A's Musical Daily Driver
(Newest On Top)
Mar 11 - June 17
May 3, 2025
The Band
"Don't Do It"
From:
Crowes - July 21, 2006
The Band - "The Last Waltz" - Nov 25, 1976
(Last show performed)
Back in 2006 The Crowes were playing an outdoor gig downtown on the river here in Memphis. It ended up being one of those fly-solo shows for me. (They can be as special as going with someone else but in a very different way). Three or four days before the show I was listening to The Band's "The Last Waltz" which captured the last show they ever played. I've always really loved the last tune they played that night called "Don't Do It". A day or so before the Crowes show I was going through the inevitable mental setlist gymnastics. What're they gonna play? What tunes have been in heavy live rotation recently? What unicorn am I praying for once again? ("Title Song").
That time "Don't Do It" crossed my mind and for the tenth time I thought "That tune is just perfect for them; fits like a glove". And "If they did it someday, what an incredible show opener it would be". Eventually, the thought drifted away like so many fanciful notions.
Made my way downtown on show night and set up camp on the bluff overlooking the river; beautiful night. Pre-show impatience was pressing as ever. "What's the opener gonna be?!"
The guys made their way out, tuned for a couple of minutes. Drums and bass began in unison and what set in was a kind of disbelief that I've experienced only once in my life. They were playing it and for the very first time. Not only that but clearly they dug the song so much that they'd deemed it the opener that night. Utter disbelief and elation. It did feel like they were playing it only for me. I've never experienced anything like it. That said, unbelievable musical shit has been happening to me since I was 3. Another story for another day.
That night, it seemed that I'd never been more right about a particular song being particularly perfect for a particular band. Rock n' Roll, people. Sonic salvation.
- A
April 2, 2025
"Special Night-> Valley Road"
03/30/1999 - Cupertino, CA
A real treat from my own Bruce YouTube library. This show was a solo-piano gig. Often very nice to hear him without the rest of the band. Very glad that he used to do that a whole lot. The first tune has to do with a guy & girl meeting somewhere in the land of privacy and getting very intimate for the first time. The second one's about a girl, (unrelated), on her way to the local home for wayward girls, if you will, to hide and deal with her very unexpected pregnancy. Clever to put the two together.
Bruce mentions playing a lot with Bob Weir (of The
Dead) in the first few moments and pushes the blame for his potential forgetting of some of the lyrics on it. I can't figure out whether he's referencing the number of tunes in their repertoire over the years or the volume of dope they smoked together during that time. Wish I knew but I suppose each is equally likely. Hell, maybe it's both. Take an ear-gander. Hope it lights a spark for you.
- A
Mar 23, 2025
A Two-Piece Today 🐓
Leg 🍗 -
"Mississippi Moon"
From: Ear Candy
Breast 🐔 -
"Mudd"
From: Ogre Tones
Carl is my lifelong friend and brother. He and I met in the first grade back in 1977. We share a rabid love for music and a great many of our musical passions overlap. About ten years ago we each introduced the other to a band/artist we'd loved for a couple of decades already. I pulled his ear to Bob Mould and he pulled mine to King's X. Both of our musical universes expanded greatly and we've both grown to love our new wells of greatness in song.
In 2023 we got a hell of a musical gift from the heavens. As luck would have it, both King's X and Bob Mould were on tour that fall in the eastern half of the country and their dates and cities matched pretty well. I don't remember the exact numbers but the two of us caught two or three gigs of both King's' and Bob's across three States I think it was. Small club shows. Each was a real musical gem of experience. Fantastic stuff and good times, kids. (One of our pieces of advice to lead a full, rich and colorful life: Catch as much live music as you can while you're on this rock.)
The guys in King's X have been at it for decades now, as has Bob. They're pioneers in their genres and not "artists" who are simply next in line in a certain genre or style, simply modeling themselves, consciously or otherwise, on those who came before them in their respective musical realms.
Heartbreakingly, this kind of frontier exploration across the musical landscapes simply isn't happening anymore. We've entered an era during which music is an endless rehash and emulation of who was "popular" last year. Musical bankruptcy which has its roots in concentrating on elements that are, in truth, not musical at all. We're drowning in costumes, makeup, choreography, making sounds with computers instead of musical hearts and "artists" who seem to possess only a first name or nickname from the streets. You know the type.
As Tom Petty said, "Well, I like listening to people who actually play instruments". Alex Lifeson of Rush recently said of pop music, "I can't stand it really. It's just about dancing and jumping around". Tru dat, folks.
I picked these two tunes today from King's X's very broad and deep musical well. They just happen to be two that I really dig. I hope you all do too.
- A
