Five Favorite James Bond Movies

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY

This movie has it all for me…there are so many great scenes one after another…good story and pacing, good female lead in Melina, good partner in Columbo and a KILLER theme song by Sheena Easton!

     From the very beginning, the movie seems different from the others. Bond is shown placing flowers at the grave of Teresa Di Vicenso Bond, his one time wife, slain at the hands of SPECTRE.  He is then abducted by a sinister bald man with a white cat who of course is meant to be Bond’s old foe, the SPECTRE leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

  This is pretty significant in that it clearly linked the Roger Moore James Bond with his predecessors, as if to show, “Yes, this is the same guy”. I remember as a kid having my older cousin explain to me about how his wife was killed by Blofeld in an earlier movie, and even then I could feel the “history” of the James Bond character.

 In any case, although the opening degenerates into slapstick comedy, I think this was meant to mark a point as if to say the older movies were like TV shows, and the movies were going to be more “realistic” from that point on. Too bad they didn’t stick with it in the future endeavors!

   Favorite scenes include the first meeting on Bond and Columbo. Villain Kristatos has tricked Bond into thinking that Columbo is the bad guy. Columbo confronts Bond and tries to assure him that they are on the same side. In an act of good faith, he returns Bond’s Walther PPK to him, proving that they should be acting together. Bond points the gun in Columbo’s face, then they both relax and laugh - partners against Kristatos!

   There’s this car chase that ends with assassin Emile Locque‘s car crashed and hanging halfway on and halfway off a cliff. One wrong move might tip the car off the edge, and Locque is in a jam as to how he will get out of the car! He has always left a pin of a dove whenever he has killed someone. Bond tosses the pin in the car, and the viewer thinks the pin will cause the car to tip over… …but before it does, Bond simply kicks the car with all HIS MIGHT over the edge!!! Ruthless!

  The movie builds up to the assault on the secret base of Kristatos, high up on the bluffs. There are some exciting moments as Bond and crew sneak up the face of the bluff to storm the headquarters!

   And can we ever forget gushy Lynn-Holly Johnson’s Bibi Dahl? Bond shows his age as he fights her off, telling the sex kitten he’ll “buy her an ice-cream!”

LIVE AND LET DIE

The one that started it all for me and gave me a lasting obsession with Jane Seymour! I particularly love the soundtrack and George Martin’s score. I agree with the reviewer who said Martin’s Take on the James Bond Theme song is one of the best! Listen to the powerful intro as the scope opens up on the United Nations Building. Good build-up in the teaser working to a PERFECT segue into Paul McCartney’s song.

    Interesting Henchmen in Tee-Hee and Baron Samedi, and one of the most off the wall and inspired endings of all! (Supernatural reincarnation, anyone?)

 Besides being a thrilling song that PERFECTLY matched the feel of Baron Samedi’s Voodoo land, George Martin took the three parts of the song and turned them into these GREAT musical scores. The “When You Were Young” segment of the song turned into the lush romantic scene music, the Frantic Horns section turned into the actions scenes score, and the “What does it Matter to You” segment turned into the funky island music scenes. Maurice Binder did an excellent Montage with this song, using Fire and Skulls to add to the Voodoo Theme.

GOLDFINGER

It wasn’t until I saw this movie that I understood the whole “secret agent” concept that so many copied in the 60’s. Brilliant, witty dialog, interesting characters and a story that keeps you glued to your seat up until the Fort Knox showdown. I love the fight with Odd-Job and the fact that (as throughout MOST of the movie) Bonds uses his MIND to survive rather than use gadgets. Connery at his very best here, strong, suave and also realistically brutish (love the scene where he’s attempting to diffuse a bomb and ends up GUESSING which wire to pull!) The scenes shot in 60’s California streets (Felix Leighter at a KFC!) and the Shirley Bassey “Herb Alpert” style theme song give this movie a nostalgic feel about it, too!

OCTOPUSSY

This is a Bond movie that I’ve always felt possessive of, for some reason. During its stay at the local theater, I saw it a total of SEVEN times, dragging different people - and sometimes even making the SAME friends go with me multiple times! I was really trying  to “spread the religion” and I STILL feel this movie isn’t as highly regarded as it should. I think the way they took the stories “Property of a Lady”, “The Living Daylights” and Octopussy” and melded it into one linear story is just fantastic! The movie features an awesome teaser opening (Fill ‘er Up!), good movie set-up (the opening with 009 delivering the Faberge Egg to the British Embassy) and man…once the train starts its course, the movie doesn’t let up until the end! And that Kristina Wayborne….Mmm!

FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

I love this movie for its detailed and well paced scenes. Director Terence Young relied closely on the original Ian Fleming Novel, and it shows. Great characters (Klebb and Red Grant) and the first appearance of Q! Everyone was here for this one, but my biggest draw for this movie has to be the character of Tatiana “Tanya” Romanova (Daniela Bianchi) whose innocence and looks just sent me head over heels for her. The scene where she is wearing a black ribbon around her neck (and not much else)…HELL! This movie also featured a terrific instrumental opening song…too bad it is usually passed up in Bond Compilations for the Matt Munro ending song instead.

