Happy New Year! No, this isn't about the Beatles, although some year when Paul or Ringo walks on, it may very well be. I think that this is the beginning of a long annual series in which I play the songs performed, written, or inspired by the people in the last New York Times Magazine of the year, the people remembered and memorialized in The Lives They Lived section. Tonight, we remember Nelson Mandela, Lou Reed, J.J. Cale, Shadow Morton, John Hollander and Jeff Hanneman, not necessarily in that order. Each of them is connected with music in some way, and the ones you don't know now, you will know by the end of this diary.
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The ground rules. One song for each, no matter how many songs they performed, wrote or inspired. That's what curating is. And that will be a challenge for more than one of the people we remember. These will be ROUGHLY in chronological order, because there's only one person I want to end with and you can't really follow the song involved with anything else, especially if New Year's Day is supposed to be celebratory. (I have to discipline myself, because if I don't this would be MUCH longer and I probably wouldn't have done anything else for the last three days, and I had banking and shopping and cooking to do).
George "Shadow" Morton. The Times begins its memorial thus:
What a strange record it was: a song about a girl who gets a Dear Jane letter, alternately wailed and whispered, with thudding piano chords and a choir of sea gulls. “Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand),” released in mid-1964, did something that few pop songs had dared: It overflowed with messy details. There was pathos, passion, wistful reminiscence, the possibility of dire consequences, all conveyed in 2 minutes 18 seconds by four way-too-knowing teenagers from Queens called the Shangri-Las. And it sprang from the mind of a 22-year-old who had never published or produced a song in his life, who just weeks before the record came out was scooping ice cream.
Morton, as the article proposes, helped create the 1960s, writing for and producing the first tough-girl group, the Shangri-Las. This is not their most famous song, but it was the strange record described above, recorded and produced in April 1964.
J.J. Cale. Drew Christie remembered him for the Times with an animated film and this is some of what he wrote:
His brand of blues-rock was understated and groovy, and he sang in a tuneful whisper that many critics have described as laid-back. The fact is, Cale was laid-back, even in the face of pressure for commercial success. As my animated short film shows, he refused to work with the music industry to promote “Crazy Mama,” his highest-charting song, and so managed to remain obscure.
So here he is performing a song he wrote in 1966 that Eric Clapton scored a hit with. I like Cale's version better.
Lou Reed. This is what the Times remembers about Lou Reed:
So off to
Rolling Stone,
who remembers Lou Reed:
As the lead singer and songwriter of the Velvet Underground in the 1960s, Lou Reed helped invent punk rock and while writing about femme fatales, black angels and heroin. In the process, he also brought a stormy dissonance to the foreground, helping to expand the vocabulary of the electric guitar. For the next 40 years, during periods both inspired and hollow, Reed tried his hand all sorts of artsy and evocative music. He love[d] to mess with his persona (his first big commercial splash came in the guise of glam rock) and in the process he explored all sorts of unexpected tangents.
I wanted to give you solo Lou Reed, because that's really how he was most famous. Solo Lou Reed gives you two alternative songs. One of them requires a full diary in itself to explain who the people are and to contextualize the Andy Warhol circle (I think I'll take a stab at it later in 2014), and when I listened to the other alternative I realized I didn't like it. So, to the Velvet Underground catalog. From their first album, released in 1967. No Lou Reed, no Velvet Underground, no punk.
The Times remembered Jeff Hanneman, the guitarist for and one of the founders of the heavy metal band Slayer, in much the same way it remembered Lou Reed, with a picture of his Gibson Les Paul guitar:
I'l admit this isn't a genre I know an awful lot about, so off to
Rolling Stone again.
If Slayer did not exist, the tabloid press would invent it: Loud, aggressive, and violent, its songs touch on sadism, Satanism, Nazi death camps, and serial killers.
Well, okay, and obviously there's a lot of room within "heavy metal" for a lot of different sub-genres. Slayer's sub-genre is called
"thrash metal," which has its roots in the more tradional speed metal and hardcore punk, and Slayer is one of the four major groups witin this sub-genre, the others being Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax. How is it I can even pick something by Slayer for you to listen to? Well, at one of the AP readings I found myself with a couple of other readers at a bar with a digital jukebox and we had a friendly competition to see who could find the coolest song that the rest of us had never heard before. I won with a song by
the Hives, but this, by Slayer, which takes something 18 minutes long from the psychedelic era and reducing it to its 3:17 heavy metal essence, came in second. 1987. If you're still nursing a hangover, PLEASE don't play it.
