ANOTHER TUNE THAT I CAN'T SHAKE - ERIC STEWART "FRIENDS LIKE THESE"

I have to admit I didn't even know Eric Stewart had released another solo album until six years after the fact.  I feel bad about it because I've always loved Stewart's material and "Viva La Difference" is a great solo collection.  Great, but unfortunately all but unknown, though I've tried to do my part to spread the word:  

http://badcatrecords.com/BadCat/STEWARTeric.htm

Anyhow, buried in the album you'll find the tune "Friends Like These".  

Here's what I originally had to say about the track: "Love the slinky slide guitar that opens the tune and kicks it along  ...   Slow builder with an almost hypnotic feel and one of the album's spotlight numbers.   Months later this one is still bouncing around my head."

Every word of that was true.  The damn thing is still in rotation in my head.  Stewart's almost lysergic delivery is truly hypnotic and that little slide riff is simply addictive.   What do I have to do to get this one out of my head?

And here's the YouTube link to the audio file: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7PhHb4goU0

BAD MANNERS AGAIN - SOUTHERNGARAGEBANDS WEBSITE

Sunday morning and I was trolling around the internet looking for some information on an obscure album I'd bought the day before at a yard sale.  Anyhow, I clicked on the southerngarageband website and happened to start reading a page on Rodney Justo.  It was one of those strange experiences where the words sounded familiar.   Sure enough, these guys seem to have "borrowed" parts of a write-up I'd done years ago on the Atlanta Rhythm Section.   I know "borrowing" is a part of modern life.  I've done it myself.  The difference is I try to credit sources.   These guys are pawning it off as their own original work.   Seriously ...   poor manners at best.  

Makes me wonder how much of their site is lifted from other sources.

SUE ME, SUE ME BLUES - A REGGAE STAR DECIDES TO SUE ME

I have a pair of used Burning Spear LPs for sale on my website and listed on a couple of websites that specialized in used music.  I've owned these albums for about a decade and simply don't like them enough to keep them.  They're both pretty common , mainstream releases.  I found them at yard sales, but with a little bit of effort, anyone could find a copy with 10 or 20 minutes of research.

Anyhow, out of the blue I got this threatening email from the artist:


Burning Spear Copyright and Trademark Infringement Notice.

Re : Cease And Desist - Burning Spear - Catalog.

To Whom It May Concern,

This office of Winston Rodney professional known as “Burning Spear’ It has come to our
attention that Bad Cat Record (You) are currently distributing and other wise exploiting
Burning Spear entire catalog on your websitehttp:Musicstaack. The work including many
unauthorizes releases Burning Spear People Of The World and other illegally manufactures
singles. Please be advised that Mr Rodney at no time granted any entity, including you, the
rights to create is entire Catalog (or any other physical reproduction) of any of his work you
have listed. Accordingly ,you, your designees and affiliates have no right whatsoever to
exploit the Work in any manner. Your exploitation of the work constitutes an infringement of
Burning Spear rights, including copyright infringement under Title 17 of the United States
Code and appropriation of Burning Spear Likeness in violation of his rights under the law
World wide.

Base on the foregoing. Burning Spear demand that you immediately cease & desist from any
further exploitation or other use of the work. Demand is further made that you account to us
for all sales of the Work and provide the name (s) and contact information for third party
distributor (s) that have utilized to distributor the Work.

If you fail to comply with the aforesaid demands, then please be advised that Burning Spear
will take any and all action necessary or appropriate in the circumstances to vigorously
enforce his rights and remedies at law or in equity. Without limiting the foregoing, to the
extent you have knowledge of the facts set forth herein and fail to comply with the demands
set forth herein we intend to seek any and all punitive damages available as the result of
your actions undertaken in bad faith in connection with this matter.

Nothing contained herein or omitted here from shall constitute an admission of any facts or
a waiver of any of Burning Spear rights or remedies, whether at law or in equity, all of which
are hereby expressly reserved. See you and your illegal partners in Courts all over the world.
Artist have rights too.

