Ray Davies is the Best Songwriter. Exhibit G

For this Sunday exhibit of why Ray Davies is the best songwriter the planet Earth has ever produced is the Kinks Klassic "Victoria". The clip is from a Ray solo show in 2010 proving that a song about an English Queen from whenever, released over 40 years ago still sounds great. 

To visit Ray Davies is the best songwriter exhibit F click here

Exhibit E: Victoria

Long ago life was clean
Sex was bad and obscene
And the rich were so mean
Stately homes for the lords
Croquet lawns, village greens
Victoria was my queen
Victoria, victoria, victoria, toria

I was born, lucky me
In a land that I love
Though I am poor, I am free
When I grow I shall fight
For this land I shall die
Let her sun never set
Victoria, victoria, victoria, toria
Victoria, victoria, victoria, toria

Land of hope and gloria
Land of my victoria
Land of hope and gloria
Land of my victoria
Victoria, toria
Victoria, victoria, victoria, toria

Canada to india
Australia to cornwall
Singapore to hong kong
From the west to the east
From the rich to the poor
Victoria loved them all
Victoria, victoria, victoria, toria
Victoria, victoria, victoria

Another great performance from Ray Davies and the choir at Glastonbury. Victooooria! Victooooria!

All Things "Superior" For Your Snowy Sunday (featuring a young Owen Gawel) by Colin G.

"Remember that guy Colin Gawel?"

"Uh....sorta, I think."

"You know, the guy from that great book about that band Watershed?"

"Rings a bell." 

"You know the guy. He did that crazy Cheap Trick list where he ranked every song."

"Did he play all the Beatles songs too?"

"No, that's another guy."

"You know Colin Gawel, he's the guy who did that song Superior."

"Oh yeah...."

Official music video for Colin Gawel's "Superior". The single was released on the EP-CD "Superior" by Mike Landolt's Curry House Records label. More at www.colingawel.com. Video produced by Palestra Creative (www.palestracreative.com).

Below: A young Owen Gawel interviewing me about the writing of Superior. You'll notice when he starts to get bored. And below that, actual proof that sometimes The Lonely Bones can be pretty damn good rock n roll band. From the old CD101 Big Room.

Colin Gawel discusses the writing of his single Superior.

Live from the CD102.5 Big Room, Colin Gawel with "Superior" on April 10, 2010.

Pussy Riot, Cossacks, Putin's Olympics and the Arizona State Legislature by Ricki C.

“Rock & roll as a force for social change
That idea got kicked to the curb
About the same time the noun ‘party’
Got turned into a verb”

- from “Old Heroes Might Be Heroes (But They’re Old Anyway)”

© 1978, Ricki C. for The Twilight Kids

When was the last time an American or British rock band actually did anything Revolutionary, or even mildly controversial?

I once had high hopes for Green Day, around the time of American Idiot, until they merchandized that great disc into a Broadway musical, of all things, not exactly the premier move in radical rock & roll protest circles, ya know?  (They really are a lot like The Who, circa Tommy in that respect, aren’t they?)

It’s immensely sad to me that The Dixie Chicks – a trio of female country singers – essentially punted their entire music career over an off-hand onstage comment in London – “We’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.” – at the height of American jingoism in 2003, during the run-up to the Iraq War.  It’s even sadder to me that not one rock & roll band showed any kind of solidarity with them or mounted any kind of free-speech defense.  Where were The Rockers when that shit was going down?

Which brings us to Pussy Riot – an art-collective punk-rock band comprised of Russian women, two of whom served TWO YEARS in a Russian prison after staging a protest in a Moscow Cathedral, performing a song called “Mother Of God, Chase Putin Away.”  (You have to admit, even Bob Dylan in his topical song protest days never came up with a title that cool.  “Blowin’ In The Wind,” “The Ballad Of Emmett Till,” “Masters Of War,” indeed.)

