Steve Cohen Confronts FBI on Marijuana Prohibition

This is the Steve Cohen I worked so long and hard for to represent us.


H/T: Jackson Baker

Reorganize Memphis in May

I guess leaving incendiary comments on the vaunted Commercial Appeal website is not enough, so let me repeat myself here:

The Memphis In May organization needs to take the last weekend event away from the archaic Memphis Symphony and its almost entirely local and cheap-ticket patrons, and give it to the much larger, tourism-beneficial, and lucrative Beale Street Music Festival, which suffers from being rained out in large part many years. The young people attracted by the tens of famous acts and suckered into laying out big bucks for the three-day event are getting ripped off routinely by Memphis in May's stick-in-the-mud management, who suck up to the Symphony and give it the driest weekend in May and even give the local players and attendance a rain date! Damn! What sense does that make?

If I were mayor and a word to the "wise" were insufficient, I'd tell Memphis in May you won't be getting use of Tom Lee Park, any permits, or any personnel support for your events unless you swap dates of the Symphony and the Beale Street Music Festival. Not to mention: Symphony = Whitey's music. Beale Street = Blackie's music. Hello? There, I've said my piece where they can't delete it. Lot of good it will do. It's Memphis, after all.

Memphis Real Time Crime Center

I can't get so used to my good friend John Harvey's excellence that I fail to give credit where it's due. Here's the latest swag John brought home to the city (click to make it huge):

Here's a pic he sent me that I've been saving that I bet he thought I deep-sixed, of him and his co-conspirators (again, click to make huge):


What is this Real Time Crime Center, you say? Click here to see the public interface.

Matriarchy Sucks

It's time to revisit my awesome post, "The Tragedy of Bastardy." A local blogger kept telling me I could have written a book titled The Garbage Generation. I took the time to read it in its entirety online, and he was right: I endorse 90+% of the book.

Those of you who think "feminism" is a 100% good...you need to read the book.

Those who wonder why women outvote men in the United states by a consistent 60%-40% margin...read the book. Since women's suffrage, females have hijacked federal and state governments to further their own genital role and instinctual priorities. Women need the government more than men, to be able to feed their spawn through government compulsion, in case they'd rather not continue incentivizing their offspring's natural father until the kids are grown.

Read the book and review the facts to decide if the return of matriarchy is a good or a bad thing. Here are a couple of hints. The Judaeo-Christian bible chronicles the rise of patriarchy, with its advantages of increased male productivity and genocidal violence (condoned by the females who benefitted from it). Contrast the decadence today in modern "Christian" countries with the patriarchal focus that still rules in Muslim nations.

Ask yourself if it is "right," or merely destructively self-serving, for human females to bear and raise children outside of marriage, like the brainwashed dumbell Bristol Palin.

Here's some more food for thought: US births break record; 40 pct. are out-of-wedlock. Is that cool with you?

Sacrilege Meets MY Standards

I could hardly believe the cowardice of the management at Memphis' TV stations WMC and WPTY in refusing to air, for pay, this tame and actually silly advertisement for a local radio station's morning show.



Yes, I lifted it off Rock 103's site. Yes, it took some skill and a third-party tool to do it. Yes, I will take it down if Clear Channel asks. But I don't think they will, because -- unlike WMC and WPTY -- Clear Channel is not a:

A Brief History of Weed

Nanny State: The Book

Now there's a book that exposes the Nanny Staters. See the description on Amazon. The author has a snazzy blog too.

OK, Then Surcharge the Fatsos Next

Tennessee has turned into such a nanny state.

State employees are facing a $600 surcharge that goes into effect next year for everyone in the employee health system who smokes or is married to a smoker.

State officials hope the surcharge will provide an incentive for employee smokers to quit and save Tennessee an estimated $3,400 per worker annually in lost productivity and smoking-related health claims.

If that's really the issue prompting the measure, then overweight must be punished too.

Will Obama Legalize Pot?

Admittedly, I'm cleaning out some saved links with this post, but there seems to be some movement toward sanity by the Obama administration on the proven idiocy of euphoriant prohibition.

First there was the painful example of Obama's natural caution that began to afflict him once he got on top and started putting staying on top for the maximum eight years as his first priority.  That got him some headlines like this:

Obama Loses His "Cool"

With his glib dismissal of pot legalization, the president looks less like the man, and more like The Man.

