SwampLog 3.0

Oh, and by the way, which one's Pink?

... probably not David Gilmour, but it didn't stop me from feeling like crap for missing out on tix to see him play at that little teeny auditorium they have at the Heywood Gallery in London a few years ago.

One of the great regrets of my life. When they annnounced the third show, I had my finger on the trigger to buy two tix. I wussed out because I couldn't get anyone to go with me. I should have just bought two and picked up a bird while I was in London.

Once I heard what was in the set list, I was just crushed. It was an unplugged show, with David playing acoustic guitar in front of a quartet which played just enough backup to fill in the spaces. Classical pieces, solo stuff, Pink Floyd songs and his own solo work -- all done in the warm glow of the intimate acoustic setting.

Today, I have exorcised that demon.

Two tix to see David Gilmour at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles in April. He has no new solo album coming out. I hope this is the show he's been performing in England for the past few years.

Oh, I hope I hope I hope......

=M=

Scaramouche!

I'm happy that Queen is getting its just reward for the 30th anniversary of "Bohemian Rhapsody," but I can't believe the farce with Paul Rodgers touring with the band continues. Of all of the people you could have tapped to take the place of Freddie Mercury, why would it be a man who only has half the vocal range?

At least they have the common sense to have Mercury "duetting" on the song live, using video of our absent leader. Ironic, in that the only way the song was done live in the past was with the opera section recorded.

Kicking Myself in The Ass

DirecTV is running the Chicago U2 Vertigo show from October, and it just proves that I should have shelled out the dough to see them when the band was in Dallas later that month.

Not only is the band transcendent, but the staging is phenomenal. I saw U2 in 1998, when they came through in support of the much-maligned 'Pop.' The staging was nice then, but they've outdone themselves with this one. Amazing.

The show is available on DVD, with more songs than the FreeView broadcast has.

Jukebox Hero

You know, it's not too late to get me a nice little Christmas gift:

Rock 'n Roll Fantasy Camp 2006 February 16 - 20, 2006 President's Weekend - Hollywood, CA

You will perform live on stage with Roger Daltrey of The Who,
the entire band Cheap Trick, Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers, and Neil Schon of Journey at the famous House of Blues on the Sunset Strip!

Camp counsellors include:
Jack Blades -- Night Ranger - Camp Director
Simon Kirke -- Bad Company (Drums)
Bruce Kulick -- Kiss (Guitar)
Doug Fieger -- The Knack (Guitar)
Elliot Easton -- The Cars (Guitar)
Michael Lardie -- Great White (Keyboards, Guitar)
Vince Melamed -- Jimmy Buffet/Eagles (Keyboards)
Kip Winger -- Winger (Bass)
Gary Burr -- American Idol (Songwriter)
Jeff Pilson -- Dokken (Bass)
Jerry Renino -- The Monkees(Bass
Kelly Keagy -- Night Ranger(Drums)

The price is $8,499 with a $1000 deposit. Mere pittance.

As much as I would love to do one of the baseball fantasy camps, this would just be amazing. I can actually get behind a drum kit and hold my own for one or two songs, and singing with Robin Zander and Roger Daltrey? Please. I would die happily right there.

Pony up, bitches!

The Easy Part

I'm drafting the master list for the "50 Song For 50 Years" list, and with very little effort, I've got 68 songs. The hardest period to pick for? It's not the earlier years of rock, but the latest decade (1994 - 2003). I only have five songs there so far, and it's only by looking and seeing what songs came out in that period that gives me any insight.

Right now, I have 12 songs in 1954-63, 12 in 1964-73, 20 in 1974-83, and 18 in 1984-93. I won't start paring down the list until I know that I'm not leaving anything out. My iPod will help this process dramatically, as I'm dropping each track into the playlist as it gets added to the Master List.

You've asked what I do for a hobby -- this is it. Erika asked if this would add more stress to my life, but honestly, this helps me to get away from the worries of the day and just relax into the task at hand.

Quid Pro Quo

Rolling Stone is marking the Fiftieth Annivesary of Rock this year, noting that Elvis Presley's Sun Studios sessions were in July 1954. Something I've always toyed with was taking the last fifty years to task and making my list of the "Fifty Best Songs of the Last Fifty Years" for the site, and I'll probably start doing it this week.

