a little when we were tired of the soup de jour. Once we heard that our beloved Elvis Costello was listening to Kraftwerk almost exclusively on his tour bus back then, that was all the confirmation we needed that we were beyond hip. This music spoke to me, but on an intellectual level only. Something I could listen to while pretending I was smarter than everybody else. It never occurred to me that I could “rock out” to Kraftwerk. It took a live video of thousands of screaming fans to open my eyes.

Broken Scapular

Songs of faith, higher power, wisdom and love. Chord progressions and melodic structures that reach to the sky. So how is it that the architect of some of these most holy sounds could live such a tragic life?

But that’s how it goes isn’t it? That’s the other side of the coin. For all her songs of aching beauty, Judee Sill couldn’t save herself. No man could save her either. Jesus is a tough act to follow. Could any one of us have been her “one star in the false darkness”? On the day she needed it most , could any mortal man get between her and that last fix that took her life?

Lyrics are typically an afterthought for me. I don’t put much emphasis on them when first listening to a new tune. There has to be something initially in the music to pique my interest. If it’s good enough, I’ll keep going back to it and the words over time will reveal themselves to me. If those words can resonate on some kind of spiritual or even a sexual level, then that’s just gravy. In the early ‘70’s though, singer/songwriters had to have a message. Think “Wild World” or “Cat’s In The Cradle”. It wasn’t enough to just create good music, there had to be some sort of Aesop’s Fable that the kids could relate to. Sill’s lyrics were just as complex as her music. There is a message, but you’re not going to have it simply handed to you.

The first tune from Judee that I had ever heard was a cover version of “Lady-O”, buried in the depths of a “hits” compilation by The Turtles. It was so different from the rest of the record that it passed swiftly right over my head. It seemed to be just an odd footnote to a band’s star crossed career, their last ever 45. For Judee though, it was her big break. David Geffen signed her to his newly created Asylum Records label along with Laura Nyro and Joni Mitchell, hoping to mine gold from the new “Laurel Canyon” sound.

Unfortunately, this music was never going to be “The Next Big Thing”. It was not for the jaded or the disillusioned. It asked that you cast off your feelings of apathy and believe in something. Pet Sounds to the third power. During the post-Woodstock “Won’t Get Fooled Again” era, this music regretfully would find no audience whatsoever, despite glowing critical reviews.

Jesus saved Judee’s life many times over. At least you would think so by reading her Wikipedia bio. As a juvenile, her wild ways landed her in a Catholic reform school where as legend has it, she cut her musical chops learning and playing hymns on the church organ. By the time she was a recording artist, she had already been a junkie, a prostitute, and a criminal. Sort of a late 20th century version of Mary Magdalene.

A scapular was typically given to Catholics upon their first holy communion, along with a rosary. It was a necklace of sorts, with large rectangular images of Saints at either end.. We as Parochial school children were instructed to wear this scapular all the time with the belief that as long as you wore it you’d get to heaven. This type of easy-pass mentality appealed to me, so I wore it. Or at least at I did at first. Scapulars were very un-cool. You couldn’t hide it underneath your shirt, because it showed through your school uniform. Besides, this was the early ‘70’s. Faith was passé. The cord eventually broke and it ended up discarded in a dresser drawer.

Judee Sill left us with two beautiful records, parts of an unreleased third one and some BBC radio sessions. There were also some UK TV appearances on “The Old Grey Whistle Test” that can be found on YouTube. Among those, “The Kiss” is the one above all others that packs the biggest emotional wallop. Giant piano chords cascading down, with no orchestral embellishments like on the studio version. This is only Judee at the piano, singing about how a kiss is the greatest sacrament of all. By the mid ‘70’s she had fallen so far off the pop radar that she was rumored to be dead even while she was still alive. Fiction became fact on November 23rd, 1979. She spent the final years of her life broken, eventually lost forever.
Just like my scapular, Singer/songwriter Judee Sill

Ina Garten's Chicken Chili

This was really good and super easy. 4 cups of onion sautee'd till just done, add bell peppers and mexican spices, 2 cans of plum tomatoes in puree crushed, 1/4 cup fresh basil--simmer to reduce about 30 min, then add about 4 cups cubed chicken and simmer another 30 min. Food network has the recipe. I added a can of kidney beans drained, and about a cup of corn. There were no complaints. The acid in the tomato broke down the chicken pieces into something positively addicting.
Be sure to use tomatoes in thick pur'ee or you'll end up with soup. The simmering is mandatory - it thickens as it reduces. Don't cover it.

Chicken

A taxi through Dominica

If you watch this, I suggest you press the pause button randomly. The best bits go by too fast to see.

Sunset, last day of June

This is from the starboard side of the Carnival Victory, Balcony Suite.

Untitled

Here's a caterpillar we found in the rainforest.

Really happy with this photo. Thank God for the AUTO setting.

Back from our cruise

Lots of video and pics to post later.

San Juan
St. Thomas
Domenica
Barbados
St. Lucia
Antigua
St. Kitts

All in 7 days! Exhausting, to say the least.

SKY

Sky Saxon of '60s rock band the Seeds dies
By JIM VERTUNO – 18 hours ago

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Sky Saxon, lead singer and founder of the 1960s band the "Seeds," who had a Top 40 hit in 1967 with "Pushin' Too Hard," has died after a brief illness.

Publicist Jen Marchand said Saxon died Thursday but did not have other details. He was in his 60s.

The Seeds sprang up in California, and their garage-band sound with Saxon's distinctive vocals became a favorite of the flower power generation. Another hit single of 1967 was "Can't Seem to Make You Mine" and their song "Mr. Farmer" was included in the soundtrack for the movie "Almost Famous."

