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Your fast & furious Run-DMSteve guide to year 6

Posted: March 26, 2017 in Miscellaneous, music
Tags: best blog ever, index, Run-DMSteve, Year 6

Time for some three-months-overdue housekeeping. Return with me now to the long-ago Year of Our Lord 2016, and thanks as always for sending me money*:

Goodbyes

Bands

Astounding songs on atrocious albums: The Zombies, Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood, The American Breed

Classical music showdown

The Cult

David + David, Wall of Voodoo, The Nails

David Bowie

Rick James

Every Motown single ever made

Birthday musings, including The Rolling Stones

The Trashcan Sinatras

Animals

Junior, my father-in-law’s last pet

Xena, part 1

Xena, part 2

All the rest

Email haters

More crap from Dad, part 1

More crap from Dad, part 2: Flashlight of the Month Club

More crap from Dad, part 3: The house it all came from

The white feather boa finds a new Bearer

My favorite holiday

Things I have lived long enough to see, part 1

Things I have lived long enough to see, part 2: Hillary Clinton explained

I have one job on this lousy ship

The unrelenting awfulness of Star Trek: Beyond

Checkers

My loyal readers

The election

Random Pick of the Day
The Secret Sisters, Put Your Needle Down (2014)

The sweet, tight harmonies of Laura and Lydia Rogers, the not-exactly-a-secret sisters, will immediately make you think of The Everly Brothers. Like Phil and Don, Laura and Lydia have a country background and cross-over appeal. The girls venture farther into honky-tonk; the boys go deeper into gospel. Are there any songs on Put Your Needle Down that could chart as high “Bye-Bye Love,” “Wake Up Little Susie,” or “Cathy’s Clown”? Yes, there are several candidates – if this album had been released in 1960. The musical world is too fragmented today for the Rogers or the Everlys to dominate the pop charts.

The Sisters’ lyrics are far more literate than any pop star could’ve pulled off in the 1950s (or been allowed to pull off). I like this album, their second, a lot. Their first, Secret Sisters (2010), is too country for me.

Random Pan of the Day
Iggy Pop, Blah Blah Blah (1986)
On this album, Iggy sings like David Bowie and looks like Buster Keaton. Bowie co-wrote and co-produced; Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols plays guitar.

This is a very ’80s album, by which I mean there are deep sedimentary layers of synthesizers and drum machines. At several points it could slide into songs or at least moods by The Psychedelic Furs, Echo & The Bunnymen, and even Erasure.

“Real Wild Child” was on the radio a lot that year. It still holds up. “Winners and Losers,” for all the overproduction, is a serious rocker, though it goes on a long time for Iggy (6 minutes). “Hideaway” is also good, plus the guitar sounds like mid-’80s Springsteen.

This is an interesting combination of musicians that makes you wish the parts added up to something better.

* You do know you’re supposed to do that, don’t you? Everyone else does!

Run-DMSteve: Index to Year IV

Posted: January 4, 2015 in music
Tags: Alvvays, best blog ever, Dire Straits, Grandma Bella, index, Lawrence Welk, Marvin Gaye, On Every Street, Run-DMSteve, Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color, What's Going On, Year 4

We have a new entry in the Stupid Band Name Sweepstakes: Alvvays. This Canadian group pronounces it “Always.” Why won’t they pronounce the vees? If they did, they’d sound like my maternal grandmother, Bella, who grew up in Austria, was a refugee in Italy after World War I, and arrived in New York City as a teenager. Bella lived to be 93, or possibly 94 – her older sister, Paulie, claimed that Bella was a year older, which made my grandma furious! She won that argument only when Paulie passed away.

Bella never lost her sense of fun. She engaged in titanic poker battles with her pals, Charlotte, Sylvia, and Bubbles, usually at a nickel per hand. We grandchildren raked in the winnings. One of her biggest scores came when Charlotte and Sylvia each had two pairs but Bella was holding “tree kveens.”

My first encounter with music criticism, and my lifelong disdain for the music of the masses, came courtesy of Bella. She was baby-sitting me on a Sunday night when we had a battle over Lawrence Welk (“Velk”) vs. Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. Guess which side I was on. Disney had probably lined up another exciting adventure of Spin and Marty whereas Mr. Welk had certainly fired up his champagne bubble machine. Bella won – I was only 6 – and even in my bedroom with the door closed I was tortured by Lawrence Welk and his parade of antiseptically scrubbed young people singing “My Old Kentucky Home” and other hits of the 1840s.

Bella is gone but this blog rocks on – now rocking our fifth year! Thanks for reading along and not sending me to my room.

My most popular post
I wrote this one in 2012 and it’s still drawing visitors. I don’t even have that job anymore!

Bands
Chicago (Sins of the ’70s Week)

Deep Purple (Sins of the ’70s Week)

Fleetwood Mac (Sins of the ’70s Week)

Fleetwood Mac, Peter Green edition (Sins of the ’70s Week)

Grand Funk Railroad (Sins of the ’70s Week)

The Prince Project
The Prince Project begins

First Prince album

The Prince Project falls and it can’t get up

Songs
“Tomorrow Never Knows”

Vacations
Spring break

Summer time, and the livin’ is easy

The great outdoors

Misc.
At home with Mom and Dad

Football, God help us

Gardening from A to Z

Halloween

I vanquish technology yet again

It’s the end of 2014!

Letter-writing

Pencils

The reign of Cleo, Part I

The reign of Cleo, Part II

Time travel

Random Pick of the Day
Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On (1971)
It begins with “What’s Going On” and ends with “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler),” two of the greatest songs of the 1970s. Excuse me, two of the greatest songs.

