your daily dose of rock and roll

King of Pop dead at age 50

By now you've no doubt heard, Michael Joseph Jackson, born August 29, 1958, died June 25, 2009. This sad news just might overshadow the passing of Sky Saxon in the mainstream media ... just a hunch. One of Mr. Jackson's songs was covered most excellently by Alien Ant Farm.

25 June 2009 Just in from the interweb! Sky bites it.

At age 63, Richard Marsh, better known as Sky Saxon, died today in the Austin, Texas hospital he checked in to Monday. Saxon gave the distinctively styled vocals to—and was the driving force of—LA band the Seeds, who charted strong with Pushin' Too Hard and the lesser known I Can't Seem to Make You Mine circa '67. I hope the newly announced Los Angeles Nuggets box set, Where the Action is, will have some rarer Seeds' tunes not featured in previous Nuggets collections.

Then there was the mashup with Ms. Bettie Page

Was Casey Kasem the host for Shebang? Sure sounds and looks like him.

Here's one that, outside of music geeks and YouTube browsers, is rarely listened to.

"Not in New York ... "

One hundred and eight years and one day ago in Paris, France Ambroise Vollard gave Pablo Picasso his first show. Although the one man exhibition didn't make any waves in the Parisian art world, nor any real money for Picasso, as was usually the case, he was not once called an "asshole."

Art, of course, inspires. So when you're down to only four strings, Iggy knows that one of your better options is to borrow a page from Jonathan Richman's songbook.

23 June 2009 "Bad luck wind been blowing at my back..."

Happy Birthday Glenn Danzig who turns 54 today. The Misfits' music may be an acquired taste. But if you hear genius in most of it (as I do), it's surely from Danzig's songwriting skills. One of Horror Punk's founding fathers, he would lead Samhain & Danzig after leaving the Misfits. And, thanks to his friendship with Rick Rubin, he would write a song for (this'll kill ya') Roy Orbison as well as Johnny Cash!

"I am gonna make it . . . "

No one will ever write a book about John Darnielle, but the man is a saint. This is not only one of my favorite Mountain Goats' songs, but perhaps one of my favorite songs ever ... in the whole world. Do yourself a favor, listen to the whole thing. Then go forth and sin no more.

"I thought your post hanging days were through . . ."

Happy Birthday to one of Uppy Darby's fave sons (I can't resist the PA references). Todd Harry Rundgren turns 61 today. To dedicated fans he is a wizard, a true star. To those who are only peripherally aware of his career, you probably know WE GOTTA GET YOU A WOMAN ('70), BANG THE DRUM ALL DAY ('83) or this one that went to #66 in '69 (when he was in Nazz) & #5 in '72 when he was solo. Great pipes here and nice feathers too.

22 June 2009 Peter, we hardly knew ye.

Peter Laughner died 32 years ago today. Knowing who he was is considered by some to be a telltale sign of being a hyper-esoteric rock and roll aficionado. Guitarist for Rocket from the Tombs, early Pere Ubu & several earlier Cleveland-scene bands, he also wrote for CREEM, was buds with Lester Bangs and considered for Tom Verlaine's git partner after Richard Lloyd left Television. As abundantly talented as he was rarely recorded, he died from acute pancreatitis, no doubt brought about by alcohol and drug excess, at 24.

Happy Father's Day!

Raymond Douglas Davies CBE turns 65 today. A songwriter's songwriter who presents any fan with an almost ridiculous abundance of songs from which to cherry pick more than one meaningful favorite. I think this one tops my list. What is your favorite Ray Davies' composition?

When she saw this, Patty posted "SHUT UP!"

... followed by Bryon posting, "this RULES!"

An earlier post mentioning Dr. Hook's Sylvia's Mother, penned by Shel Silverstein, had one of coolest dosers awash in nostalgia (turns out she used to listen to that ditty over and over again on good ol' K-tel vinyl when she was but a child). For her, and everyone else, here's a treat from my "unlikely covers" file, New Jersey's other favorite son (and indestructible pretty boy) Bon Jovi does his version of Dr. Hook's first hit (#5 in '72) live at the Borgata in Atlantic City. Perhaps not so unlikely a cover considering most of Dr. Hook's members were also from New Jersey—Union City to be precise.

A tip: get some Breakfast in Bed from Joan!

A fan's comment about how she loved the Jimmy Ruffin tune put me in giving mood, so here's a tip. Download Joan Osborne's version of said song (or her HEATWAVE). Both have been covered ad nauseam, so what makes Joan's treatment so great? In addition to her abundant talent, she's backed by the Funk Brothers, those Detroit session musicians who were the operating system for Motown's hit factory. The CD is Breakfast in Bed. Worth owning.

Embedding disabled on request so click the link to hear and see the song.
But here's a sort of behind the scenes look at the LP coming together in the studio which quickly goes into a more or less into her full blown version of Midnight Train to Georgia.

I think it's amazing how she can bring different vocal timbres to her delivery as homage to the various greats she's covering. Note how smooth and silky her voice is on Midnight Train to Georgia (weird hearing it without the Pips or at least someone doing back up vocals, isn't it?) and the rasp she's able to bring to some of the coloration in What Becomes of the Broken Hearted.