Fear and Loathing: Life After Hunter

It's with a sadness in my heart I type on the death of the famed journalist Hunter S Thompson.

True I am one of the legions who felt Thompson's writing had been 'going downhill' in recent years. So disappointed in 2003's Kingdom of Fear [I felt it covered a lot of the same ground as Songs of the Doomed; Hunter seemed to be stuck in the Gail Slater-Palmer trial], that I skipped Hey Rube, as just a collection of columns for ESPN Page 2, some of which were entertaining and caused a smile, but nothing that lit the world on fire. Thompson's last great work, for my money, was 1994's Better Than Sex, a good mix of Thompson's political view and humor. Thompson's scattered work since his firing from Rolling Stone in the mid-Seventies never equaled that time again. As America sank into the mellow sounds of the Eagles and Fleetwod Mac and Steely Dan, Thompson faded into a self induced sunset, popping up only occasionally for his short run at the San Francisco Examiner and the ESPN column and an rare special in Rolling Stone. His piece on the death of Richard Nixon may have been his finest work of his last years.

Thompson will always be best known for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and well he should. It is truly a first person masterpiece of exaggeration and braggadocio. It will be the On the Road for a generation. Hells Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga brought Thompson to the attention of mainstream America, not quite realizing that the journalist was about to spike its collective sugar cube the way the San Francisco bands were spiking the cube for rock and roll. Thompson said himself in Fear:

"San Francisco in the middle Sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run... but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch the sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant..."

But in finding his own voice, a voice of the 'Counter-culture' that read Rolling Stone magazine, Thompson became a legend for all the wrong reasons. He became a cartoon, almost literally, inspiring Gary Trudeau's Uncle Duke in the Doonesbury [another voice of the 'Counter-culture'], for which he was never given a cent. [And, in my humble belief, inspiring the bald, chain smoking, drug and booze ingesting, city hating, firearm loving, gonzo political journalist in Garth Ellis' excellent Transmetropolitan comic book.] Thompson became famous for his massive intake of drugs and booze, which no doubt fueled his own madness. I fear that in finding his own voice, Thompson locked himself in his own box. Like Jim Morrison, he had a reputation that had to be lived up to that may have ultimately lead to his demise.

Thompson quipped "I do not advocate the use of dangerous drugs, wild amounts of alcohol and violence and weirdness - but they've always worked for me." Did they finally all take a massive turn on the depleted body and mind of Thompson? In coming days we may know if his mind or body [or both] were found in recent months to be deteriorating from disease or abuse... my guess if this is so, Thompson would not want to be seen as an aging deteriorated shell of himself as Ronald Reagan was for his last decade. Thompson had all ready lived fast, but somehow managed to avoid dying young; perhaps he was leaving a good looking corpse and the memory of him still in his prime.

We may really never know. Like Lester Bangs, HST is now immortal in the literary world. His genius can no longer be called into question. He did inspire a generation to just write what they had to say and not worry about the rules of the English language we were taught in high schools and colleges across America. You can even make up your own word to describe your style, like Gonzo, which is now a term for any writer who seems to break 'established rules,' whatever that means.

We suspected Thompson couldn't live forever, all evidence to the contrary. I loved his writing, I loved his style [or non-style], though I have learned in recent years not to put too much trust into heroes, as they are only mortal men like the rest of us. His sad and shocking decision to pull the plug himself will only be equaled by Papa Hemingway's suicide and the brutal murders of John Lennon and Darrell Abbott just for making music. We really don't know what demons HST was fighting up there in his compound, nor for how long. I suspect though that once the decision was made, it put the man at peace.

So long baby, EXCELSIOR, SALEH and Amen.

The Day After: The Fallout

From today's Fort Worth Star Telegram lead:

Darryl Sydor, then a defenseman for the Stars, sat at his locker after practice, contemplating the specter of an unprecedented labor dispute on the horizon. "They're going to cancel the season," he concluded.

That was more than three years ago.

But for those three years, "Cancel the Season" was regarded as mostly battle cry rhetoric between the NHL and the NHL Players' Association.

"I don't think we ever thought it would really happen," Stars center Mike Modano said.

As a fan I am pissed off about this [you may have guessed], but I said all along that ownership was right on this. View my October archive, specifically My $ 1.25 Rant/Opinion on the NHL Lockout. I still can't believe the players didn't think it would happen. How long did they think the owners would wait?

