Friday, September 16, 2005

14 SEPTEMBER 2005: MC5

MC5 is going to be the guest. Jonesy played my favourite MC5 song LET ME TRY.

He whistled the Elvis version of SUSPICIOUS MINDS. I have only been able to listen and haven't been able to write except for just now.

He sang his version of MELLO YELLOW to Shovel ("I'm just wild about Shovel..."). I'll tell you what, I didn't think that a look could be transmitted over the radio, but somehow, it was. Jonesy lost it and started giggling uncontrollably. It was very funny.

BTW, Jonesy needs a woman, per Shovel. He wears the same socks for five years and his washing up sponge has cancer.

Anyhow, Jonesy says he needs a new stinky scent thingy. (Those glade things I think they were talking about.)

MC5 are on now. They played Sun Ra but I don't know what song it was.

Per MC5, Sun Ra can astrally project to different planets. Sun Ra introduced the MC5 to the idea that music is more than just entertainment.

Jonesy wondered if he did LSD, but Sun Ra hasn't. Sun Ra is into other mind sets, and trance. Sun Ra is very into ancient Egypt and taking black people back to their roots.

His band was more of a troupe and people would dance and the instrumentation was all over the place. Was he a cult, per Jonesy? Not like Jim Jones, but he attracted a strong following.

OH MY GODDESS!!! Steve Jones was just invited to come and play with MC5 on Saturday!!! I hope he goes! Shit, I wish I could go. (Working...ugh...) They are going to have a bunch of guests, but I haven't really heard of any of them. They are going to play with Sun Ra's Arkestra, but Sun Ra won't be there. (At least not in the flesh.)

Jonesy wonders if they have played with Primal Scream?

OF COURSE they have! And their DJ was once the drummer in Primal Scream. They carry on the tradition of the rock n'roll celebration, per an MC5.

(Gilby Park is another guest, as well apparently. Couldn't discern the voices.)

They will be at Amoeba Records on Friday. They haven't said what time yet. Then they will go to San Diego on Friday night too.  Wear a cape and get in free.

They are going to jam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh-- the Duke first!!!! Then Jonesy and MC5 will jam together !!!!!!!!!

The Duke: Download Festival in San Francisco

There is alot I didn't blog, but they are playing live AMERICAN RUSE!!!!

They were talking about free form radio in the 1970's.

I have to say, MC5 are far more optimistic than I am about the masses choosing imagination over an easily accessible, ephemeral sensation, which is what most music is these days. But I uphold their optimism. They are awesome and I love them!!! I think they are so courageous and also true visionaries.

I wonder though. Is Patty Smith considered like Yoko, or do they all like her? I never know anything about artists. I will have to ask my Patty Smith fan friend. I love her, but you know how bands/musicians can be.

I hope I can listen and blog tomorrow.

GOD SAVE JONESY!!!

Thursday, September 15, 2005

15 SEPTEMBER 2005: ALICE COOPER

I missed almost the entire show. It was Alice Cooper as the guest.

I heard just a snippet, and Cooper made a joke about how their were 18 Hooters girls in the studios.

"They're all mutes," quipped Jonesy.

But I knew from that the Cooper probably doesn't listen to the show much, because Jonesy isn't into boobs at all. He is a hardcore ass-man.

They jammed a teeny bit on EIGHTEEN.

I am sorry I missed most of it.  I hope you were listening!

GOD SAVE JONESY!!!!

Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hilldale

Jonesy is always wondering what this song is about when he plays it.  He has asked so many times I have decided to investigate it for myself:
Before we begin, we already know from the title that maybe the people would be the times-- probably the times that are being lived in, and not chronological or clock times--and therefore that the people themselves would be the times. That the singer could define the times by the people if the people would agree. Moreover, those people appear to be found, at least during the writing of this song, between Clark and Hilldale. And I surmise from MC5 on JJB that it must be the stretch of Sunset between those two streets, which I now imagine as some sort of Haight/Ashbury. 


But it occurs to me that the writer came to this song in more ordinary encounters with fans who expressed appreciation for his music when they chanced to see him on the street. Or perhaps from bumping into his musical cronies or acquaintances on the street, maybe after he had been away touring, or in the studio or recording, or something else that would have taken him away from the shared "times." Or maybe it was just a really tiresome Love record release party, that he didn't want to seem ungrateful for, but frankly, had no desire to attend.
Verse 1:What is happening and how have you been
Gotta go but i'll see you again
And oh, the music is so loud
And then i fade into the...

