Rest in peace Mr. Beefheart...

A big bummer.

A major dude who will be missed by all the beautiful weirdos.

Grace Jones ~ Warm Leatherette

Or: Gay culture, the significance of words, tangential philosophical musings, and Conan the Barbarian

Before I start down the rabbit hole of free-associated thought (or was it free-base associated thought?), I gotta toss out this caveat: bigotry is bad. Either you get this, or you don’t. If you disagree with me, that’s your right, but I’m afraid we just can’t be operating on the same plane of thought here.

Grace Jones has been called a “gay icon.” I’m honestly not sure what this means, and whether she’s even a lesbian or not. Maybe she is, or maybe this is just due to the fact that she is a rather intimidating art-androgynous looking chick, and that her music was huge in the 80s New York club scene, which makes it “gay” by default. I don’t really give a damn either way, but this was a good segue to the following thought: the word “faggot” is back with a vengeance.

Don’t get me wrong, any backwards douchebag who uses it as a tool of actual discrimination is not ok by me. But I maintain that it’s fun to use sometimes, since its current status as a maligned cultural taboo has given it a lot of comedic weight. Just remember back to that scene in Old School… Luke Wilson: “the seatbelt seems to be broken, what do you recommend I do?” Cabbie: “I recommend you stop being such a faggot, you’re in the back seat.” This is in the running for the funniest scene in the last decade of film, and it’s all due to that fantastic word. Another reason I dig the word: it’s easier to justify/excuse if anybody actually admonishes you for using it in public than is its cousin, the n-bomb. If I call somebody a fag and they start getting on my shit about me being prejudiced, I can just say that I’m gay, and hence have a right to use the word. On the other hand, on the rare instances where I see fit to drop “nigger” into the conversation, my “but I’m actually black” defense usually gets me into a lot of trouble.

So let’s get back to the music, which is what it’s all about anyway, right? I’ll make the transition easy: words --- music --- clubs --- gay culture --- people who lots of gay men would probably like to bone --- Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime --- Conan the Destroyer. And the transition has been made. Little known fact: that big intimidating black chick from Conan the Destroyer has actually had a phenomenal music career and wouldn’t be out of place in a discussion about the Talking Heads, Andy Warhol, and music performance as legitimate visual art. I’d be seriously surprised if Lady Gaga’s current attempts at “art” weren’t significantly inspired on a personal level by Grace Jones’ actual accomplishments of art.

I was first introduced to Grace Jones the musician by her cover of Edith Piaf’s La Vie En Rose (I like the original slowed down version better, but this video gives some pretty good visual examples of the freaky deakiness that this broad was into).

This song remains probably my favorite thing Jones has ever recorded, and it led to me digging into the rest of her stuff, which is something worth doing if you enjoy that clip, or the next thing that I’m going to recommend: Warm Leatherette - 1980, Island Records. This album saw her move from singer in the standard "disco" mold to new wavy freaked out art house shit. It’s a lot closer to Talking Heads’ Remain in Light or The Eurythmics than Gloria Gaynor, or Edith Piaf for that matter. Really funky, grooving, dance friendly stuff, but not in a The Cheat doing the light switch techno rave way that many have come to associate “dance friendly” with. Oh, and she covers Tom Petty!

Warm Leatherette

Closing Thoughts: I hate to say it, Grace, but Janelle Monae rocks that haircut better than you did. What can I say? She's just more boneable.

It's been a long long time, but I have a sneaking suspicion that Boomerang was a very underrated movie.

Attention: there are no links to music share files in this post. Also, I'm told by somebody that Grace's French accent is bullshit. Luckily I don't know French, so I still think her cover song up there is brilliant.

A passing thought, nothing to see here

I'm not gonna post a Kanye West album on the internet, or even talk about his music, cause that would be useless. The rest of the internet has already done that, and done it in annoying fashion.

My brain grapes got to thinking, and I finally decided why I like Kanye West (aside from I think he raps sick)... it's cause the somehow not incompatable levels of narcissism and self loathing that make up his stupid overblown public personna are probably the same as those that make up most people's personal lives (or at least mine). I hate myself so much, yet every ten minutes I'm reminded that I'm the best thing in the history of the universe. I have horrible image issues and wish I were a completely different person... yet I stare at myself in the mirror cause I'm a handsome, vain son of a bitch. Life is retarded. I am living it.

The useless brain rant ends here, so pay attention and check this out. Here's a song from way back in the day before he got famous when Bob Seger wanted to melt everybody's fucking faces off and rock the world to death:

The Bob Seger System ~ Persecution Smith

Marty Robbins ~ The Drifter

Tom Waits once listed El Paso by Marty Robbins as one of his favorite songs of all time. This is not surprising, since Tom Waits is one of the smartest, most musically tasteful people out there, and since El Paso is, in fact, one of the greatest songs of all time.

Robbins is similar to Waits, in that he had a great career and a whole bunch of great songs. He is vastly different though, in that unlike Waits, Marty's songs weren't always incredible. In other words, some of his later career stuff just wasn't up my alley. So I mostly just stick to the earlier records. However, this isn't supposed to be about hating, it's supposed to be about loving, so let's get back on track by acknowledging the awesome fact that in 1973 Mr. Robbins raced in the Talladega Super Speedway prior to the event's immortalization by Ricky Bobby.

Um... ok, back on track now. Although this isn't the one with the aformentioned "El Paso" on it, this may be Robbins' finest effort, and it is my favorite country album of all time. It is that good. The beautiful Three Amigos Soundtrack-esque spanish guitar style of Robbins and the somber mood of these songs... it all combines for a beautiful, heart-wrenching, everything-just-coming-together-perfectly fun time music party (word-selection edit pending to enhance literary credibility). This album is the real shit. It's hard as hell to find, and I've worn the bejesus out of my old vinyl copy. Luckily for you, I'm a generous son of a bitch. Give it a listen when you're in the mood for something country but not twangy, emotional but not emo, real but not... shitty? Fuck, this album is awesome. The second side in particular whups a camel's ass with a belt. The only negative thing I can say about it is that "Feleena" is like 300 minutes long... and even that's not really a bad thing.

The Drifter

(Get Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs too if you dig it.... that one's easy to find)

Link Wray ~ Link Wray (1971)

Link Wray is most famous for being the guy that nobody realized was playing the really good song in the background during the scene in pulp fiction where Mia went to the bathroom and Travolta proceeded to look cool. Props to the always musically tasteful Tarantino for including that song (Rumble) in his classic film. Had he not done so, it's likely that today nobody other than Greg Cartwright would even know who Link Wray was.

I don't need to get into his life story, we got wikipedia for that. The important points are these: he was a really groovy dude who knew how to get the jammin'est sound ever from a guitar, he had some sort of debilitating disease at some point which he recovered from, he once covered the Batman song with his band The Wraymen (these folks may be explored in this web log at a later date...), and his career goes much deeper than Rumble.

In 1971 Wray recorded this album, which is a departure from the groovy surf style sounds from his early days. It reminds me of what it might sound like if Reigning Sound had a baby with the Velvet Underground. The songs are just plain great, and sound phenomenal coming out of some good speakers. Rootsy as all hell, with Wray's voice the most beautiful example of "grit." I'll save you the literate "review." That shit's played out anyway. I just recommend you listen to the record and jump to your own conclusions mats.

Link Wray (1971)