Category: Music

Getting the Kinks Out

Andrew Sandoval is well known for his association with the Monkees. He has also worked extensively with Ray Davies on reissues of the Kinks catalog. Andrew’s favorite Kinks album is The Village Green Preservation Society, and I own Andrew’s deluxe vinyl box set from five years ago. It’s still available, but the price tag will make you gulp hard.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GJ397BS/

Here. You can listen to the official online copy for free, with some extra tracks. The opening of “Do You Remember Walter” reminds me of the opening to ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky”. I doubt it’s entirely coincidental.

Muswell Hillbillies is my favorite Kinks album. I like it so much, I have a copy in 24-bit/96 kHz lossless FLAC format. This playlist is likewise an extended edition.

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.