Hillary Clinton: Clueless, Dead Broke and Not Well Off

When Mitt Romney was caught on tape speaking dismissively of the 47% of American citizens who did not pay income taxes and presumably would be immune to his appeals for their vote, it's safe to say that that was a game changer, or at least one among many for his campaign. It locked in many people's perception that Mitt Romney was an out-of touch plutocrat with a disdain for the working class and the impoverished. Obviously this perception was fanned and fed by the Obama campaign and its surrogates supporters in the media who went out of their way to make sure everyone knew about the Romney quotes. That's politics after all. If you trip and fall into a ditch, know that your opponent will go out of his/her way to run over you with the bus. Strangely enough presumed 2016 Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton seems to be going out of her way to make some of the same mistakes that Romney made. As she is not a declared candidate nor are we in a Presidential election year her gaffes may not have the same bite that Romney's did. Additionally, outside of a few extremely progressive/leftist circles she is not quite yet seen as relentlessly pro-plutocrat as Romney was. Romney looks like the caricature of the evil businessman who buys up a widget company, fires all of the semi-moral midlevel executives and then moves 90% of the manufacturing to slave labor camps in Sri Lanka, that is right after he gets a tax break for dumping mercury in ponds.

But just as a woman CEO at Duke energy shows that crony capitalism and ignoring of pollution costs is not something that is hindered by gender, perhaps Hillary Clinton's continued unforced error statements concerning her wealth will show us that gender doesn't prevent you from saying stupid things.
You would think that someone with a net worth (depending on whether you include her husband's or not) of anywhere from $21 to $100 million would recognize that no matter how they achieved it, they're doing very well compared to the vast majority of Americans.
Yet Clinton not only claimed that she was dead broke when she and Bill left the White House but recently went on to claim that despite what you might have heard, she and Bill are NOT truly well off. WTF?


Everyone always wants more. I get that. It's just human nature. The writer wonders if he could have been a musician. The actor daydreams about being a professional athlete. The musician decides that she wants to act. The fellow who pays tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for each classic car in his collection is jealous of the guy who takes a weekend flight to a Paris art auction to drop three million on some obscure Romantic painting. And so on. But there are still a few ground rules:

• If you can pay your mortgage off with one check...you're well off.
• If you don't have a mortgage...you're well off.
• If people overpay your daughter for a job she's unqualified for just to do you a solid...you're well off.
• If you never have to choose which bill gets paid late this month...you're well off.
• If unexpected car repairs don't damage or destroy your budget...you're well off.
• If creditors aren't leaving blood curdling threats on your phone...you're well off.
• If you can send your daughter to Sidwell Friends School without any financial assistance..you're well off.
• If people pay you $200,000 to hear your verbal ramblings...you're well off.
• If your net worth description has "million" anywhere in it... you're well off.

I did not vote for Hillary Clinton when she ran for President. I think it was a mistake for President Obama to bring her into his administration. I don't think Clinton has any real achievements or accomplishments during the Obama Administration. I think her continued gaffes around her wealth point to someone who has no reason to run for President other than personal aggrandizement. Clinton is quite cynically trying to cast herself as just "regular folks". This is nonsense. I do not believe that great wealth necessarily makes you moral or immoral. The same is true of poverty. Ironically Clinton's pattern of statements on this issue give credence to the idea that the only way to appeal to some Americans, in this case Democratic voters, is to pretend that, despite your great wealth, you're really not all that wealthy. In fact you're just like them. Well FDR was extremely wealthy. And so was Bobby Kennedy. They never ran from that. They succeeded in connecting not by downplaying their wealth but by emphasizing shared values and a political program, things that are so far absent from Clinton's public appearances. Maybe she will rectify that. Maybe she won't. But in any event let's not pretend that someone possessing Clinton's wealth is not well off. To paraphrase Michael Corleone, that insults my intelligence. And it makes me very angry...

Thoughts?

