Readers!
The final week of my annual February birthday month fund-raising campaign for Behind the Black has begun. I continue to be overwhelmed by the outpouring of support, including numerous donations and a surge of new subscribers willing to commit to donating anywhere from $2 to $25 per month. Wow! The numbers are too many to send out individual thank you’s, so please forgive me for thanking you all with this one announcement.
The campaign however must go on, especially because I have added more regular features to my daily workload. In addition to my daily never-ending reporting on space exploration and science, my regular launch reports, my monthly sunspot updates, the regular cool images, and the evening pauses I post each evening, I have now added a daily weekday post I have entitled "Today's blacklisted American." Its goal is not to discuss policy or politics, but to note the endless examples occurring across the United States where some jack-booted thug or thugs think it is proper and acceptable to censor, blackball, cancel, and destroy an innocent American, merely because that American has expressed or holds an opinion or is of a race or religion that is no longer considered acceptable to the dominant leftist and bigoted culture. I want to make clear to every American that a large number of your fellow citizens no longer believe in the enlightened concept of freedom of speech or the idea of treating each person by the quality of their character.
Instead, they wish to shut you up, and oppress you if you happen to disagree with them or have the wrong skin color. This evil must be exposed.
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Cotour–
excellent selection!
That version has been on my short list for some time.
Evanescence –
“Everybody’s Fool”
2004
https://youtu.be/jhC1pI76Rqo
3:34
“there’s nothing better than a good lie…”
I don’t get it.
Noise.
But then, I am of the once Motown era.
Now of the Rachmaninoff and Friends era.
Also, of reading a good book, while resting seated in my outdoor rocker, and soaking in the warming morning sun.
I look forward to the next “Cool Image” entries.
OK.
Alex Andrite: Dude, you listen to Rachmaninoff, and you don’t get this? Motown?
I have heard pieces of this song since it was released, but never the whole thing, as pop radio isn’t my thing. Amy Lee is a good singer, and more of a showman. She gives the people what they want, and that’s worth my money.
The melodic layering, the call-and-response structure: the song pushes the right buttons. I suspect it will stand the test of time.
Alex–
check this out….
Wagakki Band; Tokyo Singing
Bring Me To Life with Amy Lee
2020
https://youtu.be/hk1GtYK7BJM
4:16
Wayne –
Wow – thanks for getting me to put down my book and get out of my rocker !
That was fine !!
Blair –
ok – I will take another listen or two, now that I am up and moving.
Thanks to all for priming my pump !
A.
I was lucky enough to see these in concert a few ( well more like 15, lol) years ago live in concert, and Blair K Ivey, you are correct, Amy Lee is an excellent showman, it was an excellent evening!
Lee-
Good deal! Who else have you seen?
@wayne…. The list is too long to mention…. But highlights are Prince, 3 times and never less than excellent, Oasis, Jarvis Cocker ( of Pulp fame), most of the other “Brittpop” bands, many Swedish bands… I’m a lover of live music, and back in the 90’s I ran a bar right next to a 5000 person music venue. I let the security guys in for a late drink, and they let me in thru the side door to watch the gigs…. Excellent arrangement! 2 more that spring to mind are Beck, and Skunk Annansie. Prince remains my favourite, the first time was in 88 and by pure chance we ended up at the front, and I still have a tambourine and a plectrum he threw out to the crowd…. Times I cherish! How about you?
I forgot to mention Leonard Cohen, I saw him the very last time he played in Sweden, and my neighbor was working security…( I’m lucky in some respects!), He spotted me in the cue and fixed me up with a front row seat…. Leonard was in his 70s yet played 2 X 90 minutes sets…. 3 hours of brilliance from a much missed artist in every sense of the word. Never mind the politics, the world has become a little darker in the last few years musically…. My teenage kids are into music from the 60s thru to the 90s…. Even they agree modern music is rubbish…lol…..
Lee-
Great Tales!
