Alice's Restaurant Today

 

In one of yesterday's posts, I mentioned that one of my "Daily Mixes" on Spotify was called "Classic Acoustic", which contains a variety of music from the late 60's/early 70's that, presumably would appeal to old farts like myself. As I mentioned, after hearing song # 3 (1952 Vincent Black Lightning by Richard Thompson) I left the Daily Mix and went off to learn more about Thompson and his music.

This morning, I went back to the mix to listen to #4 - Alice's Restaurant Massacree by Arlo Guthrie.

Alice's Restaurant Massacree was released in 1967. Things have certainly changed since then. Listening to the song as recorded then, I heard a number of ideas expressed which may have been considered "hip" or "progressive" at the time, but which would be frowned upon by the woke folk of today.

 

Afterward, I listened to Guthrie's 50th anniversary rendition to see what, if anything had been updated to pacify the woke.

Of course, there wasn't much one could change about the first part of the song where Guthrie tells of his throwing away "a half a ton" of garbage in a rural area. He couldn't leave out that section because part two would not be understandable without the first part. His description of the garbage incident was still mocking and sarcastic. This time around, however there was no knowing and agreeing laughter from the audience. The woke crowd seriously frowns upon disregard for the environment. Hell, now throwing the garbage away in the city dump is something the Left is against......his throwing away trash the way he did is even worse in today's world. I'm a little surprised that Guthrie hasn't been cancelled for the garbage incident.

When he gets to the second part of the song, which deals with the draft board, his trying to explain to people today what the draft board was seemed a little awkward. I wouldn't expect him to receive much push back from the Left on his anti-war/anti-authority views in the second portion, but I was curious to see what he would do with the reference to "faggots" that comes near the end of the song.

He sidestepped that hurdle. The word was not used in the newer version of the song; instead a mention of how some bigoted folks in Texas might object to a couple singing the Alice's Restaurant jingle, while they applied for a marriage license was substituted.

For many years, an FM radio station in Atlanta would broadcast the song on Thanksgiving Day. I don't know if that's still being done. I'm waiting to see if Guthrie will be eaten by the Left any time soon.

13 Rivers

Those who read my earlier post [ Richard Thompson (Musician) ] know that I only learned of veteran musician Richard Thompson this morning thru a serendipitous series of wanderings on Spotify. After looking at the Wikipedia page on Thompson, I discovered that he's been recording with a number of groups, as well as doing solo work, since the late 60's

Thompson's latest studio album was the 2018 CD 13 Rivers. Before going to his latest, I took a listen to his earlier work to get a better feel for his progression to 13 Rivers.

Three of the 10 singles on Spotify's playlist for Thompson were from his sixth solo album, released in 1991, Rumor and Sigh.The album earned Thompson a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 1992. This would be a good place to start.

I won't review Rumor and Sigh here, only say that I was impressed. From the earlier album, I went on to his latest. I really like this recording. 

Wikipedia describes it this way:

"13 Rivers was written after a period of difficulty for Thompson's family with songs that stick 'close to a vision of darkness, gloom, and noise'.Thompson explains that the songs were written in a 'fairly tight time period of about six months', giving them a sense of commonality. He states that 'many of these songs came to him as a pleasant surprise and that feeling of grabbing the creative urge and running with it is what comes across throughout the running time' "

In a review written when the CD was first released, the reviewer says that many of Thompson's diehard fans have said that Thompson needs to be heard live to be fully appreciated. Those folks have argued that it's difficult to feel the "strident energy of his stage performance onto a studio album". Well, as that reviewer went on to say, Thompson has managed to produce a high energy recording with this album.

The guitar playing is magnificent. Thompson was certainly not resting on his laurels (or his hardies) on this one. After my recent disappointment with Al Di Meola's latest, I feel like I deserve to be pleasant surprised. I was with 13 Rivers.

Richard Thompson (Musician)

Sitting at the PC, surfing Spotify. Spotify has recommendations...called Daily Mixes. One in particular, for me was a mixed called "Classic Acoustic"; not Classical music as one might think, but acoustic from my old fart era of the late 60's.

The first two songs were obvious for this genre - "Norwegian Wood" by The Beatles and "America" by Simon and Garfunkel. The third song on the list was unknown to me. "1952 Vincent Black Lightening" by Richard Thompson. Not only was the song unknown to me, but so was the artist.

Looking at the Wikipedia page for Richard Thompson I was a little surprised that I knew nothing of him. He's definitely from my era. He's just three years older than I and reasonably well known - probably more in England than the U.S..

Rather than stay on the acoustic mix on Spotify, I went to the Spotify overview for Thompson. There, I found a mix of ten of his songs. It's quite entertaining. There are Folk and Rock elements to his music, although much of it sounds like it's crying out for bagpipe.

His vocals put me in mind of Gordon Lightfoot, but more authentic. Maybe a love-child of Lightfoot and David Byrne, if such a thing were possible.

One of his Spotify top ten songs is his cover of "Oops! I did it again." That was the biggest surprise of the day, and that's putting it mildly.

I'll be exploring Thompson's catalogue.

Biden's Name Will Not Appear On Stimulus Checks

According to an article at  thehill.com , Biden's name will not appear on the upcoming round of stimulus checks. The article goes on to say that the stimulus checks sent out during Trump's term had President Trump's name on the memo line of the checks.

Having received the stimulus money thru direct deposit, I had no idea that Trump's name appeared anywhere on the check.

The article quotes White House press secretary Jen Psaki as saying:
"We are doing everything in our power to expedite the payments and not delay them, which is why the president’s name will not appear on the memo line of this round of [stimulus] checks."

Apparently, the checks will be signed by a career official at the Bureau of Fiscal Service.

First of all, will the checks actually be "signed" by anyone? I imagine the signature will be a facsimile. Even if the check did have Biden's name on them, he wouldn't be signing each individual check. The poor guy would get writer's cramp long before many of the checks was ready to mail out. Not having Biden's name on the stimulus checks will in no way speed up the process.

I think Trump's wanting his name on the check was typical, over the top Trump behavior. Biden's decision to go in the opposite direction is just a way of undoing anything Trumpish.