Same Guy Runs Both BCS AND Rock Hall Of Fame!

Authorities confirmed today that just one person oversees both the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) for college football and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The man (above), whose identity is being withheld pending further notification of next of kin, granted this reporter a brief interview before his deposition with the state mental health board. For our purposes, we'll just refer to him as "Massa Z."

Me: So why give Bama another chance to beat LSU after they blew it at home the first time?

MZ: Well, I've never been to England. But I've been to Oklahoma. They tell me I was born there.

Me: OK, but that doesn't explain--

MZ: Oh Alabama...banjos playing...and the skies are so blue.

Me: And why would you vote Stanford ahead of Oklahoma State if you're from there?

MZ: I heard Palo Alto means "Trust In Nick Saban." So, as I do every day, I followed his lead.

Me: Makes sense to you. Coupla quick questions about the rock hall of fame..

MZ: Shouldn't you capitalize Rock Hall Of Fame?

Me: No. Especially when you voted in Guns & Roses for basically one great album.

MZ: You didn't like The Spaghetti Incident? Who doesn't like pasta? Or Chuck Manson?

Me: You left out many more deserving artists & groups.

MZ: Name ten.

Me: Rush, Chicago, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Deep Purple, Yes, Moody Blues, Hall & Oates, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Todd Rundgren and Steve Miller for openers.

MZ: Rush is an oxycontin-poppin' pinhead. Time's up--gotta go find my Grammy ballot. Gabba gabba hey!

(apologies to Bill Griffith)

When The Wig Comes Down

So I'm out drinking with Mick and Keef in '78. Some place in L.A., the memory's a little faded. "Hey, wanna be on a record cover?" Keef asked as round 7 of Wild Turkey shots arrived (I'd paid for 6 at this point). "We're gonna spoof some old movie stars, glam it up a bit," Mick added. "Me? But how? I'm just a college DJ using grant money to buy liquor for my heroes," I said. "Just trust us, mate. We'll even put ya between Mick and me. You'll wig when you see it."
And the rest, as they say....

Oddly enough, the new deluxe edition of Some Girls was just released.

In Rog & Robert & UCLA We Trust

Roger Daltrey and Robert Plant visited UCLA today to announce a new Teen Cancer Program modeled after the very successful Teenage Cancer Trust in the U.K. Roger, Robert and His Band of Joy, Dave Grohl and others are doing a benefit (more info here) to raise funds to keep the program up and running for a couple of years. But more help's needed. As Roger told me, "I've just started the fire. Now it's up to others to keep it going, keep the embers burning." Which means other artists will need to step up and help a cause that's so worthy. You can read more about what Roger and Robert had to say and what the program's about here.

Candy Store Rock

If you've heard that you can meet some of the nicest folks with the most creative costumes in Austin, Texas on Halloween, it's true--and here's the proof. These kids thought it was just another house but instead a couple dressed up as Robert Plant and Patty Griffin came to the door with treats. Sweet!

Hey, Sports Genius--Do You Think....

....the karma police have Vick & the Eagles in a choke hold?

....the greatest offensive player ever in the greatest college football conference (SEC) could be any worse than Kyle Orton?

....a certain Brewer should've waited until after their series with the Cardinals before popping off about a certain hot St. Louie pitcher who just shut out the phavored Phillies in Philly?

....there's an offense out there that's better than the Alabama defense?

....the Packers can go 16-0?

....adding Texas A&M and Missouri to the SEC makes more sense than inviting Georgia Tech and Florida State and their built-in rivalries with Georgia and Florida?

....going to minor league baseball and high school/college football games is more fun than emptying your wallet for the pros?

....it's time to ditch the black-for-black's-sake uniforms? The joke wasn't funny the first time.

....Hank Senior would've done it this way?

Repeat: College Super Conferences Suck

I'm not looking for an exact date here, but when did university presidents become so nearsighted? It's like "Contagion" only the pandemic here is myopia.