Music Reviews: Ruth Copeland

Ruth Copeland

Ruth Copeland is a British singer/songwriter who for a time was married to an Invictus producer. Invictus, as you probably know, was the Detroit based record label that grew out of Motown after a dispute between Berry Gordy and three of his most important songwriters (H-D-H) For a brief time in the late sixties and early seventies Invictus was a semi-successful rival to Motown, going after some of the same local talent as well as venturing into more rock based as well as experimental or low down funk music that Motown initially avoided. This latter group of music very much included P-Funk. Copeland wrote or shared writing credits on a fair number of songs on Parliament's first Invictus release, Osmium. I was surprised to learn that she had co-written "Come in out of the Rain" which must rank among the funkiest and most soulful songs which P-Funk performed. The lyrics still apply today, sadly. Copeland also sang backup on that cut, I think. Actually there are a surprising number of early seventies Invictus songs which were written or co-written by Copeland. Repaying her favor with one of their own Parliament (well most of it) backed up Copeland on her two Invictus albums and resulting tours when she decided to become the label's first "blue eyed funkateer". The songs are well written and I love P-Funk so I like most of the two releases. However Copeland possessed a clear and piercing soprano that was nothing at all like the voices of contemporaneous soul performers like Aretha Franklin or Lyn Collins. Copeland's voice was much much closer to a singer like Freda Payne. So in my view there's a few times that Copeland tries to be a belter of songs rather than a crooner and generally misses. Her voice is not built for such things. She doesn't have a lot of resonance. She can get histrionic pretty quickly. 

All the same I like her voice. Nobody was going to mistake her for Dusty Springfield but then again we all have to find our own way in this world. If you were ever curious as to what P-Funk would have sounded like backing an Englishwoman with her own take on the funk well the record exists for you to peruse.

Her song "Crying Has Made Me Stronger" is a modernized blues  f*** you lament but told from the woman's point of view instead of the man's. It's almost an answer song to BB King's "Ain't Nobody Home". "Hare Krishna" is a very positive song which seems like it should have been a bigger hit. I believe that Copeland sings both lead and backup choir on that piece. She adds serious menace to a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Play With Fire". I enjoy the call and response with guitarist Eddie Hazel. Copeland gets nasty on the Clinton written "Don't you wish you had what you had (when you had it)" which I think is a sonic textbook on exactly how to play and sing ever so slightly behind the beat and make everything as funky as can be. "I got a thing for you Daddy" opens up with Hendrix inspired backwards feedback before going into a funky breakdown that sounded like something you would have heard in Detroit area strip clubs circa 1974. Or so I've been told anyway. "Your Love Been So Good To Me" finds Copeland in full coquettish sex kitten mode. "Thanks for the Birthday Card" is a more introspective song that wouldn't have sounded too out of place on a Neil Young or Carole King album. "The Music Box" is probably one of the least funkiest and most melodramatic releases P-Funk ever recorded. The lyrics are sad. There's a children's choir and crying added in for effect. YMMV on this. Copeland goes back to the Rolling Stones' catalog for her cover of "Gimme Shelter" which is most noticeable for making the song danceable. It also has a guitar solo which never stops. Again I like such things but I know other people can take it or leave it. "The Medal" is a slightly overwrought anti-war anthem.

If you are curious about blue eyed soul singers before Adele, Teena Marie or Amy Winehouse or just are a P-Funk completist and want to have everything they recorded then you will want to look for the Copeland albums Self-Portrait and I Am What I Am.

The Medal  Crying Has Made Me Stronger Hare Krishna Play With Fire Don't You Wish You Had What You Had (When You Had It) I got a thing for you Daddy Your Love Been So Good To Me Thanks for the Birthday Card The Music Box Gimme Shelter

Movie Reviews: Non-Stop

Non-Stop
directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

The director previously directed Liam Neeson in Unknown. He also directed Orphan. Like both of those films Non-Stop has a big twist about 2/3rds of the way thru the story. However whereas Neeson was perfect in Unknown and the story in Orphan, although seemingly ridiculous near the end, worked for most of the movie, here I'd have to say that Neeson puts this film on his back and carries it (just barely) across the goal line. But the film really didn't deserve to score a touchdown. It's one of those touchdowns where instead of the running back breaking through the line and dragging people into the end-zone , the quarterback places the ball exactly one inch over the white line, ever so gently breaking the plane. It may be a touchdown according to the rules but it's hardly something that you can brag about. It's not the stuff of legend. Still, a touchdown is a touchdown. Neeson is a good, solid exciting actor who works well with what's on display in this film. Neeson's a big man, well over six feet. The confined spaces of the aircraft work to give his character an irritation as well as a sense of physical dominance that serves the story well. 

