A historical factoid, a rock and roll moment and usually a song all combine (if not collide) with my individual perspective and opinion at least once a day, sometimes more.
Today
in 1997 IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in the last
chess game of a rematch. This was the first time ever a computer beat a
world-champion chess player. As far as we know, no one asked "did the
lord say that machines ought to take the place of living? Then what's a
substitute for bread and beans? (I ain't seen it) Do engines get
rewarded for their steam?" But it would have been an appropriate question.
Two years ago this month John Townsend and former musical partner Ed Sanford announced
they were collecting previously unreleased material for possible
distribution. Don't know how relevant that is to those of you who (like me)
grew up in the '70s cause from what they did release, we tend to only know this song: the definition of one hit wonder & the distillation
of Hall and Oates + Michael McDonald in one fell swoop (and twice as strong). Nostalgia me,
baby!
Today
was apparently a good day for twisted individuals to come into our
world. What is the calendar trying to tell us when we observe that one
year to the day after Simon John Ritchie (AKA Sid Vicious) came into
the world (today in '57), former US senator Rick Santorum was born.
Both celebrated same day birthdays up until Sid died in '79. They
never, as far as we know, had the same barber.
Possibly
the tightest rock and roll band ever. Don't let 'em fool ya', even when
it seemed like discordant mayhem, it was planned airtight right down to
the quarter note. That's was the Frank Zappa way with all of the
musicians who worked for/with him, but I'll always have a soft spot in
my heart for the early line-up of the Mothers of Invention (and how appropriate for today).
Roy Estrada on the greasy piercing falsetto lead vocals.
Today in 1950 L. Ron Hubbard's book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health—a cornerstone of Scientology—was first published. Although he
has never been known to jump up and down maniacally on Oprah's studio
furniture, lo-fi, postmodern mofo Beck has said he is a scientologist. Loser is one of his most recognizable songs.
Embedding disabled by request, so click the link to hear the song and see the video.
Later that day, to use the crude fictional segue device employed in comic book captions, I've
decided to post the following video. Several ongoing interweb debates without
authoritative conclusion wrangle over whether the Butthole Surfers
borrowed from Beck's Loser for their Pepper or vice versa. Beck
released Loser in '93 and Pepper was released three years later, so that indicates there's not much of a debate. Does
it matter? They're both cool songs. This is the Butthole Surfers at
their most ... uhm ... commercial?
Today in '99, America lost a great poet, songwriter and one of her true
originals: Sheldon Alan "Shel" Silverstein died at age 69. Many parents and their kids know and love his poetry books such as Where the Sidewalk Ends and The Giving Tree, but may not know he also wrote songs such as Dr.
Hook's On the Cover of the Rolling Stone, Sylvia's Mother and this
narrative masterpiece that was Johnny Cash's biggest charting single
ever.
Perhaps
lesser known than David—his brother who was more often than not the lead vocalist for the Temptations—Jimmy
Ruffin, who turns 70 today, had a monster Motown hit in the summer of
'66 with this gem about seeking peace of mind after heartbreak. The
video as uploaded to YouTube is a shade upcut and you almost miss the
spoken word intro that was edited out of the release that we're more familiar with as the radio hit. Jimmy's brother David died in 1991. But that's a dose for another day.
Better known as "Johnny Maestro" as in "and the Brooklyn Bridge." Born today in 1937 in the
same New York City borough that shares the name of that hard to sell bridge, he was first lead pipes for
Doo-Wop group, the Crests (who had a hit with Sixteeen Candles, among others). Today he is best known for
this hit rendition of the Jimmy Webb penned song The Worst That Could Happen. PBS Doo-Wop nostalgia trips looked cooler before they had
budgets for tacky yellow jackets! This man can sing.
very nice.
This 28 year old has sat behind the drums
for Long Island "Emo" band Taking Back Sunday since 1999. At age 46
myself, I don't completely get the much discussed, dissected &
disputed genre Emo (for example, what's up with the red & white
clad rapper guy in the vid?). Nor do I entirely dismiss or dislike it.
And as a father of two teenagers, it doesn't hurt to have that attitude at all.
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