Super-Vixens: Dawnstar

You know, one thing that always disturbed me about the future depicted in the pages of Superboy starring the Legion of Super-Heroes was that far from a future of peaceful racial co-existence, it seemed that all the people of different races, colors and creeds gave up trying to intermingle with each other and departed for planets of their own!

 I first noticed this reading the story of Tyroc, the black man with the sonic scream that could teleport him wherever he wanted to go- hailing from an entire planet populated by blacks…my first thought was like, wow, Planet Earth must have pulled some MASSIVE super-segregation in the 30^th century!

 Which brings us to Dawnstar, a young girl coming from the planet Starhaven, and THIS one is populated by the descendents of American Indians (Anasazi, it seems) whom I guess realized were never gonna get their land back from those "dirty backstabbin’ Americans", and hopped the first rocket out to colonize a new planet!

They’ve somehow grown wings and are able to fly like eagles- for some reason, this oft-used relationship between the eagle and Indians makes sense to me, as the Eagle has always seemed synonymous with the Indian  philosophy (is it un-PC to say Indian anymore?), think about that song “Eagle” by ABBA- very Native American in feel!

In fact, I hereby declare that ABBA song as the official theme song for Dawnstar!

Of course, being of Native American descent, her costume has tassles and fringe. All “Indian” characters costumes have to have that fringe! Well, maybe not. But just taking a quick glance at heroes like  Thunderbird, Dani Moonstar or even Talisman, it sure seems like it to me!

Created by Paul Levitz and Mike Grell in

SUPERBOY starring the LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #226

Favorite Songs:"End Of The Line" by Concrete Blonde

  California alt rock group Concrete Blonde are such terrific songwriters that their take on other artists’ tunes are largely overlooked- Unlike some other groups who merely “do” covers, this group takes songs they like and lovingly transform them into true Concrete Blonde masterpieces!

  Songs like George Harrison’s “Beware of Darkness”, Thin Lizzy’s “It’s Only Money” and Tommy James’ “Crystal Blue Persuasion”…Listening to any one of their covers and it is obvious that the band has given the same amount of time and crafting to these tunes that they’ve given to their own songs!

Of all these cover tunes that the band has produced, (and there have been many, many…!) the song that stands out in MY mind as one of their very best is their take of Roxy Music’s THE END OF THE LINE, featured on their incredible 1993 album MEXICAN MOON.

There are lots of reasons why this cover works so well, but a large part of is that by the time Mexican Moon came out, vocalist/bassist Johnette Napolitano and Guitarist Jim Mackey were seasoned pros; after travelling across the world a zillion times in as many tours, their experience shows through in their sound-No one croons like Napolitano with her low, growling whispers and powerful wailing, and when you add in the lush, layered guitars of Jim Mackey, you are left with pure perfection!

The End of the line was originally off Roxy Music’s 1975 SIREN album, and though I liked the song, I always thought of it as the opening to the avante-grade third track “Sentimental Fool” (since they were essentially connected) and never thought of its potential as a “single” type of song. WOW, how the Concrete Blonde version has changed my mind!

Over the years, I have made quite a few Concrete Blonde cassette mixes for people, and almost ALL of them have concluded with “End of the Line”… Just listening to Jim’s  echoing reverb as he picks out the  resounding notes on his guitar- with double-tracking and a guitar synthesizer, he’s created this beautiful guitar harmony , and then laid over this is the incomparable Johnette’s heartfelt singing- She sings with such passion, you really feel like the lyrics are hers, and when she hits those notes…MAN! Just awesome!

The End Of The Line

(Bryan Ferry)

Take a walk out in the rain

Called you time and time again

Everything is wrong-

You´ve gone

Reached the point of no return

The more I see the more I stand alone

I see the end of the line

Were you ever lonely?

Mystified and blue?

Realising only

Your number´s up

You´re through

Had my share of winning

Now´s my turn to lose

After a fair beginning

The game´s up

You’re through

Think I´ll walk out in the storm

Got no love to keep me warm inside

I see the end of the line

Now´s the time to take a dive

Try a magic carpet ride

Everything is wrong

You´ve gone

If you ever miss me

If I should cross your mind

You know where to find me

I´ll be waiting at the end of the line

Electric Company: Phyllis and the Pharaohs!

I did not grow up in the Fifties, but being a child growing up in the SEVENTIES, it just as well may have been, what with the burgeoning 1950’s retro boom in full swing!

With movies like American Graffiti, The Lords of Flatbush and Grease on the movie screens and television shows like Happy Days and Sha-Na-Na in the homes, it’s no wonder my childhood memories seem to stretch back further than my birth!

