Old School Fridays: Fight Songs For My Candidate

This week's pick is a fight song for our candidate of choice. I support Barrack Obama for President. We have to keep our eyes on the prize and never forget what it took to get where we are now. I'm ashamed to think of how we as a country used to treat someone just because of the color of their skin. But I'm proud to think that as a country we are about to elect the first African-American as President.



This meme was developed by Marvalus View and Ms. Grapevine. The rules are simple:

1. Anyone can participate; any music genre
2. Old School is defined as music created before 1999
3. No offensive words allowed, please use edited radio version
4. Post a video of your favorite Old School song to take us back down memory lane
5. Add your name to the meme list so that others can check you out
6. Have fun & don't forget to leave comments for other participants

If you want to join in on the fun.

Early Thanksgiving

Tonight after work I'll be heading up to Tennessee to visit my Mom. Since I work in retail there is no way I can get off for Thanksgiving week, so we plan to have an early Turkey Day this week. I know this week I've been absent a lot, but I've been busy at work, but for the next week I will be gone since my Mom doesn't have internet connection. Everyone have a good week and when I get back I'll visit everyone again.

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How Much of An Outsider Palin Really Is?

Sarah Palin continually talks about her she doesn't like the Washington Insiders and how much of an outsider she is to politics as usual. Read the article in the New Yorker and decide for yourself.

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Old School Fridays: One Hit Wonders

There's a lot of one hit wonders to chose from. I recently just put this one on my Ipod so I thought I'd use it. "I Want Candy" by Bow Wow Wow. The group was created by Malcolm McLaren when he got the members of Adam Ant's group to quit and create a new one with 15 year old lead singer Annabella Lwin. The group released three albums and had a few almost hits, but this is really the only song they're remembered for.

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Ted Hawkins

discovered him and they recorded an album, but Ted wound up in prison and addicted to heroin for much of the decade and the album never came out. In 1982 Adding music to my Ipod I discovered I hadn't downloaded my Ted Hawkins cds yet. Ted is not a name many are familiar with. He was born in Biloxi Mississippi in 1936. He lived a rough life, ending up in reform school at the age of 19 and than later prison until he was 19. He moved to Venice California where he played his guitar and sang on the streets. In the 1970s Bruce BrombergBromberg found Ted again and they agreed to release the previously recorded album as "Watch Your Step." A commercial disaster it was a critical hit, earing five stars in Rolling Stone. Dropping from sight again until 1985 when Ted and Bromberg released "Happy Hour." Ted was gaining a following in England and Europe that he would never achieve in his native country. After living in Europe for awhile Ted moved back to Venice and began performing on the streets again. In 1994 he released "The Next Hundred Years" on Geffen Records and began touring in support of the album. In 1995 he had a stroke and died.

The Return of the Fonz

Opie, Andy and the Fonz all in one video....wow!

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

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Early Voting

Well Senator Obama may not win the state of Louisiana but it won't be because of me. I'll probably be up in Tennessee visiting my Mom on Nov 4 so I decided to go vote early today. I was surprised by the line. It was just about an hour from the time I got there to when I was inside casting my vote. The offices are still in trailers from Katrina. The wait was orderly and the line moved at a slow but gradual pace. Once inside it was as easy as could be. Within minutes I was casting for my vote for the Obama/Biden ticket.

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24 Hours

Who would have thought Tom Jones would have made a comeback? Watch this song and marvel.

100,000 in St. Louis

Electoral College Votes

Hopefully if I didn't screw it up there will be a widget of the projected votes for the electoral college for both Obama and McCain and it will stay up at the top of this blog until Nov 4. Let's hope it keeps showing Obama in the lead.

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I'm So Proud of My Mom

I was talking to my Mom a little while ago on the phone. We got to talking about politics. She was telling me she planned to vote for Obama. Now you have to understand, while my Mom was never a racist person she was born and raised in the country and a lot of old ideas go with that birthright. When I was growing up neither of my parents ever used the N-word, but I have to admit that there were times when my Mom's upbringing came through. Just in her attitude sometimes with comments like "You know blacks like..." and something that really made no sense. I was never told I couldn't associate with someone because of their skin color or that I should stay away from someone because they were black.

At the beginning of the campaign my Mom was a Hillary person. And I could understand that. My Mom worked all her life to be rewarded with almost nothing for social security because she was a woman and didn't make much as such, so her earnings now reflect that sad truth. So she wanted a woman to win.

