Archive for 'Rock Star Birthday Blurbs'

If you had to guess whether Trent Reznor’s parents were divorced, for all the marbles, what would you say?  Yeah, I thought so.   Rage is such is visceral emotion that it just has to come from somewhere don’t you think?   I would think bullying or abuse of some kind might be another root cause.   According to our friends at Wikipedia, Reznor has been quoted as saying “I don’t want to give the impression that I had a miserable childhood.”  Fair enough, but when he groans “you can have my isolation, you can have the hate that it brings, you can have my absence of faith, you can have my everything” from “Closer” I can feel his pain as Bill Clinton used to say.   My parents never got officially divorced, but from the time I was 11 or 12 they didn’t sleep in the same bed.  From the time I was 13 or 14 they didn’t live together.  And since my father died in 1987 it hasn’t really been an issue, but I always felt like my parents got divorced.   I didn’t speak much to my father after 1974 or so.  It’s not that he did anything outrageously wrong, but when your mother is sitting in the dark listening to Frank Sinatra and weeping softly you kind of figure out something is wrong.  They soldiered on for maybe six or seven years like that until their marriage problems became public.  My father would come home late and sleep on the couch too many nights to count, but I was too young to make the connection.  I just knew if I turned on the TV and woke him up there might be a negative reaction.  I don’t really know how my parents “divorce” affected me, my relationships with women, my confidence and my choices, but you have to figure it into the equation somewhere.

Where Trent Reznor is concerned I don’t know the man.  All I know is what I hear.  So called Industrial Rock is an acquired taste.   I have written about Ministry in the past, but Industrial Rock to me is Skinny Puppy, Killing Joke and White Zombie.  There is a neighboring genre, sometimes called Space Rock, that would include great bands like Stabbing Westward, but Industrial Rock is cold metal.  My mind is a blank for the moment, and I’m no expert on Industrial Rock, but Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor’s vehicle, have pretty much defined this genre for the last twenty years.   They’ve certainly got the most commercially successful crown of all the bands of that ilk.  I can still remember when the first NIN record came out in 1989.  I was searching for something completely off my normal beaten musical path to shake my foundations.  If I remember correctly I bought the CD out of my Columbia House catalogue while trying to honor my obligation.  You remember those 11 CDs for 99 cents offers from about 20 years ago?  Wonder what happened to them.   This band called Nine Inch Nails had a cool name and I’m pretty sure that my local Alternative Rock station was playing “Head Like a Hole” for the first of two billion times so I bought Pretty Hate Machine.  Good decision.  Either you were open minded about Nine Inch Nails or you weren’t.  My friend Mark call their music “devil music,” but I was undeterred.  I had two other friends who I played ball with who loved them as much as I did.   We played PHM until we were absolutely sick of it.  I literally had to put it down for six months at one point.  There just wasn’t anything like it in mainstream Alternative…if such a thing ever existed.   Out of my twenty or thirty person circle I’d guestimate five of us were listening to Nine Inch Nails.   I remember thinking how sad that was.

Michael Trent Reznor turns 46 years of age today.  May 17, 1965 was his birthdate.  He grew up in rural Pennsylvania, which is not all that different from rural New Jersey where I grew up five years earlier.   According to Wikipedia he played the lead in The Music Man in high school.  That makes me laugh a bit, because we did The Music Man as our middle school eighth grade play.  I opted for a bit part as a passenger on the train.  I had about ten lines as I recall.  “You can talk you can bicker, you can talk you can bicker, you can talk talk talk bicker bicker bicker, you can talk all you want to but it’s different than it was.”  That’s about all I can remember.   For you youngsters out there The Music Man was a 1962 musical that was very popular in the 60′s and 70′s.  It even had a minor hit single called “Seventy Six Trombones.”   The only reason it sticks in my mind is because I had just become a teenager, complete with raging hormones, and I was in love with the understudy for the female lead, Marian The Librarian.   We must have spent, as a class, two or three months rehearsing this play.  I was pumped to have zero responsibility during that time.  My scene came up once a week at best.  The rest of the time me and my cohorts spent  getting into trouble on our tiny school grounds in Backwater, NJ.  If only Groudskeeper Willie were there.  I guess you could say that is where my Downward Spiral (see how I did that?) began.  The irony of this is The Music Man could not be any cleaner or purer.  Not exactly what you think of when you think of Trent Reznor’s music right?   I understand Trent played Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar in another school play.  Now that fits the image no?

The songs on Pretty Hate Machine seemed endless.  After “Head” you had “Down In It, Sin, Terrible Lie and Sanctified.”  I’m talking five absolutely scintillating songs that began to change the world.   Radio formats expanded.  People began taking feelings of isolation much more seriously.  I seriously don’t think we’d have ever come across Marilyn Manson if it hadn’t been for Nine Inch Nails.  I could be wrong about that, but there is no doubt NIN cut a wide swath through the established Alternative sounding Rock of the day.   Mix that up with Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sinead O’Connor, 10,000 Maniacs, The Eurythmics, Big Audio Dynamite, the Manchester Sound and all the Indie Rock of that particular era and it was a very exciting time to be a music fan.  I was buying everything I could get my hands on.  But there was nobody like Nine Inch Nails.   Each successive record after Pretty Hate Machine became a bit more challenging and less commercial.  I don’t necessarily mean singles for the radio either.   1992′s Broken was very challenging I thought.  It really didn’t have much for the radio, but songs like “Wish” and “Happiness in Slavery” were not what we as consumer were expecting.  Technically an EP, it came in funky packaging too.  I hate funky packaging.   The CD jacket had no pockets or anyplace to put the CD single that came with it.   It was a different physical size than a normal CD.  It was tiny, a CD-3 I think they call it.  I had to scotch tape it to the cardboard jacket too.  I think I took it out once to tape it and once to burn it.   I realize CD jewel boxes aren’t exactly green, but they are so much better than paper jackets.  I have CDs from the mid 80′s that are in pristine condition protected inside their jewel boxes.   Exposed to normal conditions, the cardboard jackets wear just like the old LP jackets did.  Me no likey.  Still, Broken was the beginning of the end for Reznor’s relationship with TVT Records, which had released Pretty Hate Machine.  They understandably wanted another smash hit record and Broken was definitely not that.  Nice Adam Ant cover in “Physical (You’re So)” though.  That still rocks.   I would have bought anything after that first CD no question.

In 1994 Nine Inch Nails released The Downward Spiral.  As far as reaching outside their normal fan base, this CD was a success.   “Closer” was a brilliant single and “Hurt” was huge.  “Piggy” got a lot of air play as well.   Nine Inch Nails was back with a new label (Interscope Records) and everyone was digging them again.   Apparently some or most of The Downward Spiral was recorded at a rented house located at 10050 Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills, CA.  The reason that is significant is because it was the site of the grizzly 1969 Charles Manson inspired murder of actress Sharon Tate, among others.  Helter Skelter indeed.   I don’t know about you, but whether or not you believe in the story of The Amityville Horror or curses, I would not, publicity or no publicity, derive any joy whatsoever from living in that house for any length of time.  Maybe it inspired Reznor, but if so he’s a better man than I am.  It was right about here, coincidence or not, that Reznor began to battle with alcohol and cocaine addiction.  We wouldn’t hear from Nine Inch Nail for another five years.   The Downward Spiral suddenly seemed more of a prophecy than any historical account.  By the time 1999′s critically acclaimed The Fragile was released, Nine Inch Nails has lost a lot of its luster.  When you are gone for a long time in the music business it’s sometimes hard to recapture the glory and the sales.  I don’t know what my own excuse was exactly, but The Fragile was a sprawling, practically single-less, two CD release that I bascially bought because I wanted to know what had been they had been up to.  I should have played it more than I did, but I struggled with it and never really got behind it.   It’s supposed to be very good so I’ll have to go back, twelve years later, and really give it a go.  Six years after the release of The Fragile, 2005′s With Teeth was released.  I loved this record as soon as I heard it.  It might have been 2005′s very best release although I’m sure I’ll get resistance there.

Since 2005 there have been three more releases.  2007′s Year Zero is tasty.  2008′s Ghosts I-IV is mystifying and irritating, but that, I’m sure was the goal.  2008 also brought us The Slip.  Since then we’ve had re-masters, How To Destroy Angels and soundtracks from the Reznor camp.  I’m just a buyer, but Nine Inch Nails, when they are on, are as good as anybody.  I just don’t go for the raging sound effects or songs that lack melody.  I’m very open minded.  I might have touched on one tenth of the music I listen to, let alone own, in my three years writing for The Giant Panther, but I feel like Trent Reznor could rule the world if he wanted to.   I think he gets a little sidetracked from time to time.  He doen’t have to be angry, depressed or stressed to make great music (OK, maybe a little angry), but who am I to say?  I never wrote a song in my life and I can’t play and instrument.  I haven’t been there and haven’t walked a mile in his shoes.   I think I read somewhere that he’s getting married soon.  Mabye that’ll calm him down a bit.  Still, awesome contributions to the world of music Trent.   Happy birthday from The Giant Panther.

