Discography Year Two - Week 43

It's the 43rd week of the second year of our Discography music discussion and summer has decided, finally, to show up in Vermont. Oddly, we're well into summer and there has been precious little convivial splendor. I'm blaming it on all of us being crazy busy, and also the general gloom of living in a burgeoning police state.  Happily, several of us here in the #YankeeHellhole will  be getting together tonight.  Pending my adventures in jury duty I'm hoping to get back to the Natti and Miami sometime in July, but that may depend upon how many jury selection processes I can ruin with impassioned speeches.

Last week I proposed that we have time for one more theme week before we shut it down for the year.  I have no volunteers so far, and I'm certainly happy to come up with some challenge (it's sort of what I do for a living).  Any takers?

Dave Wallace

Arthur Buck - I Am The Moment

I've mentioned that I'm a fan of Joseph Arthur, and I've previously included one of his songs on this blog.  In addition to his solo albums, Arthur frequently collaborates with others and, in a pairing that feels inevitable, he has joined with fellow serial collaborator, Peter Buck, to form a new group, Arthur Buck.  I think their new album is excellent.  I Am The Moment is the lead track.

Kevin Andrews

Ry Cooder’s latest album, The Prodigal Son is his first in six years. It combines spirituals, gospel, and americana as only he can. After playing all over the world he returns home to his roots, so to speak, and to Burlington tonight. I don’t get excited to see a show more than this one. Ry is a legend and still crushes the slide guitar at 71. This song, Everybody Ought to Treat a Stranger Right was written 80 years ago by Blind Willie Johnson and is more topical today than ever given the lame biblical-ish excuses to detain children. Check out that nine stringed guitar.

This song is a Ry classic if you’re interested. While you’re on The YouTube find Gentrification, also on the new album. It should be subtitled Here comes the Googleman.

Dave Kelley

"Baby What You Want me to Do"  Elvis Presley   1968 Comeback Special

Elvis is often remembered as a caricature.  Late period fat Elvis wearing way too much jewelry and some pretty ridiculous clothes comes to mind.  He was also in so many bad movies in the 1960's which featured mostly mediocre at best songs.  He frittered away so much time and talent by letting Colonel Parker control his career.  Jon Landau, Springsteen's long time manager and consiglieri, was interviewed multiple times for the excellent four hour documentary about Elvis that recently aired on HBO.  His amazement and utter disgust for the way Colonel Parker hijacked Elvis's career came through in abundance.  The Colonel did not serve Elvis, Elvis served him.

We should never forget what a unique and amazing talent he was.  Much of the DNA of rock music traces back to him.  Not only was he movie star handsome, but he had an amazing voice, charisma and stage presence virtually unmatched in the history of American popular music, and some pretty mean chops on the guitar.  He also chose tremendous songs to cover.  Other white musicians did sanitized versions of African American songs to make them bland enough to avoid scaring white people.  Think of Pat Boone covering Chuck Berry.  That is rather like Erkel covering NWA.   Not Elvis though.  He made no effort to hide the sexuality and "dangerous" aspects of the songs he covered.  Throw in some leg twitches and pelvic thrusts and away he went.

This is a cover of a Jimmy Reed song performed during his amazing 1968 television comeback special.  He had not been on tour for many years because of all of the movies he did, and the HBO documentary revealed he initially refused to come out of the dressing room to do the show.  In this clip, he is surrounded by his original band.  Sadly DJ Fontana the drummer died recently meaning that everyone on the stage is now gone.   Elvis's talent and charisma just oozes from the screen.  I also love the shouts and exclamations made periodically by the band.  Freedom and joy are beautiful things, and that is what I get out of this performance. 

Phillip Seiler

This week we learned that kids as young as 3 are having to represent themselves in front of immigration judges in this utter hellscape of a country. Seriously. This is so evil and farcical as to be unbelievable. Here is but one example of this travesty and absurdity.

I lurch from utter despair to rage to helplessness with astounding speed. So thank whatever higher power you believe in that this exists:

For a moment, it is good to be a dreamer again.

Gary Scudder

Charles Mingus, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat

Truthfully, I go back and forth on Mingus, which speaks more eloquently of my lack of musical sophistication than any doubts about his excellence.  This song is an homage to the passing of Lester Young, who I really like and can't believe that I haven't featured any of his songs (this is why I'm already looking forward to Year Three of the Discography). There are so many great Lester Young songs it's difficult to know where to start: Just You, Just Me; I Can't Get Started; These Foolish Things, etc. And, of course, so many wonderful songs like All Of Me from his collaborations with his close friend Billie Holiday (cue Alice Neiley). Anyway, after Young's passing Mingus wrote this song in memory of him.  We should all have such an extraordinary celebration to mark our passing.  Years ago I officially chose Mike Kelly to officiate at my memorial (which will actually be about three people having wings at RJs, which is more than I would have figured). Beyond his unquestioned excellence, Mike has three things going for him: 1) he's twenty years younger than me, 2) he has an encyclopedic knowledge of music and literature (so plenty of those obscure references that I love), and 3) he won't cry at the ceremony.  So, MK, your job is to come up with something as good as Goodbye Pork Pie Hat; I'm not planning on going anywhere soon, but, damn, this is a great song, so you'd better get started.