John Hollander. The poet. This was promising, because the article, written by his nephew, a songwriter, included this story:
You can imagine my surprise at hearing Uncle John’s baritone bellowing through my phone a few years later. “Hello, Sam. It’s your uncle John. I received an email that I’d love to run by you. May I read it to you?” Absolutely, I told him, and he went on: “Dear Professor Hollander. I’m a huge fan of your work. My name is Don Henley. I’ve set one of your poems, ‘An Old Fashioned Song,’ to music and recorded it with my band, the Eagles.” Then he paused and said, “Sam, who are these Eagles?”
Uncle John’s resulting collaboration with the Eagles — a song eventually titled “No More Walks in the Wood” — was released on a new Eagles album in late 2007. It went directly to Walmart, shining brightly on the racks next to Jay-Z and Britney Spears. Within a few months it sold several million copies. My uncle John was 78 and featured on the No. 1 record in America.
Right. But it doesn't exist on YouTube except for cover versions, so we're not going to listen to it. It's apparently mostly
a capella which would have been a nice antidote to the previous selection.
But that's okay, because, finally, we end with songs written in support of Nelson Mandela. There are many of these, and there's more than one list of top ten songs, notably one by The Nation and one by TIME. As Per Liljas wrote at the beginning of the TIME list,
Celebrating the deeds and legacy of such an extraordinary man as Nelson Mandela, it can be difficult to find the right words. So much better that there is such a vast archive of music composed with him as an inspiration.
Fortunately, the song I remembered which spurred this diary is at the top of BOTH lists. So here is the British Ska band The Special AKA in 1984, and the song that became the anthem of the anti-apartheid movement:
Once again, Happy New Year, all, and my wish for 2014 is that it brings each of us greater success, happiness and fulfillment, and that it brings all of us a Congress controlled by more and better Democrats (or the Canadian equivalent).
And now for the stuff that makes this Top Comments:
TOP COMMENTS, January 1, 2014: Thanks to tonight's Top Comments contributors! Let us hear from YOU when you find that proficient comment.
From BeninSC:
Flagged by nomandates, this comment by poco contains a link to a video of a startling scientific experiment, in nomandates's Kitchen Table Kibitzing diary. Amazing! (You have to watch the video (3:11) to appreciate the comment.)
From smileycreek:
As xxdr zombiexx observes in his diary, Marijuana is legal in Colorado today, but people like Dumbo with foresight and vision are already looking ahead to the next step....mandatory use!
From your intrepid diarist:
In xxdr zombiexx's diary about the legalization of marijuana in Colorado, Hey338Too explains what the right wing anger machine will find troublesome about it.
leftykook comes up with a TERRIFIC analogy for the Republican efforts to derail this presidency in Craig Hardegree's diary, President Obama's year of failures. Also flagged by Observerinvancouver. All I can say to this, in the tradition of What does the Fox say? is "meep-meep."
TOP MOJO, December 31, 2013 (excluding Tip Jars and first comments):
1) Oh, I know... by Bob Johnson — 176
2) Don't think I've used the word, "contumelious," by bobswern — 175
3) I think Francis understands the rich perfectly by Visceral — 167
4) Mr. Lebrecht by bink — 129
5) RKBA is the subject of the diary. by Bob Johnson — 100
6) "crony capitalism in Argentina" by Shockwave — 100
7) I have had five private emails already by commonmass — 100
8) had to look it up. by bastrop — 99
9) WSO by crose — 94
10) I just love the bit about withholding charity by tmservo433 — 93
11) A gun makes killing much easier. by Bob Johnson — 86
12) As Dostoevsky said, Few things in life are more by Timaeus — 83
13) Can't remember the last time I read about a mass by Methinks They Lie — 82
14) and this is why by GideonAB — 79
15) If it's true, it's a travesty. by commonmass — 77
16) Stockton- by ek hornbeck — 75
17) Gun violence data collection and analysis. The gun by We Shall Overcome — 74
18) Show me someone shot to death with a bike... by TheOrchid — 73
19) Oh, sorry, overlooked the second part of your by We Shall Overcome — 74
20) You were not by twigg — 72
21) silly me, I should of read the article by LieparDestin — 71
22) Give small minded people power by indycam — 70
23) Musicians travel with wooden instruments by texasmom — 70
24) At 12:01am tonight, I have health insurance. by mumtaznepal — 69
25) What they know and what they will admit to , by indycam — 68
26) I took it more as a threat than a bribe. by uniqity — 68
27) Having a gun is not an "essential liberty" by sagesource — 68
28) Crist is actually pretty good on several issues by corwin — 66
29) so is he threatening the Pope? by JLFinch — 66
30) So maybe you folks who are tapped into the by Fiona West — 66
31) Does anyone believe this would've happened by PhilJD — 66
32) Here's a peer reviewed study on gun ownership by bobinson — 67
For an explanation of How Top Mojo Works, see
mik's
FAQing Top Mojo
TOP PHOTOS, December 31, 2013: Enjoy jotter's wonderful PictureQuilt below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. Have fun, Kossacks!
