Category Archives: pop music

Subterranean homesick Bob

Posted on May 25, 2011 by oddmanout215

I tried, but the hundred Inevitables dogged me all day. By the time I got back to the bunker the medicine man was gone and Beethoven had unwrapped a bedroll with Ma Rainey. I’d missed my chance to give Bob … Continue reading →

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On the road to Johnny Brenda’s w/ Nicos Gun

Posted on April 5, 2011 by oddmanout215

You’re achy and pissed when you pull into Roadkill, AL, or wherever, and sick of looking at each other, of the smell of each other in that RV you’re rattling around in. But South by Southwest in Austin was sweet … Continue reading →

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To get to an Arizona bigot’s heart…

Posted on March 19, 2011 by oddmanout215

…hit him in the wallet, real hard: Arizona established itself over the past year as the most aggressive state in cracking down on illegal immigrants, gaining so much momentum with its efforts that several other states vowed to follow suit. … Continue reading →

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Anti-unions bill OK’d. (Don’t sit still for it, Tom.)

Posted on March 10, 2011 by oddmanout215

Because these wings are no longer wings to fly But merely vans to beat the air The air which is now thoroughly small and dry Smaller and dryer than the will Teach us to care and not to care Teach … Continue reading →

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A song for Charlie Sheen?

Posted on March 9, 2011 by oddmanout215

Listen all you fools out there Go on and love me I don’t care Oh it’s lonely at the top — Randy Newman, “Lonely At the Top,” 1972 People say it’s lonely at the top, but I sure like the … Continue reading →

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Money for (next to) nothing on WXPN

Posted on February 27, 2011 by oddmanout215

But there’s nothing, really nothing, to turn off. — Bob Dylan, “Visions of Johanna,” 1966 I turned on the car radio this morning and noticed the DJ on WXPN was yakking for a long time between songs. “Oh no, a … Continue reading →

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Fergie and Fyodor do the Super Bowl

Posted on February 7, 2011 by oddmanout215

Yes, we shall set them to work, but in their leisure hours we shall make their life like a child’s game, with children’s songs and innocent dance. — from the Grand Inquisitor’s speech in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov And … Continue reading →

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Woe-is-uh-me-bop, Beefheart is dead

Posted on January 1, 2011 by oddmanout215

My musician son Barney sent me a text message on Dec. 17: “Beefheart died today.” This was sad but also a good sign that the music of Captain Beefheart, aka Don Van Vliet, will long outlast the man, although you … Continue reading →

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Sympathy for Aunt Gert

Posted on November 13, 2010 by oddmanout215

Mick Jagger… prances inexhaustibly through a two-hour set, at his best evoking the spawn of James Brown and Gumby, at his worst coming off like someone’s liquored-up Aunt Gert, determined to trash her prettier sister’s wedding with a gruesome performance … Continue reading →

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