Disqus - Latest Comments for JonCummings

Re: A Note from Producer Tom Werman | Popdose

JonCummings — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:47:08 -0000

I just tried wiping my ass with our website, and it didn't work. Drew, could you please come over and clean off my computer screen?

Re: Political Culture: We Said We Wanted a Revolution… | Popdose

JonCummings — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:58:51 -0000

Yeah, well, I'll see what I can do, but if you're coming to me looking for Obama-bashing you'll have to wait until he actually does something wrong...

Though, while we're on the subject, I think that nominating Hillary for State is just asinine. The last week of leaks, rumors, petulance and navel-gazing has reminded me exactly why I opposed Hill for the presidency in the first place. You know she is perfectly qualified to do the job, but she brings with her so much baggage & nonsense that it's just not worth the effort.

I have no issue with the other Clintonistas & establishment Dems Obama is bringing in -- Malcolm Gladwell made very good arguments to Rachel Maddow last night about why their experience is vital in these times -- but I think Obama would be far better served by NOT linking himself directly with the Clintons.

Re: Political Culture: We Said We Wanted a Revolution… | Popdose

JonCummings — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:47:22 -0000

The one, single thing I'll give him a modicum of credit for is the AIDS initiative--but even in that previous post (when was that?) when we discussed this, we did talk about the stupidity of the abstinence-only provisions and the refusal to fully fund condom education & distribution. I won't argue with the assertion that throwing a huge amount of money at the AIDS effort was the right thing to do--and what a liberal argument it is that you're making, Steve!--but how many more people might the initiative have actually helped had it been done properly?

As for Afghanistan, (again) as we've discussed before, I agree with Jeff--removing an extremist, terror-supporting government doesn't count as an achievement if you screw up the aftermath and let them get away to torment their people again. Sure, it's going to be difficult as hell to disable the Taliban "movement" now, because Obama basically will have to start from scratch! If Bush hadn't become entranced by that shiny new invasion over in Iraq, and had kept this focus on the Afghanistan offensive in 2002-03 ... ah, who am I kidding, he would have screwed it up anyway.

I don't get the Powell/Rice reference, either. The appointments were "achievements" just because they were black? If Bush appointed Powell only to severely damage his reputation by forcing him to lie to the U.N. and ditch the Powell Doctrine in order to support the Iraq farce, what kind of achievement is that? And Condi Rice has been HORRIBLE. Bush could have appointed Rob and Fab from Milli Vanilli and gotten the same results, if the color of their skin was the standard for "achievement."

And the net result of Bush's tax cuts, along with the rest of his economic policies, is the glorious nightmare we find ourselves in today. Woo-hoo! Tax cuts are only an "achievement" when they make sense, which even the 2001 tax cuts for the middle class were not (even as slim as they were, compared to the massive giveaway to rich people).

For years, conservatives used to say to us "Bush Derangement Syndrome" types, "He can't be both stupid AND evil. So which is it?" After watching this administration for eight loooooong years--and as we've been reminded as he races for the gutter with deregulation during his last two months--I have to disagree with that premise. You certainly CAN be both evil and stupid.

I'll take the admonishment about overstating (though I'm not sure I'll do anything about it, at least not til Bush is back on the ranch), and I'll certainly take the compliment on the passion. Thanks for that!

Re: Political Culture: We Said We Wanted a Revolution… | Popdose

JonCummings — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:18:38 -0000

Well, I was gonna mention carbon offsets for the trip, but that's just too far down the liberal-BS pipeline...

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s — 2008 Recap | Popdose

JonCummings — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:29:11 -0000

"You Win Again" is a glorious, glorious thing. I was absolutely obsessed with it when it came out, and shattered when it didn't match its worldwide success here.

Re: Basement Songs: Eddie Vedder, “Hard Sun” | Popdose

JonCummings — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:20:14 -0000

Publishing world, listen up--it's time to give Scott Malchus a contract for a Basement Songs compilation.

If friggin' Mitch Albom makes millions for the sentimental shite he writes, you should make a mint for these brilliant columns.

You're a good man. Or at least you do a good job posing as one--I'd still like to hear what Julie has to say about all this.

Re: Pop Politico: “The Party Bush Destroyed” | Popdose

JonCummings — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 07:04:40 -0000

Let's do a test of GOP voters, circa 2004. Question 1: Did Saddam Hussein have something to do with 9/11? Question 2: Did we find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Question 3: Did you, Sean Hannity and George Bush pull your answers to Questions 1 and 2 out of your ass?

Re: Pop Politico: “The Party Bush Destroyed” | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:50:36 -0000

Bless you. Pressure's on for tomorrow, now, I guess.

Re: Mope Like Me: Helen Stellar, “io (This Time Around)” | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:10:40 -0000

Your instinct not to see Elizabethtown was the correct one. My wife and I rushed to it on opening night, looking for another Almost Famous experience, and ... Elizabethtown just really, really sucks. Kirsten Dunst deserved to never work again after that film.

Nice song, though...at least the piano part...and its use was about the one decent thing about the whole movie.

Re: Listening Booth: Guns N’ Roses, “Chinese Democracy” | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:55:15 -0000

This is one of the most riotous album reviews I've ever read. You've been more creative in slamming this record than it sounds like Axl was in 14 years of making it.

Re: Pop Politico: “The Party Bush Destroyed” | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:40:28 -0000

The website you linked to doesn't seem to DO anything -- much like the modern Republican Party. I personally know a half-dozen solid Republicans who voted for Obama...of course, they all live in blue states anyway, so they affected nothing but the margin of victory...

A key GOP problem now is demographics. Young people, women, the college-educated, Hispanics--all have turned away from the Republicans, leaving the party's core constituency rural, undereducated and lily-white.

Ted, you're absolutely right that the Republicans now will return with relish to their pre-1994 status as indiscriminate (yet profoundly discriminatory) bomb-throwers--and you're also (probably, hopefully) right that the strategy won't work. Until the GOP grows a brain and stops playing exclusively on fear, bigotry, selfishness and anti-intellectualism, they're going to continue their downward spiral toward oblivion.

Re: Sugar Water: Print, Profits, and “The Paper”

JonCummings — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:24:42 -0000

Ah, Robert, to dream the impossible dream...

Even as I find myself snapping up every "commemorative edition" I can find of the newsweeklies, they are simply stacking up with unread copies of newspapers and other magazines as I retreat to the Internet to get more and more of my news of all kinds.

It's ironic that the Nov. 5 papers are becoming such collector's items, because this election season, if anything, accelerated the decline of the newspaper industry. Events moved so rapidly throughout the day that only frequently updated Web newspaper sites seemed sufficient (my site of choice is the Washington Post). Maybe it's because I'm on the West Coast, but by the time I would sit down to read the LA Times over breakfast I always had a nagging suspicion that something had already happened on the campaign trail to render my newspaper moot.

We're experiencing an ugly death spiral here in L.A., anyway, where the L.A. Times is dwindling down to nothing before our eyes. Every few weeks another section disappears--most recently the Thursday 'Weekend" tabloid section simply vanished, after years of slashing pages and content. The Sunday "Comment" section was shrunken last winter, crammed into an 8-page tabloid that it shared with the Book Review section -- and then a couple months ago even THAT disappeared. Now there's no Book Review section whatsoever, and editorials and op-eds appear at the back of the front section, just like every other day of the week.

Thank goodness for the Sunday NY Times--though even those have been stacking up this fall.

I don't know what kind of economic model they'll create to keep newspapers alive on the Net; even the Wall Street Journal seems to have figured out that forcing readers to buy subscriptions in order to view online content doesn't work. But the end is coming for the printed broadsheet, if not also the tabloid; it's just a matter of how long they can hang on.

BTW, a friend of mine lost his regular gig when the NY Sun went under. His was a terrific column, too, and NY is poorer without it.

Re: Bootleg City: Patty Griffin | Popdose

JonCummings — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:27:58 -0000

I'm all a-quiver over this--starting with the collection's title, which (of course) is from one of my favorite songs of all time, "Truth No. 2." Perhaps Jeff remembers the lengths to which I was willing to grovel in order to extract Silver Bell from his archives last year...

Is there actually a second disc of this? And do you have it, Robert? If so, don't make us wait too long. Please?

Re: Lost in the ’70s: Carpenters, “Ticket To Ride” | Popdose

JonCummings — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:58:28 -0000

I'll defend "Top of the World" or "Only Yesterday" or "shoo-be-doo-lang-lang" until I've dropped 75 pounds (sorry), but I've never been able to contain my distaste for this cover. The dips into minor key are jarring, the way she pronounces "don't" like Julie Andrews as Maria von Trapp is beyond irritating, and the whole thing is formless as the dregs from a cafeteria Jello tray.

And now I, too, will go pull up their GH album on iTunes--but I'll skip this one and head straight for "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft."

Re: The Popdose Interview: Kay Hanley

JonCummings — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:48:02 -0000

Shhhhhhh.

Re: Pop Politico: “Poetry and Prose” | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:46:06 -0000

I think it was. Oh, Stee-eeve...come out, come out, wherever you are...you got some 'splainin' to do....

Re: Pop Politico: “Poetry and Prose” | Popdose

JonCummings — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:29:11 -0000

Anonymity has its perks.

Re: The Popdose Interview: Kay Hanley

JonCummings — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:27:17 -0000

Ah, well, maybe someday we'll meet face to face. My wife had no enthusiasm for the post-show crush at the merchandise counter...

Re: The Popdose Interview: Kay Hanley

JonCummings — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 20:25:01 -0000

Well, as usual, Beavis hit the nail on the head when he began spouting jibberish approximating the "Here & Now" lyric. I never knew the actual words until I began researching this interview. They are (if the Internet consensus is to be believed):

"The comfort of a knowledge of a rise above the sky
above I'll never parallel the challenge of an acquisition"

With apologies to Kay and the boys, while those lyrics are nicely profound (if obtuse), the jibberish is more fun...

