Musical Monday: Bell Boy

We listened to a bit of The Who’s 1973 rock opera, Quadrophenia last night as we came home from dropping the Magpie back off at college. Spring break went fast! So here’s a snippet of a 1974 concert of the band performing Bell Boy. Gotta love Keith Moon. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a […]

Musical Monday: The Mowgli’s

Lynne Truss is no doubt having conniptions over the apostrophe in this band’s name. The Mowgli’s. It feels like an incomplete sentence, doesn’t it? The Mowgli’s…what? Song? Tour? Album? Position on this whole sequestration thing? I don’t know. What I DO know is I’m feeling a bit in need of a pick-me-up this Monday morning, […]

Musical Monday: End of the Line

Ah, the Traveling Wilburys: George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne. Sadly, by the time they got around to making this video, Orbison had passed on from a heart attack. They got together again in 1990 for a follow-up, which had some good songs, but (wisely) decided not to tour, and not […]

Musical Monday: February 3, 1959

On this day in rock and roll history: Which, of course, spawned this hit some thirteen years later: Back in the Dark Ages, we had a record player, and we had American Pie on a 45. I know some of you know what that’s all about. I remember the song would fade out after, I […]

Musical Monday: Somebody That I Used to Know

Funny how things can be. Some  time ago, I kept seeing references to ‘Gotye’ around the web, and I had no idea what anyone was talking about. The name–or whatever it was–would get tossed around. It would catch my eye and fade away, and I’d vaguely wonder what it was or who it was, but […]

Musical Monday: Stars, Inspector Javert

Friday night I became one among millions of Americans who have seen the latest version of Les Miserables (yeah, I know there’s supposed to be an accent over the ‘e’, but I just can’t work that hard at this hour). The movie did not disappoint me. I thought most of the performances were very strong, […]

Musical Monday: John Lennon

John Lennon was really my first hero of rock and roll. As a kid I didn’t really latch on to any one particular performer. We had our Partridge Family records, of course, and I remember playing Don McLean’s American Pie over and over for a  while (and it was a single, so it faded out […]

Musical Monday: Bottom of the World

Back in August we passed through New York City on our way to and from vacation. After getting my dose of New York sports radio (“Joey from Brooklyn is on the line; what’s up, Joey?” “Hey, how you doin’, Mike?” in glorious Sopranos-style accents) I found New York radio stations to be every bit as […]

Musical Monday: Your Racist Friend

The Magpie has been in touch with one of her friends from home, a girl I’ll call the Robin. The Robin is an outgoing, cheerful young lady, all Rainbows and Unicorns, who evidently got socked with her own case of The Second Week Blues at her college. She also had an experience that made me […]

Musical Monday: Drowned

All of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea — whether it is to sail […]