'Into You Like a Train'

This is fascinating.

At the clip, the band's opening their concert with this song, just like they opened in 1982 when I saw them at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

PREVIOUSLY: "If You Believe That Anyone Like Me Within a Song..."

They were scheduled to play the House of Blues in Anaheim on New Year's Eve, but their tour's been cancelled temporarily due to an injury (singer Richard Butler is recovering from spinal surgery).

'Where Is the Harmony? Sweet Harmony...'

And so I'm listening to Elvis Costello at the clip and about halfway through I realized that's the Peterson sisters and Susanna Hoffs (the Bangles) up there on the stage dancing. Love the song. Hate Costello's politics, but what can you do?

'Little Queenie'

My kinda music.

Jerry Lee Lewis with Kid Rock and Ron Wood. Oh my.

I got the lumps in my throat
When I saw her coming down the aisle
I gets the wiggles in my knees
When she looked at me and sweetly smiled

There she is again, standing over by the record machine
Oooh, she's looking like a model on the cover of a magazine
Why, she's too cute to be a minute over seventeen

Meanwhile, I was thinking
She's in the mood
No need to break it
I got the chance
I oughtta take it
She can dance
We can make it
Come on, Queenie
Let's shake it

Go, go, go, little Queenie
Go, go, go, little Queenie
Go, go, go, little Queenie...

'Blue Christmas'

This song's been playing at The Sound L.A.

Can't miss:

'Hanging on the Telephone'

Via Killian and Kurt Loder, "Taking punk platinum: How #Blondie’s “Parallel Lines” was made" (on Twitter).

One number for which she didn't have to put pen to paper was Parallel Lines' dynamic opening track, 'Hanging On The Telephone', which was also the opener on a 1976 EP by guitarist Jack Lee's short-lived LA power pop trio, the Nerves. Blondie had shared a bill with the Nerves on one of their first visits to the West Coast, and they had already worked on the song by the time they introduced it to Mike Chapman.

"That track was magic from the beginning," he says. "Unlike some of the others, it was an easy one to cut because it was more like Blondie's normal, frantic sort of style, and I also vibed it up a lot. Initially, they didn't know quite how much to put into it, but I told them, 'Look, this is more like the stuff on your first two records. Let's give it that sort of punk/new wave attitude.' I knew that the energy level on that track would make or break it. If we didn't have that energy we'd miss the point, because the musical structure of the song is very tense — it sits you on the end of your chair, and we had to have a track that did the same thing.

"They were all very much into giving it that full-on energy, and of course this was Clem's favourite way of playing. If he really liked something, that in itself added extra energy. So, I think we did four takes and I then took the best one to work on and fix things. If there was a guitar mistake or a bass mistake, we'd punch in and out. In those days, I didn't cut the tape a lot like I'd do later on."

While Burke's sharp drumming and Nigel Harrison's pumping bass are punctuated by Frank Infante's electrifying, punk-edged guitar lines, 'Hanging On The Telephone' is nevertheless powered right from the start by Deborah Harry's energetic, in-your-face vocals as she spits out the song's staccato-style opening lines with machine-gun rapidity: "I'm in the phone booth, it's the one across the hall. If you don't answer, I'll just ring it off the wall. I know he's there, but I just had to call..."

"Debbie always got it right away whenever I tried to describe what to do, but a lot of the phrasing was totally down to her," Chapman states. "She has a strange way of delivering certain phrases, and I found myself accepting things from her that I never would have accepted from anyone else. I would have had other people change it, whereas with her I'd think, 'No, no, no, I've got to leave it like that,' or else it just wouldn't be her. For instance, in 'Hanging On The Telephone', the lines 'I heard your mother now she's going out the door. Did she go to work or just go to the store?' — I remember listening to those and thinking, 'This is the dumbest lyric I've ever heard.' However, it was so dumb, it was beautiful, it was brilliant, and when Debbie then sang it in her inimitable way it suddenly sounded even funnier. It just sounded like the weirdest, most bizarre thing I'd ever heard."

It's a long piece, but fascinating.

It's about Mike Chapman as much as it is about Blondie (one band I never did see back in the day).

'Anything Could Happen'

From Ellie Goulding:

Robert Stacy McCain once remarked of Goulding, "Wow. She could grind diamonds into sand with her pelvis."

Billy Corgan Interview on CBS News This Morning

A very interesting piece. Corgan is articulate and funny.

See: "Billy Corgan on 'The Smashing Pumpkins' New Album."

'Although it's always crowded ... You still can find some room...'

From yesterday's drive-time at The Sound L.A.

