How? Imagine.

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one



How can I go forward when I don't know which way I'm facing?
How can I go forward when I don't know which way to turn?
How can I go forward into something I'm not sure of?
Oh no, oh no
How can I have feeling when I don't know if it's a feeling?
How can I feel something if I just don't know how to feel?
How can I have feelings when my feelings have always been denied?
Oh no, oh no

You know life can be long
And you got to be so strong
And the world is so tough
Sometimes I feel I've had enough

How can I give love when I don't know what it is I'm giving?
How can I give love when I just don't know how to give?
How can I give love when love is something I ain't never had?
Oh no, oh no

You know life can be long
You've got to be so strong
And the world she is tough
Sometimes I feel I've had enough

How can we go forward when we don't know which way we're facing?
How can we go forward when we don't know which way to turn?
How can we go forward into something we're not sure of?
Oh no, oh no

Must... not... drool

In case I haven't mentioned it lately, Lucas is too damn sexy for his own good.

Whiskey Lullaby

She put him out like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette

She broke his heart he spent his whole life tryin' to forget

We watched him drink his pain away a little at a time

But he never could get drunk enough to get her off his mind

Until the night

1st Chorus

He put that bottle to his head and pulled the trigger

And finally drank away her memory

Life is short but this time it was bigger

Than the strength he had to get up off his knees

We found him with his face down in the pillow

With a note that said I'll love her till I die

And when we buried him beneath the willow

The angels sang a whiskey lullaby

The rumors flew but nobody know how much she blamed herself

For years and years she tried to hide the whiskey on her breath

She finally drank her pain away a little at a time

But she never could get drunk enough to get him off her mind

Until the night

2nd Chorus

She put that bottle to her head and pulled the trigger

And finally drank away his memory

Life is short but this time it was bigger

Than the strength she had to get up off her knees

We found her with her face down in the pillow

Clinging to his picture for dear life

We laid her next to him beneath the willow

While the angels sang a whiskey lullaby.

Hopefully the last in a series of posts about this sort of thing

Isn't it interesting that the times you want drugs or alcohol the most are the times you need them least?

That unless you stay stone-cold sober, you'll never get out of whatever hole you've stepped into?
It's not how a man takes the good times that counts, not in the end. It's how he takes the bad times. Does he crawl into a bottle and drink the mortgage payment, or does he cut back on his own indulgence first, so the people he loves don't have to? Does he face the challenge, or does he ignore it, run away to the next one?

No matter how dark times get, they can always get darker. Things don't get better on their own. You have to make them get better. Whether it's unfair wages or a dead-end relationship, it's up to you to fix it. Sometimes that means getting out of the situation. Other times that means fixing the situation. Most of the time you just need to fix your own perspective. But it always means doing something.

Not everything you can do helps. You can grab a shovel and help your own gravediggers twice as easy as you can pull yourself up out of that grave. But you can't change anyone but you. That's all you really need, really. Nobody can make you think or feel or believe anything if you don't let them. If you aren't content with "almost" or "could have," if you are willing to try that much harder instead of just complaining, you can overcome anything. Even if the objective hazard is too great and death is certain, there is a certain dignity in facing your own death with integrity.

Goodbye England's Rose

I have tremendous respect for this man. As a musician. As a humanitarian. As a public figure. This was a great tribute to Princess Di. The special lyrics fit her and the song just as well, if not better, than the album version fit Marilyn Monroe. I'm not sure I would have been able to play that whole song without shedding a tear. I have no more words for this video.

Musicians and other famous women

It's been what, a week and a half, two weeks since I talked about music last? And at least that long since I discussed famous women I like, right? Better fix that.



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Doctor, Doctor!



Morgan Doctor is the drummer for The Cliks. My drum teacher gave me a good piece of advice once: "Work on not just keeping a beat or matching what the original drummer did for a song. Make it your own. Find a groove and actually add to the song's sound. People should be able to just hear you play and tell it's you. Have your own unique sound and interpretation, and even if you're playing the simplest, least technical stuff, it'll be great drumming." Morgan's drum parts on Snakehouse definitely fit that bill. They are at once unique, solid, and ethereal, like good bass or rhythm guitar. Sometimes complex, sometimes simple, she knows when to be silent and when to let rip. I admire her as a musician and an artist. I also happen to think she is incredibly sexy. If you've ever looked at the liner notes from Snakehouse, you know what I mean.



