Category Archives: pop music

Veterans Day Beefheart


I cry but I can’t buy Your Veteran’s Day poppy It don’t get me high It can only make me cry It can never grow another Son like the one who warmed me my days After rain and warmed my … Continue reading

Posted in arts, Politics, pop music | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Music to haunt you on Halloween


There are at least three varieties of scary songs — novelty numbers, done for laughs; songs that have dark lyrics but aren’t all that scary; and songs (“compositions” is a better word) that actually sound scary and give you the … Continue reading

Posted in arts, humor, pop music | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ain’t nothin’ I wouldn’t do, sugar…


The perfect Saturday night song if you’re looking to sit at a bar and drown your lust for someone, or to start a fight if you can’t drink enough to drown it. I don’t sit at bars anymore, but I … Continue reading

Posted in arts, fiction, humor, pop music | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Don’t judge me by my shoes…


The Band was peaking as a creative force when “King Harvest (Has Surely Come)” appeared on their second album. The song’s subject is a rural victim of the Great Depression who joins a labor union to avoid starvation. His plight … Continue reading

Posted in arts, economic collapse, Great Depression, pop music, The New Depression, unemployment, world-wide economy | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

As sure as the sun will shine…


This was ripped right from the movie, I think. It simmers. Great rhythm section. The whole band is the rhythm section. Check out the sinister bosses sizing up Cliff’s commercial potential.

Posted in arts, movies, pop music | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Nicos Gun, laughing at tornadoes


From Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test: Coming up over the Blue Ridge Mountains, everybody was stoned on acid, Cassady included, and it was at that moment that he decided to make it down the steepest, awfulest windingest mountain … Continue reading

Posted in arts, fiction, Philadelphia, pop music | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Adios, summer girl. Or is it ‘sun-eyed’ girl?


Summer’s gone and good riddance, I’d rather any weather than a heat wave in Philly. But I still like the idea of summer, which I associate with old memories of hitchhiking, seashore towns, and chasing girls who enjoyed being caught. … Continue reading

Posted in arts, humor, Philadelphia, pop music | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Are e-books tomorrow, or just the end of time?


Check out this from The Economist in case you’re still wondering about the future of mass-produced paper books: To see how profoundly the book business is changing, watch the shelves. Next month IKEA will introduce a new, deeper version of … Continue reading

Posted in arts, enviromentalism, humor, mainstream media, movies, pop music | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Mitchell’s ‘Coyote’ still lean and mean


Recently, watching the Band back Joni Mitchell on “Coyote” (the video I put up here has been blocked) in Martin Scorcese’s The Last Waltz, I wondered about the link between cocaine and the fashionably emaciated look in the 1970s. Never … Continue reading

Posted in arts, movies, pop music | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

We’ll all be rain dogs soon


For those in the path of Irene: “Rain Dogs” from Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs (1985) According to reports, Philadelphia will get more rain this weekend than any other major city in the region. Bad news for those of us in … Continue reading

Posted in food, livable cities, Philadelphia, pop music | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments