Paddy's Wanderings

Radio Waves

Imagine 1958, new set of wheels with a state of the art radio, cruising the strip. Brand new music from Elvis, Ricky Nelson, and the hot song from that summer, Purple People Eater.  Sure looks strange to me, especially that one horn.

Flash forward to the Fashioned Challenged Seventies and I am just a wee lad, riding in the back of a 1968 Pontiac. What did we listen to? You got it, AM Radio. I grew up on a steady diet of 70's AM Radio, and I am thankful I did. Some of the best music from that decade I first heard in a car. From short trips across town to long Sheeple Vacation Road Trips. If I played it right, I could convince my parents to play something other than country music, for a little while.

You gotta have Rock N' Roll.

Tuneage on the go. I still listened to AM Radio, but mostly just for baseball games. I moved on to FM and the hot 100. I was a teenager, what can I say. And, all of thirty years ago, is when I started listening to a local 'Oldies' station. It was hip man, all the cool cats tuned in to get a blast from the past, listen to the classics man. The squares were doing the hustle, you wanted to get a groove on, you caught this station.

At that time(remember this) they played 50's and 60's and I could dig it. This is long before we started putting a lower case i in front of everything, long before the net, you know, stone age days. Those tunes were hard to come by unless you caught a garage sale where some oldie who had lived past the hipster stage was selling old 45's. The magic of radio though.. yeah, it was all there, Elvis, Ricky, and even a Purple People Eater.

It sucks, but you grow up. I dont listen to the radio much anymore. That is a shame really. Just on ocassion, in the Jeeple, do I tune in the radio. I have a CD player, I can play whatever. I have a lot of those oldies on CD, so I can catch it then. I do not listen to that oldies station much anymore, but I did yesterday.

Caught some cool tunes by Seeger, Bowie, early 80's stuff. And.. that right there, my friends, is the problem. That station is STILL an oldies station. The oldies are the Hot 100 from the Fashioned Challenged Seventies and the Hazy Eighties. Yep, you gotta it, they bill themselves as playing all oldies, all the time.

Except.. the oldies are from my teeny bopper years.. Shazam! In the blink of an eye I have become that past their prime old hipster cat selling ancient cassette tapes at a yard sale. If that fifteen year old could see me now.. he would laugh, snap his fingers and say too bad old dude. Maybe you should listen to the 'current' Hot 100.

But I can't.. I just can't get into it. For kicks, I just looked at the Top 40.. I know a couple artists and recognize one song. Sad really.. truly sad. I think I understand how my grandparents felt when all their favorite radio shows, The Lone Ranger for example, got replaced with that loud, teenage rock and roll stuff. Funny how that works.

So I will keep trying. I will still catch a Hot 100 radio station, hoping something catches my ear. After all, you can't listen to only the oldies, not if you want to be a real cool hipster cat, and not some kinda square.

Happy Musical Wanderings

 

The Day the Music Died

Yeah, been a long time. Four people died that day. What a shame. Take a listen to the legends of Rock n Roll.

 

I discovered Buddy Holly as a teenager around 1980, still dig the music.

 

I love watching the movie La Bamba, I just turn it off at the end.. the end always sucks. I discovered him just after finding Mr. Holly. Great tunes man, great tunes.

 

There aint nothing like a poodle skirt, a little wiggle in the walk, a little wiggle* in the talk, hair piled up and chewing bubble gum. The fifties were cool eh?

The pilot, Roger Peterson also lost his life. What a shame. Don't watch the movies, they all end the same and are depressing. Just listen to the tunes.

*I swear he says wiggle in the talk, although evewryone else(I am looking at better 1/2) insists its giggle in the talk. Either way.. we get the meaning. Those fifties cats were pretty riske if you ask me.

 

Music+Video=Groovy

 

Ok kiddos, time to take a trip in the Wayback Machine. Back in the day, when the world was young, those of us who lived in cable purgatory and could not get MTV, had the next best thing, Friday Night Videos. Now dont get me wrong, I spent many an afternoon in the living rooms of my more fortunate friends abodes. Believe me, I soaked up a lot of music videos that way.

But you know, I couldnt move in and had to leave. So Friday night would roll around, there was a football game and then a dance, then if I put the hammer down in ye olde Firbird, I would make it home for the begining of Friday Night Videos, and it was pure cool.

I even watched when I was off in college cause I got a kick out of the show. Sure, I had MTV, but Friday night would roll around and I would fire up the tube and catch the show. Then I lost track of the show, even though it was on air after Letterman until 2000. Its too bad really, it was a cool show.

I stopped watching MTV and moved on to VH1 cause MTV forget it was a music video network somewhere along the way. Eventually VH1 became.. meh. Now there is Youtube, and its groovy. Tonight is a Friday Night Videos kinda night, which is cool. I gotta few I remember from way back when and I still like em. Enjoy..

 

 

 

 

Pop Army

The excitement keeps rolling along folks. I have had the pleasure of writing a couple articles so far for Pop Army. Check it out at this link. The site has news and reviews, celeb stuff. Kinda got it all from the world of entertainment. They live blogged the Emmy Awards. And.. that is just the beginning.

I have been able to do recaps for Leverage. Man I am in heaven here folks. I can dish and gush and get all googly moogly about a TV show I love. This is the good stuff. Of course, now we gotta wait until December for new episodes, but thats cool, there is plenty of TV floatin around that I watch.

This is just the very start and I am excited to be able to tag along with some really talented folks. I love TV and movies and all that so this is the kinda thing I dig. Movie reviews, previews, TV stuff and all that jazz. Should be a whole lot of fun.

Check it out, this week is the True Blood DVD giveaway. I have no doubt that more goodies like that will be coming down the path. This is an exciting time and right at the ground floor of the site starting out. So much coming along, If you would be so kind, take a look, see what you can see. I think you'll like it.

The Concept Album

I miss the concept album. I miss the rock operas, the themed albums, the albums that frankly, you had to listen to the whole album. Sure, there may be a song or two for radio play, but it was the whole concept, or theme that drew a listener into the music. In no particular order, a few I like.

It is The Beatles, what else is there? Okay, it was my first themed/concept album. There is so much going on in this album and the idea is cool, and kinda new for its time. I like the music, and the idea of being a new band, a separate persona if you will. Trippy man, just trippy.

Tommy blew me away, the movie was even more.. strange. I dig The Who and this album, while not their best in my opinion, is still a darn good concept album. More psychedelic and the story is trippy enough to be entertaining. A good example of why you should listen to the whole album.

Bowie! Another fine example of an album where you really need to listen to the whole thing. Suffragette City still blows me away. I think the end of the world and the savior cant save the day, the anti-hero, is the main pull for me. I discovered this album whilst reading 1984 and Brave New World, kinda fits right in there.

The Wall.. what can I say about this album that has not already been dissected to death? I guess what appeals to me is the loss of innocence, of childhood. This was also right at that critical time, I was about 15 and everything seemed.. crazy.

Big pic.. wow. Well whatever, it is one of my favorite albums. Totally conceptual and just really one long song. I discovered this not long after it was released in 1985, I was still on the loss of childhood kick, but it was different, and yet.. similar. I think the idea at the end where there is hope makes it better in some ways then The Wall. I don't know, it is groovy to me.

I think what does it for me in all of this, is the lyrics. The music is great, but the lyrics, the story, is essential to the enjoyment of the entire album. This is not a collection of songs, or just one off pieces, but a story spread over 50 minutes( or more) of album. I miss that, and it seems harder to find today.

I don't think of any of these albums, if released today, would fare very well. They are not designed for the digital era. If you could buy the whole shebang in one shot, sure, but there is often incidental music, effects, sound, between tracks. Different time, different way of doing things. Is there room for this kind of concept in the digital world? In mainstream download it to your phone type of thing? Or has music become like a lot of things, the 4 min instant gratification short cut thing.. I don't know. I hope not.

On The Silk Road

In a previous life, I had a friend whose father listened to Hearts of Space out of CMU and got me hooked on the radio station. I discovered something there that changed my life. I am a big music lover and like just about anything. The station played 'new age' music and I found Kitaro one early Sunday morning. It has been a road to wonder since then.

That pic is from the album cover to Silk Road. Yeah, I had that in vinyl and played the grooves out of it, spending countless hours listening through headphones. The music is truly amazing. In the hazy eighties Kitaro did concerts throughout Asia that would attract a couple hundred thousand people. No joke. I would day dream of hitching a ride to catch a live performance. I have seen videos of some of his performances, and man, they rock like nothing I have ever seen.

I have collected so many versions of Silk Road that I can listen to a different version every day of the week for a couple months. Check out this live version.

Pretty cool. Musician, composer and all that. Truly beautiful music. Words do not do justice. So listen some more, then. And while you listen and are blown away by the violin, that is Lorenza Ponce and she is pure awesome.

And one more, cause I know you wont just link over to youtube and watch every single video. This one is for Sally...

Yeap, Sally is a big fan too, and she loves the drums and Kitaro can kick it. Now that I am jazzed on Kitaro I think I will listen to a few albums. Thursdays are good days too.

Happy Wanderings!

She'll Always be Dana to Me

I know what you just did, you went.. whoaa.. Paddy, wtf? You are putting a picture of a book by a rapper, Queen Latifah no less, on your blog? Why? I like to wander, remember? And this is part of that whole a little bit of everything, and then some.

Let me just say this, I think Queen Latifah is cool. She has a book out and I am grabbing a copy. Last night I was watching her interview on Larry King Live and she rocked it. How cool is she? If you google queen, she is at number three, behind Victoria and Elizabeth, and that is pretty neato.

This woman can sing, you ever listen to The Dana Owens Album where she sings soul and jazz?? NO? Well go take a listen, I can wait.. no really, go listen, she can sing! Okay I took a listen and I still dig her voice. I am not big on rap so that part of her career is meh to me, but by all accounts she is considered pretty sharp there as well.