I heard Barry Melrose on ESPN Radio this morning saying he had players calling him all night begging him to contact [NHLPA President] Trevor Linden and see if a deal can be struck for a 45 million dollar cap. And he said he was told over and over: "We NEVER THOUGHT they would cancel the season."

Well boo-hoo players. I guess we know which side is serious now. You stupid fucks. You think this is game? What you do on the ice is a game. This is about the long term survival of the NHL. What part of "Now is not the time to begging negotiating" did Bob Goodenow tell you wasn't serious? Did you think the deadline was a fucking bluff? Guess your pair of deuces weren't a winning hand...

I ask again where were Mario and Wayne in all this? I see this on The Hockey News page:

It's not just the fans who think it was crazy the way the 2004-05 NHL season was canceled. According to two separate sources, Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux have re-entered the picture in an attempt to get the season back on track.

"I was told Gretzky and Lemieux got involved, to try to talk some sense into the (union) executive committee," the source said. "A lot of people who care about the game say they're too close not to at least talk some more."

However, Gretzky downplayed his involvement during a radio interview with the Fan 590 in Toronto. "To say Mario and I had a conversation to stir up the conversations and talks again, that's just not true," Gretzky said.

Veteran players are believed to be involved in a movement to resurrect the season. One source said many veteran players called NHL commissioner Gary Bettman directly since the cancellation announcement Wednesday afternoon.

IF this is all true, then you've just seen NHLPA Union exec Bob Goodenow's arms chopped off. The Hockey News describes the negotiations as the famous Black Knight scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail: 'You've got no arms left." "It's just a flesh wound."

In the Fort Worth Star Telegram, hockey writer Mac Engle noted:

But some players now say that a salary cap is inevitable.

"I think so, now," Modano said. "I'm not sure why [it was offered]. I was upset that for three years [the union] has been explaining to us with diagram after diagram why a cap isn't good, and then they propose it. "I think all along [the league] was trying to get some adversity between us [the players] with name calling, and they have succeeded a little bit. There were a lot of internal things going on; players were rumored to be calling the league pushing for a cap. I believe that happened."

Some players say that the union will rally, however, because the players do not believe the owners report revenues honestly and because of their almost unanimous contempt for Bettman.

No fragmentation has surfaced publicly among the owners.

"We're trapped," Carolina Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos said. "That's why we have 30 owners that are lined up and saying we're going to lose a whole season and maybe another one and maybe another one after that. Maybe only 5,000 people will show up at our games. But we won't be losing a billion dollars a season. "The problem is that, in every pro sport, the owners are going to have to dig their heels in the sand and say enough is enough," Karmanos added. "I have a feeling that fans of every sport are fed up with the salaries and the attitudes and the steroids and the brawls and the criminal records and the total detachment from reality. Our hockey players are head and shoulders better people, but I believe the problem in the end is the same. They've lost touch with reality."

That's it folks! The owners win. They split the players and now they divide and conquer. But I think ownership knows now that they have to work WITH the players to keep the league viable. As Engle pointed out in another spot, owners looking for NFL riches and NFL salary caps had better start sharing revenue like NFL owners. Look for a cap eventually tied to income, but it;s going to require gives elsewhere, like earlier free agency.

Elsewhere in today's Startlegram, columnist Jim Reeves has this to say; I think he summed it all up very nicely:

I was listening to a sports talk show discussion this week about who's to blame for this situation, the players or the owners, and my first thought was, "Who cares?"

Who to blame isn't really the point, is it? Yes, the owners did this to themselves by overpaying the players. They can't help themselves. They need a system that keeps them from hurting themselves.

When you've just been told you have cancer, it doesn't really matter so much any more how it happened; it only matters that you get treatment.

In some ways, a conclusion to the stalemate is a relief.

"Thank goodness we're no longer lobbing grenades from Toronto and New York," Stars president Jim Lites said. "If it's about the money, we'll get it done. We're a million miles closer than we were.

"Hopefully, with the hyperbole and the demagoguery aside, at least this process will gain some momentum. If we'd been this close last May, this would have gotten done."

The bottom line is that the NHL was on its way to economic ruin. The game was becoming too rich for the country where it was born. It needs big-time restructuring, not just economically, but on the ice, too.

It doesn't matter who's responsible for this problem; it only matters that it's fixed.