Discography Year Two - Week 42

And this week in hell the US government put children in cages, and eventually relented to to the, in their amoral reasoning, more humane approach of instead putting the entire family in cages.  I've talked to so many of my friends who have opined that simply living day to day in this Trumpian dystopian nightmare is exhausting.  And we folks here in the Discography are not even the truly helpless, the ones that the monsters most routinely feast upon.  I find myself retreating more and more into music, mainly, I suspect, because it is more subjective and I can create a more emotionally sustainable universe to ride out the carnage.

Dave Wallace

Velvet Underground - Oh! Sweet Nuthin'

I've argued in the past that the Velvet Underground is the most important rock band ever.  I'm not sure that I still believe that, but there's a good argument in favor of that position.  It's really hard to overestimate the number of other musicians that VU influenced or the impact that their four albums had.  I remember buying the first VU album in college and being blown away by its audacity, beauty, and diversity.  All of the subsequent albums are wildly different from each other, and each is a classic in its own right.  Picking a single VU song was difficult, but I went with Oh! Sweet Nuthin', the last song on their last album, Loaded.  

Kevin Andrews

During an 8-hour car ride yesterday I came across one of my all-time favorite songs on The Bluetooth. I was reminded that just last week John Prine performed in Burlington. Had the tickets not been about $100 I would have seen him. At 71, this is probably his last tour. In 2013 he survived his second bout with cancer and he’s still out there. This recording of Souvenirs looks like it’s from Austin City Limits circa 1974ish. He’s joined by his friend and songwriting partner Steve Goodman who sang and played on the album version.

It seems appropriate to offer this since I’m in Pennsylvania for my father’s 96th birthday, surrounded by memories and ghosts. 

Phillip Seiler

Ninja Custodian

The Critic

Ladybug

In a just world, this is the band that broke out of Burlington Vermont's late '80s, early '90s music scene. Instead you all got Phish. Our world is not just.

I saw them play Border (now Metronome above Nectar's) and they were a wild energetic unit but tight. Very tight. 

Or I could be romanticizing my fading past. 

I still like their songs.

Alice Neiley

(I know, Scudder, I know, I'm a loser and a terrible person because I haven't posted in a week or two. I'm not even going to argue this time...;)) 

Tis the season of outdoor concerts, and I am in lineup heaven. It's the Ottawa Jazz Festival this week, for which Karen and I often buy passes. As usual with these types of festivals, about half the artistic lineup is made up of true jazz musicians, and the other half headliners of all genres (moneymoneymoneymoney....Monnnneey!). This has never bothered me, however, because the headliners they choose are often people on my personal bucket list AND I get to hear the jazzers. On Thursday night we went to hear the trumpeter Chris Botti, who, while an excellent trumpet player, is most impressive for the people he chooses to perform with. His drummer (Lee Pearson) and bassist (Richie Goods) were out of this world. Totally insane. And later this week Alison Krauss is playing, as well as Chaka Kahn and Bela Fleck/Flecktones. I'm thrilled. 

THAT is not the point, though. The POINT is that tonight Lake Street Dive is on the main stage, appropriately jazz festival material as their genre is unclassifiable. They're not jazz, but there' not NOT jazz...and they're rapidly becoming the type of headliner that will also generate cash for events like this. They will likely play tunes from their new album, which isn't my favorite collection of theirs, but does have some songs I'm straight up obsessed with -- the soul-tugging "I Can Change", for example. 

It's a gorgeous tune, lyrically and musically, especially in these (understatement) troubled times. It accurately mirrors feelings of both hope and hopelessness about our world, the disease of animosity that seems to be spreading even among people who are pushing for love, for inclusion and decency. "Hate casts a long shadow / I know that I lie in it / and let it rule my mind from time to time" sings Rachel Price, the siren, red headed lead singer of Lake Street Dive, whom everyone and their mother has a stage crush on. Upright bassist Bridget Brewing is the real star, though. She writes most of the songs, lyrics too, and bloodies her fingers going crazy on the strings. Anyway, I digress. "I Can Change" moves me to tears nearly every time, and makes me think of one of my favorite James Baldwin quotes from his essay Notes of a Native Son: “I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.” 

In other words, the song reminds me of what's underneath feelings of rage, on both sides of this country's deep rift, which doesn't exactly make anything solvable, but does make it more human. 

