music

Nobody Cares About Drummers

Nobody Cares

–That I had such a busy day, I had no time to post. I was thinking about saying how “Nobody Cares” about Joe Biden’s hotel bill for one night in Paris was $580.000…but I got to thinking about what Bill O’Reilly might say, and it would have been a nasty blog.

So, here’s something I got from Kim Komando’s site that it really good. Being an x-drummer myself, I can tell how really difficult this all is. But the ending is so incredible…you have to see it to believe it.

They are the Top Secret Drummers from Edinburgh, and my god, are they good.

Enjoy!

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Nobody’s Email: O…M….G….

Nobody Get Email

I’m taking it easy this weekend….

So, here’s just a bit of joy, this boy will be BORED with piano by the time he’s ten.

Incredible.

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Nobody Flashes a Sunday Morning Song…

Nobody Flashes

Here’s one of my favorite songs from a woman I always thought was eons ahead of Joan Baez in every respect. The lyrics to this song… just kill me.

I can STILL sing most every song that Joni Mitchell ever wrote.

She was…and remains, an original.

Enjoy!

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The Republicans are Rising and SO is Madison

Nobody Flashes

The Republican Convention is about to start! For those of you who would rather eat a raw jellyfish than watch politics, I present you a creative new  version of our National Anthem, presented by some fine young musicians with the name of Madison Rising.

ENJOY!!

(Thanks to my patriotic and very wise friend, Mona.)

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Nobody’s Fool: John Lennon

Nobody’s Fool

Sitting with my friends at the pool today, the subject was who was better…Elvis or the Beatles. One lady, who was older than I, thought the Beatles were too sisified. Elvis was more masculine. Well…being raised with the Beatles, I loved the music, so I just smiled and agreed. It’s just her opinion…mine would be different. My brother has a theory that everyone loves the music they loved in high school, and I think he is right. He should know, he’s got his own D.J. company…but sorry…off the subject here. What I wanted to talk about is this: John Lennon was no fool. Sure, at the end, he was on Nixon’s list of dangerous people, and no doubt did too many drugs for one lifetime, but let’s face it…he fell head over heels madly in love with Yoko Ono, and she was the love of his life. So, whether we liked it or not, we had to listen to Yoko scream, and she did affect the way he approached the public after the Beatles.  He made Yoko a star.

But he would have never even admitted that. (If you can’t see the video…go HERE.)

Yoko didn’t break up the Beatles. I think Paul got such a big head in the end, and was trying to make the Beatles “Paul’s” band, that the rest of them just got sick of it. You can see it all being played out in the film “Let It Be.” Yoko just became the scapegoat. If you have read many books, it was actually John’s genius who got the band up and running, and he was the leader for the ten years they worked in just clubs…and also was the main voice on all the beginning albums. Paul’s words at the induction of John Lennon to the Rock and Road Hall of Fame, were nothing short of..silly. He did not say ONE good thing about John’s talent…just how John had been there when they got to meet Elvis and the Supremes. I’m glad John didn’t hear it.

John was the heavier thinker of the group, and in the sixties, he was trying very hard to “give peace a chance.” Most conservatives think John was a big “lefty” but listen to the first five minutes of this. His thinking was much like our founding fathers…and I believe by the time he died, one of his friends said he did like Ronald Reagan, and was very much a conservative, and I believe him.

Sure…lying naked in bed was not exactly a great way to get people to think “Peace” but then again…John was just trying his best to bring, in his own way…sometthing good to the world. What else could he do? He was really, one of the most famous people in the world. At one time the Beatles actually WERE more popular than Jesus. John was right.

It was just a fact, and how they crucified him for it.

In my younger years I liked Paul, the “cute” Beatles, but now, I’m older and wiser. If I had a chance to talk to any of them…I would have ask to talk to John.

He really was…a genuis. (Okay, I’m a bit bias…but that’s just my Nobody Opinion. :)

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Highway 61 is NOT Finished

“God said to Abraham, “Kill me a son”

Abe says “Man, you must be puttin’ me on” God says, “No.” Abe say, What?”

God say, “You can do what you want Abe, but the next time you see me comin’ you better run.”

Well Abe says, “Where do you want this killin’ done?”