Re: Pop Politico: “Poetry and Prose” | Popdose

JonCummings — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:50:32 -0000

Nicely done!

This campaign was unusual in so many ways--not the least of which was the gnawing sense that it wasn't only Obama who had to prove himself to the electorate, but the electorate which had to prove itself capable of overcoming wedge issues both longstanding (race) and trumped-up (Muslim rumors, patriotism questions, socialism nonsense) in order to elect the candidate whose policies were backed by a solid majority.

For eight years (at least), Democrats have bemoaned the gap between their advantage in "generic" polls and actual election results--a gap generally (if not always accurately) attributed to the Republican attack machine and its success at playing on voters' fears and biases. This year we once again held tight through the roller-coaster ride of GOP attacks, but this year, somehow, the wheels never left the tracks.

Though the election is won, the work isn't completely finished--particularly in the South, as this New York Times piece makes crystal clear: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/11/us/politics/1...

Re: The Popdose Interview: Kay Hanley

JonCummings — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:08:14 -0000

Keep checking back to the band's site -- the information I got was that the set would be "exclusively" available there and at the band's shows. Maybe it's just not ready yet.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 11/7/70

JonCummings — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:35:07 -0000

I'm just the kind of grammar-obsessed asshole who ALWAYS noticed the problem with "doesn't," even when I was six years old. I've come to understand it a bit better since having children -- my daughter (who's six now) just recently learned the proper declination of "to be." Before that, she was eternally saying that someone or other "beed mean to me today." (Of course, I never corrected her because it was too cute. So much for the grammar-obsessed asshole.)

The gunshots at the end of "Indiana Wants Me" really transform the song. I always thought that guy was kind of a pussy, obsessing over his need for someone "to talk to" as the Law closed in. Now it's clear he was ready to go out Butch Cassidy-style.

One more thing: I believe that bank commercial is actually the alternate ending to "The Graduate," in which Ben never shows up to stop the wedding and swing that cross around.

Re: Political Culture: Obama Sews Up My Bleeding Heart | Popdose

JonCummings — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:24:55 -0000

It must be comforting for you to imagine that Wall Street's tanking is a response to Obama's election--rather than, say, the fact that 240,000 jobs disappeared last month alone, the US automakers are in free fall, etc., etc.

Election's over. You may wrap yourself in your percentages if you like -- but for the moment, I believe we can assume that about 52 percent of the country consists of Obama's "sycophantic worshipers," by your definition. That's the only number that really matters, apart from 74 -- the number of days til Bush can't do any more damage.

Re: Bookshelf: Danny Goldberg, “Bumping Into Geniuses” | Popdose

JonCummings — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:17:27 -0000

I don't know if he discusses this in the book, but Danny was a major force on music-censorship issues during the early '90s--both as an exec and in his role with the Southern California chapter of the ACLU. It was in that context that I got to know Danny a little bit in 1992-93, when I was working with the ACLU's censorship project. He and I used to talk strategy occasionally on issues like "Cop Killer" -- and when Bill Clinton picked Al Gore as his running mate Danny and I tag-teamed a set of responses (beginning with a Billboard article for which we were both interviewed) regarding Tipper Gore's PMRC tenure and how we were "ready to forgive her" if she were willing to put a sock in it while in the administration.

Danny was terrific in that context--he obviously had studied up on the law and the politics involved, and the passion he showed in his dedication to his artists bled over into his enthusiasm for tackling civil-liberties issues. He was also great to work with--and considering that he and I worked together at the height of Nirvana's fame, I've always found it extraordinary that I was able to restrain myself from turning into a sycophant.

Re: Pop Politico: “A Question For You” | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 06:30:07 -0000

I like how you're debating my fantasy scenario. I can't/won't really answer your "pay back Uncle Sam" question. It reminds me of a ludicrous argument that Republicans used against Kerry supporters in '04 when Kerry talked about tax cuts that the rich "didn't ask for and didn't need." I got several comments from GOP friends saying, "If Kerry didn't want his tax cut, why doesn't he just donate that money back to the government?" It was a stupid suggestion then, and it's pointless now.

However, if the nation could go back to January 2001, with an awareness of what Bush's tax policies would do to the country, would those policies get support? I doubt it. As for the rebate of 2001, I know that those $600 checks (as well as the more recent ones, for however much they were for) did some people some short-term good, but if we had been given the choice of that $600 or a stable economy & solvent government over the subsequent seven years, I imagine most of us would have picked the solvency. I know I would have.

Then again, I thought the rebate checks were pointless and idiotic at the time.

Re: Pop Politico: “A Question For You” | Popdose

JonCummings — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 23:59:55 -0000

Higher taxes? If I earn enough to qualify for them, then bring 'em on! It's time for Americans -- particularly those who bought the priciest fiddles while Bush burned down the country -- to start paying off the deficits and debt built up to run the Iraq War and his other fiascos. The bills are coming due on the idiocy of the Bush years.

Re: Pop Politico: “A Question For You” | Popdose

JonCummings — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 21:52:26 -0000

Frankly, I was shocked to discover that Alan Keyes is on the ballot in California. (I guess he wasn't discouraged by his LAST electoral encounter with Obama.) I was disappointed that I couldn't just walk out of the polling place and tell everybody, "I voted for the black guy."

On Jan. 20, I'd like President Obama to stand on the Capitol steps and, in a magisterial tone, declare, "When I snap my fingers, everything George Bush and the Republicans have done for the past eight years will be undone, and we'll start from there. Ready...set...SNAP!"

Beyond that, I would simply like for Obama and the Democrats who'll be swamping the Capitol in January to do such a good job, to serve the people so well and so cleanly and with such success, that the next few elections become an afterthought. Is that too much to ask?

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 31 | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:38:26 -0000

For me, the difficulty in developing any attachment to the Fixx was that "One Thing Leads to Another" is one of the most obnoxious songs in rock history. (Its video was supremely annoying as well.) I liked "Stand or Fall" a lot, was a big fan of "Saved by Zero," but "One Thing" was so ubiquitous in '83-'84 that it poisoned me on the band almost completely.

Re: Popdose Contest: Name the New Led Zeppelin Singer! | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:31:40 -0000

Dolly Parton. Heck, she's already covered "Stairway to Heaven"...

Re: Popdose Contest: Name the New Led Zeppelin Singer! | Popdose

JonCummings — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 21:57:04 -0000

Charo.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Paul McCartney, Dearly De-Charted in the ’80s

JonCummings — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:44:31 -0000

"Once Upon a Long Ago" is a nicely orchestrated record. I bought a 12" single on import back in the day--I believe it is now on the expanded CD of Press to Play. I also have an import 7" of that "We All Stand Together" song that he did for the Brit kid-cartoon Rupert the Bear. That cost me a pretty penny.

Does anybody else have the promo-only, 2-LP B-sides collection "Odd Sox," which was released after McCartney II? That's one I'm proud to have found in some record bin somewhere. Cleveland, I think.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Paul McCartney, Dearly De-Charted in the ’80s

JonCummings — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:33:09 -0000

My sense was that the "Hits" disc of Wingspan was intended mostly to replace "All the Best!" in the catalog, which explains the 1984 endpoint. ("No More Lonely Nights" also was his last single on Columbia before he went back to Capitol, which may have something to do with the end-of-an-era connotations.)

To bring things full circle a bit, the UK version of Wingspan includes the studio version of "Coming Up," which was a #2 hit there, while the US version includes the live cut. BTW, "Waterfalls" was a Top 10 hit in England as well.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Paul McCartney, Dearly De-Charted in the ’80s

JonCummings — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:23:20 -0000

I couldn't agree with you more. (And I don't mean that in a McCainesque, verbiage-flubbing way.) Tug of War absolutely belongs right alongside Band on the Run as Paul's best albums, and "Wanderlust" is the best thing on it. (The rest of my top 5 Paul albums, in order: Flaming Pie, Flowers in the Dirt and Press to Play.)

Re: Jesus of Cool: Paul McCartney, Dearly De-Charted in the ’80s

JonCummings — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:24:45 -0000

The studio version was the A-side, the live version was the B-side. The only video I know of (apart from anything pulled from the Kampuchea concert) was of the studio version. It's here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO6w9T1YzgE

Re: Jesus of Cool: Paul McCartney, Dearly De-Charted in the ’80s

JonCummings — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:12:16 -0000

Thanks for the corrections on the recording of McCartney II. I took my (apparently faulty) info from The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, and probably should have known better...a nice book, but riddled with inaccuracies and skewed analysis (co-author Roy Carr seemed to have a vendetta against Macca).

As for the crediting on the single, you're correct that the label on the single (which I have too) credited WIngs on the live version...but Billboard listed the single on the charts simply as "Paul McCartney," as does Fred Bronson in The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. Joel Whitburn, however, lists it as "Paul McCartney & Wings" in Top Pop Singles. These guys really need to get their acts together! I mean, come on -- how hard is it to keep stories straight on a few tens of thousands of singles?

Re: Song-Off Jr.: Werewolves | Popdose

JonCummings — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 05:38:53 -0000

This would have been a tougher call if I had ever viewed "Hungry Like the Wolf" as a werewolf song. But I never did. Was I wrong all these years?

Re: Political Culture: McCain-Palin Plays the GOP’s Greatest Hits | Popdose

JonCummings — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:11:51 -0000

But that's par for the course. Was there a single reason for a non-evangelical to vote for Bush in '04? No, there wasn't -- he was already the worst president ever -- but the Repubs convinced just barely enough folks that Kerry was unacceptable. (That's assuming Ohio wasn't stolen, which is a big "if.") That's pretty much how Bush "won" in 2000 as well--not through any positive attributes of his own, but on Gore's imagined flaws (and a massive thumb on the scale in Florida).

Re: Political Culture: McCain-Palin Plays the GOP’s Greatest Hits | Popdose

JonCummings — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:07:25 -0000

I see you've been mainlining Jack Cashill's bullshit, at least where it concerns Dreams from My Father. Cashill seems to be the single biggest provider of wingnut content for myth-debunking websites, but if you want to live in your far-right fantasyland you may certainly continue to do so. (Please try not to co-opt the phrase "reality-based universe" for yourself, though; that ship sailed a long time ago, just like the global warming "debate.")