Dave Kelley

2018 has been such a difficult time for our nation and the world.  On a whiny personal note, it has been a very difficult year for me personally.  Too many dear friends and family have passed away or faced serious and tragic situations in the lives.  I know I am not alone in this.  We all lost Gary in January, and the Seilers in particular have suffered a decade worth of loss in just a couple of months.  My heart goes out to everyone, especially those children on the border ripped away from their parents by our cruel, despotic and shameless government.

As I mentioned in an earlier email, Nate, Miranda and I saw a tremendous American Aquarium show this week closed out with a killer cover of "Darkness on the Edge of Town."   Hail, hail, rock and roll.  Like the best concerts it was cathartic, reassuring, communal, and just a shitload of fun.  I use this line too often (Just ask Miranda), but we need to be reminded that "it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive."  It was a two hour respite from the death of my cousin and all of the sadness that brought.

I just did an American Aquarium post a few weeks ago, but fuck it right?  This is an older tune called "Burn, Flicker, Die."  It's better to burn out, than to fade away.  Well, maybe.

"We're no different than the neon lights

When you turn us on, we stay up all night

We do what we can, we put up a fight

Then we burn too long, we flicker and die."

And of course, I have to add "Darkness" by Bruce.  This is a live version done for the release of the album's box set years ago.  It was filmed in a theater with no audience along with the rest of the album's tracks.  There is no mugging for the camera or a crowd.  Just focused intensity.  

"Tonight I'll be on that hill, cause I can't stop

I'll be on that hill with everything that I've got

With lives on the line where dreams are found and lost

I'll be there on time, and I'll pay the cost

For wanting things that can only be found

In the darkness on the edge of town."

To me, this is a great, great song about facing our demons, our fears, our mortality, our secrets we lack the courage to reveal.  The singer is planting his feet and readying himself to face...……….everything.  Going forward, let's try and do the same with whatever dark and scary things are slouching towards us (or that might be slouching towards us) with the same resolve and acceptance.  And to quote Bob Deniro, "Fuck Trump!" 

Gary Scudder

Vera Lynn, White Cliffs of Dover

As is always the case, this was not the first or second or even third choice this week (however, on the bright side, my next month of songs is in the queue).  I won't detail the circuitous route that led to this choice, because it wouldn't make any sense and it's irrelevant anyway. This 1942 standard from Vera Lynn is simply one of my favorite songs.  Even after all these years I can't listen to it without tearing up. The line that gets to me - and should get to anyone with a heart and soul (essentially anyone who isn't serving in the Trump administration) - is "and peace everlasting, tomorrow, when the world is free." Is it depressing and humbling and sobering to think what that generation sacrificed to rid the world of Fascism - and to reconcile the fact that Fascism still exists, and on our side of the ocean, and that it is, at least temporarily, victorious.  We have a party, the GOP, which controls every branch of the federal government, as well as the majority of governorships and state legislatures, and has proven itself to be unabashedly and unreservedly racist and anti-democratic.  In between gerrymandering and Russian election tampering and the efforts of Fox News and Sinclair to spread the propaganda and the refusal to hold special elections and the stealing of Supreme Court seats we can chalk some of their success up to cheating, but I spend enough time in the Twitter universe to get a sense of the utterly vile nature of so many of Trump's followers.  However, there comes a time when sadness and disgust and reasoned dialogue has to give way to righteous anger.  For a person possessing a famous/infamous temper I'm actually a fairly gentle soul who has never hit anyone his entire life.  That said, the other night when I watched Corey Lewandowski mock a girl with Down Syndrome all I could think of is that if I were there at that moment I wouldn't have thrown my hands up and said, "How dare you, sir?!" but instead would have gone completely southern Indiana: "Stand up, stand up so I can knock you down.  It's happening here, or it's happening outside, but it's happening." Believe me, that's not me.  I had this instant thought that it's a good thing I wasn't there, because it would be trash TV at its worst/finest, but then I regretted not being there.  It's sad that it's come to this, but it has come to this.  There was a time when that previous generation, equally shocked by the state of world, and in disbelief that the worst of human nature could prevail, had to stop commenting and playing nice, and fight a battle that they didn't want to fight.  Hopefully in the end this will be a battle for the hearts and minds - and the Left can't simply rage against Trump without providing a better vision for a more equitable and fair future for all - and winning control of both houses of Congress in the mid-terms has to be the first step - but we also have to understand that the other side has absolutely no moral scruples (and, as I point out endlessly on Twitter, there are no bigger villains in American history than McConnell and Ryan) and the dying of the American century is not simply rhetorical flourish if we don't care enough to fight for its preservation.

