Gazoo's Thread of Self-Indulgence

[RGMike]

"Baby I've Been Thinking" is once again live. 

It's live, live, it's all the way live
Don't even have to walk, don't even have to drive
Just slide, glide, slippity-slide
Just forget about your troubles and your 9 to 5

Welcome Back, Bloggah!

[urth]

"Baby I've Been Thinking" is once again live.  Hopefully to be updated daily.

It's also the one-year anniversary of the blog.

And I'm about 60% sure that I will be in SF sometime in October.  If I have my way, my friend Andy will be in tow.  I need to shoot PoC a note to find out her visit dates!

I know you were targeting mid-October, but keep in mind that Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is usually the first weekend of the month, and despite the crowds it usually offers some pretty amazing performances by performers and combinations of performers that don't tour much or at all. And it's totally free. This year it's Oct 2-4.

http://www.hardlystrictlybluegrass.com/

[Gazoo]

Years I've covered thus far in "Baby I've Been Thinking" blog entries: everything except 1998 in the post-Beatles era.

# 1957 (1)
# 1960 (1)
# 1964 (2)
# 1965 (1)
# 1966 (6)
# 1967 (4)
# 1968 (5)
# 1969 (7)
# 1970 (7)
# 1971 (7)
# 1972 (11)
# 1973 (9)
# 1974 (4)
# 1975 (6)
# 1976 (7)
# 1977 (6)
# 1978 (2)
# 1979 (6)
# 1980 (5)
# 1981 (5)
# 1982 (1)
# 1983 (1)
# 1984 (8 )
# 1985 (6)
# 1986 (4)
# 1987 (1)
# 1988 (2)
# 1989 (1)
# 1990 (3)
# 1991 (2)
# 1992 (3)
# 1993 (2)
# 1994 (3)
# 1995 (1)
# 1996 (1)
# 1997 (2)
# 1999 (2)
# 2000 (1)
# 2001 (1)
# 2002 (2)
# 2003 (1)
# 2004 (2)
# 2005 (2)
# 2006 (5)
# 2007 (3)
# 2008 (12)
# 2009 (4)

[mshray]

If I were doing a blog like yours, I would have hit either of a couple songs from Hole's Celebrity Skin 1998 release:  "Boys On The Radio" or "Heaven Tonight"

I can throw you the MP3's if you want.

ETA: hey, just noticed that in 5 more posts your total will be 12345!

[Gazoo]

If I were doing a blog like yours, I would have hit either of a couple songs from Hole's Celebrity Skin 1998 release:  "Boys On The Radio" or "Heaven Tonight"

I can throw you the MP3's if you want.

ETA: hey, just noticed that in 5 more posts your total will be 12345!

Mark, sorry I never got back to you on this.  I like a surprisingly large percentage of the Courtney Love songs I've heard - even "Mono," which completely flopped in '04.  So I don't know why I've been resistant to hear more.  The latter isn't a Cheap Trick cover, is it?  I'll YouTube it in a bit.

So I'm thinking, it's not like I was disengaged from music in '98; quite the contrary.  Was listening to lots of KFOG and Live 105.  But I just don't have anything to add to "The Way" or "One Week" or "Never There" (to pick three faves).  Nor do I remember anything I hated enough to excoriate.

So sure, I'll check out some Hole and see if words come.  I haven't been very inspired in recent days - it is difficult to maintain a daily blogging pace without phoning it in half the time.  Thanks.  And if you or anyone else sees anything in this Wikipedia summary of the year that jumps out as particularly good/bad/interesting, I'm all ears.

[Gazoo]

Too bad I'm filling in at work Thursday night: a bunch of rock critics here (Stampfel, Robert Christgau, Rob Sheffield, Joe Levy, K. Leander Williams, Jay Ruttenberg, and others) are doing "Critical Karaoke," in which they'll recite comments about why they love a song over its backing track.  I once imagined doing something similar with my blog, but it's too much of an investment in every way to take things to that level.  Wish I could see what they do with it.

[mshray]

If I were doing a blog like yours, I would have hit either of a couple songs from Hole's Celebrity Skin 1998 release:  "Boys On The Radio" or "Heaven Tonight"

The latter isn't a Cheap Trick cover, is it? 

It's not, and I'd be interested to hear what you think of it, as I have my own theory, but don't want to influence your first impression.

"Boys On The Radio" on the other hand seems quite easy to interpret.

[Gazoo]

If I were doing a blog like yours, I would have hit either of a couple songs from Hole's Celebrity Skin 1998 release:  "Boys On The Radio" or "Heaven Tonight"

The latter isn't a Cheap Trick cover, is it? 

It's not, and I'd be interested to hear what you think of it, as I have my own theory, but don't want to influence your first impression.

"Boys On The Radio" on the other hand seems quite easy to interpret.

My reactions to these YouTube clips:

"Boys on the Radio" is one of the more breezily melodic things I've heard from CL et al.  Was this during the period when Billy Corgan wanted to turn her into Stevie Nicks?  It's got the jangly texture of a Gin Blossoms single.  Too bad Court didn't take her responsibilities as a vocalist seriously.  She's a gifted dilletante.  As for the lyrics - it's about Kurt, yeah?  Right down to the burn/fade in the refrain - a reference, I assume, to his misguided suicide note.

"Heaven Tonight" is more fun musically than I've ever heard them have.  Power pop was a good fit for them, especially since (Melissa Auf der Maur?) is a better bvox than I realized.  Too bad the song's a celebration of junk.

[mshray]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure BotR is about Kurt.

I thought that "Heaven Tonight" might be about a girl having her first serious affair with another girl.  For whatever reason it reminded me of a girl that worked as a temp at Schwab when I was in the Margins dept, although this might have been before your time.  She was very cute, early 20's, and had apparently just fallen in love for the first time, and was showing everybody a photo of her & her new girlfriend.  I remember John* telling me that she would have been any lesbian's dream girl.  That was the vibe that this song captured for me, and obviously that's how I would have blogged on it.   

*forget his last name, but wasn't he your team leader when you got there?

[Gazoo]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure BotR is about Kurt.

I thought that "Heaven Tonight" might be about a girl having her first serious affair with another girl.  For whatever reason it reminded me of a girl that worked as a temp at Schwab when I was in the Margins dept, although this might have been before your time.  She was very cute, early 20's, and had apparently just fallen in love for the first time, and was showing everybody a photo of her & her new girlfriend.  I remember John* telling me that she would have been any lesbian's dream girl.  That was the vibe that this song captured for me, and obviously that's how I would have blogged on it.   

*forget his last name, but wasn't he your team leader when you got there?

I don't remember offhand who that John would have been, alas.  Nor do I know who that temp would have been.

But the reason I gave "Heaven Tonight" the reading I did was that Courtney repeated the "horses galloping" metaphor 3 times.  Repeated metaphors can be a sign of lazy songwriting, and that may well be applicable, but just as often it's a sign that someone has chosen a very particular phrase for a very particular reason, and I find it all too easy to read H into horses.  Much is inferrable from this song; everybody's right.