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Well my name isn't Bobby McGee...



Janis Joplin. Need I say more? She was a vibrantly independent woman, truly a child of and shaper of the times in which she lived and died. I believe I'm safe in saying that since she hit it big, nearly everyone who likes girls has had a crush on Janis. Isn't it ironic that she always seemed to have trouble finding a good man? Some believe it was depression over a no-good man leaving her that led to her death. I know that if I'd been in the right place at the right time, I'd have did my damndest to have gotten involved with her, that's for sure. Well, if I wasn't busy chasing Grace Slick.

_______________________
Follow the White Rabbit

Which brings me to Grace Slick. Can this gal sing or what? I can't think of anyone else who bends her notes like Grace did in many of the Airplane's songs. It's absolutely entrancing. And it's kind of nice to be able to sing along with a girl and not have to harmonize a few notes lower. Seriously, I only miss two high notes in White Rabbit, compared with most of them if I try and match, say, Janis Joplin or Kaia Wilson. Or Geddy Lee, but to quote Alice Cooper,"he sings like a hamster on helium." I met Grace Slick last year when a local art gallery was showing her paintings. Art-wise, she was good, but not great. Most of them involved white rabbits and/or mushrooms. Or a hookah-smoking caterpillar. I got a kick out of that one. It was the non-song-based work that was the best. She really captured Jim Morrison in one painting. And in another, every single famous person in the Monterey Pop picture was instantly recognizable. Grace was really quite fun to talk to, on a variety of topics. I even managed to keep from doing the dumbstruck-idiot-who-just-met-one-of-his-heroes routine... more than once.

_________________________
Don't tell my heart

That is the first and last time I plan on quoting Achy Breaky Heart. I couldn't help it, since I'm talking about Miley Cyrus. She's bright, a great singer, and not a total drama queen. And 100% less creepy than her dad. That's pretty rare on the Disney channel. Did I mention she's also beautiful? And I'm pretty sure she's the only one in this list who's young enough that I wouldn't be jailbait.

_________________________
Selena Quintanilla Perez

I was watching TV the other day and a documentary came on about Selena's life, music, and death. It was quite good. I had never heard of her before, but next time I'm at the record store, I'm getting one or two of her albums. She had an amazing voice, and I like her songwriting... even if it took me half an hour with a bilingual dictionary to translate one song. I fail at Spanish. It's really a shame, because it's a much more melodic language than our harsh Germanic base. And as I'm sure you've already noticed, the sexiest women on the planet are Hispanic women.

_________________________
Who?

You heard me right, Hillary Duff. Shut up. Hillary, call me.

_________________________
More Barrymore!

Everyone has one or two famous people for whom they would drop everything and run off with if said person ever showed up on their doorstep. Drew Barrymore (especially if she was with the rest of the Angels) is on that list. She's a good actress, and drop-dead gorgeous.

Paddle faster, I hear banjos!

Ah, Deliverance was a funny movie, don't you agree? Gotcha.




Have you ever heard this song played by actual hillbillies? I didn't think so. The Band did great, but the best "Up on Cripple Creek" I ever heard was actually in Cripple Creek, at a mule race. The singer couldn't really sing worth a damn, but the banjos (yes I said two), awesome upright bass, and perfect bluesey, sripped-down drumming just made it... right.

Obama Girl

Let's talk about Obama Girl for a second, here. All ya'll know me, you know where I'm going with this. I can guarantee you, this will have absolutely NOTHING to do with politics.

Ever watch the Dukes of Hazzard? Remember Daisy Duke's shorts? Of course you do. Unfortunately, way too many people went out and bought cutoff denim shorts. People who shouldn't be wearing short shorts. But, boy howdy, is Obama Girl qualified.

I should probably metnion something about that song, other than the fact that it is now stuck in my head. From a musical standpoint, it's just a simple R&B formula, but there are enough layers to it to stay interesting. You know, a catchy chorus, some ambient background vocals, infectious, sultry rhythm, oh and did I mention the girl dancing to it?

I know what you're saying right now. It's really obvious that this whole "Obama Girl" thing was just a ploy for fame on Ms. Ettinger's part. I say yeah, so? It's actually relevant to politics in the same way that SNL and Jay Leno are. It's not that she was trying to influence votes or anything, just that she was trying to entertain the masses.