God says. “Out on Highway 61.”
                                                                             Bob Dylan

Nobody Remembers

Ahmadinejad is not shy about wanting to destroy every Jew on the planet. It seems his GOD is still having problems sharing the planet with the other GODs.

In a speech published on his website Thursday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the ultimate goal of world forces must be theannihilation of Israel. Speaking to ambassadors from Islamic countries ahead of ‘Qods Day’ (‘Jerusalem Day’), an annual Iranian anti-Zionist event established in 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini and which falls this year on August 17, Ahmadinejad said that a “horrible Zionist current” had been managing world affairs for “about 400 years.”

Nobody Thinks: Only 400?

Jews and the Muslims came out of the same desert, and on the slat of the Bell Curve, they should be more alike. The Jews were slaves first and their “god” was a jealous god, and he let them know it.

Both tribes were cut from the same father..Abraham. But the sons of Abraham—Ishmael and Isaac, were not cut from the same mother. Can we blame the mothers? Ishmael was a bully, and Abraham sent him and his mother Hagar away for picking on his younger brother. Later on God told Abraham to kill Isaac…to show his love for him. By all accounts, Isaac was the nicer kid.

The old testament God was not very lovable.

After the long exodus, it goes, God gave the Jews the ‘promised’ land. and he ordered them to go into Jericho and slaughter all the women and children, and ordered the Jews to not leave anyone alive.

Call me crazy, but that sounds just like something Ahmahdinjad would say.

Joshua took the battle of Jericho and the walls came tumbling down, and burnt it so badly that archeologists being paid big bucks STILL can’t find it.

So, why did these two genetically attached tribes of the ancient dessert have such different succeed rates?

Nobody Thinks: It was the Ten Commandments. Okay, it was a lot more than the Ten Commandments. Somewhere there’s a genetic scholar that believes it was in the genes. Ishmael was a bully…he spawned a whole line of bullies. Isaac was ALWAYS getting picked on. The Jews have had a history of just that.

All this time has gone by, and they are STILL waiting for Armageddon. God said the Jews were the chosen ones. Allah said the Islamists are the chosen ones.

Can I get a vowel here?

So…who’s going to win out in the end?

There’s an old Bible Story not much told about Joshua, and the Battle of Rephidim. While the Jews had been walking in the desert, they were having trouble finding water and food, but there was something else that scared them even more than dying on the desert floor: The Amalekites..the desert raiders.

Moses told Joshua to go and fight them. And Moses said he would stand on a high hill and raise his arms and pray to God, and as long as Joshua saw Moses arms raised, he would win the battle.

The battle began and the Jews held the line, Moses was holding up his arms to the sky, and then some of the men got excited, broke the line, and went after the swords of the Amalekites, then Moses arms fell down. The Amalekites came back, and Joshua, much like George Washington years later, ran after them, and rallied them back to fight.

The Jews won the battle.

And here’s the kicker, that makes me give a big chuckle.

When Joshua looked up at the hill, old Moses, who by then was over a hundred, had Aaron holding up one arm, and Hur the other.

I’m really not sure how to take that, but it’s funny.

Metaphorically speaking, you could say the Jews of 2012 have allies in war to hold up the hand of Moses: England and America. (Well, we hope. Not so sure with Obama)

Ahmadiemjad might have to wait another 400 years if he decides to attack the tribe of Joshua.

Highway 61 is yet to be finished.

Categories: Bible, Islam, Jews, music, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

To Honor This Infamous Day in Tax History….

Nobody Remembers

To honor this infamous day in the history of the biggest tax increase in a nation’s history, (Obamacare upheld by the Supreme Court) I give you…

The perfect song…with a few added words by George Harrison.

Go ahead…sing along.

Also, remember, these two men George Harrison and Eric Clapton married the SAME woman, and here they were still playing guitar like old friends, after they both remarried.

Makes you wonder doesn’t it?

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Barack Obama, Who’s Your Daddy? Who’s Your Mama?

Nobody Reports

I love it when the country singers put their little guitar pickin’ fingers to good use…

This video is worth watching…simply because, it has a picture of Michelle that is downright scary. Really. I wouldn’t lie to you. Try to flash it out of you mind…I’m having trouble with that. Anyway…

Enjoy!

