from Harvey Dog’s Carnival – December 11th, 2005: “Love Your Family / Philip Glass and Ravi Shankar / Don’t Piss Off Frank Sinatra!”
The Streetwalkers: Downtown Flyers (1975) **** OK. Let’s get to the bottom of this. I am a huge fan of Family, The Streetwalkers, and Roger Chapman. Listening to this on LP – I love that I have a turntable again after years of CDs – it can be startling to find that the music is already finished!
The Streetwalkers rock; they use progressive elements (a little), dynamics, Roger Chapman’s singing is intense and wild, the musicianship is top-notch, the writing is solid. They deserve to be more highly regarded. They aren’t even listed in the massive All Music Guide book I have from 2003! I saw three old videos of Family playing live on TV, and they were awesome! That’s the only thing I need…Live Family. Gotta place the order, even though they’re pricey.
I’m rambling! Give these guys a listen, and see what you think. This Streetwalkers album is really great, so if you already know of Family and like them…now’s the time to get into The Streetwalkers. Now I need some solo Roger Chapman.
I love that song “Don’t Become the Thing You Hated” by Destroyer, from the “Frog’s Eye Sessions” EP. Words of wisdom, Lloyd, words of wisdom.
Guru T-Lu suggested Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Head On” as a candidate for “Top 10 songs to wake up to”. Sounds good!
I woke up next to the corpse of Lester Bangs.
He liked cough syrup; I like cherry Scope.
I never met Lux Interior from The Cramps,
but I’m sure Lester and Lux smoked lots of dope.
And then I ran through the house screaming endlessly: “Funk, funk baby, we need more funk”…
After hearing the amazing Meters and Art Neville songs on Uncut’s “Funk Soul Brothers”, it was time to listen to the Soul Jazz compilation, “New Orleans Funk 1960-1975”, from 2000, which I haven’t listened to yet. This is a great CD! Sounds like an easy **** to me.
Philip Glass & Ravi Shankar: Passages (1990) ****1/2. Deep and beautiful music. I love this!
Time to try something different. Frank Sinatra’s “Greatest Love Songs”. Released in 2002, recorded 1953-1966. Wasn’t Frank Sinatra a bullying, murdering, gambling, misogynistic alcoholic? I’m not saying he was, but I may have heard that rumour. Now, on to the tuneage.
I know the lyrics are written by geniuses and all that crap, but aren’t they somewhat corny? I know I have no taste and blah blah blah…but to prove I do, I like “Candy Man” by Sammy Davis Jr., “Detroit City” by Dean Martin, and “Fly Me to the Moon” is pretty cool, but I like Sid Vicious’ version of “My Way” best of all.
We’ve reached song 11, and there is a certain flow to it. It doesn’t deviate much. Is this ambient music?
Wow! “My Heart Stood Still” was pretty fucking majestic! “Night and Day” is creepy. In fact, a number of the lyrics are pretty creepy….
Frank Sinatra is the Devil Outside my Front Door
outside my door…
a scratching,
a knocking??
Is it Frank
back from the dead?
* knock knock *
The hand of a ghost
lets him in!
Don’t let him in!!!!!
I don’t understand???
It’s Diablo! Diablo! Frank!???
Hindsight
- I went through a Sinatra phase, but I’m over it. Sorry, not my thing…
- I’m still a huge Family/Streetwalkers/Chapman fan; I love Philip Glass, Ravi is cool & Destroyer is *meh*.
- Lester Bangs is still dead.