WHAT IS AND WHAT SHOULD NEVER BE

I was at BOOKOFF in Manhattan this past weekend, looking over the used CDs. A copy of the Led Zep Mothership collection caught my eye. Two discs, ten bucks.

I carried it around with me for a while, but ultimately I didn't get anything more than a $3 Beulah CD.

I have a burgeoning non-ironic interest in classic rock, but when push comes to shove, I'm not willing to pay for it.

Tom, you need to move down to NOVA and be my motherfucking classic-rock pimp...

GENESIS TO REVELATION

I'll close out the aughts with a quick dispatch from the "I am a dumbass" files.

I never paid much attention to the beginning of The Clash version of Police and Thieves. I assumed the lyric was just part of the Junior Murvin original, which I confess I've never heard.

But listen closer. What Joe sings is "They're going through a tight wind."

Yup. It's from Blitzkrieg Bop. A tip of the hat from Strummer to the brudders from Queens.

Here's hoping you generate some steam heat in 2010...

MATTER OF FACT IT'S ALL DARK

I still have my two dollars.

DO GOODY GOOD BULLSHIT

Amazon is selling Dark Side of the Moon downloads for $1.99 today.

I've never owned Dark Side, but I've been around it plenty.

I don't like its worldview, but I can't deny that the thing has some craft to recommend it.

The question of the day is whether that's worth two bills to me...

IN THE BEGINNING

Abacab in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Well, fuck no!

HERE IS WHERE THE STORY ENDS

ABBA in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Well, fuck yeah!

THE OLD LEFT HANDER

Not sure if it was a sign of incipient madness or a bit of undigested cheese, but last night I had a very vivid dream that I was stuck in a large ditch with Joe Nuxhall. The North Korean army figured in there, too, though I don't recall how exactly.

The thing that stayed with me was Joe Nuxhall's determination that we would get out of the goddam ditch...