Tag Archives: rock

i dont give a damn about my bad reputation

Posted on by
Reply

last night AJ and I saw Joan Jett and then Boston at the Greek.

I never knew “I Love Rock n Roll” was a cover. Anyways when Bad Reputation is your 4th tune, it’s a good set.

Setlist:
Victim of Circumstance (1981)
Cherry Bomb (The Runaways)
Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah) (Gary Glitter)
Bad Reputation (1981)
You Drive Me Wild (The Runaways)
Light of Day (Bruce Springsteen)
Love Is Pain (1981)
Love Is All Around (Mary Tyler Moore theme) Sonny Curtis cover)
I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll (The Arrows)
Crimson & Clover (Tommy James & the Shondells)
I Hate Myself for Loving You (1988)
Everyday People (Sly & The Family Stone cover)

Then Boston came out and it was like a bunch of dads who have been practicing this shit for years.

Worth it.

 

today is saturday night special’s birthday, it’s 42

Posted on by
Reply

Greatest song that’s (not-so) secretly about gun control? Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Saturday Night Special” — which came out 42 years today.

The tune was co-written by singer Ronnie Van Zant and Glendale’s own Ed King who met Skynyrd when King’s band (the Strawberry Alarm Clock) were on tour with them. Eventually King joined Skynyrd and co-wrote many songs with Van Zant including “Mr. Banker” “Working for MCA” and “Sweet Home Alabama”. He played bass and later when their original bassist returned he played guitar as part of the three guitar attack.

King quit Skynyrd in 1975, a few months after this tune was released. In 1976 he was replaced. In 1977 the band was involved in a tragic airplane crash that killed Van Zant, guitarist/vocalist Steve Gaines and backing vocalist Cassie Gaines, among others.

“Saturday Night Special”
from the album Nuthin’ Fancy
MCA Records
(Ed King, Ronnie Van Zant)

Two feet they come a creepin’
Like a black cat do
And two bodies are layin’ naked
A creeper think he got nothin’ to lose
So he creeps into this house, yeah
And unlocks the door
And as a man’s reaching for his trousers
Shoots him full of thirty-eight holes

Mr. Saturday night special
Got a barrel that’s blue and cold
Ain’t good for nothin’
But put a man six feet in a hole

Big Jim’s been drinkin’ whiskey
And playin’ poker on a losin’ night
And pretty soon ol’ Jim starts a thinkin’
Somebody been cheatin’ and lyin’
So Big Jim commence to fightin’
I wouldn’t tell you no lie
Big Jim done pulled his pistol
Shot his friend right between the eyes

Mr. Saturday night special
Got a barrel that’s blue and cold
Ain’t good for nothin’
But put a man six feet in a hole

Oh, it’s the Saturday night special, for twenty dollars you can buy yourself one too

Hand guns are made for killin’
They ain’t no good for nothin’ else
And if you like to drink your whiskey
You might even shoot yourself
So why don’t we dump ’em people
To the bottom of the sea
Before some ol’ fool come around here
Wanna shoot either you or me

Mr. Saturday night special
You got a barrel that’s blue and cold
You ain’t good for nothin’
But put a man six feet in a hole

Mr. the Saturday night special
And I’d like to tell you what you could do with it
And that’s the end of the song

on april 23, 1992 soundgarden played Rob Gym at UCSB

Posted on by
Reply

tickets were $5.

even though i had graduated already, i had stuck around isla vista because i was in love with jeanine and we were living together as she finished her senior year.

soundgardens badmotorfinger was in heavy rotation in my sony 100 cd changer and i still remember hearing it blasted as i played NHLPA on my sega genesis.

not only were they heavy but they were melodic and cornell’s vocals soared.

he was capable of doing things with his voice that even kurdt couldnt do. in fact of all the grunge stars, he was the rock star.

sure weiland was freakier and flashier and glammier, but chris had the long hair and tore off his shirt and strapped on the guitar and literally thrashed around the stage at the small gym

and i laughed as the fold up chairs that were zip tied together were tossed aside two songs into the show. poor Associated Students tried to make the Soundgarden show a seated show but the kids weren’t having that. and neither was the band. it was glorious.

pretty sure i saw them again at Lollapalooza but that was a giant show. Rob Gym is maybe 300 seats. crumpled and discarded. it was a rock show in a loud old gym. and Cornell was perfect the entire time.

i cannot believe he is dead. what a perfect voice. what great style. what love of music. he did a tour where all he did was covers. thats love. he will always be loved.

there should be a plaque at Rob Gym that says

Soundgarden Rocked Here

u2 is playing this weekend and tix are cheap

Posted on by
Reply

after i took amber to eminem v rihanna, i swore off seeing any more shows at the rose bowl

but ive seen u2 play a stadium before and they were great.

however that was 30 years ago, the last time they toured off the Joshua Tree album

hard to believe it was that long ago, it seems like yesterday, but alas.

i still love those songs and i peeked at the setlist and it seems like theyre playing the hits, appeasing the fans, dipping back into the glory days, and walking down the streets that have well recognized names.

it’s also gonna be warm this weekend.

i could use some soul glow.

i might just go by myself.

