The Education of Lenny Zakatek

I can’t say I’ve been watching too many movies lately, but as I was scrolling through my options on the Tubi network, I found one with Jesse Eisenberg. “The Education of Charlie Banks” was directed by a guy named Fred Durst. In the film, Eisenberg’s character (Charlie Banks) lives in a rough part of town and witnesses his share of street violence. That’s where Jason Ritter enters the picture as tightly wound tough guy Mick. At one point, Mick takes on an arrogant challenger and nearly kills him with his bare hands. That leaves Charlie Banks with a moral dilemma of staying alive (and in one piece) or siding with the victim. To complicate things further, Charlie and Mick share a mutual friend named Danny (played by Chris Marquette).

At some point you hear The Alan Parsons Project song “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You” which I found to be clever.

I couldn’t have told you who did this song for a million dollars, but it really made my ears perk up. Musically, I think it’s a fairly sparse R & B thing with fantastic lyrics. For me, I always associate The Alan Parsons Project with the overplayed MTV video for their song “Eye in the Sky.” It IS a cool video, but I don’t need it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

So who is Lenny Zakatek? He’s the guy singing the song. I didn’t know his name, but listeners like me tend to assume Alan Parsons would be the one doing that. Wrong! Apparently, he was the lead singer of The A.P.P. for about 10 years.

Rock on, Lenny! I looked at the chords for this song on Ultimate Guitar and first saw the name “Lenny Zakatek”, which inspired me to put together this blog entry. The film was released in 2007 and the song in 1977.

The film is an interesting exercise in perspective. On the one hand, Charlie Banks is basically a victim of circumstance, but the uber-violent Mick might be considered a victim of an even harsher environment, too. Given the choice, I think most of us wouldn’t want to be like Charlie.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Freedom Fest: 250

July 4th is coming up in a matter of days. Do you plan to risk your appendages by shooting off fireworks? I mean, it’s an American tradition, right? I have already purchased a few myself and have multiple retaliatory strike points mapped out to deal with my neighbors. (Not kidding.) This year I bought a few Roman candles — that’s a first for me. Otherwise, I have the usual lot of whistling chasers, bottle rockets, and firecrackers. I think some smoke bombs could also provide some strategic cover and flying saucers are always fun, too.

This year is America’s “Quarter Millennium”– basically 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed. There are a couple of fancier terms for it, but I’m gonna go ahead and leave them to tea time conversationalists who stick out their pinky fingers. As an American, I say, “Pass the burgers and the brews!” I’ve been thinking about a patriotic song to share and have decided on The Steve Miller Band’s “Living in the U.S.A.” from the band’s 1968 album “Sailor.” Hopefully this visually striking video won’t get blocked.

As far as holidays go, the 4th of July is my kind of party — explosives and alcohol. What could possibly go wrong? During America’s Bicentennial in 1976, I was in kindergarten and we had a parade scheduled towards the end of the school year. (I’m pretty sure the “parade” was a walk around the block in our colonial clothing to entertain our neighbors.) The kid who was supposed to “be” George Washington didn’t show on the day of the parade and I got to do lead the parade instead. I should have led a rebellion against something, but I didn’t. Thank you, David Bowie.

Another thing about the 4th of July…I’ll be the guy wearing the “Defiant Since 1776” t-shirt. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen one with Uncle Sam doing a slam dunk over a redcoat as well.

If I had to recommend a film for the occasion, “The Patriot” with Mel Gibson is a good one. However, if you watch the TV version, they’ll cut some scenes for commercials. What could possibly be more American than that?

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

11:23

I’ve been racking my brain for an inspiring blog post and I have another week before doing one centered on the 4th of July. My choice this time around is a familiar songwriter: Bob Dylan. More specifically, the song is one he ranks as one of his best. If you’re unfamiliar with it, “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” is a mellow piece of musical poetry. It’s not a song everyone will like. It comes in at just under eleven minutes and thirty seconds. I can’t remember if I found this via my local public library or YouTube, but I have always liked it.

The song took up the entire 4th side of his “Blonde on Blonde” double album. His then-wife Sara Lownds is considered to be the inspiration for the song. What else can you say about this song? It’s in the key of D major and it’s in waltz time. You’ll also hear Al Kooper’s organ playing on it. (Kooper also played on “Like a Rolling Stone.”)

I haven’t heard tons of covers of this song, but there’s one on prog rock guitarist Steve Howe’s Dylan tribute album — “Portraits of Bob Dylan” — and his version features his Yes bandmate Jon Anderson’s unique vocals on it.

