I saw the danger, yet I walked Along the enchanted way. . . . “On Raglan Road” More than three months now and I just can’t get the music of Van Morrison out of my heart and feet. After five full decades his voice, his songs, his high-art approach to backstreet blue ballads and stonegood […]
Van Morrison: The Little Giant of Blue-Eyed Soul Read More »
A harmonica? The thing’s only four inches long! All kinds of notes are missing! Harp players have to show up with a briefcase full of different keys, just to play! They’re so tinny and shrill! So why would a serious musician ever choose the harmonica to play music on? Admittedly, this is good question. But
A Full-Tilt Tribute to the 1896 Harmonica Read More »
The marriage of C.K. Ogden’s work with that of I.A. Richards yielded Basic English, an extreme narrowing of the English language whose principal aim was to eliminate misunderstanding due to clumsiness in manipulating the semiotic triangle. Reducing the dictionary to 850 words (with various ancillary vocabularies tailored to specific disciplines) would greatly reduce the possibility
Basic English on Mt. Fuji Read More »
It started out with Bob Dylan, I think, the grand concept of the sensitive and confessional singer/songwriter. And he was very good at it, as were Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Randy Newman, Phil Ochs, even Carole King. Some of these folks were VERY good singers and others made do with the voices they had. But it
The High Art of Vocal Interpretation Read More »
I remembered Drew from the 1960s, stoned on hashish or LSD, babbling Marx or Marcuse, whanging away on a red guitar. We lost contact during the ’70s, even though I’d occasionally see him, dressed in bright rags, riding up and down Tejon Street on a bike, a faraway look in his eyes. Early one morning
Drew’s New Age Thing Read More »
I’ve spent the last fifty years or so writing songs, performing them, trying to sell them, all without the slightest financial reward. Well, I overstate – back in the early 1980s, I played many paying gigs with a small group, Toy Boat. In 1982, Toy Boat had had two extended gigs at a Westside club
How to Avoid Success Read More »