Random Pan of the Day
Dire Straits, On Every Street (1991)
“Calling Elvis” awakens old glories. Alas, the rest of the album sends them back to bed.

Index to Run-DMSteve Year 3.0

Posted: January 26, 2014 in Miscellaneous, music
Tags: best blog ever, Bill Frisell, House of Pain, index, J. Geils Band, Johnny Cash, Run-DMSteve, The Cult, The Rolling Stones, Year 3

My people! The cash has been rolling in since I launched this blog on November 4, 2010. PolitiFact rates this assertion as Pants on Fire. I haven’t made a penny, but I have listened to Johnny Cash at San Quentin (what a record) and anyway blogging is fun and a relief from the cruel indifference of a world that has yet to form a cult around me. (I’ve also listened to Love by The Cult. Imagine if AC/DC got religion, but not one that anyone would recognize.)

I indexed the first year of Run-DMSteve in November of 2011. You can find it over there on the left in the Blogroll. (The Rolling Stones, Now! – A look back at the band as they moved from covering their American blues idols to writing their own songs. They’re barely a year away from incandescence.) The end of 2012 was kind of busy and I didn’t index the second year until January 2013. With that precedent in mind, I present the official authorized index to the third year!

Thanks as always for being there, reading this stuff or pretending to read this stuff and making appropriate or inappropriate comments. I couldn’t do it without you, Special D, WordPress, and the weekend of classes I took at the International House of Critics. (J. Geils Band, Full House vs. House of Pain, House of Pain. J. Geils wins!)

Bands
999

Siouxsie & The Banshees

Talking Heads

2013 Clarion West Write-a-thon
Introducing the whole thing

It’s all about to happen

The Write-a-thon finally starts (Day 1)

The Write-a-thon finally ends, thank God (Day 41)

The summing up

Dogs
Teddy Ballgame

“Let Me Count the Ways” Week
I start reviewing every band with a number in its name

I run out of every band with a number in its name (or so I thought)

Misc.
A tale of two miracles

Baby Boomers Social Club

Ask Run-DMSteve asks Run-DMSteve

Round-up of albums released at Christmas 2013 but are not about Christmas in 2013 or any other year

Random Pick of the Day
Bill Frisell, Good Dog, Happy Man (1999)
A guitar album of considerable skill, yet somehow with little to stick to your memory or disturb your concentration. For example, the title track – it’s pretty, and it floats away while you’re listening to it. I think that would make Good Dog, Happy Man a good listen when you’re out for a spin. Totally excellent cover art.

Index to Year 2 of Run-DMSteve

Posted: January 20, 2013 in music
Tags: best blog ever, index, Run-DMSteve, Year 2

Greetings, honorable ones. The second-year anniversary of this blog was in November 2012. I would’ve posted my index then, but I was high. Today I rectify that error. I see you shiver in antici – Say it! – pation.

It is my humble hope that something I’ve written here has led you to a greater understanding of and appreciation for popular music. If not, too bad. I’m too busy listening to music that you can’t understand or appreciate to pay attention to you. Anyway, nevermind the bollocks, here’s the Index to Year 2, and thanks as always for not setting me on fire.

Bands

Bob Dylan

Donna Summer

Donovan again, God help us

Everclear (’90s Week)

Gram Parsons (’90s Week)

Right Said Fred (’90s Week)

Screaming Blue Messiahs and The Flintstones

Genres

19 songs for a new job

37 songs for a new job

Best Debut Albums of the 20th Century By Newcomers Who Aren’t Somebody Stupid Like Foreigner
(The Velvet Underground, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Clash, The B-52s, The Undertones, Pretenders, Run-D.M.C., The Smiths, Tracy Chapman, Moby)

Best Debut Albums of the 20th Century By Newcomers Who Didn’t Name Their Debut After Themselves and Who Aren’t Somebody Stupid Like Foreigner
(The Beatles, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Elvis Costello, The Cure, Gary Numan, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Dream Syndicate, Nine Inch Nails, Liz Phair, Beck, Veruca Salt)

Female/male duos
(Sonny & Cher, Ike & Tina Turner, Captain & Tennille, Eurythmics, Nu Shooz, Frou Frou, Goldfrapp, She & Him)

Hanukkah holiday hits

One-name male pop stars (Liberace, Donovan, Yanni, Sting, Beck, Eminem)

Opera

Songs that go on for, like, forever

Miscellaneous

Report from WordPress: 2011 in review

Report from WordPress: 2012 in review

Ask Run-DMSteve

Go ahead, ask him again

Dogs as music critics

Jack Palmer

Internet radio (’90s Week)

Index to Year 1 of Run-DMSteve

Posted: November 20, 2011 in music
Tags: best blog ever, index, Run-DMSteve, Year 1

There are more than 100 million blogs in the world, but there’s no one home at most of them. According to the numbers I’ve seen, most blogs are abandoned in the first month. If there is such as thing as the “average blog,” it has the life expectancy of a relationship that began in the “Casual Encounters” section of Craigslist.

But Run-DMSteve is still standing, one year and 47 posts later! In my next post I’ll tell you how and why I launched this publishing juggernaut and what I’ve learned. I’ll also give you the lowdown on my Loyal Readers. Until then, here’s the first year in one handy place. I’ll eventually move it over to the Blogroll column.

Thanks always for reading. Keep on rockin’ in the free world!

Bands

ABBA (’70s Week)

AC/DC (’70s Week)

Aerosmith

A Flock of Seagulls (’80s Week)

America (’70s Week)

The B-52s

Bananarama (’80s Week)

The Baronics vs. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Pachelbel, and Vivaldi

The Beatles

Cat Power