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Buy or Download The Remastered Pretty Hat

When I was a kid, in the 60′s, I loved Stevie Wonder.   When 1970 came and they were playing “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)” I went out and bought the 45 RPM single.  I played that thing, along with Smokey Robinson & The Miracles’ “Tears of a Clown” until the grooves were torched.  I can’t imagine what my family thought of my repetitive play lists.  I’ve mentioned all of this before, but as a refresher course, by 45 collection had the usual stalwarts like The Beatles (Dance With You), The Rolling Stones (Street Fighting Man), The Doors (Light My Fire)and Bob Dylan (Lay Lady Lay), but it was also peppered with Pop Rock bands like The Mamas & The Papas, Steppenwolf, The Grassroots, The Young Rascals, The Strawberry Alarm Clock, The Zombies, Shocking Blue, Norman Greenbaum, Joe Tex, Brewer & Shipley,  Tommy Roe, Tommy James & The Shondells, Crazy Elephant, America, The Foundations, Diana Ross & The Supremes…the list is endless.  Explains a lot no?  I remember beginning to listen to FM radio around 1974 or so.  Their   had bands I wasn’t completely familiar with, but would become very familiar with within the next three years.  I’m talking about Fleetwood Mac, Jethro Tull, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, King Crimson, Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne, The Eagles and on and on.  I remember my first real exposure to overplayed records.  I remember very clearly being sick of songs like Linda Ronstadt’s “You’re No Good,” Rufu’s “Tell Me Something Good,” Stevie Wonder’s “Boogie On Reggae Woman” and Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Taking Care of Business.”  Come to think of it, I’m still sick of “Taking Care of Business,” but I still listen to 1974′s Not Fragile to this day.  I think the point I’m trying to make is that Stevie Wonder, as great as he was from 1970-1976, was sort of off the beaten AOR Rock Music Path.  I had moved on.  Motown will always be great, but it’s not what I reach for at home you know?  I love Al Green, Marvin Gaye and The Temptations, but back in those days I was just discovering all this Blues oriented Rock and I wanted in.

Stevland Hardaway Judkins, later to become known as Stevie Wonder, was born May 13, 1950 in Saginaw, MI.   Though he has not had his sight for 99.9% of his 61 years, he has pulled down a record 22 Grammy Awards and had 30 Top Ten hits in the United States according to our friends at Wikipedia.   Quite the accomplishment wouldn’t you say?  The reason I told the story above about liking Stevie Wonder in the 60′s is because I started to think he was getting some of those Grammy’s ahead of some of the bands I wanted to win back then.   Truthfully, songs like “My Cherie Amour, For Once in My Life and I Was Made To Love Her” seemed larger than life.  By the time songs like “You Are The Sunshine of My Life” and “Supersition” from 1972′s Talking Book were winning awards I was listening to other stuff.  I knew he was good, but I just didn’t know how good.   1973′s Innervisions is the Stevie Wonder record I would choose if I had to choose one.   My God.   Wonder just exploded with awe inspiring music.  “Too High, Living For The City, Golden Lady, Higher Ground and Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a thing” could well be my five favorite Stevie Wonder tracks.  And that is really saying something.   What a phenomenal talent.   End of story.  Do I wish he never released “Ebony & Ivory” in 1982 or “I Just Called To Say I Love You” in 1984?  No question, but 1980′s Master Blaster (Jammin’), I Ain’t Gonna Stand For It” and 1981′s “That Girl” cancel those efforts out quite nicely.

Most folks gravitate towards 1976′s Songs in The Key of Life and I understand that, but for me the dirty gritty “Living For The City” is my all time Stevie Wonder favorite.   He just had it going on in 1973.   I haven’t paid a lot of attention to Stevie Wonder since the early 80′s.  I totally admit that, but I’m a rocker.  For my money the best thing with Stevie Wonder’s stamp on it since then was when Coolio reworked his song “Pastime Paradise” from Songs in The Key of Life and turned it into “Gangsta’s Paradise” in 1995 for the film Dangerous Minds.   That is one great Rap song.   I don’t have a ton to add to this post except to say that when Stevie Ray Vaughan covers you that’s a good thing.  Actually “Superstition” has been covered by a number of artists including Jeff Beck, Widespread Panic, Alicia Keys, The Jonas Brothers, Paul Hardcastle and George Michael.   There is only one Stevie Wonder though.  Those of us with hearing are very thankful for his musical efforts.  I have enjoyed listening to him for decades.  Happy belated Birthday Stevie from The Giant Panther.

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Buy or Download Steve Wonder – The Definitive Collection From Amazon Here.

I’m usually not too fired up when actors try to become Rock Stars.  I’m sure many of you out there can cite three or four that crossed over successfully, but there seems like a lot more failures than successes to me.  I’ll even give you Rick Springfield, he of General Hospital and “Jessie’s Girl” fame.  No offense to Rick intended whatsoever, but I wasn’t that fired up about either venture in his case.   I got excoriated by hardcore Tom Waits fan The Giant Panther when I said I enjoyed Scarlett Johanson’s take on Wait’s “Falling Down” when she did a CD of Waits covers a couple of years back called Anywhere I Lay My Head.  It’s just not cool apparently.   I actually liked her spin on “Falling Down.”  Maybe I’m completely blinded by her enormous sex appeal, but frankly, my eyes had little to do with it.   I heard it for the first time one lazy summer afternoon on the jukebox in a classic Boston waterfront hole in the wall called The Sail Loft.   It was in 2008, well before I was cognizant of the mobile application Shazam.   In case you don’t use that app, it’s one of those identify the song pieces of software that I would have loved decades ago.   Even though I almost never need it, I subscribed to the $5 application recently in San Francisco a couple of months back.   My buddy and I were doing late night cocktails in some motel bar and the DJ played Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock’s  1988 hit “It Takes Two.”  I’m not much for Disco.  I thought the song was older, but I also thought it was Michael Jackson.  My normally clueless friend knew it wasn’t.  Shazam!  Problem solved.  For a mini musicologist like me it’s a cool thing to have at my fingertips.  I couldn’t get the next song because I had used up my five free songs for the month with the software.   That wasn’t going to happen again even though I haven’t used it ten times since.   If there is a point here, I guess it’s that my Disco memory is very shaky, I like Shazam, and that actors rarely hold my attention whatsoever when they try to make the leap to Rock Star…which brings me to the reason for today’s post…

My first exposure to the phenomenon that (mostly) was The Rocky Horror Picture Show came in 1978 when folks used to line up, in costume, for a midnight showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show every Friday at a place called The Exeter Street Theatre in Boston.  It happened to be near a T.G.I. Fridays where I would end up working not three years later for a spell.  It had this greenhouse window all along the side of the restaurant.  Great for people watching.  These folks that loved Rocky Horror were there every week.   I’m not talking during The Halloween season; I’m talking EVERY Friday night!  It was highly entertaining to be honest.   Men don’t seem to have a handle on women as a general rule, lord knows I don’t, but when they have the opportunity to get into costume sometimes their exhibitionist tendencies surface.   If they were attractive prior to getting into costume, there is something about a costume that adds to the normal sexual tension between men and women.   There were more than a few Janets (Susan Sarandons we used to call them) in line each week.  There were too many Tim Curry’s for my taste though.  I guess, in fairness, I should say I was new in town back then and I came from a provincial backwater NJ town nobody recognizes when you answer the question “what exit?”   We had no overtly gay or cross dressing crowd, to my knowledge, and when I got to Emerson College I got an instant education.   There was this guy, we’ll call him Jonathan, in one of my first classes and he came to class each day completely and totally quaffed as a woman.  I hated myself for thinking to myself that the guy was not half bad looking.  I’m reading a book these days by Marianne Faithfull called Faithfull: An Autobiography.  In it she goes into some fairly graphic detail about Mick Jagger’s androgynous tastes.  Mick remains one of my musical heroes so this stuff is sometimes a bit of downer for me to absorb, but who am I to judge?  I wouldn’t even be reading this book if it wasn’t tied to The Stones’ legacy, but it’s actually quite fascinating.  I knew a lot of folks took acid trips back in 60′s believe me, we don’t get to Revolver and Sgt Pepper’s without them I suppose, but Keith Richards basically glossed over the amount of acid ingested in those days in his recent book.  Marianne is writing like they did it three times a week for years.  They didn’t even consider it to be a hard drug.  Oh, and by the way, everybody was banging everybody and nobody took it personally for the most part.  I had no idea Keith and Marianne got it on for instance.   Anyway, I’m way off track again…I’m so very good at that, but I was trying to put into context my exposure to the alternative lifestyle crowd.  Ah, zero would be accurate when my ship docked in Beantown for school in 1978.   Then my friend Jefferson took me to actually see The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  Fun times…

If you have never been it’s quite riveting.  Folks in the crowd were normally regulars along the lines of the folks who keep going back to see Star Wars or Star Trek.  They knew every word as they actors were saying them.  It was like a comedy open mike night as everybody was yelling things in the dark trying to get a laugh.  People threw toilet paper and it was general mayhem all around.  I’m not much for horror flicks (Rocky Horror is hardly a real horror flick by the way…it’s a musical in horror costumes) or alternative living for that matter, but I did have a blast at my one and only showing.  I just listened to the soundtrack and there isn’t much there.  It’s not exactly The Singles Soundtrack or even Jesus Christ Superstar, but what it does have is Tim Curry.  Remember him?  I think I wanted to say a few words about him when I started blathering here.   Timothy James Curry was born on April 19, 1946.  I know 1960, the year of my birth, sounds ancient to most folks now, but most of my heroes were born in the 40′s.  Now that seems like a long time ago.   Probably because it was.   Tim just turned 65 a couple of days ago (as I backdate this post).   Tim’s illustrious career on Broadway began as a cast member in the musical Hair.  Hair was a gargantuan groundbreaking 60′s musical that just captivated audiences and radio stations on both sides of the Atlantic.   Monster songs came as a result of that play;  The Fifth Dimension’s “The Age of Aquarius,” Oliver’s “Good Morning Starshine,” Three Dog Night’s “Easy To Be Hard” and The Cowsill’s rocking (hard to think of “Cowsills” and “rocking” in the same sentence, but Whoomp, There It Is) version of the title track.   Tim Curry had a bit part in Hair, but a chance meeting with eventual Rock Horror Picture Show author Richard O’Brien moved Curry’s career forward big time.

