Let's all drink to the death of a clown

"A joke should catch someone by surprise--it should never pander."

That's a quote from the now late Norm MacDonald. Seems like wise words for someone wanting to make people laugh.

One thing that I've been thinking about lately is that while Johnny Carson almost certainly voted for Jimmy Carter when he was running for reelection in 1980, he didn't break a sweat trying to boost him. And for the host of The Tonight Show, that was the right choice. Similarly his protégé David Letterman stayed detached from politics, and probably had a better relationship with his audience because of it. You could look down on this as cowardice or lack of commitment, of course. But look at now. Kimmell, Colbert, mostly everyone on The Daily Show: they're taking a stand, but they've all taken the same stand. Activism is the new conformity. So MacDonald looks better for not chasing after votes.

I actually wasn't sold on him when he was doing the news on Saturday Night Live. Partly because the news was already all OJ all the time and I didn't need my comedy to follow suit. You know, the Simpson case, where the prosecution tried to out-grandstand the defense--with predictable results. But it might have been too hot a spotlight too. As it turns out he was funnier on a lower key. Meaning he was Canadian after all.

Warning, the following clip is not safe for work. If you're not canceled already you will be just for listening.

Two things about this week

1. Okay, Monday? I was on a bus that crashed. Specifically it ran into an SUV. The driver of the smaller vehicle apparently wanted to pull into a driveway, but they just kind of came out of nowhere.

By way of explanation, I wasn't being coy or secretive on Monday. I was genuinely too beat to go into it.

Don't know for sure, but the driver might have been distracted by this couple sitting in the back. She was drunk and hysterical. He was less drunk but an asshole. Like, I think at the ER they might find a bunch of injuries he's given her. Just a hunch. I told the fire department to keep an eye out but I don't know if they heard me and anyway they're not cops.

Anyway, the rescue workers went up the aisle asking people if they were hurt. They let the half of the passengers who didn't have any injuries go. I was in that lucky 50%.

2. Today I got the news that Terry Jones, the charming Welshman from Monty Python, had passed on. This doesn't come out of the blue, but it's a bit melancholy. I have to hand it to the local library. By the time I went there this afternoon they had a display by the entrance of all the Flying Circus episodes and at least one movie (Meaning of Life.)

NI

Seeing in the New Year with Neil Innes, who didn't quite make it to see it in with us. Great songster.

BTW, you just might be able to find a double meaning in the header here, as brief as it is.

What a card

This is, of course, an old Arsenio clip featuring sleight-of-hand man Ricky Jay, who just recently passed. Fascinating look at his personal style. The way he seems to teeter on the edge of bumbling before striking home with the trick is reminiscent of the wilier pool hustlers. As for how he tosses one card in the air and catches another, ???

I feel like I need to track down the book he's talking about too.

Tunesmith

With the recent passing of Jon Hendricks, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross join the Ramones in getting back together. That gives me all the excuse I need to play one of their delightful songs, or it would if I needed any.

From the Hart

Just getting word that Grant Hart has passed. Hart was, of course, one third of Husker Du, drummer and singer/songwriter. He also had a fitfully brilliant solo career after that, heard by too few. While I won't relitigate the feuding that occurred between him and Bob Mould during and after Husker's time together, he truly elevated the band. RIP.

Pour another one out

A few delightful moments with Rob and Laura Petrie, along with the spooky invisible horn section that no one is freaking out about for some reason.

Mose

Well, it's not great that my first post in a few days - due to a cold and some other stuff - is another in memoriam for a great musician who's left us. But there it is.

Mose Allison, late of Mississippi, is no more. But there's still the music, and that voice. Those make the world a brighter place, still.

Meaty Montreal Musique

The roots of the recently late Leonard Cohen were weirder and darker than a lot of people even realize.

Good night, sweet...

Does Rock 'n' Roll Heaven need to expand for tax purposes or something? Damn.