The New Zanzibar Crew

I thought it would be a good idea to introduce the new Zanzibar crew.  They'll be taking my COR 220, Aesthetic Expression, in the fall semester and my friend and colleague Steve Wehmeyer's COR 250, Sacred and Secular, in the spring - and traveling to Zanzibar over winter break.

Whitney Bain

My major: Professional Writing with specialization in Creative Writing

The countries I've visited: Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, and Canada.

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “I have hiked two of Colorado’s 53 14ers and I hope to hike them all some day. Only 51 to go!”

Aaryck Carlson

"Erik Carlson is my legal name, but I go by Aaryck (same pronunciation, different spelling) most of the time."

My major: International Business 

The countries I've visited: “I have visited 48 of the 50 United States ( I'm missing Hawaii and Alaska), Canada, England, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy.”

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “I enjoy making cosplay, which is when someone dresses up like a character from any form of media. I mostly make outfits for myself but I've also done a few outfits on commission.”

Victoria Cipriani

My major:  Psychology Major with a Criminal Justice Minor

The countries I've visited: Dominica, Antigua, Saint Thomas, and Saint Martin

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “Something unique about me is that I was named after my great grandfather Victorio for my first name, and my middle name was after his wife Louise.”

Patrick Davin

My major: Creative Media

The countries I've visited: Germany, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Italy, Ireland, Costa Rica 

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “I was bitten by a wild monkey in Costa Rica.”

Sam Dykes

My major: Game Art and Animation

The countries I've visited: France, Jamaica, Canada

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “I'm a little less than half Native American, even though I don't look like it.”

Jonathan Hanyok

My major: Cyber Security and Networking

The countries I've visited: Canada, Mexico, Honduras, Panama, Spain, France, Andorra, Belgium, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary, and Austria. 

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “My favorite place to be is on an airplane because the destinations are endless.”

River Hoffman

My major: Business Administration

The countries I've visited: Germany, France, the Netherlands, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and around parts of Canada

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “I collect limited edition sneakers like yeezys and Jordans.”

Heather Mansfield

My major: Law Major with Psychology Minor

The countries I've visited: Canada, England, Germany, France, Austria, and Switzerland

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “One random thing about me is that I live and work on a farm.”

Emily Mazzara

My major: Professional Writing

The countries I've visited: Ireland, Scotland, Canada

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “I'm blood related to Hall-of-Fame recognized New York Yankee, Joe Dimaggio, on my dad's side.”

Joshua Meranda

My major: Computer Science major with a Cybersecurity minor

The countries I've visited: England, United Arab Emirates, Germany, and Austria

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “As a young child I attended a Clown Camp for two years.”

Amelia Payne

My major: Game Programming

The countries I've visited: Greece, Turkey, Italy, Barbados, Canada, England, BVI, USVI, Mexico, Grenada

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “I do Pysanky (Ukrainian Easter eggs) and cook sometimes.”

Miranda Rodriguez

My major: Creative Media with concentrations in Visual Art, Creative Writing, and Filmmaking

The countries “I've visited: Ecuador, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos, and The Bahamas. Hopefully Puerto Rico in the very near future.”

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “I was in color guard in high school, which basically means I got to spin flags, wooden rifles, and sabers in our high school marching band.”

Miller Roman

My major: Game Programming 

The countries I've visited: -Thailand, Mexico, Honduras, solid part of Europe

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “I grew up in Mexico so I have been sailing competitively, diving and surfing from a young age. I love to be in the water. I know it’s a bad photo but I don't have many photos that are just of me or able to present to professors “

Cameron Schneider

My major: Game Programming

The countries I've visited: Germany

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “I don't need water because I'm dripping in sarcasm and drowning in bad puns.”

Lydia Selman

My major: Communications with a Sonic Arts specialization

The countries I've visited: England, France, and Canada

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “Fun fact: I don't like posting about myself on the internet..”

Ariel Simpson

My major: Environmental Studies & Policy

The countries I've visited: Israel, Italy, France, Germany, Iceland, Canada, England 

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “My dog’s name is Dobby, like the house elf.”

Destiny Somers

My major: Elementary Education

The countries I've visited: “have only been to a few states including, Boston, Massachusetts, rural New York, Maine, New Hampshire, and last summer I took a road trip to Tennessee.”

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “My favorite music is reggae, and currently my favorite artist is Damien Marley, with my favorite song being Speak Life, and his album Stony Hill being my top, though it is a close run with the collaboration with Nas, Distant Relatives.”

Victoria Thompson

My major: Education

The countries I've visited: England, Ireland, and Wales

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “Something unique about myself is that I’ve lived in Vermont my whole life and wanted to stay here for college because I love the state so much. Excited to meet all of you!”

Kai Wilens

My major: Computer Science and Innovation (CSI)

The countries I've visited: Cambodia, South Korea, England, Canada, Iceland

Something funny or cool or unique about me: “I love to dance, especially to disco.”