Dad Rock--Introduction

I have not posted in a while--been busy and lacking creativity. The other night, my wife suggested I do a list of the best "Dad Rock" songs. Thanks, Barb, for the inspiration.

About six weeks ago, my son showed me a column that described the growth of Dad Rock--referring to the growing number of bands that appeal to all ages. The column specifically mentioned a number of bands that I enjoy (as does my college-aged son). The writer described Dad Rock as music that makes you want to speed down the road with the top down (or at least at 5 miles an hour over the speed limit with a sun roof).

In True Stories, I have already shared some of my favorite bands from the past (and a few from the present). Over the next few weeks, I will be introducing you to some of the best in Dad Rock.

Up first--Frank Turner

Frank Turner is a folk-punk artist who formerly was in a hard-core punk band. He has soared in popularity in England with his ironic lyrics, great live performances, and a sense of humor. In I Still Believe, he sums up the joy of music:

I still believe in the saints

In Jerry Lee and Johnny, and all the greats

I still believe in the sound

That has the power to raise a temple, and tear it down

I still believe in the need

For guitars and drums and desperate poetry

I still believe that everyone

Can find a song for every time they've lost, and every time they've won

So just remember folks we're not just saving lives, we're saving souls and we're having fun. 

Turner has lyrics and song titles that can make every English teacher smile. Check out I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous:

Let's begin at the beginning: we're lovers and we're losers

We're heroes and we're pioneers, and we're beggars and we're choosers.

We're skirting round the edges of the ideal demographic.

We're almost on the guest list but we're always stuck in traffic...

I am sick and tired of people who are living on the B-list.

They're waiting to be famous and they're wondering why they do this.

And I know I'm not the one who is habitually optimistic,

But I'm the one who's got the microphone here so just remember this:

Life is about love, last minutes and lost evenings,

About fire in our bellies and furtive little feelings,

And the aching amplitudes that set our needles all a-flickering,

And help us with remembering that the only thing that's left to do is live  .

After all the loving and the losing, the heroes and the pioneers,

The only thing that's left to do is get another round in at the bar.

One last Frank Turner song with great lyrics and a video that shows his sense of humor. How can you go wrong with a title like Reasons Not to Be an Idiot?

I'm not as awesome as this song makes out

I'm angry, underweight and sketching out

I'm building bonfires on my vanities and doubts 

To get warm like everybody else...

  

Dirty Politics? Polarization? The American Way

Were you sick of the proliferation of negative campaign ads this election season? Do you long for the good old days when there wasn't so much negativity? What would the founding fathers think of our current system? What about how journalism has fallen into the competing agendas of Fox News and MSNBC--what happened to objective news?


Other than the increase in money that allows saturation of the electronic media, the tone of campaigning has not changed much since the beginning of our nation. As the video below demonstrates, using actual words from past campaigns, politics has always been a full-contact sport. Thomas Jefferson called John Adams "a bald, blind, crippled, toothless man who wants to start a war with France." Jefferson went on to say, "When he's not busy importing mistresses from Europe, he's trying to marry his son off to a daughter of King George." 





Somehow, we have this idealized and sanitized view of what democracy is. A government by and for the people is a messy thing. People make mistakes. People are uninformed. People vote based upon emotions and perceptions. If you are a Democrat, you find the most recent election proof of that. If you are a Republican, you saw that proof two years ago.


The objective journalism of the past, is partly a myth. I have been reading a book from the 1970s, The Powers That Be, by David Halberstam. Did you know that the Los Angeles Times refused to even cover Democratic candidates in the paper? That Time Magazine's founder felt it was his obligation to champion the conservative viewpoint in news stories?


I believe that part of our dissatisfaction with our political system is that we are taught this romanticized version of the past. Whereas the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were brilliantly conceived documents, the Founding Fathers were still flawed human beings. They did not envision democracy as being open to everyone--they assumed the upper class (white men) should make the decisions.