And she does it well. The video has good camerawork (obviously a red-blooded human being behind that camera).

So she's got some applicable, entertaining, lighthearted videos. She's got legs from here to the next county. And it's obvious that she's actually very intelligent and well-informed, with a wicked sense of timing. And she carries herself well, with that same air Daisy Duke had.

So really, why can't the line be "I've got a crush on Obama Girl"?

More music reveiws

If you don't have it already, get the album Snakehouse by The Cliks. Notice how that's spelled. Some record stores have it entered in their computer as a self-titled album. You'll probably have to dig through The Clash and The Click Five, since it won't be right upfront on the shelf.

If you've never heard of this band, that's okay. Now you have. You'll wonder how you ever listened to music before. Warning: as far as I'm concerned, vinyl records are still the technology du jour. Expect CDs, no matter how many times I say LP, B-Side, 45, or needle skip.

The lead singer, Lucas Silveira, has an amazing voice. I don't care who you are, when the lyrics start and you hear him singing, your heart is gonna skip a couple of beats. I pretty much guaran-damn-tee it.

Their cover of Cry Me a River and the song Oh Yeah are the two most famous singles off of this LP, but they are by no means the best songs. As always, the very best songs on an album are the ones you don't hear on the radio very much. Listen to Soul Back Driver or Misery and tell me that the atmosphere of these songs wasn't perfect. Tell me truthfully that you didn't feel like you'd lost your soul, or feel that feeling of being so down, hating yourself so much that you can hardly keep going, but not staying there; instead pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and looking this whole damn world right back in the eye.

I must admit, until I finally got the album, I would not have anticipated their blues chops. Maybe the music is a bit more technical than delta blues, has just as many overtones of Syd Barrett jamming with Tony Iommi and Rush as it has in common with Texas blues boogie, but it is BLUES at its roots. They have combined dissonance and melody, both in turns and at once, into a unique style that fits the outpouring of pain perfectly. A sound all their own. If you can come up with a way to play any of the musical parts better, please, let me know. Or even if it's just different. We'll get together and jam or something. I'd love an excuse to sing Lucas' lyrics some more.



Oh, god, can he be sexy.

Just for the record, that's probably the only time you'll hear me say that phrase. Take a photo or something.

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If Jesus walked the world today, he'd probably be a hillbilly.

Those are the words in the chorus in Alan Jackson's song "If Jesus Walked the World Today." Common man of men, and the king of many, indeed. The song's off of his latest album, Good Time. I've heard some reviews say that it lacks a toe-tapper, foot-stomper like Chattahoochee, but I have to disagree. Crank up the title song, Country Boy, 1976, Long Long Way, or If You Want to Make Me Happy and haul ass down a country road, truck bed full of buddies. I include If You Want to Make Me Happy in that list, even though it's more melancholy. In fact, the whole album sounds best with the volume cranked to 11, all the windows down, and a load of rednecks. I'll admit it, white people cram their redneck buddies into the back of a truck like some Mexican dudes I know can cram people into their sedans. I've seen David pull up and unload nine people out of a Ford Taurus. Sedan. Figure that one out. But seriously, next time you see a mid-sixties good ol' American truck, fog lights up top, lift kit, covered in mud and a roll bar across the back of the cab, count how many guys are in it. Hell yeah.

I believe that riding in the bed of a truck should be legal. In Colorado it is if you're over 18, but if you'e a minor, you can only ride in the bed if you're wearing a shoulder and lap belt. What the hell? I ain't equipping no truck with shoulder belts. My grandpa would put his five kids in the bed going to and from a jobsite. When we used to go visit him, I got to ride in the back of his El Camino when he was hauling builing materials up to his retirement house (built it with his own hands). He'd haul ass around the winding Cascade roads, but my cousins and me were never close to falling out. You're more likely to fall out of some convertibles than the bed of a pickup. As long as you're not an idiot, you're perfectly safe, except in the event of a rollover, in which case you're glued, screwed, and tattooed in a convertible, too.

But to get back on track, Good Time has great country love ballads, songs of sorrow, and good ol' fashioned dance songs. Alan Jackson, ever the gifted wordsmith, used that talent in spades when he wrote this album. He can get complex songs and complex concepts across in such a way that you'll be able to understand and remember them, even if you happen to be hearing the music five minutes before last call. Somehow, Alan can lay down a chorus, go miles off track in the process of getting to the point, and then bring it all back to that same chorus. The songs just fit together. Every song I've ever heard by Mr. Jackson has painted a picture of that scene in my mind at 1080P.

