I don’t want to be a political blogger. I don't want to be a social commentator and certainly NOT any kind of influencer.

    I don’t. I also don’t want to be a contributor of the divisiveness on social media.

    I want to echo the philosophy of George Carlin and not give a fuck about the outcome. I want to sit idly by and just observe without caring about what’s going to happen and to look at it and say “You got what you deserved and you deserved what you get.” I’m just not there yet.

   I still care [as of today, we’ll see in a few more weeks] and I want to speak my peace. But I want to speak my peace without people adding their two cents about why I am wrong and without people arguing about why I am right and without the discourse that happens on social media platforms.

   So I will do it here. I KNOW nobody’s reading me here. I just want to unload my head.

 

   So despite what the public may be inferring from the words out of the President’s mouth and mouthpieces, tariffs are not paid by the exporter / exporting country. Tariffs are paid by the importer upon receipt.

   Tariffs are a tax. That money goes into the general fund.

   The idea of the tariff on the imported good is to make it more expensive, so expensive that the importer seeks out a local / domestic supplier of the same good.

   Do I personally understand why it is cheaper to import rolled steel from China than to get American steel? I do not. Is it inefficiency in the American maker’s outdated plants? Exorbitant labor costs due to a shortage of labor? Shipping costs? Some combination of all of these things and more?

   It’s apparent in the last few weeks that the President is looking at the Untied States as a business that’s losing money. How do you fix that? Well, you lower your outgoing [labor costs, office supplies, foreign aid, domestic programs] and try to add income [but without raising income taxes which hurt the economy you’re trying to save and piss off your billionaire donor friends]. And without touching third rail hot button issues like Social Security. The word he uses continuously is “deal.” He wants to make a better deal for the American people. How adding a quarter to the price of Mexican avocados or $ 10.00 to the price of Canadian whiskey is a better deal for the American people is a head scratcher. Oh, I’m sure it just temporary… yet prices never seem to quite go down after the public mumbles under their breath and shows that they are willing to cough up more dough for a product.

   [Or the producer pulls the old sleight of hand putting out less product in a similar sized can or box. Did you know that peanut butter companies use the same ‘jar’ but they increased the size of the punt on the bottom of it to decrease volume? Got to read those labels!]

   Unfortunately, the President can not have the United States go into Chapter Eleven bankruptcy reorganization., a process he is very familiar with having used it six times himself.

   Cutting spending is a good idea. Adding income into the treasury is a good idea. The way The President is doing it is not a good idea. Of course, The President doesn’t trust anyone anymore, least of all the Republicans in Congress. He doesn’t want anyone telling him “that’s not the way it’s done in Washington” anymore. After reading Bob Wooward’s Fear: Trump In the White House, I knew the second he was declared the winner that this was going to be  a much different term than Trump 45. This time, he was [is] going to have people who would swear allegiance to Donald J. Trump uber alles [above all]. Not the Constitution [as seen on day one when he signed the unconstitutional suspension of article 1 of the 14^th amendment] and certainly not the Republican Party.

   So he is not going to use Congress to do anything if he doesn’t have to. He is arbitrarily making the Executive Branch and by fiat, himself the most powerful force in the country.

   I certainly hope that the Judiciary finds the balls to stand up for what is right – that is separation of powers and the rule of law and the Constitution of the United States that Mr. Trump swore to preserve protect and defend on January 20^th. The oath does not include the phasing “unless I don’t want to” or “unless it interferes with my personal ambitions.” Although Mr. Trump also did not place his hand on The Holy Bible when he took the oath this time, so maybe that is his version of “I crossed my fingers.”

   So far, this has gone about like I expected. I knew it was going to be a shitstorm and so far it has. I know I am just going to have to hunker down and survive four more years of blowhard, far right bible thumping asshats like I have been suffering here in Texas since George W. left the state to become the President.

   I know the days of co-operation and moderation have probably gone the way of Hailey’s Comet – not to be seen again in my lifetime. I hope to see a slight swing of the pendulum back towards Common Sense again but it’s likely just wishful thinking.

