Sir George Ivan Morrison--perhaps better known to you as "Van"--turns 70 tomorrow, and by damn I'm going to acknowledge that and celebrate it. I've been a Van Fan since "Brown-Eyed Girl," in 1967, a song I'd be happy never to hear again.
The great Irish tenor John McCormack was once asked what was needed to become a great singer. "The 'yaargh,'" he replied. That is, the ability to convey thoughts and emotions in a way which moves an audience emotionally. It's imagination, passion, intelligence, integrity mixed with a little madness. Van Morrison could sing the phone book and make it interesting and moving. Of course no one under the age of 30 has any idea what a phone book is, but still.
I could say much more about Van's artistry and my fandom, about the fact that he has a well-deserved reputation at one of music's most curmudgeonly curmudgeons, and the fact that he's written more than 350 songs, but I frankly just don't feel like it. What I've decided to do this week is to play the title song from each of his 34 studio albums, an undertaking that will put my show nearer to 4 hours than 2. I was surprised that there were only 2 albums that didn't have a title track or at least the title in a line from the song; in those cases I chose something representative of the album and title, I thought. Here's the exhaustive track listing, in chronological order:
T.B. Sheets
Astral Weeks
Moondance
Street Choir
Tupelo Honey
Saint Dominic's Preview
Hard Nose The Highway
You Don't Pull No Punches, But You Don't Push The River
You Gotta Make It Through The World
Wavelength
And The Healing Has Begun
Summertime In England
Beautiful Vision
Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart 1
A Sense Of Wonder
In The Garden
Queen Of The Slipstream
Irish Heartbeat
Avalon Of The Heart
Enlightenment
Hymns To The Silence
Too Long In Exile
Days Like This
How Long Has This Been Going On?
Tell Me Something
The Healing Game
Philosophers Stone
Back On Top
Down The Road
What's Wrong With This Picture?
Magic Time
Pay The Devil
Keep It Simple
Born To Sing
See you Tuesday from noon til whenever on WOOL FM, 91.5, or wool.fm.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Time Fades Away
Had an interesting experience yesterday. I was sitting on the bed which belonged to my late mother-in-law, in the room in which she died. All of the photos, paintings, hangings and other works of art collected over a lifetime and carefully hung on her bedroom walls for 30 years had been removed. What lay beneath spoke something to me of the effects of time and light and, yes, chemistry, on human lives and relationships.
Where the various works had hung was revealed the walls' original color, almost azure; the rest of the walls, those portions which had been uncovered all those years, exposed to the passage of time and thus affected by the play of light upon them, were still blue, of course, but a washed-out, faded blue tinged with white, almost, like the horizon on a winter day when snow's on its way. And of course my metaphorical mind leapt into action and started to think about how that so mirrored life and human relations.
The world is changing every moment, even to the very cells that make up our bodies, and yet we usually don't, maybe even can't, notice. Change happens so slowly that it's imperceptible yet undeniable. I look very different from the way I did 20 years ago, and yet the guy I see in the mirror looks just like me. It's only when the veil is lifted, when I see photos of myself from the past that I realize fully the extent of the change time and light and life have wrought upon me.
No one noticed the gradual effect of the change in wall color on Natalee Fogel's bedroom walls, I'm sure, any more than we see day-to-day changes in ourselves or even others around us. But when we see ourselves or others in a different light those effects become impossible to ignore. William Maxwell, the late and noted editor at The New Yorker wrote a novel called Time Will Darken It, in which, really, nothing much happened except the quotidian (love that word, don't get to use it often), mundane events of a daily life. And sometimes time does darken it; I'm sure you've all had the experience of moving a rug or a piece of furniture on a wooden floor and being shocked by how much darker the surrounding, exposed flooring is than that which has been covered. The point is that time and light and events and elements change everything: lives, loves, all experience. Whether for darker or lighter may vary but, of course, the only constant in life is change.
