Joe Strummer, Twenty Years Gone

 

Joe Strummer died two decades ago today and I have no idea how that could be twenty years ago now. What has changed? The world in many ways seems to have become trapped and frozen somewhere along the way. 

Beat the Holiday Blahs with the Ultimate 70s Party Playlist

Dreading another deadly-boring holiday party? You need to get the people off their little demon boxes and get them all singing and dancing and feeling grateful to be alive with the best of Seventies Pop, Rock 'n' Roll, Funk and R&B.

THIRTEEN HOURS OF HAPPINESS AND JOY, PEOPLE.

Please Like and share far and wide.

The Most Influential Musician You Never Heard Of

Genius is a curse, not only because it shares a driveway with madness but also because it often falls prey to that most insidious of demons: boredom. This is an occupational hazard particularly for musical geniuses.

The Secret Origin of Boston Hahdcoah Hardcore Punk

"The Truth About Stoner Rock"

 

Secret Singles: Magic by Pilot (1975)

This is not only one of the best singles of the 70s, it's one of the best Pop singles of all time. It hit me at a time when I began to see the world as being inherently magical, though certainly not in the rose-colored-glasses sense you'd expect from a typical eight year-old. 

Secret Singles: (Don't) Do What Thou Wilt

 

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So, I was reading an old interview with Joe Strummer and this little anecdote caught my eye:

There was a group called Eddie and the Hotrods right? And on their album, for some reason they chose to put a picture of Aleister Crowley wearing a Mickey Mouse hat...

 

OK, I'm on a big Stoner Metal kick now.

 

I guess I watched too many Mastodon videos because YouTube's algorithm has been throwing me a ton of Stoner Metal vids from this year's Hellfest, and now I'm lost in a new musical rabbithole. And now you will be too.

It's weird, though: I'm old enough to remember when "stoner" and "metal" would essentially be synonymous.

Eighty-Two from '82

 

A musical aspirin for the Empire's terminal case of war fever. A panacea for the 21st century blues.

Everything was better before 9/11. Let's stop pretending otherwise.

1982: Year of the Underwhelming Follow-Up LP

So I've done megaposts on 1979, 1981 and 1983, but what about 1982? What's the big story with that year? Well, it was an amazing year for movies and comics, certainly, but for music? 

For music, 1982 can be summed up in one word: disappointing.

The Secret Sunset of Rock : Insanely Great Records from the 2000s

You know, I still can't figure out exactly when Rock n' Roll died. Or at least when it went into a persistent vegetative state. It seems like an important thing to determine, but it seems like no one even cares to check anymore. That's something that needs to be remedied if the music is ever to live again. 

Opening Presence (Led Zeppelin's Presence, That Is)

Presence is an album a lot of Led Zeppelin fans don’t own, and even a lot of those that do don’t listen to it very often. Which is not to say it's unworthy: it’s simply that the after the remarkable run of classic, groundbreaking albums that the Mighty Zep blessed us with, Presence feels like somewhat of a retreat.

The Siren: the Great Archetypal Love Story of Our Time.

 

I was going to post this on Garlands Day, but with the death of yet another GenX luminary - Foo Fighters' drummer Taylor Hawkins - today felt more appropriate. 

I'm not aware of any substantial connections between Our Lady, Queen Dowager of Sibyls and the Foo Fighters, but I won't be surprised if the Shimmer gets to rewriting the timeline and serves some up in the coming days. That's how it works.

This is a fact-corrected revision of the first series of Siren posts on The Secret Sun, all the way back in early 2008. If you're new to this story, this makes for a solid primer.

Wreck and Rule: Wendy O. Williams and The Plasmatics

Plenty of bands play at being subversive. But the final arbiter of the threat a band poses to the Establishment is ultimately how the Establishment reacts to their provocations. 

Rod Swenson, impresario for legendary Punk/Metal band The Plasmatics, got an unequivocal response from the Man one fateful night in the form of gloved fists, police jackboots and billy clubs: “They beat me to a bloody mass of unconsciousness...”

The Secret Origin of Ziggy Stardust, Concluded

OK, this is where things get a little strange. A little more synchy.

All the more appropriate as we observe the sixth anniversary of Bowie's cosmic ascension.

The Secret Origin of Ziggy Stardust, Part Two

"I always had a repulsive sort of need to be something more than human. I felt very very puny as a human. I thought. 'Fuck that. I want to be a Superman.'"

-- David Bowie

In part one, we looked at David Bowie's seminal creation Ziggy Stardust and the history behind it. Or at least the history as it's known. And the known history is quite lacking, as it almost always is.

The Secret Origin of Ziggy Stardust, Part One

You don't need me to tell you that the 1972 LP The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (or Ziggy Stardust, for short) was a major milestone, not only in the life and career of David Bowie but in rock 'n' roll history as well. It was with this album that the Glam era truly began, and pop music - and popular culture - would never be the same again.