Arguably the most upbeat song about S&M ever written and recorded. From the Velvet Underground’s classic never-released 4th album (which later was released in 1985 as “VU”), “Foggy Notion” has a deceptively mellow vibe … until you hear the lyrics and the sick lead guitar in the background that always threatens to overtake the easy-going groove on top, but never quite does.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOmZimH00oo
The 2nd track from the classic “The Velvet and Underground and Nico” album from 1967, this is a song about buying heroin in NYC when songs about heroin were not chic or cool. This drug song is not about expanding your mind, yadda, yadda, yadda. This is about the cold reality of street drugs and the desperate need for them. The relentless, driving rhythm of this song is infectious, but scary given the subject matter.
Boston. F–king horrible.
I remember, when 9/11 went down, my reaction was, “Well, I’ve had it with humanity.”
But I was wrong. I don’t know what’s going to be revealed to be behind all of this mayhem. One human insect or a poisonous mass of broken sociopaths.
But here’s what I DO know. If it’s one person or a HUNDRED people, that number is not even a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the population on this planet. You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out. (Thanks FAKE Gallery founder and owner Paul Kozlowski for pointing this out to me). This is a giant planet and we’re lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they’re pointed towards darkness.
But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus, they dilute and weaken and eventually wash away the evil doers and, more importantly, the damage they wreak. This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We’d have eaten ourselves alive long ago.
So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, “The good outnumber you, and we always will.”
The original “Carrie” from director Brian DePalma is one of my all-time favorite films and I’m fairly certain the remake, coming out this fall, is probably going to suck big time. But I will say that this CGI-“Carrie” remake does have some impressive credentials: “Boys Don’t Cry” director Kimberly Pierce, Julianne Moore as the religious fanatic mom, and Chloe Grace Moretz as Carrie. And despite myself, the trailer does look really good. Of course, the fact that I’m a sucker for that song “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” doesn’t hurt either.
Dave’s Strange World is reporting live from Waikiki this week. Let’s start things off with my favorite surf punks, the Hawaii Mud Bombers, with “Surfrocket.”
Are we sensing a theme here tonight? Here’s X’s adrenalized cover of the Doors’ “Soul Kitchen” produced by the Doors’ Ray Manzarek. As much as I love the original by Jim Morrison and the gang, the accelerated punk remake by X is a true joy, especially with guitarist Billy Zoom’s slammin’ Chuck Berry licks amped up to Indy 500 speeds. From the 1980 album “Los Angeles.”
With the exception of “Life on Mars?”, my other favorite ballad from Bowie’s 1971 “Hunky Dory” album is “Quicksand.” “Changes” may be the hit, and as great as this classic song is, “Hunky Dory” contains home run after home run. Why “Quicksand” isn’t a staple on classic rock radio is a major and sad oversight.
One of the best songs about fathers and sons ever written, especially because it’s about the odd and sad gulfs that are present in a lot of these relationships. I’m not sure why this is. If I could adequately explain this kind of thing, I’d probably be a billionaire self-help guru. In my opinion, this is way better (and much less cheesy) than “The Living Years.”
You may recognize this song, because Barry Manilow covered in 1979 and had a huge hit with it. However, I much prefer Ian Hunter’s original version. From Hunter’s 1979 album “You’re Never Alone With a Schizophrenic.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCnAqq7qGyo
From 1977’s “Lust for Life” comes Iggy’s “Tonight,” a rare gesture of warmth from the chief Stooge, even if the subject matter is admittedly grim. Later covered by David Bowie in 1984 who also named his album “Tonight” in honor of the song.
Here is one of the coolest collaborations of the 1990s: the B-52s’ Fred Schneider mixing it up with noise-rock pioneer Steve Albini as producer. On the surface, this sounds like a recipe for disaster, but Fred proves he could have a great hardcore punk singer, more than holding his own against the slamming wind tunnel of sound behind him. From the album “Just Fred.”
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