   I guess I am just at the age where I look around and echo the voices of generation before me and bemoan “These are the end times.”

 

Random Record Revisited

In Color [1977] – Cheap Trick

   Today I was looking for a Cheap Tick song that was my earworm of the day. It’s never a bad day when Cheap Trick is an earworm. Cheap Trick might be THE ultimate Power Pop band and there’s a ton of songs that stick in the grey matter – I Can’t Take It, Stop This Game, Dream Police, Surrender, I Want You To Want Me, She’s Tight – and that’s without breaking a sweat! I mean really, literally a ton of great songs. And the Tricksters have been putting out solid rock for over 55 years. Honestly, not every album is a gem and some are downright “Meh!” – I’m looking at you 1986’s The Doctor. But most every one has at least a couple of songs that put smile on yer face.

   The song I though was much earlier in the catalog tuned out to be Anytime, the lead track from the 1997 self titled offering

live version on You Tube: https://youtu.be/r0MFcAeqG0A?si=vsziFTq4b9jo0VKV

   Anyway, after blasting through that a couple of times and a couple live outtakes, I scrolled down past Heaven Tonight to what I think is [was?] my least favorite of the original trio, In Color [sometimes also And In Black And White].

   Why was In Color not one of my favorite Cheap Trick records? I had this memory of this being Cheap Trick tamed. It seemed too something –  too clean or too polished. It always seemed like poor production. It’s definitely heavy in the mid range. But I think here the problem all along has been what’s between my ears. After listening to the power of those songs on the Budokan record for all these years, the studio versions DO seem tame!

   The best example is comparing the studio version of the song that would propel them to the stratosphere in 2 years: I Want You To Want Me. If you’ve listened to a classic rock station anytime, the Budokan version is burned into your brain. And well it should be. It’s just 3 minutes and 45 seconds of some of the most perfect power pop in the history of rock with backing vocals by 10,000 or so Japanese teens.

   The studio version is almost country-ish. It just kinda bumpkins along led by a piano and a simple plodding bass. Rick Nielsen’s fills are as country as country can be, really channeling his inner Albert Lee or James Burton. There’s some really sweet, Beatle-esque harmonies. Then a hokey honky-tonk piano solo. It’s really almost boring. There’s no POWER to the POP!

   Ain;t that a shame?

   But I can see now that is just one example of what I previously thought about the record as a whole. Had I been paying closer attention, I would have seen [or remembered] that the songs are absolute killers, as evidenced by the inclusion of 6 of the songs on the original At Budokan album. [There are 9 In Color tracks on The Complete Concert’s 19 song set.]

   For example, the next track on the album, You’re All Talk shows off the band’s strengths. The guitars are back! Tom Petersson is layin’ down some inventive fuzz driven bass, Bun E. drives it with a heavy right foot and Robin Zander is… well, Robin Zander is one of a kind. It’s there on Big Eyes and Downed and Oh Caroline and Come On, Come On and So Good To See You. As a matter of fact, I Want You To Want Me is the only track on here that doesn’t fit the standard Cheap Trick mold!

   My apologies Cheap Trick. I have been slagging off an album that didn’t deserve a slagging for many years.

 

Random Record Revisit:

Majesty Shredding – Superchunk [2010]

   Didja ever have a favorite band that you just loved and loved and loved and then one day they put out a new album and you’re just “over them?” Superchunk became that band for me.

   I was turned on to the Chunk by Mr. Dunnigan in 1994. We spun side 1 of Foolish a lot at Chaz Dunnigan and hen I spun it a lot more at home. The next four records became staples in my little red truck [1990 – 2000] and little black truck [2000 – 2010]. I put on a lot of miles back in those years so there was a lot of Chunking going on. Despite the fact that the band went on deep hiatus from 2002 to 2010. That was fine – 2001’s Here’s to Shutting Up was as perfect a record as the band ever made. So it was a surprise when the Leaves In the Gutter EP appeared in 2008, a single in 2009 and finally an album in 2010.

