Horse Manure Park

Little Richard died yesterday, Saturday, 9 May 2020. Just when you thought this year couldn't get much worse.  So now, all of my "Mount Rushmore of Rock and Roll" icons are dead. I've always regarded Little Richard and Chuck Berry as 1A and 1AA on my Mount Rushmore of Rock and Roll. Both rose to fame at about the same time. Berry, who died in 2017, is known as the "Father of Rock and Roll," Little Richard as the "Architect of Rock and Roll." It is impossible to say which was more influential.  My third icon is Fats Domino, who also passed away in 2017. Domino is inexplicably overlooked by many critics, yet he's credited by everyone from the Beatles to Elvis Presley as an enormous influence; not only was Domino an innovative songwriter, he was a Billboard monster, scoring thirty-seven Top 40 singles in his career. Many music historians say Domino recorded the first rock and roll record, which was also the first of its genre to sell a million cop...

By nature, I'm not a very spontaneous person. While I'm certainly not a "Type A" personality, I do like things to be organized and I like to have a "plan." There is a method to the madness: it prevents me from being indecisive and it keeps me from running in circles. But now and then I do things off-the-cuff and those moments often result in great memories. A perfect example: In early 1995 I had the opportunity to perform in Las Vegas in the orchestra of a local theater troupe. Long story short, the drummer of the orchestra had quit just a couple weeks before the scheduled performance in Vegas (at the Judy Bayley Theatre at UNLV) and I was asked if I'd be willing to assume the percussion duties on such short notice -- if so, my flight and accommodations would be taken care of. I was single at the time and had no reason to stay in one place, so I threw caution to the wind and hopped on the plane. Besides, I already knew the music! But that's jus...

"I fought my whole life . . . because I wanted to hear and know the whole story, my story, our story, and understand as much of it as I could. This, I presented as my long and noisy prayer, my magic trick. Hoping it would rock your very soul and then pass on, to be read, heard, sung and altered by you and your blood, that it might strengthen and help make sense of your story. Go tell it." These are the concluding sentences of Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run , his new, unapologetic and beautifully written memoir. After reading the last few words, I am inspired to write, so here I am. Whenever I hear a great new album or read an inspiring book, I always feel like I need to share the good news; there is hope out there ! People are still writing and creating good stuff! I realize most folks couldn't care less, but that's okay. I am who I am. I was given Born to Run as a Christmas gift and I was anxious to read it, not because I am a big Springsteen fan, bec...

My "favorite" time of year is approaching. No, I'm not talking about the election, although heaven knows I will be glad when it's over. I'm not talking about Halloween. I'm talking, of course, about the nominations for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This is truly my pet peeve. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame makes me crazy. I've been critical of it for years because it is simply not done right. While the pretentious nominations committee have recently allowed fans a token online vote, in the end the committee will nominate who they darn well please. In short, the nomination process is controlled by a small number of individuals -- most of them frustrated journalists -- who allow their own personal tastes and the smell of their own farts to get in the way of blatantly obvious choices. For years I screamed at the Hall for their refusal to even place KISS on the nomination ballot. Forget the fact that no other American band has sold more gold rec...

UPDATE: Just moments after posting this, Guns N' Roses officially announced they will, indeed, be performing tonight at The Troubadour in West Hollywood, their old stomping grounds.  Tickets are $10. Venue limit is 250 people. No April Fool's joke! I enjoy a good mystery. Add one of my favorite bands from the '80's to the plot and you've got my attention. I have to give them credit, the Guns N' Roses hype machine has played this one masterfully, thanks to social media. We are one week from the reunited band's return to the stage in Las Vegas and still no one is 100% sure who exactly is going to take the stage.  We know this much: Axl Rose, Slash and Duff McKagan, three-fifths of the original "classic" line-up, are already on board. Original guitarist Izzy Stradlin is definitely out. Based on circumstantial evidence, most people have concluded the remaining line-up will include keyboardist Dizzy Reed (who has been an associat...

Music has always played an enormous part in my life. I played in bands from the time I was eight or nine years old, all the way through my teenage years. Playing music was my "after school" job, except I only worked on Friday and Saturday nights, and I worked in bars and nightclubs (you know, like most kids). Playing music was my first paying job and I made pretty good money doing it. My parents were always behind me; they were always encouraging me and supportive of me even if I didn't always play the kind of music they appreciated. With that thought, today marks a special anniversary. On this day four decades ago, March 15, 1976, Kiss released their groundbreaking album, Destroyer .  Why is this important? Because Destroyer was the very first record I ever owned. You see, I was (and still am) a huge Kiss fan. When I was a kid, I used to sit at the kitchen table and draw pictures of the band all the time. I used to make Kiss concert stages out of Tin...

