February 28, 2018

i am sinking ... (the cure fanboy post)

sinking

i am slowing down

as the years go by

i am sinking

so I trick myself
like everybody else

the secrets I hide
they twist me inside
they make me weaker

so I trick myself
like everybody else

i crouch in fear and wait
i'll never feel again

if only I could
if only I could
if only I could
remember ...
anything at all

lyrics by robert smith


I'll never forget the first time this high school headbanger bought a (vinyl) record by this 'The Cure' band on the recommendation of a goth girl I met in gym class at JC, circa 1985. I'd heard of them and heard 'Close to Me' on the dance floor at the Palladium in SF (an erstwhile, Under-21 dance club in the 80's near Columbus and Broadway, if you're familiar) at the time, but knew little else about them. Depeche Mode was blowing up simultaneously, but I was not sold on their wimpy pop stuff, nor Wham nor Culture Club ... lol ... I like 'em now, but different story then.

Anyways, the rest of this particular album 'The Head On The Door' ranged from fairly ebullient (In-Between Days, Close to Me, Six Different Ways) to epic pop (A Night Like This), to kinda weird (The Blood, Kyoto Song, Push), to outright strange (The Baby Screams) and I really liked most of it ... but then there was this strikingly EPIC slab of GLOOM that closed out the album ... and maybe more than any other single tune, changed my 'taste' for the next 10 years. I.E. it went pretty decisively from 'metal' to 'alternative'

The track was called 'Sinking' ... and even at 19 years old, I sensed the profundity of the simple lyrics and the awesome (and strangely, somewhat metal-like) power that this band wielded.

Then I discovered there were whole albums full of this stuff from their catalog before Head, like the Faith and Pornography albums, which I later bought and consumed voraciously ...

So, thanks to The Head On The Door, these guys pretty much they ended up being the Soundtrack to College for me along with U2, REM, The Smiths, The Replacements, The Alarm, B52s, Talking Heads, Violent Femmes and so many others ... And then the ULTIMATE in goth gloom 'Disintegration' came out smack in the middle ... probably the single album I listened to the most times as a college student. Right place, right time, man.

I ended up seeing them 6 times from 1986 to 1994, on 5 different tours ... Anyways ... here's a little Sinking anthology. Maybe someone else on DU experienced something similar

1985 ... studio version ... on the eve of their massive stardom ... this tune was eerily prescient for a fairly young man like Robert at the time ...


A somewhat obscure, but very cool Peel Session Remix (not sure on year but surely 1980's)


1998 live version


2016 live version (30+ years on ... slowing down a bit ... but not sure he's sinking just yet)


I cannot believe this song is 33 friggin years old ... Anyways, it'll always mean a lot to me as it really opened my mind to a whole new style of music ... not sure 'The Head on the Door' makes quite the impact on my taste that it did ... without this song closing it out with such gusto.

And to close out my fanboy post ... here's my Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Submission ... cause it's WAY PAST TIME ... these dudes have been doing it way too long, in way too influential a way ... to be left out. If they were a US band they'd have been in 15 years ago ... so here's the lads rocking Germany right when Head on The Door came out ... the middle track of A Forest which was 4 years old at the time ... shows very clearly the power of The Cure as a rock band ... and nobody was doing this at the time. They were unique and seminal, it's that simple ... plus Simon on Bass and Boris on Drums ... kicked total ass ... and Robert on guitar was forging a whole new style, along the lines of The Edge at around the same time.

February 28, 2018

Leo Sayer performs 2 hits that he wrote for other people, circa 1974 ... GOLDEN.

Before the dorky 'fro, and lame (albeit catchy) mid 1970's singles, and appearing with Muppets and such ... here's Leo doing a couple early tunes from his repertoire that he wrote ... that others made hits out of.

I love his performances of these two ... Straight-up Youtube GEMS right here ... if you don't like at first, listen a couple times ... cause these are earworms I'm tellin' ya.

The Show Must Go On (hit for Three Dog Night)

One Man Band (hit for Roger Daltrey)

February 12, 2018

CIA CALLS BULLSHIT ON INTERCEPT/NYT STORY ABOUT LOST $100K TO TRUMP KOMPROMAT DEALER!

Sorry if this has already be posted ... every post about this story I've commented on (and been a few now) I've said UNLESS this story is BULLSHIT altogether.

Looks like the CIA (in a rare public statement) is indeed calling BULLSHIT ... INTERESTING!

http://thehill.com/policy/national-security/cia/373323-cia-pushes-back-on-fictional-report-that-it-was-bilked-by

February 1, 2018

End Game for the Memo is not Release ... Just Suspicion on DC, Dems and FBI ...

This memo is obviously a pile of bullshit, but it's one 'point' has already been spread far and wide without it even coming out ... to whit: "ZOMG FBI acted in Partisan Way to Go After Trump By Using Hillary-Funded Dossier For Warrants!!! ALL EVIDENCE NOW TAINTED!!!".

Sure, Nunes has gotten the knuckle-draggers dicks hard ... teasing them that finally they were gonna get their LONG DREAMED OF HOPE ... an ACTUAL WASHINGTON DC conspiracy!

Think about it ... after SO MANY CASES of the blue balls ...

Whitewater!
Blowjobs!
IRS!
Muslim Kenyan Manchurian Candidates!
Benghazi!
PIZZAGATE!
Private Emails!
Uranium One!
The Lost FBI Texts!

ALL pimped to high hell by Right-Winger Propagandists ... EVERY LAST ONE ... never turning out to be the orgasm they'd prayed for ... the base is already used to utter disappointment in the end on these things, so it doesn't really matter if it never comes out.

But what Nunes and Trump succeeded on without even releasing it (esp. with having a Dem like Schiff bust them for this change to the text) is casting aspersions on the FBI and Democrats in the eyes of the base.

Now the story will be 'The Memo didn't come out' because 'DC FBI Deep State and Dems!' ... that is going to be how they run away from it and never put it out ... and that ... is the final mission accomplished.

They are about nothing but making it so the BASE ... will (perhaps violently) refuse to accept ANY final findings no matter HOW iron-clad it is. Those suckers will be 100% was ALLLLLL a 'political conspiracy'.

No need for the embarrassment of putting it out, though they'll likely agitate for it for that for many more weeks and try to drum up and distraction and controversy around it.

It's really kinda masterful ... in a blood-curdlingly horrifying sort of way. Leni and Goebbels are BEAMING with pride somewhere ...