Running on Empty -- Jackson Browne

I have hesitated to enter this one into the list, but here goes...
...Jackson Browne has, in no way, shape or form, ever been considered hip with the people I usually hang around with -- now, in the recent, or in the distant past. And, remember, I used to hang around with people who thought Billy Joel was a big act!
"Running on Empty" makes the list for the same reason "Against the Wind" makes the list. Yes, the theme is the same -- looking back on the past, or in this case, "looking back on the years gone by like so many summer fields..." -- and therefore of no interest to me when I was 18 years old, but the lyrics do mean something to me now, and in a big way.
I bounced around from job to job after college. Once I decided teaching wasn't going to be for me -- funnily enough, I didn't like kids all that much -- I was on a desert isle devoid of a compass. I sold running shoes for awhile, I managed (unsuccessfully) political campaigns thinking I was going to be the subject of a well-recieved documentary like "The War Room." Well, I didn't like losing three times in a row, which reflected back on just how bad a campaign manager I was. Finally, the last campaign ran out of money, and I needed a job. I went back to my alma mater and practically begged them to let me help with their capital campaign. The fact that I had no idea how to raise money -- it wasn't a campaign duty of mine, although maybe it should have been -- didn't deter my future boss from taking a chance on me.
That was going to be it. Just a weigh station on the path to a more successful career choice. But I liked it. The bottom line was clear each day; the fundraising was for a capital project which made the "sell" a lot easier; and I could act the part.
Eventually I moved on, but to other nonprofit/fundraising jobs. I strayed from the private school environment for new challenges with mixed success so far, but it is a job. The line "gotta do whatcha can to keep your love alive; tryin' not to confuse it with what you do to survive," strikes right to the heart of the matter. I was -- and am -- able to do both.
During my periodic times when I was unemployed, I seriously considered the alternate route -- a job is a job after all. But now that I have reached an age when people are settled into their jobs, some of my friends are experiencing the same events I did not so many years ago. Their decision is the same as mine, and I wish for them that they are able to arrive and travel the same path I did.

Something to Talk About -- Badly Drawn Boy

Didn't want any reader to confuse it with Bonnie Rait's song of the same name..
Here is another instance of giving a "new" artist a chance. Resisting change is a characteristic that has strong root in my bones, and bringing in new songs, bands and singers means creating space in a brain that is packed with so much useful and useless information I can't decide what should remain and what needs to be purged. Therefore, nothing happens, and I go back and play "The Tracks of My Tears" again and again.
Badly Drawn Boy is an artist with whom I never would have met had it not been for the "About a Boy" movie, based on Nick Hornby's book. His acquaintance is one I'm glad to have made.
'Something..." isn't my favorite song on the movie's soundtrack, but it fits the "play repeatedly while I'm washing dishes" criteria. The Beatles are an obvious influence on "...Boy" aka Damon Gough, and while some of the lyrics may sound silly at first listen, when put into context of the book/film and, admittedly of my life, they fit. "Ipso facto, you know I'm shallow..." That is not only a great line, it is also a thought some of us have after a day when none of the answers you have are the right ones...that is, if you have any answers to begin with.
A line in the song I've used a lot since I broke free from the ranks of thrown-out-on-the-streets unemployed "...the joy is not the same without the pain" jumped with a bullet to my favorite lyric of all time. Perhaps only the Catholic-eduated or Jewish-by-birth can fully appreciate the pathos and humor in the line...perhaps not. Any artist who can write two lines in one song that you can completely and totally identify with is an artist who demands another listen.

Biko/Pride (In the Name of Love)