   My initial excitement at the idea of Majesty Shredding turned to indisposition. While the kick off song Digging For Something fed my Chunk jones with a feel of Shutting Up, the second cut My Gap Feels Weird was just not for me. Musically it harkens back to the early 90s but I just don’t dig a lyric of “my gap feels weird.” Rosemarie is pretty stock mid-tempo Superchunk. Crossed Wires [the first single] is pure Superchunk power pop, which is to say pretty power pop until you get to the middle eight / bridge where they tend to go somewhere that a “normal” [i.e. popular, radio ready] song would not go. Slow Drip would fall under that same umbrella. Fractures In Plaster is a good slower track – nice little lead guitar lick 00:06 – 00:17. The kind of thing that keeps Superchunk off mainstream radio. I think it’s Jim Wilbur on that one. [Mac and Jim are just listed as guitars, no “lead.”] Learned to Surf was originally on the Leaves In the Gutter but this version [or remake] is heavily compressed and lacks the jangly charm of the “single” version. Winter Games is more mid-tempo Chunky goodness. Rope Light is more back to the roots Chunk. Hot Tubes feels like an out take from the late albums Hello Hawk [1999] or Here’s To Shutting Up – not that that’s bad!

   If you ever ask yourself [or ask me] “why revisit records haven’t heard in a while and obviously aren’t missing?” Everything At Once is your answer. I had completely forgotten this song. It starts off with some ambient noise, then breaks into some Chunkian chording under some simple “whoo hoo hoo hoos”s for a couple of choruses and the goes into a typical Mac McCaughan vocals – usually buried in the noise so that you feel them and get sounds more than real words – but then the chorus comes up: So here’s a song about nothing / And everything at once / All the minutes and the months / Nothing and everything at once.” Then there’s a little instrumental break, then some more whoo hoos, an extended chorus, a little middle eight action, another swing through the whoo hoos on through the four minute mark and then a fairly fast fade out. I mean there’s nothing more I can say. It’s power pop for the “alternative” crowd and it’s just a slice of musical heaven.

   The “bonus tack” February Punk is another 2:46 of early Chunk roots. I forget if this was a download track with the single or maybe from buying from Merge directly. The player just went to the next album in the queue, 1991’s No Pocky For Kitty and February Punk just fits right in there.

   I can think of many reasons why this didn’t become a hardcore favorite but number one is going to be that it came out in 2010. By 2010, I had a CD player in the car and I do not play these factory CDs in my vehicles – well not very often. By that time, I was focused on making my car mix CDs [8 Track Years, Walkman Years and FM Flashback] and rarely listened to whole albums anymore. Honestly, I still don’t listen to whole albums anymore, in the car or otherwise. I don’t recall ever loading Majesty Shredding into my work MP3 player either. It just kind of fell off of my radar pretty quickly.

   Secondly, I just lost interest in the band. I think that happens to lots of bands after a decade or so. With exceptions of source – R.E.M. seemed like a band that didn’t repeat a lot of things so their records always seemed fresh. But most bands kind of found their formula and kept doing what they did.

   Majesty Shredding is not a bad album but it just feels like I’ve heard it all before. So if I’m in the mood for some Superchunk, I’m obviously going to go back the ones I already know and love.

   Field Of Dreams is on – maybe it was already on the schedule being that it is the end the “summer” but likely it’s a tribute to James Earl Jones. Of course Jones’ soliloquy on baseball stands as one of the truest statements on America’s yen for nostalgia and simpler times even as we tear down our grandfather’s life’s work to build Mc Mansions and freeways.

   If I was in those bleachers in Field Of Dreams, my seats would be the bleachers on the first base side at Watt Powell Park. It’s Charleston West [by God] Virginia circa 1976. The AAA [International League] Charleston Charlies are hosting their major league sponsor, my beloved   Pittsburgh Pirates.

