1. Hello, I Must Be Going!!
So I just did something I haven't done in approximately 50 years -- I bought an album on vinyl!
2. I Coulda Sworn I Sat Next to that Guy at a Priest Show...
2. Okay, I Didn't Get This One For the First Two Minutes
4. You Know, Somedays I Really Miss the Wilburys
5. Isn't That You Behind Those Foster Grants?
From 2012, please enjoy the late great Gregory Fleeman and his utterly brilliant ode to Elvis Presley and Liberace, a/k/a two guys with "Dead Twin Brothers."
Words fail me.
Longtime readers will recall my blathering about Greg (who passed away too young in 2022) on previous occasions; suffice it to say that back in the day (late 70s/early 80s) he fronted without question the most hilarious rock act I ever witnessed, the genius-monikered Gregory Fleeman and the Fleewomen. I encountered them, initially, while researching a piece on the neo-folk scene that was then briefly resurgent in Greenwich Village; here's what I wrote at the time (in The Magazine Formerly Known as Stereo Review).
...Fleeman is a young ex-actor with one of the most warped sensibilities likely to be sprung on an unsuspecting public. His band is a motley collection of aging hippies, refugees from underground S-&-M clubs and punk/jazz fusion players, and his songs are about the funniest I've heard since...oh, since Tonio K. Take "Touching Myself But Thinking of You," which asks the musical slash cosmic question "If we're all one, who needs you?" Or his children's lullabye about the little men who come out when you're asleep ("They massage your heart/and your private parts/and throw parties in your mouth"); his impassioned love song about the Tappan Zee Bridge; a 40s swing tune called "Wisconsin Moon" ("There's too much beer...here!"); not to mention his soon-to-be-immortal production number, "the song, nay metaphor" he calls simply "Showbiz" (although it's better known to his fans as "Sucking My Way to the Top").
I should add that "Showbiz," as well as "Dead Twin Brothers" and much, much more can be found on Greg's 2005 album The Right Tool for the Job, which is a masterpiece and can be purchased and/or streamed over at Amazon HERE; just about all of it is also up at YouTube if you want to browse without buying. I should also add that you should go over to Amazon Prime and treat yourself to a viewing of F/X, the hilarious sort of spy thriller (starring Bryan Brown) that Greg penned in his other life as a Hollywood screenwriter.
Returned from DeSantis Land with a bitch of a cold. Regular posting -- beginning with a video that will blow your mind -- resumes on the morrow, if i can stop coughing.
Hey -- I didn't say it was ever gonna be mistaken for after-dinner conversation by Noel Coward. -- S.S.]
Okay -- we're back from our brief vacation in DeSantis Land (we'll have some amusing stuff to share with you about that experience next week) and we need a rest. So let's move right to this weekend's business, inspired by yesterday's fabulous new track by veteran Canadian New Wavers Martha and the Muffins.
To wit:
...and your favorite (or least favorite) post-Elvis band/group moniker which includes either somebody's first name or their complete name is...???
Self-explanatory, obviously, and no arbitrary rules, although I'm tempted to exclude nicknames. Which would eliminate Cannibal and the Headhunters, so what the hell -- if that's what floats your boat in this regard, go for it.
In any case...discuss.
I should add that my nominee -- the best one ever, I'm sorry it's not even close -- is...Johnny and the Moondogs!!!
I mean, come on. I don't care if they were only an entity for three months or so -- Lennon should have kept them together, thus changing history in unfathomable ways
That said -- Have a great weekend, everybody!!! Me, I'm hitting the sack.
I haven't thought much about these guys since their 80s New Wave "Echo Beach" heyday, but this new track is smart on a number of levels, and as you'll see, the video reinforces its point with some fabulously mordant surrealism. And I'm not just saying that because I currently find myself in Florida, i.e. an Open Carry state governed by a fascist moron.
I should add that a coveted PowerPop No-Prize© will be awarded the first reader who gleans the song's relevance to the theme of tomorrow's Weekend Essay Question.
Okay, actually at Disney World, where BG and I are currently vacationing, as you know. Still, pretty cool, Ill grant you. But I must confess to a certain relief that Ron's National Guard doesn't have access to one.
Coming tomorrow -- a fabulous new song by a veteran band hailing from Canuckistan.
Exhausted from walking around EPCOT (Every Person Comes Out Tired) all day.
More weird Florida-related stuff on the morrow.
So far we haven't run into either of these fictional characters, let alone together...
...but we'll keep you posted.
Of course, as you may have guessed, this week's postings will be. necessarily, both fitful and/or weird until our return to civilization -- this is an open-carry state, after all. But if our luck holds out, there should be some interesting stuff tomorrow.
Excelsior!!!
It will come as no surprise to long-time readers of this here blog that I consider FOW to have been one of the all-time great -- maybe even one of the top ten great -- American rock bands ever. I will go further and say that the performance above -- which I was unaware of until two days ago -- was taped at a moment in time when they were, quite literally, the greatest rock-and-roll band in the freaking world.
Okay, and with that established, we move on to our weekend bizness. To wit:
...and your favorite (or least favorite) post-Elvis live performance of a single song by a pop/rock/c&w/soul/blues band or solo performer is...?
No arbitrary rules, but obviously we're talking about a performance that has been immortalized as an audio or video recording, not something you personally saw and we have to take how fabulous it was on your word only.
Okay, discuss.
And have a great weekend, everybody!
We'll see you next week when posting resumes from our forthcoming vacation in Ron DeSantis' dystopian hellscape of Florida (specifically, the part run by Disney.)
Pray for us!!!
That performance just kills me, although I'm admittedly prejudiced. Which is to say I have a long history with the song, beginning with a rock-band demo of it produced back in the early '90s by my late musical director/Floor Models drummer Glen "Bob" Allen.
More to the point, it gets to me on a deeply personal level for a number of reasons, the most suitable for publication being that it reminds me (minus the heartbreak over the girl) of one of the loveliest evenings of my life -- an outdoor jam session I participated in at a party in a field in rural Delaware on a glorious July night in front of a couple of hundred revellers. Obviously, you had to be there, but you get the idea -- it was just magical, and Pete's song conjures it up for me every time I hear it.
I should add that I always thought the song could work well if done as a sort of cross between the 1965 Byrds and the 1968 Rolling Stones. So here's a version I recorded along those lines in 2019.
I should also add that when I played that for Pete soon after its release, over drinks at my local watering hole, he graciously declined to punch me in the nose. For which I've always been grateful -- thanks, Pete!!!
Have I mentioned that's a great freaking song?