That's why a salary cap is the only answer for the NHL, and even the players' association finally understood that and shocked many of its members by finally agreeing in the wee hours Tuesday morning to accept something it said it would never accept.

Not 48 hours earlier, Stars forward Bill Guerin, a players' association vice president, was stupidly saying, "We would rather fold the league than accept a salary cap."

Union leader Bob Goodenow then made Guerin look like a fool by agreeing to accept a cap.

"To turn around and actually propose it ourselves bothered a lot of guys," Stars center Mike Modano admitted during a radio interview Wednesday. "We could have done that in August. There's certainly going to be some upset guys. After all that time of saying, 'No, no, no,' then saying yes, it defeated the whole purpose of what we were trying to accomplish."

Like almost every sports-labor negotiation, this one didn't really get serious until it was too late.

"We got more done on the 15th of February than we did in talking about it for a year," Lites pointed out. "We can't have that kind of gonzo negotiating and get this done in five minutes. We can't pull a Hail Mary."

The hope now is that the disillusioned players will use their last-minute concession as a basis to forge a new agreement. The union stunningly agreed to accept a $49 million cap, something that should have happened weeks, if not months, ago. The owners removed any linkage to revenues and offered a $42 million cap.

"If we'd started this kind of negotiating months ago, we wouldn't be talking about it now," Modano said. "Now, you're talking about a $ 61/2 million difference between us and them. If we gave three and they gave back three, now we're at $46 million and we could possibly open up training camp next week. Instead, we have a lost season over 6 million bucks."

Modano himself is losing $9 million this season.

"Changing the concept was the hard part," he said. "Now it's just going back and forth over numbers, that's the easy part."

Maybe not. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman insists the league offer is now off the table, and the work starts all over again.

It's up to owners like the Stars' Tom Hicks to force Bettman back to the negotiating table immediately.

"Now that we've broken the psychological barrier of the union's opposition to a cap, like it was some sort of bad disease, we have to take advantage and find something that's fair for both sides." Hicks said. "I'd love to have a deal done before the first of June so we can spend the rest of the summer re-launching the sport. I think the near-miss has people on both sides saying if we'd had more time we might could have made this work. There's absolutely no reason to wait and start all over again next fall."

It's not all about economics, either. It's about changing the game on the ice to make it more appealing to fans, too.

"The NHL and players, on different occasions, have both talked a lot about things that would enhance the game both on and off ice, like shootouts [instead of tie games], which I think ultimately will happen," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "Does our game have to step out of the box and start looking at some of these things? Certainly it does."

Fans would have seen some of those changes immediately in a condensed season, Bettman said as he announced that the 2004-05 season had been taken off life support and officially declared dead.

"We had planned two scenarios for this press conference," Bettman said. "The other would have included a laundry list of rules changes that we could have used in a short season. We would have had a couple of months to test some things and evaluate them over the summer. We have collectively -- the league and the players' association -- squandered an opportunity to move forward."

The players blame the owners. The owners blame the players. The players are mad at each other. The one thing everyone agrees on is that they all blame Bettman, who seems intent on crushing the union, even if means resorting to replacement players next season.

Somehow, within all these raging emotions, someone must inject some common sense and start negotiating right now to save the 2005-06 season before it's lost, too.

"We need to get this done right now," Lites said. "We need to find middle ground. I'm less concerned about the numbers in a cap than in how it works."

Said Bettman: "The shame of this is, our fans deserve better, the people who earn their livelihood in this game deserve better. We're going to have to earn back the trust and the love and affection of everybody associated with the game."

That won't be easy. This isn't Major League Baseball, or the NFL, or even the NBA, mainstream professional sports that are entrenched as part of the American psyche. But it's also not impossible, because hockey really is a great game.

I do miss it, but it can be made better.

"It's like a stock-market correction," Tippett said. "We're undergoing a big one. We'll fix it. We'll come back, stronger and better than we were before."

That's a promise that both sides must vow to keep.

Fuck ! Fuck! Fucking Fuck! Fuck!..... Fuck!

Get the idea I am disappointed by events over the last 72 hours? Stupid of me to think that this deal would really get done, but I did when I heard that the players put a cap on the table... more on that in a minute. I really did think it would get done. Now I wanna scream 'Fuck' a lot, slam doors, kick dogs.. drown my sorrows in pizza and beer.

