As a Single LP 1: George Harrison, All Things Must Pass

Artist: George Harrison

Album: All Things Must Pass

Released: November 27, 1970

Length: 2 hours, 5 minutes

Vinyl Discs: 3

Might as well start with a doozy, right? 2 hours. 3 LP's. Whew.

Backstory: George, known as the quiet Beatle, or if you watched the Get Back documentary, the super whiny one that Paul pushed around, had a treasure trove full of tunes by the time the Beatles busted up in the year of our tiny dictator’s birth (Anno Dictato 1970). 

And… he put them all . . . all . . . all on this record! All of them! Include some Sides E and F sludge. Man. 

George was in a truly spiritual frame of mind in the late 60’s. He was hanging with Norah Jones’ dad and meditating and taking some acid and most relevantly, incorporating a sitar and other Indian classical instruments into rock and roll. It wasn't just the sound of it, though. He was imbued with religion and Hare Krishna and peace on earth. 

The lyrics of All Things Must Pass are mostly about: God, loving God, praying, and really loving God. You hear a song and start to think it’s an ode to a gal, and ah yeah, it’s instead a paean to a god. Which is obviously perfectly fine. There just isn’t a ton of complex lyrical content. All Things Must Pass is really about one thing. Dear lord. 

When you’re a Beatle (you’re a Beatle all the way?), you have lots of things:

Talent. 

Money. 

Fame. 

Wives.

Gold records.

Access to famous recording studios and producers.

But also really gifted friends. Ones who will oblige you and play on your records. This album is star-studded, to include:

• his future wife-swipin' buddy Eric Clapton
• 5th Beatle Billy Preston
• 4th Beatle Ringo Starr
• Gary Wright ("Dream Weaver," "Love Is Alive")
• Klaus Voormann, German bassman extraordinaire
• Jim Gordon, stud drummer til he lost his fucking shit
• Peter Frampton, age 20
• Pete Drake, pedal steel (played on "Lay Lady Lay," "Stand By Your Man" so many more)
• Badfinger dudes
• Bobby Keys, super sax man on Exile and 100 others

Hell, it goes on, see here -- to the point where Dave Mason said he doesn't know what tracks he's on because "there were so many people in the studio." So they all got together in London town and pumped out a plethora of rock music. 

My story: I never really listened to this album before this year. Everyone knows “My Sweet Lord,” and a few of you know about the landmark lawsuit that the Chiffons’ levied at George for ripping off their hit “He’s So Fine.” Score 1 for ABKCO, later seen destroying The Verve.

Other tracks you know from this solo debut include the title track and especially the stellar “What Is Life" -- my favorite all-time George-solo tune and one immortalized in Goodfellas.

   

I am mostly a post-Beatles fan of Paul and Wings, even with some of his slight fare and silly love songs (actually love that one).  Over the last couple of years, I have honed in on Lennon's work before and after his "Long Weekend" and Hollywood Vampires stint and A Toot and a Snore in '74 sagas -- a chapter of Whitneypedia worth mining another time. 

And Ringo is just Ringo, god bless 'im. You can hear everything worthy he's done since 1970 in 14 good minutes. ("Photograph" is outstanding, albeit footnoted with Harrison's co-write.)

George? I never gave him the time. Even though his name is G(h)eorg(h)e.  I know.

Until this project. And I'm glad I dug in. Here we go, with a newly re-arranged and massively truncated album that rivals any Après-Beatle offering. 

George Harrison, All Things Must Pass as a Single LP

Side A (22:12)

1. What Is Life 

This song just seems like a killer album opener to me. And so it is now. 

2. I Live for You

I follow it up with… an outtake? Yep, good shit. Pete Drake pedal steel. Get some. 

3. My Sweet Lord

At #3, we go with the big hit. Hare Hare Krishna Krishna, the thing about the Lord, he’s so fine. 

4. Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)

My favorite discovery on this little journey! Frank Crisp, a “microscopist,” and the original owner of Harrison’s London home. Now that is lyrical fun! Love this tune. Let it roll, indeed. 