Curry’s role as Dr Frank N Furter was perfect for him.  He had some flamboyance in his acting style to begin with and he obviously not too concerned about dressing up like a woman or a transvestite.  His performance of “Sweet Transvestite” in Rocky Horror was the best thing about that show as far as I’m concerned.  Yeah, people were doing the Time Warp and prancing around in costume, but I think Curry discovered he could sing a bit.   It took several years, but in 1979 he began to get some notoriety for his music.  His second LP, Fearless, contained a very catchy track called “I Do The Rock.”  It was a name dropping smorgasbord of several genres, but it was a smash hit single.  I loved it myself.  You see it on a lot of 80′s compilations, but they probably are using some technicality as to when the single actually hit the radio.   I just found out it was actually recorded here in Massachusetts so maybe that is why it received such heavy airplay here.  I really don’t remember making the connection between Rocky Horror and “I Do The Rock,” but I’m sure I did eventually.   Still, it would have been easy to dismiss the actor’s foray into the world ofRock music as a one off.  He had another song on Fearless called “Paradise Garage” that some folks thought a lot of, but it didn’t get much airplay.  Still, Tim Curry, the man of several big time plays and countless voice overs (listen closely to The Clash’s Sound of Sinners from Sandinista! and you might hear a Tim Curry snippet or two) had made a small name for himself in Rock.

Tim put out one final LP in 1981 called Simplicity that included a fantastic track called “Working On My Tan.”  I remember hitting tar beach (anybody’s roof) in downtown Boston with my buddies and hearing WBCN’s Captain Ken Shelton play the song on his Mighty Mighty Lunch Hour program.   We’d be sipping beer and baking in the hot sun on any given summer day that year.   Tim Curry was right there with us.  It’s such a summer song I find it hard to believe it is all but forgotten.  If it was up to me, and it never is, this song would be an annual summer staple on the radio.   I’d rather hear this track than any Jimmy Buffet track I can tell you that much.   He also does a decent cover of Bob Dylan’s “Simple Twist of Fate” on his greatest hits CD.  Today Mr Curry lives in Los Angeles, probably fenced off from the masses and enjoying the weather, while tending to his real estate holdings.   I know he had a fantastic career as an actor, a voice-over guru and a businessman, but I for one am happy he gave us some music on the side.  Happy belated Birthday Tim from The Giant Panther.

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Buy or Download The Best of Tim Curry From Amazon Here.

I’ve always enjoyed the music of Liz Phair.   Like most people I was instantly enamored of her debut 1993 release Exile in Guyville.   If you don’t own a copy you should.  It’s got a very high percentage of great music for a CD with 18 songs on it.   Unfortunately for Liz, it still stands as her best record.  And it’s not close.   I bought the next three CDs of her catalogue waiting for something in that neighborhood, but it just never came.  I enjoyed 1994′s Whip-Smart and 1998′s Whitechocolatespaceegg, but Liz just seemed to move towards a more poppier girly sounding style of music.  I even liked ”Extraordinary” from 2003′s self titled Liz Phair, but I think, if memory serves, I had to hear that one on a TV commercial before I actually heard it on the radio.   My local Alternative Rock station apparently made the decision her music was a too commercial sounding and stop playing her.  I’m sure other stations took up the slack, but I kind of missed hearing her.  She’s released six records in total, but I only own four.  I’ll definitely go back and find 2005′s Somebody’s Miracle in the cutout bin one of these days, but I kind of lost my Liz Phair mojo sometime last decade.   She’s only seven years younger than I am, but it feels like I’ve got 15-20 years on her for some reason.   Maybe it’s 200 sex kitten photos you can all find on the world wide web with a couple of clicks of the mouse.   Some of her photos are hot, I think we can all agree on that, but some of them have the feel of trying too hard to me for some reason.  I don’t hold any of that against her though, in fact I kind of wish more women were like her.   She’s been about attitude and I always liked that about her.

Elizabeth Clark Phair was born on April 17, 1967 in New Haven, CT.   She spent the lion’s share of her childhood in a town called Winnetka, IL.   According to our friends at Wikipedia she was a fairly normal high school student participating instudent government, helping to put together the yearbook and running Cross Country.  Pretty cool so far.   After attending Oberlin College in Ohio and majoring in Art History, Phair met guitar player Chris Brokaw from the Boston Alternative Rock band Come.   The pair moved to San Francisco for a time, but Phair moved back to Chicago after struggling to become an artist there.   Back in the Chicago area she made friends with local bands and became a part of the local Indie Rock Scene.   Phair allegedly hung around with Chicago areas band that were hitting it big like Material Issue and Urge Overkill.   She began to record songs on homemade tapesand asking around to find out who might be able to release her music.   She located Brad Wood of Feel Good All Over records, a local Indie label.   It is said that Wood pointed Phair towards Gerard Cosley, co-founder of Matador Records.   After sending him her tapes Cosley agreed to record her and the rest is history.   Exile in Guyville was co-produced by both Phair and Brad Wood and ignited a bit of controversy.   There were overtly sexual lyrics and one song, exquisitely named “Fuck and Run” was about as down and dirty as it gets.  Naturally she had her share of detractors as a result.   There can be no question she used her sex appeal, or maybe more accurately the appeal of sex, to help sell Exile, but the fact of the matter remains, the record was rock solid.

It seemed like eons between Exile, which was getting some mileage out of a rumor that it was allegedly a song for song rebuttal of The Rolling Stones’ Classic Exile On Main Street, but that talk died down over the years.   I loved both records, but I didn’t quite see or hear what people were talking about.   Whip-Smart almost came out too fast as it didn’t seem as though enough people had really digested Exile, but while it had a couple of radio friendly tracks beginning with “Supernova,” it was ultimately perceived as a disappointment.   Liz Phair, however, had made The Cover of The Rolling Stone as the old Dr Hook song goes.   She appeared on Letterman, Leno, MTV’s 120 Minutes and Good Morning America.   Pretty heady stuff for a 27 or 28 year old.  1995 she got married and had a child and things changed a bit for Liz as far as her music I think it’s fair to say.   By the time 1998′s Whitechocolatespaceegg was released Phair had toned it down.  The single from that CD, “Polyester Bride,” was actually quite listenable from my point of view, but I don’t think too many people actually heard it.  Sales disappointed again.   Phair had written a pretty cool song about Divorce ironically called “Divorce Song” on Exile in Guyville, but she herself, if I have my facts straight (and it wouldn’t be the first time I didn’t), didn’t actually become involved in a divorce until 2001.  Breakups are like divorces without all the expensive paperwork so I’m sure it doesn’t matter, but I was curious.

I think Liz Phair too an inordinate amount of criticism over the years, but she still managed to sell over three million records.   She released a record called Funstyle in 2010, but I have yet to hear a note.  I’ll eventually get around to it, but I don’t really have a problem with her joining the Lillith Fair set so much.  It’s not for me, but whatever makes her happy is fine by me.   I just saw on Wikipedia that she is good friends with Robin Tunney, who co-stars with Simon Baker on the CBS TV show The Mentalist.    That’s cool.   I’m a Robin Tunney fan too.   I think Liz is reviewing books for a living these days in between releases.  I’m sure she gets a little tired of hearing sell out and all the other stuff that gets thrown at her.  I don’t understand all the negativity, but she really did wallop a home run with that first release and people wanted more from her I guess.  Hopefully she lets that stuff roll off of her back these days.  I think she performed awhile back, but don’t quote me.  I wasn’t there I’m sorry to say.   Next time Liz.   Happy Birthday From The Giant Panther.

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I’m going to do my best not to make excuses anymore, d’oh!…I just did it again.  For those of you disappointed when you check back and nothing has been posted for two weeks running, I sincerely apologize.  Work has been consuming me 24×7 and that still might not be good enough.  I had another handful of well intentioned post ideas lined up for this past month and I couldn’t get anything done.  I feel like I can’t work out,  I can’t blog, I can’t listen to music…I’m running on empty all of the time and still I’m not comfortable.  Oh well, welcome to the new world order I guess.   I was hoping to get into some kind of a sales groove that would allow me to weave my passion in amongst my craft, but I’ve been failing miserably lately.  I’m definitely coming around to a calendar year on Rock Star Birthday Blurbs so you’ll see less and less of them in the coming year, although I need to catch a few I missed last year.   Last month I might have gotten to five.  Pitiful.  I think I can do better, but lately I’ve been pretty weak.  Now I try to do two posts in a row, backdating one (like this one) and telling myself I’m caught up.   I know I’ve been hitting the Classic Rock artists pretty hard lately and for that I apologize.  My counterpart is supposed to keeping the blog current with the Indie stuff, but he’s doing worse than I am in terms of this blog.  I don’t want to lose whatever audience we’ve built up, but when you don’t have any current content your numbers are bound to fall off.  After I get done celebrating birthdays, I hope to dig deep into my catalogue and pull out more surprises for all of you.  Lord knows I have ‘em…even if lately my collection looks like every other aging Rock & Roll warrior’s collection.  Speaking of Rock & Roll warriors, I’ve got Bob Seger and Neil Young lined up over the next ten days.  I’ll try and post something, but I don’t want to overpromise and underdeliver yet again.