After Hillary lost to Obama my Mom wasn't so sure who she wanted to vote for. But she hated the current occupant of the White House and didn't want another four years of Republicans in that building.

She was upset because her brothers won't vote for Obama because he is black. And a lot of her relatives plan to vote Republican. She's watched all the debates and had no good words for McCain. She should be in McCain's camp...she's older and white, but she wants nothing to do with him. She was getting worked up talking about Obama, defending him. She said she couldn't stand the way that McCain was trying to make Obama out as some sort of villain, Obama is an American just like McCain she said.

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New Orleans Waltz

I found this song from Grayson Capps from his album of last year "Wail and Ride." Grayson moved from New Orleans after Katrina to Tennessee, Shannon McNally is in Mississippi now...so many of the city's musicians have left and not come back. I was reading an interview in Offbeat awhile back with Susan Cowsill and she as talking about deciding to move from New Orleans and I was actually feeling sick, another artist leaving, but by the end of the interview she had declared that her and her husband decided they couldn't leave the city.

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Levi Stubbs Dies

The lead singer of the Motown group the Four Tops died today at the age of 72. He had suffered a stroke and was suffering from cancer. Stubbs formed the singing group the Four Aims with friends in 1954. Two years later they changed their name to the Four Tops and signed to Motown Records in 1963.

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Old School Fridays: Duets

Wow, this one was a tough one. So many great duets. My first thought was Allison Krauss and Robert Plant until I remembered the time restriction. I finally decided to go with a duet between Ray Charles and Betty Carter. Betty Carter is a jazz singer who performed with Charlie Parker when she was 16 and later with Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. She was known as one of the greatest jazz singers ever. This duet was recorded in 1961.



This meme was developed by Marvalus View and Ms. Grapevine. The rules are simple: 1. Anyone can participate; any music genre
2. Old School is defined as music created before 1999
3. No offensive words allowed, please use edited radio version
4. Post a video of your favorite Old School song to take us back down memory lane
5. Add your name to the meme list so that others can check you out
6. Have fun & don't forget to leave comments for other participantsIf you want to join in on the fun

Thursday Thirteen: 13 Beatles Songs In Cartoon

I'm a long time Beatles fan so I thought I'd post 13 Beatles songs from the old cartoon. Does anyone know if they're issued the cartoons on DVD?

1) Eight Days A Week: this was the first single I ever bought back when I was a kid.


2) Can't Buy Me Love


3) Twist and Shout


4) I Saw Her Standing There


5) I Should Have Known Better


6) I Feel Fine


7) Drive My Car


8) Got To Get You Into My Life


9) Boys


10) Mr. Moonlight


11) Thank You Girl


12) Penny Lane


13) A Hard Day's Night

John McCain In Rolling Stone

Image by bobster1985 via FlickrFor a very enlightening article about John McCain go to Rolling Stone and read it. It shows how much a real "Maverick" McCain has been, or at least wants everyone to believe he's been.

The article traces McCain's career from Navy pilot to his current run at the Presidency and offers insight into the true nature of the man.

McCain was not above using his father's influence throughout his career as a Navy pilot. His supposed changed man that he became after his time spent as a POW is not really much different than his previous self. The article brings up points about McCain during his imprisonment that have never been addressed. McCain's time as a POW as always seemed off limit, like it was never supposed to be addressed. I've read a few articles lately by former POWs that have some serious reservations about McCain.

Go read the article.

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Ties To Who?

Image via WikipediaMcCain has made a big deal about Obama's ties to William Ayers, once a member of the Weather Underground. Ayers donated $200.00 to Obama's campaign and the two served on some boards together in Chicago. Pretty damning evidence, huh? Obama was like eight years old when Ayers was running with the Weather Underground.

Now one of McCain's top advisers, William Timmons a Washington lobbyist who McCain named to head his Presidental transition team has been shown to have aided Saddam Hussein in lobbying efforts to ease international sanctions against the dictator. Read the entire story here.

Now to me, the two aren't even close, but everytime McCain mentions Ayers he is trying to link Obama to terrorists. But who has the real ties to a terrorist?

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More Spin

Image by hyperbolic pants explosion via FlickrYesterday a friend that works with me came up and asked if I had seen the news lately. He said that even though he doesn't like McCain he is scared of an Obama presidency. That if Obama gets in the White House the country is going to become socialist.

