Rock Music

Squeeze-fest 2015

~ Cave_Guy ~ 5 Comments

The best country/western band to ever come out of England.

“The past has been bottled and labeled with love“

Squeeze was new wave because the band was born in that era.

That is the only reason – at heart they are pure country.

Take out the cornfield and put in a semi-detached cul de sac neighborhood.

Replace sweet tea with hot tea.

Remove the coyote and add a confused and malnourished stray cat.

These guys sing about where they are with humor and fatalism like no band before or after.

And (just like great country music) – they are not singing to us – they are us.

Us amplified in a poetic and tragic way.

Yeah, right in your kitchen

Jools Holland banging at the keyboards almost looks like he is ready to get his own show!

His talent is great but his real gift is getting the best out of those around him —Yes, I am talking Difford and Tilbrook here. One of my favorites* (I almost spelled it favourites) of all time is ArgyBargy

ArrgyBargy is not a perfect record – it has flaws – but like an old friend that you are always happy to see – I love this record.

Love and hate sharing an awkward bath together – with bubbles!

This band works on me on a few different levels.

They always cut through to the humorous core.

Mostly, they make me feel better – and feeling better is what this blog thing is all about, so one more and cheers from the cave!

Did you notice the western theme? Huh?

*Favorite – I often feel sorry for kids from other countries with a different language who come to America.

As an English kid – it was: Favourite is now Favorite and watch out for Colour, drop the u there too. Also——don’t ask where the toilet is, ask to use the bathroom —America is a land of many toilets but they don’t like the word—-also, forget about getting a good cup of tea anywhere and drink cold soda—–Any Questions? Good — Go get ‘em!

Note: If you keep reading my blog, you will get my whole life story- which is reluctantly doled out in tiny scraps here and there.

Things Happen

~ Cave_Guy ~ 2 Comments

Dawes.Things Happen

“Things happen –  that’s all they ever do”

Sometimes you have to let go of trying to figure out how the train got off the tracks – the work of putting it back on is just too important.

Things happen.

When something difficult comes your way, you must resist the temptation to surmise you were born under a bad sign – or born a loser or something else.

Things happen – that’s all they ever do.

In the hospital waiting room – my 13 year old says “Hey Dad, I got a question for you.”

“OK, – go ahead”

[I have no idea what is on the way]

……… “I have never asked you this before but I need to know”

[Am I ready for this? – where are we going?]

“If you could have one superpower what would it be?”

[Did not see this coming]

I have time to think —- Flying is not an option because I am not crazy about heights and it gets really cold as you gain elevation—–those little leotards and a cape are not very insulating – flying is out.

Invisibility? You know – most of my life, I have felt invisible – I already had this power and it is way overrated — so no on this one.

The power to time travel! – now we are on to something – I would go back and tell 7 year old me that everything is going to be ok, there will be some difficult days but it is going to be alright, you will be fine.

And I would have older me come back and visit both of us right here and tell us it will be good – that we will move and grow and live with purpose and conviction because of the things that happen today.

Things happen – that’s all they ever do.

Jack White as pain medication.

~ Cave_Guy ~ 6 Comments

This song goes with the last post. If you think the blues can’t dissolve pain – you don’t know the blues.

If you think Joe Bonannnammasssaamona is the new savior of the blues – then whatever.

Blues comes from the heart not from technical ability. That Jack White has both is something I don’t hold against him. Heard this last night and it slayed me.

Who cares about choppy resolution?

Let’s have a ball and biscuit.

Feeling a little Anarchy with my nomination

~ Cave_Guy ~ 4 Comments

Thanks to my blogging friend Apple Pie for the nomination

https://wordpress.com/read/post/id/41733692/9114

I needed a little kick start to get the cave rumbling. One quote a day for three days – I can do that!

There are no limits to where our brains can take us. We are, if there be a God, God’s gracious creation.

John Lydon

I believe we are “all that” as this quote says – but I respect the “questioning everything” of the punk mentality. Artists don’t always know where it comes from but none hesitate to create with it.

He does wade in some deep waters

I like him because he just steps boldly and gets on with it – that it what it is all about.

This is not everyone’s cup of tea.

But so what

You cannot please everyone.

(Always a bad sign when you have to go to France to get respect)

But whatever

Here he is now:

http://live.philharmoniedeparis.fr/Concert/1010110/public-image-limited.html

And we remember fondly the youthful exuberance:

It always warms the heart

I have to go – the kettle is boiling and I need another cuppa

Cheers!

The Gruntled Blogger

~ Cave_Guy ~ 27 Comments

gruntle-3

The opposite of disgruntled has to be gruntled  (at least, as far as I can tell) – I was thinking of this and trying to make myself gruntled.