Even the 1950s musical style was enjoying a sort of renaissance, and one outfit I particularly liked as a kid was Rita Moreno and the guys (Morgan Freeman, Luis Avalos, Jim Boyd and Skip Hinnant) as a cool vocal group doing a decidedly Fifties take on their songs, the incomparable Phyllis and The Pharaohs!

Looking at it now, I’m not sure how they intended to keep a kid’s interest in the skits, as they weren’t done for laughs per se, meaning, no juvenile humor  or zany slapstick to keep the kids entertained- just sweet, catchy tunes… and guess what- that seemed to have done it- at least to THIS young musical connoisseur!

When I was a kid, my hands down favorite of the Phyllis and the Pharaohs songs was “Grease”, a tune I constantly (and irritatingly, at least to my friends and siblings within earshot) sang over and over again at various speeds and pitches, ESPECIALLY Morgan Freeman’s groovy bassman lines, but watching (and re-watching) the Electric Company  as an adult, BY FAR  my favorite song has to be “Is It Love?”…

Listening to it now, I can see why it was (back then) my least favorite of the bunch, as it was clearly the most “mainstream” and “normal” sounding of all of them, but SERIOUSLY FOLKS! Never mind that this was a little ditty simply written for a kids show to teach you grammar- this song was just BEAUTIFUL- with a playful Moreno lead vocal over AWESOME background harmonies by the guys, this is the song that REALLY takes me back to my childhood, and I’m inundated with those faux Fifties memories I told you about!

Super-Vixens: Lilith

When the Teen Titans began in 1966, it was a comic geared towards kids with a supposed “hip” slant to it, but with scripts that seemed decidedly UN-Hip (Mad Mod, anyone?) and it wasn’t until Dick Giordano came aboard and re-tooled it with the likes of Neal Adams and Marv Wolfman did it actually come across as a cool, timely strip.

 Stories were introduced that more accurately reflected the times of the late-sixties with Race Riots, Love and Peace, and College Protest Marches, and along with these tales we were introduced new characters that reflected the times as well…

Among these new characters was the gorgeous if not slightly aloof red-haired temptress named Lilith- though she was Clairvoyant Telepath, she was less like a super-heroine than that Annie Golden character in HAIR, and when she wasn’t helping out the Teen Titans with their various dilemmas, she was rocking out in the Go-Go dancing cage and/or rocking out the coolest and sexiest dresses and outfits!

 And by outfits, I mean CLOTHES outfits…A funny thing about Lilith is that she (along with fellow new character Mal Duncan) never ever did get a costume proper and spent the entire series in civilian clothing. Each episode I would wonder just when the heck she was going to get a costume, but before I realized it, I was used to and quite happy to see her in her swinging’ sixties dresses, and didn’t WANT her to wear a costume!

When Marv Wolfman and George Perez revamped the Titans in the 1984 series “The NEW Teen Titans”, I was disappointed to not see Lilith among the ranks (but satisfied myself with the knowledge that at LEAST Donna Troy would be there, and even MORE comforting was the exclusion of those characters from the mid- seventies East/West Teen Titans whom I’ve NEVER liked). And though I’ve read that they DID eventually bring Lilith back in some capacity, by that point I’d stopped collecting the New Titans, and missed out on it completely. Ah well, chances are I woulda been disappointed anyway- nothing can compare to the vibrant sixties era Lilith, a true product of her times!

Super-Vixens: Darthartheen

Another  awesome “one-shot” character by John Byrne,  Darthartheen was one of the descendents of OA who knew how to handle a power ring just as well as Hal Jordan himself!

 Featured in the Green Lantern special GANTHET’S TALE, (drawn by Byrne and written by science fiction writer Larry Niven), Darthatheen’s multi-dimensional persona made her stand out among Lantern’s opponents, and the open-ended revenge theme leads one to think Niven and Byren were planning on expanding her character in some future tale.

 Throughout the tale, facets of her complex personality are hinted at- after savagely battling with the girl, Hal is surprised to find she actually cares about the fate of  an advesary she may have been able to save. When she is confronted with the death of her beloved father, she swears revenge, and we think we’re getting set up for an awesome cosmic showdown between Hal and Darthatheen…

 But, it was not to be, and to this date, GREEN LANTERN: GANTHET’S TALE is the sole appearance of the tough but thoughtful woman warrior, at least as far as I know! If anyone has any information about this young lady, PLEASE drop me a line!

Wait, Did I say YOUNG lady? As Hal noted himself, though the gal might LOOK like a pretty young lady, Darthatheen is in fact, hundreds of years old!

Darthartheen

Green Lantern: Ganthet’s Tale

By Larry Niven and John Byrne

Selma Blair "Kill Me Later"

Have a friend who's crazy about Selma Blair and told me I MUST watch her horror/thriller movie "Kill Me Later", and burned me a copy...

Good Movie, and I must say, Selma Blair DOES looks quite smoldering in this one…

Not that many people out there look so sultry taking a drag on a cigarette…!

