Monthly Archives: March 2017

  • Big Country Blues — Depression and Creativity

    Lame DogUncategorized

    Not long ago, the friendly algorithms at Youtube, which know more about my peculiar tastes than I may have cared to reveal, recommended that I view a particular video. In it, the Be Good Tanyas, a Canadian folk trio, perform a song in which the narrator describes being abandoned by his mother and swindled by his girlfriend before going to jail for robbery. It concludes with the lines:

    Now I’m out of prison.  I got me a friend at last.
    He don’t steal or cheat or drink or lie.
    His name’s Codeine.  He’s the nicest thing I’ve seen.
    Together we’re gonna wait around and die.

    Who could have written such a lyric?  A quick check revealed a name that I’d occasionally run across in conjunction with the adjective “legendary” and the phrase “songwriter’s songwriter.” It was (more…)

  • The Everly Brothers — An Ode to Masturbation?

    Lame DogClassic Rock

    This next clip is truly a special treat. Here is the exquisite harmony of the Everly Brothers performing “All I Have to Do is Dream,” with members of Bill Haley’s Comets playing backup.  It was a number one hit in June, 1958. In the clip below, it’s followed by the Everly Brothers’ wonderful “new” song, “Cathy’s Clown.”

    “Dream” was written by Bordleaux Bryant, who, along with his wife Felice, formed one of the great songwriting teams.  In Rock and Roll: An Introduction, Michael Campbell and James Brody state that “[t]he theme of the lyrics is romantic love — commonplace in pop but increasingly on the wane in rock-era music.” On the other hand, in The Sound of the City, the British musicologist Charlie Gillet had this to say:

    Boudleaux and Felice Bryant … showed a remarkable flair for conveying the narcissistic self-preoccupations of adolescents…. “All I Have to do is Dream” joined the short list of teen ballads that never lose their effect for teenagers caught in a particular situation; the song came as close as pop ever dared to the taboo topic of masturbation, as the singer insisted that he did not need his lover because he could fantasize about her at any moment. It was not established whether “she” was a particular girl, or just the perfect embodiment of the singer’s selfish needs.

    While Gillett is entertaining, his comment strikes me as a tad overblown.  The song proclaims “I need you so that I could die/ I love you so….” — a remark that would seem to be directed to an actual person for whose company the singer is longing, rather than a mere fantasy.

    Also, is it fair to characterize teenagers generally as narcissistic? Or masturbation (assuming that is what was accompanying the dreaming) as selfish?  If the attraction is mutual, one would think that upon hearing this lament, the dreamed-of-other would be deeply touched. Otherwise, she or he is probably not worth dreaming about in the first place.

    In any event, a song intended to break down barriers by overtly celebrating masturbation did eventually become a hit on mainstream radio. Can you name it? (more…)

  • 37 Fantastic New Ways to Reach Orgasm That Are Actually A Fraudulent Ploy to Promote This Website

    Lame DogUncategorized

    Here, at Lame Dog, we work hard to bring quality content to our thousands of subscribers. Well, currently four subscribers. And that includes — oh my God, can I bear the embarrassment? — the Dog himself. But who’s counting?

    In the hope of increasing my international influence, I’ve been conducting an in depth study of business practices. Based on the behavior of certain other web sites (and local magazines), here are my findings.  If you want to succeed, you need to:

    1. Post things that will appeal to your audience’s narrow self-interest.
    2. Post things that are vaguely prurient. Or not so vaguely.
    3. Turn everything into a list. Because it’s the only thing the human brain can process anymore.

    Hence, the title of this post. But before we get to that, let’s spend a moment talking about this blog. Now, I’m sure you’ve been saying to yourself, “What can I do to help this site realize it’s manifest destiny to become an astounding success?” Glad you asked.

    First of all, if you haven’t done so already, please consider subscribing. It’s not hard. See where it says “Subscribe” at the top right of the home page. Click on it. That’s important because you’ll receive an email alert when I have a new post, which is not often. Otherwise, you may log on at random times and see nothing new. Come on.   It’s got to be less annoying that those alerts you receive when one of your virtual friends announces that … wow! … they ate in a restaurant.