The Mick Jagger-influenced vocals by Saxon (born Richard Marsh) dominated the sound and in turn influenced later punk rockers.

"All the bikers around San Diego thought the Seeds were apocalypse, then," famed rock critic Lester Bangs wrote in "The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll." "I recall one hog-ridin' couple ... who didn't take the Seeds' first album off their turntable for three solid months."

Saxon had recently moved to Austin, where he played with his new band, Shapes Have Fangs.

He had been planning to perform this summer with the California '66 Revue, a tour featuring a lineup of California bands from the 1960s.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The Legacy Grows

So, i'm really unhappy with the picture quality from my camera/phone as opposed to the images I get from my actual Digital Camera. Problem is it's really handy and cheap. Plus I can utilize it for video and not care too much if I encounter an accident. So we could be looking at a scenario where I use the Phone for video and the Digicam for the still shots. It's getting really complicated to do this. Plus having more than one tool means that i've moved on to actually needing "equipment".

Grilled Chicken/Garden update

I usually like to marinate before I cook it, but it's presently hard as a rock.
Oh well, there's always a dry rub, and the liquor cabinet will at least allow me to marinate MYSELF.
My rosemary plants contracted something called white mildew powder. So, I had to pull them out, rinse off all the dirt, and re pot them in new soil. They need more air circulation, apparently. Cant use the same container either, unless it's cleaned with warm soapy water and a touch of bleach. I used a different pot instead and chucked the contaminated one out back. Did'nt have any bleach. Hopefully the fresh air and new dirt will work out.

The Overhead Video Cam!

Yes, I know i'm using a bread knife. That's what I had handy.
This is mainly a test run for the video, to see if it actually works.
Future videos will focus on technique and proper tools for all you purists. But then again, you should'nt be listening to me anyway.

No Recipes

I try to refrain from posting actual recipes. I instead try to give rough guidelines. Recipes can be too restrictive, unless of course you're baking. I also prefer not to convey the illusion that I know what i'm doing.

Hamburgers

There was ground beef in the freezer, so we're thawing it out. Real complicated stuff. I might sautee some onions and peppers since they're lying around. Pepperidge Farm makes these things called deli flats that have only 100 calories and something like 5 grams of fiber. If you've sworn off white bread like me, check them out. They make for an effective alternative delivery system (aka bun).

Found this cool idea online where you line a cookie sheet with parchment paper, throw on the ground beef, cover it with plastic wrap, and then roll it out with a rolling pin so it's nice and thin. Remove plastic wrap. Then pull up the parchment paper to fold beef in half, pressing down. Now you can cut perfectly square burgers that are not too thick. Groovalicious.

No time these days....

Bought a rotisserie chicken from the Stop,Shop and Roll. Boring but effective. I could have sworn I saw a recipe on TV for a sauce to go over the chicken that had cilantro, honey, and jalepeno pepper. Sounds good right? Well, I couldn't find it so I had to make one up. All I really managed to do though was to get the food processor dirty. Will try to upload photos tonight.

Steak n' Salad

Pretty boring fare. Although these filets were cut from a beef tenderloin I had intended to photograph but decided the task was too messy to bother.
I typically don't season the beef until it comes off the grill.
It's my understanding that salt particularly will draw out the moisture from the beef, so I usually season the finished product at the table.

Tonight's Fare

Will be a boneless chicken breast that is currently marinating in a dijon mustard and rice wine vinegar marinade. Go with about a 3 tablespoon to 1 mustard to vinegar ratio. This should coat about three servings. After marinating for about 8 hours or longer, coat with panko bread crumbs mixed with a bit of freshly chopped sage and black pepper. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Our side dish will be a sauteed asparagus creation that will kind of evolve on the fly, as a type of improvisation. If the stalks are thick, i'll be removing the skin with a vegetable peeler. After snapping off the woody ends, dot a hot pan with olive oil and toss in the victims with the obligatory salt and pepper. Once it gets going, about 3-4 minutes, i'll probably toss in some freshly grated ginger, garlic, and perhaps a little soy sauce depending on how much liquid is still in the pan. Key thing is to not burn the ginger or the garlic, but to keep tossing or mixing so that everything gets infused. After it's deemed ready, i'll pull the pan off the heat and top with a fresh herb(s) to be determined. The heat from the pan will wilt the herbs nicely.
Paul Gonsalves would have been proud.

Parmesan Crusted Pork Chop With Cold Cauliflower Salad.

Another culinary feast completed.

Assembly Line

Right to left-First the cheese, then the egg, then the bread crumbs and into a hot pan with about a tablespoon of canola oil.

Pork Chops

Turned over in a medium high heat pan after about 4 minutes. Dip in the cheese, then the beaten egg, and finally bread crumbs, preferrably Panko. I had to make do with regular bread crumbs this time 'round. After frying on both sides, finish in a 400 degree oven for about 6-8 minutes, or till done. If you use boneless chops, you could probably skip the oven step, depending on how thick they are.

Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing, Baby.

Authentic Parmegiano Reggiano is worth every penny. The flavour simply cannot be duplicated by any type of domestic Wisconsin knock off. Forget about the shit in the green can. In a word, inferior.

Cold Cauliflower Salad

Steam the Cauliflower whole, then cut it away from the core. I have one of those little expandable collander thingys that works well here. Add the italian dressing, salt, pepper,fresh dill and parsley. Toss lightly to coat. Try to keep the florets from crumbling. Be sure not to steam too long. Just a few minutes should do it. You can always keep the pan covered off the heat for a while if need be.

Green Herbs

These got chopped into a cold Cauliflower salad with italian dressing. Can you believe how green these are?

mmmmmmm...dead cow

These are some of the tools you'll need

Expensive crane shot