Peanuts / Calvin and Hobbes Deja Vu!

I've always loved Peanuts comics as far back as I can remember- For some reason I always identified with poor Good Ol' Charlie Brown! I remember spending  all my allowance on those paperback books (the ones that were condensed versions of the "real" collections like "Thompson's In Trouble, Charlie Brown") and spending entire weekends just sitting around reading them!

  Years later, the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes came out- I immediately fell in love with the strip, because it gave me that same feeling I had when I used to read Peanuts, and it wasn't just the fact that Linus and Calvin dressed the same! Calvin's world of make-believe and the way Watterson strung several strips to tell a greater story all had the feeling and warmth of the old Schulz strips!

  Reading Calvin and Hobbes, every once in a while I would get a strange feeling of Deja Vu, like I'd read something like it before in a Peanuts strip. It got to the point that I went back and dug out some of my old Charlie Brown books, and was quite surprised how many of the Calvin and Hobbes strips echoed the Peanuts ones!

For those like me who always had that sense of deja vu,I thought I'd line some of them side-by-side so you can understand better what I'm talking about!

"Killing the Pumpkin"

Both Linus and Hobbes get squeamish watching a Pumpkin meet its demise

"When You Wish Upon A Star"

Both Sally and Calvin expect instant rewards from Starwishing.

"The "Penitent Sinner" Shtick"

False regret doesn't work for either Linus OR Calvin!

"If I could, I'd flee from School"

Sally and Calvin both dream of tickets out of Elementary School.

"I'd rather dance that perform my part in the School Play"

Linus and Calvin both try to soft-shoe their way out of reciting.

"Pursued by Inanimate Object!"

Both Lucy and Calvin are being chased by things brought to life,

in Lucy's case her brother's Blanket, and Calvin's is his bike!

"I Opt out of this Sled Ride"

Both Snoopy and Hobbes wisely step-off a dangerous sled ride.

"Homework? What Homework?"

Both Charlie Brown and Calvin procrastinate all week on doing their homework.

Both don't learn their lessons.

Peanuts is copyright United Features Syndicate Inc

Calvin and Hobbes copyright Universal Press Syndicate

These pics uploaded for entertainment purposes only...please don't sue my ass!

A Tale Of Two Cardigans

Years and years ago, a coworker of mine introduced me to the lush sounds of the swedish alt/pop group The Cardigans with a mix cassette of her own devise. The songs she chose were selected from the group's first two releases, Emmerdale, and an album called LIFE. WOW, what a group! Sounding like a mix between the Beatles, George Shearing, and the Pied Piper of Hamlin, this was a VERY unique sounding band!

So after a few weeks of listening to that cassette, I fell in love with their retro, 1950's sound and decided I just HAD to have them on CD! Asking the girl about which albums to get, she told me, "Emmerdale and Life". Sounded easy enough, right? So I ran to the store and picked up both discs, and couldn't wait to blast 'em on my stereo system at home!

Well, It all seemed good, until the time came when I wanted to burn a CD in the same order of that Mix Cassette she'd made for me, and realized the song "Travelling With Charley" was nowhere to be found!
A winsome, quirky tune about a shleppy, unlucky (but determined) detective, this was one of the first songs I liked on the mix, and just HAD to have it on the CD!

So the next day at work, I asked her, "Say, where did you get the song Travelling With Charley? It ain't on either of those two CDs I bought." She thought about it and said, "it was on the Life album." I went like "Huh?" and decided to double check. Went Home, checked the Life CD. Nope, it wasn't on it. "Well, that's where I got it from", she flatly stated the following day. Ermmm, OK...

So my poor CD ended up without that song, and it wasn't until years later (and long since the Cardigans had become a famous, mainstream pop group with their single Lovefool) poking around online that I found out that the version of LIFE that my friend had was an IMPORT version, and that particular release had two or three songs not on the domestic "Mintyfresh" release! Argh! I made my way to ebay, and found an international seller selling a copy of Life right away, and when I finally got the CD in my hand, I was PLEASANTLY relieved to see, listed as track number 7, that elusive Charley Song!

You best believe that I reconstructed that original Cardigans mix right away, and that playlist now lies on my Ipod, ready to play at a moment's notice! And though it's not quite a standard representation of the Band's sound, have a listen to the song that caused all that fuss, the  spacey and airy Travelling With Charley!

Memories of Uncanny X-Men #127

I first started collecting  the awesome Chris Claremont/John Byrne run of the UNCANNY X-MEN starting from issue #125, and by the time the latest issue #127 came out, I'd gotten a few back issues including 123,124 and 108. By this time they were my favorite comic and I lugged them around to read wherever I went, even down to a family picnic down at the beach one evening!