5. Run of the Mill

Now this one really deviates from the peace and love! A nifty little tune with some brass, it sounds pretty Beatles-y. Maybe because it was written when the Fab Four were breaking up; it’s a major slap squarely at Paul. Love it. You go, George. 

6. Awaiting on You All

Okay, let’s hustle back to the pew. A rocking little number. Lyrics remind me of our pal Hightower’s ex-gal Allison, who’d joined a cult and shaved her head in the late 1990’s. He went to see her and was catching up, and he told her he was a schoolteacher. She replied curtly, “Okay, but wouldn’t it be better if you were teaching people to chant to God?” 

Side B (20:19)

1. Isn't It a Pity (Version 1)

A lovely song. A long song. A Phil Spector-long song. It’s 7:11. You know, like they were recording so long, so late at night, they had to go get Twinkies and burritos and Cokes and then made the song that runtime. Ringo, Billy Preston, Gary Wright. Version 2 is shorter and has Clapton. Eh, I like this one.

2. If Not for You 

A cover of a Dylan tune. Is it a cover if it’s by your friend and he only released it one month prior? I don’t know. I like George’s version way better. A toe tapper, and his slide sounds great. Listen for a young Peter Frampton on acoustic guitar. (If you can.) 

3. Hear Me Lord

Really enjoy this one. This is a beautiful spiritual with killer keys (piano, keyboard, and amazing organ) and some electric licks from E.C. A great cut. 

4. All Things Must Pass

Closing it out with the title track. I wish I loved this song more than I do, but it’s integral to the album and a good message for today.

Wow. What a tight little banger. Wait, what? Seriously, though, it's too bad Sir Martin, a gheorghe in his own right, didn't stop by Abbey Road Studios in the summer of '70 and hack away at the scraps to make this sharp piece of British steel. 42 minutes and 31 seconds lean. 

Listen away until the next time. Let it roll.

New Recurring Feature: Les Coole's As a Single LP Series

Bloated. Self-indulgent. Lacking self-control and self-awareness. A massive ego trip. 

These are labels often used to describe (a) me, (b) my blog posts, and, most pertinently, (c) double and triple albums throughout rock'n'roll history. Yes, for decades, 99.9% of original release pop and rock LP records were single vinyl discs to be played at 33⅓ rpm, and they usually held 20 to 22, no more than 23 minutes a side. Along the way, though, there were occasional, more robust submissions of multiple discs – those in the .1% – with varying success. 

[Of Note: compilation and live albums are exempted for obvious reasons. They can and should go long. Doy.] 

The Double Album. What a statement. Our work cannot be contained within a single disc! We have more! You need more! The push-back from fans and critics often would become a personal statement about the artist(s), like “The audacity that you wouldn’t pare this down to the standard listening length! Where is your sense of rock album decorum?” 

And let’s face it, sometimes that backlash is warranted. Sometimes recording artists need someone tastefully judicious like George Martin or Rick Rubin sitting there going, “ Nope… nope… nope…” and x-ing out the tracks that clutter up what could be a svelte, sleek piece of musical brilliance. 

The artists need that, but they don’t always get that. You have people like Billy Corgan musing, “We had one solid record and one hit record… let’s go massive double album, baby!” And while I’m sure someone at Pumpkinland (actual studio name) at that time must have told him he shouldn’t, nobody told him he couldn’t. 2 hours and 1 minute of Pumpkins. Phew. 

Then, sometimes you’re The Clash, who boldly released the punk rock Hall of Fame double album London Calling (1 hr 5 mins) in 1979 to incredible fanfare! Success against the odds! And then, validated, just threw the kitchen sink onto tape onto their triple album Sandinista! a year later and didn’t hold back (2 hrs 24 mins). Wowsers. 

For all of that, there are instances when the scope creep does work. In addition to the aforementioned magnum opus from The Only Band That Matters, London Calling, the Stones’ high-water mark to a vast number of fans and critics is Exile on Main Street (1 hr 7 mins). Others are out there. Tommy. The Wall. Songs in the Key of Life. 

