Some Girls

Where were you in 1978? That was the year The Rolling Stones released their “Some Girls” album. You can make the argument some of the songs on the album are in the “overplayed” classic rock radio category — “Beast of Burden” and “Miss You” come to mind. (Depending on where you live, “Shattered” might also fall into that category. ) However, there are some other gems on the record. It would be hard for me to pick one favorite cut, but the Keith Richards-penned “Before They Make Me Run” is a safe choice for me.

For me, the crunchy guitar and the harmony vocal really grabbed me the first time I heard it. It’s definitely not the only Stones song to mention drugs, but “booze and pills and powders – you have to choose your medicine” is pretty clear to me. Another song on the album makes reference to “heroin with the president”. That one, called “Respectable”, is an underrated Chuck Berry styled rocker.

This song might be a little too straightforward to some, but to my ears, this song has some great raggedy vibes to it. Somewhere along the way, there was a re-release of the album with unreleased cuts. About the only one of those I remember liking was their cover of “Tallahassee Lassie.”

Mick’s tongue-in-cheek country song “Faraway Eyes” and “When the Whip Comes Down” round out the album. Did I miss any? There’s a Temptations cover “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)” and a couple of others.

What else can you say about this late 70s Stones effort? Well, Ron Wood played on the record as the band’s newest band member. You can also hear the harmonica playing of Sugar Blue. “Some Girls” is not my favorite Stones album, but there is some great rock n roll on it. I always thought the album cover was kind of lame, but the Stones can always blame it on sex, drugs, and rock n roll.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Lemon Lizzy Pie

Question: What do these things have in common? The Arizona desert, a jail break, and Tennessee lemon pie.

Answer: Gary Tison. More specifically, the film called “Last Rampage.”

The film was directed by Dwight H. Little and stars Robert Patrick as convicted murderer Gary Tison. (Patrick is best known for his role as the T-1000 in Terminator II, but he’s been in any number of other films and even had a role in The X Files if memory serves me correctly.) The film starts as Tison’s three sons bring him lunch at the state pen, then pull out a small arsenal of weapons from the picnic basket to show the guards on duty who is the boss. Another inmate, Randy Greenawalt, tags along for the ride.

Tison is portrayed as the decisive, dominant, patriarchal type. His family, including Heather Graham as his wife, is portrayed as loyal, but definitely misguided. What I enjoyed most about the film is some of the power struggle-interactions between fellow lifer/escapee Randy Greenawalt (Chris Browning) and Tison’s son Donnie (Alex MacNicoll). I never watched the trailer before seeing this film, so instead I’m including Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak” in keeping with the macho vibe of this film.

The actual jailbreak happened in 1978 so Thin Lizzy may be appropriate. You’ll see some old cars and trucks in the film. (There’s a brown Maverick like our neighbor used to have, for example.) To me, here’s something about the desert that looks good on film so you get to see some nice scenery in between the scenes of bloodshed. Jailbreaks tend to get messy as this one did. In a random tribute to Tennessee lemon pie (his wife liked it in the film), I’m also including “The Lemon Song” by Led Zeppelin.

The film is based on a book written by James W. Clarke “Last Rampage: The Escape of Gary Tison.” Apparently there’s a 1983 made for TV movie called “A Killer in the Family” about Tison. I may have to check it out.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Love for Van Halen

“Guitar God” Eddie Van Halen recently passed away and it got me thinking about his talent as a guitarist and his band’s different eras. As much as I like Sammy Hagar, I’ve always been a fan of the “Old Van Halen.” Back in the day, Eddie Van Halen’s composition “Eruption” on the self-titled Van Halen album was THE guitar apex for many players. It sounded explosive…like something out of this world!

Here is the song in its entirety.

As far as guitarists go, you could say he was “the man” for his era. The fact that he married Valerie Bertinelli didn’t hurt his “street cred” either. I’ve often heard the term “Frankenstrat” applied to any sort of guitar-mutt assembled from several guitars, but Eddie’s guitar is often associated with the term’s origin. Kudos for his creativity! I won’t go into detail about all of the different parts, etc.

Recently I came across an interesting documentary about the band Van Halen’s early years.

I was more of a casual Van Halen fan, but they got a lot of play on radio and MTV. Eddie’s explosive guitar style really grabbed your attention. For me, “1984” was the album that really put them into mainstream.

