Monday, January 17, 2011

Just One More and Then We'll Go...

... which every band has said at one point or another.  But we're on about quotes from Life here, not music.  Here's Tom Waits, speaking about Keef:
I think that nowadays there seems to be a deficit of wonder. And Keith seems to still wonder about this stuff. He will stop and hold his guitar up and just stare at it for a while. Just be rather mystified by it. Like all the great things in the world, women and religion and the sky… you wonder about it, and you don’t stop wondering about it.
Well, that bit stopped me dead in my tracks as I was reading earlier this afternoon.  The sheer profundity of Waits' observation struck me as too, too true.  Yet it's not.  I can only speak for myself... but there isn't one single day that goes by when I'm not struck by a sense of wonder.  It could be a sunset, it could be remarkable photography (shots from the Hubble or that "small world" stuff I linked a while back, or myriad other things in that realm), and MOST especially music.  I often marvel at how a vocal, a guitar lick, or the great execution of horn charts can touch me in ways that are always new and always spot-on.  How can you NOT wonder about things like that?

And that's not even considering the things Waits brought up... like women and religion... either one of which countless tomes have been written.  There's no deficit of wonder in MY world, but then again I could be an anomaly.  Ample evidence to the contrary exists on my teevee screen and in the thoughtless screeds I read every damned day in the political blogs.

Still and even: worth thinking about.

―:☺:―

So.  I've been taken with Keith Richards' work with the X-Pensive Winos over the past coupla few and I defined a couple o' new Pandora stations to that effect.  I listened to the X-Pensive Winos station for a full day before I abandoned it in favor of the Keith Richards station, on account o' because there was just too much extraneous bullshit on the XPW station.  I'm sorry, Pandora, but Def Leppard or Journey ain't Keith OR  the X-Pensive Winos.  Journey?  JOURNEY?  Oh, for fuck's sake... spare me.  Please.

I'm pleased to report the Keith Richards station is MUCH better.  And here's a lil sumthin' I heard earlier this afternoon as a sample:



You're beyond hope if that doesn't get ya where ya live.  Keef and Norah... what's NOT to like, unlikely as it may seem?  And the playin' is simply GREAT, as is the song.  Brilliant.

―:☺:―

Apropos of exactly nuthin'... last night we ordered that rockin' chair Bec turned me on to (click for larger, of course) and a couple of Keith Richards albums to add to the collection.  The last coupla days have been absolutely fantastic, in most every sense of the word.  And things should only get better when the new purchases arrive.  Let's just hope the WX remains cooperative and I get the chance to really rock out on the verandah.  

Heh.

14 comments:

  1. Sense of wonder - it's how I live my life. You have to keep that right on the surface; I feel it's just a basic necessity for living and breathing.

    Good for you on the chair! Looks very nice.

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  2. Be careful with that chair. It looks like the one I had that lasted about 4 hours. Now, I weigh-in more than you, so there is that...

    Anyway, I didn't notice, but the right side started leaning-in at the bottom with all my getting in and out of it at a picnic.

    It finally collapsed as I took my final seat with a chicken leg and a bottle of beer, and everything ended-up on the lawn, with the right rocker broken.

    Funny as hell. I took it back and traded it for a standard one.

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  3. Kris: That's a good way to live.

    Anon: Noted on the chair. But I'm pretty light in the ass and shouldn't have any problems. We shall see.

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  4. Keep us updated on the chair, I might have to get me one.

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  5. I don't wanna grow up.

    That there is a Wait song that I live every day.

    I admire that K R has had musical staying power throughout the decades, just don't personally care for his excesses. But that's not his problem.

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  6. Deb: I'll do that.

    Darryl: Ol' Tom is an acquired taste and I like him. You're right about Keef: your 'tude ain't his problem! ;-)

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  7. Hey, hope the rocker's comfy - and safe! - for ya.

    Apropos of our former conversation, too, about celebrating Stephen Stills' birthday and about how I saw him in Buffalo Springfield at Melodyland - along with Chad and Jeremy... well, guess who Doug and Sasha will be playing with tomorrow night at the Coach House? Their music buddy Jason Feddy and...Chad and Jeremy. Weird, huh? Sasha's never heard of them of course, being of the younger generation. They look like nice older gentlemen now.

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  8. Oops, my bad. Sasha won't be there. Just Doug accompanying Jason Feddy.

    I like what Tom Waits said, too. He's an amazing guy. His swingy pirate voice captivated me from the first.

    My whole family wonders about stuff so much that I wonder if they'll ever be practical. That seems to be my job, but I'm a wonderer myself so it's a miracle we've done as well as we have.

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  9. Wow, Bec... I'd SURE like to be at that gig tonight! I hear ya about wonderers and there were... prolly still ARE... times I've felt as you do.

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  10. Sense of wonder. What's life without it? And comfy chairs.

    VW: revita. Live it again, Hombre!

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  11. Doug had a good time. He played two songs and got to meet the guys later. He said they were very kind and very professional. Just as you'd expect.

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  12. Cool! It's good to know expectations can be met these days.

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  13. Good news! My memory is a total fade. The chair I had was nothing like that one.

    http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_10202227_325010003_325000000_325010000

    Your chair looks like Fort Knox in comparison!

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  14. Fatso/Anon: Hey! You have a NAME now! Cool! Good news about the chair, too. ;-)

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