Years ago this sort of whodunnit would have been placed on a train or boat (Murder on the Orient Express) but in today's world it obviously makes more sense to set this story on an airliner that's making an international flight. Similarly, in another era Neeson would have been playing marshals, kings, and other Type A characters so it fits that in this movie he's playing a federal air marshal, Bill Marks. Marks doesn't like flying. He is a high functioning alcoholic and is carrying some unprocessed grief over his deceased daughter, along with a ribbon she used to wear.  You meet all sorts of people on air trips of course and Marks meets a woman in his age range, Jen Summers (Julianne Moore), who sits next to him and might be flirting with him, a truculent man named Zack White (Nate Parker) who doesn't like Marks' tone of voice or authoritative attitude, a sexy woman (Bar Paly) whose cleavage and semi-public grinding with her boyfriend attract plenty of attention, and of course his old friend, stewardess Nancy Hoffman (Michelle Dockery) who along with the pilots, other stewardesses, and the other air marshal Jack Hammond (Anson Mount), knows that Marks is an armed air marshal.
While he's settling in to enjoy what he hopes will be a typically uneventful flight from NYC to London, Bill gets a text message from an unidentified person. This shouldn't be possible as Bill's federal communications network is supposed to be encrypted and private but the message is there all the same. The message explains that unless $150 million is deposited into an account in 20 minutes someone on the plane will die. And every 20 minutes after that as well the unknown texter will kill someone on the plane.

Well that will just ruin your day. Marks tries to play this according to protocol but discovers that protocol won't work as the marshal service itself has been compromised. In fact thanks to some nifty but unrealistic moves, many people on and off the plane are convinced that Marks is the actual hijacker. It's up to Marks to try to figure out who he can trust and who he can't. This becomes a matter of urgency as more people die, fighter planes are scrambled and Marks comes to believe that the texter is actually on the plane. There are the normal double crosses and faulty assumptions. If you were on a plane you thought was being hijacked or worse was going to be blown up would you sit on your rusty-dusty and hope that other people did something or would you try to take action yourself? It's only your life we're talking about. This was an okay movie. It would have been fine to see it in theater. That actually might have been preferable, what with the sound and special FX. But it was by no means a great movie. I didn't care for the reveal or the ending. Talk about unintelligent. Julianne Moore didn't have a whole lot to do. Lupita Nyong'o had even less acting to accomplish. To make a play for your heartstrings there is of course a little girl traveling unaccompanied who touches Marks' long dormant paternal instincts. 
TRAILER

June 2014 Book Of The Month

It looks like this book could be an important companion piece to the book We will Shoot Back, which we earlier discussed. The author, Charles Cobb, is a former SNCC member and on the ground activist who actually participated in the human rights struggles of the sixties and had to deal with the reactionary threats and violence directed at Black people or other supporters who dared to suggest that segregation was wrong, black people were human and that blacks could vote. Cobb was there as were many other people. It is of course instructive to realize as many of the great names have died or lost their way struggling against personal demons, that nothing that the "leaders" accomplished, not one single thing, could have been done without the active support of many more people, of whom Cobb is one. Cobb, who is a journalist, is interested in showing the importance of armed self-defense in helping midwife real American democracy. His argument is that guns made the civil rights movement possible. He is dissatisfied with the idea that Rosa sat down, Martin stood up and white racists saw the light. It is a great frustration of mine that guns and gun culture have become in the American imagination almost exclusively the provenance of right-wing, reactionary and occasionally down right racist politicians, groups or individuals. People constantly forget that a key portion of Southern and for that matter Northern white supremacy was that black people did not, could not and would not defend themselves. And in this culture letting everyone believe that they could hurt you with impunity was not necessarily the best idea. In fact it was a stupid idea. It tended to attract bullies. Cobb describes how black WW2 vets were important in helping to relieve and reverse years of deliberately inculcated fear. Once you've seen that men whom you were told were superior to you can die just like you can, it tends to change your attitude about things.