Of course a 28 game 'season' is a joke and breaking to a 16 team playoff after a 28 game season would be an even worse joke. But it would have been something to throw the fans a bone. And of course, course Bob Goodenowand the NHLPA did not understand 'this is not an invitation to negotiate' and threw a higher cap back. Fuck.

The major question is: did the player's union just blink. Not really. They were adamant about no cap TIED TO REVENUE. I don't think they had a problem with a cap as long as they could still get their $$.

What does this do to the league? I dunno. Any momentum/interest gained in 'Sun Belt' markets [Anaheim, Nashville, Tampa Bay, Carolina] over the last few years may be erased. Out of sight, out of mind. Will the south of the Mason-Dixon line fans return? Your guess is as good as mine. I think in places like Dallas where youth leagues sprung up in the wake of success there will be some support. I believe you have to reach the young fans to grow interest in 'Non-Traditional' markets. I will watch on TV, but probably will not atend any games.

No that the seaon is dead, what happens to free agents? Do they get time towards pensions? Toward unrestricted free agency? Do the players have to play under this year's contract the next season the NHL resumes? Does this mean the end for Stevie Y, Mario, Brian Leetch, 'Lucky' Luc Robaitaille, Eddie the Flaky Eagle, Gordie Howe, Dominic Hasek and Chopper Al McInnes? Or does the year off recharge their batteries and allow old wounds to heal?

What needs to happen now is a DEAL. Then the two sides need to sit down and figure out how to tie the salary cap to revenue. Owners MUST be allowed to make money in order to continue to have 30 viable franchises. Realize that ownership now has to come to the table and accept revenue sharing AMONGST THEMSELVES as awell as the players.

I see a $45 million soft NBA style cap, with a .50 per $ 1.00 penalty for being over the cap that goes into a revenue sharing pool for all the teams UNDER [not equal to] the cap. And allow .10 of that into a player escrow pool or to the Pension Fund or Charitable causes pool] Allow one franchise player tag, ala fotball or a Larry Bird exemption for one superstar.

For the next five years, get INDEPENDANT AGREED UPON auditors to review the team books. Include ALL monies paid to the hockey teams including luxury boxes for non sporting/hockey events IF the team owner, as a piece of his ownership, gets proceeds from those events. Include parking, concessions,, EVERYTHING. Account every nickel. Aftyer that five years, everyone looks at the figures and agrees to an independantly arbitrated number for player percentage, between 55 and 65 % of revenue. Institute a FLOOR or minumun payroll to keep people from stuffing their pockets.

Mario said today that he thought owner were stuffing money away before he got on the other side of the board room. He and Wayne Gretzky have been oddly silent during all of this. Who better to suggest a way to balance players and owners interests?

Just my thoughts. Send me yours: chazg66@yahoo.com


Oh, yeah: Why is Michael Jackson having the flu and being in the hopsital getting so much pay on the news? Please stop it.

Oh yeah 2: Camilla Parker-Bowles... doesn't that sound like the name some snooty Englishman would give his pug dog? All I can say is that woman must be able to suck the chrome off a trailer hitch because that woman is U-G-L-Y UGLY. If love is blind, Prince Charles is now Ray Charles...

From My Friend Amy:

Chaz, my friend: forget about the "Legends of Your Time". It's all about the Root Lamas.

In Buddhist terms, we all have at least one Root Lama -- the teacher who introduced us to Buddhism and started us on our path. I was fortunate enough to have several of them, most of whom would probably scoff at the idea of being anyone's teacher. But they were there to guide me, whether they knew it or not. Many of them weren't meant to be my true teachers (in the classic Buddhist sense and with all the baggage that relationship implies), but no matter how short-lived their contact with me, it was profound enough to change my life.

And that's how I feel about The Replacements. If rock and roll were a religion, Paul Westerberg would be one of my Root Lamas. He created sometimes dumb, sometimes genius rock, but his music was always there, usually inciting me to discover more music. Even after I outgrew some of the more disposable Replacements ruckus numbers, I never outgrew the softer, more reflective songs where Westerberg's humanity shined through ("Skyway", "Here Comes a Regular", "We Know the Night", etc.). To this day, he's still making music that resonates with me (the Mono album in particular comes to mind). I could rattle off all the usual cliches about being a stupid angst-ridden teenager and how finding certain bands, novels and movies saved my life. But that's a given -- anyone can hang that "saved my life" tag on anything from their adolescence.

