Alex Lifeson.
My Rush fandom has suffered from diminishing returns since A Farewell to Kings back in 1977. While I still enjoy the early to late 70's Rush, and have a lot of time for later songs like Spirit of Radio, Limelight, Tom Sawyer and Freewill, none of those is why I salute Mr. Lifeson here today.
Alex Lifeson is one of a group of guitarists who shaped Rock and Roll in the latter 70's with their versatility. Along with the likes of Jimmy Page, Steve Howe, Rik Emmet and Steve Morse classical, jazz and country guitar playing was added to the rock guitarists repertoire. It was that influence that I sought in my own playing that made me take up classical guitar, a pursuit I would come back to 20 years later and still do daily.
So happy birthday for all the songs mentioned above, certainly. Happy birthday for the albums 2112 and A Farewell to Kings, absolutely. But most of all, happy 55th birthday Alex Lifeson for the small instrumental intro to the song A Farewell to Kings. A piece that I just had to learn and which, along with others, began me on a long, albeit crooked path, which I follow still.
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Now that summer is all but over and the kids are spending their last few days of freedom with weepy eyes and furrowed brow, it's time to think election. Specifically a federal fall election. PM Harper has announced that he will summons Stéphane Dion and insist he actively support the Conservatives fall legislative agenda, instead of passively supporting it by declaring the new holiday, Confidence Motion Day, a statutory holiday for all Liberal MPs. Expect Dion to refuse his support. Expect a scary October 31st with politicians knocking on your door offering tricks and treats.
I'm of two minds on this one.
As an ideological conservative I'd rather an election call be on issues. Let Stephen Harper decrease the excise tax on diesel fuel, or put forth his bill on Senate Reform and let it fall or pass as it may.
As a follower of the game of politics, however, any Conservative Party of Canada faithful wants an election now. The Conservatives chances of winning an election next fall would appear to be much less so than they are right now. There are various reasons why this is so, why the Liberals may want to wait a year, the Conservatives less so.
First there is The Green Shift, which hasn't won the hearts and minds of the nation outside of the editorial offices of The Toronto Sun. Meant to be Dion's jumping off point for a platform, it appears to have fallen flat with voters.
Second is the budget surplus, which is rumoured to be heading into minor deficit this year. While a small, temporary deficit during bad times doesn't bother me too much (far less than not paying down debt during good times), it's not a position a government seeking re-election wants to be in. The Conservatives may or may not be there this year, but better to go to the polls now and explain a deficit from the position of newly re-elected government than one seeking re-election.
A third reason for wanting an election now is inflation. It has reared it's ugly head around the world and is expected to hit hit 4.3% by early next year here in Canada. The Bank of Canada has an inflation target of 1 - 3%. If the rate stays above 3% interest rate hikes are inevitable. But what if rate hikes don't work? Or as Maclean's pondered a few weeks ago, what if inflation goes higher? It is possible in that a year from now we could see borrowing costs 2, 3, 4% higher. That starts to hurt families trying to make ends meet. And it starts hurting Conservative chances a year from now.
That all said, The Conservatives brought in fixed election legislation for a reason: to stop governments going to the polls for their own political advantage. The dissolving Parliament clause may make it legal but clearly Harper would be breaking the spirit of the law by calling an early election. An argument can, I think, be made that minority governments constitute a different situation than a majority, but for Harper to set the precedent of violating the concept of fixed dates renders the law meaningless. It would be better if he lost a confidence motion. We all know Stéphane Dion is loathe to vote the Conservatives down, but if the Conservatives abstained 1 for 1 with the Liberals, sit 95 MPs out of the next confidence motion, they should have no problem losing a motion based on the NDP and Bloc's vote. Harper could get the fall vote he wants without violating the intent of the fixed election date law.
Personally, I'd rather he kept on governing like he had a majority and let the chips fall where they may, but Stephen Harper leaves nothing to chance, and he doesn't look like he's about to start now.0Add a comment
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Video clip of Jimmy Page and Leona Lewis performing Whole Lotta Love at the closing of the Olympic ceremonies:
It's unbelievable that the French TV commentators can't shut up for the 4 or 5 minutes that someone is singing a song. That's right, the world tuned in to hear what you dunderheads think, en francais, of Jimmy Page/Leona Lewis/Led Zeppelin.
None the less, it's a good performance, and Leona Lewis handles the song very well.1View comments
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Sometimes on this feature, I have fell into sheer review. It's a mistake. This was never meant to be, "what a great CD." It is much more about the effect music has, the feel I get from listening, how life is improved through the sheer act of music. This was one of the moments when I almost fell into review, but escaped through expansion of the original idea. Thus one of my all time favourite musicians, and people, Bob Seger, got some Looking Back:
Sunday, September 17, 2006
This week on my i-pod - More Bob Seger
With the new album out, I have spent much of the week with Bob Seger playing. Whether the new CD, or a classic album I have covered a lot of Seger ground this week. By Friday afternoon, I decided to pick a bunch of songs and have the MP3 play them randomly. It's always interesting to pick songs instead of full albums, as it gives you a closer look at what is moving you.