I would like to be able to say that I had a deeply ingrained social conscience when I first heard these songs when I was 14 or 15 years old...but I can't. "Biko" was first introduced to me through a "Miami Vice" episode in which Crocket's old partner is gunned down. The lyrics have almost nothing to do with what is happening on the screen (other than "the man is dead...the man is dead,") but the African-influenced rhythm and (here we go again) spare arrangement -- virtually a one-note organ and drums -- was different than what I was hearing on the radio and made me pay attention to Peter Gabriel for the first time.
Lyrics became a bigger deal to me shortly thereafter, and I learned who Stephen Biko was and what he represented to South Africa. The song made a LOT more sense once I did a little research, and Peter Gabriel then became an artist a teenager began to pay attention to. One year later, "So" was released, and he became a major, mainstream star, due in no small part to the "Sledgehammer" song and video, a video so different and amusing that the morality police didn't wrap their heads around the explicit sexual content of the song. Gabriel now had a wider audience with which to share his political views and songs. The irony of a serious artist gaining fame through superficial means was purely intended, I'm sure.
U2 required less research. Somehow, someway, we were able to see snippets of the London section of "Live Aid" in 1985 when the mullet-haired Bono blew through Wembly Stadium and "Pride (In the Name of Love)" echoed in my head for days afterward. There was no mistaking what and who that song was about, and Band Aid/Live Aid/Amnesty International tours were my first introductions to songs as political movements. U2 was, and remains, front and center of that phenomenon. Unlike Springsteen, who unveiled his politics slowly and discretely until only recently, Bono, the Edge, Gabriel, etc. were outspoken and weren't afraid of the consequences of shouting from the rooftops. That their politics nicely mirrors my own is a happy coincidence.
Bono (with the rest of U2 in tow) has remained prominent and active on a whole slew of movements and causes. He welcomed the title of "rock's conscience," and he has worn the crown well. Peter Gabriel has written and performed too many great songs for me to say he has gone off the deep end. However, he has taken a slightly different route while still pursuing his musical vision. He remains experimental and unwed to any particular style. Some of his work these days sounds different for the express purpose of sounding different. He split with his wife while dating a starlet; he shaved his head and grew a ridiculous soul patch. He doesn't seem to have any commercial ambitions -- which is admirable to a point -- but I long for the days when he balanced "Biko" with "Sledgehammer."

Ramrod

"A hot-steppin' hemi with a four on the floor..."
I admit that I have only a passing knowledge of what that phrase really means, but welcome to the first of the Bruce Springsteen entries into the blog.
A friend of mine told me recently she saw a bumper sticker that read "Minivans are Evindence of Evil on Earth," or something like that. As a part-owner of a minivan, that evil lurks within me, which isn't what I think she had in mind. No doubt, the owner of the bumper sticker is younger than I am -- or at least in a stage of somewhat arrested development. Minivans are a signal that adulthood has captured me for good. If anything, I encouraged the purchase of the car...because some magazine rated it the safest on the road!
I was never an out-of-control rebel in school or in pre-adulthood, but I wasn't the most pristine of choirboys either. I still like the idea of buying a motorcycle, I distance myself from dinner parties, and I keep my hair longer than many of my contemporaries in age and profession. Plus, I can't even drive now, so the motorcycle, the minivan, the dearly departed Ford Fiesta I drove for far too many years are mere ideas, none of which have much grounding in reality these days.
So, why "Ramrod" in the blog? The topic matter is typical early Springsteen -- girls, cars, and "just a few miles across the county line" none of which I can relate to. And "The Springsteen Factor" plays no small role here because I never would have heard it otherwise. Another is that I previously wrote that our daughter found "Gimme Some Lovin," in her words, "boring." Last year we purchased the Springsteen in Barcelona DVD which we can play on the computer, and it has quickly become her favorite in the Springsteen saga. She has memorized many of the lyrics, and we do a mean duet, with her playing the Little Steven role. As a six-year-old girl with definite girly (in the best possible sense) tendencies, it has given us something to bond over. That it is a Springsteen-related bond makes it all the sweeter.
Finally, a big part is the performance on the DVD. Springsteen is now 54 years old, and he performs it -- at least on video -- with the energy and youthful enthusiasm I would like to apply to all facets of my job, and I'm nearly 20 years younger. Maybe there is hope for me after all.

