I am a fan of U2, and I had assumed I was a fan because they make good music. But more recently, I realized that I like U2 also because they saved us from the 1980s.
Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with Guns N’ Roses, Queen, Metalica, AC/DC, Bon Jovi, Foreigner, Journey, or Motorhead. Probably. Well, to be honest, I can’t name a single song any of them ever made. But my impression is that most of these bands were continuing traditions that date back to the late 1960 (which ran from 1971 to 1977), and not doing a lot of innovation. Doesn’t matter, I’m not an expert. But I’m pretty sure U2 innovated.

Their greatest album is probably Joshua Tree. A couple of years ago I went to the Joshua Tree (revival?) concert performance at the Big Corporate Thingie Stadium* in Minneapolis. It was the best of concerts, it was the worst of concerts. Best because it was one of the great bands of the century (last century; too early to tell for this century) performing their arguably best album with all their own retrospect sewn in. Worst because Big Corporate Thingie Stadium was not built for musical performance despite the oversize duvet covers they hung on some of the walls. That stadium was built, more than any other stadium built to date since Roman times, to have the worst acoustics possible, which is necessary to confabulate the visiting offense during football games.

Eagle Rock produced a documentary on The Joshua Tree (1999), which includes conversations with U2’s members. (Did you know one of them is named The Edge? Well, that’s Mr Edge to you. Me and The, we’re on a first name basis. I wrote him a letter recently. It started out, “Dear The,” But I digress.) Anyway, the conversations are revealing because they pin down the ways U2 stepped aside from what was going on, musically, in the middle of the 1980s, and how they scraped against, and punctured through, the envelope everyone else was operating in. The thing is, U2’s hard turn from the usual direction “immediately catapulted the band into the category of rock superstars.” This catapulting caused the innovation by this group to be fully real, to not just fade away. Innovation, breaking away from traditional producing methods, paying attention to the rhythm section (aka drums), producing the album in a house instead of a studio, embracing encouragement over competition. All these things and more.

Joshua tree was in part a response to an ongoing takeover of of America by extremist Republicans (not recognized by most at the time) and similar deterioration of humanity going on elsewhere, and thumb in the nose to the stolid keepers of the musical way of the time (see list of bands above).

I won’t discuss the how or why here, but the album came along at a time in my life that was well suited to that particular soundtrack. That, however, means almost nothing compared to the meaning for the mothers in Chile.

A century and a half ago, my ancestors came forth on this continent because they chose a risky move over near certain starvation in Ireland. Just under a half century ago my distant cousins came forth to address America with a series of questions and inspirations. When you think about it, there is nothing more American than starvation. It also turns out that there is nothing more American than a foreign band adopting us as their errand child. Also, just so you know, Yucca brevifolia is endemic, nothing more American than the Joshua tree.

Songs on this album:
Where the Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
With or Without You
Bullet the Blue Sky
Running to Stand Still
Red Hill Mining Town
In God’s Country
Trip Through Your Wires
One Tree Hill
Exit
Mothers of the Disappeared

U2 Band Members past and present:
Bono
Ethe Edge
Adam Claton
Larry Mullen Jr
Dik Evans
Ivan McCormick

*I prefer not to partake in the “naming rights” scam, thank you. I refer here to the stadium the Vikings play in.

I want to make this point, which is touched on here. Hunter gatherers, such as the Ju/’howansi in this film, typically have experts among their society, on various things. Medical/magico, various crafts (I knew an Efe knot tier everyone revered), making various tools or pottery, and music. As far as I know all hunter gatherer societies do a fair amount of music, and typically everyone participates. Music (singing and some instruments, always dancing) is practiced by everyone, but variation in talent exists, and it is (obviously) known of.

You hear Irv DeVore mentioned in the documentary. He was my advisor, and I was his last PhD student.

Yes, that is Richard Lee, and he and DeVore are the editors of the famous “Man the Hunter” volume.

By the way, you can’t figure out what the heck hunter gatherers are doing by watching. Or, often, asking. You have to immerse, learn, and do. That fact is not unique to foragers, it is true of all things that are hard to do universally. But for some reason people are surprised to find that this is true with foragers, and in this manner, a lot of bad anthropology has been done.

Enjoy:

Davy Jones, the lead singer of the 1960s group The Monkees, died of a massive heart attack Wednesday in Florida, his spokeswoman said. He was 66.

His publicist, Helen Kensick, confirmed that he died in Indiantown, where he lived.