Here's the guidelines: Ten songs per ten-year period. Wholly objective. You will not have heard of quite a few of them, and I'll try my best to have links to them through the iTunes Music Store. There will also be ample lobbying for your favorite songs, but it will do no good. Make your own damned list.

For me, the toughest decade will be the period from 1984 - 1993. That was when I came of age, and started to work as a DJ. But it will all be tough, since I have to whittle down songs from the Beatles, James Brown, the Who, the Rolling Stones, Journey, Bo Diddley, Van Halen, and so forth.

The list will piss me off. I hope it pisses you off as well.

The first list (1954 - 1963) will be online next Monday.

'I've Got Two Tickets To Iron Maiden'

Ten songs that will instantly ratchet up my mood, with no explanation why:

"Love Is Alright Tonight," Rick Springfield
"Volcano Girls," Veruca Salt
"Sausalito Summer Night," Diesel
"Hey Ladies," Beastie Boys
"Take Five," Dave Brubeck Quartet
"Hey Ya," OutKast
"Developers," Digital Droo
"Move Your Feet," Junior Senior
"Just Push Play," Aerosmith
"Teenage Dirtbag," Wheatus

Keep Him In Our Hearts

Leave it to Warren. He waited until we all started to heap praise on him for beating the doctor's three-month death sentence by nine months, then shuffled off said mortal coil. He passed away in his sleep Sunday afternoon.

I always wondered about the phrase "died peacefully." Just becuase someone dies in their sleep, why does that signify they didn't have a hard time giving up the ghost? Knowing a bit about Warren, I bet the dream he was having was quite rudely interrupted. Might have been about a James Bond flick he was remembering.

I'm reminded of the strip Walt Kelly's wife, Selby, wrote on the Christmas after Walt died. "He allus said don’t take life too serious – it ain’t nohow permanent."

Enjoy Every Sandwich

When I made my monthly "discretionary income" purchase from Amazon.com this month, I bought two things -- one was Lies by Al Franken, and the other was Warren Zevon's album, 'The Wind.'

The last month or so, quite a lot of Zevon fans have come out of the woodwork, praising him as a maverick musician who they have always loved. I've been somewhat bemused by the attention he's gotten in the mainstream rock press, which has gone out of its way to ignore what he's done since 'Excitable Boy.'

I saw Warren in the mid-'90s in Dallas, at a relatively small show (couldn't have been more than 500 people there). Some moron was screaming for "Werewolves of London" halfway through the set, and Warren went into a monologue that I will always remember.

"You know, a musician halfway hopes for, and halfway dreads, the Big Hit. No matter what music they produce after that, they'll always be known for the Big Hit. I hope that in 20 years, Alanis Morrissette will still have to play the song about the blowjob. That would bring me no small amount of comfort."

VH1 ran a special on the making of 'The Wind,' which I finally got around to watching today. I hadn't realized Zevon was only given three months to live following his diagnosis of mesothelioma, a rare type of terminal lung cancer. As soon as he got the news, he got to work on 'The Wind,' with no guarantee it would be finished by the time his ride arrived.

Not only did he finish the album, he got to hold his twin grandchildren, and the three-month prognosis passed over nine months ago. (In an interview with CNN, Warren's son Jordan vented some of his disgust with medical culture. "Human beings have no right to tell other human beings how long they have to live unless they have some kind of firearm in their hands," he said. "Thank God he didn't take it and use it as an excuse to throw everything away and give up.")

One of the segments on the VH1 making-of focuses on Zevon's appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman." Dave, a long-time supporter and friend, asks Warren if he now knows something about life and death that he didn't before. His response will stay with me, and it should with you, as well.

"Not unless I know how much you're supposed to enjoy every sandwich."

Pixel-riffic!

Since I don't watch MTV on any kind of a regular basis, I have no idea if the clip for "Move Your Feet" has been getting massive airplay or not. All I know is that if Activision from the early '80s made music videos, they would look like this.

I'm sorting through the photos from Cancun, and it's going to be a little bit before we've got stuff to share. They'll be worth the wait, though.