Busted Looking at Royal Cleavage

Sometimes I don't mind talking about something silly with little to no redeeming value. Like today. Men look at women. Always have and always will. One of the hazards of looking is that you may inadvertently cross the line between a quick admiring glance and a long creepy ogle. If a lady blocks your view, yup you just might be a creepy little perv. Pentti Arajarvi, man that he is, may know all about that. The husband of the Finnish President, Arajavi was attending a state dinner in Denmark last month when he evidently noticed something quite interesting about the Danish Princess Mary, wife of the Crown Prince of Denmark. Watch the video below.

That didn't look too inadvertent to me. No, no it didn't. Now back in Viking days that sort of thing may have started a war but of course we live in more civilized times. Old Arajarvi must have been admiring the lady's....necklace. Yeah, that's the ticket... And then when Princess Mary noticed that he admired her ...necklace, he then noticed what wonderful chandeliers she had. Obviously we have all just misinterpreted what he was looking at. Yeah, that's the ticket...


Questions
Men: Have you ever been caught looking at something you shouldn't have been looking at? What did you do?
Women: Have you ever caught someone ogling you and/or making you feel uncomfortable? How did you handle it?

Santorum questions Obama's "phony" theology

Sometimes I  like respect people that are unafraid to stand up and tell you what they think, right or wrong. Many people can't always do that, whether it's because we'd like to keep our job or because we realize that maintaining a good relationship with a loved one is more important than sharing exactly what is on our mind.


There is a big difference between saying what you think or believe and insulting someone else's beliefs. There is also a contrast in stating that you believe that someone is wrong on an issue and saying that someone is a bad person. Unfortunately Rick Santorum seems to find it constitutionally impossible to make those distinctions. These are really important distinctions to make in a country where there are a multitude of beliefs about God, sexuality, reproduction and any other hot button issue you care to list.

"It's not about you,' Santorum declared."It's not about your quality of life. It's not about your jobs. It's about some phony ideal. Some phony theology. Oh, not a theology based on the Bible -- a different theology."

"I can't help but think that those remarks are well over the line," Senior Obama Campaign Adviser Robert Gibbs said Sunday on "ABC This Week." "It's wrong. It's destructive."

LINK
This isn't just a dog whistle to those who are convinced that the President is an Alinskyite/Atheist/Muslim/Kenyan/Socialist/Communist/Ghetto Crackhead who hates America. (though it certainly appeals to that crowd)  It is also a tell that Santorum doesn't realize that he's running for President of the United States, not Grand Inquisitor. Those two jobs require different experiences and personalities. For President, I want to know that someone understands this BEFORE I hand him the keys to a massive national security apparatus and a military might unmatched by any other nation. But if I were hiring for Grand Inquisitor I would definitely call Santorum back for the second round of interviews. He certainly has the smug moral certitude needed.



I'm on a mission. A mission from God.

Santorum's attack also reveals a reductionist religious view. If I told you that there was a religious organization whose leaders regularly issued pointed broadsides against the death penalty, poverty, racism, free-market capitalism, war, and the increasing concentration of wealth, you might be surprised to learn that Santorum was a member. Evidently, as many people do, Santorum struggles with those teachings which he finds inconvenient and embraces those which he likes. The Roman Catholic Church is about more than opposition to abortion, gay marriage and contraception. Both Santorum and his detractors should remember that. The call to share and help the poor is just as important as the sexual proscriptions. It doesn't look like Santorum is heeding that call


Santorum also revealed that he was opposed to prenatal testing because he thinks it leads to abortion. 

"Yes, prenatal testing, amniocentesis does in fact result more often than not in abortion. That is a fact," Santorum said.

Okay. I almost never think that more knowledge is in and of itself a bad thing. That sort of arrogant know-nothing attitude is in direct opposition to what middle school Jesuit teachers taught me. If doctors discovered that an unborn child might face challenges, the new parents could use the time before birth to research those issues. They might consider adoption. They might alter their plans so that one parent provides full time home care. They might purchase more insurance. They might ask an extended family member to assist. One or both parents might change their career path to something more lucrative so that they could afford the additional medical costs. Everyone won't automatically seek abortion. And even if 99 out of 100 couples did, that doesn't mean that 100th couple doesn't have the right to prenatal testing.

The problem here is that increasingly, too many people across the political spectrum seem to believe that their opponents are not just wrong or misguided but bad and downright evil. Our system features divided government and limits on federal power precisely to ensure that you must work with detractors. So this doesn't bode well for Santorum's ability or interest to get things done if elected President.