It's back to work tomorrow.  I am getting the itch to make myself useful again.  I can only be off work for so long and I need to do something.  I could not stay at home all day every day.  It's not for me. So today, since I had the day completely to myself, the task at hand was to do laundry.  And do laundry I did.  As I write this, every article of clothing in the house is clean, folded (mostly) and put away (kind of). My job here is done. While completing the menial task of washing clothes, I had the television on as a distraction.  As usual, since it's not football season, I dialed up Turner Classic Movies. The Singing Nun , starring Debbie Reynolds and Ricardo Montalban, was on, so I casually watched it while waiting for clothes to dry.  Aside from being a nauseating mellow drama, I knew enough about my 1960s music history to know it was based on a true story.  Yes, there really was a singing nun. In fact, we used to have a re...

I've uncovered all sorts of treasures while organizing our new storage unit. As I've sorted through old photographs, one thing has really stood out to me.  And I've realized -- surprisingly -- that I've rarely written about it here on my blog. It is something that was (and is) a huge part of my life: my love of drumming . I hope someday the Tax Deductions read this, and if they do, they need to know that drumming was a massive part of their old man's life when he was kid. Now, I confess as I write this I do run the risk of sounding boastful. That's not my intention at all. The truth is, I used to play drums a lot .  In fact, when I was growing up, drumming was all I thought about.  It was all I wanted to do. It was obvious to me that I would grow up to be a famous musician some day. Well, at least famous in my own ZIP code... By the time I was four or five, the drumming bug had bit me hard.  I practiced and practiced, teaching myself along...

We just returned from Fargo after a whirlwind 24 hours of music and fun... and I just have to write about it.  [ ed. note: you don't have to read it... but if you do, that's great, too! ] Our evening with Sir Paul started with a celebratory drink (and pizza) at Old Chicago.  July 12th also happened to be my in-laws' 46th wedding anniversary, which made the evening even more special. My attempt at a group selfie.  Old Chicago in Fargo, 12 July 2014, before the show. The Wife and myself, ready for Sir Paul! We got to the Fargodome relatively early, but there were already hundreds of people lined up to get in. Waiting in line with a bunch of other McCartney maniacs. The show started at precisely 8:00 p.m. (I guess it's that English punctuality).  Paul's appearance was preceded by a 30 minute video montage of his life/career accompanied with a funky Beatles/McCartney music mix. By the time the video was finished, the audience was getting restless -...

I am a cynical person.  Or perhaps skeptical is a better description? Regardless, I do not trust easily.  I do not readily embrace the unfamiliar.  I am leery; always suspicious of the sincerity in almost anything. I'm not saying this is a healthy attitude and I'm not saying I'm proud of it.  It's just how I am. So no one surprised me more than me when I decided to buy Paul McCartney tickets back in April and I was presented with the unknown.  Uncharacteristically, I took a leap of faith. Since I am a member of McCartney's fan club, I was able to get an early pre-sale of the concert in Fargo.  I went to McCartney.com and sure enough, I quickly grabbed terrific seats.  But when I went to purchase the tickets, I was redirected to a web site which I had never heard of before: Crowd Surge. Immediately the skeptic in me said, "Whoa, wait a minute.  What is this?"  Was I redirected to some rogue site looking to steal my credit card num...

So when I say I like to play with my balls, this   is what I mean... ...what did you think I meant?

I don't want to be 15 years older, but I've often said I was born 15 years too late. Anyone who reads my blog knows my tastes in music.  My iTunes and CD collection is pretty darn eclectic.  I enjoy anything from Frank Sinatra to Dave Matthews Band, Louis Armstrong to Def Leppard, Benny Goodman to Eagles (not "The" Eagles... Glenn Frey insists it is just Eagles ). But ever since listening to "Simon and Garfunkle's Greatest Hits" and "Beach Boys Concert" when I was about seven years old, I was captivated by the sounds of the sixties. There was something extraordinary about the songs and lyrics.  I knew instinctively, even at a young age, that this music was important.  Don't get me wrong... I loved KISS; I loved the loud guitars and drums and crazy make-up and stage show, but "In My Room" or "The Boxer" took me to a place no other music could. It's still true today. And this is not to mention the sou...