They go way back sometimes, to 1956:

9:51am: Bang A Gong - T. Rex

9:38am: Ain`t Even Done With That - John Cougar Mellencamp

9:34am: Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley

9:29am: Feel Like Makin' Love - Bad Company

9:24am: Magic Man - Heart

9:22am: Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin

9:15am: You Really Got Me - The Kinks

Led Zeppelin on Letterman

Well, isn't this something else?

Alanis Morissette in Israel

She's almost up there with Johnny Lydon, who basically told the "Palestinians" to f-ck off a couple of years ago.

At Twitchy, "Singer Alanis Morissette defies boycott, threats over Israel concert."

VIDEO: Via Legal Insurrection, "Alanis is Canadian for courage."

'Summer breeze, makes me feel fine, blowing through the jasmine in my mind...'

Inspired by William Jacobson, who's been posting Seals and Crofts videos at his sidebar over the last few day

Ke$ha Gets Rockin' With 'Warrior'

At the New York Times, "Dancing Up a Storm but Dying to Rock: Kesha Tilts Closer to a Rock Sound With ‘Warrior’":

At the Third Encore rehearsal studio in North Hollywood there’s a wall decorated with photographs of clients who’ve prepared there for tours, legends like Robert Plant and Slash. In a room behind that wall, waiting while her band and dancers rehearse for a live appearance at the American Music Awards, sat Kesha, 25, a young woman who’d really like to join that swaggering pantheon. A hugely popular, if deeply polarizing, singer who ruled the radio in 2010 with No. 1 smashes like “Tik Tok“ and now returns with “Warrior” (RCA), the follow-up to the smash album “Animal” and its EP supplement, “Cannibal,” Kesha would be filed under dance pop by most people. So it’s surprising to discover just how much reverence she has for the rock 1970s, an era that ended seven years before she was born.

For instance Kesha’s look today was inspired by Marc Bolan of the glam-rock band T. Rex. “I was watching a documentary on Bolan, and he’s wearing all these funny suits, and I was like, ‘I want to wear a funny suit,’ “ she said. She was sporting a black wide-brimmed hat with a pink rose nestled in it, a black jacket with a garish floral pattern and a pimplike extravagance of rings. Strangely, though, there’s no glitter, one of Kesha’s trademarks and an affinity she shares with that long-dead rocker. And like Bolan, Kesha practices her own androgyny. The persona she developed on “Animal” parties hard, trash-talks and treats conquests like sex toys, just as male rock stars have done for decades. But precisely because Kesha challenged double standards by seizing male rock’s license to misbehave, she became a lightning rod for contempt.

“Oh God, I have so many people who hate me, it’s unbelievable,” Kesha said, her laughter tinged with discomfort. “It’s the main reason I don’t go online.” She added, “There’s people who want me to die.” The Web abuse includes hate blogs and a patronizing video skit made by a Princeton humor magazine in which the poet Paul Muldoon analyzes “Tik Tok.”

Attributing her use of rapping and AutoTune to an inability to sing, detractors assumed that Kesha was a manufactured puppet. Actually she jointly writes her songs, supplying the lyrics and most of the vocal melodies. The rap element, influenced by the Beastie Boys, and the gimmicky use of AutoTune effects, inspired by Daft Punk, were deliberate choices. As with other female stars with over-the-top cartoon images, like Lady Gaga and Nicki Minaj, the persona is her own creation. “Kesha” is an amped-up caricature of Kesha Sebert’s real self and the feral lifestyle she was leading here at the time “Animal” was recorded. And whether you find her trashy antics annoying or refreshing in a pop era of anodyne glamour, there’s no denying that Kesha’s music caught the mood of embattled hedonism in post-crash America. Her live-for-now stance, in songs like the current hit single “Die Young,” made her pop’s YOLO queen two years before that acronym, which stands for “You only live once,” became a rallying cry for let’s-get-wrecked recklessness.

Discussing her potty-mouthed, Jack Daniels-swigging image, she said: “You must realize by this point that I’m in on the joke. I know I sound like a jackass half the time. I do it on purpose.” Actually Kesha seemed not very jackasslike that evening, but reflective and earnest. Flashes of the flirty playfulness of her videos were offset by hints of vulnerability.

Robin James, a professsor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who writes about female personas in 21st century pop culture, argued that messy hedonism is treated differently when the perpetrator is female. “If you look at, say, Judd Apatow movies, the women have to be responsible and stable and pursue careers, while the men get to behave badly,” she said. “But when women are irresponsible, they get punished for it.”

Continue reading.