It seems like a lot of the right wing news and McCain are trying to spin things that way. Because Obama is for the middle class and wants to tax the wealthy more than the poorer people he's a socialist.

I know both sides are going to try to spin things their way, but this is just getting downright ugly. McCain is willing to say anything to try and scare people away from Obama. He should be ashamed of himself. Once I actually thought the man had honor but he's been willing to throw that away in his quest for the White House.

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Going Down

Last week when I got gas it was $3.47 a gallon. When I went to work today I saw it was at $3.01. Four hours later when I went to lunch it was at $2.99. I like this trend.

Happy Birthday Dad

My Dad was raised Catholic. His parents arrived in this country from Ireland and settled in New Jersey. For a year or two when I was very young we lived up North, but the rest of the time we lived in the South. We would take trips up to see my Dad's parents now and than, but I don't remember a lot about them. My Dad didn't get along with his parents that great. His Dad was an alcoholic and was not above using force to get his point across. Now I don't remember any of this from my Grand Dad, he was just this big old guy that was as friendly as could be. But I didn't grow up with him. So when my Dad was able to he joined the Navy and shipped out. It was while he was stationed in Memphis that he met my Mom. Shortly after getting married he got out of the Navy for a short time, but than ended but in the service.

My Mother was born and raised in a town with fewer than five hundred people about a hundred miles outside of Memphis. I remember when visiting her parents as a kid that they still had an outhouse. Her parents I remember a lot better, we lived in Memphis for about five years and would visit them regularly. My Mom's Dad was one of the kindest and nicest men that ever lived. Coming from the South my Mom was raised Southern Baptist.

You would have thought such a combination might prove volatile, but I never saw my parents fight over religion. Mainly because I never really saw my Dad care about it one or the other. When I was probably around six or seven I remember he used to keep something hanging from the rear view mirror on the car and he would sometimes cross himself. (Sorry I am lost with the Catholic Religion so I have no idea what it was.) But even that soon faded from his actions. My Mom took over the task of bringing religion into our lives.

It was never shoved onto us, my brother and me and later my sister. My Mom always made sure we found a church whenever we'd move and we'd go every Sunday to Sunday School first and than church services. My Mom would always start off going with us, but once we were established she would only visit on certain occasions. I think my parents thought it important to provide us with religion and a church. At home it was never really talked about, we didn't pray before meals or really even talk about God that much, if at all.

All three of us have turned out differently in our religious beliefs. My sister is still a regular church goer, church is a large part of her life. My brother believes but doesn't attend church. And me, I guess I ended up the heathen, the one that doesn't believe. The last time I was in a church was for a friend's wedding.

So it was kind of surprising that during the last decade of my Dad's life he started to find his religion again. When they lived in Mississippi he found a Catholic church (no small feat in the middle of the Baptist belt) and started attending regularly. He never talked about it, but most Sundays he would go. In fact he and my Mom were re-married in the Church. My Mom never went to church with him, she went to her church, but she was willing to have her marriage sanctified by the Catholic Church.

When they moved to Tennessee he found a new church and began attending. When he started getting sick and spent so much time in the hospital the Priest would pay regular visits with him, giving him confession. The Priest would call on my Mom and visit her to make sure she was doing ok. I know my Mom came to find a great comfort in his words and visits.

As my Dad got sicker and knew he was dying he would talk to the nurses about God. They told us he would ask them if they believed in God and what they thought. He wouldn't try to push his beliefs off on them, he just wanted to spend a few minutes in the comfort of words and thoughts he believed in.

When he died my Mom's Pastor gave the eulogy at the church, but than my Dad's Priest gave one at the gravesite.

As I've said I'm not a very religious man. I find my religion in music and the written word. Today would have been my Dad's 74th birthday. You think it would get easier, but the hurt will never entirely vanish and it shouldn't. I miss him in the most mundane things, when I realize that I can't call him up and complain about how moronic Sarah Palin is. That was another change in my Dad, he was a lifelong Republican but towards the end of his life he became a champion of Bill Clinton and he hated W. with a passion.

The song is hymn for my Dad, Bob Dylan singing one of his most beautiful and religious songs "Every Grain of Sand."

IPod Shuffle

It's been awhile since I did an Ipod shuffle. Just turn on Itunes and hit shuffle and list what plays.