Scenes from an Italian Restaurant

Before anyone gets on my back about including a Billy Joel track in the blog, I will remind those remotely close to my age that Billy Joel was a huge act less than 20 years ago. I have a friend who recently told me how "pissed off" she was that she didn't go to the Joel concert with me in 1986, and it doesn't sound like she has quite let it go. Well, it was a great show, and my high school classmates who DID go with me that night talked about it a lot the next day at school.
Joel's songwriting isn't great -- they're relatively traditional lyrics about stages of life, taking charge and, in a moment of weakness that unfortunately influenced too many history teachers, "We Didn't Start the Fire." I like some Tin Pan Alley music, and I still listen to it occasionally. Joel is a master at that style. A friend used to own a jazz club at which Tin Pan Alley had its own night -- or more specifically the weekends were devoted to Tin Pan Alley. I like that kind of commitment.
Joel has undergone a transformation the last few years -- more reflective, composing classical music, giving his okay to having his music as a basis for a Broadway musical. I admire, if not necessarily agree, with these choices, but eschewing the critics, professional or otherwise, is cool in a way different than "Gimme Some Lovin'."
"Scenes..." isn't Joel's best-known work -- I heard "Piano Man" when I was no older than ten and when I was in Hong Kong at 18 -- or debatedly his best. Given a choice, I'd go with "Piano Man." Much more visceral, poignant and grimy lyrics. But I won't get into that debate. "Scenes..." can be seen from several perspectives. Joel must have written this before he put music to it. The lyrics read like a poem -- how good a poem is up to the reader. I like the flow of the words; and "Things are okay with me these days, Got a good job, got a good office, Got a new wife, got a new life, And the family's fine..." are very close to the words I used when I met up with some high school friends not long ago.
Its inclusion here, though, stems directly from something Nick Hornby wrote about in "31 Songs." Joel is a GREAT soloist. He grafts his music onto his lyrics and does it expertly here. The buildup takes a little while, it is almost halfway through the song until Joel shows his chops behind the piano, but the reward is great. Piano solos can't be beat when they are played well, and, unlike some of the previous entries on the blog, a spare musical arrangement would be a detriment. Then it becomes a poem, and one you may have read (or, worse, written) a half dozen times in your late teens or early 20's.
The solo is a tough job that is somewhat taken for granted. If you can remember a dozen of them, that is a good rate, and if you remember them, then at least 11 of them were great solos. Everyone and his brother wants to be Clapton and play the memorable guitar solo; the piano became uncool at some point which makes the great piano solo a rare and welcome commodity.

Gimme Some Lovin'

Now that I have the requisite "new" stuff out of the way, let's head back to the stuff I listen to while washing dishes -- the hurdle a song must clear to be included in this list. And don't worry -- a lot of Springsteen is to come.
Steve Winwood has, like Neko Case, a voice of remarkable range that isn't show-offey. The difference though is Winwood isn't carrying on a conversation; he is trying to grab your attention by its throat...and keep it.
Steve Winwood has had a career like Bob Seger's -- a lot of missteps and a lot of high points. Gimme Some Lovin' is a great song in a lot of ways. "Timeless" is a word that came to my mind as I was listening to it the other day when my daughter came in and said that it was "boring." So maybe it isn't timeless, but the opening beat and chords leading to Winwood's organ is like having a strong wind at your back -- an inevitable push into the voice and the lyrics. Oh yeah, the lyrics -- practically indecipherable to the casual listener.. I must have listened to it a dozen times before I picked up half of them. Prior to writing this, I consulted the Internet to get the rest. The overall theme is partying, getting high ("now I'm going to relax. I think everyone should..."), and trying to hook up with a girl. Not the most mature theme in the world, but it doesn't matter a whole lot. The voice carries the song. He could have been singing about cleaning out the litter box, and I wouldn't care.
Of course, the most legendary part is that Winwood was (depending on which rock history you read) 16 or 18 years old when he sang and played the organ on the track. I thought about a lot of the same things in "Gimme Some Lovin'" when I was that age, but I didn't sing, play instruments or gain worldwide fame based on those remarkable talents. The "cool" factor of that, more than anything, earns the song a place on this list.