Very truly Yours
Winston Rodney Aka Burning Spear

So what to make of it?   I guess I can understand an artist wanting to protect their rights.  On the other hand, we're talking about a pair of $10 used LPs.  These are not bootlegs, nor am I pressing and releasing illegal copies of the man's work.  While I'm not a lawyer,I'm pretty sure that I'm protected by the first use doctrine.  You also have to wonder if any lawyer would really waste their time and effort going after $20?   You can only hope they have bigger fish to fry.

POLITICS

I'm not very political, but having watched the initial Republican debate, all I can say is Gawd help us since the ten candiates seemed collectively determined to let the Democrats run the country for another four years.

Donald Trump leading the polls?  I'm thinking a lot of folks must be in on some sort of private joke.  Remember the playground bully back in grade school.  The kid who came from a dysfunction family; had all the personal problems and tried to solve them by taking his anger and frustration out on the people around him - yeah I'm thinking there are some major similarities here.

Anyhow, I have to admit it was fun watching Megyn Kelly kick Trump's butt.  She's certainly smarter and better looking than the Donald.   Come to think of it, maybe she should be running for President.

BADCATRECORDS GETS INTERVIEWED

Thanks to Rich Sheppard at After the Day of the Sabbath for interviewing BadCatRecords for his interesting blog.  Rich had apparently stumbled across some of the BadCat music reviews on the Rate Your Music website and then trolled around the BadCat website.  You can read the short interview at:

http://www.aftersabbath.com/2015/03/the-day-after-sabbath-115-top-of-scotts.html

SNL 40th Anniversary - what a disappointment

I'll keep this short - the 40th Anniversary was probably the longest three and a half hours I've ever endeared.   For all the hype that went into this, there were few highlights:

- Paul Simon's stark performance of 'Still Crazy After All These Years'  - would have been even better had he done it in a turkey suit.

- Will Farrell's revisit of the Alex Trebek and Jeopardy parody

- Chevy Chase and Garrett Morris repeating their help for the hearing impaired

Pretty much everything else was dull, plodding, and disappointing.   I expected so much more.

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE - THE DEBUT

I had never seen the 1975 SNL debut, so when NBC decided to re-run it as part of the show's 40th anniversary, I decided to check it out.  Maybe it was me, but I have to admit I found it dull, plodding, ponderous, and hardly funny.  Yeah, it was the debut show and like anything, it took awhile for the show to find its groove.  About all I can say is Lorne Michaels and company were lucky to not get cancelled after their first show

George Carlin was the host.  Carlin can be funny in an unpredictable, grumpy man way.  Assuming this 1975 segment represented him at his prime; well he wasn't particularly funny, or endearing.  He seemed nervous, unsure of himself, and you could see him quickly shifting gears to a series of dumb one liner rants that did little to win the affection of the audience.  Here's a segment of his monologue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xico7QxW7js

Two musical guests - Billy Preston's 'Nothing from Nothing' was actually pretty good.  Preston and his band were enthusiastic and turned in a version of the tune that stuck close to the studio version, but demonstrated some of the man's charm.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b3b_HcdKL0

Janice Ian - I can only guess she was selected as the second act for her laugh-a-minute, party girl image.  Yeah, 'At 17', her ponderous, navel gazing slice of self-hatred was going to make any crowd get up and dance, or at least look for a sharp object to plunge through their eyeballs.   Forget the need to invent a Debbie Downer character when you had this segment in the can.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMUz2TNMvL0

The actors themselves made little impression.  They seemed uncertain, unsteady, or in the case of guest Andy Kaufman, plain weird. I don't care how many times tell me Kaufman's Mighty Mouse segment was comedic genius, it was just plain scary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-wUe5aEwHM 

Even though he didn't get all that much spotlight time, the lone exception was Jim Belushi. You could just tell he had that "it" factor.  The comedy skits themselves were almost uniformly boring.  Really the only one that made me snicker was the end-of-show bee-fathers.  

If you're always wanted to check SNL out, don't start with this episode ..