Here’s another example of the Van Halen influence on my lie. I was at some sort of dance when I was about fourteen years old. The cover band opened with “Unchained” and I still remember it to this day.

The lead singer ( a dude) also wore spandex and did the flying splits like David Lee Roth so I guess it left a lasting impression on me. What else can you say about Eddie Van Halen? He and Valerie have a son named Wolfgang Van Halen. Somewhere along the way, I read that Gene Simmons of KISS offered him Ace Frehley’s spot as lead guitarist, but I guess Eddie wanted to do his own thing. You have to respect that.

In conclusion, Eddie Van Halen was not only a talented guitarist, but a talented muscician (check out the song “1984” if you’re into synth/keyboards). His influence is still felt to this day.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Hard Eight

The cast alone is reason enough to check out the 1996 film “Hard Eight” — I’m talking about John C. Reilly, Samuel L. Jackson, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Phillip Baker Hall, and Gwyneth Something Paltrow. (By the way, it was written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.) I’d call the film a gritty drama with a gambling backdrop. I’ll never forget the opening scene where a buttoned-down older gentleman named Sydney (Hall) offers a cigarette and a cup of coffee to a down-and-out guy named John (Reilly). John reluctantly accepts and the two leave the greasy spoon to set out for a casino. Before long, they have a mentor-mentee relationship.

As their adventure unfolds they meet some other interesting characters like a waitress named Clementine (Paltrow). They also encounter a couple of cocky loudmouths played by the likes of Hoffman and Jackson. The contrast between the “old school” Sydney and younger cocky types make for some great scenes.

There’s more to the story, which makes “Hard Eight” an interesting character study. What makes Sydney such a low key type? Is he just like that or is there more to the story? Same thing could be said of John and the other characters. I think all of the characters are flawed in some way, which make them relatable and interesting.

From what I’ve read on The Internet Movie Database (imdb.com), the director wanted to call this film “Sydney.” It was also influenced by a French film called “Bob le Flambeur” (Bob the High Roller).

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Elijah & Nick Do Vegas

I’d never heard of the 2016 film called “The Trust” before I stumbled across it on one streaming network or another. However, when I saw the film starred Nicholas Cage and Elijah Wood, it piqued my curiosity. Cage and Wood play a couple of police officers who are anything but typical. I don’t mean Starsky and Hutch either. Cage plays a “wacky” officer named Stone. Ironically, Wood plays his subordinate officer who is a “stoner” named Waters.

As their workday unfolds, they hatch a plot to follow the money from a recent high dollar bail check. One thing leads to another and, before you know it, they are trying to put it all on the line. Their goal? To rob a drug dealer with deep pockets.

Why do I like and highly recommend this film? It’s funny and, dare I say, quirky. To my ears, the conversations between Cage and Wood as co-workers are believable. They capture every working person’s desire to dream big and escape the mundaneness of everyday life. It’s funny how they take big risks to hit “the big score,” while they fall deeper and deeper into quicksand. It has some of the excitement of Las Vegas heist films, but I wouldn’t say this film is ever predicable.

I normally don’t pay attention to popularity ratings for films. This is one that doesn’t score very high, but I disagree with those ratings. If you find Nicholas Cage mildly amusing, you HAVE TO SEE THIS FILM. If you need more reasons to watch this one, Jerry Lewis has a bit part as Woods’ (Cage’s) father and Ethan Suplee (Randy from “My Name is Earl”) plays a sadistic, unhinged cop.

In conclusion, this offbeat film is one I have seen more than once and recommend it.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Baker Street

I woke up with this song in my head recently. If you were around in the 70s, you definitely heard this one on the radio. “Baker Street” was written and recorded by Gerry Rafferty. To my ears, it’s a unique piece of music. The saxophone plays the main melody/riff, but there’s also a great guitar solo in it as well.

I would describe this song as “musically patient” — the song sort of cascades into the catchy main riff as opposed to the intro of most Ramones songs. I can appreciate both. If I were trying to describe the “vibe” of the 70s, I would use “Baker Street” as an example. I’ve looked at YouTube for various versions and discussions on this song which brings me to the Foo Fighters’ version.

