Rocket In My Pocket

Lou Ann Barton

Congratulations to all of us for making it to the end of the year. Check out this video of Texas blues singer Lou Ann Barton with The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Got a rocket in my pocket and the fuse is lit. I think Lou Ann could light the fuse of a dead man. If you listen to it with the same yankee years I've got then you might want to read the lyrics.

Happy New Year to all of you! Be sure and wish PT well out in the desert of the Southern Rockies so he'll be inspired to keep this blog going.

Offerings to the Spirits

Buddy, Ritchie & the Bopper

Rock & Roll spirits, that is. My good friend and I were cruising through Clear Lake, Iowa, yesterday and decided to check out the Surf Ballroom, where Buddy Holly played his last concert in 1959 before his plane went down on that cold February night in a north Iowa cornfield. From the outside the Surf was almost innocuous, as if it hadn't changed a bit in the last fifty years.

We weren't that curious, at least not enough to get out of her truck. Driving around back we saw Leon Russell's dark red tour bus parked outside for his concert last night. Tickets at the door were $15. Being an old Leon fan I should have felt a little guilty for not being tempted to go but I didn't.

The woman behind the steering wheel said let's go to the crash site. If you knew her you wouldn't be surprised. After the dance is over we all gotta go somewhere and she's held more than a couple of hands as the person inside them went as far as they could go in this world. We drove five miles north of Clear Lake, parked the truck close to the metal sculpture of Buddy's glasses, and walked a half mile along a fence row in the hot sun to where the young rockers crashed and froze. - I'm up on the tightwire, one side's ice and one is fire. - That's the way Leon put it.

As you can see lots of things were left, from a guitar key chain, poems, coins, to a wallet full of credit cards. Clik the pics to enlarge.

This hat held in place with a plastic banana says it all.

I've been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and couldn't wait to get the hell out of there. Way too commercial. Out on the edge of that Iowa bean field nobody was coerced into giving up money or a guitar key chain they may have liked. They did it because they wanted to.

As for me I hesitate to make too much out of three chords and a back beat, no matter how much fun I've had with it. James Cotton sang Rock and Roll, it ain't no news. It ain't nothin but the boogie woogie blues. - And before the blues there was something else.

I'm up on the tightwire, flanked by life and the funeral pyre. I wonder if Leon sang that last night. Doesn't matter; it wouldn't change a thing. I was listening to the Top Forty on my family's AM radio in 1959 when the DJ announced their deaths. Fifty years seems like a long time ago but others have been around much longer.

It's the last song at the last dance that's on my mind this rainy morning of what looks to be a rainy weekend. I'm not depressed although I know well enough what it's like. I'm just watching the rain come down.

Brenda Lee

Brenda Lee - 1961

Brenda Lee used to figure heavily in the young feeder's impure thoughts. I've tried to analyze her voice; it never seemed to match her age. It has a breathy skip to it that you seldom hear in a young girl. A good example of this vocal feature can be heard in this YouTube video clip of "All Alone am I".

The Wikipedia entry on Brenda claims that her "popularity faded in the late 1960s as her voice matured". I would put it differently, maybe her voice 'changed', but I thought Brenda's voice was mature when she was a teenager.

Brenda Lee is still performing. She's scheduled to be in Wichita August 14th. I don't think I'll go. I don't want to risk damaging the naughty image of her I conjured up as a boy listening to Sweet Nothings.

Bad Law?

Igor Stravinsky's Mug Shot

Anything you read about pianist, composer and conductor Igor Stravinsky must mention his arrest for tweaking the US National Anthem. Wiki: "On April 15, 1940, Igor Stravinsky's unconventional major seventh chord in his arrangement of the Star-Spangled Banner led to his arrest by the Boston police for violating a federal law that prohibited the reharmonization of the National Anthem."

There seems to be no record of Igor doing time in a federal penitentiary, so the music police must have let him off with a warning. The law must have been repealed. Somehow, I find myself wishing the current Congress would spend more time deliberating such weighty matters. Some silly music laws would be more palatable than the results of their current efforts to reharmonize our Constitution to suit national socialist thought.
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The old feeder never much liked Stravinsky's stuff. I admit that, as a kid, I liked the adaptation of The Rite of Spring that Walt Disney used in Fantasia. This might be because it wasn't a real ballet, or because Stravinsky himself called it "execrable", only changing his tune after seeing the color of Walt's money.
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Shouldn't Roseanne Barr have been severely punished for this?

