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Apollo 13, Walter Cronkite's Complete CBS Coverage
Most of us have seen Ron Howard’s incredible 1995 movie, Apollo 13. I remember that my father took me to see it in the theaters, and it was one of the most incredible movies I’d ever witnessed. Every time the film is on television, I find myself glued to the screen in rapt awe and…
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They Might Be Giants, Particle Man
I only know two songs by They Might Be Giants (not counting the Daily Show theme). I posted the “Istanbul” song yesterday, so today I’m posting “Particle Man.” This song was also famously featured on Tiny Tunes, but due to the dreadfully horrible and arbitrary copywrite laws enforced by youtube, I can’t post that original…
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They Might Be Giants, The Four Lads, Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
I had no idea that They Might Be Giants didn’t write this song! It turns out that the Four Lads, in 1953, came up with this incredibly catchy and insane song. It was a top ten hit and a certified gold record. Imagine that! I learned all this from hearing a tape of Bob Dylan’s…
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Bob Marley, Duppy Conqueror, Rare Studio Take
We’re back in the 1974 Catch a Fire sessions as Bob Marley and the Wailers cut a fifth version of “Duppy Conqueror.” What is a “duppy,” and why is Bob conquering them? Interesting question. Well, in Jamaica, duppy is slang for ghost, and Bob was thinking about opening up a Jamaican branch of the Ghostbusters. …
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Bob Marley, Get Up Stand Up, Rare Studio Take
Some very generous youtube benefactors recently uploaded over 30 videos of Bob Marley in the studio recording tracks for his Catch a Fire record. The video below is a priceless take from the sessions of “Get Up Stand Up,” Bob’s most righteous moment in his career. This version is a hard slow funky jam of…
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Harvey Danger, Flagpole Sitta, Sad Sweetheart of the Radio, Cream and Bastards Rise
I remember being in marching band in high school hearing “Flagpole Sitta” on the cheerleaders mix tape across the field. The days were hot and long and the girls had at least a 15 song mix, and I got to hear this song blast out at least 3 times, a respite of cool indie pop…
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Seinfeld, Michael Jackson, and Montages
Youtube is kind of awful. I found some absolutely golden clips from “Seinfeld” that I’d love to post and do intensive analysis of, but nearly all of the clips are disabled for embedding. Luckily, I have found a few killer scenes that have escaped the clutches of the youtube machine for now. They’ll probably be…
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Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Gotta Serve Somebody vs. Serve Yourself
John Lennon was really offended by Bob Dylan’s latest single, “Gotta Serve Somebody.” Dylan recorded the song for his 1979 album Slow Train Coming. The album and the song was part of Bob’s short lived conversion to Christianity. In his diary, John wrote, “The backing was mediocre by Jerry Wexler, the singing was really pathetic,…
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Bob Dylan, Idiot Wind (Live)
I’m not ready to leave this concert from May 23rd, 1976 at Hughes Stadium. For this segment, Bob is leading his band through a scorching rendition of “Idiot Wind,” another track from Blood on the Tracks. This live version is especially nasty the way Dylan just bashes his electric guitar and snarls every lyric. The…