One of the discussions pointed out the Dave Grohl & Co. version doesn’t feature the sax, but instead has the main riff played on electric guitar. The point being you could play this melody on your instrument of choice. Foo Fighters weren’t the first to do this.

When I was looking at some of the mechanics on how this song is played, I searched for acoustic versions and came across a version by… Waylon Jennings?

I love this version because it’s a seemingly odd coupling of song and performer. Other musicians who have covered “Baker Street” include everyone from Rick Springfield to Ann Wilson. Hopefully, you can find a version you like.

Incidentally, the sax riff was played by Raphael Ravenscroft and the guitar solo was played by Hugh Burns. As a side note, I used to frequent a store called Record Reunion which had a painting of Gerry Rafferty’s “City to City” album cover hanging on the wall. (I believe the album cover was painted by John Byrne.) I wonder if it’s still there?

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Terry Fox & Times Tables

When I was in 4th or 5th grade, class had just started, but I was sent on some sort of errand by a teacher. As I found myself walking down the now-empty hallway, this girl in my grade randomly walked up to me. The exchange went something like this:

Girl: Nine times six.

Author: Uhhh….what??

Girl: Nine times six.

Author: Ummm….

Girl: The teacher says you have to practice your times tables all of the time.

Author: Uhh…forty something?

Girl: Fifty-four.

Author: Yeah…so…I have to go the office to pick up something for this afternoon. (Maybe I’ll buy a calculator at the nurse’s office. ) I gotta go.

Basically, that unidentified girl is normally how I feel about “The Google Doodle.” You know, that random picture you see when you’re actually Googling something. However, there are exceptions. Today, said doodle is about a guy named Terry Fox.

Unlike many of the other doodles, I think Terry Fox is noteworthy. The short version is he had one of his legs amputated following a cancer diagnosis and this dude ran across six of his native-Canada’s provinces. He racked up like 26 miles per day for several months before the cancer put a halt to it. I’m speaking in generalities, but there is more info here:

https://terryfox.org/terrys-story/journal-map/

I could try to tell you more about where he started and was forced to finish, but I’m even worse geography than I am at math. (As an American, I’m lucky to be able to identify forty or more of the states. One time, when tested, I identified the entire state of Louisiana as “New Orleans” or “Baton Rouge”. I digress, but I will also say one of my buddies and fellow native Missourians asked if some of the puny East Coast areas should even count as states. “They’re too small. That doesn’t count.”)

Getting back to Terry Fox, this dude was tenacious. Prior to his cancer diagnosis, he was involved in numerous sports and he didn’t let cancer slow him down a bit. Apparently, he planned to become a P.E. teacher. He raised a lot of money for cancer research before and after his death by raising awareness. He also inspired Ian Thomas to write the song “Runner.”

The song was popularized by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band.

I had completely forgotten about this song prior to researching Terry Fox today. In conclusion, I’m grateful to the Google Doodle for today’s entry. I also give them credit for the interactive World Cup soccer game from a few years ago. Unfortunately, I can’t cloud my mind with a lot of their other things….who created the first vaccine for this or that, who was the first cartoonist of this sort, etc. To me, it’s just times tables and New Orleans.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Futuristic Groceries & Delivery

Have the machines taken over? “The Terminator” film series may have hinted at things to come. It portrays a world where, basically, machines/robots/artificial intelligence start to think for themselves and run things their way. “They have assumed control” to paraphrase the finale of Rush’s 2112 album.

I’m sure I’m not the first person to study this issue, but it does make me think about “the big picture”. For example, years ago, grocery store “baggers ” used to manually corral and round up the shopping carts from the parking lot. Some still do, but many stores use a machine to assist with this process now. I call it the “The Cart Droid”, but have no idea what it’s actually called. I assume the droid is an efficient way to get the job done. Another “innovation” is the use of walkie talkies in grocery and department stores. Does that seem like a bit much to anyone else or is it just me? Who had the idea to implement Secret Service tactics into your average big box discount store? “Clean up in Aisle Seven. This is not a drill. I repeat: this is NOT a drill!” Nowadays, there’s also some sort of inventory robot you might see roaming the aisles from time to time. (It looks sort of light Kmart’s original blue light special on steroids.)

