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.