   We got to see some future major league talent roll through Charleston. The 76 team had pitchers Ken Macha and Doug Bair, shortstop Craig Reynolds, catcher Steve Nicosa and outfielders Miguel Dilone and Tony Armas. Pitchers John Candelaria and Kent Tekulve and outfielder Omar Moreno had been with the Charlies in ’75 and were now with the big club. Going from a big astroturf collusion like Three Rivers Stadium to the rinky dink confines of Watt Powell with the B&O just beyond the outfield and the mountain as a backdrop must have been quite a change. But it’s only one game and it’s only half an hour by plane or maybe six on the bus back to Three Rivers.

   The Bucs were chasing down the wrong end of the state Phillies for the NL East title – they would ultimately end up 9 games back of the Steve Carlton, Larry Bowa, Greg Luzinski and Mike Schmidt led Phils who lost the pennant to [ugh!] Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine. The Reds would sweep the Phillies in the NLCS and the Yankees in the Series to complete the only perfect post season in the League Championship era.

   But back to the game. Me and Dad are on the wooden bleachers, maybe second row. And I’m seeing my heroes – Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, Frank Tavares, Al Oliver playing in our little burg! Of course I have my glove and we almost caught a foul ball off 2^nd baseman Rennie Stennett bat – it hit the guy just to our right and he managed to hang on to it. And I wandered down to the bullpen and got Larry Demery to sign his baseball card.

   I don’t remember much else, which is why I’d like to go back. Any box score I had would have been erased and erased as I needed scorecards for dice baseball [NOT Strat-O-Matic, just a simple two dice game me and my cousin Hal would play]. Always the Reds versus the Pirates. Always. I knew those two line ups cold.

   I didn’t know it then but the Pirates would end their affiliation with the Charlies that winter. Shortly after the opening of the 1977 season, we moved to Arlington, TX anyway. American League baseball? Well, it’s the only game in town. And those late 70s / early 80s Rangers teams were colorful and entertaining to say the least. Bump Wills, Toby Harrah, Jim Sundberg. A couple familiar names - centerfielder Al “Scoops” Oliver and pitcher Dock Ellis came to town for a spell. Evenings on metal bleachers that had been baking all day in the Texas sun? Yes, please! On the other hand we got to see other great players of the era – George Brett and the Royals, Reggie Jackson with both the Yankees and the Angels.

   But one night – to be 9 years old again. The smell of the hot dogs and popcorn, the feel of the well-worn wooden bleachers with no backs, me and my dad just enjoying a game. Yeah, I could do that

 

   “The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball.

    “America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time.

   “This field, this game -- it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.

   “People will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.”

 

   Amen.

 

Random Record Revisited:

Little Robbers – The Motels [1983]

  In the 1980s, there were a handful of female fronted bands that hit the radio, Three of my favorites were Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders, Missing Persons [Dale Bozzio] and the Motels fronted by Martha Davis. Chrissie and the Pretenders had that hard edge, Chrissie’s fuck off / fuck all attitude and her oh soooo wonderful vibrato! Dale and Missing Persons [full of Frank Zappa alumni] had a minimalist new wave sound topped with Bozzio’s nasal sometimes squeaky tone. Davis and the Motels were very middle of the road pop with a new wave tinge wit Davis’s sultry, smoky voice.. Three very different styles but all good bands. But I admit, the Motels come in a very distant third in plays.

   The Motels seemingly came out of nowhere in 1982 with the top 10 new wave torch song Only the Lonely [the song that caught my ear] and the equally good but only eh charting [#60]  Take the L. But All Four One was actually the band’s 3^rd album. The band [in its second incarnation] had come up through late70s LA scene alongside X, Los Lobos, the Go-Gos and the Knack. Exene Cervenka of X recalled bitterly that Madam Wong’s owner Esther Wong seemed a soft spot for the Motels. But producer Val Garay had sidelined most of the band for the album, preferring to use session musicians like Waddy Wachtel and Craig Krampf. And with the success of All Four, Garay would do the same for the follow up.

