“Listen, the rumors of my sobriety are greatly exaggerated”

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Keith Richards confirmed that those stories about he and Ron Wood quitting drinking together were too good to be true.



Is anyone shocked?

Jackie and Dunlap discuss PETA wanting a robotic stand-in for the beloved Groundhog Day host Punxsutawney Phil.

"by the the time they're all through, PETA have us all eatin' robot hamburgers!"

-Jackie Broyles

On one hand, PETA’s robot suggestion, while humorous, is disappointing. Where’s the militancy? Where’s the intolerance? This isn’t the extremist group that we’ve all come to know and love.

"Songs and music have always inspired me."

===============~Bob Dylan

May 3, 2006, marked the premiere of Bob Dylan's DJ career, hosting a weekly radio program, Theme Time Radio Hour, for XM Satellite Radio, with song selections revolving around a chosen theme. Dylan played classic and obscure records from the 1930s to the present day. The show was praised by fans and critics as "great radio," as Dylan told stories and made eclectic references with his sardonic humor, while achieving a thematic beauty with his musical choices. The show ran ran from May 3, 2006 -April 15, 2009.
These broadcasts are now available, thanks to CROZ-FM. All 100 shows (in 160-kbps mp3 format) can be found at their archive site.
Just click on the icon to download each show as a single zip file. These are not podcasts - each song is a separate mp3 file with title and performer details completed in the ID tags. If you put the shows on your iPod, they will appear as Bob Dylan albums. This is a really great offering that will take you a long time to download, but I think you will find it worthwhile. A great companion for long road trips.

(Hat tip to The Basement Rug)

A Legend leaves

He built his own guitar and effects...
when his elbow got smashed, he was asked by his Doctor what position he would like it permanently fixed in. He said a Right Angle, so he could still play guitar...
He pioneered the idea of multi-tracking to get extra guitar parts, and the first to use sped-up and slowed-down guitars.

The legendary Les Paul has passed at age 94.
This really is sad news. He was a true innovator.
He will be missed by many.

Here's some audio:

Short-lived, musically memorable NBC radio show by the virtuoso guitarist/recording innovator, his vocalist wife Mary Ford, and their bass/percussion partner Ed Stapleton.

Mallard

"They're just makin' up future years for their imaginary deadlines for their fake crises!"

Jackie and Dunlap sound off about the G8 Summit.
A great video from the start. There's even an insult hurled at Mariah Carey within the first 20 seconds!

Obama Attends Bulls**t G8 Summit

After Dark - July 10, 1969

Today's Date In Music History:The Grateful Dead performs at the Playboy Mansion
- for clarification, July 10, 1969 was the broadcast date, the show was actually recorded on 1/18/69. Sorry for any confusion.

The clip begins with a conversation between Jerry Garcia and Hugh Hefner.



Also of note for this date in music, are the birthdays of Messrs. Arlo Guthrie and Bela Fleck.

California is going bankrupt and Schwarzenegger is handing out IOU's to everyone with a pulse...

.
... Yet, they have enough money to throw a memorial service for Michael freaking Jackson?!!!

Stringbean

a.k.a. David Akeman (6/17/15 – 11/10/73)


In my last post, I paid tribute to television's HEE HAW.Today I will remember an individual member of the cast--a great man, who met a tragic and untimely death.




Stringbean, was a banjo player and comedy musician.He is best known for his role on the hit television show Hee Haw, but his work also goes back to the 1940s and a three-year stint with Bill Monroe.Oddly, it was as a ballplayer -- not a banjo player -- that Akeman first came to the attention of Monroe, who fielded a private semi-pro team.It was during this period that Akeman teamed with Willie Egbert Westbrook as "String Beans and Cousin Wilbur," a comedy duo, who often worked on the same bills with Monroe's Blue Grass Boys.
Stringbean would leave Monroe's group in 1945.

David Akeman was born to a farming family in Annville, KY. He built his first homemade instrument (at age seven) out of a shoe box and thread borrowed from his mother.
During the Depression-era, Akeman spent time working for the Civilian Conservation Corps, building roads and planting trees ("shovel-ready" projects?).
One day he entered a talent contest that was being judged by singer-guitarist-musical saw player Asa Martin, and won. He joined Martin's band, and during one performance the bandleader stumbled over Akeman's name and, unable to remember it, introduced him to the crowd as "String Beans." With his tall, lanky frame, the name was a natural and it stuck.In 1946, he first began working with Grandpa Jones (Louis Marshall Jones), a fellow old-time banjo player with a penchant for comedy.During the late '40s, Akeman also formed a team with Lew Childre and became a regular performer on the Grand Ole Opry.It was also around this time that he became a protégé of Uncle Dave Macon, a banjo-player/comic and one of the Opry's most beloved performers.