The two women who served time – Nadezheda Toloonnikova and Maria Alyoknina – were released from prison in December, 2013, an action widely viewed as an attempt to show the lighter side of Vladimir Putin, a little PR move in advance of his Olympic Games.  “Forget the last 21 months you spent in prison, girls, let’s all be comrades.  Have a vodka tonic!”  

I saw the two women on the Colbert show and they were intelligent and committed – which I fully expected – but also displayed a great sense of humor, which I did not expect.  I expected didactic, shrill, defensive artistes.  (I’d’ve been defensive & shrill if I did 21 months in prison for singing a punk song in a church.)  What I got were two lovely, funny and articulate individuals.

So do Pussy Riot stay on in the United States and trade on their name to make some bucks, maybe do a commercial for Fancy Feast or Stoli?  No, they go back to Russia and work up a song called “Putin Will Teach You To Love The Motherland.”  (Admittedly, it’s no “Blue Suede Shoes.”)  They’re whipped in public by Cossacks – who apparently serve as a paramilitary adjunct to the Russian police force: kinda like Paul Blart, Mall Cop, only with warmer hats and whips – and were arrested yet again.  That takes balls, my friend.  I don’t care how much publicity you get or how famous you are or how many cameras are trained on you in public, if Putin wants you to disappear, you’re gonna disappear.  (Has anybody seen the Russian Olympic Hockey Team since they got eliminated in the semi’s?)  (By the way, while we’re on the subject of hockey disappointments, concerning the stocked-to-the-gills-with-NHL-players American Olympic team: if I wanted to see a hockey team display ZERO heart and not even TRY to win a Big Game, I’d go downtown and watch the Blue Jackets.)

So next time I see Ted Nugent mewling & whining on Fox News about his First Amendment Rights, I wanna see him do 21 months hard time in prison and then come back for more.  (By the way: my buddy Kyle and I had free tix to Ted’s show at the LC a few years back and he should do 21 months for not being able to play the fucking guitar anymore.  He was three or four minutes into “Free For All” before either of us recognized it.  That calls for SOME kind of punishment and incarceration.) 

I was surprised that in NBC’s woeful coverage of the Olympics – woeful because they didn’t offer even cursory explanations of sports unfamiliar to American audiences, among many other factors – I don’t think I heard even a passing mention of the unrest in Ukraine that took place during the Games.  I’m not saying that there should have been a blow-by-blow account of street battles in Kiev by Tara Lipinski & Johnny Weir during the ice-dancing finals – I understand the argument that the Olympics should not be about politics – but I am saying that if there had been a revolution in Ohio during the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics (roughly the same distance – 700 miles – as from Sochi to Kiev), it probably would’ve gotten at least a passing mention on the talking TV box.

Finally – and I SWEAR I’m gonna bring this in under 1000 words – can somebody please explain to me how the Arizona State Legislature can line up so squarely with Vladimir Putin and the nation of Uganda (once ruled so peacefully by Idi Amin, who slaughtered hundreds of thousands of his citizens) on the question of denying gay individuals their rights as citizens?  I didn't want Governor Jan Brewer to veto this week’s hate legislation for economic reasons, like because the NFL threatened to take away Phoenix’s Super Bowl in 2014, I wanted her to veto it BECAUSE IT’S THE RIGHT THING TO DO!  (And I thought the Republican Party and Fox News – in their Mindless Thrall Deification of Ronald Reagan – were supposed to be AGAINST anything Russia was FOR.  Whatever happened to The Transitive Law of Intolerance?) 

How long can we continue to be on the wrong side of history?

And where is The MC5 when we really need them? – Ricki C. / February 27th, 2014

Learn more about Ricki C. and other Pencilstorm contributors by clicking here

Alejandro Escovedo In-Store @ Elizabeth Records, Monday February 24th, 1 pm. CANCELLED CANCELLED CANCELLED

Hey gang - It's 11:40 am on Monday morning, February 24th, and Pencilstorm has just learned that today's signing session with Alejandro Escovedo has been cancelled for today, possibly rescheduled for April.  Alejandro has been battling a stomach flu the last couple of gigs and wanted to rest before tonight's Kent Stage show in Kent, Ohio.  That show (with Peter Buck of REM) is still on but the Elizabeth Records meet & greet is OFF.