I write this not as someone who thinks that partisanship is necessarily a bad thing or that some people on the opposite side of the political spectrum from me aren't truly malicious whack jobs. But if you assume that everyone with whom you disagree is evil or has "phony theology", purely as a pragmatic point you blind yourself as to their true motivations. You make mistakes, costly ones.

Never hate your enemies. It affects your judgment.
-Michael Corleone

QUESTIONS

1. There is no religious test for political office. Why is Santorum acting as if there is?
2. Were he to become the nominee, would Santorum's beliefs and attitude find support in a general election? Am I overreacting to a poor choice of words?
3. Could a President Santorum reach across the political divide?
4. Will attacks on President Obama's authenticity continue to be part of the political landscape?
5. Are you surprised at the sudden rash of social issues getting play this year?

Movie Reviews-Beneath the Darkness, Drive, Phantom Punch, Death to Smoochy

Beneath The Darkness

"And I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for you meddling kids!!"
If you recognize and are amused by this quote then Beneath the Darkness might be tolerable for you. If you know where it comes from and don't find it funny at all then you should probably skip this film. If you never heard that before then this film will be new to you but I still can't recommend it without reservation.
Dennis Quaid plays a small town widower Texas mortician and former football hero named Ely, who in the opening scene jogs up to a neighbor walking his dog, boasts about his biceps and then produces a gun and tells the neighbor he's had this coming for a very long time. Ely takes the neighbor for a ride in his van. A one way ride that is.
Well at least the dog gets away. I wouldn't have liked it if the dog had gotten killed too. Dogs are cool. Neighbors? I can take them or leave them. Some neighbors I'd miss. Others???

I'd have to think about that for a while. 

Fast forward to the local high school in which a troubled teen, (is there any other kind?) Travis (Tony Oller) is not doing well academically.  He believes he had a paranormal experience when his sister died. So it makes PERFECT sense that he works as a cemetery groundskeeper for the just this side of manic Ely. Travis argues with his Mom about his faulty schoolwork and lackadaisical attitude. He hangs out with three other teens, one of whom is a girl, Abby (Aimee Teagarden) whom Travis would also like to take on a ride, but presumably a different kind than that which Ely gave to his neighbor. Abby however, appears to be more interested in another member of of the foursome, the quarterback of the football team. The names are REALLY not important. There's Travis, the quarterback, Abby, and Travis' best friend, who is apparently a wide receiver.

Foolishly, Travis admits his belief in the supernatural to his friends. Quarterback mocks him. To keep the peace Abby and Wide Receiver Guy point out that there are rumors of paranormal activity at Ely's house. The group agrees to go ghost hunting there though Quarterback reserves the right to mock Travis if nothing happens. Well something does happen. The group breaks into Ely's home and sees something that should not be. But Ely surprises them and chases them off. Well, Ely chases them all off except Wide Receiver Guy, who he kills in such a way that it looks like an accident. The film's balance is as you might suspect a series of chess moves between Ely and the remaining trio as they try to reveal his secret and stay out of jail. This may appeal to you. I dunno. I felt it it was extremely derivative of a certain 70's cartoon show.
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Drive

I wasn't expecting too much from this movie. I thought it was just going to be another take on Fast and Furious or Faster. I was wrong. Gloriously, totally and indubitably wrong. Drive is actually a modern film noir but in color. It's a throwback to a movie making style last seen in the seventies, in which directors are fine with just letting things play out at their own pace. Not everything is explained.
If Drive has one moral it would be "A man's gotta have a code". The hero of the movie is unnamed. Let's call him Driver (Ryan Gosling). Driver doesn't talk much. He lets his actions speak for him. Driver works in a garage owned by the garrulous Shannon (Bryan Cranston). Driver also works as a Hollywood stunt car driver, a racer and as a getaway driver for armed robbers.  Driver appears to be at peace with himself and the world.
Driver meets a pretty young woman Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her son when they have car trouble. As it turns out they are neighbors and Driver starts spending time with Irene. Again this moves slowly and naturally. They DON'T have sex.