While everyone was congregating , the uncles and aunts talking story and the kids running around on the field, I played introverted anti-social kid and drifted off to a shady area and began reading my comics. My cousin saw me siting under a tree, and asked, "Hey, what's that you're reading?" I proudly gestured to my stack of comics and said it was my FAVORITE comic, The Uncanny X-MEN!"Intrigued, she said, "that sounds interesting...can I take a look at them?"

Handing it over, I saw her immediately take a look at the cover of my newly-purchased issue #127, and then turning the cover to show me, she quizzically pointed at Storm and said, "But this is a LADY."
Ehhh? "Ummm...Yeah, but she's still a member of the team. " She frowned and looked at the cover again, and said "But the group is called X-MEN."

"Um...yeah." I said.

At that point my brothers came up to me and told me they were ready to do some fishing in the canal off to the side of the park, so I left her there reading the comics. When I got back a few hours later, I asked her if she'd read the comics, to which she said an affirmative "yup".

"So...How Did You Like It?" I asked.

"It was okay. That Lady was pretty Cool with the lightning bolts and all."

LOL! Anyway, to this day, whenever I see the cover of Issue #127, I think of that day at the picnic, and have to marvel at the fact that nawadays, X-MEN is SUCH a well-known comic/movie/cartoon,etc that there probably aren't that many people who don't know Storm or the other many females comprising the team. But back then...Wow.

Favorite Songs: "Everyday Is Like Sunday" by 10,000 Maniacs

Perusing W♥M’s review of R.E.M.’s song “Don’t Go Back to Rockville brought back happy memories of 10,000 Maniacs’ “Candy Everybody Wants” Maxi-Single, which featured not only “Don’ t Go Back To Rockville” and “Sally Ann”, but a cover of ANOTHER famous artist…

I used to go out with this girl who had a love of music as much as I did, and at that time, her favorite group was The Smiths, (in particular their enigmatic lead singer Morrisey) while one of my favorite groups (still is, actually) was the awesome Jamestown Alt/Folk band 10,000 Maniacs.

So one day at work, I’m listening to the college radio station, and they’re spinning the latest single from Natalie Merchant and the boys, and I am pleasantly surprised to hear them do a cover of Morrisey’s “Everyday is like Sunday”!

What an interesting choice!!! Listening to it, I just loved Natalie's take on the song, and I just couldn’t wait to go home and tell my girlfriend the news that two of our favorite groups had “connected” somehow! I picked her up after work, and was about to tell her the exciting news, but before I could, she burst out, “Guess what, today I heard some BITCH trying to cover Morrisey’s Everyday is Like Sunday!!!”

Stunned, I defensively said “What?! That was no “Bitch”! That was 10,000 Maniacs!!!”

Then she said, “Oh…really?” 

And I adamantly said “YEAH!!!” Ahahahahahahaaa!!!

Well, I can't remember if she ever gave the 10,000 Maniacs version a chance, although to be fair, she did like quite a lot of OTHER songs from The Maniacs. Too bad Morrisey never did a cover of one of Natalie's songs!

Hawaii Five-O Girls: Robyn Millan

Robyn Millan appeared in Season 4 of Hawaii Five-O in the episode “R&R…& R”, but it was her salacious turn as Rosalie Ferguson in the wickedly fun “One Big Happy Family” as the uncontainable sex kitten wife of Jed Fergusen that takes the cake!!

 This episode is dark humour at its best- Jed and his hillbilly family are hopping island to island, taking odd-jobs and then killing the owners for the cash register money. But it’s Robyn Millan who shines best here- Jed’s Dad calls her “Nudie Gal”, and why not? She’s always dressed up (down) to bikinis and hot pants…what more could one ask for?!

Robyn Millan

“Ella Syzmanski”

Hawaii Five-O Episode 96: “R & R & R”

“Rosalie Ferguson”

Hawaii Five-O Episode 124: “One Big Happy Family”

The Seeding Of Summer Lawns

While hunting online for some of the more obscure Joni Mitchell tracks that seem to be floating all over the place, I came across an interesting little curio- an unauthorized “Companion” to Joni’s incredible (and one of my very, very favorite) 1975 album The Hissing of Summer Lawns.

In France They Kiss On Main Street:

This collection, humorously entitled The Seeding of Summer Lawns, consisted of demoes and work-in-progress versions of songs that would eventually make it onto the actual album, and it was quite a thrill to experience the bare bones takes of songs like In France They Kiss on Main Street, Shades of Scarlett Conquering, and The Boho Dance, all before they would get transformed into the wonderful lite-jazz masterpieces that we know and love.

Shades of Scarlett Conquering:

One thing thing that I thought was pretty neat was that in these original demoes, Joni sings parts that would eventually be played by horns, and there’s no place more evident than in the demo of Edith and The Kingpin, where each verse is punctuated by an echo-ey chorus harmonizing to simulate the horns to come!

 Edith and the Kingpin:

One song that was prepared and demoed for this album was a song called Dreamland, and while the song didn’t make it to the final stages of Hissing, a polished and very world-beat influenced version would later appear on the epic Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter.