"Fading" or "Faded" songs this week, then, on the radio. Among them:
Daylight Fading Counting Crows
Fading Away James Taylor
Fading Memory Eilen Jewell
Don't Fade Away Dead Can Dance
Don't Fade Away Milla
Don't Fade Away Willie Nelson
Don't Fade On Me Tom Petty
Fade Away Ernest Ranglin
Fade Into Light Boz Scaggs
Fade To Black Dire Straits
Fadeaway The Bodeans
Not Fade Away Rolling Stones
Not Fade Away James Taylor
Book Faded Brown The Band
Faded Ben Harper
Faded Love Delaney & Bonnie
Not Fade Away/Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad Grateful Dead
On Records, The Sound Just Fades Away Greg Brown
Faded From The Winter Iron & Wine
Sweet Dream Fade Laura Nyro
Fade Away Oasis
Fade Away Steve Tibbetts
Fading Love Amos Garrett
Summer Is Fading Jim Capaldi
Tuesday, noon til two on WOOL 91.5 FM, wool.fm on the webs. Hope to see you there.
And remember: rust never sleeps.
Where the various works had hung was revealed the walls' original color, almost azure; the rest of the walls, those portions which had been uncovered all those years, exposed to the passage of time and thus affected by the play of light upon them, were still blue, of course, but a washed-out, faded blue tinged with white, almost, like the horizon on a winter day when snow's on its way. And of course my metaphorical mind leapt into action and started to think about how that so mirrored life and human relations.
The world is changing every moment, even to the very cells that make up our bodies, and yet we usually don't, maybe even can't, notice. Change happens so slowly that it's imperceptible yet undeniable. I look very different from the way I did 20 years ago, and yet the guy I see in the mirror looks just like me. It's only when the veil is lifted, when I see photos of myself from the past that I realize fully the extent of the change time and light and life have wrought upon me.
No one noticed the gradual effect of the change in wall color on Natalee Fogel's bedroom walls, I'm sure, any more than we see day-to-day changes in ourselves or even others around us. But when we see ourselves or others in a different light those effects become impossible to ignore. William Maxwell, the late and noted editor at The New Yorker wrote a novel called Time Will Darken It, in which, really, nothing much happened except the quotidian (love that word, don't get to use it often), mundane events of a daily life. And sometimes time does darken it; I'm sure you've all had the experience of moving a rug or a piece of furniture on a wooden floor and being shocked by how much darker the surrounding, exposed flooring is than that which has been covered. The point is that time and light and events and elements change everything: lives, loves, all experience. Whether for darker or lighter may vary but, of course, the only constant in life is change.
"Fading" or "Faded" songs this week, then, on the radio. Among them:
Daylight Fading Counting Crows
Fading Away James Taylor
Fading Memory Eilen Jewell
Don't Fade Away Dead Can Dance
Don't Fade Away Milla
Don't Fade Away Willie Nelson
Don't Fade On Me Tom Petty
Fade Away Ernest Ranglin
Fade Into Light Boz Scaggs
Fade To Black Dire Straits
Fadeaway The Bodeans
Not Fade Away Rolling Stones
Not Fade Away James Taylor
Book Faded Brown The Band
Faded Ben Harper
Faded Love Delaney & Bonnie
Not Fade Away/Goin' Down The Road Feelin' Bad Grateful Dead
On Records, The Sound Just Fades Away Greg Brown
Faded From The Winter Iron & Wine
Sweet Dream Fade Laura Nyro
Fade Away Oasis
Fade Away Steve Tibbetts
Fading Love Amos Garrett
Summer Is Fading Jim Capaldi
Tuesday, noon til two on WOOL 91.5 FM, wool.fm on the webs. Hope to see you there.
And remember: rust never sleeps.
Sunday, August 16, 2015
"It's The Donald: Duck!"
Don't you just love Donald Trump right now, or at least what he's doing to the presidential race--or in his case, racist? He's a breath of fresh, petulant adolescent, monumentally egotistic air and hair, don't you think? There's no wetting of index finger to be held up to see where public opinion leads. Nope, since he owns most of the air, he can just take some from his private stash and bloviate at will. Throw some raw meat to the Repugnicant base? Let's call Mexicans rapists, murderers and drug dealers. Stand up for the downtrodden, oppressed white male constituency? Throw some hints and allegations that the reason that Megyn Kelly is being so mean and bitchy toward poor innocent him is because she's on the rag, and we all know how they get then, right, fellas?
