"The quickest route to ridicule, it seems, is for aging rockers to proceed as if nothing has changed."

"The truth is, years have passed, and to deny this is a form of visual dishonesty."

Yeah, but what counts as denial? The writer knocks Roger Daltrey for performing with his shirt unbuttoned and then dares to classify Iggy Pop as somehow in denial for going entirely shirtless. It seems to me Iggy Pop is letting you see exactly what he is. He's the opposite of dishonest.

"To the people that kept us up all night by singing/screaming on their balcony."

"Your terrace faces 115 windows so you really did have the perfect stage. I'm sure you're keen to hear our verdict. 2:23 AM — 'Pinball Wizard'... Terrible. 3 out of 10..."

"New York City is the city where you can come and express yourself. What was happening in Zuccotti Park was not that."

Said Mayor Bloomberg, defending his decision to oust the Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zuccotti park.

Mr. Bloomberg said the city had planned to reopen the park on Tuesday morning after the protesters’ tents and tarps had been removed and the stone steps had been cleaned. He said the police had already let about 50 protesters back in when officials received word of a temporary restraining order sought by lawyers for the protesters. He said the police had closed the park again until lawyers for the city could appear at a court hearing later in the morning.

It's a legal matter, baby, a legal matter from now on.

Bloomberg's point is that the occupiers prevent other people from using the park. They're hogging the whole park. I sympathize with that position, having seen how the Wisconsin protesters last winter occupied the Capitol rotunda in a way that kept other people out. Now, the rotunda is a prime attraction in Wisconsin. Visitors to Madison continually wander into the space and, on normal days, gaze up into the dome. Children typically lie on the marble floor for the purpose of staring contemplatively upward.

Zuccotti Park, on the other hand — who'd even heard of it before? In fact, it's the Occupy Wall Street protesters who've made it famous, and if it's a tourist attraction, it's because of the OWS branding. And yet New York City parks are not mostly about attracting tourists. The people who live and work near a park are the ones with the most interest in access.

And now that the protesters have lawyered up and gone to court in an attempt to nail down legal rights to occupy the space, it changes the character of the interaction with the mayor, and it's quite understandable that he would take a hardcore stance in response.

ADDED: The description of the battle against the police is tucked further down in the linked NYT article. Snippets:

The protesters rallied around an area known as the kitchen, near the middle of the park, and began putting up makeshift barricades with tables and pieces of scrap wood....

[As the police entered the park], dozens of protesters linked arms and shouted “No retreat, no surrender,” “This is our home” and “Barricade!”

It's turning into "Les Miserables"... Now we pledge ourselves to hold this barricade/Let them come in their legions/And they will be met/Have faith in yourselves/And don't be afraid/Let's give 'em a screwing/That they'll never forget!

ADDED: A reader emails:

I just finished playing a high school production of Les Miserables... and I was informed that the director of the musical (an alumnus of the high school) had specifically used Zuccotti Park and the OWS movement as a rallying point for the show. He was basically telling the kids that the OWS struggle, and the struggle leading up to the June Uprising, were one and the same.

"Will.i.am said his attempt to tweet during the performance was thwarted after he discovered his cell phone had no service."

"His Twitter handle was silent until after the game, when he sent out a series of tweets beginning with: 'Att crashed ... ahhhh!!!! The worse.'"

Blame AT&T. AT&T is to blame for everything. Why not blame AT&T for how bad the Black Eyed Peas were?

The choice of the Black Eyed Peas was intended to bring some youthful vigor back to the halftime show after the NFL — feeling burned by the infamous "wardrobe malfunction" of Janet Jackson with the aid of Justin Timberlake in 2004 — chose a string of safe, near-geriatric icons for the halftime for the next six years, ending on a low note with a much-maligned concert by The Who last year.

You did "Sweet Child O' Mine" and near-geriatric icon Slash appeared. Then you did "(I've Had) The Time of My Life." Did near-geriatric icon Jennifer Grey back out at the last moment?

"With Paterson, the Simple Facts Can Get Complicated."

Okay, who wrote that NYT headline? I read it, and my brain plays (the greatest single of all time) The Who's "Substitute":

But I'm a substitute for another guy
I look pretty tall but my heels are high
The simple things you see are all complicated...

But they couldn't write "With Paterson, the simple things you see are all complicated"... because Governor Paterson is blind.

"This. is. the. best. thing. in. the. known. universe! Excuse me while I roll around on the floor as if I were Ann-Margret and this post were baked beans."

Ha.

And:

How do we feel about The Who at the Super Bowl?

This is a music act from 40+ years ago. Imagine if in the first Super Bowl, in 1967, the half-time show featured musicians who peaked in 1927. No. It's not imaginable. The strange dominance of My Generation is unfathomable. I hope I die before I get old. Ah ha ha ha. That was just something we said to throw everyone — even ourselves — off the track. We meant to take our stand and dominate as long as we possibly could.