College football & basketball--the revenue sugar daddies for athletic departments--have never in the history of EVER been more popular. March Madness & the flawed-but-fixable BCS games have put both enthusiastic exclamation points and bigger paydays at the end of those seasons. And yet, here you have one clueless Dean Wormer after another lining up to fix college sports? What's Latin for WTF?

There are presidents who were allegedly oblivious to major scandals in major sports at USC, Ohio State, Miami, North Carolina, and Tennessee, among others. (And we won't even get into the Larry Summers no-confidence debacle at Harvard and his conflicts of interest afterwards in the Obama Administration). And now these same geniuses who nodded off want to start "Super Conferences?" All for the love--no, lust--of money. Nothing else. Nice bunch of narcoleptics running these institutions of advanced learnin'.

Let's review: Nebraska--which had already blown off its annual rivalry with Oklahoma years ago--decides to bolt for the Big 10 and the excitement of Minnesota and Northwestern. Then Texas snags a big ol' TV network deal of their own, leaving Oklahoma and Texas A&M to yell "Eff you, we gone!" So the SEC and PAC-12 line up like capped-teeth boys on The Bachelorette, with all the same insincerity and false bravado. If all goes wrong, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and maybe even Texas join the PAC-12. And Texas A&M bolts for the SEC.

None of that is good for college sports, but A&M in the SEC? (Psssst--good ol' boys running the NFL & NBA farm clubs. DON'T mess with Texas. The schools/programs you really want are already in your back yards...)

Seeing as it's the Southeastern Conference, and you have ACC schools Georgia Tech and Florida State--conveniently located IN the southeast--who (a) have both won national championships in football since 1990 and (b) have killer SEC rivals built-in, with Georgia and Florida, wouldn't it make infinitely more sense to invite one or both? Tech has won four national championships, the last being a shared #1 with Colorado in 1990. Florida State has won two titles, in 1993 and 1999. A&M? One national championship, in 1939, before facemasks.

You want more tradition? The Heisman Trophy was named after a Georgia Tech coach, John Heisman. The Ramblin' Wreck. The Noles. The Allman Brothers recorded "Hot 'Lanta." Tyler and Aerosmith screamed "Take me back to a south Tallahassee" on "Rocks." College Station? Aggies? Meh.

They're asking "Why Pink Floyd?" in music circles lately. Well, why A & M?

Texas, A&M and a few others in the Big 12 were in a previous conference called "The Southwest Conference." Why? Because they're all permanently located IN THE SOUTHWEST! Not near the Pacific, not in Dixie, not by the Atlantic coast. The. Southwest. Period.

The things that make college sports special in the first place are rivalries and tradition. And tradition evolves from long-standing conferences. Example: My Western Kentucky Hilltoppers abandoned the Ohio Valley Conference for the Sun Belt. And since going 1-A in football, we no longer can play long-time rivals Murray State and Eastern Kentucky, which always packed the house. Instead, we're supposed to get all goosebumpy over Louisiana Laff-at-it or North Texas playing the 'Toppers. Double meh.

That said, it's still good for Western to be in big-time football. Only now it's all on the verge of becoming too large--so gordito that traditions and annual rivalry games may get pushed aside for the sake of dough. I have a theory that a few "Stupor Conferences" will form, then eventually splinter back into more traditional, fan-friendly ones after realizing the mess they've made and the fans they lost.

And how does college football blow off its fans? Kill the rivalries, add more uninteresting matchups and--especially--start charging more. The latter will start happening first as YOU (and me) soon will begin footing the changes via cable & satellite bills going up year after year, in addition to increased ticket prices. For this, we can thank any the bow-tied type running the U near you.

"The more money you throw at something, the more it gets ruined." Not sure who said it, but I'm pretty certain it wasn't a college president.

(And BTW, I like Maryland's unis. But WKU's new ones are the mack.)

Mad For It?

Banana Republic and the Mad Men TV series just announced a line of clothing inspired by the show that'll be available this August at BR stores. Some of the details are here and you'll find photos of the various items all over the net.

Now, I like Mad Men. And I used to like Banana Republic years ago, when stuff was marked up only 2-3 times over wholesale versus 30-35 times now.

Nowhere in ANY of the stories is there a mention of how much this MM line will retail for. Oh, they know all right. Men's suits will probably go for anywhere from $600 to a grand or better. And what's with the hats? In 2011? There's a big difference in a TV show set in the early sixties and your own life that's kind of now. Besides, as PJ O'Rourke wrote in Modern Manners: "A hat should be taken off when you greet a lady and left off for the rest of your life. Nothing looks more stupid than a hat...A hat should only be worn if you are employed as a baseball player or hunting ducks in the rain."

So, with legions of Mad Men junkies set to fork over entirely too much dough for clothes they could find at the Salvation Army or Goodwill not long ago--and were the real deals--I say the time has come for a true retro renaissance.

Bring back Robert Hall!

So THIS is what The Allmans at The Fillmore looked like

June 2011 marks four decades since Bill Graham's Fillmore East closed its doors on 2nd Avenue at 6th Street in New York City. While Graham would continue his concert business until his death in 1991, there would never again be a venue--or a time--for live music quite like The Fillmore from 1968-71.

Think that's an exaggeration? On a given night you would've seen Sly & The Family Stone OPEN for Jimi Hendrix. Or Miles Davis OPEN for the Grateful Dead. Or Led Zeppelin OPEN for Iron Butterfly. (Obviously that arrangement didn't last long) Or The Dead play second fiddle to Janis Joplin.

It hardly stops there.

J. Geils on the same bill with Black Sabbath. Frank Zappa and The Mothers with some new opening act called Chicago. The Who with Chuck Berry. The Jeff Beck Group and Jethro Tull. Derek & The Dominoes with Humble Pie. And my vote for sickest lineup of all: Miles Davis (opening!) with The Steve Miller Band and Neil Young with Crazy Horse.

Then there were the times The Allman Brothers set up shop. Their first appearance at The Fillmore was December 26-28, 1969, third on the bill behind Appaloosa (good luck finding their stuff on iTunes) and Blood, Sweat & Tears. By the time the Brothers had returned to finally headline in March, 1971, they'd already played the Fillmore four times. And they'd play four shows on March 12th & 13th, having agreed like many artists to two performances each night--one at 8:oo p.m. and the next at 11:30. The Allman Brothers at Fillmore East double live album was taken from those shows and released four months later in July.

On June 27th, 1971, The Allman Brothers played the final show at The Fillmore, with guests J. Geils, Elvin Bishop and Albert King jamming until six the next morning. This isn't footage of that night--it's from nine months earlier--but it only recently surfaced via the folks at Wolfgang's Vault--Bill Graham's concert archives. You can see what the Allman Brothers at Fillmore East looked and sounded like here.

(Note: The other two videos have problems with Gregg's microphone audio, but not the instrumentation coming through the soundboard)

U Too Can Be An Eco-crite; Just Pay Everybody Off

Funny guy, this Edge of U2 (born David Evans). He's used his name & talents to raise money for human rights causes as well as help New Orleans after Katrina. Being from the Emerald Isle, you'd think he'd actually walk the green walk rather than just talk it, then turn around and rape Mother Nature by building McMansions in a coastal-view area of Malibu that needs neither development or his ilk. But that's exactly what we have here.

I reckon it was time to trade in the U2 CDs and DVDs, anyway. And shame on those who took the dough and looked the other way. Guess those unspoiled ocean views just had too much annoying charm.

Making Bets on Kentucky Derby Day?

It's the weekend when everybody's high on a little bluegrass--Kentucky Derby Weekend!

May your horse(s) win, place or at least show....and may you enjoy this nugget from Derby Eve 1980. Long live the Run for the Roses and Dan.

When Fleet Foxes released their self-titled album/cd/record/whateverthey'recallingitnow in 2008, it was--and still is--one of the finest collections of songs & vocals I've heard in the past 20 or 30 years. The influences and craftsmanship that went into it were rich and without peer. Now the band has completed "Helplessness Blues," which you can hear via NPR here. There's so much disposable, irrelevant stuff passing for music these days. It's nice to know that just the opposite exists with Fleet Foxes.