Rather than focusing on a past that was not as cleanly glorious as we like to think, perhaps we should focus more on appreciating that democracy is a work in progress, with steps forward and backward. The amazing thing is that it works at all.

The Ghost of Howard Stern

As a kid, I always looked forward to Halloween. I enjoyed choosing a costume, and what could be better than roaming the neighborhood to get free candy? 


I can still remember my all-time favorite costume. As a child in the 1960s, I was about 8 years old when I dressed as an astronaut. The only problem was that the "helmet" included a plastic face shield that fogged up every time I exhaled. 


At some point, Halloween became a less interesting event for me. I had no interest in costumes, and I generally have access to candy at all times anyway. Two years ago, a friend of my wife's invited us to a murder mystery dinner theater, and we were expected to arrive in costume.


Barb found a long black wig, some "tattoo" sleeves and some inexpensive costume jewelry. She wasn't dressing up as anyone in particular, just wanted to look funkier than usual. At my work at that time, there was a young secretary who definitely marched to the beat of her own drummer--she had creative tattoos and piercings.


Upon seeing Barb's supplies, Mandy instantly recognized that Barb would make a great Kat Von D, the star of the tv show, LA Ink. I had never heard of it, but Barb was excited.

Now the pressure was on--what could I come up with. I went to the mall and browsed Hot Topic. There wasn't much left to pick from. As I began to feel desperate, I noticed a small collectible action figure of punk rocker Joey Ramone. Joey was wearing jeans, a black t-shirt and black jacket with his wild black hair.


THAT WAS IT! I found a wig, and a black jacket. Hot Topic even had a black Ramones t-shirt. I went to Kohl's and found some skinny jeans (skinny is a redundant adjective when I'm wearing denim).


Barb and I were HOT together. We were a perfect couple. For once in my adult life, I had a decent Halloween outfit. We had our son take our picture. We had to save our triumph for posterity!


We arrived at the dinner theater, knowing we had a good chance to win Best Costumes. As the evening progressed, my anticipation grew. Everyone commented on Barb's Kat Von D costume. Surprising to me, everyone knew who Kat Von D was--and this was not a young crowd. I received several compliments as well.


Finally, it was time for the announcement. I was shocked when the best female costume was awarded to someone other than Barb. Moments later, the emcee for the evening proclaimed Howard Stern as the male winner. I looked all around and could not find a Howard Stern anywhere...Then I realized, everyone was looking at me...

Unique Gift Idea--90 Days to Christmas

Modern marketing is incredible. Companies track variables such as what we purchase, what websites we view, and what television shows we watch. They use this information to alert us to products we may be interested in.

With only 90 days until Christmas, the catalogs are starting to pour into my mailbox. Today, I received one of my favorites. The Solutions catalog is full of product that address common life problems.  If you need some new ideas, this is the catalog for you.

Do you have a friend with a flatulence problem? Subtle Butt is what they need! These activated charcoal pads have adhesive on one side to stick to your underwear. These pads absorb odor. As the photo below exclaims, this is a great stocking stuffer!

You can view more on the Solutions website.
http://www.solutions.com/jump.jsp?itemType=PRODUCT&itemID=15748

I love the product reviews on the website because they answer very pertinent questions. I now know that  Subtle Butt is great for absorbing odor, but it does not muffle sound. On the other hand, they are very durable.

My favorite review stated: "Makes a great gift. I have given these to many friends. No one had ever received this as a gift before!"

There you have it--the most unusual gift of the season. Your friends will thank you. But, don't worry, there's no need to thank me for letting you in on this.

Turning into an Old Man

I find myself turning into an old man--make that a crotchety old man. I remember being in college and looking forward to checking my mailbox every day. Perhaps there would be a letter from an old friend, or maybe a favorite magazine.

Now my son is in college and he hardly ever checks his mailbox. He tells me that his friends rarely check theirs.

