La Fin de La Semaine Essay Question: Special "Do You Slash Your Wrists in Hot or Cold Water?" Edition

Okay, the backstory.

Sometime in the '90s, I suddenly and unexpectedly came into a hefty chunk of cash, and having recently gone through another of the Great Girlfriend Crises that have punctuated my life on numerous occasions since college, I decided to indulge myself. And no, that did NOT mean (as I have no doubt longtime readers are assuming) splurging it all on hookers and blow. 😎

Instead, I planned to go into the recording studio to make a solo album or EP; it was going to be a concept record entitled More Songs About Anger and Embittered Self-Pity (for obvious reasons) and I had a whole list of songs I wanted to cover that fit the bill and some musician friends who were ready to accompany me on the journey.

The short version: Cooler heads ultimately prevailed. After a couple of rehearsals, I decided that the project was kind of silly, and I proceeded to piss away said hefty chunk of cash on...I frankly don't even remember what. Probably just the blow (but not the hookers). 😎😎

Hey, what can I say -- it was the '90s, and we were all a little over the top.

Anyway, that leads us now, inexorably, to the subject of today's business. To wit:

...and if YOU were going to make your own version of More Songs About Anger and Embittered Self-Pity, what songs by which artists would you include?

Discuss.

In case you're wondering -- and this will come as no surprise to the abovementioned longtime readers -- my Numero Uno pick, both then and now, would be this. In fact, I think I actually rehearsed a punkish take on it with a guitarist friend of mine from The Magazine Formerly Known as Stereo Review who could do a very good Johnny Ramone impression. (Hi, Mike!!!)

So alrighty then -- what would YOUR choices be?

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!

Your Thursday Moment of Words Absolutely Freaking Fail Me

From 1963, please enjoy Ross McManus and his rousing rendition of the venerable Weavers/Peter Paul and Mary/Trini Lopez hit "If I Had a Hammer."

And in case you're wondering, Ross is -- wait for it -- Elvis Costello's dad.

Have I mentioned that words absolutely freaking fail me?

Songs I'd Forgotten Existed, Let Alone Loved (An Occasional Series): Special "I Don't Want to Go to the Hippie's Graveyard" Edition

So this past Monday, in our discussion about sadly underated first-generation SF band The Sopwith Camel, our good friend and faithful reader Capt. Al mentioned another (far more) obscure fave of mine, the upstate (Ithaca) NY band Chrysalis, who made one very interesting album in 1967 and then were similarly lost in the mists of history.

I absolutely adored said album (Definition, released by MGM) and after getting myself over to YouTube and listening to it for the first time in about 40 years, I thought I'd get all self-indulgent and share.

I find both of those genuinely haunting, and IMHO there are several songs on the album at least as good (yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking). That said, if you conclude that their whole gestalt is just insufferably twee, I will not dispute you. I mean, at the very least, it's hard to argue that they were not, shall we say. very much of their time.

I should add that I saw them live (twice, I think) and their songs sounded vastly better in that context; as much as I dig the record, the production is pretty undistinguished/undernourished. I should also add that I think singer Nancy Nairn has one of the coolest voices ever and (you'll have to take this on faith) that they had a lot of charisma onstage.

Self-indulgence now over. More recent music, more suited to the actual theme of this here blog, resumes on the morrow. 😎

Tuesday's Music-Themed Cartoon Chuckles

I gotta admit, it took me a minute or two to get the first one. 😎

Songs I'd Forgotten Existed, Let Alone Loved (An Occasional Series): Special "Tales From Snoopy's Doghouse " Edition

And speaking as we were last week of genius producer Erik Jacobsen, here are three songs (recorded in 1966-67) he helmed by unfairly treated by history first-generation San Francisco band The Sopwith Camel.

Pump up the volume on these and prepare to have your tiny minds blown.

Man, where even to begin? 😎

Let me just say, though, and for the record, that one of the reasons these guys aren't as famous as they should be is that the album pictured in the vids above came out -- to my knowledge inexplicably -- almost a year after "Hello Hello", the Top 10 single that made them briefly a thing. A year, of course, is a lifetime in pop music terms, and what the hell were they thinking?