Passing thought: That mean ol' Obama ruined the Comb-Over's one-trick-act by producing the birth certificate, now forcing him to focus on such less important things like $4-a-gallon gas and the sputtering economy. Or maybe just picking a new celebrity to slam. Way to look presidential, DT.

ALISON K ON KLOS TONITE!

I'd wager Alison Krauss has more talent in one of her hangnails than I do in my entire person--if she even has hangnails. That said, she's still gracious enough to come to our KLOS studio tonight for a live interview with friend & colleague Jim Ladd. Naturally the collaboration with Robert Plant is game, so here's a nice AK interpretation of one Robert has made fairly famous since 1971.

And in case you missed the whole story behind their coupling, check this out.

Join us tonite at 10 on 95-5 KLOS or 955klos.com.

First, thank you to everyone who dropped off some cash or a check at Dodger Stadium yesterday. The gutless punks who cowardly attacked Giants fan Brian Stow have yet to pay, but they will.

Changing gears now....

The new Paul Simon album is now out. You can see Paul and his band play the first single, "The Afterlife" here. And if you're a fan of Simon AND Garfunkel, check this page out. It's track-by-track coverage of their brilliant "Bridge Over Troubled Water" album and its 40-year celebration. It's a tribute to all the artists involved how nicely the music has defied time and musical trends. Good stuff, thankfully, is still good stuff.

This Monday, the Dodgers are co-hosting a fundraiser for Brian Stow, the injured Giants fan, at Dodger Stadium from 8am-3pm along with American Medical Response, where Stow is employed as a paramedic. Our sister station and the Dodgers' flagship station Talk Radio 790 KABC, KCAL9, Prime Ticket, the L.A. Times and Univision Radio are all helping out with the drive-thru.

Cash is best but checks made out to The Brian Stow Family. Donations are also accepted for those with a PayPal account using a credit card, logging in and selecting the "Send Money" option, personal, gift, with the recipient: stowdonations@gmail.com The fund is also accepting donations online at www.sfpcu.org.

The human excrement that cowardly beat this Giants fan will be found and flushed out of society soon. Until then, whatever you can do on Monday or the coming days with a few bucks will obviously be appreciated.

Buy These Before Eric Clapton Does!

After Midnight. Cocaine. Call Me The Breeze. You've heard those J.J. Cale songs for decades now, and might even be a big fan of his work. How'd you like to own one of his own guitars and help out a wonderful cause? The Midnight Mission in downtown L.A. truly does the work of angels on earth. All the proceeds from this guitar and this banjo sold on ebay will benefit TMM and all their incredible work. I've seen what they do firsthand and can tell you without hesitation that they deserve your support for helping make our world a much better and more humane place to live. I hope you can help--thanks for checking them out.

This Is What Steve Is Into Now

Other than Steve himself, I'm probably the only guy in southern California with a gold record on the wall for Steve Martin's "King Tut" single from 1978. When I was a music director at a top 40 station in Bowling Green, KY, during college, I made "Tut" a #1 song for a week. The folks at Warner Bros. (Steve's label back then) took note and soon thereafter my WB rep--Gene Dries--gave me the gold, which hangs in the pad today. Covers a nasty stain on the wall.

Point being, I'm a big Steve supporter. And from as far back as the mid-70's when a friend at Murray State--Ray Benton--told me to check out this comedian with Johnny & The Tonight Show who was saying silly things while folding balloons and playing the banjo. Not long after that, he began playing joints normally reserved for your Stones and Zeppelins, hosting Saturday Night Lives and The Oscars, starring in a few films, writing novels and so on. I even liked "The Steve Martin Brothers" album from 1980--not because of the comedy on side 1 (which wasn't so, uh, "comedic") but because of the banjo playin' on side 2.

Fast-forward to now. Steve's new CD on Rounder Records, "Rare Bird Alert," is out. (And thank God for Rounder Records and their dedication to bluegrass and Americana music over the years.) It's a tremendously good set of songs. And even if you don't care so much for bluegrass, you'll probably like this from the CD.