They are so accustomed to Twitter, Facebook, instant messaging, texting--the idea of sending a card or letter must seem rather quaint. They must wonder why anyone would send a card when you can just say "happy birthday" on Facebook (after Facebook notifies them of the friend's birthday).

I remember the first time I began feeling old. Windows 95 had just come out and totally changed how my computer worked. Windows 3.1 had worked just fine for me, but nooooooo, they had to update it.

Now that I have turned into that old guy, what can I do? Well, just like all the other crusty old guys, I can post on Facebook and Twitter, and pretend that someone is listening...

Throwback Thursday--Everything But The Girl

Sometime in the early '90s, I was at home listening to the radio, when I heard a song that captivated me.  A few minutes later, my wife came home and told me that she had heard this great song while driving home. 


We had both heard Everything But the Girl performing the song Get Me. EBTG, as they are also known, is a husband-wife duo. Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn have been together as a band since the 1980s. They have covered a wide range of genres, from jazz to electronic dance mixes. In England, they were known as being part of the "sophisti-pop" movement that included artists such as Sade.


Regardless of the type of music being performed, EBTG is easily recognized because of Thorn's voice. She has joked that everyone is blessed with certain talents, and hers is a voice that can make people cry. Watt is a brilliantly versatile songwriter. Check out the lyrics of Get Me below. Then, click on the videos to hear Get Me and Missing, both from my favorite EBTG album, Amplified Heart.

Get Me

I never thought I'd grow up so fast so far.
To know yourself is to let yourself be loved.

And I want to be addicted,
I want to be secure,
I want to wake up after the night before,
but do you ever get me?

Do you ever get me?

I'll press your hand against my face,
weaken my resistance.
I'll pull the sheets over our heads,
let the broken sky break above our heads.

And I want to be addicted,
I want to be secure,
I want to wake up after the night before,
but do you get me?

Do you ever get me?

Shower me with affection and I'll return in kind.
I have no hidden motive, I am blind.

I'm a stone inside a box,
I'm a spring inside a clock,
you can wear me on your wrist
and I'll tell you things ten thousand times,
but do you ever get me?

Do you ever get me? 


Words and Music by Ben Watt

Throwback Thursday--Joan Armatrading

In 1984, I was living near Philadelphia. One Sunday morning, I heard a beautiful and heart-wrenching ballad on the radio. I had never heard a voice quite like this--so powerful and vulnerable. One line in particular stood out--"If you're so strong, then resolve the weakness in me..."

That was my introduction to Joan Armatrading. I became an instant fan and sought out everything she had ever recorded. She released her first album in 1972. From 1975 through 1981, she released seven albums and one EP. She was immensely popular in Great Britain during that time, and she earned a strong following in the United States where she was considered an "album artist" who never received much airplay on popular radio here.

Despite her lack of radio airplay, Armatrading has earned many accolades during her career. In 1999, VH-1 named her as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in rock history. She has influenced many current artists, such as Tracy Chapman and Indie Arie. Her music has been covered by Jewel, Keisha White and Melissa Etheridge, among others.

Armatrading is equally talented as a songwriter and performer. Her voice highlights the intimacy of her lyrics. Love and Affection is one of her best-known songs and opens with "I am not in love...but I'm open to persuasion..."

Armatrading was born in 1950 in St. Kitts, and her family moved to England when she was 8 years old. Her music reflects her diverse background, traversing many styles including jazz, blues, reggae, pop and rock. At one point, she was even called "the female Jimi Hendrix." Her early recordings contained acoustic and jazz influences, but by 1980, she had evolved more toward rock and pop. A true singer-songwriter, she has never recorded a song written by anyone else. 

She is still recording successfully. In 2007, she released Into the Blues, an album that debuted at #1 on the Billboard Blues Chart in Britain. Her most recent album, This Charming Life, shows that she's still got it. Here she is performing the title track on the British equivalent of the Today Show.