A daily almanac of events and people I admire and appreciate. All things, and the people who did things, that were WORTH DOING! Songs and Cartoons and near-insane ramblings by me, too.
After we've bathed the last couple of weeks in "Nemo: the Classic Comics Library" and steeped ourselves in classic comic strip lore, it's time to hit another spot Inside My Head and shift gears for at bit.
All my songwriting heroes and the guys who's stuff always makes my head happy. I don't know what I was going to say after that. But there you are.
Today's "Song for Monday" is sung by John Prine, but is one of the rare occasions it's not one Mr. Prine wrote. This song is by the late Blaze Foley.
When John heard it he says he wishes he had stayed home and written this one. High praise indeed.
You all know about the pre-Colombian calender? The Mesoamerican Long Count Calender? You know, the one that ancient Mayans and other cultures followed that some knuckleheads say predict the end of the world on December 21, 2012? Yeah, that's the one!
Yes it does count up to a round number that coincides with 12/21/12 on our Gregorian Calender, but it also coincides with August 11, 3114 BCE as being the date that the world was created.
HAPPY 5,124th BIRTHDAY WORLD!!!
Now, on to what I wanted to tell you about.
Didja all hear about Steven Slater? The former JetBlue Flight Attendant who quit his job with panache on Monday?
More importantly, he told rude, snotty, self-entitled folk everywhere to take a flying leap and lightened the heart's of all of us with a service industry job every where.
There are lots of different accounts of what happened and you can do your own research and draw your own conclusions, but here's how it played out from what I can gather...
Two female passengers caused a bit of disturbance early in the flight at not having sufficient room for their carry-on bags. When the plane landed it started again, when their bags were not returned to them immediately on landing and in a struggle to get their bags down, words were exchanged again between the Flight Attendant (Steven Slater) and the passenger and one bag fell or was brought down from the overhead in a way that struck the attendant on the head. Steven Slater then gathered his wits, walked to the PA system, announced something like, "I have been in this industry for 20 years. To all of you who have shown dignity and respect, thank you it's been a nice ride. To that motherfucker who just told me to 'fuck off'....fuck you!" Then he lowered the emergency ramp out of the side of the plane, grabbed two beers out of the galley and slid on down and went home.
That's a helluva exit!
Just yelling "Take this job and shove it!" is NOT what makes Slater my newest hero. That's a path that's going to make things hard on himself, and other than his minor celebrity in the short term, it's not going to put food on his table.
What makes him a hero to me is the statement it made to the woman. Here's how it plays out with more hyperbole in my head, if I can fill in the blanks of the story based on what I know about humans.
Two female passengers boarded a plane after a weekend getaway where they didn't get laid. The frustrated pair of $27,000 a year "office administrators" were feeling all the self-entitlement and importance afforded them by their $89 plane ticket and years of Oprah and her politically correct minions telling them that "every soccer player deserves a trophy, every one's a winner! Especially YOU!!!" and were pissed that they hadn't been treated as royalty when they brought a bunch of carry-on bags on the over-booked flight, and there wasn't convenient space to shove the 3 pair of shoes they bought to console themselves for their sexually dry weekend. They decide to take out their frustrations on the over-worked $27,000 a year Flight Attendant. He tells them to "fuck off" because their parents never told them to more simply "mind your manners".
First mistake and a prevalent one indeed in this challenged economy.
There's no money. So companies and corporations, big and small are lowering prices so consumers will use their product and services. Lower incomes for employers mean lower incomes for employees and they demand even LOWER prices on the goods and services they need or desire. It's an economy in adjustment and it's a frustrating cycle. An unfortunate side-effect is, people bartering for lower prices also want to barter for more value in what they receive. We all do it. But aren't we the same ones who want to get paid more for what WE do? How does it settle itself? I don't know. But it seems futile to me.
We demand lower cost air travel and receive it from the airlines to get our business. Seems logical until you realize that we're demanding that a company which runs a giant piece of metal that flies (say this over to yourself...you get in a chair and somebody FLIES you to where you want to be...through the air...actually FLIES you there, numskull) to do it on the cheap. And then after it succeeds in hurling you across a great distance we have the nerve to complain that someone didn't wipe our ass for us and that it wasn't all-inclusive in the $89 you paid for not being killed.