But lately, his point man filling the fascist Caesar, Kaiser, Czar position (created by the oppressors of their own children of the 60's generation) started making the kind of perfectly sensible sounds not heard since the Carter administration.

White House Czar Calls for End to 'War on Drugs'

Drug Czar Calls for End to War on Drugs
 
More on Drug Czar's Bid To End War on Drugs

If you know that euphoriant prohibition for United States adults has been bad for your country, keep the pressure on your elected officials to undo the abomination that has made stupid, useless wars started by lying old cocksuckers more possible, wrecked hundreds of thousands of young lives and wasted billions of dollars criminalizing young people, and blunted the American conscience so badly that we now approve of torturing other human beings when it suits our panicked herd mentality.
 
This has gone on long enough.  I can't see one vainglorious politician's career worth saving while he/she bleats about "political suicide" as another innocent young kid goes to prison for weed.  If they won't get behind decrim, don't give 'em a dime; and vote their sorry asses out.

Frightening Friday -- Link Wray's "Rumble"

Scary, menacing, yeah, that's a fair description of the way Link Wray came out of the starting gate playing guitar and looking the way he did. Crank this one up!

Thelonious Thursday

As perhaps my last alliterative music post title (this one's even digraphically alliterative), I give you a starting point on another "perhaps," perhaps the best composer ever in the jazz idiom, Thelonious Monk.

Monk has plenty of videos on YouTube and plenty of full tracks on last.fm.

Monk employed a lot more dissonance in his compositions than was common before he came along; and everyone may not like that, at least at first.  So I'm going to present just one video, of "perhaps" his most well-known, popular, and covered composition, "'Round Midnight."



I used to think it was a sign of extreme hipness to be able to name Monk tunes when I heard them, but I'm not a jazz DJ anymore.  Listen to a dozen or so of Monk's great and unique originals, though, and you'll see what a fun game it is to try.  I can't resist linking you to one personal latter-day favorite of mine that has stuck in my head many times; but be warned, it may stick in yours, too: "Green Chimneys".

From the Mouths of Babes -- Carrie Prejean

The Donald got it right. I could perhaps have said it better than Miss Cleans Up Really Nice, but I never won any beauty pageants. To be fair to myself, I never entered any. Well wait, my Mom entered me in some at the department stores back when, and I won. And I have pictures. But that was the scam, I'm thinking.

Yes, I know about her implants; but I swear, I never saw a cross-dresser, drag queen, queer, lesbian, or "transgendered" person (with no sex-change operation, in all alleged cases I've heard about) who looked anywhere near as attractive as this young lady, this natural, real woman.

I can't stand the "shout the opposition down" tactics, the tsunami of political so-called "correctness," the "Hollywood is on my side" Pressure Queen tactics coming from homosexuals, any more than I can stand the tactics of Muslim censoriousness or respect Hitler's brown shirt hoots, hollers, and hooliganism.

Like the Donald, I am ready to protect Miss Carrie Prejean against would-be majoritarian attacks. I understand opposing views quite well. I don't expect you to treat this real woman fairly, although if you want to be treated fairly yourselves, you should. Comments on this post are closed.

Here's a slice of real humanity worthy of respect:



Here's more of the two of them via ABC News.

Woeful Wednesday -- Magic Sam

"Magic Sam" Maghett was another Cobra and Delmark Records alumnus like Junior Wells but died of a heart attack at the fan-cheating age of 32.  Sam was unforgettable in his own way.  Either reminisce with me or get hip to him for the first time through this post.  He was good slow or fast; and some of his numbers will become firmware in your memory banks.

There's not much video of Sam, but you can listen to many of his albums, West Side Soul in particular, and his memorable song "I Don't Want No Woman" also in particular, on last.fm.

Blue Monday -- Sleepy John Estes

I was stage manager for the very first Beale Street Music Festival, produced in 1977 by Memphis attorney Irvin Salky.  I helped a blind country bluesman up the stairs to the stage for his set by holding his hand, one of a pair of the hugest hands I've ever seen.  They belonged to Sleepy John Estes.

John was as authentic a country bluesman as any who ever lived and made many records, several of which became classics.  John's music came in three main flavors: with guitar-only accompaniment; with Hammie Nixon on harmonica; and with Yank Rachell on mandolin.  There's a second guitar on some of the records.  A piano player is listed for some of the earliest records, although I never much hear him; and a kazoo gets snuck in on a few.

