"Rolling Stones Now" LP London 3420 Mono original issue.. according to record guides there are two simultaneous original issues.. the red label with the FFRR logo between the two lines and the FFRR ear AND this one: with no FFRR and no FFRR ear betwee two horizontal lines down the middle of the label...the www.beatzenith.com site provides the conventional view its got to be FFRR labels (although there is an interesting note about records being made in the US for export to the military [the original stones US records were imported from england; this one is made in the US- the puzzle grows more complicated]) which are more collectible but i could give two yips about that.. i paid $4.99 for this and i'm going to play it til the wax don't exist!!!!!...oh, and yes, both originals have the full pre-censored liner notes including this very stonesy quote by andrew loog oldham who was busy cementing their myth: "(This is THE STONES new disc within. Cast deep in your pockets for loot to buy this disc of groovies and fancy words. If you don't have bread, see that blind man knock him on the head, steal his wallet and low and behold you have the loot, if you put in the boot, good, another one sold!)"

Andy Roddick is a true gentleman

i must say.. when andy roddick first came on the tennis circuit i found his extreme energetic displays of emotion (fist pumping, yelling, etc) annoying..but the guy has grown on me and i'm in his corner now... check out this article on how earlier today he gave his opponent vedasco a second chance- to his detriment- by helping overrule a bad call.. he ended up losing the match but he's a big winner in my book..

here

Chuck Berry's "Maybellene" 45 rpm single (Chess 1604). Recorded 50 years ago this was his first release and kicked off modern rock and roll. "Maybellene" was also released by Chess Records as a 78 rpm single.

recent celebrity sightings in Washington DC

so these are my celebrity sightings of the past month

drum roll...

3. former heavyweight champion of the world evander "don't chew my ear" holyfield across the street from the mayflower... i put my fists up in mock fight mode..ok i did not.. i wish i had...

2. senator christopher dodd at the capitol hill safeway feeling up the fruits... hanging with his grandaughter or daughter or vixen girlfriend..

1. rob garza of thievery corporation walking past the adams mill grill on 18th street with another vixen..

sign that the end times are here...

check it out here

Golden Palace Casino spokesperson Drew Black actually said: "It's hard to put a price on Britney Spears' urine"..

Sabina's song on getting old: Now that...

this is my translation of sabina's "ahora que"... reading it, in light of my last post, i'm reminded of the shallowness of the traditional "i'm too old for .." that i hear these days... at least sabina, after deciding he was old, at the more dignified age of 50 was able to tap into his experience and come up with something that transmits the feelings/thoughts associated with being old...

now that..

now that we kiss so slowly
now that i learn ballroom dances
now that a boarding house is a palace where space is never lacking for more than one heart

now that the flowergirls greet me
now that i'm majoring in lingerie
now that i undress you and you undress me and, in the station of doubts, dies a nearby train

now that we stay in the bed
monday, tuesday and holy days
now that i don't remember the pajama nor cut out the crossword puzzle
nor kill myself if you leave

now that i have a soul i didn't have
now that handclaps sound for joys
now that nothing is sacred
nor still rains "sobre mojado" (colloquialism meaning to rain on whats been rained upon already)
now that we make waves to bother
now that the solitude is no longer so lonely
now that all the stories seem like the story of never beginning

now that.........
now that the world has just been painted
now that the storms are so brief and the deaths don't dare hurt us too much

now that forgetfulness is so far
now that i perfume myself every day
now that, without knowing, we've known loving each other as it should be, without still loving each other

now that the weeks crash into each other, ephemeral, like stars form baghdad
now that, almost always, i have the desire to climb to your window and take off my disguise

now that the senses sense sans fear
now that i excuse myself but i stay
now that the eyes touch
the mouths look
the fingers shout
now that there are no vaccines
or litanies

now that the police is on the moon
now that the cars expode,
that i dream at night and sleep in the daytime
now that i don't write you when i leave
now that i'm more alive than i am
now that nothing is urgent,
that everything is the present,
that there is bread for today.
now that i don't ask you for what you give me
now that i don't measure myself against the others
now that all the stories seem like the story of never beginning.

pet peeve of the week/ rant of the day

people who talk about getting older all the time..people who send those ridiculously stupid emails of the "top 30 signs you're getting old.." variety.. people who spend their time talking about mortgages or home repairs..people who are permanently saying "oh i can't do that anymore".. i find it devastatingly boring...if your hobby is going to home depot don't talk to me about it cause i could give a shit...if you feel old feel old all by yourself...don't get me involved... i feel and want to feel young... old is one station closer to the end of the line..