Now, I’ve always liked Dreamland (though I was never a big fan of the percussion laden Tenth Circle track that was connected to it)  and I was excited to hear how this tune sounded in its original state… but WOW! NOTHING could have prepared me for what I heard upon clicking on that track- Just the most FUN, swingin’ and shufflin’ tune all set to the VERY “George of the Jungle”-esque bopping beat!

Dreamland:

The collection concludes with a cool piano-and-guitar take of the pretty “Sweet Bird”, a song that would have fit perfectly with most of Joni’s earlier folk catalog (especially Court and Spark!) , and a version of “Shadows and Light” that sounds just about identical to the album version (at least to MY unprofessional ears), a perfect little sampling of a GREAT album in progress!

Sweet Bird:

Favorite Songs: "I Can Depend On You" By David And The Giants

  Back in the 90’s I was working for a Photo Imaging Studio where the supervisor in the Developing Room was a Junior Pastor who would play nothing but Christian Radio, and though I’m not Christian in the least, over time I fell in love with quite a few of the songs and artists coming over the airwaves!
Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, Margaret Becker Michelle Pilar, more rock-oriented artists like Dana Key and PETRA, even Mark Farner (!), etc, I suddenly found myself making trips to the local Christian Bookstore to pick up the latest favorite song discoveries! Even my fellow employees ended up buying cassette tapes of those Christian artists! (though theirs were the more Jazz-oriented ones like TAKE6).
  Usually when I liked a new artist, I could simply make my way down to the Christian Gift Shop and pick up the latest tape, but there were a few that never seemed to be available, and while there seemed to be no reason that they didn't have the latest Greg X. Volz, one of the other albums I really wanted wasn't available simply because it was too old and out of print, and that was "Inhabitants Of The Rock" by David and the Giants which I wanted because it featured one of my all-time fave songs called "I Can Depend On You".
 I don't know quite what struck me about this song, but there was something about its utter simplicity that instantly hooked me, and thankfully, though an older song, the radio station (the late great KAIM) played it all the time!  For years after that, I'd occasionally call up the radio station and request to have them play it (and of course they always did!), but aside from taping the song off the radio during one of those occasions, I still really wanted to have the song.
Then with the arrival of the internet and EBAY, a whole new avenue opened for me, and it was here that I thought I could actually get my hands of that song, and in the end, I found someone selling it on VINYL, and I had to make do with that.
 When the album  arrived in the mail, I was horrified to see that he record was slightly heat-warped (Ah! The maladies of an archaic format!) and for most of the album, it played slurry and made the needle jump! Fortunately, luck was on my side and one of the few songs that I COULD play was in fact I Can Depend On You!!!! Success!!

My Favorite Group Of Them All: The Who

The Who

If I had to say once and for all which group (of the many, many groups that I love) that I love the most of all, It would have to be THE WHO.  No other group has had the profound effect on my life like the works of Pete Townshend, Roger Daltrey, John Entwistle and Keith Moon.

 As a kid, my favorite artist was Paul McCartney and Wings ( first single ever bought: Band On The Run). This led to a love (read: obesession)  of the Beatles as well, and by the time I was eight grade, my world was saturated with the lush sounds and melodies of The Fab Four.

This in turn led to an overall hunger for all the “British Invasion” groups, and I remember picking up a few albums of groups like The Rolling Stones,The Yardbirds, The Kinks, and yes, THE WHO. At the time, I was just in love with the Rickenbacker sound and that whole english scene in general.

Around that time, I had purchased a magazine called Best Of Rock Stars for a cover story they were featuring on British groups, and while perusing the issue, came across an article they had done on The Who called simply, “The Who: Then and Now”.

  It was your standard article, covering the basics of The Who with a brief synopsis of their beginnings and discography, but the thing that really caught my attention was the PICTURES. I couldn’t believe how COOL this group looked! They showed The Who from 1964 all the way through 1978, from Mods, to Hippies and finally to their long-haired bearded hard rocking 70’s look. I was just amazed at the different phases the group went through, and they looked WAY cool in every variation they undertook!

  At this point, all I really knew about the Who’s music were the songs You Better You Bet and Who Are You, and I knew that they’d been the original artists of the Elton John song “Pinball Wizard, but that was about it. (Actually, it turned out that I knew quite a few songs of theirs, but  just didn’t know it was them at the time!)

    I mentioned The Who to my friend James, (who was a Beatlemaniac like me) and he offered, “Oh yeah, The Who…they’re alright…Ringo’s in that movie of theirs, “The Kids Are Alright”…” I asked what songs he’d recommend and off the top of his head, he said “Well… there’s “My Generation” …” I made up my mind that the next time I was over at Tower Records, I’d pick up the album of the Who that had My Generation on it.