Eric, you sound a bit like you're on autopilot at this point--pretty much like the McCain campaign. At least you're sticking to your ideological guns when it comes to tax policy, though, so props for that.

Thanks for incorporating the phrases "blame whitey" and "nobody's fault but white America"--I KNEW there were some specific attack lines I had left out. (Still waiting for the Michelle Obama video, by the way. When they mail it to NBC News, will it be accompanied by white powder?)

Thanks for remembering "egghead" as well. The anti-intellectual card hasn't played this year, either, has it? Heaven forbid we find somebody with a brain to get us out of this mess the current mouth-breathers have gotten us into...

Re: Political Culture: McCain-Palin Plays the GOP’s Greatest Hits | Popdose

JonCummings — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:28:42 -0000

BTW, my source material on the AP flaws: http://www.americablog.com/2008/10/new-flawed-a...

If Nate Silver says something, you gotta listen...

Re: Political Culture: McCain-Palin Plays the GOP’s Greatest Hits | Popdose

JonCummings — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:23:02 -0000

Dw., you're probably talking about the AP poll that shows the two men one point apart. That poll has been discounted roundly by experts who note serious problems with its sampling model--particularly the 45 percent representation of people who self-identify as "evangelical/born again." That's about 20 points higher than the industry-standard model for likely voters, and AP is frequently criticized for its "outlier" status.

The CNN "poll of polls" still has Obama up by NINE and comfortably over 270 electoral votes, leaving McCain a steep mountain to climb. Not insurmountable, but there are only 12 days left and the last three have been eaten up by Colin Powell and Palin's wardrobe budget (which probably hasn't even registered in the numbers yet). The latter issue is, of course, frivolous, but at this point it's frivolity that's most likely to move numbers among whatever rock-sleeper-unders remain "undecided."

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 30 | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:30:17 -0000

I'm surprised to be the first commenter to commence the swooning and raving over Fairground Attraction vocalist Eddi Reader, who has gone on to a career full of outstanding solo albums. She tempered the brightness of "Perfect" a little bit and has become an exquisite vocalist, and has put her pipes to work on an eclectic assortment of music--including, recently, the poetry of Robert Burns, which has amped up her Scottish popularity to no end.

She apparently is set to perform a batch of standards in Richard Linklater's new film, coming out next year, so hopefully she'll get some of the US attention she's always deserved.

Re: No Concessions: Decider-in-Chief (”W.”)

JonCummings — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:10:30 -0000

I agree, particularly because the film doesn't seem to be quite the full-on, Fahrenheit 9/11 portrait of farcical evil that might have drawn lefties into the theater by the millions. I freely admit that I was hoping W. would offer JFK-like conspiracy theories blended with Nixon-esque nastiness. If even one conservative can walk out saying, "Hey, he doesn't come off too badly," then I'm not that interested.

Besides, there are new clowns in town to obsess over, and we can watch them for free on TV.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 10/17/81

JonCummings — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:49:51 -0000

Based on the previous two comments, as well as Rob's own discussion, it would seem that everyone on Popdose today was 11 years old in 1981. Well, I was 15, bitches, so you'd think I would have known better, but I liked some of these songs way more than I should have.

This chart represents radio in late '81 pretty well -- a lot of artists, some great and some mediocre, doing not-their-best work. It is nice to hear "Step By Step" again, though.

If you haven't heard the cover of "Start Me Up" on the "A Mighty Wind" soundtrack, you really, really should. Michael McKean: "You make a dead man...what?"

Re: The Final Debate: Plumbing (Sorry) the Depths of American Despair | Popdose

JonCummings — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:27:51 -0000

Steve, I'd love to hear your ideas for how "Americans themselves" -- without, or despite, any input from their government -- are going to "turn things around" over the next few years. Your juxtaposition of love-it-or-leave-it nationalism and obvious disgust with "inbred," "butt-clown" politicians may be intended to sound Reaganesque (or even Capra-esque), but in the current circumstances it sounds more like a prescription for cash-in-the-mattress, guns-in-the-basement, Ruby Ridge survivalism.

It has been the workings of our financial sector and its clients (those "Americans themselves") -- with oversight (or not enough of it) from the government -- that have gotten us into this mess. At this moment, the entirety of that financial sector, and the vast majority of Americans who don't have the first clue how things have gotten so bad so fast, are waiting with bated breath to see what their government is going to do next, and whether it's going to work.

Of COURSE McCain, Obama, Congress and the current executive branch are flailing about for ways to fix the mess. They're politicians, not economists, and I don't personally know many economists who can win an election. (Certainly, Paulson, Bernanke & Co. have proven themselves inept at selling a bailout/rescue plan to the public.)

Regardless of all that, solving this crisis is going to require the greatest economic minds we've got -- Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative -- to come up with a coherent and viable plan (or two or three), convince the private sector and the public to embrace that plan, and then implement it. Whether it involves great expenditures of public funding, a massive change in the way we do business, or both, there's going to be a whole lot of necessary governmental action and direction in our economy over the next several years.

Which direction that involvement takes will depend a lot on who wins next month, but will need to be bipartisan and will need to attract a significant public buy-in. Systemic change, of the sort that's currently required, is going to have to be a public/private partnership that incorporates effort and sacrifice by millions of individuals, businesses and governmental organs working with common purpose.

Re: The Final Debate: Plumbing (Sorry) the Depths of American Despair | Popdose

JonCummings — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:06:00 -0000

Haven't you heard? We're all Socialists now, dude.

Re: Presidential Debate Two: Love Conquers All | Popdose

JonCummings — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:41:25 -0000

To me, McCain's argument is failing because it's all tell and no show. "I know how to do it," he keeps saying -- he said it three or four times in a row in his answer about Osama on Tuesday night.

Keith Olbermann (and, more recently, Jon Stewart) are being silly when they deride McCain for refusing to reveal this knowledge unless he's elected. What's really happening is not that McCain has a "secret plan" to get Osama, but that he hasn't learned the basic persuasion technique "show, don't tell."

Obama has convinced Americans that he's smart and ready to lead by actually BEING smart and discussing issues in a way that shows he's ready to lead. McCain, on the other hand, seems to think that if he keeps saying he "knows how to do" things, we'll agree with him.

To me, he sounds like Harvey Korman as the Count de Money ("de Monet, de MONET!") in "History of the World, Part I," talking to the virgin about sex: "You do it. You KNOW you do it. Everybody does it. I just did it, and I'm ready to do it again."

Re: Presidential Debate Two: Love Conquers All | Popdose

JonCummings — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:42:52 -0000

Well, even more freaky than "that one" to me was Wednesday's reference to "my fellow prisoners" when his stump speech said "my fellow citizens." Freudian slip, maybe. Vietnam flashback from a fried (if not demented) 72-year-old? Maybe...

Re: Presidential Debate Two: Love Conquers All | Popdose

JonCummings — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:41:48 -0000

So, Steve, what's your prediction? Lay it on the table, Bradley effect and all.

My current prediction is Obama 53, McCain 43, with Barr and Nader splitting the rest. (That's down from the 12-point spread I envisioned in July.)

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 28 | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:40:46 -0000

I'm gonna do a Robert Hazard piece soon. I'll leave "Escalator of Life" to you--I know it's his only charting hit--but I'm a HUGE fan of his song "Change Reaction."

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 28 | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 21:36:43 -0000

No, "Invisible Touch" is several steps too far down the road to mediocrity. There's plenty of Phil I'll defend, but not that one.

But there's no accounting for taste...I still love "Walking on Sunshine."

Re: Presidential Debate Two: Love Conquers All | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:21:29 -0000

I think Obama did it in a spate of "me-too"ism -- just to eliminate a McCain talking point, same as with offshore drilling and "clean coal" (as if). It's easy to talk up nuclear energy as part of a let's-do-everything strategy, knowing full well that until somebody figures out how to cost-effectively process the waste or somebody else agrees to store it in their basement, new plants will have a hard time getting built.

Re: Presidential Debate Two: Love Conquers All | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:27:38 -0000

I think it's pretty clear that "that one" was not intentionally racist, but the fact that so many Americans would easily find it to be "despicable," as you say, points to how out of touch McCain is with the simple semantics of modern-day communication. If McCain can't be any more careful than that, or any more in tune with what's considered acceptable, then one has to wonder about his ability to deal with a real-world problem.

Look, I'd like to jump all over McCain's ass on this subject, too. It's politically handy, that's for sure. BUT, if we expect Americans to be smart enough to cast aside McCain/Palin's BS about a fundraiser at William Ayers' house making Obama a terrorist, then we ALSO have to avoid exploiting this easy opening to disingenuously encourage people to think McCain's a racist because he used a crotchety phrase like "that one."

Re: Presidential Debate Two: Love Conquers All | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:11:20 -0000

Well, I had more fun with what Obama was responding to: McCain's earlier suggestion that voters "cross state lines" to shop for health care. I was screaming back at the TV, "Do you mean the way Chuck Berry took underage white girls across state lines? Or the way women will have to cross state lines to get an abortion if you appoint enough wingnut Justices to overturn Roe v. Wade?"

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 28 | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:05:40 -0000

Really, Dave? "Sunglasses at Night"? Boy, I'd like to hear that song right now. I'm already hearing it in my head. I'm sad the Brewers got knocked out of the playoffs, because they have a guy named Corey Hart -- at a Dodgers-Brewers game in August a friend and I sang loudly every time he came up, "She's deceivin' me/She cuts my security..."

Most of the rest of your list I can get behind, though.

Re: Presidential Debate Two: Love Conquers All | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:51:46 -0000

Well, at least with that $3600 you can drown out the pain with a year's worth of Ho-Ho's and Thunderbird.

I agree with you completely, though -- the Dems haven't been pointing that out like they should.