Goodbye Vinyl Brick Road 

When vinyl fully gave way to cassette along the way in the 1980’s, the double album became less of a big deal. For one thing, it happened less frequently – there was no decade in music as senselessly sprawling, as dilated and diluted with decadence as the 1970’s. Punk rock at its inceptive core was at least in part an angry reaction to 10-minute epic raga saga songs on double albums belted out in flairs and heels with feathered butt cuts. Punk begat new wave, and the 1980’s were a go. (“It's called the 80's, and it's gonna be around forever!”) 

Brevity was suddenly the wit of soul, rock, pop, and other genres in the 80’s. [Except for reggae. And “Purple Rain.” And “Rock Me Amadeus (Salieri Version).”]

Also, cassettes could handle the load on one unit! For the most part, cassette tapes could run up to 45 minutes a side, so even The Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime and its whopping 43 songs was a single tape! (They’re short songs… 1 hr 14 mins.) But wow! 

[Oh, but not Sandinista. That’s two tapes, buddy. Talk about extravagant, boyo.] 

In this cool new medium, runtimes on tapes could elevate beyond the previously established ceilings and nobody really knew or cared. In fact, with the advent of dual cassette stereos and boomboxes, you could have a Maxell (way better than Memorex) 90-minuter with Murmur on one side and Reckoning on the other! And I did! 

Those were great days. Oh, minus the underreported impact from the loss of amazing album art, as liner notes and gatefold album covers were basically eradicated. Also crappy was the inevitable snapping of the tape and the resplicing with scotch tape and a pencil. And the eventual faded warble that cassettes’ sonic brilliance became with overuse. But hey, no scratches like on records! Glad that scratches are gone for good! Oh. Wait for it… 

All Music Media Things Must Pass 

Ah, yes. Then came CD’s. Mind-blowing for the audiophiles. 

Compact discs in the late 80’s and early 90’s were another sea change for squeezing albums onto media. Roughly 74 to 80 minutes on music, so a number of the “double albums” in the original issuance became 2-CD sets. (A little better for album art; still not the same.) 

ooh, the original master recording

Multi-disc releases were boxed and organized a number of different ways, from the big fat double jewel case (could handle 3 or 4 discs but usually just a deuce) to cardboard experimentation to just 4 CD cases that get strewn about in your collection and lost. 

Lose Your Illusion 

So I give short shrift to double albums on CD. Even moreso for streaming. By a looong shot. Doesn’t matter any more. Feels like progress, eh? It’s not. Hell, albums of any kind are secondary items. All the world’s a jukebox and we are merely players of that jukebox now. Only Mr. KQ and a few others spend quiet time with an album and its art. Kudos to that. 

And the seemingly arbitrary time limits of yesteryear? Well, they protected us from overlong kitchen-sink stuff. Hey folk, here’s the demo of the 1st-take acoustic (with oboe) instrumental version of “Layla.” And then Takes 2 and 3 of that. Sweet. 

You know what’s better? Concise? Taut? Crisp? Powerful? Sharp? 

23 minutes on Side A. 

23 minutes on Side B. 

Flip it. Flip it again, if it’s really good shit. 

So… the current malaise has to be remedied. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Marls? I have a greater responsibility to our collective gheorghian music entertainment than you can possibly fathom. 

As such, without anyone asking for it, this is an exercise I have performed for you, albeit one that’s been done – not to death, but ad nauseum in certain music forum spaces on the world wide web. And everyone out there has different opinions, as it damn well should be. So therefore I cannot offer a definitive take on it . . . except that I’ve been hanging with Dave for 37 years so far and so, therefore, this is indeed truly definitive! 

I offer you a premier look at: 

Les Coole’s The “As a Single LP” Project 

:wherein I take double and triple albums of the rock and roll canon and give you a pared-down, svelte, bad-assed rendering of what these records would be like on a single vinyl platter. As in, a Side A and a Side B.  Wander down the road with me if you will. 

Stay tuned. Like right away, the first edition is set to pop, accompanying this post 1-2 like . . . like it's a . . . yep.  A double album. 

Serenading Shlara for Her Birthday

The happiest of birthday wishes to beloved gheorghie Shlara! 

And since no birthday is complete without singing, here you go. This post is a coupling of a bday wish and the annual posting of Les Coole's 20 from... series. 

These are 20 songs released in 23 that tickled my fanny, or something like that. Enjoy, for those equipped with Spotify.

