One

Life on Mars?

Well, this choked me up more than I was expecting.

Amelia

This is 14 years old now. I'm not sure why I thought about it today, but for whatever reason I had to see it again.

I hadn't seen this clip since it aired during a Joni Mitchell tribute concert way back in 2001. I was mesmerized then and remain so, following my long-awaited second viewing, today. I remember watching the whole show and loving pretty much every inch of it, but even through it all this was, for me, the unquestioned highlight.

Shawn Colvin + Mary Chapin Carpenter + one of Joni's prettiest songs = Yes please!

Mayhap you agree.

People will tell you where they've gone,
They'll tell you where to go,
But till you get there yourself you'll never really know.
Where some have found their paradise,
Other's just come to harm.
Oh Amelia it was just a false alarm.
 

Stuck Inside of a Lexicon with the Roget's Thesaurus Blues Again

"This is nothing terrible, it's bad enough, but it's not terrible—wow, that's deep, man."

On the John Lennon Anthology box, this is titled "Satire 2." But I much prefer its unofficial title, taken from Lennon's lyrics: "Stuck Inside of a Lexicon with the Roget's Thesaurus Blues Again."

Hearing one genius savage another genius like this is, frankly, delightful. (And going out of his way to make sure his old bandmate George got hit with some collateral damage in the bargain.) I also love that Lennon's Dylan impression isn't nearly as close as nearly anyone else's in the entire world, timbre-wise, although his cadence is awfully good—but his lyrical broadside is pretty damn spot-on, even if it's more one of Dylan's earlier talking blues he's parodying and not the Blonde on Blonde classic.

The official Soviet newspaper said that temple members have protested the mindless arms race and the filthy war in Vietnam and were persecuted and finally forced to seek refuge in another country—wow, sounds like a ballad to me 

Oh man, Bangkok, Thailand, has launched an air/sea-search for a fishing boat carrying some four hundred Vietnamese refugees, the boat was towed back out to sea after arriving in Thailand, sources said because of a breakdown in communication 

Oh Lord, the boat was towed into Thai waters by a German freighter and the Thai navy, unaware that the refugees had been guaranteed a resettlement in West Germany, took the boat out to sea after providing all passengers with provision—wow, that's deep man 

The Chinese newspapers have made the first reference to the country's curtain wall poster campaign according to vice-premier Deng Xiao-Ping, and saying that the country's stable and its leaders are confident and been planting modernization programs—oh, this should get me in the Village Voice 

Deng gave his blessings to the campaign but he commented not all the opinions of the masses are carefully thought out nor can we demand that they all be correct, adding this is nothing terrible, it's bad enough, but it's not terrible 

Former president Richard Nixon, on his second trip outside the United States since his resignation, was a smiling handshaking politician again, greeting crowds outside his hotel and trying a little French, he sure as hell didn't try it on Pat Nixon 

Mr. Nixon is in Paris to sight-see and be interviewed on French television, before going on to deliver a speech in England, he'll participate in the French call-in program and said he will answer questions in Welsh—that's pretty big, Mr. N 

Oh, I'm so cynical I could just keep on doing this forever because, you know, they ain't gonna be looking in my golden bunions in a hundred years from now, they're gonna be selling my socks like Judy Garland, and I hope they get a good price, I mean, what with the inflation and the price of rice, but man, I shouldn't worry, I own all my own songs and I wrote them myself too 

I got twenty-four children, fourteen wives, three mistresses, fifty-nine accountants, one-hundred and-five lawyers, two million fans, a posting system that never fails to land me in jail, and look through my mail, perhaps have a garage sale, and you know, go save the whale, and eh, you know, get a boat and go for a sail, and, and, oh, oh, oh, how do you get out of this hell, I'm stuck inside of a lexicon with the Roget's Thesaurus blues again—sometimes I wish I was just George Harrison, you know, got all the answers, oh my God, oh my God

Also, check out his spoken intro: in true Lennon fashion, he seems to be transmogrifying the former Robert Zimmerman's surname from "Dylan" to "Diddle."

God help and breed you all.

Ohio

I'm not a huge Ben Harper fan. I've nothing against him, either, I just haven't heard a whole lot of his stuff and what I have heard has been okay but hasn't really grabbed me.

But this. This is something else. Here Harper not only taps solidly into the anguish—frankly, any musician should be able to do at the very least a half-decent job of that, given the source material (meaning both the song and the horrific history behind it)—but finds places to go with the melody and harmony that even Crosby, Still, Nash and Young missed...and that ain't no easy task.

Bay City Rollers We Love You

While the title of this here post is indeed entirely accurate, it's also the name of the first ever all-Nick Lowe single. That's right: the great Nick Lowe recording a mash-note to the Bay City Rollers. Which just...I mean.

Also, it's pretty swell.

[H/T: the amazing Dangerous Minds, which has the whole story.]

Country Road

Of my many, many blind spots, contemporary country is a particular large one. So the only time I've ever actually seen/heard Keith Urban is at these tribute type things, but I think this is the third time now and damn. Am I going to have actually investigate his stuff? 'cuz he's pretty damn awesome here.