Beautiful Day - U2
I'm A Dreamer - Continental Drifters
Hoover Street - Rancid
Set Out Running - Neko Case
Follow You Down - Alejandro Escovedo
Hurricane - Bob Dylan
Hey Pretty Baby - Ricky Nelson
Farther Along - Flying Burrito Brothers
Worried Life Blues - Big Bill Broonzy
Wrecking Ball - Crooked Finger
The Chance - Julie Roberts
Few and Far Between - Shannon Curfman
Lie To Me - Eileen Rose
One Hundred Years From Now - Byrds
Baba O'Riley - Who
Telephone Road - Rodney Crowell
Say Whut? - Dr. John
I Got A Habit - Will Hoge
Dialogue - Big Bill Broozny
Two Little Hitlers - Elvis Costello & the Attractions
Banned From The End of the World - Sleater-Kinney
Don't Honey Me - Jeff Tweedy & Jay Bennett
Cold Kisses - Richard Thompson
Hit Me Like A Train - Dan Baird
Easy - Cowboy Mouth
Hey - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Disappear - R.E.M.
Best of Friends - Linda Thompson
Mach 1 - Trailer Bride
Terraplane Blues - Dion
Daniel Lee - Sarah Borges
Got Your Name On It - Carrie Rodriquez
Snake Bit - Green on Red
What She Does To Me - Producers
Baby I'm Burnin' (Live) - Dolly Parton
Stop - Against Me!
Psychic Channel - Grayson Capps
I Can't Stand It - Eric Clapton
It Doesn't Matter To Me - Alison Krauss & Union Station
Nine Bullets - Drive-By Truckers
My Ghost - Handsome Family
People Who Think They Can - Waifs
Hard Luck Story - Whiskeytown
King of Comedy - R.E.M.
The Other Boys - Lori McKenna
She Moves Me - Muddy Waters
I Want To Be Loved - Rolling Stones
Invisible Sun - Police
Ship of Fools - Bob Seger
Flame - The Vettes
Tell It Like It Is - Aaron Neville
All He Wants To Do Is Fish - Replacements
Tennessee Border - Sonny Burgess w/Dave Alvin
Hula Hoop - T Bone Burnett
Why Can't I? - Liz Phair
Lost In The Flood (Live) - Bruce Springsteen
Have A Good Time - Paul Simon

Ok, I guess that's enough for now, this is what I've been listening to off and on all day.

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It's Just Crazy

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeEveryday the economic crisis seems to get worse and worse. Just when you thought the stock market had dropped as far as it could, it drops another six to seven hundred. There's a lot of blame to go around in this whole mess, but I just read the article below and have to wonder at the craziness of it all. If I get terminated from my job I'm not going to walk away with any money, much less over a million dollars. These companies can say they have to do this to attract the people they want to run their company, but if none of them did it they wouldn't have to. Where else can you screw up and walk away with millions? It's beyond insane.

From the (AP)AP

CHICAGO (AP) -- Bookseller Barnes & Noble Inc. said it will record an after-tax charge in the third quarter of $1.8 million.

The charge, related to the termination of an employment agreement with Marie Toulantis, the chief executive of the company's online unit, amounts to about 3 cents per share, and was disclosed in a regulatory filing on Friday.

Toulantis resigned in August.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the nation's largest bookseller to lose 13 cents per share on revenue of $1.18 billion during the quarter. Those estimates typically exclude one-time charges.

Earlier this summer, the New York-based retailer said it expected to lose between 10 and 15 cents per share in the third quarter.

Barnes & Nobel shares climbed 39 cents to $23.96 in trading Friday.

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Reading Level

TV Reviews

I found this over at Bug's site. Check out what the reading level of your blog is.

Old School Fridays: Prince

Today's theme is Prince. I remember back in 1984 when Purple Rain had just come out. I wasn't that familiar with the Purple One at the point, not having his previous albums. But everywhere you turned there was Prince. And than when I heard the music....woah! I was a fan. I went out and bought Purple Rain, I still have it on vinyl. It's still one of my favorite songs by Prince. Unfortunately you can't find it, or any Prince on You Tube to upload so I'm just presenting the song here.



This meme was developed by Marvalus View and Ms. Grapevine. The rules are simple:

1. Anyone can participate; any music genre
2. Old School is defined as music created before 1999
3. No offensive words allowed, please use edited radio version
4. Post a video of your favorite Old School song to take us back down memory lane
5. Add your name to the meme list so that others can check you out
6. Have fun & don't forget to leave comments for other participantsIf you want to join in on the fun,

Love

I know it's been a long week when I forgot to post this yesterday.