Sorry to bring this news, but wanted to get the word out.  Thanks.

Hey folks, Pencilstorm fully realizes this is truly short notice, but we just found out that Alejandro Escovedo - whom many of us consider a truly legendary practitioner of the art of the rock & roll - will be doing an in-store "signing session" at Elizabeth Records, 3037 Indianola Avenue (right by Studio 35 Cinema) on Monday, February 24th, at 1 pm.  We talked briefly to somebody at the store and she indicated that Alejandro won't actually be playing at the store, it's more a "meet & greet" and Alejandro will be signing items fans bring in.

(The phone number at Elizabeth's is 569-6009.  It probably couldn't hurt to call Monday morning to make sure the in-store is still on.  It's taking place between shows Alejandro is doing with Peter Buck of REM on Sunday night at Stuart's Opera House in Nelsonville and Monday night at Kent, Ohio's truly great Kent Stage venue.  After doing in-stores with both Watershed and Hamell On Trial, I've learned it's always best to double-check.)  (IN LIGHT OF TODAY'S CANCELLATION, I'M GLAD THAT WE RAN THIS.  SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.) 

Pencilstorm further fully realizes that some people have jobs and can't just fuck-off to the local neighborhood record store in the middle of the day to meet their rock & roll heroes, but COME ON, it's Alejandro Escovedo, for Chrissakes!  At any rate, Colin & Ricki C. will be there bothering Alejandro and trying to monopolize the conversation, so why don't you take your lunch hour late on Monday and drop by? 

(Following is a piece Ricki C. did on Escovedo in his Growing Old With Rock & Roll blog, March 16, 2012.)

Occasionally in my job as road manager for Hamell On Trial there were perks; genuine perks, epic perks, once-in-a-lifetime perks.  One of those took place in the summer of 2008 when I got to meet and hang out with Alejandro Escovedo.

For the uninitiated, I consider Alejandro Escovedo one of the five best singer-songwriters currently criss-crossing this great land of ours, trying to spread the gospel of rock & roll.  (The other four, for those of you scoring at home are, alphabetically; The Avett Brothers, Hamell On Trial, Richard Thompson, and Jack White.  Elliott Murphy would be listed here but he is normally found crisscrossing the European continent.)  I further consider Escovedo America’s answer to Ian Hunter, in that he combines the same superior intellect with a passion for rock & roll power and the ability to simultaneously break your heart with a ballad and pummel you with an all-out rock onslaught, sometimes within the same song.  (Regular readers of this blog will realize I do not throw comparisons to Mott The Hoople’s former frontman around lightly.)

That summer Hamell was playing an arts & music festival in Bowling Green, Ohio, at which Escovedo was also booked.  Ed and Alejandro were friends from way back.  When Ed first moved to Austin, Texas, in the 90’s he sought out Escovedo for advice, counsel and gigs, all three of which Alejandro was happy to provide.  A genuine friendship ensued.  Ed’s introduction of me to Alejandro backstage was, "This is my road manager, Ricki C., he saw The Stooges and The MC5 live when he was still in high school."  Alejandro fixed me with a gaze, shook my hand, and said, "We have to talk later."

And so it was that I wound up sitting at a picnic table at The Black Swamp Arts Festival in Bowling Green, Ohio, talking rock & roll with Alejandro Escovedo.

Now you’ve gotta understand – Alejandro Escovedo is one of my big rock & roll heroes, one of my favorite songwriters of the past 15 years.  Sitting and talking with him put me right back into my shy, quiet, 13-year old, eighth grade self (see The Transistor Radio blog entry, January 2012).  As we sat and talked on that warm evening I found myself really wanting to shout to the other performers and crew members who were eating & hanging out in the backstage canteen area, "HEY, LOOK YOU GUYS, I’M TALKING TO ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO!!!"  Luckily for any sense of rock & roll cool or decorum I had managed to acquire as Hamell’s road manager, I didn’t shout.  (Out loud.)