   Little Robbers opens with the upbeat Where Do We Go From Here. The opening has a snaky middle eastern motif that will boil under through the whole song except then it goes into the riffing from the Motown classic Money [That’s What I want] around the 1:20 mark. With the electronic drums and a certain overdriven guitar sound [even though it is mixed very low] it’s definitely an 80s record. Dated, yes but not to the point of being overly cheesy 40 years later. The Motels’ second top 10 single Suddenly Last Summer follows. Suddenly falls between Only the Lonely and Take the L on the scale. It’s slightly uptempo but it’s lyrics are bittersweet. Davis said “…is a reflection on those moments in life when things are changing, like when it’s a beautiful sunny day and a cold wind blows and you know the end of summer is coming." Isle Of You has a reggae beat and a progression and melody that is reminding me of a song that I absolutely cannot place AND IT IS DRIVING ME CRAZY. I can so clearly feel it but I just can’t place it. I checked the Police’s Ghost In the Machine but it’s not there. But I know it is one of those second to last songs that goes into a mourning sounding song like Darkness [from GItM but Ghost’s 2^nd to last is Secret Journey and it is definitely NOT that!]. All of that aside, it’s a good song, obviously familiar and comfortable. Nice double use of a phrase – “I need to escapes from the isle of you / I love you.” Trust Me is pretty stock 80s rock. Monday Shutdown is a nice new wave comment on working. Remember the Nights rides a nice bouncy synthesizer riff similar to the little riff that starts Styx’s Too Much Time on My Hands. Co-written by the ex-Stooges (yes as in Iggy & the… he also played on a few of Iggy’s late 70s albums) / future Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers 2^nd keyboardist Scott Thurston. Nice sax break in the middle. The title cut Little Robbers has a little galloping drum beat  which feels musically like something Iggy or David Bowie [or Bowie producing Iggy ala 1986’s Blah Blah Blah] would be doing about this time. Actually, if this and Bowie’s Blue Jean were played back to back it would be really good on a mix tape / CD. Into the Heartland [co-written by Bernie Taupin] has very Springsteen [or Tom Petty ala Same Old You] lyrics about a coupla working class stiffs getting sick of “taking orders” and “slinging hash” and stealing a Pontiac and “driving that sucker straight into the heartland.” Taupin could always write good characters – check out the menagerie on Elton’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. For the record, the Motels predate Born In the U.S.A. by about nine months. Great little Greg Hawkes [The Cars] like keyboard fills and a Gary Numan [Cars] like ride out riff. Even a very good Elliot Easton [The Cars] style guitar work, too. Guy Perry is listed as lead guitarist in the credits but there are three other guitar players listed. Tables Turned rides a riff similar to Journey’s Faithfully and the goes into a stock little mid-tempo tale of “you were mine but you broke it off and now you want me back? Screw you.” Said in a nicer way, of course. Footsteps end the album on another reggae-ish motif with a snaky middle eastern motif. Actually it’s got a really strong Ric Ocasek [The Cars, again] influence.

   Little Robbers isn’t one of the great or important albums of 1983 – a year that saw Talking Heads’ Speaking In Tongues, Tears For Fears’ The Hurting, U2’s War, the Police’s Synchronicity and debuts by Stevie Ray Vaughn, Metallica and Madonna. [Geez, what a spread of styles, huh!?!] No, the legacy of Little Robbers is just being a really nice sorta new wave pop album featuring a female singer with a great voice that gives you a warm feeling when you go “I haven’t heard this for a while” and slip it on.

Just opining for a moment. 

Kamala Harris' [presumptive] nomination has turned the election on it's ear. Donald J. Combover is reeling not having "Old Cooked Joe" to kick around, His whole political stance [so far] remains in personal attacks and telling everyone what's "Wrong" with the country but not a whole lot of anything about how he will fix it if he is re-elected. 