Shannon is looking for the big score so he arranges for Driver to be backed in his racing by the mobsters Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) and Nino (Ron Pearlman in a very menacing role). Bernie and Nino have loyalty to each other and that's the extent of their milk of human kindness. Unfortunately for Driver's future plans for Irene, her convict husband Standard (Oscar Isaac) is released from prison and is about as happy as you might expect he would be to find another man trying to shake his peach tree. He not so subtly warns Driver off. Driver complies. But not soon after Standard is badly beaten and must ask for Driver's help. This sets off a chain of events that cause all of Driver's carefully separated worlds to start to collapse together.


The lighting, attitude, acting and action of this movie are just superb. Top notch stuff. I wish there were more movies done like this. You really enjoy the quiet parts and the frantic parts of this movie. It uses dynamics in its pacing and storyline. This could have won an Oscar. Well maybe that's stretching it a bit but it's not just a drive-fast shoot-em-up movie. Gosling does a really good job here. Camera work excites without leaving you queasy. Albert Brooks and Ron Pearlman play off each other nicely as the gentleman gangster and unreconstructed thug, respectively. Check this one out. It's easily the best of today's group. No competition. Look for Christina Hendricks in a small role.
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Phantom Punch

I hadn't seen anything by Robert Townsend in a very long time so I decided to check this out. This movie purports to tell the true story of Charles "Sonny" Liston, one time thug and mob heavy, one time heavyweight champion of the world, who lost two controversial fights to Muhammad Ali and later died in very suspicious circumstances. The film title refers to the widespread belief that Liston, at the behest of his mob backers, took a dive in the second fight.


This should have been a better movie than it was. It starred Ving Rhames as Sonny Liston. Although I can't immediately think of someone who could have theoretically better captured Liston's aura of menace and forboding, the harsh fact is that Rhames was a few years too old for this role. His acting was the best in the film but it wasn't enough. Phantom Punch is apparently low budget. The camera work is okay but the sets and lighting, with a few exceptions don't really hold up. I understand that a film about Liston does not want to focus on Ali. But given that Ali was known as "The Mouth From The South" for his nonstop chatter, mastery of the dozens and general ability to get under the skin of opponents, it doesn't make a lot of sense to have the actor playing Ali be virtually silent.


The fights definitely don't convince the viewer as to authenticity. I mean they REALLY don't. Nick Turtorro plays Caesar Novak, Liston's direct mob handler. David Proval is the local mob boss. Stacey Dash plays Sonny's wife Geraldine, while Bridgette Wilson-Sampras is Caesar's girlfriend Farah. This movie suggests that Liston's demise was as much for personal (and classic) reasons related to Farah as it was for business ones. Generally this had a very made for TV/direct to DVD feel to it. There were some accurate depictions of incidents in Liston's life and of the open and casual racism of police officers and sportswriters. The film did have a strong sense of sadness and wasted talent which it could have investigated further. Phantom Punch made me want to learn more about Liston but it wasn't that entertaining (Dash and Sampras-Wilson in tight/revealing clothing aside)






Death to Smoochy

Okay just upfront, I liked this film a LOT.  It was however a complete box office disaster. I think the mixture of kids' shows, cynicism and mobsters was a bit too much for most people.

It is an adult comedy that centers around kids' shows. There is a tension here between TV producers and performers who are presumably trying to inculcate good, selfless behavior in children while at the same time fighting for ratings, raiding other shows for talent and generally behaving in all sorts of selfish, if not criminal ways.

One performer who has become thoroughly disillusioned by the whole sordid business is Rainbow Randolph (Robin Williams) the current popular host of a top ranked children's show.
Randolph is about this close to telling everyone where they can go and has long since lost any sense of happiness at entertaining children. He is only concerned about making sure his checks clear. When Randolph is busted in an FBI bribery sting operation, the self-serving station president Stokes (Jon Stewart) doesn't want to know him any more. The show's hard driving head producer Nora Wells (Catherine Keener) drops him.
The producers want a soft sap who won't make any waves and they think they've found what they need in Sheldon Mopes (Edward Norton) an earnestly submissive and irritatingly pleasant and optimistic young man who performs as Smoochy the Rhino. Mopes was playing to literally captive audiences in methadone clinics. This didn't bother him. Mopes is the kind of man who, if someone throws something heavy at his head, will reluctantly duck and then calmly ask if the assailant wants to talk about her feelings. There are reasons for his demeanor though.

