Roger Manning is a New York-based artist who went around the world busking — singing for donations. He comes off sounding a bit like a higher pitched kid brother of Bob Dylan.
And he’s angry and sad, good traits for street level busking. Every one of the 12 songs on this self-named album have the ‘Blues’ in the title. In other words there’s the #14 Blues, the #16 Blues, Strange Little Blues, the Pearly Blues and the Lefty Rhetoric Blues and so on.
Funny lines in many backed by a hard strummed acoustic guitar that sounds pretty much the same on every song.
From ‘Lefty Rhetoric Blues:’ Lefty folksinger rhetoric has such a boring ring, they make me sick, they oversimplify everything ….but, then on the other hand they were right about Vietnam
WIkipedia says Manning was part of the ‘anti-folk movement’ and his legal challenge in 1985 overturned New York’s longstanding ban on music in the subway, and launched the Music Under New York program. He is currently a web designer in NYC, according to Wikipedia.
I have a reggae group on my blog called Black Uhuru who sing an anthem called ‘What is Life.’
What is life? I try to see What is life? It’s unity What is life? I try to feel What is life? It’s really real
The term ‘life and death’ issues has almost become trite as a description because it’s tagged to issues that are not about life and death. But I think most will agree that abortion, end-of-life medical care and capital punishment are pretty solid life-death issues.
I’m not exploring all that here but I am leading up to a story by a guest writer to AL.com that is another example of why there are not black-and-white answers to all the questions about these topics.
The story excerpted and linked below is about a man, burned badly over 65 percent of his body. He wanted to die.
His case is now a case study in bioethics classes at UAB. Many thanks to Gregory Pence for sharing this remarkable and well-written piece, which opens like this:
Famous patient in bioethics, Donald (Dax”) Cowart, recently died. A high school football player from Henderson, Texas, he served as a pilot in Vietnam, after which he joined his father in real estate in Henderson.
On June 23, 1973, the two of them, while inspecting a ranch for sale, suffered severe burns from an undetected gas leak, burning over 65% of Dax’s body and killing his father.
Dax had learned about burns from his pilot’s training. Found by a farmer, Dax asked for a gun to kill himself.
It’s an issue I want to explore further at another time because those of us with dementia may face instances of chronic pain and lowered quality of living.
Pence’s column really leaves you wondering. I’m still not sure what the takeaway is in this column and that’s what makes it so provocative. It’s not a same-size-fits-all lesson here.
That’s all for now. Check out my column tomorrow on AL.com: It’s about MyVinyCountdown.com reaching the half-way point.
And, importantly, let’s remember our veterans who have died.
1:18 p.m. Update:
Another story has come through that is related to this topic: Conservative Christian anti-abortion mother of two children with special medical needs sees the nuance and strongly opposes the new law banning abortions. Story here.
I just got this in a bargain bin and it will be, i think, my last ‘L.’ Short review but it was inexpensive and I was becoming more curious after reading Rick Bragg’s excellent book on JLL.
This album I”m reviewing here was billed as a comeback from his rock and roll success in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It features Lewis doing ‘hard country.’
He had a great soulful voice for country as well as R&B and rockabilly. But for the sake of clarity, this album is a pure old school country music — as Bragg wrote it was not the goopy high production sound popular on the radio. It was Hank Williams country.
That’s my favorite although I do also like alt-country, a newer genre, and even some of that overproduced stuff when it is purveyed by artists like Glen Campbell.
I’m adding a couple of songs to the chorus on a day when hundreds of women speak online at AL.com and in the pages of the Birmingham News, the Huntsville Times, and the Mobile Press-Register.
I’ve been putting this one off. What can be added to all that has been written about John Lennon?
He was possibly one of the world’s most influential persons. “Bigger than Jesus” he said to one reporter, describing the millions of enthusiastic young Beatles’ fans. That comment led to worldwide controversy, and John said he was just making the point about what was true. Not that it was wrong or right.
In Birmingham there were bonfires to throw Beatles records into the conflagration, fuel for the fire.
White albums turned black.
(OK, don’t call and tell me they hadn’t put out the White Album before the bonfires. It’s too good a line to let the facts get in the way. Some albums may have been ‘shattered’. Or so I hear.)
Some of Lennon’s best work, his first solo album and Imagine, the follow-up, asked the big (frustrating and depression inducing they could be) questions: If the Beatles had more influence than Jesus or parents, and teachers — Why?
In the song ‘God’ I think Lennon is saying you can’t count on many things. For him, he feels safe and happy with himself and Yoko
‘God’ comes with a recital of what he doesn’t believe in. Here’s a random mix, but it sure seems to be his intention to say I don’t believe in anything or anybody: I don’t believe in Zimmerman: I don’t believe in Beatles; I don’t believe in I-Ching; I don’t believe in Buddha… And so on (Zimmerman is the birth name of Bob Dylan). He ends this piano-backed ballad declaration of adoration for Yoko witth what he does believe in: “Yoko and me, that’s reality.”
John also wrote “God is a concept by which we measure our pain.” Sounds like he’s not a big believer in the God presented by various churches, Islamic mosques and Jewish synagogues.
But in a video clip, Lennon was asked about death. Standing by two cars in a parking lot, he got into one and then into the other saying death is getting out of one car and into another, he said.
I am giving the basically untitled first solo album a rare 5 stars. Ironically I can’t listen to it a lot. So much emotion is layered into that album. Lennon was using primal scream therapy and shows off his angst-ridden screams several times through-out, especially on “Isolation,” ” Found Out’ and “Mother.’
Sample lyric: ‘Mother, you had me, but I never had you.’