Kohl's Lawsuit: Deadbeat Client or Harassment; Brad Ausmus: Unfunny Joke

A long time ago before I was the sober responsible grownup that I am today I used to use credit irresponsibly and run up bills that were more than I could pay in one month. Doing this a few times and getting dinged with late fees, interest, and other penalties and having the highly irritating experience of having a few paychecks effectively spent on debt service before I even received them was more than enough for me to revert back to my parents' training of not buying something if you couldn't pay cash for it. After all we all must be able to distinguish between a want and a need. Grown ups do that. Children don't. Generally speaking, if you can't or won't pay cash for something, chances are you don't need it. I believe that if you owe money you should pay what you owe. That's what's fair. However just because someone owes money doesn't give the creditor the right to take extra-legal steps that include tactics of harassment or worse in order to get their money back. As a creditor there are a number of laws you must abide by when seeking to get your money back, whether you are doing it yourself or have outsourced it to a legbreaker collection services agency. In Michigan, a woman who owed Kohl's department store felt that the store was being far too aggressive in seeking to recover a particularly small debt. It's unclear as to whether the debt was more than 30 days late. Fed up with the tactics she filed a federal lawsuit. Yes that's correct. A federal lawsuit.

Enough with the calls.That’s what one consumer is telling Kohl’s in a federal lawsuit that claims the department store is stalking her and harassing her by phone over an overdue credit card bill, calling her at all hours of the night over what she calls a measly $20.“They started harassing me over $20 and I was like, ‘Screw it, oh well,’ ” said Lisa Ratliff, the 29-year-old plaintiff from Ypsilanti who got so fed up with the phone calls she sued over them. “It’s really annoying if you’re trying to get things done or you’re trying to sleep or you’re working or spending time with your family …I just want them to stop harassing me.” 

Ratliff said she was going to pay the bill but got so irritated by the repeated calls that she decided against it. Instead, she’s suing over Kohl’s collection practices — tactics that she claims are prohibited under federal law. In a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court, Ratliff’s lawyers claim that Kohl’s violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a 1991 law that makes it illegal to call a cell phone using an auto dialer or prerecorded voice without the recipient’s consent. The lawsuit, filed by the Krohn & Moss Consumer Law Center in Chicago, is seeking damages under the act, which allows victims to sue for $500 per violating call — or up to $1,500 per call if they can prove the party knowingly violated the law. Kohl’s officials did not return calls or e-mails seeking comment. No attorney of record is yet listed in court documents for Kohl’s. According to Ratliff’s lawsuit, the Kohl’s phone calls — which included both automated and live operator calls — started in November 2013. Until then, she said, she paid her bill in full every month and that her total credit line was $400. When the calls started, she owed $20. Now it’s up to $100 because of late fees and interest, she said.

The woman may well have a case, at least according to the local attorney giving some analysis in the clip from FOX 2 News.
Fox 2 News Headlines
Link

Also in local news the Detroit Tigers, who had a great start with people talking about the pennant and the World Series have sunk into the toilet since and now have people wondering if rookie manager Brad Ausmus really knows what he's doing. Faced with questions of how he deals with the stress and unpleasantness of losing, Ausmus responded with a wisecrack that wasn't funny. The current political-sociological environment made it even less so. Detroit Tigers rookie manager Brad Ausmus is known to be quick with a quip. But he strayed over the line Wednesday and he knew it. It started when he was asked after the 2-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals how he has been able to keep his cool during his team’s horrendous streak.“Yeah, it’s not fun,” he said. “Like I said, once I get to the field, I’m always in a good mood, especially if I’m driving and it’s sunny out. Once I’m here, I’m ready to go. I feel like I’m the exact same person that you would have seen on day one of spring training.”And when he goes home? “I beat my wife,” Ausmus said. “I’m just kidding. No, luckily, my wife and kids are fantastic. I do get a little mopey at home, but my wife and kids are good. They’ve seen me be in a bad mood after a loss, so they’ve been great.” His joke drew some hearty laughs and some nervous laughs from the media and, after answering another question, he came back to it. “I didn’t want to make light of battered women,” Ausmus said. “I apologize for that if it offended anyone.”  I think it's pretty obvious that Ausmus did not mean to endorse beating one's wife nor was he making fun of abused women. He apologized almost immediately because he knew the joke wasn't funny or appropriate. I think it should end there. Sometimes we all say things that aren't funny or just don't fit in the environment we happen to be in at the time. Ausmus is a guy who hasn't had this level of scrutiny previously. He still needs to learn that not everything that pops into his mind needs to be shared with the rest of the world. I don't think that MLB or the Tigers need to say or do anything else to Ausmus. Leave it there.

What do you think?

1) Does Ms. Ratliff have a federal case?

2) Does Mr. Ausmus need to attend sensitivity training or pay fines?

