New Address

So I think it will be easier to post at a new address. From now on, these posts will be at www.baldmanwithacowlick.wordpress.com

Tablet Test

Let's try this again...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmQKMHIx9fU

This is just a test of my new tablet to see how blogging works on it. Also, The Who's "My Generation."

Springsteen

On the opposite pole from funk is stuff like this: where the lyrics do in fact matter a lot. Do they make literal sense the first time you hear them? Do they ever make literal sense? That depends on the song. But still. Me, I like it. These are songs that tend to tell a story that one day you discover you accidentally memorized entirely.

Bruce Springsteen (later with The E Street Band) really became well known around 1973. Also the year I was born. So, you know, a while ago. This is the first song on the first album:
"Blinded By the Light" (1973)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Iaca30QbOo

"Wild Billy's Circus Story" (Same year, different album)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAPdaUjfMIg

"Thunder Road" (1975)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMB3M43AEpc

"Hungry Heart" (1980)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQSn26zCXYQ

All of these are over 30 years old - he put out his most recent album this summer. But I figure this is a start...I'm going to see him in concert in November.

Bald Man With a Cowlick.

Metalachi

I don't know why I think you need to know this, but there's also currently a mariachi band in L.A. that only does old metal songs. They may be geniuses. Here's "Crazy Train":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUJw8JFPrpE

Here's their medley of "The Final Countdown" and "Ace of Spades," which you may or may not know that you know. They're tough songs to avoid, especially since dudes who graduated high school with me and your mother sold out and went into advertising and starting turning all the songs they loved into car commercials:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsDgKk-iBDY&feature=related

Anyway. I feel better having informed you of this.

Bald Man With a Cowlick

Overpowered By Funk

...which is a song by The Clash, which clearly you probably don't know, so I don't know why I thought it would be a good post title. Anyway.

Funk. Before your crazy hippity-hop dance classes, there was the magic of funk. I don't know how to begin with something like this - there's too much of it. (And disco doesn't count. There will be no disco on this blog except for occasional comic purposes.)

The definition technically has to do with the groove. Melody isn't the point. Lyrics DEFINITELY aren't the point. It's what the bass & drums are doing and how the voice and the other instruments (especially horns, in my favorite examples, but guitars & keyboards, too) punctuate it. It makes more sense to listen.

James Brown & His Famous Flames started it all. Also, Darth Potato, watch this man's feet. Unstoppable. Go on a YouTube frenzy for more. Search "James Brown Live." This is the preacher from the Blues Brothers of whom you guys asked, "Is that a man, or...?" Hair in the late 70s/early 80s was not his strength. Funkiness was.

"Out of Sight" (1964)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGdmY0N1qZA

That's not exactly funk, but it's opening up the box that funk came out of. So by 1969, you get things like
"Ain't It Funky Now." I dare you not to move.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRGj8Nq87b4

And, that same year, "Mother Popcorn." (And if your mother mentions this one, YES, Aerosmith did a version in the 70s. It wasn't bad. But even they would say this is better.) Don't ask what it means. It doesn't.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eoSXpNZD9o

Then you start to get things like:
"Express Yourself" by Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_0wL3Nqflg

Another personal favorite - though uncharacteristically mellow - by Funkadelic. George Clinton (who started this and 400 other bands) will get his own post later, though.
"Can You Get to That" (1971) from the beautifully titled "Maggot Brain" album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rrOdcnFbAY

I'm starving, so I'll have to stop here. Enjoy!

Bald Man With a Cowlick

"Pumped Up Kicks," eh?

So your Visiting Aunt mentioned last weekend that Foster the People's "Pumped Up Kicks" was being enjoyed in the HOPC-Mobile. Working backwards from there, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the dude who wrote that song (Mark Foster) is clearly a Weezer fan. If you listen to these couple of songs, you'll probably agree. Anyway. You may enjoy them.

(PS - the next step backwards from Weezer is either Nirvana, which your mother probably has some of leftover from college, or KISS, which I think you've got a pretty clear idea of. Where to go backwards from KISS, I wonder...)

Buddy Holly (1994)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kemivUKb4f4

Say It Ain't So (2004)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENXvZ9YRjbo

Island in the Sun (2004)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C3zgYW_FAM

Pork & Beans (2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_jGlyqoYoo

Enjoy! Or don't. But listen, either way.

Bald Man with a Cowlick

Boys! Here's some music.

So here's the deal:

a) because we're online and the world is Super Messed Up, I'll refer to you only by nicknames that will be obvious to you. I think I'll start with Vader & Palpatine. These will change at my whim. The same goes for other family members;

b) the purpose of this thing for now will be to send you all the crap it occurs to me that I should, but that by the time we see you a measly 2 or 3 times a year has slipped my mind. Without hair, there's nothing to keep it in there except my spongy skull which, frankly, hasn't got a chance;

c) I'll be putting up YouTube versions of the songs so you can actually hear them as you read instead of worrying about downloading, which...

d) ...can be done with an app for your Kindle Fires that you can get for free, called Dropbox. Because online file sharing gets dicier with every passing moment, I'll be putting the songs (or books or movies or whatever) I mention on a shared Dropbox folder for you to pull onto whatever electronic rectangle you so choose. This may require your mother to put in some kind of password, because I don't know whether you even have e-mail addresses, because the world is Super Messed Up;

e) There is no e) in this list;

f)I believe you should be able to comment without e-mail addresses, which will let me know what you think of the stuff I post. Some of it you'll have no interest in. Some of it you'll actively dislike. Some of it you'll love. Some of it will annoy the old people around you, and sometimes that's all you need, isn't it?

Anyway. It begins. Now to decide what exactly it is I should start with.

Music is good for the brain. Your mother's Jimmy Buffett and Darth's strange love for KISS are fine up to a point, and your Aunts and their showtunes are an important part of family bonding (just cave in and get used to these. They aren't all bad - but stay away when they're singing them. Hide downstairs. Or steal the car. Just get out however you can. Fly, you fools! Fly!). But you'll be happier when you stretch out a little beyond this. Also beyond pop radio, which, again, is fine and entertaining. But sometimes, it just won't do. Pop songs are like chewing gum from a machine at the mall: tasty for a little while, but you can only get so much out of them before they get pretty bland and cardboard-y. It's good to have something a little more meaty and nutritious stashed someplace. I seem to have moved from chewing gum to dog food. Metaphors are not my strength.

Onward.

PS - never, ever read YouTube comments. Across the board, without exception, only morons comment on YouTube clips. Sad, lonely, vicious people who exist to drag the world down. Just listen.
--------------------------
To begin, a couple of random favorites by the Kinks:
Sunny Afternoon (1966)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h1oRP7FfBw&feature=fvst
(No, the video is pretty obviously not a live performance. But the video isn't important.)

Stop Your Sobbing (1964)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZQUKN5G9xk
(I find this useful to sing sarcastically to whining people. Start by reciting the lyrics, and gradually break into song.)

Powerman (1970)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EI6On0nGrxk

Rats (1970)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LAkd0hS1LE&feature=related

Now it's your turn. Just listen. Then come back in a few days or a week and listen again to see if it sounds different. Or if I've put a bunch of other stuff on here.

Have fun
Bald Man with a Cowlick