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...

IN THE NAME OF LOVE

Four-way stop signs in Virginia are a microcosm of society at its best.

Four-way stop signs in New York are a microcosm of society at its worst.

THIS IS SOMETHING MORE COMPLEX

I don't like to use too many of my music notes to purchase old stuff, but I plunked down $7 last night on Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart by Camper Van Beethoven.

This was one of my favorite albums of the 80's, and I'll go out on a limb and say that She Divines Water was one of the top something something songs of that decade.

Don't know how often I'll actually listen to it, but it feels somehow essential to me...

DON'T DRINK THE BROWN WATER

Pretty sure I just heard Be Gentle With Me by The Boy Least Likely To in a Coke commercial during Monday Night Football.

Or it could have been one of my periodic Pepsi-induced hallucinations.

I tell you, I gotta stay away from that stuff...

THE UNDERGROUND IS COMING?

I suppose it's a little bit sweet that I still need to listen to The Super-It as a digitized version of my old 7", with hisses and pops and all, but come on Stereolab, I think it's about time for Switched On 4...

I WISH I WAS SPECIAL SPECIAL

Random Thursday thoughts...

-I never would have pegged Radiohead for any measurable future success based on the sub-Nirvana pabulum that was Creep. They seemed destined for Bush-hood or Blind Melon-dom for certains...

-Mid-period R.E.M. were basically dead to me, so while I got that they namedropped Wire (It's the End of the World as We Know It), I didn't realize until recently that they had covered Wire (Strange).

-And if Wire and R.E.M. ever collaborate on anything, you can bet your bippy they will call themselves WiR.E.M. Or at the very least, I will call them that...

-To my knowledge, only once did someone ever dedicate a song to me on the radio. The song was Kiss Me by Tin Tin. And I never did kiss her.

-I haven't bought the XX album yet, but am I right that it's just a re-release of Young Marble Giants?

PISS FACTORY

The end-of-year tributes to dead celebs are rolling in. Here is what R. Kelly had to say about working with Michael Jackson:

"It was like hope meeting faith, faith introducing hope to belief, and belief introducing them to love. They all became the best of friends and now hang out at a club called achievement."

Wow.

That's like batshit crazy meeting fucking insane, and fucking insane introducing them to delusional ranting. Then they all became the best of friends and hang out at a club called personality disorder.

Word.