It was in 1969 that Stringbean and Grandpa Jones became founding members of the cast of Hee Haw. Stringbean became an instant hit, his lanky figure and bewildered expression, coupled with self-deprecating one-liners, made Akeman one of the most popular members of the cast.One of his regular routines was to read a "letter from Home" to his friends.He was also known for being the "Scarecrow" in the cornfield, who would shoot off one liners before being shouted down by the "crow" on his shoulder (The Scarecrow would remain in the Cornfield as a silent tribute after his untimely death).

Akeman lived an extremely modest, simple life. Remembering the hard times of the Depression, Stringbean and his wife lived in a tiny cabin near Ridgetop, Tennessee, approximately 20 miles outside of Nashville. Their only luxury was a Cadillac.
Stringbean did not trust banks due to the multiple bank failures of the Hoover years, and he kept thousands of dollars on his person, which he was known to flash around. It was rumored that Stringbean had a fortune in cash stashed at his house. It was these rumors that led two cousins, John and Marvin Douglas, on the night of November 10, 1973, to break into the cabin.
Returning from a performance at the Grand Old Opry, the burglars shot Stringbean dead after he entered his house, then ran down and killed Estelle. By immediately murdering Stringbean, they had no chance to question him on the whereabouts of any hidden cash, which they were unable to find. They managed to steal some firearms and a chainsaw, all at the cost of two lives. Stringbean and Estelle's neighbor Grandpa Jones discovered his slain friends the next morning.
David and Estelle Akeman are buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in Goodlettsville, Tennessee.


Jackson County, Kentucky now hosts the annual Stringbean Memorial Bluegrass Festival.

Below, Grandpa Jones pays tribute.

An Anniversary "SA-LUTE!" to the folks of Kornfield Kounty

One of the most popular and longest running variety shows in the history of television made it's debut 40 years ago on this date.



HEE HAW was a television variety show, co-hosted by musicians Buck Owens and Roy Clark, featuring country music and humor with fictional, rural "Kornfield Kounty" as a backdrop.



HEE HAW, sort of a country version of Rowan and Martin's Laugh In, was unlike anything else on television – a variety show that embraced the rural lifestyle of the South with skits, curvaceous country girls and the corniest jokes around.



The highlight of HEE HAW was the musical performances that filled each episode, not only by co-hosts Buck Owens and Roy Clark, but an array of country music superstars and singers on the rise performing music that ranged from classic country to contemporary, and gospel to bluegrass.



Virtually every major country superstar appeared on Hee Haw at one time or another – Charley Pride, George Jones, Conway Twitty, Sonny James, Ernest Tubb, Charlie Rich, Ray Price, Hank Williams Jr., Johnny Cash, Roy Acuff, Barbara Mandrell, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, the Statler Brothers, Alabama, George Strait, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, Vince Gill ... and many more.



But not all the guests on the show were from country music. Frequently, there were singers from other genres who became popular with country audiences, plus actors and comedians appeared as well.

Phil Spector Wig's Out

Prison confiscates Phil Spector's wig

I thought for sure it was his real hair!

(via the smoking gun)

Many More Mugshots Here.

"The Ultimate Jew"...

... turns 78 today, as Borscht-belt comedian Jackie Mason celebrates his birthday.
Mason (born Yacov Moshe Maza, on June 9, 1936, in Sheboygan, Wisconsin) has had several one-man comedy stage shows over the years.

Visit his official site, or view one of his politically charged vlogs (like the one below).

Pelosi: Like a deranged pig in heat



Also celebrating today, is guitar wizard Les Paul.
Here's last years post (just add one year).

One For MC

MC, over at A Fine Mess, has long been a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Actor Charlton Heston was also a champion of the right to keep and bear arms.

Below is a photo of what was reportedly** Chuck Heston's gun safe.

(thanks to Al at WGY)

Click photo to look inside!

As this Memorial Day weekend approaches, take a moment to reflect on all the brave souls that have given their lives to protect this, and other rights.
Don't let their deaths be in vain.

DON'T ALLOW THE GOVERNMENT TO STRIP YOU OF YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS! Don't give in without a fight.

NEVER GIVE UP YOUR FREEDOM!

I'd Pay To See That

... and I'm sure many other "great Americans" would, as well.


Hannity Offers To Be Waterboarded For Charity!