October 9, 1980......a day that I will always remember. Like many people of another generation remember where they were when John Kennedy was killed I will always remember the moment I heard of John Lennon's murder.

Edit: Thanks to Malcolm for pointing it out, but today is the day John Lennon was born, not killed. I really did know this, but just mixed it up.

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Thursday Thirteen: 13 Last Albums I Downloaded into My IPod

Ok, it's late, I've been at work all day and I'm trying to think of what to make a Thursday 13 while I'm downloading some more albums into the Ipod and than it hit me. I'll list the last 13 albums I just downloaded. Pretty simple, huh?

1) Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series Volume 8 by Bob Dylan - already talked about this one so I won't bore you except to mention again how amazing awesome it is.
2) Breaking Up Concrete by The Pretenders - their newest and falling more towards country and rockabilly.
3) These Days by Vince Gill - four albums at one time. I'm still waiting on the four album package from Ryan Adams that his label promised a year ago.
4) Blood Money by Tom Waits - maybe not classic Waits but still good.
5) Econoline by Mike West and Myshkin - two used to be New Orleans locals before Katrina, bluegrass and americana.
6) Greatest Hits by the Weavers - old style folk music.
7) Living With The Living by Theo Leo - alternative and good.
8) The Complete Plantation Recordings by Muddy Waters - Muddy recorded before he ever did an album, on the plantation he lived by Alan Lomax.
9) Our New Orleans by Assorted New Orleans Artists - A Benefit album made after Katrina
10) The Big Bill Broonzy Story by Big Bill Broonzy - a three cd set with interviews with the blues great inbetween the songs. Listening to him tell the story of the song is fascinating.
11) Saturday Morning by Various - Theme songs from Saturday morning cartoons sung by a host of punk/alternative singers. The Ramones do Spiderman.
12)Stax 50th Anniversary Celebration by Various - the best of Stax, one of the best labels for soul music.
13)Song of America by Various - a collection of songs from America's history as sung by today's singers.

It's A Right

If I wasn't already for Senator Obama I would be now, when asked if health care was a right or responsibility for the American people he said it was a right, while Senator McCain said it was a responsibility. It's a shame that a country as great as ours can't provide health care for its citizens.

New Bob Dylan

The first Rock bootleg is considered to be the Great White Wonder by Bob Dylan. It was a double album with a completely white cover with the words GWW stamped on the cover. It featured studio out takes of Dylan's music, some pre-electric and seven songs he made with the Band that would later surface as the Basement Tapes.

Very few recording artists have been bootlegged as much as Dylan. But than there are probably very few recording artists that have as much unreleased material laying around. Dylan is one of the few artists that can sing a song three times in a row and every version will be completely unique. That's one of the exciting things about seeing Dylan in concert, to see how he is going to interpret his catalog this time.

In an effort to block some of the bootlegging going on Dylan and his record label began issuing a series of official "bootlegs" some years back. This has been a fascinating series with some great material. Hearing some of the songs that didn't make it on some of his albums makes you wonder what they were thinking. He's released one of his most famous concerts in the Bootleg series, the concert where he was called a "Judas" for going electric.

Today the eighth volume of "The Bootleg Series" comes out. (And every volume has been at least a double cd, some three, so that's a lot of bootleg material.) This series, unlike the previous seven which focused on older material, looks at his work since 1989 and his album "Oh, Mercy" which is considered the start of his most recent come back.

The two songs are examples of how he changes his songs. They are two different versions of his song "Mississippi" from his Love and Theft album. The first version is the one that didn't make the album, the second one is the one that is featured on the album.

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Pass It On

The Real Maverick

They claim to be Mavericks, but it's not true! The real Maverick is:

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Old School Fridays: Baby Making Music

The great Aaron Neville and "Tell It Like It Is." (With Special Friends.)



This meme was developed by Marvalus View and Ms. Grapevine. The rules are simple:

1. Anyone can participate; any music genre
2. Old School is defined as music created before 1999
3. No offensive words allowed, please use edited radio version
4. Post a video of your favorite Old School song to take us back down memory lane
5. Add your name to the meme list so that others can check you out
6. Have fun & don't forget to leave comments for other participantsIf you want to join in on the fun