Re: The VP Debate: Palinpalooza (Wink, Wink) | Popdose

JonCummings — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:24:52 -0000

Hey, she's a sports-twinkie, not a weather-twinkie. There's a crucial difference. (Fewer green screens, I believe.)

Re: The VP Debate: Palinpalooza (Wink, Wink) | Popdose

JonCummings — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:55:09 -0000

Cannot defend that ad...though, far as I can tell, it aired only once before they pulled it in shame...

And hey, at least Social Security (and "private accounts" in a stock market that's down 2000 points lately) is an issue that's relevant to voters, unlike the crap the Republicans are cooking up to change the subject...

Re: The VP Debate: Palinpalooza (Wink, Wink) | Popdose

JonCummings — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 05:07:27 -0000

I think that's too general a statement. Practically EVERY politician trots out the family at some point -- if he or she has one -- because a pretty picture of the wife/husband and kids says, "Look, I've got peeps -- I'm just like you."

If it's done judiciously, it works and it's inoffensive. One of the few things the Clintons did well in merging their personal and political lives was to show off just enough of Chelsea -- the walk to Madison Square Garden at the '92 convention was memorable -- without exposing her too much, and they were vigilant to keep her out of the media. (Georgie Boy wishes he'd been a bit more vigilant with Barbara and Jenna during his first term.)

Obama went too far when he allowed "Extra" to do a family interview over the summer, but he reined it in quickly. Otherwise, his trotting out of the fam has been nothing but a positive for him, especially in an election where he's been trying to beat back the "this guy's not like you" attacks from Hillary and the Republicans.

To that end, expect Michelle and the girls to take a higher profile over the next four weeks as McCain and the Rovians pull out all the despicable Republican stops. Batten down the hatches...

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 10/5/85 | Popdose

JonCummings — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 23:36:17 -0000

I find that what's important to do with Mellencamp is to focus on the stuff that wasn't a huge hit, that didn't enter the "canon." Except for "Lonely Old Night" and "Paper in Fire," Mellencamp's most popular songs also tend to be his least interesting.

I couldn't imagine life without the occasional airing of "Rain on the Scarecrow" or "Check It Out" or his late-80s covers with the fiddle band. Also, "Trouble No More" is a fantastic album.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 10/5/85 | Popdose

JonCummings — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:50:20 -0000

That alternate 1984 version of "Take On Me" sounds distinctly like early OMD, much more than the eventual hit does. The keyboards are plinkier, the droning background synths more pronounced, the vocals more effeminate. (These are all GOOD things in my book, at least when it comes to OMD--not so much on a-ha's imitation.)

The 12" version of "Freedom" is worthwhile just for the piccolo-trumpet arpeggios...

"Dress You Up" carries the added distinction of being Madonna's opening song at Live Aid, at the beginning of which she yelled, "I ain't taking shit off today"--a reference to her recently unearthed nudie pics.

Re: Listening Booth: Nina Simone, “To Be Free” | Popdose

JonCummings — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:09:28 -0000

I've been trying to build a definitive N.S. collection via the LA public library system for three years now. I have downloaded all or parts of eight different compilations from various labels ... and now this. Ah, well, at least it was free...and at least I have lots of album covers in iTunes...

Re: White Label Wednesday: Cliff Richard, “We Don’t Talk Anymore” | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 18:33:20 -0000

If we do one more Popdose column on Cliff before the end of the year, we might all get free membership in his fan club... http://popdose.com/jesus-of-cool-in-praise-of%e...

Re: Pop Politico: “Three Cheers for the Free Market!” | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 15:47:57 -0000

This sort of white victimhood is the one and only reason why Obama might lose this election. You ACTUALLY believe that a group like ACORN has power over huge financial institutions because they can "hold over them the very real threat of political pressure and lawsuits"? You ACTUALLY believe that the lack of "colorblind" mortgage approvals are the problem here? You write as though Fannie and Freddie were some sort of Democratic Party-affiliated financial apparatus, rather than being manipulated happily by both parties for 70 years?

That's all just astounding. Have fun clinging (yes, clinging) to your delusions while the nation melts.

And by the way, your reading of overseas economies is just as delusional. Europe is a dense web of regulations designed to even out the economies of the wealthier and poorer nations. Your trumpeting of the end of "managed economies" in Eastern Europe is misguided--they've just traded a set of totalitarian restraints for an all-for-one-and-one-for-all European model that you would probably see as an unacceptable sacrifice of sovereignty.

And the free markets are expanding in China and elsewhere in Asia because they're flush with our cash. They're also not afraid to invest our cash in infrastructure building and myriad other government-funded projects that you'd probably call "pork."

Re: Bottom Feeders: The Ass End of the ’80s, Part 27 | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 14:37:27 -0000

I'm a big fan of "Infidels" and a HUGE fan of "Oh Mercy," which is just brilliant--and made even more so if you read the chapter in "Chronicles" about Dylan's experiences in New Orleans while recording it. "Jokerman" hits me practically as hard as "Idiot Wind" and "Tangled Up in Blue" do, while "Oh Mercy" is solid all the way through.

Otherwise, I'd pretty much agree with other comments here. "Slow Train Coming" just exemplifies every bad thing that can happen to somebody who's "born again," and Dylan wandered kinda aimlessly through much of the '80s and the first half of the '90s before getting his groove back for good with "Time Out of Mind."

Re: Pop Politico: “Three Cheers for the Free Market!” | Popdose

JonCummings — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 03:06:50 -0000

Wow, doppelganger Jon, your analysis is a pitch-perfect Republican spin on the causes of the current crisis -- right down to the swipe at "politicians and community organizers" cheerleading bad loans. Of course, the reason it's so pitch-perfect-Republican is because it's so full of steaming, fetid shit.

Blaming Wall Street's problems on "bad credit, low income" people (and the "people like Obama" who wanted to help them own houses--a list that would also include Reagan, and George Bush with his "ownership society") is the type of conservative screw-the-poor immorality that might win you an election, but will cost you your soul.

The vast majority of folks who are getting foreclosed on are solidly middle class people who took out cheap-sounding loans to buy houses whose value had been inflated by a real-estate bubble. Here in the suburbs of California and in suburban Ohio and Florida, which are the Ground Zeroes of the foreclosure crisis, there is no housing that one of your "low income" villains could afford even with a subprime loan. Those mortgages went to middle-income people who wanted to buy in their own communities or near their workplaces, but who saw home prices escalating beyond their means.

That doesn't leave them blameless--their irresponsibility deserves a decent share of the blame for all this, while Steve's keeping-up-with-the-jonesers deserve part of it as well for taking advantage of low interest rates to trade up, refinance multiple times, etc. However, to argue at once that there was too MUCH regulation, and that the banks' own irresponsibility should be deflected onto government and "community organizers" for encouraging people to own their own homes, is completely farcical and turns the real source of the government's mismanagement completely on its head.

The government's (under both parties) well-meaning efforts to encourage home ownership should have been balanced by a thoughtful and rigorously implemented regime of, yes, regulations to ensure that lenders, investment banks and the rest of the financial-services industry didn't spiral out of control with their manipulation of mortgages and other securities. Instead, the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act (which Bill Clinton signed into law, to his detriment), the Fed's desperation to keep at least one element of the economy afloat during the early aughts, and the Bush administration's eight-year coffee break on enforcing regulations left the industry with no grounding to keep it from creating the current mess.

I'd like to see your evidence of "Europe moving away from regulation," but I would guess that whatever evidence you had a few weeks or months ago, you can pretty much forget it after the events of the last couple weeks. You can forget it here, too--starting with this bailout, which I would guess is still gonna happen by the weekend.

Re: Political Culture: Are you there, God? It’s me, Jon. Get the hell out of my government! | Popdose

JonCummings — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:17:01 -0000

Besides, MLK would bitch-slap these MOFOs.

Re: The Friday Mixtape: 9/26/08 | Popdose

JonCummings — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:40:32 -0000

I dunno -- my adoration of Chapin fell off a cliff starting with the "A Place in the World" album. Nothing of hers since then has moved me at all -- and I'm someone who saw her at least twice a year over a six-year period. Maybe I'll give BHaG one more try.

BTW, Jeff, that's a nice version of "Sugar Sugar." I accept your apology for last week...

Re: Adventures Through The Mines Of Mellow Gold 5 | Popdose

JonCummings — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 06:43:08 -0000

Embarrassed to say that More Than Just the Two of Us was the soundtrack to one of my many unrequited crushlusts in high school. Recently burned my 45 of it onto a CD and couldn't believe it--I remembered the location and nature of every one of the single's pops and fuzzy patches, as if they were second nature! I must have really LOVED that girl!
Jesus, was I this much of a dork in high school?You bet your ass I was...

Re: Adventures Through The Mines Of Mellow Gold 9 | Popdose

JonCummings — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 03:21:44 -0000

A couple comments: First, I'm taking notes on all you gangstas out there with your '70s pop/pap collections. (Of course, I have all this stuff too--indeed, I'm ridiculously excited that the version of Sometimes here isthe FULL-LENGTH version with the last verse, which has been cut off of all the compilations the song has appeared on over the last 20 years.
I agree that Hit Men is a really good book, one of several that dealt inreally interesting ways with the industry in the70s and 80s. It makes one pine for that industry, as opposed to the one we have now--though it's inarguable that more music gets heard today than did then, ifwe can find it. I mostly miss the radio from back then, because terrestrial radio these days is just so evil and satellite radio, for all its charms, is too narrow-casted for my taste...

Re: Adventures Through The Mines Of Mellow Gold 15 | Popdose

JonCummings — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 06:45:39 -0000

Scraps: I'm pretty sure those falsetto/girl-backup lyrics are With you I'm not shy, not With you I might try. See it? (With you I'm not shy) To show the way I feel/(With you I'm not shy) My secrets to reveal.
Through the years I've thought they were with you on my side, with you I'm not high, and others. When singing along in the car as a 12-year-old (yes!), I probably just sang with you ah ma sha.
Whatever. Stop the catbox!