Summer's Over, But We Don't Care

Running over some old ground here, but with a ridiculous addition.

Les Coole and the Cukes have been quiet lately, but the side project The Adliberators -- well, now... we've been pretty quiet, too. We have two official singles to our name, with two more in development. 

But with audio giving way to video since 1979, that's the trend we're finally catching up with in 2023!

As we preface it:

Some of you have had the unique pleasure of meeting our old acquaintance Baja Benny, and many more of you have simply seen him roaming around the shores of Sandbridge and the North End of Virginia Beach - or any beach near you, possibly. Good ol’ Benny. His career pathway has had many twists and turns… surfer, scientist, entrepreneur, artist, musician, bartender, barfly, beachcomber, burnout, sage, historian, legend. 

The Adliberators caught up with him recently to profile him in our first music video. Just a day in the life of Baja Benny. Take a peek. And the next time you’re paying for beach parking and see that familiar face, throw him a smile. 

And maybe a cold one.

Summer's Here! Right in time for autumn. Enjoy the ridiculousness...

Way More Cool

Gheorghe: The Blog is a big fan of NPR's Tiny Desk series, based on the number of embedded clips from the various performances in our annals. 

Check out this one below -- it features New Orleans rapper Juvenile with some quality guests. The performance is boisterous, officially described by NPR as "one of the most rambunctious experiences at the Tiny Desk." 

You may recognize G:TB fave Trombone Shorty in the clip. You may also recognize recently gheorghed artist Jon Batiste. 

You probably don't recognize the cellist who enters at the 19:00 mark to add some strings to the funky beats, alongside a violinist colleague at the Louisiana Philharmonic. 

But you should.

At least in name only. Check him out. Jake Fowler. Cellist extraordinaire.

And Cuke!

Back in April, Les Coole and the Cukes dropped "Remember (10-9-8-7)," a song that prominently featured Jake on cello. He's a fantastic cellist and a good beer drinker.

So I'm one step removed from Trombone Shorty!

Enjoy. 

New In-House Music: Friends and Neighbors

Howdy, friends and neighbors.

The latest offering from one of the handful of house bands here at Gheorghe: The Blog and Music Source has hit the streets.

Now that I mention it, who's on the roster of those rostered G:TB&MS bands?

• Random Idiots
• Rootstone
• Greasetruck
• Almighty Yojo? Was that a musical act?
• Les Coole and the Cukes

Who else?

There are likely other acts and offshoots I've forgotten or never heard. Please pipe up if you've been omitted (Z as in Zamfir, Timmy and the Tubesteaks, etc.).

Anyway, here's the freshest scoop to keep you in the loop. The dopest track from the old New Jack. (A certain Weenie used to call me New Jack Lester.) 

It's . . . well, it's new. That's good enough.

Here's an up-close work at the artwork, replete with a photo take in Igor's 2 weeks ago,

And here's the track. Anyone with video-making skills (or with a youngster whose skills invariably put ours to shame), I'd love to craft something visual so that these YouTubes aren't so dull.

Cheers, friends and neighbors.

The Fall of a Sparrow

Some quick filler for you... here's something to listen to on these sunny spring days. Or when you're commuting to work, for those of you that still do. 

My old friend Ned is a musician whose work I've shared with you before. He's a nicest guy ever and knows his way around a whole lot of instruments. Here's the Spotify link to his work. 

A number of years ago, he composed and recorded a song that he brought to our 20-year high school reunion. Much loved by the gathered crowds, it remained in that time's medium (compact disc) until he recently re-recorded and released it on all the streaming sites. It's just called 20, and here it goes...

(listen closely to Verse 2 for a gheorghie namechecking)

Since you asked, yes, Les Coole and the Cukes indeed have a recent release. This came out in March, a vague recounting of a concert my high school chums and I took in at William and Mary Hall in '87. Athens band. Enjoy, if you can. 

At least enjoy Symphony member and friend Jake Fowler on cello. And chuckling at the end. 

And finally, it's been shoved down your throat before, but Garden State Dave's podcast is soaring. Get on board now.

If you wonder what Dave's podcast name refers to, go no further than what is arguably Shakespeare's most famous play. 

