Author: hankkalet

Another legend lost. Preston was a man who should have been a bigger star, with his funky vocal phrasing and electric piano — in some ways, he was ahead of his time.

The Boston Globe, in its editorial today, offers the best rejoinder to the nonsense being spouted by the president and the social conservatives on marriage.

Gay marriage is not the threat, as the editorial says:

Gay marriage isn’t a real threat. In Massachusetts, married gay couples are not masterminding terrorist bombings. They are not refining weapons-grade uranium nor are they running up federal budget deficits. Married gay couples are not monitoring their fellow Americans’ phone calls and e-mails. They haven’t cut Medicaid. And they didn’t put that doughnut hole in the middle of Medicare’s new prescription drug program.

I would add that gays looking to get married in New Jersey have not manufactured the budget crisis or underfunded the state pension system. Gay couples are not keeping American troops in Iraq when they should be on their way home or polluting the ocean and driving up car insurance rates.

But you get the picture.

The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press

Perhaps something will come of this. The fact is — as we wrote in an editorial last week — the state cannot continue on its present course without a change in the way we raise and spend money. We cannot continue draining our collective wallets without having some kind of plan that will allow us to better control where the money goes, better ensure that it will go where it is needed and that it comes from the people who can best afford it. We can’t.

The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press

Here’s more on the GOP’s inane and indecent proposal to abolish the estate tax from Sebastian Mallaby in The Washington Post.

The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press

I did this once before, back when Channel Surfing was new and still learning to walk. But it is time now to revise the list, given that some good new live discs have made their way onto the shelves. So, here it is, today’s Tuesday Top Ten:

1. Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, “Live 1975-1985.” This one — which was listed at the top spot the last time I did this — remains at the top because it remains the definitive live disc from the definitive live act. His bootlegs probably should top the list — such as the one I have of the legendary Bottom Line show — but let’s stay with official releases.

2. Bob Dylan, “Live 1966: The Royal Albert Hall Concert (The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4).” Here is what I wrote in 2003 (it still holds): “This torrid live disc was released in 1998 and proved to be the first officially released Dylan live disc worth spending money on. Dylan has always been notorious for uneven live performances and it has shown through the years on a series of dubious recordings. But with this disc – which records the first electric tour, its reaction and Dylan’s angry rebuttal.”

3. Wilco, “Kicking Television.” This double disc does something that most live discs do not — it improves everyone of the songs, fleshes them out, gives them meat and makes them more than what they had been in the studio.

4. Lucinda Williams, “Live @ the Fillmore.” Ostensibly a greatest hits package, it offers the same kinds of pleasures as the Wilco disc, lending an edge to Williams that can sometimes be softened in the studio. This record burns.

5. Television, “Blow Up.” This disc from one of the great, but underappreciated punk bands of the ’70s, made the list last time. Here is what I wrote: “Poorly recorded with the sound of a bootleg, this disc features the New York arts-punk band at their best, with a masterful 15-minute version of their classic ‘Little Johnny Jewel’ and a dreamy version of Dylan’s ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.’ This is out on disc now — I have the cassette from what was then a tape-only record company called Reach Out International Records.”

6. Bob Dylan, “Live 1975: The Rolling Thunder Revue (The Bootleg Series, Vol. V)” and “Live 1964: The Cocnert at Philharmonic Hall (Bootleg Series Vol. VI).” These are great discs showing him at his best at a particular time in his career. And, imagine, three discs in the Top 10 from a man who also managed to release some of the worst live recordings ever (“Live at Budokan,” “Real Live” and “Dylan and the Dead”).

8. Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, “Reach Up and Touch the Sky.” Here is what I wrote three years ago: “A great recording of a great live band – and one of the best rock and roll horn sections you’ll ever want to hear — at the height of its ability. Worth buying for the live versions of ‘Why is Love Such a Sacrifice’ and ‘The Fever.'”

9. Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, “D.T.K. Live at the Speakeasy.” From 2003: “I have an old vinyl copy of this sloppy, nasty album, recorded in 1977, during the Heartbreakers’ self-destructive heyday. It is an amphetamine-driven explosion of feedback and noise that is definitely not for the squeamish.”

10. Steve Earle, “Just an American Boy.” The simultaneously released film of the same name is equally riveting — worth buying to hear Earle comment on the John Walker controversy, politics and life while producing some energetic country/folk/rock. (Also worth a listen are “Live from TX”)

Some other thoughts: Springsteen’s “Live at the Hammersmith Odeon” was a tough one to leave off, as were Nirvana, “Unplugged” and “On the Muddy Banks of the Wishka”; Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, “Live Bullet”; Police “Live”; Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “Pack Up the Plantation”; The Band, “Rock of Ages” and “The Last Waltz”; Neil Young, “Rust Never Sleeps” and “Live Rust”; The Clash, “Live From Here to Eternity”; Warren Zevon, “Stand in the Fire”; Lou Reed “Take No Prisoners”; U2, “Under a Blood Red Sky”; and “Stiffs Live” from Stiff Records.

The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press