Re: CHART ATTACK! #48: 10/8/77 | Popdose

JonCummings — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 19:48:01 -0000

Jason, I love ya, but OFF Andy Gibb! I'll tell you two things Andy did that Barry never did. One, he was a sex symbol. And two, he co-hosted one-plus season of "Solid Gold" with Marilyn McCoo. And THREE, he introduced Devo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6lrZBYSAfE

Check out the brief glimpses of the Solid Gold Dancers doing the robot. Best. Show. Ever.

I don't disagree that Andy never would have been anywhere without his brothers, but I, for one, have great respect for just about anyone who can make girls scream like Andy did. (Though, hypocritically, not for Shaun Cassidy. That just wasn't right.)

I was working at my first real job, as a reporter/editor/one-man-show at a tiny afternoon newspaper in Virginia, in March 1988 when the newswires reported that Andy had died. I (very professionally) led the paper's "world news" section with the story, and was shattered for days, if not hours.

1977 was a great year to be a 10-year-old listening to pop music.

Re: CHART ATTACK! #48: 10/8/77 | Popdose

JonCummings — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:07:55 -0000

Well, now you're being rude to Victoria Principal, and we just can't have that....

Re: Jesus of Cool: The Worst #1 Hits of The ’50s

JonCummings — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 18:33:44 -0000

Dude, read the post! It says right there, "this version, by pretty-boy movie idol Hunter, beat a much-better rendition by Sonny James to the top of the charts in 1957." And what's with all the all-caps type, and the apparent obsession with Charlie Gracie (you also seem to have failed to notice that I mentioned him in discussing "Butterfly")?

Re: Adventures Through The Mines Of Mellow Gold 48

JonCummings — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:21:18 -0000

Man, Anka's really getting (and giving!) the shaft this week on Popdose, isn't he? I trashed the beginning of his career on Monday, you trashed the middle years here. What's coming Friday? Maybe we could find some really great videogame creator to conjure a "Give Me a Paul Anka Combover" game! You upload a photo, then see what you'd look like with Anka hair. Combine it with a "Diana/(You're) Having My Baby" karaoke contest--the winner gets a copy of "Rock Swings," second place gets two copies--and the week is complete.

Re: TCM’s 31 Days of Oscars: More Movie Suggestions!

JonCummings — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:42:28 -0000

Not that you asked me, but I thought "There Will Be Blood" was better than "No Country." Both have seriously flawed endings--not because they're downbeat, but because they're disjointed.

This Oscar season reminds me a lot of 2000, when almost all the nominated films were good-not-great (this year, I'd argue that "Atonement" isn't even good) but nothing was crying out to be awarded an Oscar. Certainly not "American Beauty."

Re: TCM’s 31 Days of Oscars: More Movie Suggestions!

JonCummings — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 23:48:17 -0000

My big excitement for this week is reserved for Friday night, when they're showing "Little Big Man" for the first time in ages. I haven't seen it in at least 20 years. It's a mess, but Dustin Hoffman is great. It's back-to-back with "Tootsie," which I could probably watch daily.

"The Mating Season," which is on tonight, is underrated and very funny. Next Tuesday evening, "The Ox-Bow Incident" is one of the most powerful Westerns ever made.

Re: Political Culture: Songs for the Stump

JonCummings — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:46:28 -0000

It was perfect when Don Henley sang the song during the MTV Inaugural Ball in '93. Imagine suddenly hearing Cohen's voice at an emotional moment during a political rally--it'd be like Tyler Durden splicing porn images into a cartoon...

Re: Chartburn: 2/15/08

JonCummings — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:00:27 -0000

I'm shocked that you fellas made it through seven comments about "Until You Come Back To Me" and never mentioned American Idol. I just saw someone singing it on the show last night (on TiVo), and it's the same song that made me fall into a pathetic middle-aged-guy crush on Katharine McPhee. (It pisses me off no end that another guy my age got to marry her.)

I worship Aretha's music as much as anyone else, but my experience of her is tainted slightly by the fact that I interviewed Aretha about 12 years ago, and she wasn't very nice about it. (There's a reason you almost never see an interview with Aretha.) I sat with her for about 15 minutes backstage at a concert, with cameras rolling and everything, and all I remember of the conversation is that she complained at least a dozen times about how cold the room was.

That said, I'd rather listen to her music than almost anybody's. And that time she took over for Pavarotti at the Grammys and suddenly was singing an aria as though THAT had been her career the whole time? Goosebumps.

As for Gordon Lightfoot, "Sundown" is just an awesome song--and, based on Py's story, I'm going to be calling my penis my "Edmund Fitzgerald" from now on.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Wars 1980 â Shooting Star vs. Touch

JonCummings — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:27:15 -0000

Well, of course, John has the vinyl on that one--though, if I remember correctly, that's the record my cat walked across when we were 16 and scratched the bejeezus out of. I must admit that I heard Glass Moon's version of "Solsbury Hill" before Peter Gabriel's and thought it was a catchy tune. Glass Moon also covered the Hollies' "On a Carousel," and I thought that was pretty good--at the time...

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Wars 1980 â Shooting Star vs. Touch

JonCummings — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:01:22 -0000

Maybe I'll do a "Rock Wars Part 2" column in a few weeks. In the meantime, there is a Glass Moon set (I think it combines their first (only?) two albums) available at eMusic, and it features both "Solsbury Hill" and "On a Carousel."

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rock Wars 1980 â Shooting Star vs. Touch

JonCummings — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:22:51 -0000

You sound suspiciously like a Glass Moon/Shooting Star/Saga fan from way back...

Re: the complete idiot’s guide to toto

JonCummings — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:27:41 -0000

A college girlfriend of mine had a roommate who would sit in their dorm room, moving violently back and forth in a rocking chair , singing along to pop hits on cassettes that she would change with a similarly violent motion. But here's the trick: She thought it was more of an intellectual exercise to sing what she imagined would be the HARMONY parts of the songs, so her caterwauling would go wildly from key to key in profoundly excruciating fashion.

She sang along to "Africa" all the time--which is why I now cannot listen to more than three seconds of that song without lunging for the radio dial. Jeff, please don't do a Popdose Guide to Men at Work, or I'll be hearing the faux harmony part from "Down Under" for weeks afterward.

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 2/23/74

JonCummings — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:28:13 -0000

I, too, was a 4th grader in '74, and we were the ones who took ol' Jim to the top of the charts--the same way my son began begging for Weird Al downloads when he was 9. I don't know how many times I requested that "Spiders and Snakes" be played on the local AM pop station. A Jim Stafford single was one of the first I ever bought with my own allowance money. It wasn't "Spiders and Snakes," though--it was "I Got Stoned and I Missed It," a hit from the fall of '75 that makes "Spiders and Snakes" sound like Beethoven's 5th (or at least like "A Fifth of Beethoven").

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 2/23/74

JonCummings — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:42:02 -0000

I happen to have a Kingston Trio comp featuring their version of "Seasons in the Sun," and here's one verse Terry Jacks had to "lighten up" in order to get a #1 hit:

"Adieu, Francoise, my trusted wife
Without you I'd have had a lonely life
You cheated lots of times but then
I forgave you in the end
Though your lover was my friend
Goodbye, Francoise, it's hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that the spring is in the air
With your lovers everwhere
Just be careful, I'll be there"

A little warning for that beeyotch Francoise--I'm guessing she put the pillow over his face right then and there...

By the way, those backing vocals on "Let Me Be There" (and on "If You Love Me (Let Me Know)" are the shit. That last note in "Let Me Be There" is probably the lowest note ever sung on a Top-10 record. In fact, the only lower note I can remember may be the last note sung at the end of Elvis' death rattle, "Way Down."

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 2/23/74

JonCummings — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:26:47 -0000

Yeah, I'm pretty sure "Elvira" doesn't go down that low. (Double entendre not intended, but not rejected either--and I'm virtually certain that Olivia herself didn't go down at all, at least until she rocked the leather at the end of "Grease.")

Re: CHART ATTACK!: 2/23/74

JonCummings — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:26:52 -0000

Huh. Well, there you go--a little-known (or at least little-remembered) fact. I just saw that some poster on YouTube wrote that J.D. Sumner's low note at the end of "Way Down"--an octave below low C--was in the Guinness Book as the lowest sung note on record.

I have to say that, while the mid-70s were definitely the silly season on the pop charts, it was a great time to be an 8-to-10-year-old kid listening to the radio, as I was then. I'll love and defend that crap until I'm too old to remember it.

Re: 2008 Academy Awards: Open Thread

JonCummings — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 07:13:11 -0000

I wasn't surprised by Cotillard at all--I was rooting for her. She was truly incredible in that movie.

Re: 2008 Academy Awards: Open Thread

JonCummings — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 07:15:10 -0000

Best moment of the night: no surprise, it was Glen & Marketa--especially when Jon Stewart invited Marketa back onstage to give her speech. They got the biggest hands of the night--three times.

Re: Jesus of Cool: The Worst Number One Hits of the Sixties

JonCummings — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 18:00:09 -0000

You're three for four with me--I wouldn't include Springsteen. Maybe Coldplay.

Re: The VP Debate: Palinpalooza (Wink, Wink) | Popdose

JonCummings — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:54:05 -0000

My wife's comment every time she sees the Palin family trotted out is, "Why doesn't Todd ever hold that baby? The world could be ending, and nobody would let Todd near that baby!"

It's actually an a propos question, because as an at-home dad myself I couldn't help but notice that babies tend to become most comfortable around the person who's caring for the child most frequently.

Those who claimed it was sexist to question Sarah's decision to run for VP with a special-needs newborn noted that Todd is perfectly capable of caring for Trig. From the looks of things, though, he never wants to hold him. Which begs the question, WHO IS PARENTING THIS BABY?!?!?!

Inquiring minds want to know.