I'd call him a buffoon, but that's too charitable, too benign, too clownish; it misses the cynical expediency of his "campaign," which is of course about nothing but Donald Trump (registered trade mark symbol here). Trump clearly ascribes to the "philosophy" attributed to the famed charlatan and self-promoter Phineas T. Barnum, to whom the axiom "There's no such thing as bad publicity" is frequently attributed. Keeping his name, his "brand," is basically the only plank in Trump's platform, a platform, of course, made of 24k gold. Better to call him a self-promoting racist misogynist, I guess, but it's not all that catchy.
On the other hand, if he does stay in the race I'm sure he'll provide us all with more entertaining scenes and opportunities for epithets, all the while dragging the GOP down with him. Sure seems like a win-win to me. In the meantime, some songs that arise from or call to mind The Donald's scintillating public utterances:
The Mexican Connection Billy Joel
Mexican Moon Concrete Blonde
Mexican Home John prine
Colder Than Mexican Snow Dirk Hamilton
Mexican Shuffle Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
Mexican Divorce Ry Cooder
Mexico James taylor
Mexico Cake
Go To Mexico Cassandra Wilson
Going To Mexico Steve Miller Band
Mexico Jefferson Airplane
Mountains Of Mexico Jerry Jeff Walker
Gringo En Mexico Maria Muldaur
Road To Mexico Rory Block
Deportees Arlo Guthrie
Only Women Bleed Alice Cooper
Let It Bleed, Genevieve John Phillips
It's Alright Ma(I'm Only Bleeding) Dylan
Let It Bleed Rolling Stones
Romeo Is Bleeding Tom Waits
Bleed To Love Her Fleetwood Mac
Bleeding Heart Jimi Hendrix
Real Live Bleeding Fingers & Broken Glass Lucinda Williams
The Bleeding Heart Show The New Pornographers
I Bleed Pixies
Bleeders The Wallflowers
Blood In My Eyes Daddy Dylan
I'm Rich Geoff & Maria Muldaur
So get your comb-overs and petulant pouts ready for Tuesday, noon til two, on WOOL FM 91.5 and wool.fm on the webs. And if you don't listen, you're fired!
I'd call him a buffoon, but that's too charitable, too benign, too clownish; it misses the cynical expediency of his "campaign," which is of course about nothing but Donald Trump (registered trade mark symbol here). Trump clearly ascribes to the "philosophy" attributed to the famed charlatan and self-promoter Phineas T. Barnum, to whom the axiom "There's no such thing as bad publicity" is frequently attributed. Keeping his name, his "brand," is basically the only plank in Trump's platform, a platform, of course, made of 24k gold. Better to call him a self-promoting racist misogynist, I guess, but it's not all that catchy.
On the other hand, if he does stay in the race I'm sure he'll provide us all with more entertaining scenes and opportunities for epithets, all the while dragging the GOP down with him. Sure seems like a win-win to me. In the meantime, some songs that arise from or call to mind The Donald's scintillating public utterances:
The Mexican Connection Billy Joel
Mexican Moon Concrete Blonde
Mexican Home John prine
Colder Than Mexican Snow Dirk Hamilton
Mexican Shuffle Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
Mexican Divorce Ry Cooder
Mexico James taylor
Mexico Cake
Go To Mexico Cassandra Wilson
Going To Mexico Steve Miller Band
Mexico Jefferson Airplane
Mountains Of Mexico Jerry Jeff Walker
Gringo En Mexico Maria Muldaur
Road To Mexico Rory Block
Deportees Arlo Guthrie
Only Women Bleed Alice Cooper
Let It Bleed, Genevieve John Phillips
It's Alright Ma(I'm Only Bleeding) Dylan
Let It Bleed Rolling Stones
Romeo Is Bleeding Tom Waits
Bleed To Love Her Fleetwood Mac
Bleeding Heart Jimi Hendrix
Real Live Bleeding Fingers & Broken Glass Lucinda Williams
The Bleeding Heart Show The New Pornographers
I Bleed Pixies
Bleeders The Wallflowers
Blood In My Eyes Daddy Dylan
I'm Rich Geoff & Maria Muldaur
So get your comb-overs and petulant pouts ready for Tuesday, noon til two, on WOOL FM 91.5 and wool.fm on the webs. And if you don't listen, you're fired!