(Prince, eh!? didn’t see that coming!)
Where I live, if you wanted to see someone big, that generally (but not always) involved a lengthy road-trip, to Detroit or Chicago.
-AC/DC, Def Leppard, Metallica, Rush, REM, Pearl Jam, Ozzy, Springsteen, to name a few. I did manage to see Arlo Guthrie by pure happenstance; Tampa Florida, 1980-ish, Thanksgiving Day– went to get a beer at a small bar in the evening, got roped into paying a $5 cover to get inside, then Arlo popped up, played the full version of Alice’s Restaurant, signed some autographs & took pictures. then sat down and had dinner with the owner.
let me toss this in real quick–
The Day The Music Died : 2-3-59
–Visit to Clear Lake, Iowa, the Surf Ballroom, and the crash-site….
https://youtu.be/09QnKCc9TXM
10:11
@wayne…. Prince was the soundtrack to my teens… I wear a tattoo I got when he died…. The world will be lucky if it ever sees another talent like him… I’m liking your taste in music…. I’m not adverse to a bit of hard rock myself…. I’m actually from the same area as the Ozborns, Heavy metal was named after the area I grew up in, which was the birthplace of heavy industry… And just to drop a name out, I used to call friend, and indeed buy my hash off Ozzy’s late brother Tony. They didn’t speak, and I never asked why, it didn’t matter, Tony was a good man, and “the black country” was a good place to grow up… I rarely click on YouTube links… But I’m off to watch yours now…. Have a nice evening!
Hanging on to the Thread That Will Not Die:
Watched the Tokyo link Wayne provided. That’s a solid 10.5; because:
It’s in Japan.
The drummer is earning his money.
About the last third of the song, you can see that people are getting in to it. They are having fun.
Except for some of the ‘classical’ musicians, who look bored.
Would have liked to have seen more footage of the conductor.
Liked the lyrics in Japanese and English on the screens. Useful, especially if Ozzy Osbourne ever takes the stage again.
Solid.
Blair–
hilarious! (Ozzy reference)(( he’s articulating more clearly ever since Sharron got rid of that quack psychiatrist who had him loaded up on lithium, depakote, and ativan. He never struck me as bi-polar. Tangentially–mid 1990’s there was a major change in Medicaid-billing for mental-health, and overnight 15% of our clients went from a primary DX of “substance mis-use,” to ‘bi-polar.’))
Ref-Wagakki Band; Saw those lyrics on-screen as well– you have a good eye!
Apparently (but don’t quote me)—that whole concert is available, although it might be sliced up into single videos. A quick cursory search yielded Amy Lee singing in Japanese. (plug in Wagakki + Amy Lee )
If you’re partial to Japanese bands– let me know what you think of this:
Band Maid
Thrill (スリル)
https://youtu.be/Uds7g3M-4lQ
4:10
–(rough) English lyrics [https://youtu.be/BZdmWbxNstk]
going WAY tangential here…..
[instrumental surf-rock from Owosso, Michigan]
The Dirt Surfers
“First to the Wall”
https://youtu.be/LXIkHsuZ8Lo
4:49
“instrumental surf-rock from Owosso, Michigan”
A sentence I never thought I’d see in my lifetime.
Blair–
almost spewed my coffee through my nose on that one!
Well, that certainly wore me out.
Now, back to my rocker and book.
Great thread !
Alex–
ok, we’ll fix everything in post-production and call it a might!
[“it’s better to burn out, than to fade away…”]
Neil Young & Crazy Horse –
Hey Hey, My My ( Into the Black ) live 1991
https://youtu.be/w_hoW6qmeOo
5:22
(“Neil + Crazy Horse’s performance was so legendary, that even Rosa Parks (0:43), Neil Young himself (0:56), Freddie Mercury (2:03), Slash (2:39/sunglasses), and Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys (2:48) was in the audience.” –Hilarious remark in the comment section on the crowd shots.)