October 2024 - Page 6 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

Sunday Stealing 200.05: Beetle Beat

Innocence Project

This week’s Sunday Stealing continues to purloin queries from 200 Questions, so I dubbed it 200.05. The last question is about the Beetle Beat.

1. What gets you fired up?

Lots of things, but injustice is high on the list. There are lots of stories of folks spending dozens of years incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. When they are finally exonerated, they’ve already missed out on so much of their lives. When the state of Missouri decided to execute a person on death row, despite pleas from the prosecution and the victim’s family concerning his likely innocence, I was utterly outraged. So, I support the Innocence Project periodically.

2. What makes a good life?

I could overthink this, but I’ll go with FDR’s Four Freedoms speech: the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear.

3. What risks are worth taking?

Saving a life, starting a business, and getting arrested for a good cause. Life is filled with risk and whether that risk is worth taking is quite individualistic.

4. Who inspires you to be better?

There are lots and lots of people—folks doing great things in the world. People are also doing really bad things, and I say, “We are better than that.” A recent Vlogbrothers post from John Green points out that we humans have done great things, but we need to do far greater ones.

I doubt it

5. What do you have doubts about?

This blog is filled with things that make me doubt whether we can survive as a species without destroying our planet, whether democracy will survive in the United States and other parts of the world, and whether we can find an equitable distribution of food worldwide. Oh, the list goes on and on and on and on and on…

6. What fact are you resigned to?

I’m never going to win the Super Bowl, the World Series, or Wimbledon.

7. What book impacted you the most?

The Closing Circle: Nature, Man, and Technology by Barry Commoner (1971). David Wineberg wrote in Good Reads: “The insane argument over the environment seems to stem from the thought this is somehow a new fad and not established science. The timely reissue of [the book] puts the lie to that nonsense. Reading it today is stunning. Commoner carefully proves his cases in meticulous scientific fashion. He researches for facts, working around obstacles. His analyses are prescient. His worries have borne fruit. Very little has changed in the intervening 50 years. Mostly, he was right and it has gotten far worse.”

8. What irrational fear do you have?

That I’m not doing “enough.”

9. What is the hardest lesson you’ve learned?

That I can’t do everything I believe needs to be done.

Hmm…

10. What is something you’re self-conscious about?

I’m not particularly fond of, uh, speaking extemporaneously because people will be parsing every bloody, er, break that you take in the conversation. I noticed this because I was interviewed for a book once, and the author used my quotes, including every break and interruption I put in my interview with him; he had recorded it on a cassette tape. I was mortified even though nobody knew who I was in the book; I was also somewhat irritated by it.

11. What are one or two of your favorite smells?

Lilacs. Steak on a grill.

12. Have you given to charities?

Many, and often. But I am very suspicious of any entity that suddenly appears after a disaster, whether 9/11 or the flooding from former Hurricane Helene. I’m unlikely to give money to any GoFundMe or a new charity.

13. What is the best compliment you have received?

I believe it was the fact that I had been working on this blog for almost 19 1/2 years. Someone said, “How do you come up with stuff?” and I said, “I just look around.”

14. What chance encounter changed your life forever?

As I’ve noted, my mother worked outside the home when I was a child in the bookkeeping department of McLeans department store in Binghamton NY. I went to Daniel S Dickinson School in kindergarten rather than Oak Street School. We would go to my grandmother’s house at lunch and after school. If I hadn’t gone to Dickinson in kindergarten, I wouldn’t have met Carol, Karen, Bill, Lois then, and, subsequently, people like Ray and Jim until 7th grade. It has had a huge impact on my life.

Finally

15. What was the most memorable gift you’ve received?

I was likely this Beetle Beat album my father bought us, an ersatz Beatles record. Subsequently, I got a paper route, joined the Capitol Record Club, and bought my own albums. I can remember the first Beatles album I purchased that I did not get from the CRC, Yesterday and Today, which I purchased at the Rexall drug store for $2.97. Since then, I’ve bought a lot of LPs, CDs, and even a few cassettes.

Kris Kristofferson (1936-2004)

singer/songwriter

The music of Kris Kristofferson seemed to have bookended my adult life until now. During my first marriage, we had an album the record company had just reissued as Me and Bobby McGee, previously called Kristofferson. It had many songs that other people were making famous, such as Help Me Make It Through The Night and For The Good Times. After the Rhodes scholar, working as a janitor, landed a helicopter on Johnny Cash’s lawn, the Man In Black covered Kris’ Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down.

But I particularly enjoyed a couple of other songs on that premiere album. The first track, Blame It On The Stones, features a chorus swiped from Bringing In The Sheaves and lyrics telling us to “blame it on those Rolling Stones.”

Another great song was The Law Is For Protection Of The People. “A rule’s a rule, as any fool can see.” We don’t need certain people “scaring decent folk like you and me. No, siree.” I love that album, and I might still have it on vinyl.

I also had the next album, Silver Tongued Devil and I. It featured The Pilgrim, Chapter 33. I used to quote the line, “He’s a walking contradiction; partly truth and partly fiction,” inordinately frequently. It seems particularly apt to describe many people I’ve known.

A find

While going through my father-in-law’s music collection after he died in 2020, I discovered a two-CD set of Kristofferson’s music titled Singer/Songwriter. One disc features him singing his songs and the other features about a dozen and a half artists covering Kris. It’s quite a fine album. He doesn’t have the prettiest voice, but it has a certain amount of character.

Speaking of character, on “Oct. 16, 1992, Columbia Records threw its longtime artist Bob Dylan an event at Madison Square Garden to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his first album with the label.” Sinead O’Connor, who had made a controversial appearance on Saturday Night Live, was booed by the MSG audience, but Kris supported her onstage.

Kris Kristofferson did his final live performance at Willie Nelson’s 90th birthday party concert in April 2023. With Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris gone, Willie’s the surviving Highwayman.

Oh yeah. He was in the movies, too, but I only saw a few, all at the cinema. In the early 1970s, he appeared in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. The only reason I saw Rollover (1981), also starring Jane Fonda, was that part of it was shot at the UAlbany campus. My family saw the two Dolphin Tale (20111, 2014) films.

More songs

Jody and the Kid – Kris

Help Me Make It Through The Night – Kris

For The Good Times – Ray Price

Me and Bobby McGee – Roger Miller

Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down – Johnny Cash

To Beat The Devil – Waylon Jennings

Lovin’ Her Was Easier (Than Anything I’ll Ever Do Again) – Waylon Jennings

Why Me – Kris

I’d Rather Be Sorry – Kris and Rita Coolidge

Nobody Wins – Rita Coolidge

Please Don’t Tell Me How The Story Ends – Ronnie Milsap

The Hawk – Tom Verlaine

Highwayman – The Highwaymen (a Jimmy Webb song)

Paperback Writer – Kris (Lennon/McCartney)

Kamala and DonOLD

Nikki Haley in spring 2024: djt unhinged, unqualified to be president, diminished.

It should be no surprise to anyone who has read this blog more than three times that, in the Presidential race between Kamala and DonOLD, I’m voting for the South Asian woman who also knows she’s black.

On ABC News’s This Week for Sunday, September 8, 2024, just before the debate, former Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney chose between Kamala and DonOLD. She spoke with ABC’s Jonathan Karl. This is just some of the interview, which I recommend.

CHENEY: Not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris. Donald Trump, if he is re-elected, will be far more dangerous than we have ever seen before. Dick Cheney [her father] will be voting for Kamala Harris.

KARL: The former vice president’s statement endorsing Harris offered an especially harsh view of Donald Trump. “In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.”

CHENEY: Donald Trump presents a challenge and fundamental threat to the republic. Somebody is willing to use violence to attempt to seize power and stay in power—someone who represents unrecoverable catastrophe. And we must do everything possible to ensure he’s not re-elected.

Harris as Reagan?

CHENEY: I have never viewed this as a policy election. If you look at Vice President Harris’ speech at the Democratic Convention, it is a speech that Ronald Reagan could have given. It’s a speech that George Bush could have given. It’s an embrace and an understanding of the exceptional nature of this great nation. A love of America. A recognition that America is a special place. A recognition that we all have to work together to ensure that.

And you contrast that with what we hear from Donald Trump daily, that America is a failing nation, that America is a laughing stock. The trash-talking of the United States of America is very much part of the message that Donald Trump is pushing.

I think it’s important for people to recognize he’s not a conservative. Embracing global tariffs is fundamentally anti-conservative. It will choke off global trade and likely lead us down the path that we’ve seen before, a depression.

The important thing for people to remember is that he can do it alone. He does not need Congress if he were to be re-elected, to impose those massive tariffs that will kill the American and the global economy.

Kamala’s coalition

CHENEY: I think, from a policy perspective, it is very important to recognize that [Kamala] understands that this election is going to require a coalition of people from across the political spectrum supporting her, and that also necessitates an understanding that you’ve got to govern for all of those people. And on top of all of that, the Republicans have nominated somebody who you know is depraved. So, the choice, in my view, is not a close one.

When you look at national security policy, there are certainly areas where I disagree with the Biden administration. However, regarding fundamental alliances and the importance of NATO, for example, we’ve seen a sea change. We now have a Republican Party that is embracing isolationism, that is embracing Putin.

Nikki voters

KARL: There was a lot of talk during the primaries of the Nikki Haley voters, and some states seemed like even when she stopped running, almost a third of Republican voters were looking for an alternative to Trump and voting for Nikki Haley. She’s now saying she is “on standby” to campaign for Donald Trump to help him get reelected.

She’s also, of course, called him unhinged, unqualified to be president, diminished. What do you make of Nikki Haley’s position on this?

CHENEY: I can’t understand her position on this in any principled way. I think the things she said while running in the primary are true.

And those of us who are conservative, those of us who believe in fidelity to the Constitution, have a responsibility and a duty to recognize that this is not about partisan politics, and the country is going to need to rebuild a true conservative movement when we’re through this election cycle…

But this November, casting a vote for Donald Trump or writing someone in means that you’ve decided in too many instances what so many elected Republicans have made, which is to abandon the Constitution, to tell yourself that this is just simply a partisan choice. That’s not what we’re facing this time around.

No guardrails

CHENEY: It’s personal to me when I listen to fellow Republicans in the past say things to me like, it’s fine, there are guardrails. He can’t do that much damage. It’s just simply not true.

KARL: Well, on those guardrails, we had the Supreme Court declare essentially that a president has immunity for anything that can be in any way defined as an official act. What does it mean to the possibility of a second Trump administration?

CHENEY: Well, it obviously makes the danger even greater. But when you look at what Donald Trump could do with the levers of power, the extent to which he’s already said he will not abide by the rulings of the courts. Our courts can’t enforce their own rulings. If a president won’t abide by the rulings of the courts, the rule of law disintegrates immediately. He’s made clear that he will, for example, pardon the January 6th rioters.

And now, a few links

Let’s check his references. The Dangers of djt, From Those
Who Know Him

Judge Unseals New Evidence in Federal Election Case Against djt

Questions for djt

Project 2025, Etc. — What’s Really Going On

Remember the women who accused djt? They call themselves the Sisterhood of the Strange Sorority

He’s Jumped the Shark

djt Promised to Release His Medical Records. He Still Won’t Do It.

If elected again, he would become the oldest president by the end of his term. Yet he is refusing to disclose even basic health information.

’60 Minutes’ Sets Presidential Candidates Interview Special, Only For djt to Bail

djt’s “Vastly Overpriced” $100,000 “Swiss Watch” Is Probably Made in China, Experts Say

I Learned So Much I Didn’t Know From Vance in the Debate. Did you know that President Trump saved Obamacare? (Ha!)

Blank Space (Donald’s Version) – A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

Top/Favorite MOVIES

not boring

Drew from California asked:

Have you made your Top/Favorite MOVIES (so far in your life) list? If so, I’d love to get some good recommendations, as I feel rather “movie-watching deficient” in my lifetime. I do like Rom-Coms and intelligent conversations. Good adventure and sometimes good suspense are also fun to watch.

I find this extraordinarily difficult. For instance, I really liked EEAAO (Everything Everywhere All at Once). But will it stand up to the test of time? I dunno. I remember liking ALTERED STATES (1980) and Z, but they have faded from memory.

Likewise, I was a fan of Jules and Jim (Jules et Jim) (1962), a French film I saw in Binghamton in the late 1960s in a museum theater. It was my favorite foreign film, but I saw a lot of movies, such as Wild Strawberries, that I do not remember well.

That said, I tend to remember and enjoy movies I see in the cinema more than the ones I’ve seen on TV. Seeing a movie again is almost always revelatory. For instance, seeing The Wizard of Oz in 2022 on the big screen was way better than watching it several times on TV.

I like from coms. Is Groundhog Day a rom-com? You could try Love Actually. I like lots of documentaries, but only one of them made this list.

Here’s a list; THE list may never exist.

Casablanca (1942) – saw outdoors at a screening in the late 1970s near Rochester, NY. A great film

Gaslight (1944), which I wrote about, and the word, here.

Rear Window (1954) – I saw it at the Spectrum Theatre in the 1980s. Most excellent and full of suspense.

12 Angry Men (1957) – I wrote about it here

Always on the list

West Side Story (1961) –Some of my favorite music is here. It’s not a great movie – it takes too long to get going, but it was the first grown-up movie I saw.

101 Dalmatians (1961). Possibly the first movie I ever saw in a theater. The lead male adult, Roger, gets to sing “Cruella DeVille.”

The Sound of Music (1965) —My mother had the soundtrack on LP, but I never saw it until the 21st century. It is far better than I expected.

Le Roi de cœur (King of Hearts – 1966) – it played approximately annually at a movie theater in New Paltz, where I went to college.

The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968)- there is a story here.

Cabaret (1972) – I saw it when it first came out, then a half-century later, both in theaters. It holds up.

Young Frankenstein (1974) – Possibly the funniest movie I ever saw. I had an aisle seat, and I laughed so hard at one point that I was literally rolling in the aisle.

Annie Hall (1977) – I haven’t seen it this century, but I wrote about it in 2007 here.

