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Bollocks to Anyway You Want It!

On this day in 1974 the very first issue of People magazine was published. This provides me with a somewhat lame segue to one of my pet obsessions: spreading the word that the first three albums by the group we all know as Journey did not suck! When former Santana keyboardist Gregg Rolie was a more dominant songwriting and singing presence in the band and before Steve Perry and Roy Thomas Baker's darkness descended on this band, they sounded absolutely nothing like that Wheel in the Sky hogwash. What critical masses of people find good, I'll never understand. Speaking of people, those that I don't understand and the magazine too, there's a song by that name by Journey (before they sucked) on their third LP, Next. Some suspect that the guys in Kansas listened to Journey's Look Into the Future LP more than once, especially this song. Anyone sense a whiff of Carry On My Wayward Son?

Who knew? Did you?

Thirty seven years ago today Alice Cooper released their/his Xth LP, Billion Dollar Babies. Let's face it, Alice Cooper (the guy) gets most of the attention and limelight. But the guys in Alice Cooper, the band, simply kicked ass! So, it's shout out time right now: Lead git, Glen Buxton (died '97)! On rhythm guitar-Michael Bruce (still touring every once in awhile)! Dennis Dunaway (married to the "seamstress for the band") on bass! and Mr. Neal Smith (now a rock and roll realtor in New England) on drums! Steve Hunter and Dick Wagner also lended much guitar muscle to this and other Alice Cooper LPs. But here's what really gets me. For years now I've assumed that the chorus of the title track was the Coop singing with himself overdubbed. Nope. It's friggin' Donovan! I'm out of it for just now finding this out, aren't I? Go ahead, I can take it. But if you've been as out of touch as me all these years, listen! It is Donovan! Weird.

"I'll make that other cheek mine."

Thirty six years ago today Cher filed for divorce from Sonny Bono whom she had been married to for a decade. This is somehow sad to me. After becoming the darling couple of prefabricated folk rock, Sonny ended up on TV pretty much playing the butt of a cruel joke: the nebbish who is only barely able to hold on to or be tolerated by his hot chick wife. Then in the eyes of a nation always yearning for vicarious experiences from the glass box in the living room his persona became real life. But Sonny was strong. To quote the words he had written in a truly great song almost a decade earlier "Go ahead, laugh at me!" Some days I think the only people on earth who truly understand how great the song is are me and Ian Hunter. But now you know too, right?

The year '74 was a big one for rock and roll breakups that weren't technically divorces. Alice Cooper the singer left Alice Cooper the group. Pam Morrison left earth and (if Jim was perhaps still alive in Buenos Aires at the time) her soul mate and own true loved one as well. Mick Taylor left the Rolling Stones. And Peter Gabriel left Genesis.

"Watching Grunge legdrop New Jack through a press table."

Perhaps because it was such a departure from the instantly accessible vibe of their eponymous debut, Weezer's second album Pinkerton was at first considered a dud by many critics and sales were slow. But history and incremental sales have proved kinder than initial reaction to the LP, which includes the song "El Scorcho". Professional wrestler Johnny Grunge, who passed away at the age of 39 on this day four years ago, is mentioned in the lyrics.

"I can't stand what you do ..."

Two hundred and fifty-eight years ago today the very first hospital in the United States opened. Pennsylvania Hospital is located in Center City, Philadelphia and was founded all those years ago by physician and surgeon Thomas Bond and all around brilliant guy Benjamin Franklin. Two hundred and nineteen years later, Jonathan Richman would consider hospitals in this song with the original lineup of the Modern Lovers: Ernie Brooks on bass, Jerry Harrison (later in the Talking Heads) on keyboards and drummer David Robinson (later of The Cars). Who knows why the person who posted this to YouTube opted to put the audio under clips from Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth, but spend a quarter of an hour surfing around YouTube for songs and you'll know it could be much worse.

Take that, ye doubters and detractors of BÖC!

