Dear Edwinn Starr and Otis Redding,

I think the world of you. You're both great singers. I appreciate all you have done for music over the years. How I would love to be able to sing "I've Been Loving You Too Long" and "War" with the intensity that you command.

However, I just don't think it's going to work out.


It's not you, it's me.

PS....I still love you, baby. I'll see you both on Friday.

Y'all havin' a good time tonight?

Little Richard asked that question on an average of every 117 seconds during the course of his "show" the other night. I have to say I wasn't expecting much,but he gave even less than that. Josh said they paid him like $50,000 to play.

Whatwas reinforced to me is that he's a 75-year-old eccentric whose primary concerns seem to be:

1) His glitter boots, from which KISS stole their look.
2) His songs, which were all stolen by other people. Apparently the fact that these were used without his permission entitled him not to play them. I'll bet Pat Boone would sing "Tutti Frutti" if he played a big show like that....
3) His sciatica.
4) Whether or not he was "pretty".
5) That his son's bass playing be shown to the world...so that the world may know that he plays lightning-quick riffs that bear more than a passing resemblance to the "Seinfeld" theme.
6) If people were video-taping him, because they so often end up on "You-Tube" without his permission. Apparently he lost thousands of dollars over the years from unauthorized videos, which is a sad thing. And of course that must be why he has to make up for it by earning $50,000.00 a pop, sitting in front of a piano and bitching about it in front of thousands of college kids, gleaming floodlights upon his besequined, oddly corpselike countenance.
7) The shiny grand piano in the middle of the stage piano wasn't to his liking, so he asked for another one and ended up on a wee electric piano. Hmm.

Now don't get me wrong, I love to hear me some Little Richard. I'm just going to make sure I never have to see him "in concert" again.

Poor guy--I sure hope the hoardes of $50,000.00 performance engagements make up for some of the pain he suffered while Pat Boone sang "Tutti Frutti."

Musicologizin'

Musicologizin': (v., adj.) A social situation that often occurs when people who love and/or make music develop a tendency toward apologizin', theorizin', guilty-pleasurin', disguisin', and often despisin'. Discussion of this topic frequently breeds hatred or indifference in non-musical individuals (who of course, hate...or are indifferent).

Note: The term "musically challenged" does not apply here. Anyone who likes music enough to read about it isn't musically challenged, no matter how crappy a pan flute player they may be.

Welcome to my music blog, where I shall pontificate.

Warning: I frequently pontificate needlessly, peevishly, or gushingly to the point where I use way more adjectives and adverbs than is healthy. I may talk about Rosemary Clooney, Mitch Miller, the Dixie Chicks, the Who, Wesley Willis, Dead Moon, Toots and the Maytals, or Bad Religion. I'll talk trash about Ike Turner's doity girfriend from Jersey, and about how ridiculously overrated John Brickman or John Mayer is (among scads of others).

I'll talk about stealing Dwight Yoakam's phone number or making dirty sex toys with the Pietasters, out of a carving knife and a common household potato. I'll kvetch about how annoying it is to write for music magazines and berate myself for not doing enough of it. I'll whine, scoff, or bitch about promoters and the industry, or my constant ebb and flow of efforts to make music a permanent (and money-making) part of my life.


Lucky you.