 When I eventually moseyed on down to the record store, I was disappointed to discover that the “My Generation” album by the Who was out of print, and the only way you could get it was by buying a double album set, featuring both “The Who sings My Generation” and “A Quick One”. Well, I didn’t feel like springing for a double album, and was deciding what to do, when I found that the import section of Tower Records had the British version of My Generation for sale! This was truly destiny, for the cover for this import edition was Cool, Colorful and VERY MOD, just the kind of music and style I was really into at the time! I excitedly bought the LP and spent the whole bus ride home poring over the pictures of the Who on the cover, and on the back, They looked so cool, and I was reminded why I was interested in them in the first place!

   So when I got home, the first thing I did was get that record on, and right away, I have to say that I was awestruck. Having grown up with the lush and wistful song stylings of Messers. McCartney & Lennon (and the whole Beatles sound in general), I wasn’t prepared for the barrage of sound coming out of that album! The power driving bass riffs, the howling guitar feedback, and, THOSE DRUMS! It was like the drummer was going MAD on the songs! And yet, among the crunching power chords and beats, there was sweet harmonies backing up the gruff lead singer, and there was no denying the fact that these songs were REALLY CATCHY! My Generation, The Kids are Alright, Much Too Much, La La Lies, The Good’s Gone…just great stuff, mod three-minute masterpieces. Throw in the Surfaris inspired song “The OX”, a powerful instrumental that kicked the roof off,  and you had yourself a solid introduction to a simply kick-ass band!

   Riding in my Dad’s car one afternoon, the song “Won’t Get Fooled Again” came on. I loved this song, as well as its counterpart Baba O’Riley (although I didn’t know the names of the song at the time) because both of them featured the looping Moog synthesizer organ in the intros. Imagine my surprise when the song ended, and the DJ said “That was “Won’t Get Fooled Again” by The Who!!!”  I sat up in shock! This synth-driven Prog-Rock song was the same band that had released My Generation?! Then I thought of The Best of Rock Stars article, and was reminded that The Who ran the entire musical gamut, from wide-eyed mop-headed teens to the stadium giants of the 70’s. This band’s diversity was much, much more vast than I would have imagined, and I knew that I had to investigate further, and so on my next visit to the record store, I immediately snatched up the album featuring both Baba O’Riley and “Won’t Get Fooled Again, the classic Who’s Next.

 I don’t think I can say anything asbout this album that hasn’t already been said a million times over, suffice it to say that it was one of the most incredible albums I’d ever heard, with songs like Baba O Riley, Won’t Get Fooled Again, Bargain, Getting In Tune, and the incredible “Behind Blue Eyes”, every song was just epic in sound and the lyrics just took me away to a futuristic “Teenage Wasteland”! Like most fans, this quickly became my favorite WHO album, and remained such for years, til time eventually turned ALL my Who Discs onto an even playing field of equal appreciation!

   By now I had fallen in love with Pete Townshend’s Concept Pieces thanks to Who’s Next, and the natural progression (for me at least) was to move on to the much-celebrated Rock Opera classic Tommy. I remember cutting class one day, going down to the record store and buying the album, and then spending the rest of the day listening to the majestic album and trying to analyse the musical story of Tommy Walker. It just blew me away, and it got to the point where I had the whole “movie” created in my head to accompany the album! For awhile there It was all about TOMMY, and I remember trying to turn many of my friends onto it, especially songs like “Go To The Mirror” and “We’re Not Gonna Take It”. Heck, I even got them to buy some of the WHO albums!

Around the time I got around to finally purchasing the two double albums featuring (respectively) My Generation / Magic Bus and A Quick One / The Who Sell Out, a wonderful, wonderful thing happened. I found out that a communtiy college was going to have a showing of The Kids Are Alright, the must-see movie for any fan of the Who!

  The only problem was that the college was practically on the other side of the island, easily a two-hour bus ride with a transfer in town and add in that I knew absolutely NOTHING about exactly WHERE this school was, it promised to be quite a trek! I asked my good friend Jas if he would mind accompanying me on my journey to see the Holy Grail of Who fanatics, and , trooper that he is, said, “Sure”. By the time we got there, it was almost time for the show to start. I’ll never forget that feeling, of being in this huge, empty college during sunset-time, excited beyond belief waiting for that show to start!

   I seem to remember that there wasn’t a really big turn-out, maybe twenty five or so kids? And as I recall, it was more like a big classroom than a theater, and I remember sitting at desks in the dark! But MAN, once that movie started rolling, I completely forgot my surroundings, immmersed myself in the film, and proceeded to get my world SERIOUSLY ROCKED!! The Kids Are Alright was simply the greatest damn rock movie I’d ever seen before (or SINCE) in MY LIFE- every scene blasted with the greatest songs,zany hijinks, and the most killin’ performances ever!

  From the opening scene where Keith detonates his Drum Kit on the Smothers Brothers during a performance of “My Generation” through the historical Woodstock appearance to the sensational “A Quick One” on Rolling Stones Rock N Roll Circus ,the shattering Monterey Pop performance and ending with Keith’s very last live performance onstage with “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, there was never a moment to catch your breath!