Thirty seven years ago this month, Blue Öyster Cult released their second LP: Tyranny and Mutation. I'm sure many a high culture hipster is now rolling his or her eyes in a head suddenly filled with visions of acid washed denim, mullet-cut wearing dudes flanked by chicks who wished they looked like Elvira. And maybe that's as fair as anything else considering BÖC's eventualy foray into cartoon territory like the song Godzilla. But at the time of Tyranny and Mutation, the boys were still singing cryptic, bizarre, surreal and somehow almost soulful heavy metal songs such as The Red and The Black. And, baby, if it's good enough for the Minutemen, it's good enough for me. Note that while many a punk/indie band would cover '70's metal from a position of irony, I think these guys were covering this song (as they often did live, too) out of a pure love for the tune. In fact, Mike Watt did the song live when I saw him last year in Lancaster, PA. So put that in your "Vecka" and "timest" it, yo.

"Get in the pit and try to love someone!"

Some will love me for it, others will hate me, but I really liked a lot of the tracks on Kid Rock's breakthrough LP Devil Without a Cause (more so than anything he's done since), particularly Bawitdaba which mentions "D.B. Cooper and the money he took." Thirty eight years ago today a man known by the name D.B. Cooper hijacked a 727, successfully received $200,000 in ransom and parachuted from the plane, probably as it flew over an area somewhat north of Portland, Oregon. This remains the FBI's only unsolved domestic hijacking case and it has generated mucho musings and pop references. There's a good chance the guy just didn't survive the jump (an explanation the FBI naturally favors) but no body has ever been recovered. Although in 1980 an eight year old kid found $5,880 of the original ransom money in decaying $20 bills while camping on the banks of the Columbia river near Portland, OR.

"it's a mighty tight squeeze."

One hundred and six years ago today Colorado's governor, James Peabody, sent the state's National Guardsmen into the town of Cripple Creek to break up a miners' strike. The town had boomed at the end of the 19th century after a prospector's discovery of some rich gold ore in the area. A refurbished narrow gauge heritage railroad has operated between Cripple Creek and its sister town Victor, Colorado since 1967 (long after the boom had gone bust). Could this be what the heck Neil Young is singing about in this song from his After the Goldrush album? He is, after all, a train freak.

The Cripple Creek muse also whispered to frequent Your Daily Dose cameo Skip Spence ...

... and, of course, Robbie Robertson was apparently inspired by the alliterative name of the locale when he wrote this gem for the Band.

Viva Sparks!

Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon it's Energy Content? was published in the journal Annalen der Physik one hundred and four years ago today kicking off Albert Einstein's miracle year and the red hot E = mc² craze that was to follow. Like many of us, myself included, Albert's parents Hermann and Pauline probably never really understood what all the E = mc² stuff was all about, but they knew their boy had talent and that, as Ron wrote and Russell sings, "talent is an asset". You need to start at about 2:16 in to listen and watch what I'm talking about, but enjoy the first song too. After all, it's Saturday.

Hinckley had a Vision = Just Wrong

When Jello Biafra explained that the shockingly tasteless name "Dead Kennedys" was purposeful irony "to bring attention to the end of the American dream," I gave him the benefit of the doubt. When a seminal skate punk band from Arizona decided to call themselves "Jodie Foster's Army" after would-be Reagan assassin John Hinckley Jr's obsession with the actress, I sensed no such higher purpose behind the sick joke. Believe me, I was no Reagan fan, but to quote Joe Strummer "murder is a crime." With apologies and happy birthday wishes to Ms. Foster, who today turns 47.

After writing the above, I wondered if something akin to a maturity that comes from being the same age as Jodie Foster has me preferring shock value satire to have some ultimate moral purpose behind it. Upon reflection though, I remembered being completely turned off by the Crucifucks performance of Hinckley Had a Vision when I saw that Lansing, Michigan hardcore group perform the song at the Rock against Reagan free concert in Washington, D.C. And I was a mere lad of 22 back then.