brillig here... with
Dave's kind permission I'm reposting last night's special Top Mojo of 2013.
mik spent a fair amount of time coding it, and it's a good list. Thank you so much, my friend!
1) Hey. I learned to type on a manual. by zenbassoon — 449
2) I wonder which one by Azazello — 426
3) I'm Consulting My NRA Decision Tree by TooFolkGR — 391
4) Help me out here..... by FlamingoGrrl — 373
5) Does the pope shit in the woods? by Gordon20024 — 367
6) How about this one from Harry Reid? by Scarce — 362
7) They're worse than idiotic by Dallasdoc — 351
8) yeah, better we talk in abstracts by SemDem — 342
9) Once again, by Ojibwa — 330
10) Unspeakable by Wisper — 310
11) I love Morgan Freeman! He speaks for me: by theKgirls — 309
12) And you thought Stop&Frisk was bad! by CwV — 308
13) It is bitterly cruel. by commonmass — 307
14) This is shocking by hayden — 306
15) I'm making fun of the idiots who are saying by weatherdude — 301
16) How long is this guy going to last? by Bob Johnson — 296
17) Happy Thanksgiving. by TomP — 292
18) When do we unearth the DHS report by Dallasdoc — 286
19) Skills of a Professor by Liberty Equality Fraternity and Trees — 284
20) another disaster...and again... by Glen The Plumber — 281
21) You must be hiding something by joanneleon — 278
22) It is so touching that you keep us updated by Dallasdoc — 277
23) Mocking the tragic deaths in tx? by eXtina — 276
24) Oh, my! by gchaucer2 — 276
25) You nailed it. by Lawrence — 274
26) I know, can't stop chuckling. by poco — 272
27) "Empowering" ... they hate that word. by Bob Love — 271
28) "Empowering" ... they hate that word. by Bob Love — 271
29) oh, dear commonmass by homo neurotic — 269
30) When reporting crime stories, it is important to by riogrande — 265
31) Hopefully this will lead to renewed embarrassment by DrTerwilliker — 264
32) If all of our elected Dems acted like Warren by DWG — 263
33) whenever you are escorted to the office by by entlord — 263
34) I like this Pope more every day. Never thought I by David54 — 262
35) We must follow the teachings of George Takei by aisb23 — 261
36) Why? The kids were already born. by NormAl1792 — 258
37) To the Republicans in Congress: by RhodeIslandAspie — 257
38) Actually, most of those visitors by raboof — 257
39) You get killed for buying Skittle and ice tea.nt by merrywidow — 256
40) Welcome to La Pierre's America! God help us all! by drmah — 252
41) Thank you for the update. by ScottyUrb — 250
42) That's all well and good, but... by Trix — 249
43) My first offer is NOTHING by MinistryOfTruth — 248
44) Here's a new pic of Little Wink! by slinkerwink — 246
45) Another responsible gun owner (n/t) by milkbone — 244
46) I'm beginning to love Ecuador. by One Pissed Off Liberal — 243
47) Costco Earthfirst... by RichM — 242
48) And apparently the good pastor feels... by quiet in NC — 241
49) both of mine by Debbie in ME — 241
50) As I Recall Progressives Broke Strongly w Mr. by Gooserock — 241
51) Yikes, is there a medication for harshness? by ksh01 — 241