    After the movie a couple of guys from my father’s workplace offered to drive me and Jas back into town, and of course the FIRST THING I wanted to do was pick up the “Kids Are Alright” soundtrack, There were just too many songs I got introduced to in that film, and I didn’t want to go home empty-handed, so they dropped us off and I went home with yet another awesome WHO album to add to my growing collection!

  Well, the next few months was spent in a WHO frenzy, with me attempting to acquire all the albums in The Who’s catalog, The Who By Numbers, Live At Leeds, Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy, Who Are You,  and even Face Dances, scouring the imports section for discs like Story of The Who and Pefect Collection, even poring through the used record shops for the LPs that were out of print, like The Who Sings My Generation, Sell Out, Magic Bus, Happy Jack and (strangely hard to find) Odds And Sods. Eventually I had a pretty nice collection of WHO releases, but the “Hardcore Collecting” was still to come!

   That Summer of 1982, I was with my family at an electronics store  so my brother could look at stereo equipment. I was wandering around, when I came upon a display of Gene Kelly promoting a new video format that had just come out, a system called a Videodisc. They were displaying a few players, and had a few rows of Videodiscs to choose from. And right there on a spindle rack, right in front of my eyes, sat the Holy Grail:

I couldn’t believe it! There is was, The fr*cking Kids Are Alright, for chrissakes! I remember standing there, holding the videodisc in my hands, thinking “The price tag for this is around $25 which I think I can handle, but I don’t have a Videodisc Player! How The HECK am I ever gonna watch this?”

   But then my parents came to my rescue and made a deal with me- If I bought the disc myself, they’d buy the Player for me…DEAL! And so I walked out of there with Player and Video in hand, and that was the beginning of my “Summer Of The Who”. For the next two months straight, I watched that damn disc almost EVERY DAY, and sometimes even TWICE! This is no joke, as my poor suffering siblings can attest. Every person living in that house got to know The Who’s songs as well as me, and every friend I had was forced to watch the disc with me, This was quite simply The Most Obsessive thing I’ve ever been obsessed with, and brother, that’s saying a lot.

   

  I was now clearly into maniac fan territory, and having completed all the domestic albums I could, began my next level of collecting, the obscure (and oblique!) releases of the Who. Through a mail-order catalog I aquired a bunch of great WHO books, including the WHO collecting Bible, a book called “The Illustrated Discography” by Ed Hanel. This book listed ALL the Who relelases, including pictures of the covers, I got to know all the US relelase, all the UK releases, all the singles, and it was through this book that I discovered the wonderful world of WHO Bootlegs. With its strange titles and beautiful covers, these albums became the new things to set my eyes on.

     The “Summer Of the Who” only got better as the band released their tenth studio album, an angst filled rocker called It’s Hard! There is something about any new album that comes out by a band when you are frothing at the mouth high on fandom, and I really took that album to heart! Listening to it every night, it became the unofficial soundtrack to that summer, and despite what people may say about It’s Hard, it remains a top-notch album in MY book!

  Every night we ventured out, I had to make stops at several used bookstores and record shops, to see what I could uncover. Rock Music Books like Lillian Roxon’s Rock Encyclopedia were purchased simply for the Who section, Magazines like Rolling Stone, Creem, Hit Parader, and especially CIRCUS were carefully scrutanized for even miniscule pictures of Pete and the Boys, and I remember my friends helpfully joining in the maniacal scavanger hunt with me! To this day I still have a completely filled scrapbook of all those magazine clippings, and it’s interesting to look over at it now, the yellowed pictures arranged in collages on the pages, all clearly showing the mind of an obsessed Who fan at work! J

   In 2004, a dream came true for a lad like me stuck all the way out here in Hawaii, when The Who dropped in for a one-night concert here at the Blaisdell Arena! I was on a giddy high all night at that concert, but there was one defining moment I’ll always remember clearly: The Who were performing “Love Reign O’er Me”, and when that sweet, heartfelt middle played, with Pete beautifully playing the chords of his guitar as Roger sang:

“On a Dry and Dusty road,

the nights we spent apart alone,

I need to get back home to cool, cool rain

I can’t sleep and I lay and I think…the night is hot and black as ink

Oh God, I need a drink of cool, cool rain…”

I remember it was at that exact moment It really hit me. I said to myself: “ I AM SEEING THE WHO WITH MY OWN EYES! AFTER ALMOST 25 YEARS, I AM WATCHING ROGER DALTREY SING AND PETE TOWNSHEND PLAY THE GUITAR, RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!”

It was the “At Last, Now I Can Die In Peace!” Moment!

We are now in 2007 and I’m still over here in WHO land, enjoying The Who’s Endless Wire CD, still taking in the majesty that is The Who. While the days of Bookstore hunting are probably behind me, It seems like the fan in me will always be here, ready for the latest Who album to lift me up!