(1:12 into the interview)

Olberman offers $1000 for each second.

"Way Out West"

On 1966's Way Out West, legendary entertainer Mae West rocks and rolls to an especially selected repertoire of the latest rock'n'roll hits (The Beatles, The Guess Who and Percy Sledge among others.), backed by the dynamic young group Somebody's Chyldren (creating energetic, raw garage rock raveups).

Her voice is torrid. Her beat is sensational. Her rhythm is like no other rhythm in the business. When she sings these emotional lyrics, they take on deep and feelingful meaning.(from the album's liner notes)
I discovered this gem over at WFMU's Beware of the Blog - a must-visit for music fans.

Listen to the whole album here.

Track Listings:

Treat Him Right

When a Man Loves a Woman

You Turn Me On

Shakin All Over

If You Gotta Go

Lover, Please Don't Fight

Day Tripper

Nervous

Twist and Shout

Boom Boom

Mae Day

(download album here)

The album is quite campy, and perhaps a bit cheesy, but not so much as Burt Ward's 1966 single

Boy Wonder I Love You, a children's record released at the height of Batmania.
It features Burt reading "fan letters" over the musical backing of...The Mothers of Invention. Frank Zappa even wrote and arranged the song, as well as conducting what would come to be known as The Boy Wonder Sessions.




But wait! There's more.

I've saved the best for last.
In 1966, a toy company in Newark, New Jersey released a children's record called Batman and Robin to cash in on the popular t.v. series.
The music on the LP was credited to "The Sensational Guitars of Dan and Dale," but in fact the band was one of the greatest uncredited session combos of all time, including the core of Sun Ra's Arkestra and Al Kooper's Blues Project.
All the tracks were based on public domain items like Chopin's Polonaise Op. 53, the horn theme from Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony and the love theme from Romeo and Juliet, and generic rock riffs.

Pre-Prohibition Absinthe ads

“The absinthe made everything seem better. I drank it without sugar in the dripping glass, and it was pleasantly bitter. I poured the water directly into it and stirred it instead of letting it drip. I stirred the ice around with a spoon in the brownish, cloudy mixture. I was very drunk. I was drunker than I ever remembered having been.” —Ernest Hemingway

View more here.

via WGY.

Visit The Virtual Absinthe Museum.

Absinthe is a flavored distilled liquor, emerald green in colour, turning to cloudy, opalescent white when mixed with water.

Drinking With Bob:Rush Limbaugh and Barack Obama

"Barack Obama and the Democrats are doing everything in their power to silence Rush Limbaugh. My question is WHY?!!!

Is the Obama administration so fragile that Rush Limbaugh is a threat? Is Obama's message and plan so weak that Rush Limbaugh is a threat? if so what is going to happen when a real threat like China or Russia or the Middle East comes around? Are Obama and the democrats going to whine about them being mean too?

It's amazing. George Bush had to deal with dissent from the media for 8 years and you never heard him complain. Obama's been in office for a week and a half and he's already complaining.

I guess things have CHANGED."

Alfred posts a Rush petition.

How about the Concert for Home Foreclosures? The Concert for the Unemployed? The Concert for Jobs?!!

Bob tells us what he thinks about the 'Benefit Concert for Hillary Clinton'.

"Instead of a benefit to raise money for individual politicians. Why aren't these celebrities, who care so much about this country, having Benefit Concerts for average Americans?!"

"... there’s happy-and-content-with-life happy and there’s I’m-so-trashed-I-can’t-stop-giggling happy"

"The adoring throngs all across the nation today seem a bit more of the latter to me."

~Dan Calabrese

Obama’s Problem: The Immature Jerks Who Love Him

(via Conservative Punk)

This video made me physically ill -- Really!

Rizzuto provides a great critique.

Doyle & Debbie in NYC!

Doyle & Debbie will be on 'Conan O'Brien', on Monday Jan. 5th. Then at Joe's Pub on Wednesday and Thursday, the 7th and 8th.

The Doyle and Debbie Show is sublime parody, simultaneously lampooning and idolizing country music's tradition of iconic duos and their subsequent battle of the sexes. Bruce Arntson and Jenny Littleton wield the vocal chops of vintage country stars, taking audiences on a freewheeling joyride through a wickedly funny script and slew of equally hilarious original songs.
Over the past two years, Doyle and Debbie have developed a rabid cult following in Nashville, many of whom have seen the show over a dozen times—everyone from theater-going professionals to college students who wouldn't be caught dead in a theater or a country bar.

When You're Screwing Other Women


Please tell your NYC friends to come on down!