my role models and heroes are people like joaquin sabina.. brilliant artists that started feeling old when they had a heart attack at the age of 53 due to too much cocaine/booze/girls/cigarettes aka action up to that point... he wants to talk about feeling old - about mortality- after that.. no problem..i can handle that.. but if someone is in their early 30s and wants to start talking about.. that seems a bit early for me... you got a lot of living to do at that age.. a lot... read carlos baker's biography on "papa" hemingway if you don't believe me..

now you may be reading this and thinking "geez i talked to that guy about that awesome trip i had to the home depot"... well now you know..sorry... i may have appeared to look interested but wasn't..in fact i was thinking "oh no.. not XXXXX too".. perhaps you're thinking "boy this guy ain't very mature..".. great! you're right! i wasn't mature and i'm still not mature!!!!!! ypee..i celebrate my immaturity to the four winds!

also, if you bought a house for X and now its worth 2X i think its rather gauche to sit around telling everyone about it.. some of the people you are telling this to maybe don't own a house.. so make sure to talk to other lucky homeowners who have also profited marvelously..you may be unaware but others find it increasingly harder to pay the rent..

if you're collecting unemployment but own a house worth over half a million and are talking about buying another house.. well, perhaps i'm not the person to be telling this to... but come to think of it even if i did own a nice home i think its the last thing i'd be talking go my friends about.. maybe, after telling them about my last visit to the proctologist i would mention the home.. talking about increasing real estate prices with someone who doesn't own a house is much like talking about that awesome new song you heard on the radio with a deaf friend of yours..

people who spend their time talking about what they did and that they no longer can do it.. as if age ought to condition what you do... as if we're all the same animals with the same patterns we must follow.. how devastatingly boring..yes, boys and girls its your late teens so go to college and follow the crowd and get wasted every night.. if you're lucky do the same thing in your 20s.. then meet someone and no longer do that or talk to most of the people you spent your 20s with.. yes, thats the pattern allright.. get married: be sure not too early or too late.. then have children...

the worse thing about the people who are permanently yammering about "oh i just can't do that anymore" is that they seem to feel that because they don't do it no one else does or should either! its so intolerant... listen, you don't like to meet friends at bars and hang out til the wee hours.. goody for yOU! BUT don't commit the error of thiking everyone is suddenly feeling old like you.. cause you're not really much older in the grand scheme of things.. all you're doing is behaving older.. so you want to be an old person..great.. good luck to you.. but don't rain on my parade..

if i hear one more person in their early 30s say "i'm too old for that shit" i'm going to pull a freak on them... how ridiculous for people to talk that way when people nowadays can be safely expected to at least make it to 80... when keith richards is still rocking it out in his mid 60s!!!!!!!! and here we have someone who is 32 going "poo pooh i'm too old to have a drinkie winkie!" or "i'm too old to go expand my mind with a headbanging rocking show"...my only limitations in what i can do are the amount of greenbacks in my wallet not my age!!!!!!!!

you do what you do cause you enjoy it and once you don't enjoy it don't do it but don't blame an artificial societal construct socialized into you for what one should be doing during each year of their life.. physical limitations can justify having to adjust some things in your life as you age but not throwing out the baby with the bathwater says grinch.. and don't make me feel like i have to act like an old man to help you justify to yourself the person you've become

US ignorant or immoral- pick your poison - in Iraq

thats right check the story here... lets dispense with the politesse and call a spade a spade...

today we hear another terrorist/insurgent blew himself up at an iraqui police recruitment center in some city named irbil or some such killing at least 60 people - probably mostly young men- standing in line to sign up to serve their country...

this begs just BEGS the question: why is it that this keeps happening?...its taken place any numerous number of times... people blowing themselves up or setting off bombs at iraqui recruiting centers...

what the heck is the US military doing- over 120 to 1400000 of them- in Iraq if it can't even contribute a little military manpower to preventing this ghastly bloodshed?...we know ahead of time that the insurgents love to target these recruiting centers because obviously there is a large concentration of potential victims and secondly they send the clear message: don't sign up to enforce law and order or we'll kill you even while you're trying to do so... so is it so hard for the US to assist in guarding these sites on the day large lines of people are forming?

either we don't care and prefer to stay in the barracks with our heads in the sand or we're too stupid to realize what is going on.... i'm not sure which is sadder... unfortunately, i think its quite clear that its option 1: the immoral one..

