It’s Saturday morning, so I’m listening to Barnes Newberry’s show “My Back Pages” on mvyradio. Barnes played a very favorite song of mine, Buffalo Springfield doing Neil Young’s On The Way Home. Only 2½ minutes long, this one really hits the spot.
http://youtu.be/DeeDb8JaFwg
Netflix is taking a lot of heat for the big increases in plan pricing. My account page says:
The price of your Unlimited Streaming + 2 DVDs out at-a-time (Unlimited) plan will change to $22.98 (including $3.00 for Blu-ray) (plus any applicable tax) a month starting with your next billing period on or after Sep 01, 2011.
To stay at the same $18/month I now pay for streaming video and two discs at home, with the Blu-ray option, I have to drop to one disc with Blu-ray. So that’s what I’m probably going to do. Right now there are only two Blu-ray titles in my disc queue, so I’m even considering dumping the option, because that would be $7/month less than the $23/month the 2-disc plan will cost in September, and that’s $7×12 months=$84, which would cover the $79/year that Amazon Prime costs. It’s a classic Economics problem in determining marginal utility.
Speaking of TCM (Turner Classic Movies), last week they were featuring singing cowboys. Give a listen to this tune by Hank Penny, one of the Texas Swing kings, whose career overlapped with the birth of Rock and Roll.
http://youtu.be/X2crGr44JVU
There’s a bit of everything in this — big bands, boogie woogie, R&B , and rockabilly. The sound of Bill Haley and his Comets is right in there.
My pet peeve about Pop music historians is that Rock and Roll is often called black music, as if it all came from rhythm and blues. And it just ain’t so. The whole point of what became rock and roll is that it’s a mix of everything that came before, and the singing cowboys are a much a part of the legacy as any other ingredient. Elvis was great for multiple reasons, but one of the most important was that he was a sponge of influences. When he was asked what kind of music he liked, he’d say he liked everything, and he meant it.
Here’s another one by Penny. Swing it, boys!
http://youtu.be/rTvh-UJrfNI
Well, this sure must look silly. I’m on my balance pad, doing the nightly workout for my ankle with tendinitis, while Ride the Wild Surf (Shelley Fabares!) happens to be TCM. I’m glad you can’t see this, because the way I’m wobbling to keep my balance on the pad with the surfing scenes on TV in front of me, it’s like I’m trying to play a video game.
This is a message from Denro that I thought would make a good blog post.
I found a DVD while searching for something else and this was on it. I’ll search to see if more songs from it are on youtube.
Let’s travel back to 1968 with the Groove-meister himself, Ed Sullivan! This is a nice use of late 60s video effects – clever, colorful and uncluttered. A perfect slice of ’68 in sound and vision – “SO SIXTIES!” Ah….
http://youtu.be/69RWdwNgTPE
Warning – not the full selection – probably to stop from being pulled from youtu.be…
Oh, okay, this one was on the DVD, too.
Note prominent use of cowbell! Plus, they appear to be playing “live”, although the cowbell has a lot of echo. Where the heck are they playing???
http://youtu.be/niDmkXnWdVA
Hey, I can almost recreate the whole DVD!
The reason why The Union won the Civil War! Pastel Uniforms! Appears to be a “live” vocal with a pre-recorded backing track. Have to give the Sullivan show people credit for keeping the sets colorful and contemporary. We saw Gary Puckett – “live” – a “long” 18 years after this was made – which was a “short” 25 years ago.
http://youtu.be/1e3pl1kmkOA
Okay, I’m getting it all! This one is on there too – with a LIVE full band/orchestra – complete with a leader who is really into it. I’m hoping they leave the ending in – Ed Sullivan REALLY liked Tom Jones. Nuff said?
http://youtu.be/PUmi46hVh9U
D’oh! They clipped it! No Ed!!!
Hey, I’m doing it! Five for Five so far. Here’s another one. How was this not a #1 song? Dennis, what happened? I do think John Travolta borrowed his suit for SNF! Plus, there is only one Mike Love. Fresh from his stay in India [with the Beatles – dograt]!
One more to go from the 1968 portion…can I find it? Yes!
They cut out Ed’s introduction! Ed has some serious sideburns. It’s from a Jan 1969 show, when Crimson and Clover was #1, but they play “Mony Mony” – “just like the record.” Hmm, they also cut out Ed’s short conversation with Tommy, where Ed thinks he’s a local New York boy! Everyone knows he’s from Niles, Michigan. 😉
http://youtu.be/TV-kjJLvbhE
I guess I’ll have to bring the DVD over so you can see the full clips in all their 1968 Ed Sullivan Psychedelic Glory!
Praise and thanks to the local Batteries Plus store. The “replace battery” light and buzzer came on for the battery backup that keeps the phone working with Verizon FiOS for a few hours during a power failure. This was the second battery. I replaced the original battery just a year ago, after four years.
I took both of the allegedly failed batteries to the Batteries Plus store, and the guy there, working by himself on a Sunday, said “Verizon FiOS? I bet they both test fine.” And, indeed, they did. His explanation was that the FiOS UPS seems to have a habit of overcharging batteries then declaring them worn out, prematurely.
He suggested discharging the battery with a light or letting it sit for a week or two. Well, the original battery has been sitting idle for over a year, so I figured I’d put that back in and, if the tech at the store was right, it would work. And it did. So now the question is, how long will it last? Maybe I should let it run down for an hour or two once in a while. The only catch with that idea is, unplugging the power supply will leave the phone working off the battery, but Internet and TV service will be down.
Follow-up: Six days later the original battery is still OK.
