I am not alone. Last week was the lowest rated ever for the four major T.V. networks. This is the era of information overload, a far cry from my youth when there were three networks and we only got two. I don’t think that people were less informed. Newspapers were far superior, every city had at least two. Normally one was more conservative and the other more liberal. Most folks subscribed to both to see what the other side was thinking. My Uncle Fred once said “things are changing, and as they do, they will change at a faster rate”.
Get a Real Job
Kinky Friedman was approved to be on the ballot in Texas. He is running for governor. Finally a Jewish/Texan/novelist/musician/singer/songwriter that the masses can get behind. He is a man of the people.
C.D. update
The discs will be here tomorrow. After I pick them up I will head over to see Bob Martin. Bob owns Nathan P. Murphy’s, a longtime Springfield nightclub. He also has a weekly three hour radio show on KXUS 97.3 called Dr. Bob’s Blues Show. Bob has played some of my stuff in the past and has been awaiting the C.D. We are planning an interview and Bob says he will be featuring several songs over a period of weeks interspersed with interview cuts. They do a webcast, so listen in during the coming weeks if you get a chance.
Crazy Diamond
Syd Barrett passed away on Friday.
I recall, sometime in the mid seventies, wanting the Pink Floyd album Dark Side Of The Moon. I didn’t have enough money so I bought another Floyd record called Relics which consisted of earlier tracks. I was initially disappointed as this record sounded nothing like the band I was familiar with. It was edgy stuff but had a pop sensitivity.
As I grew older, I became aware of a sort of mythology surrounding Syd. He released a couple of solo records that have a haunting quality. To me he sounded like a tortured soul unraveling before my ears.
During the eighties I took a job as a guitar teacher for awhile. Most of the students were into hair bands, a few were listening to bands like The Misfits, The Dead Kennedys, and The Butthole Surfers. I was startled one evening when one of the teenagers brought a cassette of Syd Barret solo stuff on it. Those solo records were pretty obscure.
My young student said “this is how I want to learn how to play, I want to sound like this”. I knew of the stories concerning Syd’s acid excess and mental demons. In an offhand way I said “you don’t want to live through what it takes to sound like that”. I feel bad about saying that. I had put more stock in the myth than the music. I should have realized that this young man was relating to something very human in these songs. Hopefully now Syd’s demons can be put to rest and the music will be what matters.
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Tags: Kinky Friedman, KXUS, Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett, television
Jayne d'Arcy wrote,
We have Dish Network + Starz. That’s almost 200 channels which includes 38 satellite radio channels. More often than not what I watch is on Bravo, Sci Fi Channel, and the three major networks. Richard exclusively watches Discovery, Military & History networks. Lately I’ve found that I’m turning the tv on less. It will go on usually after 6pm because Richard is asleep and by then I get lonely with silence. It’s a pleasant buzz.
I was real sorry to hear about Syd. I became fascinated with Pink Floyd when you bought the Relics album. I have that on CD now. When you finally did get Dark Side of the Moon, it didn’t catch me quite the way Relics did. I identified with Syd and the music after you educated me on Pink Floyd. I have many of their almbums now. Oh, and up until we moved last year, I still had that old, very worn vinyl record of Dark Side of the Moon. The record was unplayable, but some collector bought it at our garage sale for $25.
Link | July 12th, 2006 at 1:29 pm