Things That Scare Me

As a general rule, I don't like female singers. I've given a few a listen in a variety of formats -- country, rock 'n roll, alt-country, jazz -- and I've seldom found any I could listen to after the first track. This isn't necessarily a gender thing, but listening to a woman sing "Like a Rolling Stone" is no different than listening to a cover band. Singing their own material, women don't sing about things that strike me as interesting. Sheryl Crow and Melissa Etheridge try, but Crow is moving toward movie soundtracks and Etheridge just signed a deal to produce a sitcom starring...herself. Hence, they're scratched from the list. Female rappers have two strikes against them: 1) I hate rap; 2) I can't relate to anything any rapper is talking about.
Neko Case is different. Her genre is alt-country (or, as it should be known Johnny Cash-country), and she is beginning to establish a just-beyond-a-cult following. Put it this way -- people who listen to the music I listen to probably have no idea who she is. I stumbled upon her work listening to NPR of all places a few months ago, and my wife bought me the CD days after. Now, here -- finally -- was a female singer who writes and sings about things I identify with. Skepticism ran deep, but I gave her that second and third listen, and her album on which "Things That Scare Me" is the first track, "Blacklisted," has nary a wrong step. "Things That Scare..." isn't even my favorite track on the CD. "I Wish I Was the Moon" is the most melodic and is sentimental in all the right ways -- it's inwardly-directed, not focused on some lost love, and it deals better with the idea of depression and/or hopeless anxiety than months of therapy. The arrangement is spare, relying instead on her remarkable voice, and employs an accordian. You have to admire any artist, working within any style of music, that uses an accordian in a prominent fashion.
"Things That Scare..." earns mention here because it is the first track and is the one that hooked me to listen again...and again...and again. Again, the imagery is fantastic, "the hammer clicks in place...the world is going to pay..." -- yeah, that caught my attention.
And I keep returning to her voice. She doesn't show off her range like a lot of artists (male and female), but instead carries on conversation in song. Any artist that can do that, can do a lot. Let's just narrow down the list of those in my CD collection who can do that -- Dylan, Springsteen, and Case.
Now, finally, the bold plug -- nekocase.com.

Let's Get it Started

This isn't a pander since the Black Eyed Peas are not seen as "legit" in the hard core hip hop community, and their music has been both favorably and unfavorably compared to late-era disco. I would never even have been aware of the artist or song if it hadn't been for my daughter and wife who downloaded it for free.
The inclusion of "Let's Get it Started" stems partly from the fact that hip hop, mixing, whatever genre this song fits into is now the mainstream. I saw a note two years back that dismissed Bruce Springsteen as "mainstream" since "The Rising" sold approximately two million copies, but Eminem sold eight million. Hard to argue.
The other reason it is included in this list is that I like the song. I like the dance music (in this particular instance) intertwined with rap -- even though I generally hate rap. I figure if the song interests me enough to play it twice, then an unexplored niche of my brain is now open to new influences.
I doubt I'll go out and buy any Black Eyed Peas CD's in the future, but this song makes the list.

Against the Wind

Bob Seger's career is one that I can't quite get my head around. Part of it is personal -- his concert in Seattle in 1987 remains in the top three of all shows I've seen, especially since my only real exposure to him prior to that was "Old Time Rock 'n Roll." Part of it is sheer confusion. No matter what you may think of "Old Time Rock 'n Roll" the juxtaposition of these two songs nicely summarizes Seger's career. Here is a guy who is capable of work that reaches beyond the pedestrian chart-driven works like "Like a Rock," "Shakedown," and, probably to his lasting regret, "We've Got Tonight," all of which may qualify as "hits" but don't rank with his best work. Like any singer, Bob Seger (and his backing Silver Bullet Band) is capable of work that speaks to me for many reasons; he is also capable of work that gives me incentive to explore hip hop.
Seger is also a guy who grew as a songwriter in a relatively short period of time. "Night Moves" is another piece of work that spoke to me in 1987. Now it is sentimental that nicely captures teenage years but doesn't strike me now. The song is standard songwriting with a definite E Street influence with the keyboards and steady guitar rhythm. He also tackled interesting subject matter on occasion. "Still the Same" is an autobiographical piece observing a friend succumbing to his inveterate gambling.
Now as someone on the downward slide of his 30's, I see in "Against the Wind" an artist at the apex of his songwriting ability. He nicely moves from the theme of "Night Moves" to a more mature perspective. Given that he wrote the song before he was facing "deadlines and commitments," his maturity is striking. The line "surrounded by strangers I thought were my friends" is one that anyone my age twenty years removed from their first intense friendships has to identify with.
Musically it isn't adventuresome, but it leaves room open for the tinkling keyboards (played by Seger) that haunt the lyrics. Anyone who compliments his lyrics with music instead of the other way around has a good feel for songwriting. U2 bounces back and forth with this notion which has succeeded in splitting a good portion of their fan base.
Seger was recently inducted into the R'nR Hall of Fame. There was some debate on that honor, but if you took his very best work, his place is undeniable.