I should add that "Treadin'" was the B-side of the aforementioned Top-Tenner, and I get chills just thinking of the glorious jangly folk-rock guitars that decorate it. I should also add that it was not included on the original Camel LP, and that the stereo version above was not available till a CD reissue sometime in the 90s.

Needless to say, I can still vividly recall my delight when I heard it in all its two-channel glory for the first time. 😎😎

La Fin de La Semaine Essay Question: Special "How Do You Say 'Art for Art's Sake' in Yiddish?" Edition

Okay, here's the short version.

So me and a certain Shady Dame of my acquaintance have gotten hooked on/are bingewatching a teevee show called (Sky Arts) Portrait Arist of the Year.

It's been running annually since 2013; the season we're currently enjoying is from 2019. In any case, the format has remained consistent since its premier. Nine artists -- professional and amateur -- have a paint-off portrait contest where they start by doing quick (four hour) studies of live sitters who are mostly B-list (usually British) celebs -- tv stars, actors, comics, pop musicians, sports figures etc -- and then they whittle the contestants down to one.

Who then gets to paint -- over a much longer period, i.e. a couple of weeks -- a 10,000 pound commission portrait of an A-list celeb for a major Brit Art institution. (In the season we're currently watching, the sitter is Sir Tom Jones for a museum in Wales.)

In any event, it's a fabulously entertaining show, and most of the art is world class and brilliant.

Which leads us, inexorably, to today's theme. To wit:

...and the post-Elvis pop/rock/country/folk/jazz/hip hop music star that you personally would most have liked to have painted a portrait of -- from life -- is...????

Discuss.

And if you're wondering who my ideal sitter would have been...

Ah, the late great Ms. Winehouse.

For multiple reasons that I probably don't need to go into. 😎

Alrighty then -- who would YOUR choices be?

And have a great weekend everybody!!!

These Guys Are Gonna Be Bigger Than Rimsky and Korsakov Combined!!!

From their eponymous 1972 debut album, please enjoy (if possible) The Sidewinders and their shall we say interesting instro version of the venerable "Flight of the Bumblebee." Kinda like The Ventures on acid.

The Sidwinders were hugely hyped by their label (RCA) and they had a certain je ne sais quoi in the downtown NYC rock scene of the early '70s. I actually had the album at the time and listened to it often enough that I decided their underground cool did not make up for the crappy production by the young Lenny Kaye. Great album cover photo, however.

In any case, they never took off commercially, and these days if they're remembered at all, it's as the band that launched the careers of power pop deity Andy Paley (credits too numerous to mention) and Billy Squier (before he you should pardon the expression stroked out). 😎

Cue the Theme from The Twilight Zone

Okay, this has totally weirded me out.

I mean, I know they say that everybody has a doppelganger (i.e. somebody who looks just like them) somewhere in the world, but coming face to face (heh) with mine -- the dude in the middle with the sunglasses -- was not what I expected this morning.

In any case, those guys are a vintage rock tribute band from Santa Fe NM; the picture is apparently a promo for a gig they did seven years ago.

I should add that according to their official website they're still at it (god bless 'em). But in the more up-to-date group photos and vids over there my double now just looks like a generic old guy.

Whew. 😎

Tuesday's Music-Themed Photo-Funnies and Cartoon Chuckle

The Star Trek one just kills me. 😎

Why Are There No Jews In Show-Biz?

And continuing, if obliquely, with the theme of the Weekend Listomania just past, from 1969 please enjoy Norman Greenbaum's other, better (IMHO) single "Canned Ham."

Forgetting the built-in irony of one of my fellow Red Sea Pedestrians singing an ode to a defiantly non-Kosher product, this record (which, granted, was a sales disappointment) simply slays me; in fact, when the colored girl at the end asks Norman (plaintively) 'When you gonna buy me some canned ham, Greenbaum?", I fall out of my chair laughing every time.

I should add that this (like "Spirit in the Sky," AKA "Norman's Meal Ticket") was produced by the great Erik Jacobsen, who also did brilliant records by Tim Hardin, Chris Isaak and (the classic hits of) The Lovin' Spoonful.

And who is, to our knowledge, another nice Yiddish boy, and definitely somebody who's unjustly fallen through the cracks of history and should be a subject for future research.