I like Anderson’s vocal phrasing around the 2:20 mark where he sings “And your deck of cards missing the jack and the ace” and around 2:45 “With your silhouette when the sunlight dims, Into your eyes where the moonlight swims.” I could keep going with other examples, but you get the idea. His voice tends to cut through the mix.

One thing I didn’t know before researching this song is The Beatles’ George Harrison cited “Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” as an influence on his White Album cut “Long, Long, Long.”

I had to include a pic of actor Jack Black from the film “High Fidelity.” In the scene, he scolds a record store customer for not owning “Blonde on Blonde” and then follows it by saying, “It’s going to be okay.”

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Heart Hand Corpse

I’ve never been one to go along with what’s popular and I doubt I ever will be. For me, it’s a matter of knowing what I like despite what the masses are doing. (By the way, one of my high school history teachers indicated the term “the masses” was a play on “them asses” — meaning, the general public is generally comprised of idiots. Case in point: the song “Macarena” and accompanying dance, but I digress.)

This particular blog entry will sound grumpy, grim, and probably petty, but I have a BIG PROBLEM with something I keep seeing over and over again. What is it? It’s commonly known as “Heart Hands” and I have had enough of it. Every time I turn around I see someone Heart Handing something in a pic or a video for some odd reason. It could be an athlete who scored a goal, it could be a coworker, it could be your pizza delivery guy. I haven’t seen them in mug shots, but maybe a couple of sympathetic deputies could look into holding the arrestee’s placard with his case number. I’m sure Al Capone would have probably turned out differently if this had happened.

I haven’t searched for animals being trained to Heart Hand, but I really hope as a society we haven’t “gone there” and I hope we never do. However, something tells me there’s probably a zoologist training baboons to Heart Hand when they get their daily dose of bananas or whatever they eat. Let’s hope they don’t put the bananas into a heart shape either. In honor of how much I despise Heart Handing, I’m sharing “Heart Shaped Box” by Nirvana.

I only remembered a few verse lyrics from this song, but there’s one about “eating cancer.” I always loved the chorus on this one. By the way, I was going to share a lyric video of this song, but the first one I found misspelled the term “pisces” as “pices.” Uggghh.

Getting back to my complete disdain for Heart Handing, it makes me wonder if the peace sign was looked at the same way. I’m okay with the peace sign, but it’s been around for quite a while. You know, that leads me to think about the economic power of the Heart Hand. Think about how much crap with a peace sign on it has been sold over the years…shirts, coffee mugs, etc. If someone started manufacturing Buddhas with Heart Hands, they could probably sell a trillion of them. (By the way, the term mudra is what they call all of those different hand gestures. Heart Hands does not count. There’s even a system of them called kuji-in used by ninjas. To my knowledge, most assassins don’t try to summon the power of Heart Hands before silently taking a life.)

I’d love to say more, but I’ve been inspired to start writing about a serial killer who poses his victims with Heart Hands. Maybe he cuts them off, maybe he just takes selfies with them.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

The Sports Anti-Hero?

If you’re not a rabid sports fan, this might be a tough time of year for you. Here’s what’s happening: NBA finals, the World Cup, and even hockey’s Stanley Cup finals. Take your pick. I guess it’s also baseball season, too. I’m not emotionally invested in any of them, but have seen highlights on the news and seen a few clips while channel surfing.

One hockey-focused mini-series I watched recently is called “Keep Your Head Up, Kid: The Don Cherry Story” (2010). If you’re unfamiliar with the name Don Cherry, he was a longtime TV broadcaster on “Coach’s Corner” which broadcast during “Hockey Night in Canada” and was known for his opinionated rants. Apparently, Cherry was never one to shy away from confrontations.

As little as I really know about Cherry, I really enjoyed this program and found it to be entertaining — some might argue like the man himself. You get to experience the made for TV version of his life including: playing for years in the American Hockey League, his coaching stints including a few seasons with the Boston Bruins (his teams made the Stanley Cup finals, but could never get past the Montreal Canadiens), his well-publicized battles with his general managers, leaving home as a teenager, and more. I suppose his battles are what shaped him. Somewhere along the way he developed his own unique fashion sense, too.

I’m surprised Cherry never gravitated toward professional wrestling because I feel like his tone of voice and ability to disagree are suited for it. Tim Cherry, Don’s son, wrote the story for the film and the adult version of Don Cherry was played by Jared Keeso.