Here's John with Yank on stage in 1966 doing "Mailman Blues":



Three weeks after I helped John up on stage in Memphis, he died. That performance turned out to be his last.

There are a lot of John's original recordings you can hear free around the net. Click here for a bunch on YouTube. Enjoy.

Stolen Song Saturday -- Going Down

I use "stolen" in the sense that Otis Redding used it when describing Aretha Franklin's far more successful cover of his "R-E-S-P-E-C-T."

Don Nix wrote "Going Down," a guitar player favorite that has been covered over a hundred times by now; and Don fed it to Freddie King when he got hired to produce an album on Freddie, which was certainly Don's right. Frankly, by that time it was anyone's right under the United States' compulsory license scheme, because the song had been published when it was recorded and released for the first time on an earlier album Don produced for Stax's Enterprise label eponymously titled Moloch. "Going Down" owes a bit to Booker T & the MG's 1967 B-side "Slim Jenkins' Place," or maybe it was the other way around, but that was all in the Stax/Mar-Keys family at the time; besides which, the descending lick can be heard in a much older Howlin' Wolf song. Not to take anything from Don, I'm a fan and he's a friend.

I'm not going to upload Moloch's original version of the song (although I won't snitch anybody out who does); but the whole album has been re-released with two bonus tracks, and you can buy it and hear samples off of it on Amazon, or just hear a sample of the first released recording of "Going Down" here.

Anywho, Freddie covered "Going Down" in 1971 on the album Getting Ready. Here he is playing it live in 1972:



Jeff Beck covered "Going Down" in 1972 on the album Jeff Beck Group recorded in Memphis with Steve Cropper producing. Here's the original recording, audio only of course; and here's a video of Jeff doing it live with Stevie Ray Vaughan. Even Keith Richards attributes the song to Freddie King in this video.

Freddie King had another fine performance on that Getting Ready album: "Same Old Blues." Guess what? It was written by Don Nix too (one of his very finest efforts, with great, interesting chord changes for a blues) and also first recorded by Moloch. Here's Freddie's version (with Leon Russell's help) and a sample of Moloch's version. Another stolen song, well and fairly stolen. Moloch's bass player at the time told me about picking Freddie up at the airport to take him to Moloch's leader and guitar player Lee Baker's house. On the way, Freddie asked Twitch: "Who is singing 'Same Old Blues' on that record?!" Twitch told him, "Phil Durham."

Johnny Keyes & the Magnificents

My dear friend Johnny Keyes, lead singer for the Magnificents back when and Packy Axton's co-conspirator during the Stax/Fretone years, called me yesterday.

Talking to Johnny, I finally got it straight that one of the tunes on the album he recorded in the 70's (that I had a co-write on) was a cover of the Magnificents' "Up On The Mountain." I had been hearing the refrain "You took my money, and it ain't funny" in my head for some months now but didn't realize it was from this song:



There are related videos on YouTube on the Magnificents; and you may have seen them on the PBS Doo-Wop special during a pledge week. Johnny has his own site now too.  The Magnificents are gigging again; and here's a CD on 'em, with samples.  Here's a nice history too.

John Jay Hooker Against Retention Referenda

I ran across a very good history on this topic written by Richard Locker of the Memphis Commercial Appeal that you can read on your PC or on your mobile device.

Tore Down Tuesday -- Freddie King

Lee Baker of Moloch couldn't rest until he got Freddie King to Memphis to play the Overton Park Shell.  Actually, Lee dreamed of the "Three Kings" show: Albert, B.B., and Freddie on the same bill.  He never pulled that off, but Freddie's show at the Shell was one I can remember, despite it being the 60's (or early 70's, same thing).
Freddie is probably worshipped most of all for "Hide Away":



Don Nix hooked up to produce an album on Freddie and got Freddie to cover a couple of Don's songs first recorded  (track samples) by the legendary Memphis blues-rock band Moloch for Stax Records' subsidiary label Enterprise. Now a lot of people think they're Freddie King songs. But that's another post.