She was awesome in Chicago! Oh right.. you did not know I like musicals? or musical theater? Well I do, I like that kind of stuff a lot. Chicago is great and she rocked that part. She has done a lot of movies and TV and she always delivers.

But what is cool, why I really like her? She is genuine. I like that about people, movie star, rapper, what ever a person may do, I like straight forward people. She seems that way. No doubt she has talent in a wide variety of creative endeavors and she has had some success and still has her feet on the ground.

I am a fan of just not a movie star, or singer, or writer, but a person who is.. a real person. If you are not a fan, you should take a close look, you may just think I am not so crazy after all..

and remember.. when your good to Mama, she'll be good to you..

Trumpet in the Rain

I actually saw this album in a rack in an old music store way back in the early hazy eighties. They had two copies, one used and one that was, barely used. The used one was so bad that the groove had been played out of it, if you follow me. The other had a scratch, so it was a bust. I thought it was a shame really. I had heard a bit of Miles on the radio, late night jazz college radio, and for a buck I had thought to pick up an album.

I missed it.

Since then, it has always been a catch as catch can with a lot of jazz for me. I love a good jazz band playing live. I will on occasion tune in on the radio. With the explosion of electronic media over the past ten years, well, I can get a fix, whenever, and often do. My education and fascination is ongoing..

Right this minute I am listening to All Blues off the album, via digital, on a computer. Not the same as discovering some old jazz albums in the basement of the fraternity house and playing them on the old record player that came with all the fancy shmancy adapters for all speeds of vinyl. That was a cool afternoon way back when. Not nearly as cool as hunting old record stores and having them play some dusty old jazz album, just to catch a listen of something I had never heard before.

Time has accelerated to the point that spending an afternoon, driving around or walking downtown to go through racks and racks of albums to find some obscure jazz recording, maybe catching something new and cool, seems strange. It is that acceleration that leads to seeing nothing fast.

So I keep chillin with Miles. And you know.. I keep listening. It will come round, maybe not today, maybe not for a good long spell, but it will come round..

Go find a groove for the day..

 

Flashback to the 80's

ConcertTicket, originally uploaded by paddy's wandering.

So last night I went down to the Bay City River Roar Concert that featured White Snake. Yep, a real blast from the past. My good friend Lumpy got a bunch of tickets and invited me along. So off I went to a mini class reunion of sorts with a bunch of fellas I went to high school with back in the Hazy Eighties.

Yep, good ole long hair band days revisited. Small problem for us concert goers, none of us have long hair anymore, some don't even have hair! That's cool, the band still has the big hair. What I saw of the show, it was pretty good. Yeah, I didn't see the whole shebang. This time it was not Lumpy's fault.

Okay let me explain. Lumpy, yeah that's his name, heck even his mom called him Lumpy(real name Larry); I didn't even know his real name until we were in high school! I met Lumpy and his brother Bill one day in elementary school. They saved me from the older kids who had been pelting me with ice balls, yeah ice, not snow. They took me to their house, their mom cleaned up the blood, and we have been friends ever since.

The only fly in the ointment? Sometimes Lumpy would get us all in trouble. Oh sure not on purpose like, but Lumpy had a tendency to do just about anything. So I asked him last night, 'Your not gonna get me in trouble are you?' He says not to worry, he promises I wont get kicked in the nuts. I didn't believe him but that's okay, I was just glad to see the Lumpster, whom I had not seen in a few years, but had kept in touch with through email.

Well Lumpy went off with a friend of ours and the proverbial poo hit the fan. This...person..had been harassing the wife of a friend of ours, but we just blew her off. Hey we were there for the concert, just gonna have a good time. Right? Well said person started a fight with our friend's wife and got a knuckle sandwich for her trouble. Alas a small donnybrook broke out. In the end, the kind officers escorted a few out and told us to break it up and go home.

Well I lost track of the Lump, and it was getting pretty weird and I didn't feel like calling the better 1/2 from..ahem..jail, so I went home. It was strange to say the least. We didn't do anything, but apparently the young lady was looking for trouble and got all of us the boot. My friends and I are a little to old for that kind of shenanigans.

But hey, we had fun, got to hang out and just be together. Sure you can never go back, but you can still hang and have fun, even if some...ahem..excitement happens now and then. What a night. Good news is,this time it was not Lumpy's fault and I didn't get kicked in the nuts.

The Long and Winding Silk Road

A long time ago I discovered the Hearts of Space radio program one sunday morning. I was just trying to tune my stereo in to a station that was not filled with static and I came across the program. I was trying to pick up American Top 40. They were playing a piece that was really different from what I was used to listening to, so I listened until the end to see who it was. It was Kitaro.

I had never heard of him and getting information in 1981 was a lot harder then it is today. So I started digging, asking at record stores and all over, trying to find more music. Eventually I stumbled across the album Silk Road and from there I have become a life long fan. I am also, to this day, a big fan of most New Age music and still sample and pick up a few songs.

I have been fascinated with all things Asian since I was a wee lad watching kung fu movies but there is so much more to explore. My journey to the east has had many paths and Kitaro and his music has provided the soundtrack to my exploration.