Still, if it weren't for Paul Westerberg, I probably wouldn't have discovered some the best music I've ever heard. I loved that band so much, I tracked down alot of their influences and loved them too. Hell, I didn't even give Wilco a chance until I read somewhere that Jeff Tweedy wrote "Lonely One" about Westerberg.

But all that aside, here's what Westerberg and the Mats taught me: don't get hung up on your own expectations. Anything The Replacements did was destined to be either so great I didn't stop talking about it for years or a huge fucked-up failure. And that was the beauty of the Mats. I just bought the ticket and took the ride.

I'm trying not to hang too many expectations on Westerberg's March show, and I hope you don't either. Just go, fer cryin' out loud. One way or another, it'll be worth it. I promise.

And really, dude ... if you'll even momentarily consider foregoing a Westerberg show just because it might suck, then what the fuck are you doing with any Replacements albums anyhow?

I mean, seriously.

Ah, innocents and innocence...

I never caught onto all that 'fucked up wasted youth glory of rock and roll.' I bought my first Replacements in 1987- Pleased to Meet Me, and I bought it because it was a cool record. I was the youth in the record store who had soemone play this for me; I never knew anything about all that 'they're either great or they suck' until that was ALL over.

I try not to put too much expectation on live shows anymore; a couple of not so great Black Crowes shows taught me that. I love SONGS and RECORDS and try to leave personalities out of it now. I used to try and keep up, but I got jaded with Rolling Stone and Musician in the early 90s and let that part go. I am no internet surfer like Ed Voyles.

I am now sure this will be a cool show, but I don't get up for shows the way I used to. I actually stop and think about stuff like going to work the next day and what if is does suck?

But I think you all have convinced me... see you there. I'll be the dork in the glasses

Foot in Mouth

Boy as soon as I post Don't buy into seeing the 'Legends of Your Time' tours, I find out Paul Westerberg is coming to town.

W hasn't been to Dallas since the 14 Songs tour... what was that ten years ago? But it's a show at a place I am not overly fond for seeing shows, though it is a Monday night. I fear this will bring the locals out of the woodwork and someone will be tramping all over my feet again they way the did when Amanda and I saw WIlco at the Gypsy Tea Room on the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot tour. [Line of the night "You know all this is just bullshit until they play something from AM." Thanks Amy!]

My other fear is What if it just sucks? I am relatively certain that an older, arguably wiser and sober PW is more conscious about giving a decent performance, even if touring is not one of his favorite activities. But what if he gets one of those Bob Dylan in the 80s wild hairs and just decides to suck trying to break his own aura and myth? [Or worse, live up the the 80s Replacements myths...]

On the other hand, it could be another ten years or longer before he plays Dallas again. Dallas must just be a shit place for touring musicians. Lou Reed skipped Dallas for 20 between the VU and the Set the Twilight Reeling show. For a place with three million or so people, Dallas is just disinterested in live music. And now with the Bronco Bowl gone there's no good small-medium range room [1500?]. If you're a rising band you have to do Gypsy Tea, which is small and then the next thing up is Nokia in Grand Prairie or Will Rogers in Ft Worth [and WR does few rock shows anymore, just like Tarrant Co Convention Ctr].

I guess I am going to see Westerberg for the ... well, no I am not. I am not going to see 'the legendary' Paul Westerberg, the same way people flock to see Springsteen, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney or Pink Floyd. Because Westerberg is still making music that is important to me. Yeah, you can say those other 'legends' are doing that for my parents and Rich & Donna and J Michael Leone, but it's not the same. Trust me, I am the Music Snob.

The $ 44.00 Experiment - Part I

A couple of weeks ago I found myself in Denton at Recycled Books and Records looking for something by Roxy Music. But when one goes to Recycled, can one just look through one bin? So I searched the racks and found a eight things by bands I'd 'heard of' or read about but never heard. I decided to only buy these items, write some instant reviews, check out something I may have missed... maybe revisit them in a year and see if my first impression changed...

1. Shoot Out the Lights - Richard and Linda Thompson [1982, Hannibal]

I've been hearing about this record for years. Rolling Stone had as one of the top albums of the 80's [yes I take that with a grain of salt]. My understanding is that there was some Fleetwood Mac Rumours type of situation going on, separation and trying to make an album, the end result of which was Richard leaving Linda shortly after the completion of the record.