Horatio
If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their repair hither and say you are not fit.
Hamlet
Not a whit, we defy augury. There's special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all. Since no man knows aught of what he leaves, what is't to leave betimes?

Not a whit indeed! I certainly couldn't do a podcast like this.

Cheers...

Not Just Another Tuesday

Happy Mardi Gras!

Carnival, as it's known down in the Crescent City, is in full swing. This wasn't so just two short years ago, when the city pretty much closed down for Fat Tuesday. That year my good friend Ned (a NOLA local for 30 years) and I scratched out a song that he recorded and set to a video. (And I posted here.)

24 months and a lot of healing later, rather than repost that, I'm selfishly posting the version with our high school chum Matt on bass and me on vocals. (With Ned still chiming in here and there.)

Hope you and your krewe are all happy, healthy, and far better off than you were in 2021.

The Twelve Days of Gheorghemas: Day Twelve

On the 12th Day of Gheorghemas, Big Gheorghe Gave to Me:

12 More Appreciations
11 Months of Gheorgheness
10 (or more) LIV TOUR Factoids
Nine (semi) Bold Predictions for 2023
Eight People and Places In My Neighborhood
Seven books for reading (and one for burning)
Six splurges for Christmas
Five Good News Stories, courtesy of Shlara
Soon to be Four on the Floor
Three Habits Forming
Two beers with Marcus Aerelius, an OBX Dave Joint, and
Two(?) dudes bested by Kazansky

Well, hello, everyone, and welcome to another tardy installment of Day 12 of Gheorghemas. Recently I wondered quietly to myself, “Why does it take so long to compose/post (combined as 'compost') Day Twelves??”

I mean, come on!

2008	12/31/2008
2009	12/31/2009
2010	12/31/2010
2011	12/30/2011
2012	12/31/2012
2013	3/25/2014
2014	1/27/2015
2015	?
2016	??
2017	???
2018	12/31/2018
2019	1/6/2020
2020	12/31/2020
2021	2/22/2022
2022	1/31/2023

Wait a minute… there’s no way I missed 3 years running! Is there? There's not. Get the G:TB interns on this.

Anyway, it’s really simple. 12 things of anything is a whole lot! I can barely name 12 songs I like by Cat Power (I can, though), much less wax philosophically grateful for 12 new things each and every Gheorghemas. It’s exhausting. Day 2 and Day 3 writers, you can buzz off.

Okay, enough whining. It’s the end of January, so here’s the end of Gmas. Hope you’ve all been gheorghey for gheorgheness’ sake.

12 (new and different) Appreciations

Music Writing and Those Who Kick Ass At It

I’m far from the most avid reader among the gheorgherati. In fact, I’d wager a library card that when it comes to... those bound things… ah yes, books, you folks call them… I’m the least well-read of any of us. Like my father, I’m drawn to more compact entries, i.e., periodicals. Newspapers, magazines, and new formats like “blogs,” as the kids say. ADD a-blazin’, this works best.

And music writing – ah, yes, this soothes my soul. Historically, this means names like Dave Marsh, Rob Sheffield, Jon Landau, Robert Christgau, Ann Powers, Will Hermes, and yes, of course, Lester Bangs. Chuck Klosterman when he swerves into the lane. Oh, and William Miller.

In terms of those who came along with the ascension of online music journalism, Stephen Thomas Erlewine reviewed a thousand albums I enjoy on AllMusic.com, and I probably check in with his recs on a more-than-weekly basis. Seriously… more than I check in with my mom. What a creep son I am.

Steven Hyden is my current go-to. Discovered him on Grantland, followed him when it disintegrated. He’s at Uproxx now and runs a segment called “indie mixtape.” Way worthy. He also writes them “book” things, and I just bought his Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation for the missus. His Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me. What Pop Music Rivalries Reveal About the Meaning of Life from 2016 is an assemblage of well-crafted morsels on bands I love… and don’t. Humble, clever, relatable.

Which brings us to my newest discovery. Elizabeth Nelson. Oh, my. I found her in a New Yorker article about… well, her. She’s spent some time in the area that became known as the DMV after I left. She fronts a punk/garage rock band called The Paranoid Style with her husband. And she writes. Writes… is not a strong enough word, to profane John Candy’s lovely sentiment in PT&A. She captures perfectly. She’s virtuosic.