However as rapidly becomes apparent, Mopes actually believes in helping kids first and foremost. Mopes believes in organic foods and is anti-sugar. He gets extremely agitated at any suggestion of commercialism or endorsement activities. At first this is merely mildly annoying to Wells and Mopes' agent Burke Bennett (Danny  Devito). But as Mopes holds his ground, showing previously unknown backbone, Bennett and Wells start to run afoul of the larger crime charities, including one presided over by Merv Green (Harvey Fierstein). They are decidedly NOT happy about having their income stream limited by Mopes and put pressure on Bennett to get him to play ball. Or else.


Meanwhile the disgraced, impoverished and increasingly insane Rainbow Randolph is shocked to see that the show's ratings are better with Smoochy. He convinces himself that he must get rid of Smoochy, by disgrace and scandal if possible, or by good old fashioned murder if necessary. Williams carries this movie. I loved his over the top performance here. I am really confused as to why this film didn't do better but everyone has different needs for humor I guess. It's fair to say that Keener and Norton don't light up the screen together but again, Williams' performance more than makes up for that in my view. 
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The Urban Beat: Patricia Stephens Due

A problem with the "great man" view of history is that it not only elides the fact that there were also "great women" but more importantly it overlooks that fact that social movements are indeed just that. They are made up of numerous people (men and women) who made contributions, both big and small. Many of these people don't get into the history books but were it not for their collective actions, the man or woman in the media spotlight wouldn't have the ability to make the changes they did.

One such woman who just passed away who may have not gotten the recognition from us all while she was here was one Patricia Stephens Due, a leading civil rights activist, author and mother of author Tananarive Due and mother-in-law of author Steve Barnes.
Read more about her incredible life here.

Patricia Stephens Due, whose belief that, as she put it, “ordinary people can do extraordinary things” propelled her to leadership in the civil rights movement — but at a price, including 49 days in a stark Florida jail — died on Tuesday in Smyrna, Ga. She was 72.

At 13, Patricia Stephens challenged Jim Crow orthodoxy by trying to use the “whites only” window at a Dairy Queen. As a college student, she led demonstrations to integrate lunch counters, theaters and swimming pools and was repeatedly arrested.

As a young mother, she pushed two children in a stroller while campaigning for the rights of poor people. As a veteran of integration and voting rights battles, she went on to fight for economic rights, once obstructing a garbage truck in support of striking workers. As an elder stateswoman of the movement, she wrote a memoir to honor “unsung foot soldiers.”

She fought beside John D. Due Jr., a civil rights lawyer, whom she married in 1963. For their honeymoon, they rode the Freedom Train to Washington to hear the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. give his “I Have a Dream” speech.

Mrs. Due paid a price for this devotion. She wore large, dark glasses day and night because her eyes were damaged when a hissing tear gas canister hit her in the face...

I thank Mrs. Due and all the men and women of generations before and after her that kept up the good fight, even when things looked their bleakest.

QUESTIONS
1) Had you heard of Patricia Stephens Due before?
2) Are we collectively doing a good job of capturing the stories of the older civil rights generation and giving them the respect they deserve? 

Mitt Romney converts dead people

Do you know what happens when you die? Well Mitt Romney does. He's going to baptise you into Mormonism. Since you're dead you won't be able to object. And another soul is saved from the fires of hell. Praise the Lord!!! Someone should tell the Jehovah's Witnesses of this approach. It just saves a LOT of time and hurt feelings. Think about it. Rather than go door to door and have people pretend they're not home, slam the door in your face, set their dogs on you or openly mock your "kooky" beliefs, you just wait until AFTER they're dead and convert them anyway. No muss. No fuss. And no expenses for Watchtower pamphlets. All in all it's the perfect approach for the more introverted missionary, or perhaps a missionary who's just tired of trying to outrun the local Rottweiler.


Who could object to such a swell setup? I mean it's a win-win for everyone right? The church gets "converts" and you don't have to explain to the pious young person standing on your porch that no you aren't interested in coming to a Bible reading,  no you aren't giving him any money and no you don't want any literature. 

Well as it turns out there are quite a few people who object to this practice. One of them happens to be Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and activist. And I think I would object as well. I mean imagine that you are minding your own business and then find out that Mormons are claiming that your deceased relatives converted to Mormonism and are presumably off ruling their own planets in Mormon heaven. Or consider that you're getting up there in age and discover that the Mormons have already calculated the likely time of your demise and are preparing to posthumously convert you to their faith. Wiesel wasn't pleased.

Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor who has devoted his life to combating intolerance, says Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney"should speak to his own church and say they should stop" performing posthumous proxy baptisms on Jews.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner spoke to The Huffington Post Tuesday soon after HuffPost reported that according to a formerly-Mormon researcher, Helen Radkey, some members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had submitted Wiesel's name to a restricted genealogy website as "ready" for posthumous proxy baptism. Radkey found that the name of Wiesel had been submitted to the database for the deceased, from which a separate process for proxy baptism could be initiated. Radkey also said that the names of Wiesel's deceased father and maternal grandfather had been submitted to the site. 

A spokesman for the Mormon Church claimed that the names were simply entered into the database, and none were submitted for baptism, which he described as a separate process. The entry of a living person, he said, was a mistake, and he provided no explanation for the submission of Wiesel's father and maternal grandfather. By Monday the records for the names of Wiesel and his family had been changed to "not available," according to Radkey.

SOURCE

Ouch. Now far be it from me to question anyone's faith. I don't really care what you believe so much as how you behave. But at the very best it's sort of rude and at the worst downright arrogant and kind of creepy to run around claiming you've converted dead people. It's remarkable thoughtless and insensitive to their beliefs and more importantly to the beliefs and feelings of their living relatives. It's a sort of rewriting of history. I knew about this practice but I'm a little surprised that the Mormons are still doing it. Seems like that they would have gotten the message that their missionary outreach needs to be restricted to those who can still say yes or no: that is the living.

But perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. After all back in 2007 When asked by Newsweek if he has done baptisms for the dead -- in which Mormons find the names of dead people of all faiths and baptize them, as an LDS spokesperson says, to "open the door" to the highest heaven-- he looked slightly startled and answered, "I have in my life, but I haven't recently". SOURCE

O-KAY. So perhaps the biggest question of the 21st century will not be whether or not America was ready to elect a black man with an African name to the White House but rather if America was ready to send a self-admitted necromancer to the White House. Maybe we'd better vote for Mitt while we have the chance. Otherwise he's just going to wait until we're dead and then claim we voted for him anyway. Yikes. He could be the first President seriously to go after the critical dead demographic. Kennedy made some overtures in 1960 but Romney could really win this under recognized voting bloc.

QUESTIONS

1) Is Wiesel right to be upset? Would you care if this happened to your deceased loved ones?

2) Is this a fair area of discussion or should the media have stayed out of it?

3) Will stories like this have any impact on the primary nomination (or general election should Romney be the nominee)

Jason Whitlock Racially Insults Jeremy Lin

If you don't keep up with the NBA you might have missed this year's current feel good story. The Knicks, in a fit of desperation after injuries, absences and players that weren't quite working out, turned to the end of the bench and started playing Jeremy Lin, a journeyman guard that was about THIS close from being bounced from the league altogether.


However Lin so far has not only shown that he belongs in the NBA, he's shown that he's someone other teams need to plan for and worry about. The undrafted Harvard grad is playing with (and outplaying) people like Kobe Bryant. Time will tell if he can keep up this pace but right now he's handling his business.

Of course anytime someone is successful there will shortly be along someone who feels it's their duty to bring them back down to earth. Enter one Mr. Jason Whitlock, previously best known for making insulting comments about Serena Williams' looks, physique and work ethic.
Mr. Whitlock felt it necessary to go to twitter to drop this knowledge on the world immediately after Lin scored 38 points in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers.

Some lucky lady in NYC is gonna feel a couple inches of pain tonight.

Oh that's a laugher that is. Yup. I wonder how many times Lin has heard that stereotype before.

This brings up a few things which really amaze me.

Unless he's been living under a rock, Whitlock just saw another black male celebrity journalist post something stupid on twitter and get chin checked hard. Now, regardless of whether you thought it was right or not that Roland Martin got the reaction he received, it seems that you would have taken notice and adjusted your public utterances accordingly. I mean really, Whitlock, how hard is this? Don't make insulting references to people's gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality in public and ESPECIALLY don't do it over twitter. Because unless you happen to be a new Facebook multi-millionaire/billionaire and thus just don't care, chances are you're putting your job at risk.

Of course Whitlock made a half-hearted apology :

I then gave in to another part of my personality — my immature, sophomoric, comedic nature. It's been with me since birth, a gift from my mother and honed as a child listening to my godmother's Richard Pryor albums. I still want to be a standup comedian.
The couple-inches-of-pain tweet overshadowed my sincere celebration of Lin’s performance and the irony that the stereotype applies to pot-bellied, overweight male sports writers, too. As the Asian American Journalist Association pointed out, I debased a feel-good sports moment. For that, I’m truly sorry.