As March went out like a lamb around Boston town, Eric Patrick Clapton ticked another birthday off the calendar.  Born March 30, 1945, I guess that makes him 66 years of age.   The guy is icon, larger than life, but he seems older to me.  Of course as my 51st just passed myself, age have more of a reflective effect on me.   Eric Clapton has brought me many moments of great joy.   I’m listening to his 2009 collaboration with Steve Winwood called Live From Madison Square Garden while I type and as he ripped into Traffic’s “Dear Mr Fantasy” you just get the feeling he’s amongst the best ever.  I really liked Jimi Hendrix’s thunder and I never get tired of listening to Angus Young’s riffs, but Clapton has the longevity and pedigree.   It’s an age old argument that cannot ever produce a winner, but it’s fun to consider.  The guitar is the ultimate symbol of male prowess it seems; funny how I can’t play.  That fits right in with everything I’ve got going on…which is to say nothing.  However, the first time I heard “Sunshine of Your Love” I knew this guy was something else.  I was too young to take note of “Clapton is God” graffiti or to have intimate knowledge of The Yardbirds and or John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.  I came into musical consciousness, particularly as it applies to Rock music, in the late 60′s.   Cream’s 1967 classic Disraeli Gears album had been out a year plus by then.   It’s hard to explain what Cream meant to Rock Music all these years later.   Sure, they are Rock & Roll Hall of Famers, but  that doesn’t explain the fever they inspired.   It seemed like their were literally a ton of great bands in the last 60′s, but Cream was right up there near the very top.  The fought, they argued and they split up, but they churned out awesome English Blues Rock that has easily stood the test of time.

I can’t tell you anything about Eric Clapton that hasn’t already been written so I won’t even try.  If you haven’t read his book, along with its unintentional sister companion called Wonderful Tonight by Patti Boyd, check them out.  I’d bet millions Eric has read Patti’s book the same way you might look up an old girlfriend on Facebook.  Since Eric is allegedly clean and sober these days I can image them both thinking what the hell were we thinking?  Unfortunately, Beatle George Harrison is no longer around to add his perspective, but love triangles are always a bit messy aren’t they?  Like I would know.  Despite all the trouble with alcohol, heroin and whatever else Clapton has endured.  I’ve seen live several times, but he’s the master.  Of course, he’s one of several masters in our time, but he always delivers a pretty good show nowadays.  I’ll continue to attend his concerts as he tours.  He’s worth every penny, even as he’s mellowed in his later years.   It’s almost restrained the way he jams along these days.  I know many of you probably wince at the mellow adult contemporary sound of his last few records, but I just keep on buying ’em like the fool that I am.  I just can’t help myself.   I dont’ want to miss anything.   The Cream reunions, the all-star jams at John Mayall’s birthdays or Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductions…I don’t care, bring ‘em on.  Not too many axe men play live into their late 60′s and I’m inclined to see this thing through until the end, whenever that is (hopefully 30 years from now).

Blind Faith was great, Derek & The Dominos were pretty amazing, The Yardbirds were groundbreaking for an early 60′s band and John Mayall is John Mayall.   Delaney & Bonnie were fairly interesting as well, but Clapton’s solo career is what sustained him all these years later.  One could argue that Cream into Blind Faith was the peak of Eric Clapton’s career and lord knows those songs still sound great, but personally I really began paying attention when I brought home a copy of 1974′s 461 Ocean Boulevard.   I was 14 back then and though Eric Clapton as the man.  Bob Marley’s “I Shot The Sheriff” was all over the radio in New York City, but I just loved “Motherless Children, Let It Grow, Willie & The Hand Jive, Steady Rollin’ Man, Give Me Strength and Mainline Florida.”  Only his second solo record, four years after his first, but one I will always remember.   He misfired on his next two releases, at least commercially by his new standards, with 1975′s There’s One in Every Crowd and 1976′s No Reason To Cry, but in 1977 hit hit it big with Slowhand.   Not only was that one of his monikers, allegedly given to him by filmmaker Giorgio Gomelsky in the 60′s, after the album was released it became a brand.  Yes, there were plenty of adult AOR fodder with “Lay Down Sally, Wonderful Tonight” and even J.J. Cale’s “Cocaine,” but there were great tracks on that record like “The Core, Mean Old Frisco & Next Time You See Her.”  Clapton was back.  Soft Rock doesn’t get much better than 1978′s Backless in my book.  That’s a sleeper of a record.   Some might think Clapton has been releasing relatively Soft Rock for years, and I suppose in contrast to his earlier output that would be an accurate statement, but his mid 80′s records like 1985′s Behind The Sun, 1986′s August, 1989′s Journeyman and 1994′s From The Cradle were OK by me.

Of course no discussed of Clapton would be complete without mentioning 1992′s Unplugged CD.  Millions of folks returned to the Clapton fold based on his slowed down reworked acoustic versions of songs like Derek & The Dominos classic “Layla.”  It brought a lot more woman into the mix when talking about Clapton.   He was cool yet again, but more importantly he was wicked commercial as they say here in the Northeast.  Man did that CD sell.   According to our friends at Wikipedia, it made it all the way to Number 1 on The Billboard Charts and sold 10 million copies in the United States alone.  Amazing.  I have to admit though, I was part of the MTV Unplugged fad.  I bought Neil Young, 10,000 Maniacs, Rod Stewart, Nirvana and probably a couple of others I’m forgetting now that decades have gone by.  It was fun and unusual.  Everybody was unplugging.  Heck, Radiohead even Unplugged “Creep” back then.   It was just the thing to do.  Clapton did it as well as anyone even though Nirvana remains my all time favorite amongst the genre.   I’m not going to leave you with the obvious Clapton choices today.  He has appeared on well over 100 albums between compilations, collaborations and greatest hits packages, but his 20 solo records are pretty compelling in their own right.  I don’t know if I said anything about anything during this post, but it’s clear I’m a fan I hope.  Happy belated Birthday Eric from The Giant Panther.  You did it your way and it worked out fine.

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I know Elton John has ceased to be anything resembling a Rock Star for decades now, but I couldn’t help but make one final mention of his talent.  Great musicians, whether they just make music, write lyrics or both are sort of, to pilfer a phrase, like Candles in The Wind.  You really have no idea, I can only imagine, whether you’ve got what it takes to be successful, let alone become a worldwide mega star.  I know many of you are just too young to relate to Elton John, but this guy had it going on like nobody’s business between 1970 and 1976.  He was unstoppable.  Every album not only sold, but they were brilliant.  Yeah, I said it.  Yes I’m a big fan of Joy Division’s.  Yes I am a big fan of AC/DC.  Yes I love early Genesis.   Elton John was ginormous.  He was a brilliant singer-songwriter, like Cat Stevens on steriods.  I remember when I got to Emerson College in 1978 and finally figured out that Elton was no longer cool, if he ever was I suppose, among my peer group, it was kind of a surprise.  Yeah he had an alternative lifestyle, but who didn’t (kidding!)?  I probably brought 10 Elton John albums north from New Jersey.  I didn’t try to play them for the masses or anything, but when you thumb through a stack of 300 or 400 as we all did when we got to school, a pack of ten stands out.  So…you’re one of them huh?  In a word, yes…yes I am.  I am a fan of early 70′s Elton John.  Sue me.

The first song that sort of turned me onto Elton was probably “Crocodile Rock.”  I have to be completely honest with you.  I bought the 45 RPM and proceeded to get sick of the song like everybody else, but the flipside was “Elderberry Wine.”  Man I loved that song.  Still do.  I was probably a throw away track for Elton, but it had everything I loved about Elton in those days.  It told a good story, it rocked and it had melody.   Drunk all the time feelin’ fine on Elderberry Wine.  I’ve never had Elderberry Wine.  I’ll bet most people haven’t, but I know it exists because I’ve sung along with this track a gazillion times.  The funny thing about those early 70′s Elton John albums is that I was ten when they started coming out.  I learned them out of order for sure.  For instance, yes I owned the “Crocodile Rock” 45,  but I’ll bet I didn’t own 1973′s Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only The Piano Player for five to seven years after that.  And even then I probably boughtit used in Kenmore Square for $3.99.  My high school buddy Jim and I used to play Rummy 500 until the proverbial cows came home listening to Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac, Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s Not Fragile and Elton John’s Madman Across The Water over and over and over.  We were 14.  We didn’t know anything about any of these artists except we liked the music.   I could embarrass myself further and say JIm Croce’s Greatest Hits and Carly Simon’s Playing Possum were also part of the rotation.   “Attitude Dancing” indeed.   Still, even then, we knew Elton John was some kind of talent.  Before the nation could even digest the brilliance of Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only The Piano Player Elton released his piece de resistance; Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

In an explosion of creativity, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road was a fantastic record all the way through.  A double album chock full of wonderful “B” cuts.   The rank and file music listener, if you put them on the spot, could probably recognize “Benny & The Jets Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting and Candle in The Wind,” but after that?  And most of those folks wouldn’t be able to tell you what record they came from.   Yellow Brick Road had probably the last bastion of old school Elton buried amongst its tracks.  There were positively outstanding new sounding Elton tracks like “Jamaica Jerk-Off, All The Young Girls Love Alice, Bennie & The Jets and Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding,” but tracks like “Dirty Little Girl, I’ve Seen That Movie Too, The Ballad of Danny Bailey (1909-1934) and Harmony” were all the end of an era I felt.  After that it always seemed like the Bitch Was Back.  Look, Elton John sold over 250 million records according to our friends at Wikipedia.   Counting 1969′s Empty Sky, the guy released no fewer than 10 consecutive solid records.  One could argue that he hasn’t released one since, but that is just semantics.  How many acts get to ten records, let alone the quality that just streamed out of Elton John.  If you are Andre Braugher or Ray Romano (Men of a Certain Age), you can really appreciate how much the girls in high school liked this guy.  Along with Cat Stevens and James Taylor, Elton seemed to put those high school girls in a certain mood after a few Miller High Life’s…yeah we drank that crap back in the day.  I love how that dude gussies it up on TV now.  Those are some of the best commercials on TV as far as I’m concerned.   Anyway, I know this all seems very nostalgic to most of you and you’re probably accurate in thinking that way, but these records still sound good to me to this very day.  I go in streaks, but these records are not collecting dust in my world.