She does so in 140 characters, as above, which is pretty much my sole reason for staying on Twitter now. (Oh, and for you, Teej. And Mike Mills, Isbell, Cleese, Flea, Danny Rosin, and the Muppets.) When she stretches her music-writing muscles into into longer-form work, like this Warren Zevon piece or this Lowell Gheorghe piece in the Oxford American, Ms. Nelson is even more remarkable. Her sonic loves seem to mirror my own, which helps, but that also means when she focuses on stuff I don’t know, I’m cannonballing into the deep end on whoever that is. 

I’ll confess to reading some music writers with a big byline and sometimes feeling what I guess I'd characterize as sour grapes envy. Not the case with Elizabeth Nelson. All I feel is a sense that I can't do that like she does, and I'm just glad to have come across her. I look forward to what comes next, since I’ll learn and love more music. Anyway, check her stuff out, both written and sung.

The artwork behind her is utterly congruent

Standup and Be Counted

Let’s follow up an extended blather with a ‘nuff said. With every passing year, I love standup comedy more. I’ll dig into this in a future post with more examples, but I’ve recently seen some great acts in person. I’ve attended WandM’s own Patton Oswalt live a few times now. Always brilliant. We saw Jim Gaffigan two weeks ago. Yeah, not edgy, but really funny. We have tickets to Nate Bargatze in a few months here. This bit (better in full) tickles me.

I’ve always been tempted to give it a try at an open mic. We shall see. One of our favorite local bartenders is all over the regional standup scene. Someday…

Two Great Tastes That Go Great Together

You folks know I love Wilco. (New album out last year was aces.) I also love standup comedy. You know that because you can read and don’t have what HM had. I really enjoy Nikki Glaser's work. Her bit on a "hastily packed suitcase" is exquisite. Getting peanut butter onto the chocolate...

Check it out.  Love it. 

Cool Stories ‘Twixt Parents and Children

This is so good. My kids… they need to up their game.

 A teen found his dad’s unreleased song from the '70s and put it on TikTok. And now it’s going viral.

I’m Not Kidding About This

Bring it back! Now!

Home Technology: Music

My not-quite-prolific recording efforts took a hiatus when Les Coole Studios moved this summer (along with everything else I own). In addition to Random Idiots’ ode to Johnny G, I did release this number, which began as a guitar track that Doug, a fraternity brother and art professor who lives outside Detroit, sent me unsolicited. That kind of interaction makes me super happy.

Do any among you do short videos? That’s the next phase of Les Coole & The Cukes. Either that or retirement.

Home Technology: Podcasts

I listen to exactly one (1) podcast with any regularity. We Defy Augury. I’m the last guy (besides Marls) to feed Dave’s ego, but it’s truly great. To me, the best aspect of what might otherwise be a simple review of literary works is the segueing Dave employs to (a) other works, (b) his recent life activities, in a humorous way, and (c) life and how to live it, to borrow from R.E.M.  There are perspectives that Dave offers that expand well beyond the limitations of the bodies of work he’s discussing, and frankly, a demonstration of depth that I didn’t know Dave had. I have comments that strike me during each episode, and sometimes I register them at SoD, but it’d be better if we congregated around the water cooler at EB High’s teacher’s lounge.

 

If 27 episodes seem overwhelming, get your feet wet on these (my favorite faves starred):

• Geoff Dyer… Beginnings, Endings, and Indecision
• Colson Whitehead… Location, Location, Location
• Ghettoside vs. Murderbot
• City on Fire… with Mob Tropes
• Revising Our Notions About Pirates*
• Playing the Tomorrow Game
• Apocalypse New*
• Southbound with S.A. Cosby
• Adrift in the Digital Doldrums*
• Charismatic Megafauna
• Stars, Caves, and Everything In Between

Some are gross (Dr. Moreau, All the Not So Pretty Horses), some are on subjects lost to me (the sci-fi stuff), but it’s all shockingly compelling.

Dave, keep cranking.