This song I actually wasn't familiar with, but I'm glad the scramble to find Prince-related content brought me to it.

More sweet sounds

It was never my intention to make this blog a revolving memorial and it still isn't. Still, I liked Dan Hicks. His records from the seventies made fine contemporary singer-songwriter tunes from early jazz/swing influences.

Stay tuned for another Final Songs. Looking at two albums from the late sixties, and not 100% sure which comes next.

Taking it easy

Oh well, did at least get the inspiration to dig through the archives for this one. Well worth it.

A man who's left the world

Always, the camera loved him. It wasn't primarily a matter of looks. They were fine, even distinguished, but a little off. Nor was it the outlandish costumes, which came and went. The theatrical and mime training he underwent before breaking through helped. He knew which gestures would communicate the most.

But even that's not all. Underneath the flash and the dramatics you could detect a very human warmth, a quality that's almost impossible to fake.

That's part of what he brought to his music too. Things could get weird and they could get dark, While Diamond Dogs is sketchy as a concept album, the one thing to understand about it is "bad→worse." But there was always a heart beating within, if sometimes an angsty one. That may have been the secret to his success, and it's definitely worth remembering.

Requiem for a mustache

I know I'm a couple of days late on Lemmy, but it seems like a decent way to top off the year's blogging. He and the Ramones had kind of a mutual admiration society going. I guess they can do some catching up now.

___

As a friend and I were saying earlier this evening, it's not the biggest surprise in the world that Scott Weiland died relatively young. He's the one with the polka dot silk shirt. In fact he showed self-destructive tendencies far enough back so that his living and creating as long as he did counts as a kind of triumph, if only against himself.

Not a singer who always got a lot of respect, but I liked him.

Ornette

What can I say? Pretty damn cool.

Royal blues

Caught up with some of the works of Mr. Riley B. King on the occasion of his passing. This seems like a nice one to see out the weekend.

One to beam up (sorry)

Yes, I know it's been a week since I've done a non-video post. It's getting late and what I thought I might write won't get written tonight.

But hey, here's the great and now late Leonard Nimoy supporting the Bangle cause with his fascinating eyebrows.

Boggler

I can't say for certain that this is how he would want to be remembered, but it's one of my better guesses.

The 4th

Which brings us to the impossible unity of the Ramones. They all had the same last name. They all wore the same outfit and haircut. All the songs started with “1 2 3 4.” The monolithic, unified roar. And, most importantly, all the songs seem to come from a musical universe that they were the sole inhabitants of. Although their eagle logo and leather-clad image invited dopey imitation in the way all of rock music’s orthodox rebellion does, the Ramones’ original iconography not only illustrated they were tough, but that they were one. For an earlier music generation, the Beatles’ idea of the band as a gang, jumping over hilltops together, was part of their initial appeal. The Ramones were a gang as a band. A few years before his passing, Dee Dee Ramone complained about when he was starting with the band being forced to get a “Ramone” haircut. Having that small part of their image dismantled that way broke down more of the image of the band for me than I anticipated.

It is preposterous to call the Ramones performance art, but is there a more intentional, self-contained creative performance? The Ramones weren’t a band “about something.” While there were other high-concept bands that rival their singularity of statement—like Kraftwerk, the Residents, or Devo—those bands revolved around technology and enigma. The Ramones were self-reflexive: a rock band that was about the idea of a rock band. They took comic book violence and the deadest tropes of Beach Boys lyrics and placed them alongside tales of New York hustling as if it all was one piece. Authenticity wasn’t an issue. Authenticity was a joke.

From John Flansburgh's post-Tommy in memoriam on The Ramones. They Might Be Giants, Flansburgh's own band, occupies a different niche than the boyz from Queens, but he seems to get them.

After only a couple of years, Tommy decided that having been in the Ramones was great, but that he didn't want to keep doing it. Understandable, given the personalities involved. Still, he'll be remembered with them.