When you order a fast food hamburger from Burger King, you are NOT allowed to complain or be abusive to the kid behind the counter if it isn't "up to snuff". You opted for cheap, NOT good. Take it and be on your way. There is no open grill in the back making you fresh food made from quality ingredients. There are flash frozen burger patties that were cooked 3 weeks ago in a factory umpteen miles away with "genuine artificial charcoal flavouring added" and a couple of $8 an hour employees microwaving them and passing them to you.
You are not allowed to go to Subway on Fridays and order the "lobster salad" sandwich on "artisan bread" for $5 and pride yourself on being a gourmand. That ain't lobster people. I don't know what kind of gelatinized-to-lobster-like-texture substance it is, but if you're rude to your $8 an hour sandwich maker behind the counter, I can guess a couple of other ingredients have been added to make it "-salad".
When one of my clients comes to me after demanding they get special pricing and pay 1/10 the retail price for my goods and services, they are NOT entitled to get huffy in the same breath and complain that my services are not offered around the clock or on Sundays.
You want cheap or you want good. You can find a compromise and we'll have to, to make it out of this "global economic crisis". But you can't have both.
Especially frustrating to find a solution when we're all in the same boat...or plane together.
Steven Slater is my hero, not because he gave up, or told the boss to shove his job. He's my hero because he told a couple of people to "mind their manners."
And he did it with panache and aplomb.
Mind your manners everyone. We're all in this together. Nobody gets treated like they think they deserve to all the time. Get over it.
Oh, and don't be stressed about that calender and the end of the world. It's just ONE round number it get's to in 2012. There's more coming up in 2407, 2801, 3195, 3590, 3984, 4378 and 4772.
And to the army of Human Resources drones that are flooding out to every corner of JetBlue and other airlines to give "sensitivity classes" to your workers. You're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. One that our $89 plane tickets won't cover the cost of.
Here's a John Prine song I dedicate today to Steven Slater and everyone who's done being pushed around by people feeling the same pain as us.
We continue our live Americana music primer with part 2 of John Prine's classic 1988 live album titles simply "Live". Like I said last night, I have plenty of rarely heard unreleased gems to present here, this album though is part of what introduced me to a world of extraordinary song-writing and unparalleled story-telling that so many of my heroes have huned to a fine point.
Don't forget to tip you're waitress.
"Mexican Home" one of my all time favorite and seldom-mentioned Prine songs. He says in the liner notes that the inspiration for this song was a house he had with a big porch on it and he realized how important this porch was. It's where you greeted people you like, say goodbye to people and where you spend quality time by yourself with those people. I say it's also where you spend time alone thinking of those people you love. You've heard me do this one too. You ought to hear me sometime when you're drunk...I've made bikers cry...
"The Speed of the Sound of Lonliness" - who keeps time when your lonesome?...
"The Accident (Things Could Be Worse)" - yes things could. This is me from my trip down Route 66 on a detour to John Prine's hometown of Maywood, Illinois to the corner he made famous in this song...
I wish I'da been there when the wreck happened...
"Sam Stone" ahhhh the real tragic story. This may be the first song I ever heard by Prine. I didn't know who he was and heard it on some TV show. I didn't even know the whole song, but I walked around singing about "the hole in Daddy's arm where all the money goes" for months...
"Souvenirs" - joined here by his old friend Steve Goodman. "Broken hearts and dirty windows, make life difficult to see". They sure do John...
"Aw Heck" some early work by this minor poet...
"Donald & Lydia" a real-world love story...
"That's the Way That the World Goes 'Round" and a great story in the middle about folks misinterpreting lyrics. When you see John in concert, it's a pre-requisite to sing the words the way this lady heard 'em first...
"Hello in There" is a song that Prine should NOT have been smart enough to be able to write at the turn of his 20's. But he did. And that's why I love his stuff sooooo much...
I hope you heard some old favorites, but mostly I hope it was all new to you and you are now a Prime Prine Devotee.
Remember as I said yesterday, I just hope to give folks a listen here, the songs are not available for download. John Prine is a working artist and deserves you monetary vote. Visit his website to glom on to all things Prine, you'll be glad you did!
One of the reasons I like the music that I like is that it CAN be played LIVE. No funky studio tricks and sounds...usually just 3 chords and the truth is all it takes to crank my chain.
I've recently found a bejanger-load of some of my favorites in natural live settings, telling their stories and singing their songs, and I thought I'd share some via my blog. More to come on my recent hard-to-get appropriations in weeks to come, for now a primer.
The primer involves you sitting back and listening with me to some of the finest musical story-tellers of our day.
