JustThinking.us

The political ads will all be gone by closing time at the polls.

Here's Cuba Gooding Jr. with a reminder of what you can expect to see tomorrow night in the way of prime time television advertising.

I've been listening to this little bit of Power Pop perfection all week.

Who could ask for more?

Hooks galore, a great little guitar riff crunched up to perfection blasting through a set of big ass Marshall stacks, Beatlesque harmonies, scary but cute, maybe legal, probably lesbian girls with a lot of attitude.

I'm not that sure about gigantic firebreathing baby dolls, but it's a music video it doesn't have to make sense.

Performing the video vesrsion of their #33 Australian hit Take Me Away which was subsequently picked up with rerecorded vocals for the Freaky Friday Movie, this is Micaela Slayford on lead vocals and bass, Jessica Bennett on lead guitar and backup vocals, Belinda-Lee Reid on backup vocals and guitar, and Jaclyn Pearson playing her Pearl drum kit.

Lash

The call has gone out again for respite from the stress and nonsense that defines these troubled times.

As always, we empathize.

So .....

Because I firmly believe that there are only two kinds of people on this earth.

Them that like Little Feat, and them that don't know they like Little Feat.

And .....

Just in case you've ever wondered what's the big deal about Lowell George anyway.

            Here he is seemingly still asleep on slide guitar and vocals, along with Bill Payne on the keyboards, Paul Barrere on guitar, Richard Hayward playing the drums, Sam Clayton on percussion and Roy Estrada playing bass guitar at about 9:00 AM one morning in 1975 for "The Old Grey Whistle Test" program at the BBC.

Fat Man In The Bathtub.

A little boogie is always good for the soul.

Thanks to Jennifer N., Rodney T. and Tall Paul who are skulking either Esquire or Chartporn.

 I told you it was good.

It seems your pants are lying through their zipper about the size of your waistline.

Click on the chart for the article.

Damn, is all I gotta say.

Tommy Emmanuel unaccompanied.

Dai Vernon also known as "The Professor" is widely regarded as the most skillful sleight of hand artist to ever perform magic and among the most influential card magicians of the 20th Century. He is credited with inventing or improving many of the close-up tricks using cards, coins, and other small items that are employed by professional magicians to this day. 

In 1922, Harry Houdini was the best known magician in the world. Forty eight years old and at the height of his powers, Houdini was so confident of his skills and understanding of magic that he challenged magicians everywhere to show him any trick they might be able to perform three times, and guaranteed that he could tell them how it was done. At the Great Northern Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, young Dai Vernon took the great Houdini up on his offer, performing his "The Ambitious Card" trick for Houdini not three, but seven times in a row with Houdini failing to explain it.

The first video below is a Dai Vernon performance of his version of the Cup and Balls Trick, which version is every bit the standard among magicians as Celebrate and Joy To The World are among wedding bands.

"The Professor" Dai Vernon.

This second vid is an updated version of Vernon's "The Ambitious Card" trick, otherwise known as "The Trick That Fooled Houdini".

See ya Tuesday.

Since we're on the subject.

I have never closed the section of any tape I've ever made offering Life During Wartime and The Walls Came Down with anything other than the Nick Lowe penned and produced, international classic What's So Funny Bout Peace Love and Understanding.

I see no reason to not continue with that practice here. 

This is Elvis Costello on guitar and vocals. Steve Nieve on keyboards, Davey Faragher on bass, the great Pete Thomas pounding the drums and singing along just a little.

Evis Costello and the Attractions, Pickups or Imposters ... take your pick.

What's So Funny Bout Peace Love and Understanding.

Usually Rockpile with Teacher Teacher comes next, but we're probably moving on this time.

With the exception of one Christmas party, I've never done a party tape/disc that didn't include The Call's The Walls Came Down immediately next to ... usually leading ... Life During Wartime by Talking Heads.

Having posted Life During Wartime last week, I see no good reason to break with tradition.

Because I think it's far more likely that you have seen the promotional video for any given popular song somewhere else already, I mostly go for live performances when posting music around here.  And while there are some real interesting vids of the Call performing The Walls Came Down live, I'm making an exception to that rule here only because none of them include my all time favorite little keyboard break within what is one of my very favorite arrangements in general as Garth Hudson worked with The Call in the studio, but to my knowledge, never toured with them.

Arguably one of the most underrated bands of all time, this is Michael Been on vocals and guitar, Tom Ferrier on guitar, Greg Freeman on the bass, Scott Musick playing drums, and Garth Hudson of The Band, on keyboards.  I think that's Jim Goodwin standing off to the side playing what appears to be an old Vox, reverse key organ.

The Call.

The Walls Came Down.

I don't think there are any Russians, and there ain't no Yanks.

Just corporate criminals, playing with tanks.

Because we posted on Steinway and Sons pianos earlier this week, Terry D. who's probably a better picker than I am a pounder wants equal time for guitar builders of which there is a raft of em.

I can't say anything about Candelas Guitars having never even held one, but I do like Tomas Delgado's story and his attitude well enough to post the promo for his company and I might even look into trying a Candelas guitar one day should a Roanboy start thinking about classical guitar (unlikely) or flamenco guitar (slightly more likely).

This is Tomas Delgado talking about his passion for guitar building and his company which was originally founded by his grandfather and great uncle.

Having absolutely no talent with tools, naturally I was fascinated by this Robert O'Brian video on carving guitar necks.

We haven't done a commercial in a long time.

What the heck.

Here's an interesting ... at least to me ... little vid Steinway did about their antique plant in Long Island City, New York and the people who work there building Steinway pianos by hand.

Having been fortunate enough to have played a decent number of the famed brands of pianos in this world, Bechstein, Bluthner, Bosendorfer, and Schimmel among the German names, Young Chang and Yamaha among the Pacific Rim builders, Italy's Fazioli, given the choice I'll always sit down with the Steinway first.

I think that to be the case for most every pianist (I'm not a pianist) or pounder (that's me) going back a hundred years.

They just sound better.

It's the overtones, I'm told.

Steinway pianos, handmade in America.

As an aside, some of the older Baldwins can be extraordinary as well.

From their 1984 movie Stop Making Sense, one of our very favorite concert movies.

This is the always interesting David Byrne on vocals, Tina Weymouth on bass guitar, Jerry Harrison on keyboards and Chris Frantz on drums.

Tallking Heads.  

They are joined in this performance by Lynn Mabry and Edna Holt on backup vocals, keyboardist Bernie Worrell of Parliament-Funkadelic, percussionist Steve Scales, and guitarist Alex Weir of The Brothers Johnson.

Life During Wartime

It seemed an appropriate choice.

Our post of Bajofondo performing Pa'Bailar inspired a number emails the subject of which can be summed up as follows.

Why not Gotan Project?

We're wwaaaayyyy ahead of all of you as we had mostly completed a post for each back to back and then had flipped for who went first.

Gotan Project are/is Eduardo Makaroff on guitar, Phillippe Cohen Solal on keyboards and bass, Christophe H. Muller programming beats along with bass and keyboards.  They are accompanied in this performance by Mini Flores on bandoneon, Cristina Vilallonga vocals, Gustavo Beytelmann on the piano, Line Kruse (along with two others I can't identify ... apologies) on violins, Fabrizio Genoglietto on the upright bass and Edi Tomassi on percussion.

From their 2006 performance on Later with Jools Holland.

Gotan Project.

Santa Maria (Del Buen Ayre)

   Son House came back into my music again via the oldest Roanboy via Jack White who the oldest Roanboy likes in the much the same way I liked Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix when I was a veteran teenager.

I had given Robert Johnson and subsequently Son House a listen early on in my pursuit of the song, mostly because I thought I should.  Then, satisfied that I knew what they were all about, I quickly moved on to the guys they had influenced as I was hooked on the bop that comes out of the rhythm section and thus the Chicago thing over the far more simple and fundamental Delta sound.

So ... because I'm interested in whatever the the Roanboys are interested in, I sat and watched the clip of Jack White listening to Son House's Grinning In Your Face in the It Might Get Loud movie and found it to be remarkable that forty years after his death Son House remains an unfiltered influence on popular music.

If you can't hear Son House in Jack White's music, you're deaf.

So ... I started going through the video of Son House performances taken late in his life and found them to be somehow both sweet and powerful at the same time.

And to my way of thinking, simultaneous sweet and powerful is a tough one to pull off.

If indeed Robert Johnson is the "Father of Rock and Roll", meet "Grandad".

This is the great Eddie James House Jr. better known as Son House.

Death Letter.

And John the Revelator, a capella.

Among the many, many, many projects of multiple Grammy winner Gastavo Santaolalla, the Bajofondo Tango Club is my hands down favorite.

The Bajofondo Tango Club, now simply Bajofondo, with their eclectic mix of tango, trip hop, house and whathaveyou stands among the most accomplished of the Electrotango groups that have brought Tango back into the mainstream of dance music and worldwide popular culture.

This is Gustavo Santaolalla on what I'm thinking is a Carvin, Fred Holdsworth headless guitar, DJ Juan Campodónico playing the triggered sequences, Luciano Supervielle on piano and scratching, Martín Ferrés playing the bandoneón, Verónica Loza is the video jockey and vocals, Javier Casalla playing the violin, Gabriel Casacuberta on bass and Adrian Sosa on the drums.

Bajofondo.

Pa'Bailar.

In early August 1969, two weeks before the Woodstock Arts and Music Festival was held on Max Yasgur's farm in upstate New York, approximately 20,000 music lovers showed up at Fuller Field (I think) on the banks of the mighty Huron River in Ann Arbor, Michigan to hear B. B. King, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Otis Rush, Big Mama Thornton, Son House, T-Bone Walker and Lightnin' Hopkins among others, play the blues at the first Ann Arbor Blues Festival.

I didn't happen to be there as I didn't even know it was happening until after it was over.

I dunno what happened on that one.

The comparatively unknown Magic Sam was scheduled to take the stage at 3 PM Sunday afternoon but was late, forcing Charles Musselwhite to the stage an hour early.

When he finally arrived he had no band.

He took the stage that afternoon with Paul "Buffalo" Bruce Barlow from Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen on the bass guitar and future, veteran Chicago blues session man Sam Lay on drums and proceeded to kick ass.

When he walked off that stage about an hour later, he was a star.

Barely 90 days later on December 1, 1969 "Magic" Sam Maghett died of a heart attack.

He was 32 years old.

From the American Folk Blues Festival performances which we keep telling people they should buy, this is the great Magic Sam on vocals and Earl Hooker's guitar, Mack Thompson on bass guitar and Robert St. Julien playing the drums.

All Your Love and Lookin Good.