Re: Jesus of Cool: The Worst Number One Hits of the Sixties

JonCummings — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:17:56 -0000

Stop it! Stop it now! How can you dis "Green Tambourine" (those echo effects!) or the frickin' Association (those boss harmonies)! "Judy in Disguise" is one I considered--definitely in the top 15 worst. But I still think "Hello Goodbye" is worse. (Paul is DEFINITELY going to hear from me again in the '70s list, at least once if not twice.) I welcome your disagreement, though.

For me, "Green Berets" survives the cut toward the Bottom 10 not only because it's an interesting artifact of the time, but because of Bill Murray (I'm pretty sure I don't need to elaborate).

Re: Jesus of Cool: The Worst Number One Hits of the Sixties

JonCummings — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:24:19 -0000

If you offered me one disc for a desert island--"DC5 Hits" or "Best of the Hermits"--I'm taking the Hermits every time. I'd still wind up jumping off the cliff eventually, to be sure, but I'd rather climb the mountain to the sounds of "I'm Into Something Good" or "There's a Kind of Hush" or even "Henry VIII" than "Bits and Pieces" or "I Like It Like That" or "Over and Over."

Freddie, you can keep.

Re: Jesus of Cool: The Worst Number One Hits of the Sixties

JonCummings — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:41:34 -0000

"Sugar Sugar" and "Dizzy" are undeniable! They're colossal totems of bubblegummy goodness. I would probably count "Dizzy" among the 10 BEST #1s of the '60s.

Re: Lost MP3 of the Week: Bob Seger, “Night Moves”

JonCummings — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:08:23 -0000

I still remember "Night Moves" very fondly. For a kid hitting adolescence in 1977, it was basically an instructional manual--something to shoot for. It wasn't until "Stranger in Town" that Seger became so overexposed I couldn't stand him for awhile. Between the overplaying and Tom Cruise's underwear, I still can't listen to "Old TIme Rock and Roll."

The segue of "Travelin' Man" into "Beautiful Loser" on Live Bullet is one of rock's great moments.

Re: Jesus of Cool: The Worst Number One Hits of the Sixties

JonCummings — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 18:14:58 -0000

I'll briefly note your objection (internally), but I'm pretty sure "My Love" is going down. "Silly Love Songs" may catch a break, but it may not. I'm not sure I've ever heard the guitar solo on "My Love"--I'm usually in the bathroom by then, wretching. But I suppose if that solo "does it good to" you, then oh, whoa, I'll have to give it some consideration...

Re: Jesus of Cool: The Worst Number One Hits of the Sixties

JonCummings — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:53:07 -0000

Pat had one #1 in the '60s, "Moody River" in '61, and I have to admit that it's not terrible. It's not a rock'n'roll ripoff, it's not a maudlin ballad; it's a countryish story-song in the tradition of "El Paso," and it's got a nice piano hook. Having dealt with Pat already in the '50s, I thought I'd leave him alone this time. Like I said in the post, I didn't want to load up the list with too much pre-British Invasion trash.

Re: Jesus of Cool: The Worst Number One Hits of the Sixties

JonCummings — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:00:22 -0000

I don't know. I think the '70s are going to be tough for exactly the opposite reason. I was a kid in that decade, so there are lots of songs that I would hate if they came around now, but I feel I need to honor the fact that I loved them then.

The '70s were a crazy decade--probably the one with the largest number of different acts hitting #1, because there weren't too many superstars getting 10 or 12 #1s (like Elvis, the Beatles, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Whitney, Mariah, Puff Daddy/P Diddy/whoever the fuck he is, etc., etc.

We'll see how it goes. The list isn't done yet. I'm sure there will be lots of debate.

Re: Listening Booth: Once Soundtrack

JonCummings — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 21:27:52 -0000

If you are a fan of indies and/or love stories without Hollywood endings, then by all means see it. This movie is so good, and so few people I know saw it in the theaters, that I bought 10 copies of the DVD and distributed them over the holidays. I continue to believe that Once was the best movie of 2007.

Re: Jesus of Cool: The Worst Number One Hits of the Sixties

JonCummings — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 05:25:05 -0000

I'm not sure what you'd call "nutbar kitsch/novelty"--though whatever you call it, that's a great thing to call it--but if you're talking about stuff like "The Night Chicago Died" or "Billy Don't Be a Hero," I noted at the end of this post that I have a HUGE weakness for that stuff. It's what I cut my teeth on. I was 8 years old in 1974, and there's a whole lot of stuff I thought (and still think) was awesome that probably falls into the "you had to be there" category. There was a lot of that stuff, and I'll probably take some heat for some of the stuff I don't include, but if it's not there it will be because I actually like it, not because I'm ignoring it in order to bash an icon...like maybe I did a few times on this list...

Re: Basement Songs, Long-Play Edition: Journey, “Escape”

JonCummings — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:51:05 -0000

My experience with Escape also involved a trip to Ohio, to see relatives; I remember distinctly the music on the radio during that trip, from "Open Arms" to "You Make My Dreams" to Air Supply (Ohio pop stations played a LOT of soft-AC stuff, so there was a LOT of Air Supply).

But mostly, Escape was the album my brother cranked while tooling around in his silver Ford Pinto station wagon with the racing stripes and the portholes in the back. I know you want to see what that car looked like, so: go here:
http://www.lovefords.org/78/pintobobcat/New_Fol...

Anyway, I'm pretty sure I was listening to Escape the first time I smoked pot, in somebody else's car on the way home from a football game.

Your story is a very good one. But man, you had to start shaving in 6th grade? That's early. If I were making fun of you at the time, I probably would have called you a hairy-ASS kid...but then you could have pulled out your "at least I have hair" retort, so we'd be even.

Re: listening booth, various artists, “largo”

JonCummings — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:03:53 -0000

This is fascinating. I missed this completely--maybe because I was out of the country in the late 90s--but it's really nice to read about a truly ambitious piece of pop music.

Re: Jesus of Cool: The Worst Number One Hits of the Sixties

JonCummings — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:26:54 -0000

Good point. "Disco Duck" is blatantly obvious. "Convoy" is a bit tougher for me; I grew up in the South, and that whole CB culture was huge--plus I like the girl voices on the chorus.

Re: Political Culture: Patriotism and the Mind-Body Problem

JonCummings — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 02:56:15 -0000

Maybe you don't care. But (and sorry about the brevity, but I had to leave a few hundred other examples out):

Sean Hannity, Oct. 3, 2007: "Why do we wear pins? Because our country is under attack!... Are you proud of your country? Do you believe in America? Do you believe that America has been, continues to be the greatest force for good in this world? I think the answer, if you ask that question of any, you know, liberal today, I think they doubt that America is a force for good in the world, that America has been, continues to be a force for good in the world.”

Jonah Goldberg, Oct. 4, 2007: “Obama's decision to scorn the flag is the single dumbest thing I've ever heard of him doing. Even if he thinks the flag pins are stupid, his response should be that he won't let the right claim the flag, not to cede the flag to those he disagrees with.”

From the conservative blog Atlas Shrugs, Oct. 4, 2007: “Seriously, you want this for President of these great United States. This is how he catches the attention of a media aligned with the terror force? This useful tool won't wear an American flag pin? Talk about pandering to the radical base, he ought to run against Ahmadinejad.”

From the conservative Scared Monkeys blog, Oct. 5, 2007: “Patriotism is not explaining political ideas. The idea that you have just insulted people who do wear American flag pins will get you nowhere. Or is Barack going after the “no American flag wearing” pin demographic?... Barack, why stop there with the American flag. Why not get rid of the American flag at all your campaign stops as well. Since you do not need to show your patriotism, whenever you speak why don’t you make sure the American flag is no where in the photo op.”

Steve Doocy, co-host of Fox and Friends, October 2007: "First he kicked his American flag pin to the curb. Now Barack Obama has a new round of patriotism problems. Wait until you hear what the White House hopeful didn't do during the singing of the national anthem..."

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), Feb. 25, 2008: “The guy wouldn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance, and wouldn’t put an American flag lapel pin on his coat. That’s things voters are watching. The concern is, this guy is applying for the number one cheerleading slot for the United States of America. Where do they stand on America?”

Bill Kristol, Feb. 25, 2008: “Leave aside the claim that “speaking out on issues” constitutes true patriotism. What’s striking is that Obama couldn’t resist a grandiose explanation. Obama’s unnecessary and imprudent statement impugns the sincerity or intelligence of those vulgar sorts who still choose to wear a flag pin. But moral vanity prevailed. He wanted to explain that he was too good — too patriotic! — to wear a flag pin on his chest….”

By the way, you talk about "untrue mantras" like "no WMD found." What happened to them, then? Do you have them?

Re: Chartburn: 2/29/08

JonCummings — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:49:04 -0000

I went straight from that video to this one: an audio-visual mashup of "You're No Good" with Amy Winehouse's "You Know I'm No Good":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmHX7wzx2ps&feat...

It's hot. Amy's rhythm track slides quite neatly under La Ronstadt.

Re: Chartburn: 2/29/08

JonCummings — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:07:53 -0000

Your first paragraph isn't really fair--they were HUGE in Australia by 1981-82, and they had a slow-but-sure build here, from "The One Thing" (big on MTV) and the incredible "Don't Change" through to "What You Need," their first Top 10 hit in '86.

I saw them three times. The first, when they toured behind "Original Sin," you could tell it was only a matter of time before they were superstars. The second was sheer luck: They decided to open their Kick tour at Radford University in Virginia, and they got there the very day that "Need You Tonight" ascended to #1. They were unbelievably psyched; it was one of the most joyous shows I've ever seen. That was also the last time they'd play a place that small for awhile; the next time I saw them was at the Spectrum in Philly on the X tour, and they were one of the biggest bands in the world at that point.

The subsequent decline was sad to watch (and then later ignore). Cut to 2005 and "Rock Star INXS," in which I couldn't help but find myself invested. It mattered to me who replaced Michael Hutchence, and it actually turned out pretty well.

Re: Political Culture: Patriotism and the Mind-Body Problem

JonCummings — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 16:50:48 -0000

Sigh...