We talked about Mott The Hoople and how the perfect mixture of deep feeling and loud guitars met right in the blood flowing through Ian Hunter’s heart.  We talked about The Kinks and the battles between brothers in rock & roll bands, including Alejandro’s and big brother Javier’s fights in their 1980’s band, The True Believers.  We talked about the aforementioned Stooges and MC5.  I told Alejandro about pissing next to a smacked-out & wasted Johnny Thunders in the bathroom of the Second Chance club in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1979 during a weekend road trip to see Fred Smith’s mighty Sonic’s Rendezvous Band.  Alejandro told me about offering a wasted Iggy Pop a ride in his car during one of Iggy’s down & out late 1970’s Los Angeles nights.  (Strange how often rock & roll conversations turn to the wasted.)  We talked about heroes for life, we talked about wins and losses, we talked about shared sonic love affairs.

I fully realize that there’s very little chance Alejandro would recall that late summer rock & roll conversation.  I also fully realize that I’ll never forget it.

Ricki C. / March 16th, 2012

In 1979 Ricki C. Had Lunch With AC/DC. No, really, seriously.......

(apropos of last week's Bruce Springsteen "Highway To Hell" video-grab, we at pencilstorm thought we would run Ricki C.'s close encounter with Bon Scott & the boys in AC/DC, which originally ran in Growing Old With Rock & Roll back in April, 2012.)

In June of 1979 I was working in the warehouse of a K-Mart discount store on the West Side of Columbus, Ohio, and writing for a rock weekly called Focus.  My one and only cover story for the magazine came when they sent me to interview Bon Scott of AC/DC at a downtown hotel and then cover their concert that night.  (Said cover story is reproduced below.)  My boss at K-Mart, Mike Mills (not the later bass player of REM), gave me an extra-long lunch break to go downtown for the interview, which was scheduled for 11 am.  I thought that was an unusually early call for a rocker like Bon Scott, and I was proved correct.  A few minutes before noon Bon staggered into the Holiday Inn conference room I had been ensconced in by an Atlantic Records publicity woman.  She had run out of excuses for Bon’s tardiness about a half-hour earlier and had left me to my own devices.

Bon was great.  He was already drunk at 11:55 in the morning, introduced himself and we got right down to the business at hand.  By my third question – "Have you ever had an orgasm onstage?" – I think Scott had realized that this wasn’t going to be a pro forma interview.  He grabbed my notebook away from me and demanded, "What else you gonna ask me then, if I ever fucked me mudder?"  By 1 pm when the Atlantic Records woman came in to call a halt to the proceedings Bon and I were laughing along like old friends.  I got him to autograph my baseball glove (I was big into softball from my 20’s to my 40’s) and then had to explain the entire concept of the sport to Bon, which he claimed never ever to have been aware of. "Sounds stoopid," was his one-word estimation of America’s pastime, "doesn’t anybody ever get punched in the mouth like in rugby?"

Publicity woman said, "We’ve got to go now, Bon, lunch is ready."  We shook hands as I stood up to leave and Bon said, "Where do ya go now?"  I told him I had to go back to the store where I worked.  "’Ave you had lunch, then?" he asked.  "No, I’ll have something at work," I replied.  "Well, stay and ‘ave lunch with us," Bon said.  "He’s not having lunch with us, Bon," the Atlantic Records lady cut in.  "Do you wanna stay and ‘ave lunch?" Bon reiterated.  "Yeah, I’d love to," I said.  Ms. Atlantic was now staring daggers at me, she was totally pissed at my lack of professionalism, but my only thought was that I was going to get a much better lunch out of this deal than the K-Mart cafeteria had to offer.