Here in "The Drink Hole Amphitheatre" tonight we feature the first half of Jon Prine's 1988 "Live" album. This is currently available for purchase from Prine's own "Oh Boy" label, on iTunes, through Amazon and the rest. If you like what you hear, I encourage you to BUY, BUY, BUY this album. Downloads are not available here or through me, I'm just here to share the sounds and stories.
Like Susanna Clark once said about this music. There's no big billion dollar record machine pushing this stuff and you won't hear it permeating every mall you go to. This music gets sold (and always has) with one simple "you gotta hear this" at a time.
This album is a classic, and like they say over at Prine-fandom..."Whatever you're in to, get in to Prine."
Oh, and don't think this will stop my periodic caterwauling on my guitar here. It'll probably just encourage me!
Enjoy!
"Come Back to Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard" I wish she'd come home too.
"Six O'Clock News"Prine wrote this because of an idea he had to write a song so sad it was pretty.
"The Oldest Baby in The World" You heard me sing this here in honor of "Rusty". The story he tells is one of his most memorable and a perfect example of what he does. Pay attention...there MAY be a quiz someday. But I doubt it.
"Angel from Montgomery" with the great Bonnie Raitt. You're heard me recently butcher this one too.
"Grandpa Was A Carpenter" a late night remembrance of his grandfather. He just had to rearrange the lines so they would rhyme.
"Blue Umbrella" one of my early favorites of Prine. So simple and so melodic.
"Fish and Whistle" what you get from watching too many "Andy Griffith Show" reruns. As if there were really too many of those!
"Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone" again, the story he tells here says it all.
"Living in the Future" another you've heard me hammer out...maybe it makes more sense when Prine sings it...maybe not.
"Illegal Smile" - yup I did this one too. Here you hear what a great sing-along it really is!
Back with part 2 tomorrow night. You'll be humming these next week, I promise you.
Depression and suicide rates in America are highest around the Christmas holiday than any other time of the year. People need to "rub some dirt on 'it' and take a lap".
The reason as I see it, is people have an idealized vision of Christmas in their minds forced down our necks by advertising knuckleheads trying to sell their crap. Pretty red bows and silvery tinsel and the concept of happy, smiling families gathered 'round the hearth.
Here's the truth...these visions don't exist in real life. There ARE happy families everywhere you look. But they don't fit the images foisted on us by Madison Avenue, so maybe they're harder to see.
Take a look at what you have around you. No matter who you are. I'll bet you have things and people there that make you happy.
I'll bet you have more than you think you did before you looked.
Every one's in a different place in their life and it rarely coincides with Norman Rockwell or Courier and Ives images. But there are bright spots nonetheless. Some are really bright.
Shield your eyes. They're brighter than you think.
So, no matter where you are or who you're with, make sure you remember what and who it is that makes you smile.
They're there...you just have to look. I'll bet you smile and whisper "Merry Christmas" when you recognize them.
I've spent the week singing you songs written by this great songwriter all week. Today I'll expose you to the man himself.
John Prine's songs have always appealed to me from first listen, for the conversational way he tells his stories. Wonderfully poetic, but never pretentious...like listening to an old friend on the next bar stool. An old friend who tells stories really well.
He sings sad songs, happy songs, goofy songs, epic songs. There's not a bad one in the bunch.
And he tells great stories about the songs. Watch this one and listen up.
John was diagnosed with a squamous cell cancer on is neck in 1998. The doctors were prepared to operate, but the tissue that would be affected was dangerously close to his vocal chords and the got word that he was a singer. They expressed their concern to John that he may want to rethink what they were about to do.
John said, "Obviously you've never heard me sing or you wouldn't be concerned. You worry about the surgery...I'll worry about singing when it's over.".
The surgery was a success, but as part of the procedure, they had to remove his salivary glands. To see him sing now is a marvel. He basically has to take a big drink of water to last him through his song. Some of his songs, when combined with his storytelling in concert go on for a loooooooooooong time.
And he sounds great!
We the fans have decided that the added gravel to his voice makes him sound more soulful.
As long as Mr. John Prine feels like singing and writing and telling a story, he will have listeners. We need him more than he needs us.
I'm as giddy as a schoolboy at Christmas when I hear of a new record by him. I hope we have lots more Christmases.
John even says on his Christmas album, "I wish every day was Christmas. Except for Christmas Eve. And the Fourth of July. We wouldn't want to miss out on all those fireworks."