Tracks

My previous try at "blogging" ended with a site that wasn't updated for months. I was unemployed, with some time on my hands, and this new phenomenon caught my attention. Once I was employed, though, the commitment to chronicling my daily thoughts and observations ceased. I check several blogs on a daily basis, and I like a steady presence. There is the wife and family, there is the job, and then there are BrokenCowboy, Altercation, and TalkingPointsMemo. When there is a gap, I hold a grudge against the blogger until the next post is up. I am trying to do a better job with Minor Incidents.
The unfortunate part of blogging is that the best ideas for posting invariably occur to me when I'm at the grocery store looking for fruit or when I am washing dishes at night at 10pm. The timing never seems quite right.
Like the Broken Cowboy, I decided that a theme for the blog might tighten my commitment. Sports? Taken by mulitudes. Politics? Taken by even more. Music? Well, okay, taken by those who disect every single lyric ever uttered by Neko Case, et al, but I thought I would elbow my way into that fray.
Now I realize that I admitted to lifting and outright copying people's ideas before -- even the title of this particular post -- but this particular idea for a blog theme took root awhile ago, so although Nick Hornby's "31 Songs," and Rolling Stone's recent publishing of the "500 Greatest Records of All Time" may seem like direct influences on the blog, at best they are complimentary. Who doesn't have opinions on music?
So...future postings will deal with one song or album that I like for whatever reason. Although songs must rival scent as the leading outside source for memory retrieval, not many will begin with the sentence, "When I was a senior in high school..." almost my entire CD collection is made up of artists to whom I was introduced in high school. I apologize to the fans of PJ Harvey, Wilco, Nirvana and almost any other artist who doesn't make the playlist on a classic rock station. So, check back often, and if you don't see a post for a few days, e-mail me and tell me to get back on track.

Punch the Clock

Since the issue is the most covered non-Iraq story of the weekend, I feel compelled -- okay, not compelled, but it has been a few days since the last post -- to comment on the fracas in Detroit between the Detroit Pistons and the Indiana Pacers.
Many solutions have been offered, and blame has been passed around. In light of David Stern's recent announcement that players are being suspended -- one for the season -- here are a couple thoughts:
1) Buying a $75 ticket (it could be more, I have no real idea) to any sporting event, does not give the ticket-buyer the right to act like an ass. Buying a ticket is like a social contract with the league and players. And that isn't an exaggeration. I don't throw beer at singers when I'm not enjoying a concert.
2) The NBA is too young. 18-year-olds never get the chance to learn how to react in situations that put them in the line of fire, so to speak. Once the lesson is missed or ignored, the opportunity is missed.
3) Security must have been lax in Detroit. The prevailing opinion seems to be that an increase in security is needed. Welcome to higher ticket prices. The higher the ticket price, the more entitled the ticket-buyer may feel to heckle players and, taken to its extreme, become an active participant. Maybe putting up fences like European soccer is an option...or banning alcohol sales at halftime.
4) The players can be asses. I can't think of any rational explanation that a player may have to storm into the stands to attack a fan. I don't even know how to relate to it. As long as we accept that ticket-buyers are "entitled" to certain anti-social behaviors, maybe athletes -- as entertainers -- feel entitled to it as well. It is easy to say the fans pay salaries, and I'm not about to heckle my boss, or tell those who contribute to Epilepsy Foundation NW to go to hell when they criticize my work, but that is a side-issue. One of the first things I learned when I took a job asking people for $$ was "Don't ever take 'no' personally." Maybe these players and fans need to develop thicker skins.
What drives these actions? Did this happen 25 or 40 years ago? Help me out. I haven't been to a professional sporting event in years, and I don't plan to anytime soon. I stick to college sports where state troopers intervene before things REALLY get out of hand.