Don't Renege on Our Love kicks off the record, nice galloping Dire Straits sounding track. Richard sounds VERY much like Mark Knopfler on both guitar and vocals, lyric addressing the almost impending end of a marriage, though not begging someone to stay, sounding more like an ultimatum. Walking on a Wire next, Linda's voice so clear and carrying, addressing a love who's only home when he wants to be and the emotion of someone wondering that's coming next, whether to jump or be pushed. A Man in Need follows, nice Television inspired turnaroud beat. I am impressed by the sound of this record, stripped down, simple and clean. No overdriven Marshalls or cheesy Brit synth pop keyboards. It's Just the Motion, another slow plaintive song, great vehicle for Linda's voice. Shoot Out the Lights kicks off side 2, Television meets Duane Eddy/Link Wray style guitars. Did She Jump or Was She Pushed has some nice guitar work.

I am not overly impressed by this. It's a good album, but not exceptional. The lyrics are dark but not stinging or biting. It's very similar to a Dire Straits album but this is no Making Movies, it's more like Brothers In Arms; very good in spots but no real fire or energy to push it over the top. Checking Rate Your Music's list of best albums this year: this comes in at # 12? [#1 for 1982? Vs. by Mission of Burma... no I've never heard this either, but I'll get back to Recycled soon...] This places higher than Big Science [Laurie Anderson], Under the Big Black Sun [X], 1999 [Prince] and English Settlement [XTC]? I don't see it.

3.5 stars - good, not great

2. Flesh and Blood - Roxy Music [1980, Atco]

I swear on the heads of my nieces, to the best of my knowledge, I have never heard Roxy Music. The only thing I know is Love is the Drug, but I believe that is a Bryan Ferry solo cut. And Pretty and Twisted did a great version of a Roxy song called Mother of Pearl. But I don't think I have ever heard Roxy Music. The only reason I had the idea to go and find Roxy, other than it's a good excuse to go up to Recylcled, is that it showed up in my Amazon recommendations. From my short research on Amazon, I have determined there are two revered periods for this band; their first two records, with Brian Eno in the band, and the two records immediately following Eno's departure. I fear this may be a later record and not truly representative of their best work, but I went to Denton specifically looking for Roxy and this was what they had.

The record starts off with a cover of the Stax classic In the Midnight Hour. That's not usually a good sign; when an established band reverts to cover tunes, it's usually a sign of an impeding ending. But I am IMMEDIATELY struck by Ferry's voice, so smooth, but with an underlying warble... I know immediately that this will either be fantastic or the most annoying thing ever put to tape. The second cut Oh Yeah gets my attention. Alternately lush and piping keyboard parts and Ferry's velvet voice blend well. Same Old Song is a good cut, pre-dating something I can't quite name with its synth parts driving the rhythm and a really really funky bass. I want to say this lays the ground for Duran Duran's The Reflex and a lot of British bands in the 80's. Title cut, Ferry laying out good guitar parts and tasty synth, Alan Spenner again on funky bass. My Only Love ending the side. Like the piano part that allows the room in the song, making the spaces between the notes important, perhaps a lesson from Eno, and Phil Manzanera laying out very interesting and tasteful guitar solos.

Halfway through I can tell this will get several more listens before being filed. I like the sound of this record, good songs. This may be slightly ahead of its time. I am almost afraid to turn the record over for fear of being horribly disappointed by the second side. Over You, simple, playful and poppy, good middle eight with a little punch and crunch from Manzanera. Fades into a dance pop take of the Byrds hit Eight Miles High... passable, but not something one will have the urge to hear in the middle of the night. Rain Rain Rain, nice and simple, stripped back drums, funk bass again, funky guitar and simple tasteful synths. No Strange Delight, almost a Cars track, though Ferry is smoother than Ric Ocasek could ever hope to be, floating along an a great bumping bass and drum groove, keyboard that adds space and dimension and then fills that in nicely. Running Wild ending the album, good slow cut, great sax solo from Andy Mackay and a tasteful guitar solo by Manzanera... would be a great song for one of those bittersweet teen movies with the final chorus "Running wind again - Like we do / If only dreams come true / I could even pretend / That I will fall in love again."