Juvenilia Forever

I like a little bit of anarchy. And I love juvenilia. Old as I am now, this moronic crap still gets a chuckle out of me. I expect that won’t change. So dumb.

The Air Force has confirmed that a KC-135 aerial tanker flying over the Middle East on Friday broadcast an “inappropriate” call sign, Lt. Col. Michael Hertzog, a spokesman for U.S. Air Forces Central Command, told Task & Purpose on Sunday.

Hertzog did not say what this call sign was, but the KC-135 had been identified as “Titties” on Flight Radar 24, a flight tracking service.

Dreams I’ll Never See

Dave hates when people talk about dreams. He mentions this in the podcast. And I get it, but sometimes I have dreams with people who aren’t here any more, in either cameos or starring roles. And it’s equal parts awesome and depressing, in that order. But I prefer to look at it as a visit. Just makes me happier. I sent this to a few of our late, great buddy Flynn’s friends recently.

So Flynn made a cameo in a dream of mine last night. Always makes me happy, hasn’t happened in quite a while. 

We were in a station wagon, presumably headed to play softball or something. Tins was driving, I was in the middle seats, Flynn was lounging in the way back where the seats were down -- we big guys like to keep spaced apart, you know. Flynn somehow found a handle of Fireball back there, and we passed it around, taking slugs of it and cracking jokes, cruising down the road. 

Just wanted to let you guys know, seems like he’s doing just fine.

Six Nations… Part Two (Three)

Yep… we’re heading to Edinburgh to watch some rugby. A la Dublin 2019. And my trip to Cardiff in 2000.

What could go wrong?

Finding What Was Lost

Did you ever have/make something pretty cool, and be careless about where you kept it, and then lose it? (Danny Boy?) What if you could get it back?

Over 20 years ago, Dave and I set out to write a screenplay. We wrote three. We even finished one while Dave was in Syria! One got reviewed by a Hollywood Studio.! (Our first try… and they passed.) We even made it through a couple of rounds of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck’s Project Greenlight contest! (Dave can tell you what happened. Maybe in a blogpost. It’s tragic and emotional.)

And then… uh, I don’t know. But along the way, we lost all our work. We moved a lot, and we are sloppy and disorganized and we weren’t any further along the road to stardom than the Random Idiots vehicle had shot us. And one of us got divorced twice and lost most of his shit. In every sense of it. It was all gone.

I don’t know how. I really don’t. But twice in the past year and a half our movie scripts have made their way back to us. One came from our buddy Kites Weaver, who had a copy of our rugby-themed one (Ruck and Maul) from our initial foray and had hung onto it. He made copies and sent them back. Very cool. Then I opened up a bin in my move last summer and there was our third screenplay sitting there. Let your stuff go. If it never comes back, it was never yours. If it does, hell yes.

Three Decades of What Could Have Lasted Four Days

The 30^th Annual Outer Banks Fishing Trip is this year. 30. That’s a lot of fishing. Very, very nearly.

I’m also grateful for being given a 10% stake of the cottage. And our old girl is getting fixed up soon, so I’m hopeful to be able to keep on keepin’ on down there for the duration. Worth the expen$e. Love the Martha Wood Cottage like no other.

Gheorghe: The Blog

This blog is just so damn much fun to me. And we have some milestones in 2023 (Good Lord willing and the price to blog don’t rise). We are 50ish posts from hitting 5,000. Dang.  And this year’s G:TBDay is our 20 year mark. Dang again.

Keep it up, people. Makes us (me) happy.

Cue the Norman Dale. I love you guys.

Baker's Dozen Edition: Music Playlists!

Here's my 20 from 2022 retrospective of new music.

Tributes Are Pretty Great

A wild and crazy friend of mine who resides in the OBX is getting married again, against the advice of some of his pals. I'm not one of the cautionary cohorts, though, as (a) who the hell am I to coach another's marital pathway through life, and (b) he's not going to listen, so why create an unfillable chasm over which you'll later need to build a bridge? [Hmmm... I seem to be randomly drawing from some Sting lyrics there. Not sure what's going on.]