I’m sure most of you saw Almost Famous and the bus scene where they all started singing “Tiny Dancer.”  That kind of made Elton cool again and that was back in, what?  2000?   I saw an awful clip of Elton being hounded by the paparazzi and he made some nasty comment to some woman asking a dumb question and it didn’t put him in a nice good light, but I’ve never had folks popping out from behind bushes to snap my photo on the way to Dunkin’ Donuts on a hangover ridden Saturday morning either.  I thought the flipside of that type of behavior was his recent collaboration with Leon Russell, effectively making Leon relevant again and getting him some badly needed gigs in the process.  We all know about the gracious behavior he displayed with the vitriolic Eminem the last decade or so.  They say Elton is generally a happy man these days.  I’m glad.  As much joy as he’s given me over the years the very least I can do is wish him well back.  I saw him perform Captain Fantastic & The Brown Dirt Cowboy in its entirety in 2005 and loved it.   I had to weather some modern compositions in the process, but it was well worth it.  I think all told I probably saw Elton John three times in concert.  Once was at the Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati, OH on a positively sweltering August 1995 evening.  Once was at The Great Woods Center For The Performing Arts in September of 1992 and the aforementioned Boston Garden (Naming Rights For Sale Center) in September of 2005.   He was great each time.  I know he’s had his problems with substance abuse over the years, but it didn’t seem to affect him any time that I saw him.  Those were sing along concerts.  Lots of fun if you brought a female.

Reginald Kenneth Dwight was born on March 25, 1947.   I didn’t know his stage name turned real name was a tribute to saxophonist Elton Dean and Long John Baldry, an English Folk & Blues singer with Canadian roots until today.  I did not know Elton auditioned for King Crimson and Gentle Giant.   That seems strange.  We do know he was rightfully inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.   He and lyricist Bernie Taupin have been collaborating since 1967 and have worked together on more than 30 albums.  I’m not close minded enough to tell you they haven’t produced anything of value since 1976.  That would be patently false, but I sort of lost interest in the late 70′s.  I kind of think Elton did too there for a while, but once he righted the ship and quit the wayward behaviorhe got his recording career back on track.  I know he had several hits in the 80′s, but they weren’t being played on Rock stations give or take songs like “I’m Still Standing” and “Kiss The Bride.”  His time in the white hot spotlight was finally behind him.  He’s just as famous as he ever was, but he only records when he feels like it and it’s been some 35 years since he was the hottest thing since sliced bread.  I don’t care.  I still work early 70′s Elton in amongst my annual repertoire.  Happy Birthday Elton.   Will you still need me, will you still feed me huh?  I’m right behind you Captain and closing fast.

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Colorful Lou Reed has had a Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame career.  You hear all these stories alleging that he’s a miserable interview and here at The Giant Panther we’ll never know.  The closest I ever got to Lou Reed was Orchestra R/C Row RR seat 102 on March 10, 1989 at The Orpheum Theatre in Boston on the New York Tour.   Those of you from New England will recognize this seat as roughly 14th row on the aisle.   The New York tour was fabulous and though it was my only time to see Lou Reed he did not disappoint.  The first half of the show was New York played in its entirety and the second half was a greatest hits run through.  It was fabulous.  I’ve been a Lou Reed fan since around 1972.  It probably coincided with my first listen to Walk On The Wild Side, but I was clueless about the lyrics.  I just knew the colored girls sang do, do, do, etc.   My love of The Velvet Underground came later; hey I was barely six when they released their first record so cut me some slack would ya?  Believe me, it had nothing to do with Waiting For The Man (the idea not the song) and I wasn’t much for bending genders.  Speaking of which, funny how many of my musical heroes seem to have done some experimenting when I’m kind of straight laced that way.   Kind of?  Strike that, not kind of.   It definitely doesn’t stop me from buying scores of records by David Bowie, Elton John or Lou Reed, that’s for sure.   If you don’t have a copy of Lou Reed’s 1989 CD called New York that’s a mistake.   Pound for pound it could be Lou’s best record as far as I’m concerned.  I know them’s fighting words, but it’s my opinion.  Love that record to death.  Check it out if you like Lou Reed and slept through the late 80′s.

Lewis Allen Reed (although some sources are in fact quoting the name Rabinowitz so I’m not exactly sure what is true and what isn’t…thank you to the reader who wrote in below) was born March 2, 1942.   Many people think of Lou’s speak singing in the same vein as a Bob Dylan, but as much as I worship Bob Dylan, Lou can really sing in my opinion.  I don’t know how these folks who chain smoked for many years have such clean sounding voices.   Lou’s got a low voice, but it rarely sounds strained to me.   I don’t know Rod Stewart’s smoking habits for example, but imagine he did his share of it with that voice.   Keith Richards?  Please.  He croaks God love him.  Awesome book Keith!  I never heard so many “cats” (as in that cat was cool) or “mates” in my life.   Love his music just the same as you all know by now.  Lou Reed has a wonderful catalogue too.   The Velvet Underground stuff speaks for itself, but Lou’s has been releasing records non stop for nearly 50 years now.   He’s not afraid to go completely off the rails like when he released Metal Machine Music in 1975, but he has had great “singles” over the years.  Remember ”I Love You, Suzanne” from 1984′s New Sensation or “No Money Down” from 1986′s Mistrial or one of my all time favorite lost Reed tracks ”What’s Good” from 1992′s Magic and Loss?  Life’s like mayonnaise soda y’all!  Old timers will point to “Perfect Day” or “Satellite of Love” or “Sweet Jane” or “Vicious” or “Rock & Roll” and who can blame them?   These are not just great Classic Rock hit songs, they are legendary still sound good to this very minute songs.  The ones I referred to are mere “B” cut fodder as good as they are.  Comparatively speaking they are throwaway tracks next to these monster tracks.  Lou’s been around a good long while and though he’s made some interesting choices for his catalogue, it’s really never been boring.   Just tremendous.

Born in Brooklyn, Lou Reed spent the majority of his childhood living on Long Island before moving to New York City in 1963.   A graduate of Syracuse University (class of ’64), he garnered a job as a staff songwriter at Pickwick Records.  It was there that he wrote a novelty song called “The Ostrich” that his employers thought might be worth recording.  A group was hastily assembled called The Primitives and it included another young musician from Wales named John Cale.  Something of a partnership was formed as a result.   They began to room together and began hanging around with college acquaintances named Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker.   They called themselves The Velvet Underground.   Avant-garde artist Andy Warhol stumbled on the band and turned them into the house band at his studio referred to as the Factory.  Some of your may have seen the 2006 film Factory Girl starring starring the lovely Sienna Miller a while back.  It is loosely based on the story of Edie Sedgwick.  I love stuff like this so I soaked it up.  I don’t know if anyone else liked it, but I did.   The Velvet Underground might have been massively influential and broke all kinds ground with songs about drugs and sex, but they never sold that many records.  John Cale left in 1968 and even their principal songwriter, Mr Lou Reed, checked out in 1970.  I went looking for a photo of European model Nico and found the photo above.  She was basically thrust upon the band at the behest of Andy Warhol, but you can see why both Reed and Cale allegedly had dalliances with her.  The Velvet Underground & Nico still remains a critic’s wet dream after all these years.  It yielded world famous tracks like “There She Goes Again, Waiting For The Man, Femme Fatale, Heroin and All Tomorrow’s Parties.”  Each song has been covered countless times.