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Hangin' One More Year On The Line
On Wednesday the Earth will complete its 62nd revolution around the sun in my lifetime. While it seems impossible to believe, it doesn't necessarily feel bad, just a little weird. Like most people, I think, I feel a disconnect from how I feel and in my case the fact that my age starts with a "6," and doesn't end there. Eventually, I suppose, it will again, at least mentally.
I was gonna write a long piece about depression, the depression I've been in for years, how to deal with people with depression, how I had the date and method of my suicide worked out, how I then found the absolutely correct blend of meds that saved my life, but it all started to feel like my favorite Gary Larson cartoon "What Dogs Hear:" "Blah blah blah, blah blah blah," repeat ad infinitum and fade. Suffice it to say that I have seen the light through the blackness, that I am once again the person I used to like, and it's a miracle. Let's just listen to some music, then, like this:
Caravan Van Morrison
It's Johnny's Birthday George Harrison
The Happy Birthday Song Andrew Bird
The Birthday Present Loudon Wainwright III
Birthday The Fabs
Birthday Boy Ween
Happy, Happy Birthday Baby The Tune Weavers
Boo Boo's Birthday (Take 11) Thelonius Monk
Sweet And Shiny Eyes Bonnie Raitt
Have A Good Time Paul Simon
Long As I Can See The Light Marc Cohn
Spirit In The Light John Stewart
Shine A Light The Band
What Is The Light? The Flaming Lips
White Light Gene Clark
Different Light Steve Winwood
I Saw The Light Todd Rundgren
Sunlight The Youngbloods
Surrounded By The Light Terry Garthwaite
Arrows Of Light Bruce Cockburn
Light Shine Jesse Colin Young
Gypsy Lights Quicksilver
Heading For Light Traveling Wilburys
I Am The Light Of The World Jorma Kaukonen
The Inner Light The Fabs
Light Michael Nesmith
Light Come Shine John Stewart
The Light That as Lighted The World George Harrison
Shine A Light Rolling Stones
What Light Wilco
So c'mon along and celebrate my birthday a day early and my return to the light years late. Noon til twoish on WOOL FM, 91.5, or streaming around the whole goddam world at wool.fm. See you there.
I was gonna write a long piece about depression, the depression I've been in for years, how to deal with people with depression, how I had the date and method of my suicide worked out, how I then found the absolutely correct blend of meds that saved my life, but it all started to feel like my favorite Gary Larson cartoon "What Dogs Hear:" "Blah blah blah, blah blah blah," repeat ad infinitum and fade. Suffice it to say that I have seen the light through the blackness, that I am once again the person I used to like, and it's a miracle. Let's just listen to some music, then, like this:
Caravan Van Morrison
It's Johnny's Birthday George Harrison
The Happy Birthday Song Andrew Bird
The Birthday Present Loudon Wainwright III
Birthday The Fabs
Birthday Boy Ween
Happy, Happy Birthday Baby The Tune Weavers
Boo Boo's Birthday (Take 11) Thelonius Monk
Sweet And Shiny Eyes Bonnie Raitt
Have A Good Time Paul Simon
Long As I Can See The Light Marc Cohn
Spirit In The Light John Stewart
Shine A Light The Band
What Is The Light? The Flaming Lips
White Light Gene Clark
Different Light Steve Winwood
I Saw The Light Todd Rundgren
Sunlight The Youngbloods
Surrounded By The Light Terry Garthwaite
Arrows Of Light Bruce Cockburn
Light Shine Jesse Colin Young
Gypsy Lights Quicksilver
Heading For Light Traveling Wilburys
I Am The Light Of The World Jorma Kaukonen
The Inner Light The Fabs
Light Michael Nesmith
Light Come Shine John Stewart
The Light That as Lighted The World George Harrison
Shine A Light Rolling Stones
What Light Wilco
So c'mon along and celebrate my birthday a day early and my return to the light years late. Noon til twoish on WOOL FM, 91.5, or streaming around the whole goddam world at wool.fm. See you there.
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