Here's the new column on Bob Dylan, who you may recall was also the subject of the first Under the Rock. (Feel like reading that one too? Go here.)

Update: Also, with this column, I've achieved a minor ambition: To get listed on Largehearted Boy's daily link round-up.

Do not go gentle into that good night, Spaceboy.

Fun with Archives

For some reason, just now, I remembered this old thing I wrote.

Watch That Man

Here's the post where Under the Rock (and then some) succumbs to the magic of YouTube links.



Crystal and I caught this on VH1 Classic last night. One of the coolest Bowie looks ever, if not the coolest. I want that suit.

Some questions for review: Is that how DB really dances in real life? Where does this video fit in the evolution of Robert Palmer? What would happen if the Bowie of this video and Bryan Ferry were in a room together?

I don't have anything interesting to say about him in drag.

Requiem

I could be wrong, but I believe my 12-year-old Sony cassette player finally gave up the ghost last night.

The next step, as I see it, is to buy something cheap and second-hand that doesn’t even have to connect to my stereo. Some of these cassettes, I’m a little attached to 'em. Sure, there are the ones I can (and should) upgrade – the three Sonic Youth ones (including Daydream Nation), Suzanne Vega’s 99.9F and Pete Townshend’s Empty Glass, among others. But what about those out-of-print, latter-day Kinks albums that can serve as fodder for this blog? Or how about those choice early-‘80s Squeeze shows that ‘MMR rebroadcast when I was in high school? (Seriously, they were actually a smokin’ live act back in the day.)

Is there a short song that tells a complete story more completely and succinctly than Steely Dan's "Through with Buzz" (1 min., 34 sec.)? Magnetic Fields' "A Pretty Girl is Like..." -- which I just bought from ITunes since on my CD the track is scratched beyond salvaging -- comes closest for me right now, but it's 16 seconds longer.

Back in Business

Having pretty much completed yet another move within this fair city, I'm ready to restart activities such as this blog.

So -- in order to have something to moan about, and in anticipation of the upcoming Bob season -- have a look at the No Direction Home review currently found here.

What is this bunk? Scorsese's "best films feature jazz, Martinis, and characters belonging to or nostalgic for the pre-rock era"? Even if you put aside The Last Waltz -- how about "Be My Baby" in Mean Streets? Or, a less obvious but almost as great example, Mott the Hoople's "All the Way from Memphis" in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. I'd even make an argument for "Is That All There Is?" from After Hours, sung by the pre-rock Peggy Lee, but written by the definitely-rock Leiber and Stoller (and arranged by the rock-in-my-book Randy Newman).

Which songs-scenes do you think people remember from Good Fellas? I'm willing to wager it's the "Layla" scene, the music-montage accompanying the errand-running, coked-out Henry Hill and Sid Vicious' "My Way" at the end.

So, uh, there.