SOURCE
Who knows what's in Whitlock's heart. But this should show us a few things.
Black people are not by definition more sensitive to other people's issues.
Black people have ingested stereotypes just like anyone else. The "good" ones we like. The "bad" ones we reject.
It is quite possible for some Black people to be threatened by non-black excellence in traditionally Black dominated sports the same some whites are in the reverse (remember Fuzzy Zoeller's comments about Tiger Woods??)  I think Whitlock should be fired, primarily for stupidity. But I'm interested to hear your take.

QUESTIONS
1) Should Whitlock be suspended or fired for his comments?
2) Are you impressed with his apology?
3) Are stereotypes ever ok to joke about in public?

Music Reviews-Otis Redding, ZZ Top, The Velvetones

Otis Redding

That's how strong my love is

I generally reject the idea that anyone was the best at anything when it comes to art or music. For me, art is about communication and transcendence. If someone can draw you into their world and show you something that you like that's really all that matters. I don't have the interest or the talent to say anyone is the best. There are however some artists who do tempt me to say that they are the best and Otis Redding is one of them. If someone wrote that "Otis Redding is the best soul singer that ever existed" could anyone disagree with that? I mean if you're not Al Green, David Ruffin, Wilson Pickett or Marvin Gaye, could you?  And if you mention D'Angelo or Mayer Hawthorne I'm going to throw something heavy at your head. Seriously. You should duck.

Unfortunately Redding's life was tragically cut short in a 1967 airplane crash that also killed most of the Bar-Kays. So we never got to hear everything that he was capable of doing.  He was really just getting started. I don't listen to a lot of modern R&B. One reason I don't, besides a generalized distaste for pseudo-disco, excessive melisma, synths and drum machines, is that I just haven't heard many modern male singers that have the kind of power and control that was exemplified by classic soul singers and most particularly Otis Redding. He was nicknamed "The Big O". (He stood 6-4 though judging by how some women carried on at his concerts there may have been other reasons for that sobriquet)

Otis Redding was actually discovered when he was working as a a roadie for Johnny Jenkins. After a session he stuck around the studio to sing and directed Steve Cropper to play the piano. The song was These Arms of Mine. Various musicians were impressed, joined in and the rest as they say is history. You couldn't write a better Hollywood story than that. The funny thing is that Redding started out singing gospel and for a while was a Little Richard wannabe, even touring with Little Richard's band. Go figure.

Redding had a natural baritone voice that was quite well suited for countrified soul ballads of aching and loneliness. This dovetailed perfectly the needs of Stax Records and evidently quite a few sixties era music fans. Redding was also the hardest of the hard soul singers. He gave everything he had in every performance. The amount of energy he expended was truly frightening.  Some people then and now thought that Redding was guilty of "over-souling". Well maybe. He was after all a performer. But my take is that compared to his contemporaries and certainly compared to what passes for R&B today Redding was an essentially honest performer.



Otis Redding and The Bar-Kays

Redding wasn't just a passive recipient of whatever songs the record company deemed appropriate but was an active songwriter, producer, arranger, musician and bandleader. Although he playfully joked that "that little girl stole my song", he was the writer of Respect, which Aretha Franklin took to number 1 in 1967. Redding grew up singing gospel and was primarily influenced by Little Richard and Sam Cooke. The list of singers, songwriters and musicians he influenced is too long to start. Redding's death and MLK's murder a short time later would bring an end to the first incarnation of Stax records.

It's sad that Redding didn't live to do more. All we have is five short years of some of the most beautiful soul music that was ever created. Redding did tearjerking ballads, updated blues, dance music and even some of the funk that was starting to emerge. He had been to England and had his ears open to some of the new sounds coming from there. Who knows what he would have done in the seventies and beyond. But that's life. As Jimi Hendrix said,  "The story of life is quicker than the blink of an eye, the story of love is hello, goodbye." 

These Arms of Mine  Try a Little Tenderness  I love you more than words can say

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag  I've been loving you too long (Live at Monterey)
Pain in My Heart  Hard to Handle  Tramp (with Carla Thomas)   That's how strong my love is
For Your Precious Love  Shake  Sitting on The Dock of The Bay

ZZ TOP                                                                               

We bad. We Nationwide!!!