Part of the appeal of the program is not only the great stories from Cherry’s life, but the hockey history. I’m a very casual fan of hockey, but the amount of teams and leagues outside of the NHL is pretty mind-boggling. As a player and coach, Cherry moved around 50 times.

If I’m not mistaken, I heard on the news recently it is the Las Vegas Golden Knights’ ninth season and third appearance in the Stanley Cup finals. When did that happen? I’d call that the opposite of old-time hockey.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

The Right Treatment

It’s definitely allergy season in my neck of the woods…that means trying to find a balance of decongestants, caffeine, rest, electrolytes, and… music. After years of dealing with allergies, I have my preferred brands of allergy medicines and treatments. (Eating a Supersonic Breakfast Burrito with green peppers is treatment in my book.) Speaking of treatment, are you familiar with the song “Treat Her Right”? The version that turned me on to this song was by George Thorogood. Most likely I heard it on cassette tape while cruising around in my buddy’s vintage Mustang.

Some time outside of allergy season, I went to see a friend of mine’s band perform and he sang this one while playing the drums. It rocked! By the way, the original recording was by Roy Head and The Traits in 1965.

About 1:30 into the song is the “Hey-Hey-Hey!” part, which is my favorite section. “Treat Her Right” was written by Roy Head and bassist Gene Kurtz. It’s been recorded well over fifty times including by Irish blues guitar sensation Rory Gallagher.

About 3:20 into this version, you’ll hear why I called Gallagher a sensation. There are a lot of interesting covers of this song out there including versions by Otis Redding and Jerry Lee Lewis, not to mention Mae West, Barbara Mandrell, and a group called The Seatsniffers. I’m not making this up and I reserve the right to revisit this one.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Tuesday Blues

It’s a strange day in America. It’s a Tuesday that follows a holiday Monday (Memorial Day)…so it feels like a regular back to work Monday. The idea behind the observance is to remember the American Military men and women who served the Red, White, and Blue. However, it seems to have morphed into a time for retailers to push BBQ goods, lawn equipment, and white bedding items at discounted prices. Nevertheless, I started thinking about what song to share for today and arrived at one by The Moody Blues. Most of us call it “Tuesday Afternoon” although you’ll see “Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?) ” applied to it as well.

The song was written by guitarist/front man Justin Hayward and is off The Moodies’ “Days of Future Passed”(1967) concept album. The idea behind the record is the experience of a single day in one person’s life. Other songs on it include “Nights in White Satin” and “Dawn is a Feeling.” This is actually the band’s second album, which was a stark contrast to “The Magnificent Moodies” — a rhythm and blues influenced record which includes their cover of “Go Now.”

If you’ve heard “Tuesday Afternoon” on the radio, it was probably the single version. On the album, it segues into a song called “(Evening) Time to Get Away”, which was written by Moodies bassist John Lodge.

If you look back at WHEN the album was recorded and released, it was immediately following “Sgt. Pepper” by The Beatles. Another one of those concept albums. I haven’t seen any interviews where it was mentioned as an influence, but it seems like it certainly would have been.

I’ve always thought actress Tuesday Weld should record a cover of this song, but that’s just me.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Another Mite Bites the Dust

I’ve never been the biggest Queen fan in the world, but I had one of their greatest hits collections on cassette tape back in the day. (In terms of taste, I think they were too operatic for my ears.) Today, I heard one of their songs on my drive in to work and it got me thinking about about the song’s composition and its legacy. In hindsight, it makes sense that “Another One Bites the Dust” was written by Queen bassist John Deacon. The bass has a fairly hypnotic effect, doesn’t it?

After doing a quick search on Wikipedia, I found out this bass riff was inspired by a song called “Good Times” by Chic.

You can hear some similarity, but they’re obviously not identical. The two songs are both from that whole disco era. When I was listening to “Another One Bites the Dust” I thought about The Rolling Stones song “Miss You” which was released two years earlier, but has a similar vibe to it.

Lyrically, everyone remembers the chorus, but I think the first time I saw the printed lyrics to this tune, I never knew what Freddie Mercury was singing in the first line “Steve walks warily down the street. With the brim pulled way down low.” Some musicians say sounding good is about the notes you DON’T play, which brings me to the middle section of this one. I could hear there was some kind of effect on the recording, but couldn’t place it. It turns out it’s not a record being scratched or a synthesizer. It’s something called the Eventide Harmonizer which added a really cool atmosphere to the song. One perk of YouTube, is you can find these isolated recording tracks which break down the vocals, instruments, and effects.