On this week, I picked two of the new songs: Wreck This Heart and Wait For Me, the first two tracks on the album. Working backwards, there is only one song from the last album, "It's a Mystery", that I bother much to listen to, but it's one of the greats. Lock and Load is a great Seger rocker, possibly even the best in the last 30 years.
Of course The Real Love from "The Fire Inside", Like a Rock and American Storm from "Like a Rock", and Even Now from 1982's "The Distance". The mid 70's is his best years and was well represented. However, it was one old and one new (fairly) that where the true gems of the listen.
Turn the Page is the Seger song. All other pale in comparison. Not just Turn the Page though - Turn the Page from the "Live Bullet" album. I have the "Back in '72" album that the song comes from originally, have quite a few bootlegs and have seen him numerous times. I can assure you, that one performance of "Turn the Page" is heads and shoulders above the rest. It's not really surprising. He was playing the mid-west bar circuit, travelling club to club. Then he came home to Detroit to sell out Cobo Hall on two consecutive nights; 10,000 people a night. And you sing this song:
Say, here I am, on the road again. there I am, up on the stage.
Here I go, playing star again.
There I go, turn the page...
Out there in the spotlight your a million miles away,
Every ounce of energy, you try and give away,
As the sweat pours out your body like the music that you play.
Later in the evening as you lie awake in bed,
With the echo from the amplifiers ringing in your head,
You smoke the days last cigarette, remembering what she said.
Now here I am, on the road again. there I am, up on the stage.
Here I go, playing star again.
There I go, turn the page.
Here I am, on the road again. there I am, up on the stage.
Ah here I go, playing star again.
There I go, there I go.
Is it any wonder the song had a little something extra in it. After all the years of living the song, finally he wasn't playing star, he was a star. Yea, that night was special and it came across in one of rock and rolls greatest moments. Turn the Page is a good song - even Metallica couldn't ruin it (God help them, they tried though. They tried!) - but on this night a great song was born.
The other song was 1998's Chances Are with Martina McBride, from the Sandra Bullock movie "Hope Floats". I don't have much time for country music, mostly because I can't take the whiny twang of the singers. But there's a couple of the lady singers I like: Shania Twain is one; Martina McBride the other. Martina McBride might just have the nicest voice in music. It is stunningly beautiful, clear as a bell and pitch perfect note for note. Bob Seger, on the other hand, has a "smoke too much, ah hell it was close" kind of voice. A singer I have always loved, a distinctive interesting voice, but let's not kid the troops. Like Seger himself, it is a working man's voice, a voice not presented upon birth as a gift from the Gods, but a voice that is solid only through hard work and years of performing. And when McBride and Seger put them together, it's magic.
I have discussed my wife's romantic dances on the deck before, how I'm responsible to a) attend and b) supply the music. I have decided that Chances Are belongs on our deck next time, is a song that I can comfortably sing to my bride, knowing she would appreciate it:
Chances are you'll find me
Somewhere on your road tonight
Seems I always end up driving by
Ever since I've known you
It seems you're on my way
All the rules of logic don't apply
I long to see you in the night
Be with you 'til morning light
I remember clearly how you looked
The night we met
I recall your laughter and your smile
I remember how you made me
Feel so at ease
I remember all your grace and your style
And now you're all I long to see
You've come to mean so much to me
Chances are I'll see you
In my dreams tonight
You'll be smiling like the night we met
Chances are I'll hold you and I'll offer
All I have
You're the only one I can't forget
Baby you're the best I've ever met
And I'll be dreaming of the future
And hoping you'll be by my side
And in the morning I'll be longing for the night
For the night
Chances are I'll see you
Somewhere in my dreams tonight
You'll be smiling like the night we met
Chances are I'll hold you and I'll offer
All I have
You're the only one I can't forget
Baby you're the best I've ever met
It's the kind of song you expect Bob Seger to write. According to Greatest Hits 2, he wrote it in 1990. There where rumours at the time of an album that got mostly scrubbed because the centre-piece was Tom Waits' Downtown Train. He told Rod Stewart about it, Stewart recorded and released Downtown Train first, so Seger returned to the studio and released "The Fire Inside" in 1991 instead. If 1990 is the date for Chances Are, then we can assume it is from the lost album, and we can are left to speculate how good an album we missed.0Add a comment
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Aug23
Saturday Fluffernutter: That Dog Snoop; Someone Tell Bono To Turn Down the Damn Music; Ya-Ya Sisterpants; Jerry Wexler 1917- 2008
Saturday Fluffernutter - all the fluffy news about those nutty celebrities.In the movie "Dodgeball," Ben Stiller's creepy character White Goodman is always saying something inappropriate, then following it up with, "just kidding... not really." i.e.:Kate Veatch: [outside Kate's house] White? What are you doing here? How do you know where I live?
