Thunderbolt

I’m not sure when my brother, Budd, bought his copy of John (then) Cougar Mellencamp’s “Uh Huh”. The cassette just showed up in the basement on summer, years after its release. Like most of America, I was a big fan of “Pink Houses”, and I was thrilled that now had copies of his other big hits from that album, “Crumblin’ Down” and “The Authority Song.” At this point in his career, Mellencamp was ready to establish himself as a legitimate artist, hence the use of his real name (the record label wouldn’t allow him to ditch the “Cougar” until years later for fear record buyers may get confused….huh?) In addition, there was the radio staple (at least in Cleveland), “Play Guitar”, on side 2, which borrowed heavily from Them’s “Gloria” (Mellencamp often slipped the “G-L-O-R-I-A”’s into his concerts during that number). The rest of “Uh Huh” is filled with more of the same 60’s garage band type of rock that Mellencamp champions, as well as one of Budd’s favorite tunes, the John Prine co-pe...

A former employee of Karyn's, Tedra Bonner, runs a My Gym in Minnesota. A local paper there ran this article about one of her employees who has CF. I read this yesterday and felt inspired. At home last night, Jake told Julie that when he told his friends he had to get x-rays tomorrow, they told him he has a "bad body". Even writing that gets me choked up. I'm sure they meant no harm. I hope they were just being kids and not making fun of him. Jake is already resisting some of his treatments because (I think) he's starting to feel different. I hope I can be a strong parent like the ones in this article and tell him the right things. I worry. I worry a lot. At some point he'll be on his own. At some point he'll make his own decisions. We know another family in Santa Clarita who have a daughter with CF and, in one of her parent's own words "she doesn't take care of herself". That must be agonizing. What do you do? May I once a...

For anyone who is not watching NBC's "Friday Night Lights", you are missing one of the best series on television. It's not a show about doctors or lawmen. There is no supernatural element involved. You won't hear a cheesy laugh track and there is nothing ironic about the show. It wear its heart on its sleeve in its portrayal of a small town in Texas in which football is the one thing in all of these peoples' lives that gives them meaning. Except that it isn't. Football is actual a minor part of this examination of the lives of the citizens in the Texas town. The people are poor or middle class. There aren't any rich people. This isn't Texas 90210. The characters are relatable and are not perfect. It's been a long time since I've seen a reflection or real life portrayed in a dramatic series like this one. And ultimately, it is a show about hope. Each and every person is looking for that light that will provide him or her with so...

During the summer of 1986, Matt and I discovered The Police. For me, the discovery of their music occurred in part because I was in some garage band and we played “Message In A Bottle”, and in part because Matt and I had stumbled upon a documentary of the band shot in the early 80’s, “Police Around the World”. That VHS tape (long out of print) was rented four or five times over the course of the summer and the two of us came to love Sting (the cool one), Andy (the sardonic one) and Stewart (the obnoxious one). Unlike other artists of that time period, we didn’t have a group of friends latching on to them at the same time. This was just three years after the peak of their career (“Synchronicity”), so the band wasn’t classic rock yet. The two of us weren’t unearthing long lost music (like we all did with Zeppelin, the Who, Cream and the Kinks). The music of The Police became a shared obsession between Matt and me, and whenever I hear their songs, I think of Matt and that summer. It...

I normally don't write about his purpleness. My lasting memories of Prince stem from a Prom I went to in 1986. My behavior that night was not so respectable. We don't need to get into it. But last night, at the Super Bowl, Prince tore it up, man. With the rain coming down in sheets, he was the consummate entertainer, giving 100% in what looked like miserable conditions. The best moment came when he RIPPED through the Foo Fighters "Best of Me" (with a brief intro from "All Along The Watchtower"). I've always loved the song the way the Foos did it, but Prince brought chills. There was such passion in his voice and his guitar playing was AWESOME. Finally, with the rain still pouring, he went through an inspired version of "Purple Rain" that, I feel, was the best of any of these bloated half time shows at the Super Bowl. Better than Sir Paul last year (which was routine, in my opinion), better than Justin, Janet and Janet's nipple, and ...

Hey there. Amy, the wife of my old friend, Phil, sent me an email in response to yesterday's Basement Song posting. We had a couple of exchanges and I thought they were really nice. So here's what we had to say: Aloha... To: Scott From: Amy Scott, I read your blog and felt compelled to respond since we are 2 of the "ten". I love Rainbow Connection. I love it so much that when we were doing our son Connor's nursery we had a mural painted with children's song lyrics and the phrase "someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection" was the first to go up. This song also brings a tear to me eye everytime Connor is listening to his Kids Stuff radio station and that song comes on. Right now he is too young to fully understand what that song means, and I think that is the genius of the song. It means different things when you are 5, or 12, or 21 or 36! All I know is when I hear that song, I am overwhelmed with a multitude of emotions. From sadness to h...

Welcome to the first installment of The Basement Songs, a weekly feature I’m going to have on the blog. What is a basement song? It has nothing to do with the Basement Tapes. I can only think of a couple Dylan and /or Band songs that may qualify as a basement song. A basement song is purely personal. Quality of song isn’t important (not that the bootlegs of Dylan and he Band were all masterpieces). It’s how a song makes you feel and how it can take you to a place… a moment in your life or and event. Songs that can make you relive every emotion, good or bad. As I do not know all ten of you who read my blog, I can only write from my own experiences. Of course, there are some songs I may never write about… particularly Bruce Springsteen’s “Valentine’s Day.” So why “basement songs”? I grew up in a Cleveland suburb and my parents owned a large four story house. As you may have figured out, the house had a basement. The room was essentially a dumping ground for toys. My dad’s w...