    What else can you do? If you know people who may be interested, you can send them an email or post a link on your social media page. Say something like: “Check this out!! I have no idea who this lame dog character might be.  But he/she/it is my new guru.”

     After that, if you’re still itching for ways to help, you can:
    * Put a sign on your lawn that reads “Log onto lame-dog.com”
    * Take out a second mortgage and donate the proceeds to lame-dog.com.
    * Remember Lame Dog in your will. Do you really want to leave that money to provide for your loved ones?
    * Go up to random strangers in the supermarket and say, “The Dog Wants to Know.”

    Okay. So about that orgasm. Here are the ways: (more…)

  • Billy Tipton Plays “The Man I Love”

    Lame DogJazz

    In the summer of 1956, the Billy Tipton Trio — a group based in Spokane, Washington  —  came to Los Angeles to record for the independent label Tops Records. They performed instrumental versions of jazz standards, primarily from the 1920’s and 1930’s. The recordings were later released on two albums: Sweet Georgia Brown (“a Masterpiece of Incomparable High-Fidelity Sound”) and Billy Tipton Plays Hi-Fi on Piano. During one session, which took place at a studio located at Capital Records, a woman happened to be hanging around the sound booth. She came up and told them, “Gee, you guys sound great.” It was Ella Fitzgerald.

    I particularly like their version of George Gershwin’s “The Man I Love.”

     

    While the albums did not sell poorly, Tipton faded into obscurity. He turned down a lucrative gig in Reno saying that he wanted to return to Spokane and settle down. And he proceeded to do just that. He married the last of his five wives (although the prior marriages were not official) and adopted three sons. He died in Spokane at the age of 74 in 1989.

    Under ordinary circumstances, Tipton’s name may have been entirely forgotten. But something happened the day he died — something that shocked nearly everyone who had met him since his youth in the mid-West. The medic summoned to Tipton’s residence discovered   (more…)

  • Pete Anderson — The Joy of Latvian Rockabilly

    Lame DogClassic Rock

    Here is a trivia question. What was the first American band to tour the former Soviet Union?

    That distinction belongs to, of all things, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band — a folk/rock ensemble best remembered for the sentimental tune “Mr. Bojangles.” In 1977, the U.S. State Department arranged for a Soviet tour — probably the first time the Kremlin authorized any musician to play any variety of rock music. John McEuen and his fellow band members were greeted with enormous enthusiasm during 28 sold-out shows. But the most poignant moment may have occurred off-stage when the band reached Riga. There, McEuen managed to evade his Soviet handlers and travel into the countryside to meet with a man who had devoted his life to vintage rock and roll, despite repeated, arrests, interrogations, and beatings. That man — Pete Anderson (aka Pitts Andersons) — reportedly gave up doing underground shows only after the KGB threatened to kill his daughter.

    Beginning in the late 1980’s, Pete Anderson — not to be confused with the American guitar player of the same name — was able to resume his career. Here he is with his band, the Swamp Shakers, giving a rendition of the classic 1954 song, “Baby, Let’s Play House.”

    While not widely known in America, Anderson was so acclaimed that (more…)

  • Welcome to lame-dog.com — Lead Belly sings about the coffee in the army

    Lame DogLead Belly

    For my virgin clip, I’ve selected a recording by Huddie Leadbetter. “Lead Belly”, as he is better known, was discovered by famed musicologists John and Alan Lomax in 1933, while he was serving a sentence for attempted murder in the Louisiana State Penitentiary. Following his release, he enjoyed a successful career in New York in the 1940’s. But my focus here is less on the singer than the song.

    It’s known by various titles: “Army Life,” “Gee Mom I Wanna Go Home,” or, as I always called it, “The Coffee in the Army.” I associate it with my late father who would sing it in the car during summer drives to the beach. Among the verses he knew, which probably date from his days as a World War II army private, are two variations I have not seen recorded elsewhere: (more…)