if we can't even TRY to do anything to prevent these horrible pre-telegraphed attacks which should be by far the easiest ones to stifle then i humbly suggest we get the heck out of dodge....

funny how no one in the US media or even US talks about something so obvious.. by now there must be at least 1000 young and brave and clearly hungry for a job iraquis that have died in this way...its as if we don't care... we're not responsible ..we didn't destroy the system of order they had in iraq apparently .. however bad a system it was at least it prevented these mass killings.... so now that they elected a government our attitude is let them deal with it.. of course that was our attitude before they elected a govt too..these attacks at recruiting centers have been going on for months...

everyday its harder for a thinking man to be proud to be an american..

poster/handbill for the show...

chuck berry with the big man clarence clemons visible behind him

on top picture chuck berry duckwalks by e streeter gary tallent..on bottom springsteen playing his best chuck berry lick!

handbill or poster for THE show.. bruce springsteen mentioned in small print at top...

to be a fly on the wall - concert for the ages- April 28 1973 College Park Cole Field House

(taken from here with profuse thanks!)

28/04/73 - UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND, COLLEGE PARK, MD

SPIRIT IN THE NIGHT / DOES THIS BUS STOP AT 82ND ST / BLINDED BY THE LIGHT / THUNDERCRACK…….then, as Chuck Berry's backing band…MAYBELLENE / ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC / SCHOOL DAY / ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN / NADINE / NO PARTICULAR PLACE TO GO / SWEET LITTLE SIXTEEN / MY DING-A-LING / REELIN' AND ROCKIN' / JOHNNY B GOODE

ONE show, triple bill, with CHUCK BERRY headlining, JERRY LEE LEWIS 2nd billed and SPRINGSTEEN opening - a show now steeped in legend and mystique. Berry's contract stipulated that it was the promoter's responsibility to supply him with a backing band for this concert. Apparently Bruce learned about a week before the show that the promoter was seeking a group to support Berry and immediately volunteered his band's services for free - which the promoter gladly accepted. There was no rehearsal or soundcheck with Berry, so Bruce and the boys improvised as best they could.

Bruce and the boys opened their part of the show with a 50-minute set, followed by a 60-minute set by Jerry Lee and his band. Chuck Berry (with the entire E Street Band backing him, including Bruce and SOUTHSIDE JOHNNY) closed the evening's festivities with a 70-minute performance. Springsteen recounts some hilarious details in the Berry bio-film "Hail, Hail Rock & Roll" but does not mention Southside Johnny’s appearance. Fearing the Berry might not want a harp player Bruce positioned Southside in the shadows at the extreme end of the stage. However Berry enjoyed the harp playing and near the end of the show he actually acknowledged Southside to the crowd saying “that white boy can blow, can’t he”?

The above-mentioned setlist represents most, if not all, of the performances from both Bruce's opening slot and from the Chuck Berry & The E Street Band's performance. Sadly THERE IS NO KNOWN AUDIO. This sold out gig in the 5,500-seat Cole Field House was not without some controversy. Such was the demand to see the show that the school newspaper reported that 20 people were arrested when police spotted individuals sneaking into the concert via an open female lavatory window at the back of the building. Apparently 200-300 people made it in before the police caught wind of what was going on. (Wolffs Note: now THAT is a show to be proud of sneaking into!)

50 year anniversary or rock and roll

may is chuck berry month the way i see it!...the man, who is still kicking, should be given the biggest tribute we have ever seen!.. lets value people while they are still alive! i'd love to see a two hour HBO special (simulcast on PBS) at the duck room in st louis where chuck berry plays once a month featuring interviews, tribute performances by people like dylan, the rolling stones, springsteen, ac dc, aerosmith and any number of others who worship at his altar and drink the gods nectar, and a nice juicy birthday cake in the shape of his cherry red guitar... the USA made billions of dollars and exerted incalculable cultural sway on the world in representing our values - far more than some invasion of irak i might add.. go talk to vaclav havel about what frank zappa meant to the fall of the iron curtain- with chuck berry's trademarked brand of rock and roll ought to celebrate its history and his life.... and lets face it the US owes chuck berry..after imprisoning him three times i think its time for a little payback..how about george bush go down to st. louis and thank chuck berry on behalf of the american people for his service...