After working at this father’s tax firm for a stretch, Lou recorded his first solo album in 1970 with the help of Yes’ Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe.  I didn’t know that.  Thanks Wikipedia.   It was critically acclaimed when listened to, but largely ignored, probably because it was mostly re-worked or “B” Velvet Underground material.  All that changed when David Bowie and Mick Ronson got a hold of him in 1972.  That December he released Transformer and his solo career took off like the proverbial bat out of hell.   “Walk On The Wild Side” was an international hit, but let’s not forget the sublime “Vicious” and “Andy’s Chest” and “Perfect Day” and “Satellite of Love.”  He already had plenty of street cred, but now he was an established solo artist.  The sky was the limit.  Of course, right off the bat he released 1973′s challenging Berlin; the story of two junkies in love.  Some folks really like this record, but the rest of us who have never done Heroin potentially struggled with this LP after Transformer.  In 1974 Reed released both Sally Can’t Dance and Rock ‘N’ Roll Animal, with it’s awesome re-working of “Sweet Jane.”  It was recorded live at New York’s Howard Stein Academy of Music in late 1973 and it was a must own for any serious collector.   A couple of future members of Alice Cooper’s band and an ex-Detroit Wheel played on the massively famous record and it still rocks.  I just listened to it yet again as I sit here typing.  I’m not sure what it is exactly, live albums come and go, but that intro to “Sweet Jane” and the jamming…it’s sounds so…big.  Great stuff, the louder the better.

By now Lou Reed already had a fervent following, but he continued to release eclectic and challenging records all through the 70′s and into the 80′s.  None of his records sold particularly well, in fact it is said that record executive Clive Davis apparently saved Reed from bankruptcy around the time of 1976′s Rock and Roll Heart. His 80′s output was a lot more digestible for the most part, at least as far as the radio goes, but after New York he went right back into more obscure material.   From my pint of view, 2000′s Ecstasy is a real sleeper if you are looking for a latter day record in his catalogue that at least tries to rock.  1990′s Songs For Drella and 1992′s Magic and Loss have a few too many ballads for my taste.  Sometimes it takes a “Busload of Faith” to get by when he doesn’t feel like rocking in my world.   I like the Lou Reed that gets excited, not so much the reflective story teller.   That doesn’t mean I won’t buy his records, lord knows I have all of them, but I love reaching for The Velvet Underground, Transformer, Rock ‘N’ Roll Animal, New York and Ecstasy more than most of them.  I’m sure all you Lou Reed fans will have your own favorites and that is what makes Lou great to be honest.  Happy belated 69th Birthday Lou from The Giant Panther.

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I admit to having been around a while.   In 1970 I got my hands on a 45 RPM copy of Johnny Cash’s single “A Boy Named Sue.”   The song was getting a lot of airplay on New York’s WABC 77 AM station.   I know I’ve said this before, but I didn’t really make the distinction between genres in those days.  I didn’t think of The Supremes or The Temptations as Motown.  I didn’t think of Three Dog Night or The Grassroots as Pop music.  It was a Pop music, but I didn’t even realize that.  Heck, I was ten years old and in the fourth grade in 1970.  The fact that I had been collecting records for three years already put me leaps and bounds ahead of my peers in that regard.  I didn’t realize how uncool The Partridge Family, The Osmonds, The Cowsills, Helen Reddy, Melanie, Bread and dozens of other acts I followed in the late 60′s and early 70′s really were.  I had all of those artists in my collection right next to The Doors, The Young Rascals, Steppenwolf, Canned Heat, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Big Brother, Jefferson Airplane, Bob Dylan, Tommy James & The Shondells and The Lovin’ Spoonful.  I had no idea what the difference was.  If I could sing along to the song at 10 years old, that was really all I needed.  I had no idea Johnny Cash was a big Country Music star by the time I was turned on to him.  I didn’t know if all his music sounded like “A Boy Named Sue” or not, but I really loved that single.  I didn’t know the song was written by somebody named Shel Silverstein and recorded live at San Quentin State prison in February 1969.   As it turns out, Shel Silverstein wrote at least three other songs I am wildly familiar with now, but never knew who wrote.   A song called “The Unicorn” was recorded by a band called The Irish Rovers in 1968.  I knew that song for sure.  Silverstein also wrote the massively popular Dr Hook song “The Cover of The Rolling Stone.”  Man.  Nice going Shel.  “Sylvia’s Mother,” another Dr Hook song I just loved way back then, was also written by Silverstein.   That’s four great songs by my count.  I’m sure there are more, but a quick scan of his Wikipedia page unearth’s those beauties.  Shel’s been gone about a dozen years now, but that’s a nice legacy he took with him as far as I’m concerned.   Johnny Cash capitalized with “Sue” all the way to Number 2 in the United States for three weeks.   It was kind of novelty song, but with the baritone of Johnny Cash and all the mud, the blood and the beer the song sounded like it had weight.  “My Ding-a-ling” this wasn’t. 

I don’t get to the movie theatre with any frequency whatsoever.  I have DVDs I’ve owned for several months I have trouble finding time to watch.  I think someone lent me a copy of Town around Christmas time and it’s practically March.  Book?  Same problem.  In fact, one of my quests each week is to get a copy of The Boston Phoenix (Boston’s version of The Village Voice I suppose) every Thursday.  They pile up on my kitchen table like old newspapers until I skim them in exasperation.   I certainly don’t read The Phoenix for its overtly political agenda, but I like to keep abreast of the concert scene and keep an eye out for interesting things to do in Boston.  It’s a good source for that.  The problem is I’m not 30 years old anymore.  I have plenty of energy, even though I sleep maybe six hours a night, that’s not it; I just let life wear me down sometimes.   I can’t make every concert I would like to go to.  For any number of reasons.  I never did see Johnny Cash perform live and I had my chances.   I find it hard to believe that he died nearly eight years ago already.  Today, February 26th, would have been his 79th birthday if he had lived.   I’ve been buying all of his Rick Rubin releases over the past several years and enjoying the hell out of them.   If you had asked me when he died before I sat down to begin typing this post I would have said maybe 2006.   I feel like I miss a lot of stuff like this as life envelopes me.

The reason I mentioned my movie going frequency earlier is because I still haven’t seen Walk The Line and that came out in 2005!  Is that incredible or what?   “Rapper” Joaquin Phoenix lost his mind on David Letterman in 2009, FOUR long years later and I’ve always thought Reese Witherspoon was interesting.  Why haven’t I gone to see a movie I was clearly interested in seeing?  I wish I knew.  I heard it was great.  Fat lot of good that does me huh?  I did see The Rolling Stones/Martin Scorsese movie Shine a Light in 2008, but that really doesn’t count does it?   Last week I had a scheduling snafu and had time to kill in San Francisco so, because it was pouring rain and cold, AND I stumbled on a movie theatre walking around near Union Square, I saw the John C. Reilly/Ed Helms/Anne Heche movie Cedar Rapids.  I only saw it because the showing time matched up with my time killing schedule.   John C. Reilly was hysterical.  It’s a throwaway movie for sure, but it had a lot of laughs.  Not bad considering my choices and circumstances.  Still, I don’t even follow what movies are on HBO that I already pay for.  I love the movies, I really do, but for whatever reason they are not a priority for me in my life for the moment.   I wonder if HBO sends it’s schedule via e-mail?  Maybe I can get something out of that channel besides True Blood and Boardwalk Empire if I apply myself.   Regarding Johnny Cash, I feel like I’ve seen his Behind The Music and or VH-1 Rockumentary so it’s not like I don’t have a handle on the story.  I think it goes like this; Man in Black, blah blah, I Walk The Line, blah blah, June Carter was somebody else’s girl and much younger, Jackson, blah blah, persistence wins the girl over, blah blah, Ring of Fire, blah blah, drugs, blah blah, June’s love saves his life, blah blah, back on top, blah blah, ill health, blah blah, Rick Rubin, blah blah, Country Music legend passes, blah blah, end of story.  Sounds a little crude I’ll admit, but once you’ve seen one Behind The Music it sure seems like you’ve seen them all doesn’t it?   I don’t think it inhibits my never ending quest to watch how it unfolds in every single one of them (well not Twisted Sister, but you get the idea) however.   Rise and Falls are fun no matter what I think.

Johnny Cash, born in 1932, is a figure larger than life.   Beginning in 1957, Cash has released 55 studio albums, 154 singles, 84 compilations of some kind and 4 more Christmas alums.   Not too many artists, I don’t what genre we are talking, get to those heady numbers.  Yes, he allegedly considered suicide, inadvertently started a forest fire that destroyed 508 acres of land near Ventura, CA, survived the death of his older brother, spent several nights in jail over the years and wrestled with an addiction to Amphetamines, but Johnny was an American Hero to many.   Even prisoners at Folsom and San Quentin State prisons were Johnny Cash fans.   There was just something about his swaggering outlaw style and folksy baritone story telling delivery that appealed to millions of Americans.  I was one of them to be frank.   I was watching Lemmy (Motorhead) The Movie last night and in one of the scenes he’s having drinks with Sling Blade star Billy Bob Thornton (you gotta love names like Billy Bob and John Boy (Walton)…don’t you?  Does it get any more country than those two names?) and they are discussing Country Music.   It was kind of wild to hear Lemmy professing his love for Country Music.   Billy Bob?  I totally get that, but Lemmy?  The Ace of Spades?  I thought that was cool.  By the way, I’m not the biggest Motorhead fan in the world, though I own maybe four of their records, but the Lemmy movie is highly entertaining.  Way more interesting than I thought it would be.   It’s well worth watching if you are so inclined.  As for Country Music, I’ve said before how I used to go around saying how much I hated the stuff when I was younger, the way you might hear some folks refer to Rap as “Crap” I guess, but I’ve definitely softened that stance over the years.  I was listening to Hank William’s Greatest Hits the other day and digging it.  I can’t explain it either so don’t bother asking.