At lunch I was seated across from Angus and Malcolm Young, all the way at the other end of the table from Bon.  I think that was my punishment from the publicity woman for cadging my way into the meal.  They had cordoned off a corner of the dining room for the band because back in the day you had to have a coat & tie to eat in the dining room of the Downtown Holiday Inn.  (The hotel is still there, it’s the one right across the street from the Greyhound Bus Station.  I’d be willing to bet that you don’t have to have a coat & tie to eat there anymore.  And I also bet that nowadays you just might be able to get crack from room service, or at least from a bellhop.)

Angus and Malcolm never said a word to me.  And I soon discovered that Angus couldn’t order his own meal.  I just sat and stared as he perused the large, leather-bound Holiday Inn menu, then turned to his older brother Malcolm and slurred, "WhasshouldI’ave, Malcolm?"  "Have whatever you want, Angus." came the curt reply.  Malcolm didn’t even look from his own menu to answer his little brother.

Angus returned to looking intently at his menu, narrowing his eyes and hunkering down to make it abundantly clear he was really giving it his utmost consideration. "ShouldI’avebreakfussorlunch, Malcolm?"  It was a plaintive question from the notoriously fierce little lead guitarist.  "Have whatever you want, Angus!" was the testy, shot-back reply from Elder Sibling.

In the end, of course, Malcolm wound up ordering Angus’ meal for him.  Just as inevitably, when the food arrived, Angus took one quick look at his plate, one longing look at his brother’s dish, and asked sheepishly, "Can I have some of your food, Malcolm?"  Malcolm never replied, completely ignored his little brother, and the two never exchanged another word for the rest of the meal.  There would be no sharing.  It was genuinely sad to watch Angus pick at his food in that swank hotel dining room.  He couldn’t have eaten more than four bites.

That was my first glimpse into the bubble that rock stars exist inside of on big-time rock & roll tours.  To this day I don’t know whether Angus Young just couldn’t decide what he wanted to eat that afternoon or if he literally COULD NOT READ the menu.  At any rate, the editors at Focus took out virtually all of my lunch story, as they thought it would piss off Atlantic Records if I implied in print that Angus Young was illiterate.  (I had already caused RCA Records to pull all of their advertising for two entire issues when I suggested that Canadian metal-clowns Triumph "wouldn’t know rock & roll if it fucked them in a closet," in a derogatory live review earlier that year.)  They also changed Bon Scott from already drunk at noon to hung-over.

Eight months later, February 19th, 1980, Bon Scott was dead from some combination of alcohol poisoning, aspiration of vomit or hypothermia, depending on which magazine you read and who you believe.  At any rate, massive amounts of alcohol were involved.  When I heard about it I thought back to that June afternoon.  Bon Scott was the happiest pre-noon drunk guy I had ever or have yet ever encountered.  Some rock stars just are not supposed to get old.  Would I enjoy watching a 65 year old Keith Moon embarrass himself on some endless Who-reunion tour in 2012?  Nope.  Do I wish Pete Townshend had lived up to his hope and died before he got old?  Sometimes.

Bon Scott, salut.

Springsteen Opens Show with "Highway to Hell" / Columbus Show Announced!

Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band aren't allowed to have on off night. To the contrary, they have raised the bar so high that every single time the Boss steps on stage, people expect a life changing rock n roll experience. And damn if he doesn't always achieve it or come very close trying.

So what does Bruce do when making a rare appearance in Perth, Austraila, which also happens to be hometown of the late great AC/DC singer Bon Scott? He opens the show with "Highway to Hell." Of course he does. What else would you play? By the time the song kicks into the first chorus the crowd is so revved up it looks like they are ready to smash chairs over each other's heads. Bon would have approved. Bruce Springsteen just announced North American tour dates for 2014 including a date in Columbus,OH April 15th. I strongly suggest you attend. - Colin 

Click here to read Ricki C's review of Bruce Springsteen in 1976

Click here to read my review of Bruce on the Wrecking Ball Tour

World Premiere of Highway to Hell the classic AC/DC - Bon Scott Song. Played in Bon's home town. There is a statue of Bon Scott in Fremantle, 15 mins outside Perth.