i took this from this chuck berry site found here

Chuck Berry's first recording session at Chess Records, Chicago took place May 21st, 1955. Four songs were recorded which were released on two 45/78 rpm records later that year: Maybellene b/w Wee Wee Hours (Chess 1604, July 1955) and Thirty Days b/w Together We Will Always Be (Chess 1610, September 1955).

now there are many different points in history that one can take as the foundational even in rock and roll...

certainly, last year we saw the silly goose white media jump on elvis presley's 1954 sun recording session as the 50th annivesary of rock and roll although i find this hard to take... some say fats domino's 1950 recording of "the fat man" is really the first rock'n'roll record though without that electric guitar i find it hard... while others, probably including atlantic records founder ahmet ertegun, would perhaps point to louis jordan's 1940s recordings with his tympany five (again no electric guitar)...

but as i've tried to make the case ealier on this very site..: to me chuck berry is the rock'n'roll pioneer alchemist.. while the contributions of any number of other musicians were critical to the development of r'n'r i believe its chuck berry (with his pianist johnnie "johnny be goode" johnson who just passed away- hint: lets rush the chuck berry tribute!) that really synthesized the various influences and strains and put it all together in a way that is recognizable even 50 years on as rock and roll..recognizable is the key word here.. when you hear "johnny b goode" its rock'n'roll...no if ands or buts about it

so the first chuck berry recording session is a truly momentous date...

noted rock critic pietro scaruffi sums up chuck berry's value on his rich site to be found here and i borrow his first paragraph:

Rock and roll was born with Chuck Berry. Prior to Berry the evolution of the new popular music, the convergence of country and blues, was moving at a slow pace, and although acceptance of the black musician by the white audience had been positively established, a figure able to function as a catalyst, namely a person capable of putting together the demands of the moment, both artistic and social, was still missing. From the moment that Chuck Berry shouldered his cherry red Gibson, the guitar would never again be the same instrument. His explosive riffs would blow away established orders - first musical and then social - that had survived two world wars. Few revolutions have been faster, more thorough or more widespread. Those riffs electrified millions of white kids. Berry sang suggestively about adolescent love, and from that moment on song lyrics would never be the same. He set a rhythm for the music of the American youth, a rhythm that would continue to accelerate. Whether or not Chuck Berry invented rock and roll, he was its first composer and its first poet.

zopilote machine

deus ex "zopilote" machina

go to the three beads of sweat record label out of chicago to order your copy of the mountain goats 1994 release zopilote machine

the lp is a veritable bargain at $11.50 including shipping (there is also a cd re-release).. this is the first ever release of zopilote on vinyl.. (previously limited to cd and out of print for a few years)..the vinyl is already being hawked at $19.99 plus shipping on ebay: some people are schmucks and others are deviously clever...the vinyl pressing is supposedly limited to 1000 copies

of course if you don't know anything about the mountain goats you're reading this saying in your best stevie wonder impression "so whats the fuss?"...

retrospective

alpha incipiens

the morning comes to a stuttering halt
the cool breeze that blows is somebody's fault
the summer heat tries to burn through
and i look over to warn you but something's happening

the morning glories climb the wall
and you speak in a slow drawl
i'm trying to piece together what you're saying
but the birds are screeching, the hounds are baying
i don't remember there being any hounds around here

we lean back and we clink our glasses
raise the drinks to our thirsty mouths,
and thick as molasses ice cold vodka eases in as
the low pressure system brings the breezes in
and they sashay and pirouette above you
the only thing i know is that i love you
and i'm holding on,
yeah



(lyrics by john darnielle of the mountain goats)

Jeff and Jen wedding!

Saturday April 30th we had the pleasure of attending Jeff King and Jen Garske's beautiful wedding at St. Michaels tony Yatch Club on Maryland's eastern shore. The fine location on the Chesapeake Bay, su-ccu-lehnt jiushy steak and humoungous crabcakes, great drinks, better than usual wedding music, friends and family from far and wide, and most of all joy on the part of the newlyweds combined to create a good time for all.

Groomsman Tim Lara regaled the crowd with his trademarked humourous stories about the bride and groom and pitched in as photographer with a couple of impressive 360s on the dance floor as he filmed soon to be treasured live footage of the happy couple's first dance as husband and wife. Michael Haworth, meanwhile, was overcome by the momentousness of the occasion and could all but manage a "A Toast!"

Best wishes and much happiness to Mr. and Mrs. Jeff and Jennifer King!

the very happy newlyweds are on their way!

and they are married!!!!!!