I'm ready for fireworks on Christmas Eve John. Jesus would like that.
Sing us another one.
John Prine himself says he's never done a show without doing this last song. He wrote this song in his early 20's and he shouldn't have been that smart, nobody is, but he did.
He said at the time that "I like old people, and if things work out, I'll get to be one someday."
Happy birthday John. And thank you for a couple decades worth of saying "hello".
Like Prine Shriner's always say, "Whatever you're into...get into Prine." You won't be sorry.
Check out these links for more. His official site and the fully authorized fan site.
Here's a song John wrote about the time he realized he hadn't written a song in a long time. Comments on anything running through his head and influenced by too many Andy Griffith Show reruns. Years later John would co-star with Andy Griffith in Billy Bob Thornton's "Daddy and Them" and on set he played this for Andy...Andy rolled his eyes and didn't speak to John much after...at least that's the way John tells it. He was very happy to play Andy's son in the movie...he said it was like Opie was his step-brother.
"Fish and Whistle":
A beautiful ballad that is one of John's strong-points. For something to be sad and pretty at the same time. I must admit the title is confusing to me, but it fits euphoniously. The song is really about the front porch of a home and how important it is. It's where you say "hello" and "goodbye" to all you friends and family, as well as where you spend a lot of conversational time, especially in the summer. It's a shame that here in southern California at least, the front porch has gone the way of the dodo.
"Mexican Home":
See you all tomorrow...John's birthday is just 2 days away...everyone oughta be gettin' on their paper party hats.
Day 3 of my celebration of the songs of John Prine.
The countdown to John's birthday is winding down, just 3 more days. Until then, here's my take on a couple more of his songs.
A song he wrote to one of his and our old friends while he was touring Europe, and the advice she doled out for all those decades. "Dear Abby":
Here's a good old fashioned broken-hearted-country love song. A wife's' indiscretion leaves the husband with no other recourse than to pledge violence and obsession...the next time around. "The Frying Pan":
I'll see you tomorrow and the rest of the week for more. I love this stuff!
Day two of my week long onslaught of John Prine goodness!
As I said yesterday, John Prine's birthday is this coming Saturday and my proper tribute post will come then. Until then, the best way to show my appreciation for this songwriter is to expose y'all to some of his music.
Here's a ballad which shows a different facet to the tribulations we went through during the Vietnam era. Not many songs delved into the conflict conscientious objectors went through. Choosing to move to Canada rather than help blow up Southeast Asia, these folks had to forsake the country they loved, supposedly to never see her again. John knew this wasn't a very popular stance and tells the story of a boy in love with a woman who makes bad decisions and the compromising position this puts him in.
"The Great Compromise":
And an odd little ditty about the girl a few doors down he had a crush on and a harrowing suburban drama she falls into.
"The Accident (Things Could Be Worse)":
I'll see you tomorrow for some more skewed yet lucid perspective from this tragic poet with a sense of humor.
Be warned. You are about to be overwhelmed, inundated, indoctrinated into the world of John Prine.
John Prine is singly my favorite singer-songwriter. His 63rd birthday is this coming Saturday and I'm afraid one day's blog posting just wouldn't be enough.
Don't worry though, I'll be gentle.
Today I bring you a couple songs off of John's first album from 1971.
First a Vietnam protest song that expresses a lot of John Prine's sensibilities. He's not in your grill about it...he kind of slips it to you sneakily.
Then a "green" song from long before "Green" was the "in" thing. This song is about a town in Kentucky called "Paradise" where John's grandparents lived, and what happened to it.
I'll tell you more about John during the coming week. But the best way to tell you about him is to let you hear some of his songs.
I love singing them, I hope you find some favorites.
Now that we've bitter-sweetly examined the past, to straighten out the time stream of our lives, we gotta examine our present.
This is a John Prine song which he wrote about the future...or at least that's what it started off to be...but it took him 7 years to get around to finishing it, so at best it's about the present. :) And that was 30 years ago, in the fading past.
Which just goes to show how closely linked all time and our journey through it is.
P.S. Excuse the disarray behind me in the video...we're still moving my prodigal roommate in, and my library hasn't found a home yet beyond spread through my kitchen.
P.P.S. Excuse the disarray behind me in my past as well...the future looks to be as interestingly detailed and disorganized. Ain't it great?!
Happy Saturday to you and welcome to the 4th movement in my little musical interlude spotlighting "love songs from different points of view". This is the closing song in my trilogy of "Rusty" love songs. For who "Rusty" is click here, for part one of the trilogy here and part two here.
