For some reason I recently bought the “Gold Box” 10-DVD set of the complete Twin Peaks televised drama. The box contains the complete 2-hour pilot, the complete international pilot (careful, the international pilot has spoilers, so wait until you watch the whole series), and all 29 episodes that were broadcast over seasons 1 and 2, […]
My sister loaned me Eric Clapton: The Autobiography. I haven’t quite finished it, but finishing it won’t change my conclusion. It stinks. It’s badly written. It’s a real letdown. Commendably, Mr. Clapton decided not to use a ghost writer, but he should have used a collaborator because as a writer, he’s just a great guitarist. […]
Can’t Buy Me Love, by Jonathan Gould
Energized by the possibility that the Red Sox might successfully trade for Johan Santana, one of my partners recently asked me to “stop reading books about the Beatles and get back to baseball.” I admit it, I have a Beatles addiction. Luckily for my partner, though, the definitive Beatles […]
A couple of movies, a bio, and some music this time.
I know The Bourne Ultimatum has been getting good reviews, but… but… there’s nothing to it. Non-stop action that verges on the impossible all too quickly (my disbelief really did not have much time to be wilfully suspended). Tension without plot. There’s no balance! My idea […]
Bootleg recordings of popular music first appeared around 1969, when a vinyl collection of unknown Bob Dylan songs, in a plain white album jacket labeled The Great White Wonder, began to circulate. This was soon followed by a leaked copy of an early mix of the Beatles’ Let It Be album, which was played on […]
Over the weekend I read — mostly aloud to my wife, actually – Plato and a Platypus Walk Into A Bar, by Cathcart and Klein. A relatively short book, Plato aspires to reveal some truths (and confusions) of philosophy by reference to jokes. It’s an odd premise, but it works, and parts of the book […]
Introduction
For many years now I have been trying to discover the earliest recorded song that really and truly sounded like surf music. You know, surf music – guitars and a drum kit, a particular sound, and typically lots of reverb – a “wet” guitar sound. Surf historians have traditionally identified Dick Dale, on the one […]