To parse your comment, from the lame "Obamessiah" insult forward, is to pluck the petals from the ugly, foul-smelling flower of modern conservatism. The fact that the Republicans' FIRST ploy against a new opponent is toward name-calling and disrespect is a sure sign of a party that knows perfectly well it doesn't have a single idea, much less a good one, about how to run a country.

I would never disrespect John McCain--at least not before he earns it--but I do have one question: You talk about substance, but does McCain have a SINGLE policy position besides maintaining our presence in Iraq and continuing George Bush's fearmongering on terror? Talk about an empty vessel. A huge majority of the American public feels the country is seriously out of whack, and McCain's talking as though the only problems we have are Islamic fundamentalism and...earmarks.

Re: Pop Politico: “Communing with The Forms”

JonCummings — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:44:00 -0000

I can't think of any possible way that Ralph Nader's candidacy can be good for the country. Whether he's a massive egotist or not, he's quite obviously lost his sense of perspective if he thinks that he didn't play a huge part in throwing the election to Bush in2000, and might do the very same thing this year if he has any impact at all.

I'm all for shaking up the system and turning the two-party monopoly into more of a three- or four-party system in which governing coalitions must be created. I'm also all for single-payer health care and public financing of campaigns. But those agenda items are NOT going to be achieved by a left-fringe candidate who gets no more than 3 percent of the vote--particularly if the 3 percent he takes comes from a Democrat and throws another election to the party that is LEAST likely to give a shit about his agenda.

A challenge to the two-party system, should it ever work (and I have serious doubts), must come from the center. It must not be beholden to big money, and it must have serious intellectual heft combined with ridiculous amounts of campaign cash. In a different year, Bloomberg--were he serious about ideas as well as ambition and willingness to throw his money around--might be an ideal vehicle.

This, however, is not that year, and Bloomberg has realized that. Assuming Obama wins the Dem nomination, we'll have two candidates seriously pushing toward the center, trying to gobble up independents. We are blessed to have a Republican candidate who is interested in cleaning up the money problems in politics--wouldn't it be great to see a real, serious debate on that subject that wasn't about pointing fingers but was about discussing how far such reforms should go?

This is an election in which Democrats, if they don't blow it, have a real chance to make such monumental gains in Congress (as well as the White House) that serious progress toward Nader's agenda could be achieved over the next four years. Nader may have decided that the two-party system is un-fixable, but right now his demagoguery on that issue is at odds with the rest of his agenda. His candidacy is, potentially at least, a matter of biting off the Democrats' nose to spite his own face.

Re: Pop Politico: “Communing with The Forms”

JonCummings — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 20:19:12 -0000

I would be the first to agree that Gore screwed up in many ways in 2000--including several ways that Hillary is repeating this year. But Gore's lousy choices only made what should have been an easy election close. There were plenty of otherl factors that, if you took even one of them away, would have led to a Gore presidency: the butterfly ballots in Palm Beach County, the "felons" purge...Bill's roving pecker....and, yes, Ralph Nader taking 54,000 votes in a state Gore "lost" by just over 500.

Re: Pop Politico: “Communing with The Forms”

JonCummings — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:26:41 -0000

So, to be clear, you didn't think much of Gore's 2000 campaign?

Sure Nader had a right to run, but we're just gonna have to disagree on whether it was useful for him to do so. I thought he was pissing into the wind back then, the same way I do now. If his rationale in running this time is basically the same as it was in 2000--to argue that there's no difference between the two parties--then he should at least have the brains to recognize that the last eight years have proved the exact opposite is true.

I have more than enough anger to go around.

Re: Pop Politico: “Communing with The Forms”

JonCummings — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:14:01 -0000

You won't get an argument from me on the fact that the Democrats were complete pussies early in the "war on terror." It astounds me that nobody talks now about the fact that Democrats largely voted for the war, and for the labor-rights-free Homeland Security bill, because they were afraid of being labeled "soft on terror" in the runup to the 2002 midterms--not that they didn't get their asses handed to them anyway.

I'm ashamed of what they did then, but I'm not ashamed of what they've done lately. Democrats have faithfully been trying to force an end to the war for the last year, but have been thwarted by vetoes and Senate filibusters. It's easy to blame them for "not getting the job done," but it's not accurate. I wish there had been more ranting and raving in oversight hearings, and perhaps an impeachment trial or two, but the Dems clearly are hedging their bets and waiting for a landslide in November. THEY'D BETTER BE RIGHT.

The only beef I have with Dems since they took the majority is that they should have filibustered Bush's wiretapping bill in '06. I am proud of the House for (so far at least) saying "enough's enough" and letting that unconstitutional piece-of-shit law expire.

We can go back and forth on this all day (and we pretty much have). Yes, Jeff, Gore fucked up every way to Sunday--except for that annoying fact that he actually was the choice of the majority of people in this country--and his inability to carry either his state or Clinton's was inexcusable. (Though it wasn't altogether surprising, between Southern disgust with Clinton's cock and the fact that Gore actually tacked to the left of Clinton, with his whole "People vs. the Powerful" message.)

However, despite all the idealistic stuff about rights and responsibilities to run for office, out here in the world where elections are actually won and lost you'll never convince me of the utility in launching a third-party candidacy that takes votes from only one side of the electorate, with the potential result that the very issues you're arguing for are likely to languish for four to eight years.

Nader could have worked in all sorts of ways to change or improve the system, from grass-roots third-party advocacy and organizing at the state and local levels to lawsuits targeting big-money influence. Instead, as it turned out, he (and those who voted for him, either out of idealism or other reasons) set back his/their very own causes by peeling off enough of the Democratic vote that Bush was allowed to game the system in Florida.

And now he doesn't even have the Green Party--or, really, anybody at all--behind him, yet he still feels he has to throw himself into the breach. When you're a far-left contrarian and Bill Maher and Michael Moore are on their knees begging you not to run for president, maybe you should catch a clue.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Carlene Carter, Back and “Stronger”

JonCummings — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:19:55 -0000

I'm gonna take a wild guess that Carlene and Howie fell into the heroin trap together. Howie was a big boy--though, apparently, not a particularly strong one. I'm not sure it's fair to characterize Carlene as the vixen responsible for Howie's death or Francis Reidy's--though I don't know the intimate details any better than you guys do. Reidy's story IS a strange one, though.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Carlene Carter, Back and “Stronger”

JonCummings — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:26:49 -0000

Howie Epstein produced "Every Little Thing" and the rest of the Little Love Letters album. I'm not saying that Nick's influence isn't reflected in both the production and the video--it would be natural if that WERE the case, since his style undoubtedly influenced her during their marriage. However, the whole "multiple personalities" thing is a pretty standard convention in music videos.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Carlene Carter, Back and “Stronger”

JonCummings — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:37:22 -0000

I don't know how you decided Dolly Parton needed to be brought into this, but...while I don't know if Parton would consider herself a feminist (and, really, what a woman considers herself should be our only basis for such a label, shouldn't it?), she certainly has achieved a great deal both in music and business, and many of her songs take a feminist stance. (As do Loretta Lynn's, for another example among many.)

There's a Chartburn column coming up soon that will explore some of the many...ahem...contours and crevices of Dolly's stardom. In the meantime, if anybody out there is interested in a detailed discussion of country music's greatest female artists, beginning with Carlene Carter's ancestors the Carter Family, there's a great book called "Finding Her Voice: The Saga of Women in Country Music." It inspired the TV special that featured the Mary Chapin Carpenter clip above.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rousing the Rabble for the Rock Hall of Fame

JonCummings — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 20:56:32 -0000

Whoops! Right you are. Well, then, here's KISS's petition (did you think there wouldn't be one?): http://www.petitiononline.com/TheQuest/petition...

Re: Hooks ‘N’ You: Carly Hennessy, “Ultimate High”

JonCummings — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:18:29 -0000

Thanks for all this detail. I'll probably be voted off the website for admitting this, but I watch Idol religiously--though I keep my finger constantly on the TiVo fast-forward button, because most of the vocals are unlistenable. They've dealt with Carly's album for about 10 seconds total (compared to the five minutes or so that have been devoted to her tattoos and her recent work as a San Diego barmaid).

I'm guessing that Carly's support (and some of Idol's) might dry up if a significant number of viewers knew all this info, and recognized that Carly doesn't precisely fit the "undiscovered talent" credo. (Even though 478 copies sold doesn't exactly qualify her as "discovered," the major-label deal and the millions spent on signing, recording and promoting her certainly distinguish her as more professional than your typical contestant.

Personally, I'm just surprised that Carly isn't a better contestant, considering she's been through the machine once already. She should be singing circles around everyone else to this point, and she's really not.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rousing the Rabble for the Rock Hall of Fame

JonCummings — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:04:36 -0000

I'm not sure Weird Al should be a top priority, but I hear you. If they let him in they should also induct Dr. Demento--which brings up the fact that Alan Freed is the only DJ in the hall. Where's Wolfman Jack, for god's sake? I recognize that broadcasters have their own hall of fame, but there certainly are a few who were important enough to rock's development that they deserve consideration.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rousing the Rabble for the Rock Hall of Fame

JonCummings — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 18:38:33 -0000

"Influential" is, unfortunately, a rather nebulous thread on which to hang a particular act's merit (or lack of merit) for something like a hall of fame, if that's going to be your sole criterion. I recognize that influences are important and that a particularly influential artist can have as much impact as one with longevity and lots of hits, but I think you have to make room for both. Thus Buddy Holly (huge influence, short career) and Mellencamp (some influence, long and illustrious career).

I also think you have to make room for surpassing quality. Leonard Cohen did exert some influence on the generations that followed--if he hadn't, would there be so damn many cover versions of "Hallelujah" out there? He's never had real popular success--probably a good portion of the folks who watch that telecast will be hearing his music for the first time. But more than anything else, Cohen is just goddamn fucking BRILLIANT. He is one of the few songwriters in whose work you can always find a new insight every time you listen.