A meeting, and greeting. He must be off, but another meeting is assured. The music is so loud. The music around him? The music inside of him? And where is the singer going? To die? Back into dreams? Back to oblivion? Back home? Back on the road?A surplus of meaning. Wherever he is going, the music is so loud that he will fade, fade into the...???

Verse 2:Crowds of people standing everywhere
'cross the street i'm at this laugh affair
And here they always play my songs
And me, i wonder if it's...

AH, he's fading into a crowd of people!! And as we read on we see that it's something that leaves one laughing? Are they laughing at him? Is it laughable? Well, they always play his songs, so it's probably shared laughter. Or is it one of those horrible record company get togethers? A release party or something where all of his contemporaries are there, and some are just old news, and tired and obsolete? It's very crowded, that's for sure. And he's wondering.... What is he wondering???

Verse 3:Wrong or right they come here just the same
Telling everyone about their games
And if you think it obsolete
Then you go back across the street
Yeah, street, hey hey

He's wondering about right and wrong, and the nature of right and wrong. And whether the collective motive to coming to this undefined "here"-- this here of laughter, where the singer's songs are played-- is right or wrong, and further, that hidden motives are being revealed. Everything is being questioned. Or perhaps that is game itself? How droll, how sophisticated, how cynical they are, telling everyone about their games. How rich, how bored, how boring.

However, if you have transcended this revelation of the games, and feel it is obsolete, this judgement (right vs wrong), then simply go back across the street. Which we might divine, given the name of the song, is a real street. But at any rate, there is another crossing, another transition. Perhaps back to ones roots, or back into the music, or back to the beginning, or back to simplicity.

Verse 4:When i leave now don't you weep for me
I'll be back, just save a seat for me
But if you just can't make the room
Look up and see me on the...

But something has changed. The singer has changed and the relationship to his environment has changed. Some unknown love and bonding has entered this scenario, for weeping is presumed to follow the departure. It must be consoled and assured that a return can be expected. The atmosphere and the gathering, despite the anticipated weeping, is very casual. And if you can't save the seat, if it is filled in my absence, look up and see me... Where will you see me? Shmoozing with someone else and promising to return? What? Where? When will you see me?
Verse 5:Moon's a common scene around my town
Yeah where everyone is painted brown
And if we do get stuck away
Let's go paint everybody gray
Yeah, gray, yeah

AH, of course! You do remember don't you? All musicians are really sorcerors. Witches and shamans and medicine men. Speaking to us in the language of our hearts. Making music of our feelings. Singing to us the sounds of moonlight on a clear night. The moon is common scene around the singer's town. And common among night people, which musicians surely are as well. And common among the hippies and the partiers and Sunset night life that lives on still. Or perhaps this is the end of the money, the label's belief in you, the end of touring and these parties and back into being unknown, almost.

Back to being as far away from all of this as being on the moon.

But everyone is painted brown. There is no colour distinction, no race, or perhaps it is the dulling of ones bright and true colours. The lifeless masks we don for one another, to "fit in." But if we get stuck while we are away, we can paint everyone grey... Perhaps this is the shade uncertainity, or the mixing of all the peoples of the world, or perhaps, a rhyming word, chosen under the auspices not only of the Lady herself, the moon, but her favourite Love Child consort, LSD. Or perhaps we can make everything the same again, and start all over again, revealing, as artists do, those bright colours beneath the mask...

There are many meanings to this song. That is what I see.

Monday, September 12, 2005

12 SEPTEMBER 2005: THE GREAT L.A. POWER OUTTAGE

Five after 12 bells, and the temperature is nice. Shovel thinks there will be more heatwaves.

Jonesy says we will have more of the Indian Summer. He likes warm summer nights. They make him feel good.

Chelsea beat someone. (Footie.) He pulled his groin playing his own game this weekend. (Hollywood United, I think is his team's name. They are pretty well known among the Brits I know here.) He's never pulled a groin muscle before.

"What are your loins?" He asks Shovel. "I know what a loin cloth is, but what are loins?"

"A child is a fruit of your loins," says Shovel.

"Yeah but where is it? Is the loins the groin?" He questions further. And should he wear a loin cloth?

"Perhaps a listener will know," says Shovel

Jonesy's legs hurt too, and he's never pulled a groin muscle before.