This I like. I was so impressed I have all ready gone and bought For Your Pleasure, their second [with Eno] and Avalon [though I have not tracked them yet] and ordered on recommendation of two trusted souls Country Life and Siren.

4.0 - worth your time to check out.

I hope to complete this over the next couple of weeks. I have sitting in the pile Let's Active, Brinzley Schwarz [pre-New Wave/Rockpile Nick Lowe], the Silos, NRBQ's Al Anderson's solo record and an album by John French, Fred Frith, Henry Kaiser and Richard Thompson. I was under the mistaken impression that Frith, Kaiser and French were somehow connected to the Cocteau Twins. I also have an Eno compilation of the first four records which will be next. I am enamored of Eno's ambient work, especially with Harold Budd, as well as his production work with Bowie and U2. Should bookend the Roxy nicely.

MIXED RANTS:

1. The Queen is Dead, Long Live the Queen!

Queen are touring! Well, Roger Taylor and Brian May are touring with Paul Rodgers [yes THAT Paul Rodgers; ex Free, Bad Company, Firm]... they aren't calling it Queen exactly and that's a DAMN good thing!

Let me be clear: NOBODY can ever replace Freddie Mercury. No one should even try? Can you imagine the guy who sang Feel Like Makin' Love singing Bohemian Rhapsody? They say they'll be playing Free and Bad Co. songs, too... why isn't Paul just going out as Bad Company again? Mick Ralphs doesn't want to do it? Brian May is free [no pun]... May, some bass player, Simon Kirke on tubs and Rodgers? That might be interesting! At least as interesting as the Black Crowes and Jimmy Page tour [cancelled, but the CD lives and Chris Robinson does okay on the Zepp tunes... I wish they had a full jam of Joe Perry, who can still play WHEN HE WANTS TO, and the Page/Crowes jamming on the old Fleetwood Mac Oh Well...] But Rodgers attempting anything by Queen.. I don't know....

Which brings up two more rip offs: The Doors of the 21st Century and the reformed Dead Boys. Okay, the Doors want to make some scratch, their drummer bows out due to hearing problems and they recruit the 2nd best drummer in rock and roll, ex-Police-man Stewart Copeland [probably not very challenging for him] and Ian Astbury from the Cult to strap on leather pants and pretend to be Jim Morrison... how many tickets did they sell?

The Dead Boys reform, [Johnny Blitz (drums), Jeff Magnum (bass), Cheetah Chrome and Jimmy Zero (guitar)] though Stiv Bators remains dead. [Chrome and Zero will handle vocals.] How can you think about it? Stiv WAS the Dead Boys! He was that lightning rod frontman the way Jagger or Morrison or Iggy Pop is! Who's going to see this crap?

I blame Johnny Fucking Rotten and the Pistols Filthy Luchre tour. Now every punk band that put out two albums [see above] is going to want to try and cash in. The New York Dolls were going to try until the drummer dropped dead [and Johnny Thunders, like Stiv, remains dead as a doornail]... Don't buy into this 'See the Legends of Your Youth You Were Too Young Or Stupid To See the First Time.' [Now that's a name for a tour!] If you wanna see some shit, see Iggy next time he comes to town. He's still doing the same shit as 1969.

2. Note for Amanda!

"Ryan Adams has announced plans to release three new albums in the coming months: a two-disc set with his band The Cardinals titled "Cold Roses" (due April 19); the Thomas Schick-produced "Jacksonville;" and the Ethan Johns-produced "29" (release dates for both to be announced). "

Boy, I thought Ryan was going to be something after Gold, but he's turned out some really so-so stuff since then. I am at least INTERESTED in the Johns produced one since he produced Gold and the last Whiskeytown; I idly hope he can kick Ryan back to something interesting! Is there any name left you can just go in and but without reservations?

3. Homework

Speaking with the boys at the CD shop today, bought the 4 CD Rhino salute to college radio Left of the Dial. It's more than I ment to spend, but boy what a set! More on this later, I am sure. [Trivia: only three bands appear on this set and their 7 CD best of 80s Pop, the key word there being POP. See if you can guess...]

Anyway, we were discussing the 80s and Angry Joe made in interesting observation: Almost no bands from the 70s that moved into the 80s made it without changing their sound. The only two we were able to come up with with were Tom Waits and AC/DC. Can you name any more?

Replies: chazg66@yahoo.com Later!