I just watched a YouTube list video on the top 50 post-punk songs, and though the person had some great songs on the list, it was too heavily weighted to about five bands, so I thought I’d make my own.
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A quick note before I get into it: while some of these are from big artists and big records, I tried to avoid low hanging fruit. Yes, I would have loved to have written “November Rain” and gotten the paycheck that’s come with it over the last 30 years, but I wanted to shine a light on some songs that don’t get as much attention. So, this is not my “best songs of all time list”, but they are songs so good, that it burns me I didn’t get to write.
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I often think about how uncomfortable I am all the time. I begin to wish I had some kind of community or clique to fit into, some place to belong where I’d no longer feel so uncomfortable. Then I realize that, not only will this never happen, but I don’t want it to happen. It would change me in such a fundamental way that I would no longer recognize myself if it happened. You see, there are a lot of people in the world who want to be an outsider, or that who market themselves as outsiders, but they’re not. If you’re truly an outsider, it’s a lonely and uncomfortable place to be, and if there’s anything the average human doesn’t want to be it’s lonely and uncomfortable.
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We as a culture are always looking for “work-life” balance and to make things easier on ourselves. This is a privilege of 21st century western civilization. We were all made to work, not necessarily for “the man” but we were made to work.
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I’ve started so many blog posts over the last few weeks, only to leave them half done because I get discouraged about it feels like I’m beating a dead horse. When it comes to the music industry, there are others you can watch (Rick Beato) or read (John Strohm) who are much better positioned and equipped to talk than me. And those are just two examples, there are many more. I do like breaking down albums and concepts and putting them into writing, but that takes a different brain power than the musician brain power. So, on that note, my book is also on pause. I’m still listening to those Indiana artists, but the podcasts and interviews and research are on pause, I don’t have the bandwidth.
I don’t remember how old I was, but I was very young, seeing a clip of the ‘68 Comeback Special on TV and thinking, “this is the coolest guy I’ve ever seen. That is what I want to be.”
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Feels only fitting to be here after listening to Peter Guralnick’s Last Train to Memphis off and on during this road trip. I even bought a jacket at Lansky’s - a replica of the one Elvis wore at his wedding. Believe me, I will wear it every chance I get.
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The South is a friendly place. People are much nicer than anywhere else I’ve ever been. But it can be a lonely place too. I don’t know if I love it because of that, or I am the way I am because it is the way it is. Chicken or the egg.
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After Andalusia, we made our way on two lane American blacktop across Georgia, through little towns with cafes and white wooden churches, and the occasional town square with the antebellum courthouse in the middle.
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Life can be really heavy sometimes, and back home in the midwest and the South, the air is so heavy, it’s like the weight of the past and present both is on my shoulders and I can’t think about adding the future just yet.
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Great art never asks for permission, it demands to be heard. Mick understood this better than most and it’s a shame he’s not as celebrated as the artists he helped mold.
My connection to these people through their art only grows and for whatever reason, whenever place connects us, time gets a little thinner. It doesn’t make any sense to the practical side of me, but the emotional part of me cherishes these moments.
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When sharing my previous list of music documentaries, I realized I wrote it in June of 2023. I’ve seen a lot of music documentaries, biopics and music related films since. So, I went through my viewing history as well as the DVDs I’ve purchased and came up with this list of things I’ve seen since June of 2023. I tried to avoid duplicates, but because I will sometimes re-watch things, and these lists are long, I apologize if I missed one or two. I’ve also decided to make some notes on a few of these that I think are of particular worth. Hope you enjoy some of these as much as I did.
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The reality is our culture preaches individualism while at the same time it does everything it can to crush it.
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This morning when I got in the car, the first thing Apple Radio played was “Lisztomania” by Phoenix. My initial thought was how my tastes had changed in the time since that record was released, because now I’m a huge fan of Franz Liszt. And, in the wake of Brian Wilson’s death, coupled with it being quite some time since I last wrote a blog post, I thought exploring how our tastes change would be a good topic for a post.
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I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I am endlessly thinking of how to be a better writer and a better man. Nobody gets anywhere in anything by thinking you have it all figured out.
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I hope you all have a fraction of the fun listening to it that I had making it. Truly a great moment in my life and I am pleased to share it with all who want to share in it.
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She said it, not me.
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Hoosiers have contributed at high levels to every genre of music in American popular music.
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There were TONS of great music released in the 80s, these were just pivotal moments in my life before punk rock. While punk blew my doors off, you can’t go from “Mary Had a Little Lamb” to Black Flag, you have to ramp up.
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