3) Did you ever get so irritated with a creditor that you told them off?

HBO Game of Thrones Season 4 Finale Recap: The Children

For the 5011th time I really do urge you, if you like this story, please do read the books. The first three are really quite good, perhaps even excellent. There are many themes, subplots and dramatic arcs which are done differently in the books. The books do have their drawbacks, which the show creators have generally adroitly worked around but there are some things which the show has altered which are not necessarily for the better. There's a thin line between generous adaptation and fan fiction. I think that this season the show drifted overmuch towards the latter. The show creators are confident enough to make their own narratives. Maybe we'll talk about that in a final GoT post sometime soon. Jon Snow has left the Wall to speak with Mance Rayder. Mance is upset by Jon's betrayal. Jon counters that he was being true to his Night's Watch vows but Mance reminds him of his dalliance with Ygritte. Mance tells Jon that winter really is coming. Mance is trying to protect his people from the Others. Mance sees himself as a refugee leader. Mance figures out that Jon intends to kill him. Mance mocks Jon as his intended act would be almost impossible to pull off and extremely dishonorable under all forms of hospitality. Before Jon can respond there's an attack on Mance's army. It's Stannis, who alone among would be leaders, has taken the Night's Watch request for aid seriously. Obviously he wants to burnish his credentials as "king" but that's Stannis. Mance surrenders but refuses to kneel. Jon advises Stannis to take Mance into custody but treat him fairly and listen to what he says. It's what Ned Stark would have done.

Maester Aemon says words over the dead Night's Watch members before the survivors burn the bodies. Jon visits Tormund to ask if Tormund would like to preside over wildling funerals. Tormund is still suspicious of and angry with Jon. Like Mance he also wants to know if Jon loved Ygritte. Tormund saw that she certainly loved Jon. Tormund asks Jon to burn Ygritte north of the Wall as she was a woman of the Free Folk. Although Jon pretended coldness with both Tormund and Mance, when he burns Ygritte's body we see tears. Obviously he loved Ygritte.

North of the Wall Bran, Meera, Hodor and Jojen are stumbling through a snowstorm when they see the giant heartstree that Bran and Jojen have dreamed of. But when they approach they are attacked by wights. Bran wargs into Hodor to help defend the group but it's too late for Jojen, who is stabbed to death. The remaining trio is saved by a feral looking being calling itself one of the children (semi-supernatural beings who were the original inhabitants before The First Men-ancestors of the Starks and Wildlings). The being takes Bran to meet an old man who appears to be part of a tree root system. For now let's call him "Three Eyed Raven". He says he has things to teach Bran. Things are starting to go south for Daenerys. Similar to many people with good intentions but not much experience she is learning that life is not as simple as just showing up with dragons and telling people to be nice to each other or else. The freed slaves are still trapped in mental dependence and want to serve their masters again. As for the dragons, it turns out that dragons make no moral distinction between eating goats and eating human children. Daenerys is forced to chain up her dragons. Powerful scene. The dragons do not understand what they have done wrong.

In King's Landing, The Mountain, per Miracle Max from The Princess Bride, is not dead but only mostly dead. Oberyn's spear was poisoned. Over Pycelle's jealous objections, Cersei gives care of The Mountain to the tender mercies of Qyburn, who likes the challenge of attempting to save the man. Qyburn warns Cersei that there may be certain changes in The Mountain but as long as The Mountain retains his strength Cersei doesn't care what Westeros' Dr. Frankenstein does. Feeling her oats Cersei confronts Tywin and again refuses to marry Loras. She interrupts his angry tirade by threatening to reveal the truth, that she and Jaime are and have always been doing the do. This is her nuclear gambit to avoid losing influence over Tommen. Tywin doesn't know what she's talking about or does he. The scene could be interpreted differently. Either Tywin knew and pretended not to (remember his crack to Jaime about fathering children named Lannister) or as Cersei suggests he really didn't know. Well either way he does now.  Cersei runs off to find Jaime, tell him what she's done and ride the train. Jaime's dismay about Cersei's big reveal or her undiminished desire for Tyrion's death don't prevent him from hopping on the sisterly slip-n-slide. This scene shows that the previous "rape" scene between the siblings really wasn't a rape. Would a rape victim run enthusiastically back to her rapist?

