Pribek

I do not like it when I hear someone offhandedly make an anti-Semitic remark. Several people, whom I have greatly respected, lived through World War 2. I have also known a couple of people who survived the Nazi concentration camps. After hearing first hand accounts of the horrors they witnessed it makes me even more uncomfortable to hear anti-Semitic talk.

According to the L.A. Times this is what Mel Gibson said “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.” Gibson then asked, “Are you a Jew?”

According to the San Francisco Chronicle this is what Albert H. Foxman of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League said in response, “It appears that the combination of liquor and arrest has revealed his true character.

“We believe there should be consequences to bigots and bigotry. One way to combat bigots is to put a price on bigotry.

“I would hope that if this is in fact true, that his colleagues condemn him and distance themselves from him.”

A liquored-up Mel Gibson saying this stuff makes the South Park episode look pretty close to the mark. However, the A.D.L response sounds inflammatory. Compare that statement to this A.D.L. response regarding the Seattle Jewish Federation shooting.

The shooting attack at the Seattle Jewish Federation was a terrible tragedy and points up the need for security awareness, especially at a time when there is a crisis in the Middle East, with Israel as a focal point. However, the Jewish community in Seattle was not advised of any specific threat from law enforcement.

We applaud the Seattle Police Department for their quick response and apprehension of the alleged shooter.

Why does the response to a babbling drunk sound more harsh than the one about an incident where multiple people were shot because of a mans self professed hatred of Jews?

Furthermore, as a consumer society, why are we obsessed with the misfortune of a cultural icon and less interested in a real tragedy where countless innocents are affected?

On Another Note

The gigs were fun this weekend. We were playing outside so it was hot and humid. It was a packed house both nights and the crowds were in a happy party mood.

The comedian Gallagher was in the audience Saturday night. He is playing at a theatre in Branson for a while. I introduced myself and we talked briefly. He told me he was writing a song called “I’m A Boob For Tits”.

We had a good rehearsal Sunday with the full band. I should have some news on dates later this week

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Sometimes a song develops over a long period of time. Other times a complete idea manifests all at once.

I often experience a kind of insanity when I am writing. It seems like the faster the song comes; a larger degree of madness precedes it. I see it as a shifting of ballast within the mind. Maybe the left-brain knows that the right side is getting ready to take control and it kicks into overdrive while it can.

I met a jazz guitarist in California that told me “all musicians are slightly psychotic”. “One of the first signs of psychosis is hearing voices; every musician I know hears music in his head all day long”. I have known many creative people, not just musicians, and most have exhibited some eccentric behavior.

Several years ago, I went through my first period of sobriety. I had not been drunk in over a year. I was going through what a lot of alcoholics call a dry drunk. I was pissed off at the world. Mostly because I couldn’t drink. The band was on the way home from a show out east. It was an uncomfortable trip. Four guys in a van for 28 hours during the heat of summer. We stopped in West Memphis for gas at about two in the morning. It was one of those truck stop scenes with junkies and hookers and pimps in the parking lot. There was diesel smoke and the night air just felt like it stuck to the skin. I was burned out from driving and drinking coffee to stay awake. I had a flashback to a time when I felt that way all the time. Back when I was drinking heavy, always ripped or hung-over, in constant transit.

For several days after that, I was a difficult person to be around. I was unsociable and quick-tempered. Then, in an afternoon, I wrote and recorded the demo of the song “Salvation”. The song came all in one chunk. I was thinking about the night in West Memphis and the flood of memories of truly dark times. It was cathartic.

I like the idea that a song can mean something very different to every listener. Most of the time I don’t like it when a songwriter tells you what the song is about before he sings it. I like to form my own impression.

“Salvation” has made some friends of mine very uneasy. I think they may interpret it as some kind of anti-religious statement. I see it more as a snapshot of a feeling, a moment in time. I see it as I had to go through there to get to here.

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Dad Get Me Out Of This

I just wiled away several hours listening to playing along with some of the cover songs that we will be playing in the band. Trying to get my obstinate fingers to go to old familiar places. The Warren Zevon song “Lawyers Guns And Money” played and I was hit with a wave of sadness. I remember him on the David Letterman show shortly before his passing. He was cheerful and very candid and matter of fact about his lung cancer. Now even when I hear one of the funny songs it is tinged with bittersweet.

As I listen, these songs bring back many memories. I am thinking of the various cover bands I played with on the road. I have lost touch with most of those people.

There are not a lot of cover bands anymore, not like there used to be. During the ‘70s and ‘80s, every town seemed to have a club with a band playing six nights a week. I grew up playing in those kinds of bands. For a young man it was a chance to make a little money and play a lot of music. I don’t miss much about those days, it wasn’t a great way of life. I do miss some of the people though.

Station Break

If you are a Jimi Hendrix fan, you have a chance to own a piece of history. A previously unreleased song entitled “Station Break” will be auctioned on October 26 in New York. The song was recorded in 1966. The purchaser will take possession of the reel-to-reel tape and the copyright. Half of the money will go to the Hendrix estate.

Being involved in music publishing, this will be interesting to me. The x-factors here are the quality of the song and the performance. I have heard some of the music from these sessions, which were before Jimis’ well-known work. The buyer will also have the right to re-mix and re-master the track. So even if it is dicey it could be manipulated to sound great.

My guess is that you will hear this song behind a commercial invoking Jimi, the ‘60s, psychedelics, and selling shoes or an S.UV.

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