Being There (1979) – I spent a lot of time defending this film from people who thought it was “boring” and that “nothing happens.”

Airplane! (1980) – It has a character named Roger, played by Kareen Addul-Jabbar. Oh, and other stuff, including the script based on an existing dramatic film.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)? Well, of course. This was a remarkable technological feat and features a character named Roger.

Baseball

Field of Dreams (1989): I opted for this Kevin Costner baseball film rather than the fine Bull Durham (1988) because it’s sappier, and I totally buy into it.

Do the Right Thing (1989) – probably the first Spike Lee movie I saw.

Groundhog Day (1993) was one of the first items I owned on VHS. It features JEOPARDY! to see annually.

THE IRON GIANT (1999) – I LOVE THIS animated MOVIE

Being John Malkovich (1999) – surreal

Chicago (2002). An old-fashioned musical

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) is one of the few movies I have seen at home on the list.

The Incredibles (2004): My favorite Pixar film, which I can tell, because it was later on NBC, with all those damn commercials, and I still enjoyed it.

INSIDE OUT (2015) – an emotionally honest film

13th (2016). Documentary about the 13TH Amendment

Hidden Figures (2016) – I wrote about it here

Black Panther (2018) – I wrote about it here

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) – I mention this here

I am frequently reminded of a line from the 1991 film Grand Canyon, in which the Steve Martin character says: “That’s part of your problem: you haven’t seen enough movies. All of life’s riddles are answered in the movies.” I’m convinced there is some truth to that.

The song Only In America

Mann and Weil

An old blogger buddy included the song Only In America in his K-Chuck Radio post, Just wipe the vocals off, and we’ll take care of things.

One example of his: the backing tracks of California Dreamin’ by Barry McGuire and by The Mamas and The Papas are virtually identical. I had heard the McGuire version some years ago.

The Only In America story is somewhat more complicated. The great Brill Building songwriters Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil initially wrote the piece. As Songfacts noted:

“The song was written at a time before integration, and the lyrics were originally about racism. It had the following chorus:

Only in America, land of opportunity
Can they save a seat in the back of the bus just for me

Only in America, where they preach the Golden Rule
Will they start to march when my kids go to school”

To the best of my knowledge from the different tellings, this version was never recorded.

New lyrics

“The [new, additional] songwriters [producers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller] changed [the lyrics] to be a satiric message of patriotism. The Drifters recorded the song with these new ‘patriotic’ lyrics but refused to release it because they did not believe that message.”

Only in America Can a guy from anywhere
Go to sleep a pauper and wake up a millionaire

Only in America Can a kid without a cent
Get a break and maybe grow up to be President

A 2008 article in the Long Beach Post offers a different explanation for why the Drifters didn’t release the tamer version.

“The song, with its gentle Latin rolling beat and percussion thump, could have been the next chart hit for the Drifters if Atlantic Records executive Jerry Wexler hadn’t pulled the recording. Wexler said that, in the light of race relations of that time, it would be unfeeling, unfair, and unfitting to have a black group release a song about America being the land of opportunity and suggest that an African-American could become its president.”

The song was recorded a few months later by Jay and the Americans, who Leiber and Stoller produced. It became a moderate hit, reaching #25 pop on the Billboard charts. I remember the Americans’ version then, and as a kid, I found it not credible.

In any case, The Drifters’ version appeared for the first time in the 1972 UK LP “Saturday Night At The Club.” The cut was conducted by Garry Sherman and recorded on April 12, 1963.

Lead singer

I’ve read in several sources that Rudy Lewis was the lead singer on The Drifters’ version. One of the YouTube videos of Only In America lists the group at the session as Billy Davis, Charlie Thomas, Eugene Pearson, Johnny Terry, and Lewis.

Marv Goldberg’s Later Drifters notes: “At their April 12 [1963] session, they recorded Only In America (led by Rudy), Rat Race (Rudy) [#71 pop], If You Don’t Come Back (Johnny Moore), and I’ll Take You Home (Johnny Moore).”

From a 2016 From The Vaults post: “Lewis is probably the most underrated of all the Drifters’ lead singers. He had the bad fortune to come in after Ben E. King redefined the group’s sound and never got the recognition that King did.” And King had had a series of solo hits.

Nevertheless, Lewis, who sang with the legendary gospel arranger Clara Ward, was the primary lead from 1961 to 1963 and had hits such as Some Kind Of Wonderful (#6 RB, #32 pop in 1961), Up On The Roof (#4 RB, #5 pop in 1963) and On Broadway (#7 RB, #9 pop in 1963). He died in 1964, at least in part from drug use, an early member of the 27 Club. He is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Here’s Jay & the Americans with Charlie Thomas’ Drifters performing Only in America live, obviously many years later.