Brienne comes upon Arya while Arya is practicing her swordplay. Initially distrustful, Arya is fascinated by the fact that Brienne is a woman warrior. They are hesitantly exchanging stories of their fathers when Podrick and The Hound come into the picture. Podrick realizes that it's The Hound while the Hound immediately assumes that they're after the bounty on his head. When Brienne realizes Arya's identity she tells Arya of her oath to Catelyn. Arya wants to know why Brienne didn't save Catelyn's life. The Hound correctly recognizes that Brienne is from King's Landing and carries Lannister supplied weapons, gold and armor. A knock down drag out fight commences in which ultimately Brienne is victorious. The Hound has his ear bitten off and is knocked over a hill. While Brienne and Podrick are searching for Arya she steals money from the Hound and silently refuses to kill him, despite him reminding her of the foul things he's done. Arya finds a ship and wants to go to the Wall where her last brother is. The ship's not going to the Wall. The ship is going to Braavos. The captain is about to eject Arya before she gives him the coin and says the words Valar Morghulis. Arya gets her own cabin for the trip.

Jaime was evidently not unduly influenced by Cersei's ministrations because he releases Tyrion. Jaime says he was helped by Varys who has provided a ship to help Tyrion leave. All Tyrion has to do is take the steps and turn right. Well, Tyrion has other plans. He goes to the apartments of the Hand, evidently to confront his father. Imagine his shock when entering his father's chambers he hears Shae call out Tywin by the same pet name she used to call Tyrion. When Shae sees it's Tyrion she tries to get a knife but Tyrion disarms her and after a brief struggle strangles her to death. Picking up a crossbow, Tyrion goes looking for Tywin and finds him in the bathroom. Intuiting that this is something more than your normal father dwarf confrontation Tywin says that they can still work everything out and that he wasn't really going to have Tyrion killed. Tyrion doesn't believe him as he believes Tywin has wanted him dead all of his life. But what really got Tyrion's goat was the fact that Tywin was doing the do with Shae. Tyrion loved Shae. This can come across as a little bit abusive in its logic (the whole I loved her so I had to kill her thing) but for all its ugliness it's true. Tywin is honestly shocked that Tyrion loved a whore. Tyrion warns his father not to use that word again and when Tywin does, Tyrion shoots his father twice, killing him. Varys smuggles Tyrion onto a ship leaving King's Landing.

What I liked

• The pain and confusion of the dragons at being chained and imprisoned by their "mother" was a very obvious reflection of their mother's pain and confusion that a former slave would prefer dependence over freedom. Daenerys is forced to "enslave" her dragons and allow something close to slavery for humans.
• Ygritte's funeral. We see what Jon has given up for "duty".
• Mance's explanation that his intentions are not conquest but protection.
• The creators pulled stories forward from books 4 and 5 in order to ensure that all characters had something to do this season. That wasn't easy to make everything balance out.
• War brings change and not all change is for the better.
• Tyrion's final confrontation with his father. The pain is raw.

What I didn't like

• The fight between Brienne and The Hound. Didn't happen in books. This felt like people laying around thinking about who could win a fight between Godzilla and Doc Savage. I wonder if this was also fan service for those concerned that the show had too much (sexualized) violence against women. The fight was well done (acting, choreography) but it really did damage to both character's narrative arcs from the books. There's a line from the books where opponents to the Hound, point out that he's badly wounded and not long for the world. The Hound's response is something along the lines of "Maybe. But you're all already dead". He then proceeds to make good on his boast. 
• Tyrion killing Shae in both passion and arguably self-defense. IIRC in book there was no self-defense at all-at least not on Tyrion's part. I'm curious as to whether show viewers think that Tyrion's domestic violence changes what they think of him. Is he morally diminished?
• There are other Lannister family dynamics left out which also helped explain Tyrion's anger but more on that later.

*This post is written for discussion of this episode and previous episodes.  If you have book based knowledge of future events please be kind enough not to discuss that here.  NO SPOILERS. NO BOOK DERIVED HINTS ABOUT FUTURE EVENTS. Most of my blog partners have not read the books and would take spoilers most unkindly. Heads, spikes, well you get the idea....