What brought some of this to mind is a recent article about Amazon getting approval for using delivery drones. I’m just thinking it’s basically impossible to regulate drones to begin with, let alone when they are delivering boxes to every other house on the block. The next question is, will the thieving porch pirates have to register their drones as well or will they just use “stealth drones” to pillage and plunder. Arrrrghh, matey! Maybe there are drones with battle rams on them already or a supersized drone which will just swallow the smaller delivery drone in its jaws? Will the drones have cameras? (I don’t want give anyone unnecessary ideas, but I’m thinking a teenager with a Roman Candle could throw a pretty big monkey wrench into the whole concept of drone delivery. ) Which is worse? Delivery drones with or without cameras? It’s a tough call.

Just to clarify, I’m really not opposed to technology, but it’s hard to keep up. Another thing…much of these technological advances are all being fueled by our disdain for grocery shopping (myself included.) That raises other questions….Will Aldi participate? Because if they do, will you still have to put a quarter in the slot to release the delivery drone? I’m picturing this…in the next ten years, grocery carts will be replaced by something similar to the light cycles from the film Tron.

Maybe someone will invent light cycle roller skates? That would offer the familiarity of actually going down the aisles with the futuristic technology as well. There HAS to be a combination high tech roller derby arena and grocery store for this scenario, right?

My only request is, whatever scenario plays out in my favorite big box stores, please make sure to include GPS with it. I’d be lost without it.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Season of the Witch

If memory serves me correctly, I was at a jam in Lawrence, KS the first time I can consciously remember hearing this 1966 song by Donovan. It is a great jam song — it’s not too fast, it’s not too complicated, and you can play the A minor pentatonic scale over it.

I like the lyrics…it’s kind of a funky, 60s vibe to it. Great for altering/improvising your own lyrics as well. I like to refer to the tune as “Season of the Wee-otch.” While researching the many different covers of this one, I found a great one by Richard Thompson.

You can hear Thompson’s unique vocal stamp on this one and, around the 4 minute mark, his unique guitar stamp as well. I counted at least fifty different versions of this song. I thought it was interesting to hear a version by Lou Rawls as well.

In recent years, a less-jammy yet still groovy version was released by Lana Del Ray.

If you have a favorite band, chances are, they’ve played this if not recorded as well. Just a few other musicians who have recorded it include Joan Jett, Vanilla Fudge, Stephen Stills/Al Kooper, Dr. John and The Blues Brothers. Somewhere along the way I read that Led Zeppelin used to play this a lot during their pre-show soundchecks.

Till next time, keep your Mojo on the Horizon!

Celebrity Twins/Doppelgangers?

I’m sure this has happened to you, right? You’re watching a film or TV program. One character looks familiar to you, but you just can’t figure out what other projects they’ve done. Prior to the advent of the Internet Movie DataBase (or imdb.com), it could be challenging. Even with it, you’re still not guaranteed to figure it out.

For example, I was told I was “way off” on this one, but I have mixed up the actors Adam Scott and Wes Bentley. To clarify, I think the facial hair adds to my confusion.

I think the issue of actually recognizing that they’re not the same dude came up when I watched the film “The Aviator.” One of them plays a guy named Johnny Meyer — don’t ask me which one. One of them also had a futuristic beard and played a character named Seneca Crane in the first “Hunger Games” film. The solution? Both should be required to wear the freaky, futuristic beards all of the time and start going by the name “Adam Bent” a la J-Lo, etc.

The next example goes back to the 80s for me: actresses Allison Janney and Christine Lahti. They’ve both appeared in a lot of TV shows like The West Wing, Chicago Hope, A Hawaii 5-0 reboot, Mom, and I’m going to guess some made for TV movies.

I haven’t seen it yet, but one of them played Tonya Harding’s mother in the film “I, Tonya”. Again, don’t ask me which one. I think most people would describe the two as tall and attractive. Do you think they look alike? The solution is they should both go by the stage name “Jan Lahti” and leave it at that. It would make my life much easier.

What about you? Have you ever been told you look like a celebrity? At various times, I’ve been told I look like everyone from longtime Queen bass player John Deacon (their Greatest Hits cover in particular) to U2’s guitarist The Edge to Canadian actor Alan Thicke. Naturally, there’s little to no commonality among any of them.

By the way, doppelganger apparently means “double walker” in German. Till next time, keep your eyes out for your doppelganger and keep your Mojo on the Horizon!