He's counting on an eroding base of uneducated [i.e. no college] white people and his aging ultra-rich allies and he's losing the same middle that turned on him in 2020. Now he's the lost old dude in this race and I personally feel that if people aren't worrying about voting for the infirm Joe Biden, people will start talking about issues again and since Mr. Trump can't stay on message to save his life, that should worry the people trying to ride his coat tails.

If this comes down to a personality contest, Mr. Lightning Rod J. Fear-monger is going to lose. 

Not that I think the Vice President is anything to write home about. In a policy speech Friday [8/16], she spoke of giving first time home buyers up to 25,000 dollars in down payment assistance. I'm sure paid for by additional taxes on top 1% earners. I am not a fan of cancelling student debt unless I get to cancel 10,000 or 20,000 dollars of my debt. I will not be voting for Kamala Harris because I believe in her policy or agenda.

I think there will be significant numbers of people who will be doing the same - holding their nose and voting against Donald Trump. Some will be voting for her because she is black or a woman OR BOTH, which I think is the worst reason to vote for someone - because they check a different box in the gender or race columns. But I will take the win and hope that 2028 sees the political pendulum swinging more towards the middle than the extremes on either side. Can it swing father out? I live in Texas and I see how far out things CAN go. The right wing here has the party so far to the right that they're driving in the grass next to the shoulder of the freeway. They certainly have lock on political moroninsm, cronyism and asshattery, which is saying something given who is at the top of the ticket again this year. So I think that it can go a little farther out nationally before swinging back... but I hope it doesn't.

Which leads me to my final point of the evening: all of this extremist posturing is going to be a thing in the future because neither party really has a clue what the electorate really wants. Both sides are taking the election of "Their Person" as a mandate that the nation agrees with what their candidate is offering up and I'm afraid that it isn't so. Policy has not [really] been the focus of the electorate for  a long time

I hate to say President Obama was only elected for ticking the "not white" box but I think it was part of it. [8 years of George W. and going back to war the Middle East and Afghanistan didn't help the Republicans in 2008.] The nation rejected Hillary Clinton's Iron Lady personality in 2016. [Although I don't think her even farther to the left agenda helped her cause.] 2020 was a rejection of the hard right agenda that played out under President Trump. I think 2024 is going to be a referendum on Donald Trump and ONLY about Donald Trump. I don't think that his pronouncements that he will jail all of his political enemies will help him any. As Powers Booth's character Lt. Col. Andrew Tanner [USAF] said to C. Thomas Howell's Robert Morris in Red Dawn [1984]: "All that hate's gonna burn you up kid."]

But the pendulum is due for a swing back and the extremism war that has left the common sense, willing to compromise moderates [on both sides] silent will end. We will again focus on the things that unite us instead of those that divide us. We will learn again to give a little and take a little and both sides will be left with a little bitter in their mouth. Politicians will have to cut out some of the demagoguery and time wasting investigations and actually get back to  working for The People again.

Please Lord, sooner than later!

 

Random Record Revisited:

The Division Bell – Pink Floyd [1994]

   [No, I did not ever plan to do a second Pink Floyd RRR. Life is funny sometimes.]

   Searching. Searching. Another Chaz mix CD in the making, need the next song, need the next song. Maybe Pink Floyd. Thinking Learning To Fly from 1988’s A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. Maybe something off The Division Bell. God, it’s been a long time since I heard it. I wonder why. Play… next song… next… next song… hmm doesn’t seem that great. The reviews on Rate Your Music seem to be split between “Five Star Aural Eden” and “One Star Nails On A Blackboard.” [https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/pink-floyd/the-division-bell/] But you know what, you haven’t done a Random Record Revisit / Rewind in a while, let’s give it a deep spin.

   As an FYI: I’m under the headphones. Probably the first time I’ve listened to this album on headphones! HEAD PHONES, not ear buds or Walkman style earphones. Sigh. One of these days these 80s vintage Radio Shock Nova 40s are going to fail and I’m going to be the saddest little rock & roller in the world. But they’re still working for now.

