When The
Morning Comes – Hall & Oates
Heard
5/22/2015 around 11:45, at Potbelly (Rockville)
Saturday, May 23, 2015
Thursday, May 21, 2015
LP #12 The Kane Gang – Miracle (1987)
While the
Kane Gang wasn’t the best 1980s blue-eyed British soul outfit (think Style
Council), and certainly not the most successful (think Simply Red), their
second and final album stands out for both its music and lyrics, despite
production that’s a bit on the slick side. Their Thatcher-era social
consciousness is most obvious on “A Finer Place” (which could have made a great
anthem for a variety of marches/demonstrations), but it comes out one way or
another in the lyrics to most of the tracks here, from the boy and girl in “Closest
Thing To Heaven” (“Lonely with no money to spend”) through the motifs in “King
Street Rain” (“Good luck is just passing through on the way to somewhere else”)
and “Looking For Gold” (“The place I was born in is fading from the map”). My
personal favorite, though, is from “Motortown”, which is the closest they had
to a hit in the U.S. (reached #36 on the Billboard Hot 100):
The cash may
have gone
But there’s
hope on loan.
Favorite
tracks:
Closest
Thing To Heaven
Looking For
Gold
A Finer
Place
King Street
Rain
Monday, May 18, 2015
LP #13 Graham Parker – Howlin’ Wind (1976)
From an
excellent 2012 New York Times column by Bruce Headlam:
“Before
Elvis Costello, the Sex Pistols or the Clash there was Graham Parker and the
Rumour, who anticipated the energy of punk and set the bar for smart, literate
lyrics married to a danceable beat. Critics in the United States compared the
band impact to Bruce Springsteen’s, but American record buyers didn’t follow
suit, possibly because they couldn’t surrender Mr. Springsteen’s thrill of the
open road for Mr. Parker’s desperation in an English cul-de-sac.”
Parker’s
wonderful debut album shows his mastery of a variety of styles, from the
ominous power of the title track and the all-time classic “Don’t Ask Me
Questions” to the lighter approach of “Soul Shoes”. The acoustic “Between You
And Me” (which I think is the first of his songs I ever heard) sounds almost
mellow until you listen a little more closely to the lyrics. And with all due
respect to Pink Floyd, I’ll take “Back To Schooldays” over “Another Brick In
The Wall” any day of the week.
Favorite
tracks:
Between You
And Me
Howlin’ Wind
Back To
Schooldays
Soul Shoes
Serendipity #35
Hold On – KT
Tunstall
Heard
5/18/2015 around 12:15, at the Montgomery Mall food court
May 15, 2015 – Nationals 10, Padres 0 – Petco Park (San Diego)
Umpires: HP:
Pat Hoberg. 1B: Gerry Davis. 2B: Phil Cuzzi. 3B: Tony Randazzo.
Weather: 64
degrees, clear.
Wind: 17
mph, L to R.
T: 2:43.
Att: 26,166.
Section
FI108, Row 32, Seat 1 – not nearly as close as last night (Friday nights are
more expensive), but certainly not bad (lower level, about halfway between home
and third base)
Seventh-inning
stretch song: Twist & Shout – The Beatles
Highlights –
rain finally stopped mid-afternoon, so had a much more pleasant (although
somewhat chilly) evening … first inning started with 4 consecutive singles and
a bases-loaded walk to Zimmerman … added two more first-inning runs on a
double-play grounder and then a Desmond single … widened lead to 7-0 before
anyone was retired in the top of the third on 3 singles and a 2-run Espinosa
double … added single runs in the 4th (Harper homer), 6th,
and 7th … 10 different Nats had hits, including all 9 starters … JZimm
blanked the Padres for the first 6 innings, and rookie A. J. Cole allowed only
one hit over the final 3 frames to “save” the 10-run lead
Other – Jayson Werth had to leave the game in the second inning after being hit by a pitch on his left wrist
Other – Jayson Werth had to leave the game in the second inning after being hit by a pitch on his left wrist
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)