Category: Music

American Idiots Assemble!

I didn’t watch Green Day’s performance on New Year’s Eve, but kudos to Billie Joe and the band for knocking the MAGA crowd.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/green-day-maga-agenda-lyric-american-idiot-1234938852/

I’ve given up trying to understand people who want to see Trump back in the White House. They can’t see that it’s a case of, “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.” They’re idiots, and I say that admitting Trump probably would have been re-elected in 2020 if not for his incompetence in managing the pandemic. Incredibly, based on recent polls he stands a very good chance of being elected again.

My purity test for Trump supporters:

    1. What is your level of education?
    2. Did you watch The Apprentice?

The mess we’re in goes back to Reagan, who was “Goldwater Lite,” saying government is the problem. What’s astounding to me is that, in the 60’s, both Reagan on the Right and the Hippies on the Left had the same message at the same time. They were both against government intrusion in the lives of Americans, but with very different ideas of what that meant.

The Ram Ones

On the Movies! channel I happened to catch a bit of the Ramones in 1979’s Rock ‘n’ Roll High School with — wowee! — P.J. Soles, who’s five years older than I am.

Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Tommy, their original drummer turned producer, are gone. Only Marky carries on the proud name of Ramone, inspired by Paul “Ramon” McCartney in the Silver Beatles.

Note: I didn’t bother seeing if this is available on YouTube, because it’s a video experiment in converting MTS to MP4. Making it browser-compatible turned out to be rather tricky. Let me know if you see or hear a problem.

Gin & Orange for Christmas

At 9 PM tonight this is where I’ll be.

https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/135080

Until then, on this Christmas evening I will be watching Top Secret!, the totally whacked-out follow-up to the totally whacked-out Airplane! This is the movie that made Val Kilmer whatever it was that Val Kilmer became. It asks and answers the question, “What if the Nazis had held onto power in East Germany at the end of WWII, and where the French resistance continued to resist?”

https://youtu.be/FHUgwQjO9Mo

Judy’s Living Bra

When “Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)” was released on November 25, 1967, everybody knew it was a play on the Beatles’ “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds”. Rather than being a novelty record, it’s a Psychedelic Blue-Eyed Soul masterpiece that took on a life of its own. The single stayed on the Billboard Hit chart for 16 weeks, compared to 11 weeks for “Hello, Goodbye”, knocking the Beatles out of the #1 spot in January.

The song is on John Fred & His Playboy Band’s second album, Agnes English, that was quickly given a new sleeve with the single’s title. I have an LP with the redone sleeve and, whaddaya know, the album is another creative musical gem from 1967.

Released only a few weeks after “Judy” was another perfect Psychedelic Pop record, “Green Tambourine” by the Lemon Pipers. These two singles are permanently linked in my mind, and when I hear one of them I always think of the other.

The “Living Bra” reference in “Judy in Disguise” came from Playtex, the company came up with the winning design for the spacesuits used in NASA’s Apollo missions.