Even though Johnny Cash is no longer with us he isn’t entirely gone.  His covers of Soundgarden, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, Tom Petty and many others are gems as far as I’m concerned.  I love listening to his American Recordings series produced by Rick Rubin.  I’m including a couple of those songs at the end of the post.  I don’t really remember The Johnny Cash Show which aired on ABC from 1969-1971, but it boosted the careers of several artists such as Kris Kristofferson, whom you may remember for having penned “Me & Bobby McGee” which was later a gargantuan hit for Janis Joplin.  Younger folks might recall his swaggering presence in the cult film series Blade starring Wesley Snipes.  An awful lot of acts, such as Neil Young, Carl Perkins,  The Statler Brothers, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Ray Charles, Eric Clapton and Kenny Rogers appeared on The Johnny Cash Show and it seemed to fit right in with contemporary shows of its ill like The Smother Brothers and Sonny & Cher even though The Smothers Brothers was before and Sonny & Cher were after.  It was certainly a different time back then that’s for sure.   Johnny Cash’s career led him to collaborate with other artists, turn to Gospel on several occasions and work fairly steadily until the effects of Parkinson’s Disease and diabetes finally put him to rest.  He died only four months after his beloved wife June Carter Cash in September of 2003.  I always find those stories where spouses die relatively close to each other fascinating.  Happy Birthday Johnny, wherever you are.

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The mystery, or not, surrounding the death of Kurt Cobain seems kind of pointless to me.  The guy is gone.  I read the book Love & Death by Max Wallace a couple of years ago now and while it was very entertaining, I didn’t put much stock in it to be honest.  If there was even a shred of credible evidence that hellcat Courtney Love was involved I figure she’d be behind bars by now.   It’s not like she hasn’t fractured a few laws in her time so they’d be all over her like a cheap suit if she had anything to do with this fiasco.   The rise and fall of Nirvana isn’t much more than an unbelievable footnote in Rock history, but it’s still very aggravating to me.   The reluctant Rock Star thing gets old in a hurry doesn’t it?  None of us mere mortals can really know what the pressure is like I suppose, but it sure seems like you’d have to have some kind of idea heading into something like getting on stage before you actually do it don’t you?  I love live music, always have.  That’s not to be confused with live albums mind you, but there’s something about seeing your favorite tunes being performed live that has always done it for me.  I can’t explain it to be honest.  I know scores of people who wouldn’t be caught dead at a rock concert.  Too bad for them.  But if performing live isn’t your thing, can’t you just morph into Steely Dan or XTC?  I mean, you have to be a dominate studio band for sure, but isn’t it possible?   When it came to Kurt Cobain I think he just didn’t want to be dissected in any way shape or form.   I know his stomach was bothering him in ways I probably can’t imagine, but you’d like to believe he had other options wouldn’t you?

Do you remember all of those MTV Unplugged Records in the early 90′s?  They were all the rage.  10,000 Maniacs, Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Alice in Chains, Neil Young and on and on.  The greatest big bad daddy all of all MTV Unplugged records by far?  Yep.  Nirvana.   The date was November 18, 1993.  Nirvana, ignoring their hits for the most part, played an acoustic set before everybody that was anybody it seemed, and covered artists like David Bowie, Leadbelly, The Meat Puppets and The Vaselines.   It was eclectic and mesmerizing.   The lights weren’t out, but it was less dangerous.  Candles and Cobain.  I videotaped it off of MTV, I bought the CD, I bought the DVD and I read all about it.   Come to think of it, the only other MTV production I did that with was Page & Plant’s No Quarter.  Now my DVD collection is full of one off like The Beastie Boys “I F*%king Shot That!” or any number of Rockumentary type DVDS complete with live performances.  How often do I get to them?  Almost never, but I love owning Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged.   For one thing, it was about six months before Kurt checked out and it preserves his powers at his peak forevermore.  I don’t even know where to start when trying to compare the death of Kurt Cobain to some of the earlier heroes like Jim Morrison and Jimi Hendrix…frankly I’m not at all sure there is a comparison…but it’s definitely vexing.   How great was Nirvana?  I know I loved ‘em more than Pearl Jam at the time, but I don’t find myself reaching for their records all that often anymore.   Some of that is that terrestrial radio only plays about seven Nirvana songs anymore, but some of that is that time marches on.  If he were around to state his case I might think differently, but it was April 5, 1994 that Cobain erased himself.  We’re coming up on 17 years now.   He just doesn’t have the body of work that forces us back.  Plus the success of The Foo Fighters, while not Nirvana, is quite the distraction…in a good way.  Still, 35 million records sold worldwide (just for those three studio albums mind you) shows you how big Nirvana was.

If he had lived, February 20, 2011 would have been Kurt’s 44th birthday if my math is correct.  I may have told this story already, but I’ve been repeating myself for years now on this site so why stop now.   There is a building in Brighton Center, MA that I drive by every time I visit my chiropractor, that I distinctly remember being initiated to the sound of Nirvana around 1991 or so.  Bleach?  Never heard of it until the re-release.   Nevermind, released September 24, 1991, didn’t set the world on fire instantly, but the buzz was non stop for two years it seemed.   When I finally got the hang of “In Bloom” and “Lithium” I was just like everyone else who loved this band.  I was all the way down the line with them.  I remember Incesticide, capitalizing on the Nirvana buzz with a “B” cut smorgasbord, was released in 1992 I took a shine to cuts like “Aneurysm” instantly.  I loved “Something in The Way” from Nevermind even with it’s exacerbating silence at the end of the track.  I chopped that thing to its rightful 3:15 or whatever with the beautiful Audacity software.  Love that stuff.  Nothing like being at the gym, totally concentrating on the hard body in front of you, when you realize the silence has gone on too long.   I fixed that years ago, but I’m always on the lookout for it now.   The Black Keys have one of those where if you let the track play it goes some twenty minutes.  Man I hate that .  Fixed that one too.   Anyway, see the the lunchbox and thermos above?  That’s how big Nirvana was.  Man I used to love my lunchboxes when I was a kid.  Now they beat you up and make fun of you for them, but they were quite the fashion statement back in the 70′s.  I think I had a Monkees lunchbox…I pray it wasn’t a Partridge Family one…but I digress once again.

Kurt Cobain was yet another heroin addict as his life came to a close.  I’m still finishing up Keith Richards’ 500 page life story and, as someone who never tried heroin, not even once, it gets a bit tough to relate after a few thousand of these stories.  Keith tells it like it was and even if his editor let his King’s English slide on occasion, the book is well written and highly entertaining.  I wish I could say the same for the Gus Van Sant’s movie Last Days, allegedly revolving around the final days of the life of Kurt Cobain.  If you can follow the ”plot” you are my hero.  I know it’s an independent film taking full artistic license, but that film just bored the daylights out of me and you know I wanted to love it.  A junkie’s life is definitely not glamorous, but I find it hard to believe the guy stumbled around in the woods of the cold Northwest barely coherent for weeks on end.  Maybe I don’t get the junkie life, but this movie was a dog whatever story it was trying to relate.  And I love The Independent Film Channel.  I don’t need action or drama every instant.  I loved The Minus Man (1999) starring Owen Wilson for example.  Totally spacey and esoteric, but at least you had a handle on what was going on.  Last Days?  I knew the story in advance and I still couldn’t follow that drivel.  Sorry Gus.  Nothing personal.  Anyway, Kurt allegedly had some emotional issues to go along with his health problems.  It could be said that anyone who takes his own life, particularly with a beautiful daughter to care for, is in serious need of psychiatric care, but that’s not for me to say (even though I just did).

Nirvana ruled the Alternative Rock roost, even with serious competitors like Pearl Jam in their immediate space, from 1992 to about 1995 or so.   From The Banks of The Muddy Wiskah (1996) and other posthumous records tried to plug the void, but soon it was clear the Nirvana catalogue, published or unpublished, had been exhausted…at least legally to that point.  I rarely follow the Box Set migration, mainly because I normally own all of the CDs of the band in question, but I’m sure there a few tidbits from the couple that Nirvana has released in the 00′s.   I guess I just got tired of waiting around in Nirvana’s case.   Nevermind has been burnt to a crisp so if I reach for a Nirvana record it’s likely to be In Utero followed by Bleach.  Still, MTV Unplugged still gives me great joy.  I don’t know if this open wound will ever really be healed in the public eye, but it’s stories like these that just leave us wondering and wanting.  I never did get to see Nirvana play live.  My loss big time.  I know they played Spit or Axis (whatever it was called at the time) on Lansdowne Street here in Boston in the early 90′s, but I wasn’t quite hip enough at the time I guess.  That’s the quest at all times.  See this band before they get too big.  I think Soundgarden played Metro or Citi or Avalon (the Patrick Lyons edifice that morphed so many times it turned into The House of Blues when he got tired of doing the rebuilding himself) in the late 80′s or early 90′s too.  Did I bother to see them when someone uttered the very words I just did about seeing them before they get too big?  Nooooo.  Not cool enough.  I got my share in though and I still do to this day.  I don’t care if I’m half a century old.  Anyway, Kurt if you can hear my thoughts…I’m really sorry you felt like you had to split, but you gave us a lot of great music and for that I am thankful.  Happy 44th my friend from The Giant Panther.