The sensitive part of me still says "for shame" on all of you for giggling at this poor soul (myself included). You see, there's no folly in growing older, the folly is in the way you do it.
This goes for you guys as well as the ladies.
A couple of years ago, I was seated at "The Irish Mist" one of my favorite watering holes, and I kept being annoyed by a loud voice just to the left and slightly behind me. It was some idiot attempting to flirt with the bartendress and using every bad cliched line in the book. I didn't just say cliched...I said BAD cliched. From a VERY OLD book. And because she wasn't reacting, he assumed she hadn't heard him so he kept repeating every one. Over and over.
I turned to see who it was and saw a chunky man in his late 40's with thin and greying hair. I remember thinking to myself "Man, I'm glad I'm still cool." and as I turned back to my beer I caught my reflection in the barroom mirror.
The next day I went around to all my haunts and removed my name from my "reserved for Jeffy" barstools.
This song was written by John Prine and DonieFritts (yes, "Funky Donnie Fritts, the Leaning Man from Alabam'") and it goes out to everyone at any stage of life, who's trying to find the graceful way to step up to the next stage. And still keep who they were in their youth intact and a part of them.
Quit looking around for someone else. Try looking in the mirror.
Born this day in 1948, today would have been Steve Goodman's 61st birthday.
Steve was a singer songwriter from Chicago who's most famous song was "The City of New Orleans", a huge hit for Arlo Guthrie. His own stage style was an exuberant ball of energy, who's spontaneity and flare with a guitar (almost an extension of his own body) could electrify an audience to a fever pitch and leave them happy, exhausted and with a satisfied grin...a refractory state very close to post-orgasmic. In the 1970's he would be the opening act for people like Kris Kristofferson in his rock & roll/country/folk/sex symbol heyday and Steve Martin in his monster "wild & crazy" height doing stadium shows. Kristofferson playfully says he eventually stopped hiring Steve because he got tired of reading reviews like, "Kristofferson's show was OK...but MAN, that Steve Goodman is GREAT!".
I'm no idiot, so I'm giving you me singing a Steve Goodman song before I show you Steve himself. I ain't gonna follow him. A smart man wouldn't even put himself in the same post as Steve. OK...maybe I AM an idiot...but, hell, it's my blog.
Here's Steve showing us what a guitar is for. An old song made famous by Al Jolson.
Steve wrote all kinds of songs. Funny songs, sad songs, poignant songs, tragic songs, happy songs. Folk, Country, Blues, Jazz songs. Songs about himself and songs about all of us.
There was always something lacking for me in his studio albums. Too '70's singer-songwriter-overproduced-treacly-sugary-sweet sounding for my ear...but his live stuff...Wow. Always great.
Awwwww hell...here's another...after all, it's his birthday.
Steve was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 11 years old and battled it all his life. He nicknamed himself "Cool Hand Leuk". Another life-long battle was that he was a Chicago Cubs fan. He even wrote the song, "Go, Cubs, Go" which they still play at the end of winning games and that the entire town of Chicago loves to sing along with.
The Cubs were last in the World Series in 1945, three years before Steve was born and in 1984 they made it into the pennant race. They played their first post-season game in 39 years.
Steve was supposed to sing the National Anthem at that game, but he died 8 days before it happened.
He gave them a better song though.
Steve's ashes were sprinkled over Wrigley Field.
Steve was 36 years old when he died. But he packed so much energy, enthusiasm for life and music and smiles on other peoples faces into that short span, you'd need the "jaws of life" to pry it all back out.
We should all try and be this excited and happy about something for just one day.
Let's try it. It would be a good tribute to Steve.
Worst case is, you had a good time for a bit.
Steve met John Prine way back about 1970 in "The Earl of Old Town" in Chicago and they became the tightest of friends from then on. They'd often write and perform together. John Prine describes Steve Goodman as "The guy who makes fun of my guitar playing to my face and brags about my songwriting behind my back.".
A song they'd often do together is John Prine's "Souvenirs" and John still does this to this day, dedicating it to Steve. He often says that "Steve had a way of playing this with me that made it sound like I was playing all the good parts.". The best way to close this is with...
After we've bathed the last couple of weeks in "Nemo: the Classic Comics Library" and steeped ourselves in classic comic strip lore, it's time to hit another spot Inside My Head and shift gears for at bit.
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