Blue Monday -- Sam Chatmon

I was watching TV one night in Memphis decades ago, and a guitar-playing singer came on the screen doing his rendition of St. Louis Blues (dum...dum...a-deedle-um-dum), and I was just floored. It was Sam Chatmon of the Mississippi Sheiks, the only member to have been captured on film/video. Get right into it here, so you'll know this post and its links are worth reading:



Well, that's the real shit, sports fans; and I do know whereof I speak.  The Sheiks were the best blues band of the acoustic era, unless you want to count the W.C. Handy Band, which was more horn-based.  Sam was the brother of Bo Carter, the most individually famous of the bunch for his solo recordings and songwriting; but Bo died in Memphis in 1964, before the blues revival could capture him on film.  So brother Sam is the best we can see of the greatness that was the Sheiks, the chamber music ensemble of the blues before Sleepy John Estes with Yank Rachel staked a claim to that title (but that's another post).  Here is a link to some of the Mississippi Sheiks historic output, including the epochal "Sitting On Top Of The World."  Meanwhile, here's another good video on Sam:

Filibusters Are Unconstitutional

Yes, the title is provocative, intentionally, and could be hedged in "ifs," "ands," "buts," and innumerable other qualifiers; but I'll stick with it on this simple ground: nowhere in the United States Constitution is a 60-vote majority required to end debate on a bill. Two-thirds majorities are required only in a few specified instances. Search the Constitution yourself if you don't believe me.

I've been spouting off about this for years, but a recent short piece by my fellow Harvardian Matthew Yglesias gave me a link to save and blog about, which I had been wanting to do after hearing the new Democratic majorities in the House and Senate use the possibility of filibuster by Senate Republicans as an excuse for the Democrats' own chicken-shitness.

Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist threatened a return to Constitutional majority rule in the Senate with the "nuclear option." We truly do need to nuke this unconstitutional filibuster rule into the dustbin of history. Demand it of your Senators, people. U.S. Senators are incredibly conceited and arrogant with their "holds" and other prerogatives that slow the business of the nation in favor of Senator power; and this filibuster thing is the worst conceit of all.

Just click on over and read Matt's piece. I don't feel like paraphrasing it here this evening.

UPDATE: A lawyer/writer for the New York Times agrees with me too.

UPDATE: Biden: Abuse of Filibuster Worst He's Seen

Jane Harman: Traitor?

I have been suspicious of Congresswoman Jane Harman ever since she failed as a member of the House Intelligence Committee to stand up against Bush administration wiretapping. Now I feel vindicated by the revelation that she was recorded by the NSA in 2005 agreeing to try to get espionage-related charges against two former AIPAC officials reduced.

Here's video coverage from Hannity on the matter:



Here's the link to the Congressional Quarterly exposé, excerpted here.

Rep. Jane Harman , a California Democrat long involved in intelligence issues, was overheard on a 2005 National Security Agency wiretap telling a suspected Israeli agent that she would lobby the Justice Department to reduce espionage-related charges against two former officials of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

In return, the Israeli agent pledged to help lobby for Harman to become chairwoman of the House Intelligence Committee.
. . . .
The sources, who discussed the matter only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of domestic NSA eavesdropping, said Justice Department officials decided there was sufficient evidence to initiate an FBI investigation of Harman. But at the last minute, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales aborted the plan, saying that he needed Harman’s help defending the administration’s warrantless wiretap program.
. . . .
Justice Department attorneys in the intelligence and public corruption units who read the transcripts decided that Harman had committed a crime, according to the national security and law enforcement sources.

Is Jane Harman by any chance Jewish? Well, what a coincidence!

This kind of s__t makes me sick.

Far Out Friday: Sonny Sharrock

As I teased in a previous post about Pharaoh Sanders, here's one about the avant garde guitar player he introduced to the world: Sonny Sharrock. Like Pharoah, Sonny had a most exquisite lyrical side that he showed to great effect so memorably on Sanders' album Tauhid, especially on "Upper And Lower Egypt."

A little-known fact is that Sonny went on to play with Herbie Mann on his Memphis Underground album, recorded at American with the usual suspects.

I can't find any videos as good as my recollection of an incredible gig Sonny did in Hartford with some taiko drummers from New York City, so I'll focus on the music, giving you the lyrical "Who Does She Hope To Be?":



It appears one or more pissant stupid record companies have scrubbed the other videos I chose for you in this post, when EVERYONE knows you have to give stuff away on YouTube these days to stay in the record business; so I'll just leave you with this link to whatever is outrunning whoever is trying to profit off poor dead Sonny Sharrock since we lost him in 1994.  Click this link if you want to see some videos showing how far out Sonny could get in concert.