   Cluster One. After a minute forty-five seconds of noise we are finally greeted by something musical. Richard Wright’s lovely arpeggiated chords and David Gilmour working volume pedal / volume knob swells and waves in some classic Pink Floyd interplay. Of course this is what we all came for. About four minutes in it takes a turn into something very similar to Parts 1 – V of the great Shine On You Crazy Diamond [Wish You Were Here]. Finally, it fades down and a bass line comes in, soon joined by Nick Mason’s singularly Nick Mason style drumming and we’re into What Do You Want From Me. This is not unpleasant, now far off anything that we heard on Momentary Lapse. Cooing “oohs” and “aahs” from background singers are well used. Not far off the mark.

   Poles Apart is where things seem to start going wrong. Vocally Gilmour is gushing out paragraphs were sentences will do. The ELO like interlude [2:58 – 4:10] seems totally unnecessary, straining to inject some of the weirdness missing since the early 70s Floyd albums. When the band picks up again they’re in double time. The final two minutes is some stock Gilmour soloing. The whole thing just seems warmed over, uninspired and uninspiring.

   Marooned follows. More great interplay between Wright and Gilmour – I just love, Love LOVE Richard Wright’s playing. Love his phrasing. The Endless River [2014] is supposed to be made of instrumental works from these sessions – maybe worth looking into. Marooned melts into A Great Day For Freedom. This may be the closest thing to a Roger Waters composition in the post Waters cannon. Maybe this is the influence of producer Bob Ezrin [also produced The Wall and Momentary Lapse]. Surprisingly short at 4:17, it feels like Gilmour is just getting warm when it fades out. It feels like this needs that two minutes  that was wasted in the middle of Poles Apart!

   In the vinyl world, this probably would be where you’d flip the record to side 2 although 25 minutes would be a long, long side. Hmmm, Wikipedia says there was a 1994 vinyl pressing – probably Europe only, that clocks in about 8 minutes shorter than the CD. Oh, no a limited-edition US pressing also. Almost 59 minutes for the vinyl, it does not say if it was one LP or two. Discogs says it was 1 LP. That’s pretty damn long given most 70s LPs were 18 – 20 minutes a side. Let’s see Cluster One loses 30 seconds, Poles Apart 90, Marooned another 90, Great Day about 45, Wearing The Inside Out about 15… Oh and the break was after the just mentioned Wearing The Inside Out. So let’s go…

   Wearing is the first Rick Wright composition and lead vocal on a Pink Floyd album in almost 20 years. [Well, technically he wasn’t a member of the Floyd for eight to ten of those years.] Wright’s gentle vocal floats along over one of those lazy river Floyd tracks. Unfortunately, it lacks Wright’s great keyboard work! It must be in there in the synthesizer swells and valleys. There’s a Shine On fanfare here, some organ there, some piano very late. Ultimately and unfortunately though, it’s pretty forgettable.

   Take It Back [first single] is up next, borrowing the pedal guitar feature of Run Like Hell under a much less interesting track. It’s not a bad track but by the halfway point I start wondering how much longer this [both the song and the album] is going to go on. Coming Back To Life was played a bit as an album cut. It’s okay. Talk To Me [second single] is a nice return to a little darker, angrier side of the Floyd. [Another Brick In the Wall, Run Like Hell, Sorrow] Gilmour’s tone on the soloing is just pure Comfortably Numb. At this point [40 minutes in] it’s a shot in the arm for the record.

   Lost For Words [ironically not an instrumentally] is a sharp dig at Roger Waters ala John Lennon’s How Do You Sleep? Oher than Gilmour’s use of the four-letter F word, it’s pretty spare. The uber dramatic High Hopes ends the album commenting on aging and nostalgia, equal parts “Wasn’t that an amazing ride?!?” and “Is this all there is?”

   I’ve pondered before if it is worse to be a truly bad album or a very forgettable album. The Division Bell is not a bad album, there just aren’t a lot of high points to keep one coming back to it.