Steve and Steep Canyon Rangers will be on Letterman Wednesday, March 16, The View on the 17th and The Colbert Report next Monday the 21st.

The Zep chat rooms are burning with rumors about something from the vaults being released this year. The O2 Arena show from '07 perhaps? Or a full Knebworth show? An entire Earl's Court collection? Dunno. But we do know this much Acapulco Gold smoke means a concert somewhere. Read about the latest here.

The Duke, The Big D & Me

First, a salute to one of the all-time great Dodgers who passed away Sunday morning. I was lucky enough to have met the man--an L.A. native and a true class act. One can only imagine the amazing pick-up game now playing on that diamond in the sky.

Now to less weighty matters.

A few thoughts about the Oscars:

I have zero problems with The King's Speech winning. But I'd rather see True Grit again than King's. No offense.

Nice try, Annie and Jimmy. But this is a show in need of true seasoned presentation. Bring back Billy or Steve (with or without Alec).

And speaking of, teasing the audience with Billy & Bob Hope is like a radio format of all-new artists and songs, with a few classics sprinkled in. When Led Zep or the Beatles play, people perk up--and want more.

Roger Ebert was about the only person I've ever seen on the red carpet to regularly ask non-inane questions. It now gets more insipid every year, what little of it I can stand.

The show will always be long and overblown because it makes a crapload of money for ABC. It's what the market will bear and has since they started going 3 hours or more.

And there's a nice bi-partisan touch: Hollywood actors (unionized and traditionally liberal) making whatever the market will bear (traditionally a conservative notion).

See True Grit. But more importantly, read the book.

Happy 36th!

Led Zeppelin's sixth album, Physical Graffiti, was released February 24th, 1975, and it's arguably the band's finest. Double albums were--and to some degree still are--a badge of honor in the music world. Led Zep were quite late to the double-vinyl party, as all their contemporaries had already released double albums prior to 1975--some more than once. Bob Dylan probably started the trend--like many others--with Blonde on Blonde in 1966, which opened the sonic floodgates. Cream (Wheels of Fire), Jimi Hendrix (Electric Ladyland) and The Beatles (White album) followed in 1968, The Who (Tommy) in 1969 (and also 1973 with Quadrophenia), George Harrison in 1970 (All Things Must Pass), Dylan again (Self Portrait) in 1970, Eric Clapton again only with Derek and The Dominoes (Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs) in 1971, Allman Brothers (Live at Fillmore East) in 1971, Rolling Stones (Exile on Main Street) in 1972, John & Yoko (Some Time in New York City) in 1972, Elton John (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road) in 1973, Deep Purple (Made in Japan) in 1973, Yes (Tales from Topographic Oceans and triple-live Yessongs) in 1973, Genesis (Lamb Lies Down on Broadway) in 1974. And of course there were the first three Chicago studio albums and various double-live sets from everyone from The Band with Bob Dylan to Grand Funk.

Jimmy Page said after the initial sessions in late '73 and much of '74 they had enough material for an album and a half, so they went back and mined the vaults for leftovers from the Led Zep III sessions (Bron-Yr-Aur) in 1970, the Led Zep IV sessions (Night Flight, Down By The Seaside and Boogie With Stu) in 1971 and the Houses of the Holy sessions (Houses of the Holy, Black Country Woman, The Rover) in 1972. It's truly the band at their most varied, most complex and, at times, most stripped-down. The perfect alchemy of light and shade, as Jimmy has often described the band's music.

A few fellow Murray (Kentucky) High School heads and myself were fortunate enough to preview live a few tracks prior to PG's release. On February 16th, 1975, we witnessed Led Zeppelin in concert at the then-called Checkerdome, ye olde Arena, in St. Louis, Missouri. While Sick Again was kind of a "what the hell was that" number, I thought (wrongly) that Trampled Underfoot sounded too much like a Doobie Brothers song. But Kashmir? An instant classic. In My Time of Dying? A religious experience, indicative of the entire performance.