His mother was struck and killed by a car at a crosswalk in 1958; His father was a Merchant Marine who was not home much and finally quit coming home at all. So John was raised by his aunt. John’s edge was nicely counterbalanced by McCartney’s silliness. Both had amazing songwriting abilities — though despite Lennon/McCartney being on most of the credits, in the later years, they filed their songs separately. In other words, John wrote “Day Tripper” for example, and Paul wrote. “Get Back.” But all were credited with Lennon/McCartney.
1:57 pm: Happy Birthday Catherine – Love of my life. Had a few other events here rolled up. Happy Mother’s Day mom. I made her breakfast (eggs an bacon). Then I went to play my weekly game of basketball. It was fun.
2:45 p.m.: Need to remember journal every day. Still battling my hands a bit. I’m going to check out some of that transcription software. I’m not sure how it’s going to work but looking forward to trying. Also several folks here have it. (The software not Lewy.}
ALBUMS: The Rose of England (1985); Nick Lowe and his Cowboy Outfit (1984); Nick the Knife (1982); Pure Pop for Now People (1978);
MVC Rating: Rose 4.0/$$; Cowboy 3.5/$$; Knife 3.5/$$$; Pop 4.5/$$$.
The best Nick Lowe album on this list is the oldest — Pure Pop for Now People, a minor classic of smart rock popcraft ‘So it Goes’ kicks off the album and sets its tone with a little bemoan alongside a rock and roll beat. Then comes (I Love the Sound of) Breaking Glass and we’re off to the races.
A song about ‘Marie Prevost a silent film star who soared but died in poverty of acute alcohol poisoning has this line: ‘ “She was a winner who became the doggies’ dinner.’
So it goes indeed.
The Rose of England is good, even if Nick resurrects for the umpteenth time the song: (I knew the bride) When She Used to Rock and Roll. The song seems (to me anyway) to be about Carlene Carter and Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds who were both playing on her record at the time and both men have recorded versions of that song. Nick and Dave were frequent collaborators. Nick married Carlene.
But see the Edmunds/Carter video in the Carter post to see if you don’t see some old flame sparks — kinda like the song.
So a Lowe album that’s better than three out of four of these is ‘Labor of Lust’ which my brother had, and I never bought because i played his so much. Rockpile’ ‘Seconds of Pleasure’ is a classic album I’ll be reviewing later. The group featured Edmunds and Lowe.
The Wolves known by their Spanish name Los Lobos kick off this album with a rocking ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ and then follow that with music reflecting their Mexican roots all rolled up in a mix of blues, country, folk and good old barrelhouse rock and roll.
I saw them at the Marin (Calif.) fair from about 12 feet from the stage and I can tell you as good as they sound on records, they are better live. David Hildago can play.
The album kicks off with “Don’t Worry Baby,’ a guitar guided soul/dance track, then the diversity and musicianship is on display the rest of the way.
Rolling Stone ranked this in the Top 500 albums of all time at something like 300-ish.
I have The Neighborhood and Kiko on CD, all excellent and all different. I would recommend this album if you are interested in exploring the Lobos. Kiko is my favorite, a little off the beaten path. And Colossal Head is a steam roller of guitar rock.
I don’t think you can go wrong with any Los Lobos record. I respect their musicality and their ability to bridge diverse groups,
ALBUMS: Led Zeppelin IV (Stairway album 1971); Houses of the Holy (1973).
MVC Rating: Stairway 5.0/$$$$; Houses 4.5/$$$$
Robert Plant’s voice is/was a force of nature. No doubt about it.
If you were a parental unit at about the time Led Zeppelin hit maximum frenzy, you would describe that force of nature as the sound of a thousand feral cats f… ,um, fighting.
To a young boy/man feeling spunky and cocky and awkward all at the same time, Plant’s flying screeches were a magic carpet ride at 100 mph going through tunnels of Jimmy Page spun guitar scales and crying runs, halfway tamed by John Bonham’s dinosaur bone skin beating.
From thrash metal to lilting folk it was all featured in this Tolkien fantasy land where if you spark up the right mood you were transported and time flowed until it slowed to a drip.
Some influential critics, outing themselves as not-so-different- from the parental units, bashed Led Zeppelin. They literally made fun of them. What they failed to see was this was the artistic and commercial pinnacle of the electrification of blues absorbed by white British kids. New soul. Clapton Cream Yardbirds (from whom Jimmy Page came) had already turned up Robert Johnson’s amp tenfold but Led Zeppelin kept pushing the excess, no, pushing the word ‘excess’ beyond the bounds of its definition. Albert King and Muddy Waters set up the white boys with high lobs. Paged and brethren smashed it. Ace.
My two LZ albums (I have more on digital) are indeed classics. Critics came around. Like the Beatles, there will likely not be another band that created a sound so distinctly different (despite the plagiarism and blatant lifting of old blues lyrics and riffs.) They took it and made it their own, tho that’s certainly disputed by certain plaintiffs.
On Plant’s voice: The only other one in this era and genre who had a voice that could make thousands of black birds explode from the trees was: Janis Joplin.
The 4th album, Stairway, is the commercial peak and like Free Bird or Hotel California or Bohemian Rhapsody, the song is an epic game changer. Even if no one really knows what they are talking about.
Houses of the Holy was a perfectly executed escape from Stairway overkill. It had playful reggae D’yer Mak’er, a James Brown tribute, the Crunge, and a dance tune, ‘Dancing Days.’
There will not be another Led Zeppelin. (Did somebody mention Greta van Fleet?)
“Many times I’ve wondered how much there is to know.”
