Thought about posting a blog entry today.

Naaahh.

Peeling The Layers

A couple of interesting little interviews courtesy of The Onion's A.V. Club. One with Paul McCartney and the other with Nick Lowe.

I really liked this passage from the Nick Lowe piece:

AVC: If you had a choice between cutting a really great album or a really great single, which would you choose?

NL: Oh, a really great single, I think. [Pause.] Although, wait a minute. No, I answered that rather quickly. Well, you see, the sort of albums I like are the ones where no one song particularly stands alone. I like the sort of albums where you start at the beginning, and you listen to the whole thing, and there aren't any fillers. All the tracks actually bolster each other up, like the one that comes after the one before will make the one before sound better. So it does actually sound like one giant single.

All I can say is that back in the day, when I was producing a lot of records, I seemed to get gold records and awards and things all the time. They used to come by post, and I didn't know what they were. It almost didn't matter, it seemed completely irrelevant, so I sent them all over to my mother. And they were extremely ugly, these things. I mean, I know they represented something, but they were extremely ugly-looking, and I didn't really want to put them on the wall or anything like that. And then, unfortunately, when both my parents died in these last few years, I inherited all these hideous gold records and things. But amongst them was a gold 45 that I'd gotten in the UK for producing an Elvis Costello single called "Oliver's Army." And it's such a cool item to have, this gold 45 RPM single. I couldn't believe that I'd had it amongst that collection and I'd never realized it. I don't think they make them any more. Well, of course they don't make them any more.

AVC: Most bios of you now mention that you became a millionaire when a cover of "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding" appeared on The Bodyguard's soundtrack. But is that money still holding out? Or are you just about through it?

NL: Oh no, it went a long time ago. [Laughs.] It's amazing how not-very-far a little less than a million dollars will go. That's what I think I got. God knows what some people got for that record. Especially the guy who wrote the B-side of "I Will Always Love You" and got his album cut as well. So very nice indeed. But no, I managed to make two albums on that money really, and toured with them both, you know, with a band. Staying at reasonably good hotels, where we wouldn't get our stuff stolen. I could pay my guys right. So I financed all that, bought a couple of suits, took a couple of people to dinner, and that really took care of it.

But the thing is, my career had stalled a bit up 'til then, and I'd just found this new way of recording myself and writing songs for myself when this check came through the door, and hey, presto! I was able to realize it. If it hadn't gotten that money, I don't think I would have been able to. And once you're seen to be back in the game again—which I desperately needed to be—other things come to you. Even though the Bodyguard money per se is gone, that led to other things, and other people have cut my songs, and you know, my fortunes started changing for the better.

But the Macca interviewer sure doesn't know his shit. In discussing Dylan's influence, he asks: "When he went electric, were you and John and the guys booing?" I mean, really. Did he actually think The Beatles would have been booing Dylan's electric set at The Royal Albert Hall? Read a little, will ya?

Interesting, though, that McCartney still gets excited when he hears one of his new songs on the radio.

As The Jesus Of Cool says, And so it goes...

Being Kurt

From the Onion:

15 Things Kurt Vonnegut Said Better Than Anyone Else Ever Has Or Will

Number 3

Well, I guess this answers that question.

etc.

R.I.P. June Callwood.

They say we lose prominent people in sets of three. I wonder who's next?

So it goes.

"Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — ‘God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.’"
--excerpt from God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater

"When the city of London wanted to give [George Bernard] Shaw its Order of Merit, he thanked them for it, but said he had already given it to himself.
I would have accepted it. I would have recognized the opportunity for a world-class joke, but would never allow myself to be funny at the cost of making somebody else feel like something the cat drug in.
Let that be my epitaph.
--Timequake p.141

"We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!"
--Timequake p.219

Happy Blogiversary!

It was on Easter weekend, five years ago, that I started this little ol blog. Not for the fame. Not for the glory. Not for the hits. Just for the sheer...blogginess of it.

I've neglected it far too often, but here it waits, silently, to accept my whims and thoughts when the mood strikes me.

Bless you, little blog, and happy fifth birthday!