All he had to do last night was get up onstage, say a quick couple of thank yous, and then recite the lyrics to "Tower of Song," and he created the most indelible moment of the whole event. It was extraordinary.

Where the Dave Clark Five fits into all this, I still don't know. Tom Hanks gave it his best shot, and was very enthusiastic and evocative and all, but he still came off sounding like a Buffalo Bills fan, or like he bet on Alydar all three times. (How's THAT for an obscure reference?) The DC5 were never better than second-best at what they were doing in 1964, and despite the sheer volume of their Ed Sullivan exposure, they're largely forgotten now.

One last comment: I've never seen Madonna so nervous. I hit the fast-forward button when I saw how thick her speech was. She went on forever!

Re: Hall of Fame Week: Pat Benatar and Peter Gabriel

JonCummings — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:24:57 -0000

Scott's mention of the Pat Benatar reference in Fast Times reminds me again of something I was thinking about last night as I zipped through the TiVo'd HoF ceremony. I wish the R&RHoF had established its induction ceremonies as celebrations for fans, not just for record-biz bigwigs. Think of the intense fandom that permeates the annual goings-on in Cooperstown...all the Orioles fans decked out in their #8 jerseys for Cal Ripken last year.

Wouldn't it have been great last night to see the contrast between the Mellencamp fans and the Madonna fans? I imagine 35-year-old women reliving their "wannabe" days with the lace gloves and bustiers and big hair, gay men celebrating their ultimate music icon...and rednecks in cowboy boots with packs of cigs rolled up in their white t-shirt sleeves.

I know, that wouldn't actually happen. It's a nice image, though.

Re: Jesus of Cool: Rousing the Rabble for the Rock Hall of Fame

JonCummings — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:28:55 -0000

Just in case anyone's still paying attention: iTunes just posted an exclusive Dave Clark Five greatest-hits collection. It's the only DC5 music currently in print, far as I can tell. 28 tracks, $11.99. Of course, about one-quarter of those tracks represent all the DC5 you'll ever need...

Re: Mix Six: “Gals With That Country Sound”

JonCummings — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:35:17 -0000

Great set!

I worship at the altar of the Dixie Chicks. Fortunately, every one of the four times I've seen them perform (three in LA, one outside Boston) the place has been packed to the rafters. It's sad, yet somehow satisfying, that they've become a blue-state band. Maybe the jingoistic morons who chose the Republican Party over them will one day get a clue and come back into the fold. Probably not.

Re: Mix Six: “Gals With That Country Sound”

JonCummings — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:13:19 -0000

Taking the Long Way is a wonderful album, but it certainly required an adjustment for that...oh...one-quarter of the fan base that followed them out of country and into West-Coast rock. Its charms are subtler than their previous albums.

Short of snapping up all three of the other CDs, your next move should be the Home album, because it's the most consistent of all their records. You'll find that "I Hope" is actually something of a sequel to an outstanding track called "More Love," and personally, I could just leave their version of Patty Griffin's "Truth #2" playing on a loop for perpetuity. In context of the political nightmare they went through in '03, and the super-heightened emotional bond that was forged as a result with the remainder of their fan base, that song now represents even more than a "fuck you" to Bush; it's a call to the barricades.

Re: Lost in the ’70s: Electric Light Orchestra

JonCummings — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:02:37 -0000

I loved that album--and ELO in general. Still do. As a swirling, disco-ish song, "Last Train to London" probably would have done a lot better as a single if it hadn't followed "Confusion" -- and if it hadn't come out after the whole anti-disco sea change at radio in the fall of '79, brought on by "My Sharona" and the White Sox "Disco Sucks" riot, among other factors.

I even liked "The Diary of Horace Wimp" off that album. It's funny. Really.

Re: Hall of Fame Week: John “Johnny Cougar” Mellencamp

JonCummings — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:43:40 -0000

For me, and for very personal reasons, the key moment in Mellencamp's career was the period following the release of The Lonesome Jubilee. On the album he veered toward bluegrass and "old-timey" music; on the tour that followed it, and then a couple of side projects, he dove in head-first. With a big assist from Lisa Germano, his shows during that tour featured full-on bluegrass breakdowns; then, his recordings for the Folkways: A Vision Shared anthology (Woody Guthrie's "Do Re Mi") and for A Very Special Christmas ("I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus") were pure bluegrass, and fantastic.

During this period (late 1987-late 1988) I briefly moved back to my hometown in southwestern Virginia from college in Chicago, not looking forward to returning to the backwards South I had fled four years before. But during the few months I lived back home, then after I moved up to Northern Virginia, I heard and loved Mellencamp's bluegrass-oriented tracks. My curiosity thus piqued, I opened myself up to all the Southern mountain culture I had ignored through my childhood--acoustic blues, early Bristol Sessions-era country, Sacred Harp gospel, etc.

Those styles have become a big part of my musical universe, and led me to in-depth study of the music and other folklore of my part of the South. So I have a lot to thank Mr. Mellencamp for--even if, a year later, I was profoundly disappointed that the fiddles, banjos and dobro had disappeared on his hugely depressing Big Daddy album...

Re: Basement Songs: New Radicals, “You Get What You Give”

JonCummings — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 04:02:10 -0000

My son's name is Jacob, too, and there but for the grace...you know. My wife and I tear up at many songs from our Jacob's early childhood--most prominently the Sesame Street song "I Don't Want to Live on the Moon," which we associate with our decision to move to London at the end of the 1990s. At first we sang it to him to assure him we weren't leaving his family and friends in the US forever; later, it came to represent our memories of living in England, which both my wife and I still recall as the greatest experience of our lives.

Men who weep at the first notes of an evocative song, unite! And if anyone dares mock us, we'll kick your ass in.

Re: No Concessions: “Funny Games”

JonCummings — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:51:51 -0000

What I can't figure out is who the folks at WIP thought the audience would be for this film. Arthouse torture porn? It seems from Bob's narrative like Haneke got this completely backward--grown-up arthouse-film-loving Americans, if they're going to see such a horrifying movie at all, need the exotic distance created by subtitles and foreignness, which Haneke here has consciously eliminated.

Great review, Bob. You seem angry at this film. I hope that trashing it in such an intelligent way was cathartic.

Re: Hall of Fame Week: Leonard Cohen

JonCummings — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:12:02 -0000

This is an amazing piece. And Leonard Cohen is a god. Four hours of speechifying at the induction ceremony the other night, and the most riveting four minutes of the whole night was Cohen simply reciting the lyrics to "Tower of Song." They speak for themselves, and will likely continue to do so for centuries.

Re: Chartburn: 3/14/08

JonCummings — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:49:33 -0000

"How 'Bout Us" is not vile. It's high-class early-'80s R&B cheese, right up there with Ray, Goodman & Brown's "Special Lady" in my book. If you still disagree, check out the awesome percussive effect behind the male singer's voice as he starts the line "Or are we gonna drift and drift and drift together" at the 2:35 mark.

I love George Benson, but "Turn Your Love Around" is probably my least favorite of his big hits.

Re: Hall of Fame Week: Leonard Cohen

JonCummings — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 02:49:35 -0000

Famous Blue Raincoat is how I heard Cohen's songs for the first time, back in '88. It's an excellent album, and she does manage to capture all the humor and gravity in his music...though, as beautiful as Warnes' singing is, one can't help but miss "the gift of [Cohen's] golden voice."

Re: The Popdose Interview With Eddie Money

JonCummings — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 15:52:39 -0000

That version of "Two Tickets" is from a live-acoustic EP called "Unplug It In" from 1992. You can get it from Amazon, either as a CD or downloads.

As Butthead would say, if I had "two tickets to paradise," I'd never leave the house.

Re: Pop Politico: “Action/Reaction”

JonCummings — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:21:50 -0000

Rev. Wright's ridiculous comments actually made me ill the other night. What I can't figure out is, what does Wright's hate speech have to do with Jesus, or religion in general? They are as disgusting a so-called religious-based viewpoint as Ms. Kern's, though they come from precisely the opposite direction.

I am an Obama supporter, but I'm definitely more tentative about it than I was a week ago. Obama's problem right now is that he can't "denounce and reject" Wright completely without giving up a big part of his life--it's not like Clinton jettisoning Gerry Ferraro. Of course, cutting all ties to Wright is exactly what he must do--even if it means breaking from his church completely--by saying something like "all the key moments of my life in which Rev. Wright played a role are tainted for me now, because I am so disgusted by his poor judgment and his obvious lack of respect for his fellow Americans."

It's one thing to disassociate oneself from the comments of a fundraising-committee member or a right-wing televangelist to whom you have no actual connection. It's another entirely to cut bait on your own longtime pastor--and no matter what Obama does, he likely will be unable to remove this albatross completely. But Obama needs his own Sister Souljah moment, right now, before this story becomes any more ingrained in the American psyche.

Re: Jesus of Cool: The Worst Number One Songs of the ’70s

JonCummings — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:37:34 -0000

Hey, come on over and I'll sing along to "Afternoon Delight" until you pass out. There is no chance in hell it would ever make this list--certainly not in place of "Babe." The former is a kitschy, lived-in, acoustic guitar-driven...well, delight, while the latter is a dried-up slab of dogshit.

"Ear hemorrhaging" is my middle name. (Thanks mom.)

Re: Jesus of Cool: The Worst Number One Songs of the ’70s

JonCummings — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 17:41:45 -0000

I was on a dinner cruise on the Potomac River one night, and the "entertainment" was an Up-With-People-type singing group doing a showtunes medley. We officially rounded the bend into hell when they segued out of "Do-Re-Mi" by singing, "Do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti...D'OKLAHOMA..." Broadway a la Homer Simpson.

The Bowie/Cher medley is nearly as bad.

Re: Jesus of Cool: The Worst Number One Songs of the ’70s

JonCummings — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:21:59 -0000

"Feelings" is a strong candidate for my next colossal series, "Worst #6 Songs of the Rock Era." That's as high as it got on the chart, unfortunately.

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