What else can you say about this song? Well, it was released in 1980 the band’s album entitled “The Game.”

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

P.S. Weird Al Yankovic did his thing called “Another One Rides the Bus.”

Reggae-ish

I woke up thinking about reggae music and the whole vibe of it today. I’m far from an expert on it, but I think I have a dubbed cassette of “Legend: The Best of Bob Marley and the Wailers” somewhere in all of my stuff. Most likely I learned about Bob Marley by hearing Eric Clapton’s cover of “I Shot the Sheriff.” While Marley was an incredible songwriter and had a massive following, I started thinking more about reggae’s overall influence on popular music.

Take, for example, the British band Musical Youth. In 1982, they had a smash hit called “Pass the Dutchie” which had some extremely catchy pop hooks to it.

I remember hearing this song on the radio and seeing the video somewhere…maybe on Solid Gold or some other music program. Like most listeners/viewers, I always assumed they wrote the song, but they didn’t. It was actually a new, lyrically cleaner version of the “Pass the Kouchie” by Mighty Diamonds. Apparently, “kouchie” is slang for weed.

I realize not every reggae song is about smoking pot, but it it’s a definite theme. It seems like dreadlocks are, too. Apparently, they are both part of the Rastafari religion. A couple of other general things I have noticed about reggae bands and individual musicians is they have memorable names. I remember “Musical Youth” from the 80s and Mighty Diamonds is another strong choice. I’ll also say that “Bunny Wailer” is probably the best stage name of all time. It has a much cooler ring to it than Neville O’Riley Livingston and is easier to remember. Maybe part of reggae’s appeal is the chance to learn about and get the feel of other cultures.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

P.S. Here’s a little more info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pass_the_Dutchie

Random Music Quote Quiz #1

When I was in college, I told a friend of mine that I wanted to write or compile a book of music quotes. My idea was to pick a topic like love, money, cars, weather, etc. and then pick my favorite quotes on the subject for readers to enjoy. I think the idea has been done (probably more than once), but I think there is still some merit to it. If you’re a music nut, it’s just part of your world, isn’t it?

Instead of committing to the act of actually writing a book, I’m going to dabble with the same idea in quiz form. For this installment, I’m thinking about the first lines of songs. When I was a beginning guitarist, I found a lot of folk music books had very helpful indexes like this. (In other words, someone might remember the first line of “Hey-hey, mama, said the way you move, Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove” as opposed to the song title of Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog.”)

No Turtle Wax will be given during this quiz. The honor system is in effect so no Googling until you’re completely stumped. I’m sharing the Jeopardy theme song for effect.

Questions:

  1. Who WROTE this first song line? – “I don’t know why I love you like I do.” Bonus, which song is it?
    • A. David Byrne
    • B. Al Green
    • C. Bob Dylan
    • D. George Harrison

2. What is the title of this Bob Dylan song featuring this first line? – “Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son? “

_______________________________________

3. This George Harrison composition begins with the line, “Because you’re sweet and lovely girl, I love you.” Is it:

  • “Something”
  • “Old Brown Shoe”
  • “Wah Wah”
  • “For You Blue”

4. “If the sun refused to shine, I would still be loving you” is the first line of this Led Zeppelin song. Is it:

  • “Stairway to Heaven”
  • “Thank You”
  • “Whole Lotta Love”
  • “The Battle of Evermore”

5. What Beatles song starts with the line, “Flew in from Miami Beach, B-O-A-C”? Bonus, what album does the song open?

____________________, Bonus: _____________

6. “As you brush your shoes, and stand before the mirror “ is the first line of which Van Morrison composition?

  • “Wild Night”
  • “Blue Money”
  • “Gloria”
  • “Jackie Wilson Said”

7. “The police in New York City chased a boy right through the park” is the first line of which Rolling Stones song?

  • “Lady Jane”
  • “She’s So Cold”
  • “Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)”
  • “Midnight Rambler”

8. “Dirty old river, must you keep rolling, Flowing into the night” is the first line of which song by The Kinks?

  • “Lola”
  • “Death of a Clown”
  • “Waterloo Sunset”
  • “All Day and All of the Night”

So what do you think? Are the questions too hard….too easy? I thought about providing a whole grading scale for correct answers, but if you get them all correct, you probably think you’re a musical genius, right? Obviously, that’s what I would think. Feel free to share your opinion and let me know if you’re stumped.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!