Jones rose to fame in 1965 when he joined The Monkees, a British popular rock group formed for a U.S. television show. Jones sang lead vocals on songs like “I Wanna Be Free” and “Daydream Believer.”

Jones was born Dec. 30, 1945, in Manchester, England. His long hair and British accent helped Jones achieve heartthrob status in the United States.

more

Who the F%#K is Peter Fincham? Nobody knows, nobody cares. All you need to know is that he used to work as director of television for some TV show¹, saw the following video, and used his big fat power trip to make sure it was not shown because it insults The Lord Savior Jesus H. Christ Himself. Which it doesn’t, really. I know Jesus personally, having been an Altar Boy and stuff, and I’m sure he would love this.

Anyway, I first heard about this here, where I get all my important Skeptical News and Analysis, so please go there and read the background and find the additional links providing context for this senseless maneno. And, copy the video and put it on your blog if you’ve got a blog, and/or email a link to it to every single person you know so that in the end far far more people will see it than ever would have had this Peter Fincham not cut it.

Oh, and go and “like” or “plus” or whatever to the video. It has currently got about 90,000 views and 5,500 likes.

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¹And as far as I know he still does, but I assume he will be fired for this travesty and I don’t want to have to come back here and update this video!

Anyway, I thought that by way of acknowledgment of LeRoy’s Talents I’d point you to his previous work. It’s all good. You can get his CD’s or download individual songs on iTunes (I assume) or Amazon or wherever you download his stuff. Personally, I like the CD’s because then I really own them.

Two Sides To Every Story

1. Voodoo (3:50)
2. You Lied To Me (4:15)
3. Still Not Over You (3:59)
4. Father to Son (5:07)
5. Waiting (3:48)
6. 21st Century Man (3:48)
7. I Want You to Know Me (4:39)
8. Every Touch (4:22)
9. Mexico (5:58)
10. I’m In Love (4:15)
11. Once Upon A Time (4:06)
12. He Can’t Hold Her (3:53)
13. Dream of Peace (5:24)
14. 20 Years From Now (4:34)

Spending Time

1. Spending Time
2. Almost Peaceful
3. She Believes
4. Divine Intervention
5. Can’t Run Back to Me
6. Ready to Fall
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

LeRoy Bell Live in 3D

1. You Lied To Me
2. He Can’t Hold Her
3. Can’t Run Back To Me
4. Father To Son
5. Mexico
6. Divine Intervention
7. I’m In Love
8. 20 Years From Now
9. Ready To Fall
10. Once Upon A Time
11. Voodoo
    
    

A Change Is Coming

1. The Way That I Fell Now
2. You Remind Me
3. Out of My Head
4. Should I Believe
5. A Change Is Coming
6. Everybody
7. In Love With You Girl
8. Fly On the Wall
9. Save Me
10. How Many Times
11. Land Line
12. Brand New Day
    
    

Traces

1. Can You Live On Love
2. Wind Me Up
3. Just Not Good Enough
4. To Say Goodbye
5. Mama Said
6. Everything About You
7. Tears
8. Thank You
9. Traces of Your Soul (Rick’s song)
10. Wanna See You Smile
11. Spending Time

And just for fun, here are two songs recorded by Elton John:

LeRoy has done a lot more than this, but that’s a good sampling.

That’s off THIS cd.

Did I mention that he had an audition on The XFactor? They gave him four “yes” votes so he’s going on to the next level, though I’m not sure exactly how that works.

The problem with a Sitar Sarod is that you can’t jump around on the stage while you are jamming with it.

Hat Tip: Miss Cellania

etown’s stated mission is “to educate, entertain and inspire a diverse audience, through music and conversation, to create a socially responsible and environmentally sustainable world.”

Here is the website where you can find out more.

Anyway, my buddy Zack, a film maker sorta guy in Colorado, has made a very cool film featuring one of the performances of etown. Knowing of my total crush on the Indigo Girls, he thought I’d like to see it. This is etown webisode 3, with the Indigo Girls and Nathaniel Rateliff.

Here it is:

etown webisode 3- finale performance with the Indigo Girls and Nathaniel Rateliff (4.11.10) from etown on Vimeo.

The word is there may be more like this in the pipeline. Tell me if you like it.

A Change Is Coming, by Leroy Bell, who happens to be my nephew. Pretty good, huh!?

I’m especially excited about the new versions of Shame on You and Wild Horses

The disk is a collection of 31 songs selected from live shows during 2006-2009. Brandi Carlile and Jill Hennessey do some of the singing.

Technically, it comes out on the 29th, but Staring Down the Brilliant Dream can be pre-ordered here.