Run-DMSteve

It’s almost 2015. I have one resolution: I will DOMINATE this year. Before I stride forth and conquer, happy new year to all of you. Yes, even you. I am indebted to you who read this blog or regret that you read this blog. For those about to rock, I salute you.

Here at the Bureau we are working 24/7 (and on weekends) to bring you even more musical snobbery. This is just a sample of what you can expect to find at this address in Year 5:

• The complete index to Year 4
• What I did on my Christmas vacation
• 2014: The year in books
• The return of ’70s Week. Pain train’s comin’, baby!
• Also ’80s Week, as soon as I find my T-shirt with the alligator on*
• Welcome back to ’90s Week (I didn’t understand the ’90s during the ’90s, but maybe I can still catch up)
• Valuable cooking tips – collect ’em, trade ’em, spread ’em around!
• Another round of Ask Run-DMSteve (please submit your questions so I can humiliate you)
• More mystery packages from my Dad

And: I will finish my novel!

* “Gonna sell me Bob Marley records/gonna get me some Jackson Browne.”

Enjoy yourselves on New Year’s Eve. I leave you with a message from a wet sidewalk in my neighborhood:

Random Pick of the Day
Chuck Berry, St. Louis to Liverpool (1964)
I thought Chuck Berry was “Johnny B. Goode” and “Roll Over Beethoven” and a slew of other songs with the same guitar riff. I also thought he descended into an endless greatest-hits tour after the British invaded. As if!

In 1964, St. Louis to Liverpool was swamped by 15 albums from The Beatles, The Dave Clark Five, The Rolling Stones, and The Animals. Listening to it 50 years later for the first time, what I hear is a strong response from the USofA. St. Louis to Liverpool has only one of the well-known Berry classics (“No Particular Place to Go”). What it does have is some unexpected blues (“Things I Used to Do”), a great rendition of “Merry Christmas Baby,” and lots of fun rock ’n’ roll. Hail hail Chuck Berry.

Random Pan of the Day
Nicki Minaj, Beam Me Up Scotty (2014)
The first track is a love song to her Range Rover. You can stop listening right there. Ms. Minaj’s talents are confined to her figure; she looks like she escaped from an anime lab. The only thing I like about this speed bump in the path of musical progress is that on her last album she worked with a rapper named Lunchmoney Lewis.