Can you just do that?

Sort of like “making yourself” a blogger.

There is no license needed to be gruntled, no test to take, no initiation fee or any period of time when you are on grundle probation. (to see if you have what it takes)

You just do it.

You accept where and what you are and choose to make the best of it.

Like making yourself a blogger – (what, that again?)

Yea! – That again … because in the next couple weeks or so– unless I do something to completely screw it up – I should hit the blogging milestone of 1000 followers.

So I made a chart to show what it feels like to be at this cusp of greatness!

wp-chart

It means that this little minnow of a blog has grown up to be a medium size and completely legal sport fish in this bizarre world.

If you hook into this blog, you can expect a nice little tussle on the end of the line and a good picture to take before you release me back in the water.

So many little minnow blogs never grow up and make it – and that is sad.

Half the blogs that follow me probably don’t exist anymore – and that is sad.

Sad because all you have to do is keep posting until you find your voice.

“What if I don’t have a voice?”

You do, and you will find it if you keep posting.

So thanks for staying with me through all the rants, photos, drawings and not-quite-legal music captures.

It means a ton to hit this milestone even if half of you are already gone.

Come back and try again.

There are no rules saying you can’t – most of us fail miserably the first time – this blog is my second attempt after 6 months with a horrible one and 3 followers.

Thanks for making me a respectable sized fish in this web ocean.

I really do enjoy each like, follow, and comment.

Even if I may appear a tad snarky and disgruntled at times.

My name is Wayne and I am gruntled. [polite applause]

Cheers from the cave.

Space Cowboy 5-play

~ Cave_Guy ~ 10 Comments

wayne-spaceman

After I visited Geoff @ https://1001albumsin10years.wordpress.com/2015/05/27/odyssey-to-2001-top-5-space-tunes/ and briefly chastised him for leaving out Flock of Seagulls with his post —-I thought: “Hey, I got a blog, why not riff off what my Canadian friend is doing and write my own post?”—-and then I saw https://gigisrantsandraves.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/supernova-and-an-unexpected-universefrom-astronomy-picture-of-the-daybeautiful/  over @ Rethinking Life with a cool galaxy pic and thought: “Hey, why not put yourself in space and go for it? – you blogging fool you!”

So here we go!  Space 5-play

  1. Flock of Seagulls –Space Age Love Song

This one sounds spacey more that is spacey – like if I was flying between galaxies test driving a new star cruiser – I would crank this up and drink some tang.

  1. After the Gold Rush – Neil Young —sung by Dolly Pardon and friends.

The abstract imagery of Neil Young’s song writing allows for many interpretations – The core of the sci-fi genre is us getting off this earth and into the stars – sometimes with aliens helping us. Yeah,…mostly they are trying to make us extinct, but sometimes, as in this song, they are our friends.

  1. Space Boogie – Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck always gets forgotten – too jazzy to be rock – too rock to be jazzy. Fusion? Is that what they used to call it? You are not forgotten on the cave my friend. (Using friend for dramatic effect-I have never met the man or seen the man in concert – but he seems like he would be ok and drink a sensible mid-range beer like a Sam Adams or Newcastle Brown Ale).

  1. Rocket Man – Sir Elton John – hit by William Shatner with phaser not set to stun.

Does not matter how much it has been played – as a serious chronicler of popular music I am contractually obligated to include it. It is a great song (even after this fiasco) – which makes the task not difficult

  1. Space Oddity – David Bowie

David Bowie is a space cadet with no equal and this was written at the birth of the space age. We saw the brilliance and he saw the isolation. He was/is ahead of his time.

I challenge all the other bloggers out there to do a space themed blog!

This could be the start of something good.

And as always.

Cheers from the cave!

Pokey LaFarge

~ Cave_Guy ~ 13 Comments

Any parent with a teenager knows that you will sometimes hear strange sounds coming from their room, and unlike what all the TV programs and magazines say about parenting —We do not want to know what is going on!

So when I heard THIS — This tin pan alley type music blaring one day from behind the mysterious-door-of-quickly-dissolving-childhood – I broke my “don’t ask don’t tell” policy and yelled through the door.

“Son, what the hell are you listening to?”

“Dad – This is Pokey LaFarge”

“Pokey LaFarge?”

It’s old and it’s new – it’s really old and really new – even the name is too quirky to be quirky.

Is quirky the new cool?

Pokey Lafarge?

What can I say – the boy has great taste in music.

