The Countertop Chronicles

Dave Stewart is a mad genius

Not only did he come out with a line of harmonically tuned vibrators - and played Somewhere Over The Rainbow with them on the Howard Stern show (you can listen here) -

but he has totally re-done the Eurythmics songs with full orchestration to replace the synthesizers.

Check it out. It blew me away

Here’s the video for the original Sweat Dreams. WHen this song came out - at the fawn of the MTV age, it was a musical revolution

You can also see him in the video for Tom Petty’s Don’t Come Around Here No More, a song Dave wrote (about the night Stevie Nicks broke up a long relationship with Joe Walsh and he ended up sleeping with her) on an album he produced. He’s on the giant mushroom at the start.

“A Naughty Librarian Vibe”

From a post originally published August 11, 2005

We also mourned, this weekend, the anniversary of the death of two truly fine guitar players. Saturday was the 13th Anniversary of Jerry Garcia’s passing.

Today, we mourn the sixth anniversary of Widespread Panic guitarist Michael Houser who died from pancreatic cancer August 10th, 2002.

For the geeks out there - this was his killer setup - complete with the “If Its Too Loud, Your Too Old” bumper sticker.

Over his last five or so years, he developed a problem with his leg that required him to sit down during performances. That is how most of Widespread Panic’s current crop of fans remember him.

I’ll keep the vision of his solitary figure standing on stage right, head hung down with his flop of hair covering his face - wailing away with a blistering Michael Bloomfield-esque riff behind whatever groove the band settled into.

Rest In Peace good buddy

No, there is no substitute for you

See the rest of the best South Park episode of Season 1 - indeed of all time - here.

Bigoted Anti Gun Massachussets Governor Deval Patrick is Sun Ra side man (sax man) Pat Patrick’s kid?!?!?!??!

I may just have to pass on his being a bigot.

My new hero

This time with Eric Clapton on the Unplugged album (this one is hot!)

I really do need to run into another Rock Star . . . maybe I’ll blog about my Eric Clapton story some time . . . but I warn you, the Chuck Leavell posts will come back this winter after I go hunting down at his farm.

The Allman Brothers Band
1973 - Macon, Georgia

With Chuck Leavell

The boys and I are enjoying a little Mel Brooks tonight!

When I graduated high school, our valedictorian started his speech with “Now, excuse me while I whip this out”

I posted about him playing with the Second Amendments the other night. Most of the press, and attention to him, focused on his role as the touring keyboardist for the Rolling Stones. Of course, he was pretty damn rocking long before that . . . coming on originally for the Brothers and Sister’s album taking the place (on piano) of the departed Duane Allman in the Allman Brothers. Here he is talking about how they came up with Jessica from that album

Of course, one could argue (one will argue) that from an American perspective, Jessica is really why Rock and Roll was invented.

Lyrics?? Who needs lyrics. This is the Allman Brothers were talking about!!!

Of course, there is a second part to this post . . . .and thats to quote this NY Times article on Chuck and how he incorporates hunting as an active part of the management of his land.

For Mr. Leavell, hunting is an integral part of responsible land stewardship. Voracious herds of deer need constant thinning, and hunters, like tree huggers, he points out, are important allies in the battle for land preservation.

Stick that in a hippy Vegan the next time they attack you for hunting.

I see Tam’s point, but raise her one

For Tam

I couldn’t agree more

When The Levee Breaks
Words and Music by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie

If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s goin’ to break, (X2)
When The Levee Breaks I’ll have no place to stay.

Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan, (X2)
Got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home,
Oh, well, oh, well, oh, well.

Don’t it make you feel bad
When you’re tryin’ to find your way home,
You don’t know which way to go?
If you’re goin’ down South
They go no work to do,
If you don’t know about Chicago.

Cryin’ won’t help you, prayin’ won’t do you no good,
Now, cryin’ won’t help you, prayin’ won’t do you no good,
When the levee breaks, mama, you got to move.

All last night sat on the levee and moaned, (X2)
Thinkin’ about me baby and my happy home.
Going, going to Chicago… Going to Chicago… Sorry but I can’t take you…
Going down… going down now… going down….

Abbadon posted about Space Fucking and that of course necessitated a killer concert clip of Deep Purple playing Space Trucking at Hofstra in 1973.

I always loved that band . . . what first got me into them though was Perfect Strangers . . . their comeback song from 1984 - eight years after first breaking up (when I was 5) with what I still think is one of the coolest sounding refrains/unlikely choruses ever.

And if you hear me talking on the wind
Youve got to understand
We must remain
Perfect strangers

From there, I quickly made the connection to Ozzy and Led Zeppelin (who were already faves . . . .) and it just took off.

Can you remember remember my name
As I flow through your life
A thousand oceans I have flown
And cold spirits of ice
All my life
I am the echo of your past

I am returning the echo of a point in time
Distant faces shine
A thousand warriors I have known
And laughing as the spirits appear
All your life
Shadows of another day

And if you hear me talking on the wind
Youve got to understand
We must remain
Perfect strangers

I know I must remain inside this silent well of sorrow

A strand of silver hanging through the sky
Touching more than you see
The voice of ages in your mind
Is aching with the dead of the night
Precious life (your tears are lost in
Falling rain)

And if you hear me talking on the wind
Youve got to understand
We must remain
Perfect strangers

UPDATE

Crap, disabled embedding. Go hear to view/listen. Its worth it.

Heh! Here it is live!

RIP

Her and her son Ben Taylor were just on the Howard Stern show.

Wow.

They spent 45 minutes talking about her marriage to that masshole James Taylor and the subsequent icy divorce.

Apparently neither has spoken to each other since they got divorced - even about important events in their kids life. And from the sound of it - which even Ben seemed to acknowledge - its mostly that masshole James Taylors fault (he won’t take her calls, didn’t speak to her at the daughters wedding - indeed made Carly use a porta potty at the wedding instead of allowing her in the house to pee).

Fuck him. Forget the ex-wife (but really - Mr. Sensitivity should grow up) what a fucking lousy situation to put your kids in.

The shocker (indeed, the whole thing was shocking . . . and incredible to hear) is that no one has ever talked to Carly Simon about this on the air, and for the most part, in private. Even the kids (which made Ben Taylor a bit uncomforable as he plays in both his mom and dad’s bands).

(oh yeah, her dad is the Simon in Simon & Shuster)
Here’s to you Carly. Keep doing what your doing.
Nobody does it better.

By the way, she has a totally different arrangement on Your So Vain. Wish I could find it online, because its even better than the original.