Peteneras

Pastora Pavon

A-List blogger Fausta takes a break from her serious coverage of all things political once in a while to post a good Tango video. A recent post recalled in video the 100th birthday of "the most wonderful tanguera", the late Carmencita Calderón. The post (and a recent visit to blues fan DadBones) brought back some of the old feeder's childhood memories.

When I was a boy living in Generalissimo Franco's Madrid, I made a crystal radio set. It was unamplified, used a crystal of galena, a wire whisker and a coil of lacquered copper wire wrapped around a toilet paper tube. It didn't require any electricity. I used to sneak it into bed after 'lights out' and listen to Spanish radio broadcasts. That was where I first heard Flamenco music. I liked it.

Later, my Dad took me to Andalusia where we visited various Flamenco dives. I recall the smell of red wine and rough tobacco in the night clubs and cuevas (caves) where gypsy artists played the guitar, clapped complex rhythms and sang to the most doleful music I had ever heard. There were also sweaty, dark eyed female dancers to intrigue the little feeder.

Flamenco makes the blues sound like something joyful. The blues is about being broke and alone. Flamenco is about suffering and death. At least the Flamenco I like is.

So, if you are inclined to take a break from pissing and moaning about the wretched state of government, I invite you to watch and listen to a selection of my favorites on YouTube. All three links are in the same palo or style of Flamenco called Peteneras. Enjoy:

• The first video is a classic. It is La Niña de los Peines (Pastora Pavón) singing the Peteneras "Quisiera yo renegar". It wouldn't do much good to try to explain the lyrics; suffice it to say it is about renouncing this world.
• The next selection features Carlos Saura singing a very authentic Peteneras. The producer of the video has thoughtfully added subtitles. Precise elocution has never been the long suit of spoken Andalusian Spanish; it goes right out the window in Flamenco singing.
• The final Peteneras is by Antonio Fernàdez Diaz, called Fosforito. His style is impeccable and the guitarist accompanying him is a master. The cat has got soul.

These aren't turista Flamenco performers. Peteneras isn't the most popular palo. You might think it is an acquired taste. You might be right. Not everybody likes John Lee Hooker, either.

Slow Dance in Millard

Rosie Hamlin - click

The old feeder was having breakfast at Shirley's Diner in Millard, Nebraska the other day. Besides offering excellent food and friendly service, Shirley's has atmosphere. The diner is roughly, but not strictly, themed to have the feel of the 1950's. I say the decor isn't strictly '50's because one booth is papered with Bumpy Action pictures and posters. Bumpy Action was an Omaha hippie band (1969 - 1974). My beatnik friend, the Mickeys, used to hang out with the band at their Happy Hollow communal home. But I digress. Let me just say that I feel comfortable at Shirley's Diner.

As I was eating my eggs done right and fluffy hash browns, the background music (also themed) played "Angel Baby". You can listen to the tune by Rosie and the Originals on YouTube by clicking here. The song not only features a classic rock 'n roll lead-in, but the whole effect is the perfect '50's slow dance tune. The effect is like magic if you ever went to a record hop back in the day. I couldn't get the song out of my head all day.

The old feeder is a giant fan of the old girl groups. I got to see many of them perform at the old Alexandria Roller Rink in Virginia. Good times for a high school kid.
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For those of you awaiting the promised school lunch menus:
Gretna, Nebraska Elementary School
Today: Chicken Strips, Au Gratin Potatoes, Mixed Berries, Dinner Roll
Tuesday: Burrito with Cheese Sauce, Spanish Rice, Corn, Pears
Wednesday: Hamburger on a Bun, Broccoli & Carrots, Orange Wedges, Fritos
Thursday: Sloppy Joe on a Bun, Corn on the Cob, Mixed Fruit, Cherry Shape-Up
Friday: We have to wait for next month's menu to be made public.