If you go to the band site there is a free download of his new song – Something in the Water—although the file does sneak into your system like a virus – so good luck finding it after you play it.

http://www.pokeylafarge.net/

Karma 3-play

~ Cave_Guy ~ 11 Comments

Disclaimer: I am not a Buddhist, I am a Christian – but like the cowboy that stumbles into the hipster bar by mistake and takes a drink or two — I did tarry some in this establishment.

And these are great songs:

Radiohead – Karma Police

Crystalized and purified arty dark angst in small easy-to-open packages.

John Lennon – Instant Karma

My first introduction to this concept- as I understand it: the cosmic something is keeping track of all your transgressions and making sure you answer for each one how it sees fit (again, I just hung out in this bar for a little while, so I am fuzzy on the details).

Sooooo – stop doing stupid sh*t!  And trust in love.

And what is so funny about peace love and understanding?

Culture Club – Karma Chameleon

Guilty pleasure or am I a closet Boy George fan?! Yes and Yes. The dude can sing – Yeah,… he had this “androgyny on crack” and really big need of narcotics. BUT – the dude can sing – the songs are smooth and well crafted. This is great pop music.

Wishing all a great day.

Cheers from the cave!

Middle Age Angst

~ Cave_Guy ~ 15 Comments

I had a road rage incident recently that scared me.

Mainly because after all the years of driving and experiencing every kind of foolish transgression possible to experience

I thought I was immune.

I am not immune and I harbor deep wells of anger

What?

Bad day – happens all the time – it doesn’t matter what I was doing or where I was doing it. Enough to say that on this day I was giving it all I had and seemed to be getting nothing but aggravation back.

But this does not make me special or unique- many people have tougher paths to walk and life is not fair

I know this – I embrace this – I live this

There is nothing I can do about it

So somebody passing me on the road just to pass me should not bother this beat-down hombre

But it did

I punched the pedal to catch up to the offender – I did not know that my poor engine could respond like that – I am surprised that it did not blow up –

Then when he/she (I don’t know who was in that pick-up truck of doom) pulled in to a convenient store I almost pulled in right behind them (thankfully, I did not).

So I could go eyeball to eyeball with the offender.

This would have been bad – logically I knew that nothing good could come from this

Logically, I knew that there was nothing I could do about all the bad stuff that happened to me earlier in the day

But on the road I could –  two vehicles going mano a mano – I have control and I do matter.

This scared me – because I have not felt this anger for 30 years – not since I was a young nerd/punk at a Clash concert – not since I started to know better.

But when we are beat-down and unable to express it we lash out in other ways —–

I get pro-wresting and looting now – I am not above both if my situation was different.

And all of this got me thinking about Paul Westerberg  and how he proclaimed on one summer night when no one was listening.

“Here is one more song —–  if anyone cares”

And The Replacements played this classic.

the crowd was not impressed.

But I was.

And still am.

They were just the warm-up band for Tom Petty – who would follow and play for the faithful and I left early. To this day I still don’t like Tom Petty.

I have angst.

Last of the Buffalo

~ Cave_Guy ~ 11 Comments

buffalo-header

The last great buffalo herd was shot in 1898 yesterday.

I saw it on the news before I went to work – 15 bison running next to the highway in frantic formation.

A taste of what we lost.

I know this is a just a small glimmer of what these beasts once meant.

In a former time they were free to roam and they were legion.

And now we got a few “escaped convicts” from a local meat farm answering their instincts and on the run.

They swam across the Hudson River. They ran across interstate highways.

They moved as one – the adults and the young – these tremendous artifacts of a bygone era.

I have to admit when I saw them running – it made me feel good.

This is what they are supposed to do – run from place to place – in a big country that lets you go forever – they are made for this – battering-ram-monsters of freedom.

“Give me a home where the buffalo roam”

This is friggin’ awesome!

But the wheel has turned

Their time is done.

The farm they escaped from employed a few hunters to gun them down (as was their right, according to officials on the scene) – The State police called it “an ugly affair”  – with one hunter possibly facing criminal charges for refusing to “finish off” a wounded animal. In all, 22 animals were slaughtered if you include a few shot earlier. All agree– there was no other choice – these animals are too big to contain and too dangerous to let run free.

The meat could not be cared for and got to the buffalo butcher for three months, (not many buffalo meat cutters around, I guess) – so it was deemed no good for human consumption.

This is shades of Buffalo Bill and the other wranglers that forced the land to submission by killing and leaving the skinned carcasses to rot where they were dropped.

No food and clothing – no life for the native people that depended on this animal for countless generations.

Build the railroads and build the new America.

The wheels are turning – progress – industrial might and other stuff all coming to a suburb near you.

But first the buffalo had to go.

http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/15-buffalo-killed-in-albany/