and leave early 🙂

what do you do if you want to see a festival

Posted on by
1

but it’s in san diego

and fucking LIVE is gonna be there to ruin everything

but Kesha and Weezer and Janes and Ice Cube and Tom Petty are gonna be there

and Fishbone and Led Zeppelin 2 (?) and Machine Gun Kelly and Pepper

AND SHAQ and T-Pain and Garbage are gonna be there

and it’s just $100 a night

but screw San Diego.

in a perfect world id have a girlfriend

and we’d chill in TJ and cross the border every day

and drive back down and sip on Mexicokes and fish tacos

skinny dip in the pacific

and laugh about Smashmouth

and fall asleep saying

si

si

sssssssiiiiiiiii

this pretty girl was all omg i would love you so hard if you let me

Posted on by
Reply

and i was all listen

if you knew me even a little youd know that the only reason anyone is even slightly interested in busblog is because this entire thing is an illusion

palm trees in winter

warm winds before the oscars

fantasy island baby da plane da plane

im here for one reason and one reason only and its not to be married five kids ranch home in the valley mini van key party

panic room

i am here to take you to the rock show once in a blue moon and

watch shooting stars in the back seat maybe

May

be.

the first fifty years was about saving the world

the next fifty is about writing books.

this was always the plan.

bukowski didnt hit till after 50 and even then he wasn’t super happy. he was pretty happy but not super happy and unlike him i wanna be super happy. i know im not as handsome as he was or as tough or even as talented but im not a drunk im not wild

and best of all im black so i dont crack.

she was not happy with this response.

i could tell because this morning she returned the cheerleader outfit, hot pants, and headdress.

strangely she kept the shoes.

 

why didn’t anyone tell me Tapestry is fantastic

Posted on by
Reply

cnn was showing their giant deal called “The 70s”

we’ve seen it all before.

VH1 used to do it better (RIP VH1)

but there was old CNN plugging away and they were bouncing around from this one to that one, curiously never showing clips of the subject at hand talking about their success or making the work or anything, but whatevs

and they get to Tapestry and Tom Hanks pops in and says that when that record came out, if you went somewhere with friends in two groups of cars… and if one was the boys car and the other was the girls car… if you got in the girls car this is what theyd be playing out of the cassette deck.

i guess i was never in the girls car because even though i had seen this record name-checked over the years, i never bought it.

for some reason i never knew that this was the record that had “You’ve Got A Friend”, “So Far Away” and “You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman”. and for damn sure i didn’t know it had “I Feel The Earth Move”.

so here i was on a lazy Monday, not really wanting to do much more than order Chinese and listen to some music and I said oh we live in 2017, I can just go to Apple Music and play all of Tapestry if I want. lets see what this is all about.

and not only are the hits great, but the album as a whole is a real thing on its own. and who knew she wrote that Shirelles tune “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”. i even like her version.

so maybe once a week i’ll listen to classic records that i shoulda probably have heard by now but i wasnt in the girls car enough.

full weekend. too full to write

Posted on by
Reply

coulter reading

friday i MCed the SW Lauden Replacements-inspired mystery novel short story collection

did i know what i was doing? do i ever?

most of life is being on time.

the rest is being black and proud.

i was incredible. the writers/readers were too.

we even had a guy who skyped in from Scotland to read.

turned out it was his idea, he got the book deal, and it wouldnta happened without him.

also his story was great.

afterwards some of our friends played replacements songs and it was beautiful

weird thing about my friends: we all love the Replacements soooooo much, but for some reason it’s like an unspoken rule that you dont cover them you dont sing them at hootenannys and you dont really even talk about them very much

but when this book came out i guess a few of them were all, lets learn some tunes and rock that shit

it was dylan, greg and marko

marko was a local santa barbara teen who stumbled across our friends and befriended them

he placed bass in Popsicko which was fronted by Keith Brown (RIP) who went to high school with coulter, greg, and dan

he said something really nice at the beginning, he said, a lot of these guys have known each other since freshman year of college

and a few have known each other since high school so it’s really great to be around them

because these songs mean so much to all of them.

so true. so very true.

afterwards i got a few tacos at a taco stand, then ubered for a while.

it was a good weekend.

The Frogtown Serenaders debuted last night at the Mint in Hollywood

Posted on by
Reply

Os and Greg

and they were fantastic.

Mr. Hepburn and I had front row seats in part because Mr. Oswald J. Tyler had not sang in front of a live audience since Heather’s wedding

and it’s always great to hear Greg play any sort of guitar, even the acoustical.

this band is a super group of sorts which only is happening because Greg has parted ways with Vaude and the Villians, which was and is a great group, but as a fan, when theres 20 people on stage its hard to hear the rhythm guitarist.

so i was very grateful to see this new combo which contains the trumpet (or is it a coronet) and banjo dual attack of soloists.

this picture also doesnt show off their 24-year-old singer lady whose name escapes me but she was as talented as she is beautiful

even her parents were in the audience last night — awwwww – because they heard about Os

awwwwwwwwww

they play again in a couple of weeks at a Cubs bar in DTLA so i will have better video and pictures from that gig.

last night i just wanted to get wasted because of sads from politics.

whaaaaaa.