ZZ Top is a blues-rock trio that started in 1969. It's comprised of Billy Gibbons (guitar/vocals), Dusty Hill (bass/vocals) and Frank Beard (drums). The group has been through stylistic and sonic changes but has always kept at least one foot planted firmly in the blues. ZZ Top is just as well known today for copious facial hair, redneck shtick and cowboys from outer space stage attire as they are known for their music but this is a con. Gibbons is an extremely skilled blues-rock guitarist (listen to Sure got cold after the rain fell or the otherworldly gospel slide on I want to drive you home). His vocals, however, are best described as an acquired taste. Gibbons combines a deep and very thick Texas twang of mid century white American provenance (his natural speaking voice) with archaic black southern slang or other accents he picked up. This occasionally can come across as aural blackface.

The author Charles Shaar Murray once called ZZ Top the perfect band for "people who were crazy about blues but weren't crazy about black people playing them".  It's true ZZ Top has been far more financially successful than any black blues artist. But with few exceptions ZZ Top was diligent about giving proper (i.e. paid) credit to those who influenced them or whose music they covered. Gibbons always proudly speaks of being influenced by such musicians as BB King (who inspired the band's name), John Lee Hooker, Ike Turner, Muddy Waters, Lightning Hopkins, Bo Diddley, Buck Owens, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, George Jones and many others. Famously, Gibbons opened for Hendrix, who showed him a few licks and said that Gibbons would go far.

ZZ Top did not begin their career with cover tunes. Their first album consisted of technically original but dreadfully dull derivative boogie rock numbers lacking any rhythmic bounce. Their second album was better. It was their third album, Tres Hombres, which made them commercially viable and revealed that Hendrix was correct when he predicted Gibbons would be the next big thing. The standout song from Tres Hombres was La Grange (which was heavily influenced by both John Lee Hooker's Boogie Children and Slim Harpo's Shake Your Hips ) and told the story -one of many by Gibbons- of a trip to a house of ill repute. La Grange featured two guitar solos-the second of which was crammed full of pinch harmonics -those squealing noises that Gibbons used better than any guitarist not named Roy Buchanan or Eddie Van Halen.

The eighties saw ZZ Top reach new levels of fame/prosperity, when, inspired by such non-blues performers as Prince, Devo and Depeche Mode they released the Eliminator album. Eliminator featured drum machines, sequencers and synthesizers. It was dance music- ZZ Top style. It probably didn't impress people who had grown up listening to James Brown or P-Funk but it was a huge pop hit. Eliminator made ZZ Top MTV icons although their older blues/rock crowd initially didn't like it. Post-Eliminator the band repeated the synth sound to diminishing returns until the nineties. They started doing frequent "back to basics" albums that never quite recaptured the urgency of their early seventies sound. Unfortunately they also began recording much louder.


Gibbons may not be the world's best songwriter but frequently he writes a really good blues/rock song. The group couldn't have written songs like Woke up with Wood if they didn't have a (often ironic) sense of humor. ZZ Top never takes itself too seriously and neither should you. Enjoy and Get it On sounds like something Muddy Waters would have written only faster while Cheap Sunglasses is a fun piece which shows Dusty Hill was listening to funk. Avalon Hideaway combines George Jones-type vocals with inventive drumming. Sharp Dressed Man imagines Elmore James meets techno.

Enjoy and Get it On   Sharp Dressed Man  Legs  Avalon Hideaway
Sure Got Cold After the Rain Fell   Cheap Sunglasses  Blue Jean Blues
I want to Drive You Home  Waiting on a Bus/Jesus just left Chicago
I Thank You (cover of Sam and Dave song)   I Thank You (Original Sam and Dave version) I'm Bad I'm Nationwide

The Velvetones

I think many people can relate to the lyrics of Glory of Love. The beautiful thing about well written songs is that they can touch something in everyone if you listen. The Velvetones didn't write this song but I think their version is the definitive one. The rap that they did in the middle of the song is bittersweet and funny at the same time. My brother described it as a love letter as written by Sam Kinison. I don't know much about this group or have any of their 45's or albums (if they did any). But I do have several doo-wop collections that feature this song. It was also on the Casino film soundtrack. Melody of Love is also a sweet little number that is bluesy and very positive. Again, who can't relate to Melody of Love?  It's just a truly beautiful song. I thought with Valentine's Day approaching it would be a nice way to end this post with two songs that speak to the emotions that love brings.
Glory of Love    Melody of Love