Music Reviews: Hot Chocolate, Funkadelic: Maggotbrain

Hot Chocolate

Hot Chocolate was a racially integrated though mostly black British band that walked in the interstices between light funk, pop, calypso, disco, rock, soul and reggae. So they had a variety of different sounds but all of their different styles were held together by the insistent warbling tenor of bald Jamaican born primary songwriter and lead singer/front man Errol Brown. I think in the US they're probably best known for the song "You Sexy Thing", which charted as high as number 3. I don't think they ever had wild mass success in the US but they certainly did ok in the UK and Europe. Throughout the 70s and 80s they had many hits. Hot Chocolate was a band which consistently delivered the goods and got a fair amount of radio play if not critical recognition. They weren't really disco but were disco enough for some to write them off completely. Oh well you know that old Liberace line about crying all the way to the bank. I was motivated to write on them because I recently heard their hit "Everyone's a winner" on satellite radio. I hadn't heard that song for decades. It brought back some pleasant memories of times long past. "Everyone's a winner" was quite typical of much of Hot Chocolate's best work, what with the very heavy dominant bass line, low pitched drums, slightly distorted guitar (in this case a guitar synth) and triumphant group vocals. Hot Chocolate was not deep funk in the mode of James Brown or P-Funk but was reminiscent of bands like later EWF, Kool and the Gang or Tower of Power. 

Hot Chocolate wrote good songs with nice melodies and danceable rhythms. Their discography may not have any lost masterpieces that will make you rethink popular music but how many groups can really claim otherwise? 

Sometimes I wish the soloists in the group, particularly the guitarist, had been given a little more room to stretch out but apparently it wasn't that kind of band. You hear a little bit of what could have been guitar wise in the song "You Could Have Been a Lady". I LOVE that song. Groove was what Hot Chocolate brought to the table. Hot Chocolate was all about fun. I didn't know that they wrote the anti-racist song "Brother Louie". I had only heard the version by the group Stories and had no idea it was a cover. The version by Hot Chocolate makes it clear (thanks to the competing spoken word sections)  that they are condemning all forms of bigotry in all communities while the Stories version chickens out and is imo a little more self-interested. When I heard the Stories version I thought it was a just a ripoff/shout out to the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar". The song is also used in Louis C.K's show as intro/theme. Go figure. I like the updated blues song "Emma" and enjoy the rueful broken hearted lament of "So you win again". Brown eventually left the group to embark on a solo career which didn't do too well because (1) most people didn't know who he was outside of the group and (2) he had already mostly spent his creative muse writing for the group. It happens I guess. None or at least very few of us have limitless potential. I guess it would kind of stink to finally go out on your own and realize that you had already done your best work with people whom by that point had started to work your nerves. But that's what life is sometimes. Jorah Mormont would approve the track "Sometimes it hurts to be a friend".

Everyone's a Winner  You Sexy Thing  Brother Louie  Emma  I'll Put You Together Again
It started with a kiss  Girl Crazy  So You Win Again  Making Music
Man to Man  Rumours You Could Have Been a Lady Confetti Day
Sometimes it hurts to be a friend Heaven's In The Backseat of My Cadillac






Maggotbrain
by Funkadelic

Okay. Funkadelic is the greatest rock group of all time. Bar none. Story. End of. Some people will talk about The Rolling Stones, others will bleat about Led Zeppelin or The Ramones or blah, blah blah. Balderdash. Funkadelic did everything those groups did, did it first and did it better. And there were very few groups who could do what Funkadelic did musically. Nobody had the musical range and energy they did. Because of racist ideas about what is considered "rock" and who gets to listen to or perform "rock" music, at its creative peak Funkadelic was usually ignored by mainstream (white) rock critics or only referenced in passing when a white musician mentioned them as an influence. This has started to change somewhat in the past few decades but back in the day few people outside of a small dedicated cadre of fans in the black community or alternative rock community knew about them. Of course I am somewhat biased as Funkadelic was a Detroit group. To reduce Funkadelic to its simplest components one would have to imagine a group born from a simultaneous mind meld of Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, Blue Cheer, MC5, James Brown, John Lee Hooker, Hendrix, The Isley Brothers, Sly Stone and Cream with a little DNA of J.S. Bach, Jimmy Smith and Black Sabbath added in for taste.

Maggotbrain is the third Funkadelic album and the last with complete contributions by the original group. Unfortunately Funkadelic's business practices could be as anarchic as some of its music. After this album, much of the original band departed, fed up with lack of proper monetary or composer recognition, damaged by substance abuse issues, or just because they had other serious personal or musical issues with front man and bandleader, George Clinton. Well it happens. I always say whatever was going on behind the scenes is, certain criminal behaviors aside, rarely as important as the finished product. I judge musicians by their music. I usually don't care about their personal lives.

Maggotbrain is the definitive Funkadelic album. It combined all of their influences into a well produced release that is both wide ranging and tightly focused. This is guitar/bass/piano based funk. No horns. The title cut is, similar to what "Machine Gun",  "Eruption" or "Stairway to Heaven" would be for other musicians, a coming out party for Eddie Hazel and a redefinition of what could be done on the electric guitar. George Clinton told guitarist Eddie Hazel to play as if he had learned that his mother had died. Well that's a grim request but in "Maggotbrain" Hazel did just that, making a ten minute guitar journey that leads the listener through all the stages of grief to come out the other side. There are other uglier rumours about how the title was conceived. I think it had to do with copious consumption of LSD. Hazel's work on "Maggotbrain" shows how the greatest musicians can talk to us through their instruments. There were accompanying musicians on the track but recognizing greatness when he heard it, Clinton either cut them out completely or mixed them at very low levels. Some may argue for a Hendrix influence here but Hazel sounded like this even before Hendrix. I think it was parallel development. If you want to talk about greatest guitar solos of all time "Maggotbrain" must be on the short list.  Maggotbrain

"Can You Get To That" is a gospelly acoustic folk-song that owes a lot to both the Beatles and Sly Stone. I love singing along to this piece. A long time ago my cousins and uncles and I used to have friendly competitions as to who could sing along with the bass vocals on this song. I like singing in the low register though sadly my voice is only a modest baritone and not a real bass. I think that was Gary Shider holding down the low notes. The lyrics are suitably sardonic. "When you base your love on credit and your loving days are done/Checks you sign with love and kisses later come back signed insufficient funds.." I could really see someone like a Richard Thompson or Richie Havens doing a cover version of this. Well it's too late for Havens...  Can You Get To That
"Hit It and Quit It" is very simple lyrically as the singer details his desire for his girlfriend to shake it to the east, shake it to the west and move it all around. Quite understandable no? It's the drummer Tiki Fulwood and vocalist/keyboardist extraordinaire Bernie Worrell who really get a chance to shine here. Again this song has a lot of gospel and soul influences. If you don't shake your tailfeather upon hearing this music you might want to check what you're sitting on because it's obviously broken. Hit It and Quit It

"You and Your Folks" could be construed as a sequel to "Hit it and Quit It". If the previous song is an ode to sexual unity, "You and Your Folks" is a plea for racial/class unity. This song features the bass player, Billy "Bass" Nelson, on lead vocals. Production wise it appears that both the bass and the bass drum have been mixed a little higher than normal. Or perhaps Fulwood was just hitting the drums that hard. In any event this is a slow nasty funk song that will sonically invade your eardrums and leave funky larvae therein. Nelson is known to have very strong feelings about the proper role of bass (dominant) in funk and the proper tempo (slow) for funk. This song is an excellent example of that. If you simply just can't get enough fat bottom end in your life, this is the song for you. Hazel's reverbed guitar solo never really stops but it is mixed far below the vocals, bass and drums. You and Your Folks
"Super Stupid" provides a platform for guitarists Eddie Hazel and Tawl Ross to go off. Lyrically the song is about a drug addict who makes the mistake of snorting what he thinks is cocaine but is actually heroin. The lyrics aren't important. They are just building blocks to the glorious guitar meltdowns. This song is a little less danceable than others though for some strange reason I always imagine Godzilla doing the Charleston to this song. It's just a funky riff. Super Stupid

"Back in our Minds" and especially "Wars of Armageddon" are both freak out tracks that sound like things Zappa would later do. There's a lot going on the tracks musically but "Wars of Armageddon" is a free form jam I think might be more of interest to other musicians than us listeners. It's also a look into Clinton's id, which is not really something you necessarily want to see unfiltered. Back in Our Minds  Wars of Armageddon
I really enjoyed the mix of the various masculine (tenor, baritone, bass) and feminine (soprano, alto) voices. This is what updated soul, blues, rock, and funk sounded like in 1971. If you are at all any sort of fan of the music of that time, you already have this release. If you don't have it, I wonder why. This funk experience will leave you somber, exhilarated, exhausted, in a cold sweat begging for more.