Smile and grin at the change all around... pick up my guitar and play... just like yesterday....

How terribly, terribly strange. I've loved The Who since I first heard "I Can't Explain" on the radio. I was 14. Loved them so much I joined their fan club before their first album was even released in the United States. I'll always love the 60s Who. Even though I got tired of what they were in the 70s, I'm happy to see them still playing now. Pete Townshend is 65. It's cool that he can rotate his arm all around like that, let alone actually pick up his guitar and play. Just like yesterday. The Who, now a duet, takes the gigantic stage.

Ah! I'm getting old. Why don't we all fade away?

IN THE COMMENTS: TheGiantPeach said:

Actually, in 1967, if they had hit on the concept of half-time entertainment that went beyond marching bands, they could very well have featured Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, who were popular 40 years earlier.

In fact, two of the early Super Bowls to feature performers were tributes to Armstrong and Ellington in the year after their deaths. 

"I don't care about pollution/I'm an air-conditioned gypsy..."

"That's my solution/Watch the police and the taxman miss me!"

Politically incorrect lyrics from 1971.

"Pop," the Swedish 2-year-old whose sex its parents keep a secret.

"The child — called Pop in Swedish papers to protect his or her identity — is now two-and-a-half-years-old, and only a handful of close relatives (those who have changed the child’s diaper) know the sex. Pop’s parents, who are both 24, say they made this decision in the hope of freeing their child from the artificial construct of gender. 'We want Pop to grow up more freely and avoid being forced into a specific gender mould from the outset,' Pop’s mother told the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet last spring. 'It’s cruel to bring a child into the world with a blue or pink stamp on their forehead.'"

Oh, but is it cruel to act out your ideological opinions on the tender life of a child?

Let's play some music:

"Happy Jack."

I'm listening to "Happy Jack" this morning, mainly because I was just listening to The Beach Boys' "You're So Good to Me" and the "la la la la" in "Good" reminded me of the "la la la la/lap lap lap lap" in "Jack." Then, I realized I'd never been able to hear the lyrics properly in "Happy Jack" and this was my big opportunity to check the lyrics on line. Here. But are those the right words? I always thought Happy Jack was a dog, and I never heard anything about a donkey.

Now, quick! Eat all the strawberry shortcake before the cops come!

Are the kids alright?

more music charts

(Via Erik J. Heels.)

(Bonus link.)

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

We were just talking about change. Change in general, change in Obamology, and change in Sitemeter. And as I'm slowing getting caught up in reading the comments that collected when I was enjoying a change in scenery -- traveling to South Carolina for a wedding -- I ran across Joe's comment on that "America wants change" post. He was quoting those famous lyrics:

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes....
Don't want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can't trace time

So I wanted to watch the video:



This got me thinking about songs with stuttering. I'd like to see a big list. Here's one. But I want more. And I'd like to know who started it. I always think of "My Generation," but there must be a lot of other earlier songs that filled out the beats with the nice idea of just stuttering. There's "Barbara Ann," originally done by The Regents (in 1961) and famously covered by The Beach Boys, The Who, and John McCain.

But "Barbara Ann" is kind of a late Doo Wop song. Doo Wop was full of nonsense syllables, and some of those old Doo Wo songs must use the syllables from the non-nonsense words and thus be the precursors of the very memorable stuttering songs like "My Generation," "Changes," "Benny and the Jets," etc., etc.

And even before Doo Wop, there must have been some old novelty songs with stuttering. Ah! I thought of it!



There now, I've got us back to 1917. Can you find anything earlier?

***

Extras:

1. Here's a list of famous people who stutter (or stuttered)... including Joe Biden, whose strange smiling is connected to his efforts to overcome stuttering:

Biden’s most notorious feature is his mouth. But in his youth, he had a stutter. As a freshman in high school he was exempted from public speaking because of his disability, and was ridiculed by teachers and peers. His nickname was Dash, because of his inability to finish a sentence.

He developed an odd smile as a way to relax his facial muscles (it still shows up while he’s speaking today) and he’s spent his adulthood making up for any comments that may have gone unmade during his youth.

2. Here's a great episode of "This American Life":

Kevin Murphy is a college student in Idaho who stutters. Using the power of radio editing, he and the production staff of This American Life removed his pauses, stutters and repeats so that he could record a message in which he doesn't stutter at all. This allowed him to tape a message about something that's been bothering him, to send to one man ... a pizza guy, in Idaho.

3. Mel Blanc as Porky Pig sang "K-k-k Katy." It's so apt for the famous cartoon stutterer to sing the original (?) stuttering song. I could find video of that but I did find this: