Monday, November 14, 2016

And What A Week It Was





I am a little all over the place this morning.

Leonard Cohen, Leon Russell and someone a little closer to home, the great Billy Miller of Norton Records, all passed on this week. Some would argue, America did, too. You can talk about that last one here in the comments section, if you'd like. I'm sure I'll get a few anonymous trolls throwing virtual tomatoes at me for not keeping this blog strictly about music, but I know people need to vent. I should say more about Cohen and Russell, but enough people are doing that already.

This week TCM is airing "The Sorrow & The Pity, "Night & Fog," and Michael Ritchie's "The Candidate." Draw your own conclusions.

I was also thinking how much I like Sting's new record, but probably should keep that off the blog. That's a bile party waiting to happen. So, nevermind.

I also picked up a collection of vinyl this weekend that included Milton Nascimento's "Milton" record from 1970. I've played this baby three times and it is still getting better. What a trip! You can listen to it all, if you've got nothing else to do.



Have I mentioned lately how much I love my iPod on shuffle? It does occasionally toss a cold flounder at me, like last night, while trying to eat dinner, it played "7:00 News/Silent Night" from Simon & Garfunkel's "Parsely, Sage..." into John Cale's "The Jeweller." I'm surprised I didn't gag on my pasta.

Big Star's "In Space," the reunion record with Jon & Ken from The Posies is way better than I ever remembered it.

And this....





Have a good Monday?





14 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh yes, everything must end with...Bruce. I can't wait for the day he decides to run for some office...he's as qualified as some alderman from Chicago...right?

What is it with you people...?

And I can't wait to hear what "vanilla" Paul McCartney has to say about Trump...I mean, he chimes in on almost everything...to the glee of the left...and himself, of course. He's a "musician...a foreign one too...he counts!!!

If Trump were black, there would be a "crowning".

Yes, this post is "anon"...there's a spot to check it , isn't there?

Anonymous said...

I'm telling you Sal since Bowie died I think he knocked the world off it's axis slightly, hence all of the trouble.

Sal Nunziato said...

Thanks Anon #1. Good to hear from you.

Anonymous said...

love this site, this country, and did my duty. But these are mean people and I didn't do it for them and their fat cat friends and raggedy ass white boys aping Trump's racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-semitic shit. Ain't y'all got friends?

dark days and hard times ahead, in my view; we'll see if we're up to it. I'm no fan of Clinton and the D's (too rich and white and liberal for me, a white guy) or MLK, but: "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."

FWIW, I'd take Bruce...can you imagine the concerts on the Mall or South Lawn?

SOTW remains one of the best things; thank you.

Anonymous said...

you know Brazil has seen some tough times, too, but the music has always been uplifting. Flora Purim albums turned me on to Nascimento. Some of his albums take a while to love - he loves a stocky 4/4 beat more than any other Brazilian - but once you get used to his singing style (lots of falsetto breaks), there's nothing else like it.

buzzbabyjesus said...

The whole thing cured me of being a news and social media junkie.

It's bad enough hearing that there is another Sting record, now I have to wonder what that might sound like.

I think the opener to "In Space", "Dony" is classic Big Star.

cmealha said...

I had never heard the Easybeats tune when it was out and discovered it only when INXS & Jimmy Barnes covered it and I went back to the source. It remains one of the hottest tracks ever. Everything that R&R is about.

And "Your Own Worst Enemy" remains one of my favorite Springsteen tracks.

paulinca said...

Own Worst Enemy and Long Walk Home are the best, non-topical songs on Magic. Thanks for this.

Also, thanks for the nod to Sting. His seven-minute interview on NPR today was refreshing. I want to read someone's review, an honest review, on this new one. Sting can be ingratiating, pretentious, brilliant, frustrating and out-of-this world. I'm hoping he really delivers with this latest outing.
Until then, watching and re-watching "Bob Roberts" for the forty millionth time this weekend.
-Paul

dogbreath said...

Glad it's not just me keeping quiet about liking Sting's new one for fear of being castigated by my peers. Oh well. And a nice touch ending the post with the Springsteen tune which trumps (sorry about that) a lot of the pro & con mediaspeak we endure even on our little island this side of the Atlantic. Cheers!

Zippy said...

Well, who could have seen that coming? The first comment above of course the type that makes the rest of us collectively shake our heads at what's happened to humanity if we bother to scroll through any comment section anywhere in the dark corners of the Net.

This anonymous moron is baiting us with trolling, of the type that benefits no one. It neither educates nor informs, it adds no perspective other than provocation, and it only makes me sadder than I already am in our Grave New World that even Burning Wood, once and hopefully still a home for intelligent discussion of the art form that moves us and inspires us, can be invaded by Trumpkin Trolls, who exist only to attack, and to whom racism is not a deal-breaker, sexism is manly, and open bragging about sexual assault is somehow not a disqualifier.
We must wonder how hiring Manafort and Carter Page, both Putin operatives, somehow neither speaks of Trump's judgment nor his loyalties?
WE dare not speak up that hiring Stephen Bannon, an avowed leader of Alt-Right (White nationalist) media, or inspiring David Duke, avowed Klansman shouldn't make not just celebrities, but every rational human among us step up and object, given access to a microphone.
We shouldn't somehow be ALL qualified, celebrity or not, to announce to the fucking hilltops that the candidate who becomes the first ever to be endorsed by the Klan and the leaders of the American Nazi Party must be stopped?
Yes, Bruce, a powerful writer of longstanding and proven importance in the world's culture, dares to speak up about politics.
Reagan and Obama can both choose to quote him from their podiums, but how dare he opine about our leaders. Instead, surely we need couch-surfing authorities like ANON (re-read that awesome first comment above), who've no doubt lived lives that rival McCartney's life experience and Bruce's keen eye for the social contract between us.
Maybe SOMEDAY when liberals can field such noble public commentators as Scott Baio, Ted Nugent, and the remains of Clint Eastwood, perhaps then we will be seen as fully qualified to speak up about the fitness to serve of a five times bankrupt businessman, world class conman, fake author, and reality show Game-show host.
Perhaps someday Anon will share his qualifications to weigh in. meanwhile, since no artist of any consequence to anyone ever anywhere on earth, has ever, or will ever endorse Trump, I guess we'll have to listen to them try to paint musicians as somehow unqualified to speak truth to Pretend TV bosses giving out fake jobs to D-List celebrities. Right wingers hate celebrities speaking up until they find one Duck Dynasty deluded enough to agree with them, then they crow all day about them. SAD! (as the most socially dangerous man on earth would say)

hpunch said...

The passing of the great Leon Russell deserves more coverage. I didn't find out until Monday morning when a friend made a passing comment. Where are all the tributes to this important player?
Can we tell the media that Leonard Cohen wrote songs other than Hallelujah?
I agree with you. The new Sting is a good record. Not quite the early Police, which the early hype was leading me to believe, but he sounds like he's having a ball with the band. Good songs. But what do I know. I thought The Last Ship had some fine songwriting in there.

M_Sharp said...

Leon Russell was a long time favorite, I loved his piano playing, me may have been the last to play like that.

Very sorry to hear about Billy Miller, Norton released great raw rock 'n roll records. I have almost every issue of the old Kicks magazine, it was always fun to read. Dust & Grooves ran a great article of Billy and Miriam a while ago they looked they were good people to hang out with-
http://www.dustandgrooves.com/miriam-linna-billy-miller-norton-records/

A walk in the woods said...

I'm sad about Leonard's passing, but even more so about Leon Russell. I have a Proustian connection between his songs and my childhood.

Anonymous said...

Here's the thing about celebrities and artists weighing in on stuff that seems to bug those on the Right: 1) Artists tend to be liberal 2) Artists and celebrities tend to be comfortable on some level with being noticed 3) Even the foreign ones have some notion of and favor the American Constitutional right to free speech. So the Right doesn't like that that deck is stacked against them. But if they were honest, they'd admit that if the tables were turned, they'd have no issue with it (and in fact have no trouble with the Right-winger celebrities who do get their say, including the hack that just got the presidency). So it's a disingenuous position. Further, I find it troubling, to say the least, that these great lovers of 'Murkin freedom avow that some Americans -- artists and celebrities -- have somehow lost their Constitutional right to speak freely (as long as it's not hate speech). I've asked this before, perhaps even here in the BW comments section, but at what magical point do these deniers of rights decide a speaker loses their Constitutional right to free speech? Is there a certain number of records sold, a certain number of books read, a certain number of shows watched, a certain number of paintings bought, before the artist/celebrity loses their rights? Has that amount been quantified? Would quantifying it require some thought and analysis, so is a non-starter? And finally, as long as we're talking about disingenuous positions, foreign folks have as much right to discuss American politics as anybody born here (and a lot more than many Americans, who often can't be bothered to give it much thought). This is because, in case your tin hat has blocked your view, what happens to America affects the entire world. We spent a couple hundred years building up to that position, and we've got it. On top of that, I feel absolutely no qualms about weighing in on whether Germany's Hitler, USSR's Stalin, or Venezuela's Chavez were worthy folks -- and I bet Right-wingers don't, either. So stop with the whining already.
C in California