'Doom and Gloom'

At the Los Angeles Times, "First impression: Rolling Stones' new single, 'Doom and Gloom'."

BONUS: At Telegraph UK, "Evocative images of the Stones published."

'While My Guitar Gently Weeps'

The Sound L.A. was "Under the Covers" for Halloween, playing cover songs for the entire day. Here's Santana from about 9:00pm last night:

'Caught Up In You'

From last Friday's drive time, heading over to an afternoon Academic Senate meeting at the college, at The Sound L.A.:

12:02 - Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin

12:10 - Refugee by Tom Petty

12:13 - One by Three Dog Night

12:16 - The Spirit Of Radio by Rush

12:26 - Cat's In The Cradle by Harry Chapin

12:30 - La Grange by Zz Top

12:33 - Listen To The Music by Doobie Brothers

12:38 - Photograph by Def Leppard

12:42 - Blackbird by Beatles

12:45 - Crazy On You by Heart

12:49 - Caught Up In You by .38 Special

Update on Billy Idol Birthday Concert

I just love this story.

PREVIOUSLY: "Billy Idol Celebrates Fan's Birthday in Seattle."

Billy Idol Celebrates Fan's Birthday in Seattle

He's a good man.

Won't You Open Up the Door?

From yesterday morning's coffee time, at The Sound L.A.:

11:04 - Breathe by Pink Floyd

11:07 - All You Need Is Love by Beatles

11:10 - Feels Like The First Time by Foreigner

11:14 - Don't Bring Me Down by E.l.o.

11:18 - Breakdown by Tom Petty

11:21 - De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da by Police

11:32 - Stealin' by Uriah Heep

11:37 - What's Your Name by Lynyrd Skynyrd

11:40 - Pride (in The Name Of Love) by U2

11:44 - You're All I've Got Tonight by Cars

And see, "Lou Gramm Foreigner legendary vocalist embraces a second chance at life":

Lou Gramm will forever be recognized as the golden voice of Foreigner. Not for the current imitation band led by its only original member Mick Jones, but recognized for fronting Foreigner, one of the most popular and successful rock ‘n’ roll bands in history.

Unfortunately, the music industry decided long ago that it was acceptable to market an existing trademark without its key players involved as long as someone in the band controlled the rights to the name. Believe it or not people still show up to watch a mock group playing all the bands greatest hits, and it’s really no different than watching a bar band playing a bunch of cover tunes. Co-founder and guitarist Mick Jones fell ill in 2011 missing several gigs while on tour. Jones assigned a replacement guitarist while he recuperated leaving the touring band without a single original member. The band of musicians calling themselves Foreigner is actually making more money per concert than the real band. If the key players are no longer in the band … change the name, then the rest of us won’t feel like we are being musically violated.

A perfect example of a band “doing the right thing” is Jefferson Starship.

With that said, Foreigner the band’s debut album in 1977 sold more than four million copies, and since its inception the group remains a mainstay on classic rock radio stations around the world...

Interesting.

I saw Foreigner in concert in about 1979, the first arena concert I ever attended, at the L.A. Forum. It was great.

'Sweet Home Alabama'

The video's from just last week, at Harrah's Rincon near San Diego, on October 7th. The hotel was holding tickets for my wife, but we weren't able to make it. Bummer too. Looks like an awesome gig.

And from yesterday's afternoon drive time at The Sound L.A.:

3:00 - I Still Haven't Found... by U2

3:05 - Daniel by Elton John

3:09 - La Grange by Zz Top

3:12 - Jack And Diane by John Cougar

3:17 - Fool In The Rain by Led Zeppelin

3:23 - Last Train To Clarksville by Monkees

3:32 - Come Sail Away by Styx

3:38 - I Need To Know by Tom Petty

3:40 - Take It To The Limit by Eagles

3:45 - Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd

3:50 - I Melt With You by Modern English

David Bowie Spotted in New York

He quit touring in 2004 after having a heart attack during his final performance of the Ziggy Stardust encore. I saw him perform in Irvine for that tour. I'm glad he's taking it easy nowadays.

See Telegraph UK, "Reclusive David Bowie spotted on rare public outing":

The reclusive singer David Bowie has been pictured in New York on a rare public outing dressed in cap, shades and hooded top, bearing little resemblance to the fashion icon of the 1970s.

The reclusive singer David Bowie has been pictured in New York on a rare public outing dressed in cap, shades and hooded top, bearing little resemblance to the fashion icon of the 1970s.

Bowie lives in a large Lower-Manhattan apartment with his ex-model wife Iman and daughter Lexi and has been almost invisible since suffering a major heart attack during a jinxed 2004 tour.