Eight days later, when we all got our copies of Graffiti from the Big K department store or the Murray State campus bookstore or Chuck's Music Center, the needle dropped on Custard Pie and the ante got upped. Not just for double albums, but for rock records, period. Song for song, has another rock album--double or otherwise--really topped it since? I'd love to read your take.

Post-Grammy Thoughts & Pop-Offs

Ironic that the so-called "Forget You" song (sanitized from "$%#& You") up for a Grammy this year was the same message Grammy voters have been trying to tell the Eminems, Kanyes and Lil Waynes of the world the past several years. Supposed know-it-alls at the L.A. Times (among others) predicted yet again that a rap/hip-hop "artist" would win the best album and best record this year. Yet again, it didn't happen. I'm shocked, I tell you--shocked!

L.A. Times guy said to "forget" Arcade Fire winning the Best Album Grammy because it was

"significantly outgunned by the star power here." The Times' slide into bottomless irrelevancy shows no signs of abating.

It says here that Grammy voters will keep telling the Eminems of the world that it takes

significantly more talent to create an album with actual instruments, actual singing and actual

song construction than just attitude with beats and inane profanity. I can back that.

Eminem was nominated for 10--TEN!--Grammys and won two. I like the guy for standing up

for Detroit, but dude, your genre's done. Go reinvent. And lose the 24/7 scowl.

The WORST crime of the night was Muse winning over Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Neil

Young and Jeff Beck. Muse couldn't carry these guys' Fender cases. How the hell did THAT

happen?

Jeff Beck winning 3 out of 5 potential Grammys? Beyond well-deserved.

Led Zep bragging rights: John Paul Jones one Grammy with Them Crooked Vultures, Robert Plant zero. Percy's probably pissed.

Arcade Fire's "Suburbs" was a make-up call for Neon Bible, a much better album.

Glad to see Ray LaMontagne win at least once. Repo Man is/was the best groove of the year.\

Zimmy at shot voice is better than Bieber at full power.

Look, I'm not an American Idol fan, OK? It's primetime karaoke, which is only slightly less annoying than barroom karaoke. Maybe if the contestants were as inebriated as the ones I've had the pleasure of enduring post-happy hour, then I'd at least TiVo the show. And besides, the musical types I'm more interested in do more than just sing practically on-key--they also play these things called "instruments," as in "groups." And if you think about it, wouldn't the next Josh Groban already be signed to a major label rather than being sifted through that whole Idol gauntlet gleaning? (There ARE still major labels, right? Hello?)

So with all those disclaimers, it comes as no surprise that one of my all-time favorite bands--Aerosmith--is beginning to reap the rewards of Steven Tyler's face time on Idol. Sales of the band's music are up. Interest in the band, caused by his appearance on the show and/or band mate Joe Perry's public disdain of it, is greater now than a year ago. There's more attention being given to the new album in the works. And you can write it down now that the next time Aerosmith hits the road ticket demands in an otherwise sluggish concert industry will be higher than usual. All because of Steve TV. And that's a good thing.

The same would be true for The E Street Band if Bruce was a judge. Or for The Heartbreakers if Tom Petty was a judge. It's good to get younger music fans acquainted with a legendary rock band and understand the craft of writing and performing good songs, rather than just holding a mic and over-modulating somebody else's composition that was done right the first time.

I still won't watch any show with judges--not since the O.J. trial, anyway. But I'm one Aerosmith fan who doesn't have a problem with Steven doing the show. If it means more Idol worshippers get exposed to great albums like "Rocks," "Toys In The Attic," "Get Your Wings" and the like, how's that a negative? Answer: It's not.

What a concept: A little high-definition 52-inch leading to a big 10-inch....record.

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With deserved congrats to all associated with True Grit and its 10 Oscar noms, here's a little help in understanding some of the film's dialogue. Grit, King's Speech and Social Network were--for me--the three best films of the year. How Black Swan got on the 10-best Oscar list--and not on the Razzies' top 5--is a conundrum that causes brain ache.

Golden Years for the Golden God

Great article here about Robert Plant--where he's been and, more importantly, where his mind and craft are today. (Hint: Good places)