The shining star of this fantastic album, though, is Sissy's Song. Bring Kleenex. I know when I tossed a few CDs in the disc changer and hit shuffle, I wasn't expecting anything terribly touching, just something to stomp my foot to while I raced my Charger on the Xbox. I wasn't expecting a slideshow of memories to get called up during a road race. I wrecked that damn Charger, cost me a fortune to fix. But it's only virtual money in a virtual world.

Why did she have to go/So young I just don't know/Why things happen half the time/Without reason/Without rhyme/Lovely sweet young woman/Daughter, wife and mother/Makes no sense to me/I just have to believe/She flew up to heaven on the wings of angels/By clouds and stars and passed where no one sees/and she walks with Jesus and her loved ones waiting/and I know she's smilin'/Sayin' "Don't worry 'bout me."/Loved ones she left behind/Just tryin' to survive/and understand the why/feelin' so lost inside/Anger shot straight at God/Then asking for His love/Empty with disbelief/just hoping that may be/She flew up to heaven on the wings of angels/By the clouds and stars and passed where no one sees/And she walks with Jesus and her loved ones waiting/And I know she's smilin' saying "Don't worry 'bout me."/It's hard to say goodbye/Her picture in my mind/Will always be of times I'll cherish/And I won't cry/ 'cause she flew up to heaven on the wings of angels/By the clouds and stars and passed where no one sees/And she walks with Jesus and her loved ones waiting/And I know she's smilin' sayin', "Don't worry 'bout me."

Alan always has top-notch musicians in his band. The pedal-steel on this album will blow you away, and so will the fingerpicked guitar. Not to mention Alan himself: that smooth baritone register he delivers his lyrics in.... if it ain't magic, it's close to. Get the album. Hear the song. Now wipe your eyes and blow your nose.

Can anyone add some more data?

I have a theory. My theory is that lesbians are more likely to have lower singing voices than straight women. I don't have enough data to back this up, so I need more. Cross-referenced lists. Actual studies. Anecdotes. More anecdotes.

Here's where I'm getting my data from. Personally, I'm a solid tenor, which really freaks people out. Lucas Silveira is definitely an alto. So is Amanda Palmer. Kaia Wilson rarely strays above the mid-mezzo-soprano range at the highest. It's blashphemy, I know, but I don't own any of Melissa Etheridge or k.d. lang's music, so someone who does, please fill me in here. And I need even more data than this very short paragraph.

Of course, counterpoints to my theory are also welcome.

Music to crank up

I never liked most modern rock, and definitely not this emo thing, or the very creepy stalker themes often found in modern rock and all over what few videos are still on MTV. As far as I've been concerned, Death Cab for Cutie would never be played through my speakers. Now it's midnight, I have the windows open, and I've enthusiastically cranked up their song I Will Possess Your Heart. What gives, right? The music.

I was channel surfing the radio the other night when this incredibly haunting, dissonant bassline, with an absolutely chilling piano solo over it, and a very technical drumbeat came on NPR. It was like a cross between Pink Floyd, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Rush on barbiturates. Four minutes later, when the vocals came in, it was revealed to be a very disturbing stalker song, more so than The Police's Every Breath you Take, because these guys obviously think his will get them anything but a restraining order.

Musically, it is kind of a trance raga, darker and more dissonant than Shine on you Crazy Diamond, but not as wildly varied and psychedelic as The End. The fact that the band is literally playing in a freezer does not seem out of place for this video. Variations on a very simple theme and a killer piano tone combine to make for four minutes of icewater in your veins. The next four minutes are equally unvaried and consistent in their cognitive dissonace (at least for anyone not raised on this stuff), and will leave you clicking the repeat button and cranking up the bass more than once. The thin but smooth voice that Ben Gibbard has, as well as the look he has in the video of being on the edge of a nervous breakdown passes on to the listener that feeling of walking on thin emotional ice.

Overall, if you liked Pink Floyd's Wish you Were Here album, you owe it to yourself to give I Will Possess your Heart a listen.

And, apparently, youtube's embed code won't lead to a video right now, so I'll just say look it up, and I'll embed the damn video tomorrow.