(Thanks to Floyd)

Categories: music, Obama | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

Nobody Remembers: Levon Helm

Nobody Remembers

I had seen some great acts on this stage: the screaming of Janis Joplin, the great horns of Chicago, the electrifying guitar of Jimmie Hendricks, and the explosion of Tina Turner, who by the way, made Mick Jagger look like a wet frightened electrified grasshopper in comparison, but I had never been transformed as I was that night, the night I went to see Bob Dylan’s “Band.”

Every summer, many years ago, the University of Southern Illinois put up a big tent, and gave concerts when I was growing up.  All the greats came, but there are moments, as every artist will tell you, when the gods aline and the music is transformed into some kind of fairly dust. It doesn’t happen often…maybe only a few times in a musicians life..but when they do, you do NOT forget it.

I was in the third row, in a crowd of some 10,000, when I saw him…Levon Helm. The name fit them perfect: The Band. They were almost from another time in America, like they had stepped out of some old time Southern plantation…and so different from the rest of the groups by their sheer ordinariness, that you couldn’t help but wonder—How in the world did that wonderful full bodied sound come out of guys who look like your brother, or your mechanic down the street? The fact that they didn’t play the “Star” scene made them all the more attractive.

And I can picture clearly, everyone in the front rows, jumping up and down…to RAG MAMA RAG. I was no exception.

I can’t remember any of my thoughts from yesterday, but I can remember my thoughts at that moment of utter happiness so many years ago. At the time, I was trying to figure out just what WAS it that made this sound so joyous? I decided…as I watched the band reacting to the crowd who were all in sheer ecstasy…the smiles on their faces…that it was the drummer that was the cause. He was the magic genie that pulled that original American sound together.

At that moment I knew..I wanted to be Levon. I had seen every drummer and studied them carefully throughout my life as a drummer: and most are known by the “drum solo.” There was the ungodly drum solo in Inna Godda DaVita…repetitious: There was the impressive “chops” of the drummer from Chicago in “I’m a Man” nice to watch..but like you watch a movie.  While Wipe Out was the norm to which drummers judged themselves, it left me bored.

But Levon did no drum solos. He just laid down the most remarkable feeling that JUMPED off that stage and left you jumping in your seats. There was no way he could compete with a Buddy Rich, or a Billy Cobham, or many of the other famous drummers, but there is something cerebrally ecstatic about the simplicity of a steady beat. Levon’s  drums talked to your heart in the most simple way. You did not want to leave that sound…your body would fight you ever step of the way. You literally FELT his drums. I can’t explain it.

The only other drummer that had that unexplainable talent was in my drummer’s mind, Gene Krupa. And Levon could sing…it was twang, and it was to the point, and it was fun.

The song Rag Mama Rag (Listen to video)  is a great statement about women. Was he complaining that his mistress was on her period and didn’t want to have sex? Or was she just always bitching about something?

Who cares?  It’s one of my favorite songs.

Levon was a great drummer. Right up there with the unappreciated Ringo Starr and Charlie Watts. I tried my best to be like them. Not the show off drummer, but the heart of the band. I realized I could never compete with the great drummers everywhere, but I could do what Levon did. Feel, the music, enhanced the music of the other musicians, and make people dance.

The heart beats strong. And you’d better dance while you can.

I paid the price with hands so big from years of drumming, my son once said I had the hands of an eighty -year- old (I was 29 at the time)and he was right. I can see my veins now punching out like an old prizefighter. Not pretty for any girl…but there you go.

Levon died last week, but …it’s okay. He’s still here. He’s singing to me right now.

Now, enjoy RAG MAMA RAG…and wonder…Who in the world would think to play a tuba in a rock song?

Only The Band. They were one of a kind.

(The Bourbon is 100 proof, it’s you and me and the telephone….!!)

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When Stars Are Born…

Nobody Flashes

I don’t usually watch American Idol, or any of the various talent shows on TV…and the last time I listened to opera was when my mother’s favorite singer Luciano Pavarotti sang AVA MARIA right before he died.

And it’s not often that true talent beyond the stars is born…but check this out.  These two..ordinary looking Nobodies are going to be filling up our lives with joy for years to come.

Nobody means to follow politics, and I will— but I will ALWAYS share the positive things in life with you! And this night, it’s a glorious song.

ENJOY!

(Thanks to J.R.)

Categories: music | Tags: , | 4 Comments

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