What's going on with that bloody disaster--is Bush paying the bills down there? Jonesy wonders, regarding Katrina.

Shovel wants to change the subject.

A boxed set of someone-- CATCH THE WIND-- oh, I think this is Donovon.

Donovon, CATCH THE WIND
Velvet Underground, SUNDAY MORNING ("Nico on vocals," he comments. "Beautiful!")
Leo Sayer, GIVING IT ALL AWAY ("Roger Daltrey had a hit with this.")
Rod Stewart, MANDOLIN WIND ("Monday morning blues set," comments Jonesy.)
Antony and the Jonhsons, HOPE THERE IS SOMEONE (** They have a gig at the Los Feliz Vista Theatre later this month, per Jonesy.)

The Duke: Radio Shack

The power went out and I missed the whole rest of the show.

OKAY-- I am back for the re-broadcast.

"Steven Nostradamus," he says.

The Duke: BMW

"It's chaos out there," says Jonesy of the power outtage. "Orange County is out as well."

Shovel says, let's all stay calm and just get home okay.

Jonesy just said the "t" word. Terrorist.

Both agree that there is no reason to get crazy. Stay calm.

"I'm going to calm the city," says Jonesy. (Only those of us that actually have battery powered radios.)

Oh my god, this is the silliest Jonesy song I have ever heard. It's starts out to FIVE YEARS.

"Five minutes/ five minutes what a surprise/ that's all we got/we all are going to die/ in five minutes/ in five minutes/ in five lovely minutes/ oh oh oh/ what's it like to die?/ Five sausages/ that what I fancy when I am anxious/ five sausage rolls, with branston pickle/ and sausage rolls/ five bunk ups too take away my worries/ five bunk ups before we all die..."

YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! Stay calm, Los Angeles, counsels Jonesy.

Shovel is playing a clip. 
 "Please don't panic /we are going to orange alert/ then to red alert, we're all going to die..."

"Drive your cars into the back of the bloke in front of you/ don't worry about no lights/ get out of your car and smash someone's face in/ nick a handbag off some old lady, off some helpless lady/ see a bloke in a wheelchair/ smash his bleeding head in/ calm yourself /calm yourself.."

"You are too square I have to straighten you out," another Shovel clip. (How does he come up with these so fast?)

"I count to five this will be a dream/you will be coming up from the elevator/ you know what I mean/ it's been a phantasm/ it's been a phantasm of life..."

"Human error...This sort of thing has cropped up before... "

Shovel has another clip.

"Five men went into a toilet/ five men had a look at each other/ five men with funny coloured hankies out of the back of their pockets....Five birds that's all I ask for/ five birds, in their twenties/ in their twenties/ just for tonight, yes I'd be fine/ five manchiefrills/ clouding up the sky with their/ five manchiefrills, oh yeah..."

"I can no longer sit back and allow communist subversion, and the international communist consipiracy..." a final clip from Shovel on the matter.


The whistling song was MAGGIE MAY.  Jonesy bought this when he was 15 and he didn't know nothing. He bought it at the HMV Record Shoppe because it had a cool cover. It was Saturday and sunny, and he went to Cookies' house. They listened to it, and Jonesy was like "he's the man, he has a great voice." Maggie May was the number one album in the US and the UK after that. Jonesy was so proud that he bought it before anyone else, before it became popular.

"I am a visionary, aren't I, Shovel?" Shovel concurs that Jonesy had a feeling in his "gutty wutty" just moments before the power went out.

"If you are young and you want to be saved," come up to Jonesy's tonight and he will save you.

???
Red Walls, MEMORIES
Ian Hunter, ??
(He must have played these before his FIVE YEARS spoof. Maybe Killing Joke, too, I wasn't paying close attention.)

Killing Joke, WAR DOGS
The Damned, NEAT NEAT NEAT
PIL, ANNALISA

"Two water and power concubines aren't working," per Jonesy.

This is the second hour. I'll have to get up early tomorrow morning.

People are driving all silly and stuff because of the blackout, says Jonesy.

"Please make room for me, when I leave the station! While the rest of you die, I just want to get home," says Jonesy.

"Such a caring guy," snorts Shovel.

"That's me," says Jonesy. "Fanks for listening!"

New Pornographers, TWIN CINEMA
Journey, WHEN THE LIGHTS GO DOWN IN THE CITY