Apparently P. Diddy, Doggy Dog has been studying up on his White Goodman:
White Goodman: It's called the Freedom of Information Act, Kate. The hippies finally got something right! Ha-ha! Just kidding. But not really.Diddy claims that if he were in the Olympics, he would win a medal for having sex the longest.
"I think that's an event I can do well in. And probably (I can) stay up the longest," Diddy told New York magazine, usmagazine.com reported.
"Just so you know, that's supposed to be funny. Even though I am serious."
Creepy, and not very funny. No, really.
At Home in Hespeler is pleased to bring a new feature to Saturday Fluffernutter: Review in Brief. This week, it’s a movie review - The Sisterhood of the Ya-Ya Pants movie, part II:
"It's pretty good Dad."
Your welcome.
Four songs from U2's upcoming album, No Line on the Horizon, were leaked onto the internet this week. Lead singer Bono was apparently listening to the tracks at his villa in the French Riviera when a passerby recorded them on his phone.
Which leads to the question: how loud was he playing the music that an audible recording could be made from outside the home? And if the owner of the music chooses to play it so loud, has he not placed the music into the public domain?
RIP Jerry Wexler (1917 - 2008).
Wexler helped run Atlantic Records during it's early years when it was producing some of the most enduring records of the rock and roll era, including the Atlantic catalogue of Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Wilson Pickett. He along with Ahmet Ertegun, signed Led Zeppelin to Atlantic Records. While working with Billboard magazine in the late 1940's, early 50's he coined the term Rhythm and Blues and was portrayed by actor Richard Schiff (Toby Ziegler on The West Wing) in the Ray Charles biopic Ray.
Jerry Wexler died last weekend at his home in Sarasota Florida of Congestive Heart Failure at the age of 91.0Add a comment
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Apparently so, according to the Cambridge Times:
But as a candidate vying for re-election, surrounded by other Conservative candidate hopefuls, including the newly elected Conservative Guelph MP, Gloria Kovach...
As Gloria Kovach is the Conservative candidate in the Sept 8th Guelph by-election, the only explanation I can come up with is everybody else resigned from the election, acclaiming Kovach.
That, or the Times made a major mistake, and we all know that doesn't happen.0Add a comment
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It's done everywhere else in North America that I have ever been to. It's done in Europe. In Paris you can buy vintage wine in the corner store. Stop at the corner store for a few quick items, grab a six pack of Guinness while I'm at it.Beer at the grocery store is hardly some new, untried concept. It is used, and has worked in hundreds of jurisdictions in the world, and there's no reason it can't work here.
I've posted before on this, back during the Ontario election where John Tory was tentatively prepared to study the idea:Now granted, nothing drastic from our man Tory. Just a few trial locations, study the question: as if Quebec, Alberta and B.C., the U.S.A. and Europe are not test location enough. Really, the data exists, the idea works. But from baby steps like this comes full fledged working policy, so I'll take what I can get.
Now, Halton Conservative MP, Ted Chudleigh, has a petition to allow beer to be sold in grocery stores, and is prepared to present it at Queens Park. There is an on-line petition, however according to MP Chudleigh's blog: "Actual paper signatures are necessary to ensure authenticity."Ending the Soviet style marketing approach would lower prices, increase convenience of both purchase and bottle return, increase accessibility to the market for small brewers especially in local markets, and would bring Ontario into the 21st century.
The petition is here, print it off, sign it (and get others to), and mail it to:
Derek Forward, 2000 Appleby Line, Suite232, Burlington, ON L7L 7H7It’s time that Ontario joined every other jurisdiction in the 21st century.
Of course a petition from an opposition MP is hardly the stuff of government policy, but if enough people sign the petition, it becomes harder to ignore. It may not be policy, but maybe it's the start of something.2View comments
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On this, and other blogs, there's often talk about freedom. We fight for freedom, or we want freedom or we want to maintain freedom.But what gets lost sometimes, is what we are really talking about. People in Prague, or Warsaw, or Budapest know: they lost their freedom to the Soviets (Warsaw to the Germans, then the Soviets) during the 20th century. Free nations now, they know what freedom means.
Forty years ago today, August 21, 2968, Soviet tanks rolled into Prague, Czechoslovakia to eliminate the "Prague Spring," an early form of Glasnost introduced into Czechoslovakia when reformist Alexander Dubček came to power in January 1968.
Peter Worthington, who was there, has a fine piece on the invasion in today's Sun: The Death of Prague Spring. He has far more knowledge on the subject than I do, so I will defer to his column on the subject.
Prague Spring was about freedom, real freedom for real people. The invasion in August '68 was about repression, about the glory of the state over the glory of the person. A real fight, for real freedom.0Add a comment
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