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I have to admit, I’m not much of a Punk.  I mean, I like an awful lot of music that could be considered Punk, but I, myself, would never qualify as a Punk Rocker.   I’ve never slam danced.  I never got a tattoo.  I never pierced anything on my person.  I’ve never even worn torn clothing.  I’ve never bleached my hair or colored it purple or orange or red.   I’ve never spit on anyone.   My last pair of Chuck Taylors had to be 30 years ago.  I’ve never owned a pair of Doc Martens.   I’ve never participated in anarchy or even a melee.  I can’t play an instrument.  Eye shadow?  Out of the question.   When Green Day surfaced nationally in 1994 I didn’t really dig ‘em.   In fact, I was a late bloomer all around regarding Punk Rock.   Today, my reverence for records like Never Mind The Bullocks (Here’s The Sex Pistols) knows no bounds.  I love The Ramones much more today than I ever did when I wore a younger man’s clothes.  I had my share of issues with authority, but authority always won.  I Fought The Law, but not enough to actually get arrested thankfully.   I never wanted to overthrow the government, but that’s probably because I live in the United States.   When I think Punk Rock I think Dead Kennedys.  I think short bursts of anger and angst.   A ton of acts got lumped in with Punk Rock that maybe shouldn’t have been mentioned in that way.  I don’t know, call me crazy, but I never considered The Patti Smith Group as Punk Rock.  The attitude?  Sure, but what do they have in common with bands like Fugazi, The Damned, Minor Threat, The Misfits, Bad Brains, Husker Du or The Circle Jerks?  Not much as far as I can see.

The greatest Punk band of them all, The Clash, was far too melodic and talented to be considered Punk.  Angry?  Yes.  In your face?  Absolutely, but the Clash were in another league even if they did start out as mostly  a Punk outfit.  For every “Police and Thieves” there was a “(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais.”  Eventually there were no more white men in Hammersmith.   I liked that Clash the best myself, but Punk fans may not agree with my assessment at all.  I’m cool with that.  I’ve seen Sid & Nancy many times.  They’ll be critics and evangelists of the genre.  I totally get that.  One thing nobody can argue with is the energy.  Whoa.  It’s just that when I see bands like Joy Division, The Jam, X, Television, even Gang of Four (whom I saw perform earlier this month…go see them!) characterized as Punk it gives me pause.   But nobody cares so why do I?  I’ll give you The Buzzcocks, but even Blondie and Talking Heads were considered Punk before somebody coined the phrase New Wave.   Green Day?  Definitely Punk.  That is probably why I didn’t much care for them back in 1994.  That and the awful hype.   My Grunge/Alternative Rock station, WFNX Lynn-Boston, took to this band like nobody’s business.  Still do.  Green Day 24×7.  I had to stop listening to the station after about a year and a half of this.   1994′s Dookie would not go away.  The hits, all four of them, are still played on college radio to this day.  The four I speak of are ”Basket Case, When I Come Around, Longview and Welcome To Paradise.”  Some may through “She” in this mix, but I don’t.  The core four I called them.  I didn’t buy the CD right away.  Sometimes you just don’t have to with the radio doing the job for you.

In  September 1994, speaking of hype and reputations preceding, Green Day, who started a near riot at Woodstock II not one month prior with mud, played the Hatch Shell on Boston’s Esplanade down near The Charles River.  Yeah, that dirty water depending on which band you credit.  Or at least they tried.  The Hatch Shell was rarely made available for Rock concerts between 1980 and 1994.  Most of you probably would recognize the venue from watching The Boston Pops on TV doing their Fourth of July thing.  Or maybe that is only local programming.  Regardless, it came down to security most of the time.  Even though The Pops host some 200,000 plus fans each year on Fourth of July, provincial Boston couldn’t possibly allow that many Rock fans and their respective party favors.  We’re talking Beacon Hill blue bloods here with money and power and plenty of objections.  I remember the band Heart played there in 1978 or 1979 and while I don’t recall it being a huge catastrophe Rock concerts were far and few between there in the 80′s.  I know because my dorm (dork) room overlooked the Hatch Shell as well as any window could.  We saw everything that went on down there.   Around that time we were lucky if we could fire the Frisbee or play catch without getting moved along.   Still, it’s a great venue.   Then along comes Green Day.  Honestly, it wasn’t Green Day that caused the problem (this time) at all.  It was the crowd.  Security was woeful and between 70,000 to 100,000 fans descended on the Hatch Shell on September 9, 1994.  The show was sponsored by Green Day loving WFNX.  It might have been their first Disorientation concert for all I remember.   They’ve hosting fantastic concerts here for years since that day without incident.  I guess they just played them too much.   Just a few minutes after the band took the stage the crowd surged forward obliterating the thin blue line.   They say prisoners from the local jails were recruited as security in a pinch.  It was a wild scene I hear.   The band had to retreat to safety and the concert was postponed.  Once they announced Green Day had “left the building” tear gas was needed and 60 people were allegedly arrested in the ensuing melee.   Ah, Punk Rock.  Priceless.

In 1995 Green Day returned with a record called Insomniac.  The first single was “Geek Stink Breath.”  I didn’t understand this single, but man did it kick some ass.  Right out of the shoot.  2 minutes and 15 seconds of pure Punk.   Maybe these guys are good after all I thought.  The record was definitely less commercial if you ask me (no one ever does), but I loved “Brain Stew, Armatage Shanks and Walking Contradiction.”  I bought the record.  I think it helped that I took a break from WFNX during that time.  They had totally morphed into an Industrial Rap station when Grunge finally fizzled.  Rage Against The Machine was now the 24×7 band.  I wrote about them about two years ago here.  I didn’t understand this transition at the time, but I was never much for Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park.  Doesn’t make me right, but at the time I couldn’t understand how we could go from Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Smashing Pumpkins into bands I didn’t quite think as highly of.  Innovative?  You bet, but I like my melody.  As a result of listening more to my own collection than the radio…novel idea that…I should try doing more of that today…I was able to take Green Day on my own terms.  I wasn’t being force fed them every two hours for a year.  Insomniac was still a punk record by definition; 14 songs in nearly 33 minutes.  How very Ramones of them.  It was right here when some of their die hard fans though Green Day went off the rails and sold out.  It’s tough to hear a band referred to as sell outs, but in Green Day’s case, if it meant more easily digestible solid Punk Rock I wanted in.  I was not expecting what followed in 1997 though.

If you watched the series finale of the NBC medical drama ER in 1999 the final scene was scored by none other than Green Day.  Their sappy ballad “Good Riddance (The Time of Your Life)” had introduced Green Day to the mainstream.  I think the cries of sell out were never louder.  ER, in fact, starring George Clooney and Julianna Margulies, came on the air not ten days after the aforementioned Green Day non concert on the Hatch Shell in 1994.   The folks who ran right out and bought Nimrod, and there were plenty, were no doubt a bit shocked to find a Punk band behind that famous ballad.   It appeared in the best TV series ever to grace the tube, Seinfeld, and was also used to close out NBC’s coverage of the 1997 World Series (won by Florida if memory serves).   Green Day was now a household name.  No other way to phrase it.  They took a lot of criticism, but they made a ton of dough in the process.  In the year 2000 Green Day released a CD called Warning.   I just loved this record, but I don’t think many other folks did.  Green Day was accused of mailing it in among all the other charges.   There wasn’t a bad song on this disc, but there was no anger and no schlock.  Nimrod sold $6M copies worldwide according to our friends at Wikipedia.  Warning sold a paltry $3M worldwide.   What an embarrassment huh?   To put this in perspective, again according to Wikipedia, Dookie sold $25M copies worldwide and Insomniac sold $8M worldwide.  It sure looked like Green Day had peaked and was on it’s way out.  Wrong again Geek Stink Breath…

After cooling off for four years or so, the politically charged American Idiot roared out of the gate in 2004.  It was a concept record revolving around a character called Jesus of Suburbia, but it was big departure from Green Day’s two minute fifty second modus operandi.  This time, 13 songs took nearly 60 minutes.   The songs were rock solid and watching them perform on TV was pretty amazing.  I saw Green Day in a whole new light after American Idiot.  I’m not much for mixing politics and Rock, but this was one impressive effort for my money.   It took me a bit to digest, but once I did I loved the record.  Green Day was not only back, they were back with vengeance.   Vitriol and anger personified.   This took an hour to listen to.  That can be very dangerous to the health of a given record, but Green Day was actually saying something here.  It wasn’t exactly a Rock Opera, but it was in the neighborhood.  $15M records sold later meant that Green Day was Back in Black, to give a nod to a heavy metal legend.   2009′s 21st Century Breakdown, produced by the legendary Butch Vig, brings us up to date.   I’m still digesting this record some two years later to be honest with you.   I’m having trouble listening to as much music as I once did.  I’m wrestling with long hours at my six month old job.   That is why you don’t see me posting as much these days.  I can’t get to the gym as much so I’m grouchy.   The news of the world is awful and that saps me sometimes too.  And my DVR…what can I say?  I went to San Francisco on business last week and I’m still digging out.  If I hadn’t been forced to take he red eye last Friday night, which resulted in couch potato heaven and multiple recorded TV shows on Saturday, I’d be deleting things to keep up.   I’m not going deaf, shockingly, and I don’t listening to music any less than I did when I was ten, but my commute is barely 20 minutes and I’m just not getting the job done.  Regardless, even though I backdated this post and Billie Joe Armstrong’s birthday was nearly a week ago now, Happy belated Birthday BJA from The Giant Panther.  Don’t let anyone tell you what to do…you’re doing just fine.

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Buy or Download Green Day’s International Super Hits! From Amazon Here.