Anywho, our buddy the maniac (whom some of you OBFTers have met) has insisted that he'd like his bachelor party to take place in Colombia. When he tells people, they usually ask whether he means South Carolina or the Maryland town where Merriweather Post is. Nope, he means Pablo's Place. You know, Coloooooombia. Alrighty then.

Well, I'm sure I'm bowing out of any such trip there. While people say it's far more visitor-friendly than the images on the telly and the reputation it carved out for itself over a couple of decades, the country can be scary and dangerous. Just ask Taylor Hawkins, who died in Bogotá, Colombia in March.

Plus, if anything happened to me there, I doubt you guys would muster up 1,000 people to play a Les Coole or Random Idiots track like this for me!

But it'd be cool if you could get like 10 people to do it.

Not that I'm going.

Carry on.

Summer's Here!

It's sort of Les Coole and The Cukes, in that it's comprised of Les Coole and two high school chums who helped make the Cukes' tune The Coliseum.

We decided we will come up with a different band name for future issuances from this particular trio. Nothing exciting was coming to mind. When a particular track we'd created reminded one of us of Jane's Addiction and another of Grandmaster Flash, we went with Peripheral Flash. The name doesn't matter. The music does.

Because summer's here!!

Les Coole & The Cukes · Summer's Here June 19

Aloha! More Music! Les Coole!

You know what you were jonesing for? I do!

More Les Coole and the Cukes tunes!  Welp, the latest single is out.  And while I'd love to have a cue-in like the DJ at the 4-minute mark here:

I'll settle for my own "here ya go"... "Quitters"

What else is new out there among the gheorgherati?

FOGTB Lecky has an excellent new EP out called Pleasant Kingdom. It's an ear-opener. The guy who brought you this gem two years ago:

...now brings you this!

...and this:

School's nearly out, so expect some tunes from Dave/Almighty Yojo. His new EP The Shed should come out this summer. And then Live in the Shed, followed by Living in the Shed.

I've seen Rootsy's studio. It needs some action, dude.

Also, Marls Sings Bing should hit record shelves by 2022.

20's Musical Filler

Your GTB co-house band (proudly sharing the stage with Greasetruck and Rootstone) has another single hitting the airwaves this week.

Summer's almost here. Fishing Trip is 2 months away.

More coming soon -- full album release in the fall. Just for kicks, anyone know how to get homegrown music on vinyl?

Listen Up to What's Down with GTB

Gheorghe: The Musical Forum is a great place to experience the latest and greatest in new music, deep cut diamonds in the rough from yesteryear, and music to which we have personal ties. 

To wit...

The new:

Rev. Peyton's Big Damn Band... with washboard for Rootsy and a Tally Ho tour date coming up for Rob and Marls...

You heard about Wild Belle here 5 years ago. Check out Natalie Bergman solo...

Dusting off older tunes:

Love this REK tune... seems very pertinent these days...

Rewatched a bit of the Richard Pryor doc Omit the Logic recently, heard this song close it out... lovely...

Personal ties:

More from Les...

Finally, want to read something good? Read the Arcade Fire's Will Butler's honest reflection in The Atlantic on his hesitance to play live despite yearning to do so.

Les Coole and The Cukes: a Two-fer Tuesday

With recent homegrown, in-GTB music being posted from Dave and zdaughter, Les Coole gets a little FOMO. Last week, he and The Cukes released a pair of songs, one new and one 15 years old.

The new one: virtual music collaborations are in increasing supply during the pandemic. Technology enabled this creation like nothing else could have. Three good friends of mine from high school, one of whom lives in New Orleans, contributed tracks of guitar, drums, bass, Hammond B3 organ, and  background vocals.

30-some years ago, the four of us used to go see shows at nearby Hampton Coliseum, a 10k-14k capacity arena opened just more than a half-century ago. Fast fact: The venue held its first event on December 1, 1969, the College of William and Mary vs. North Carolina State University in a college basketball game. The Virginia Squires also played some of their home games there. 

A laundry list of music's top stars have performed there, including Elvis, Springsteen, U2 (I remember my friends camping out for tickets to the Joshua Tree show; I wasn't that cool), and the Stones, whose 1981 show was recorded and released as Still Life and in full form here. Mick got a few local grins when he followed the show's opener of "Under My Thumb" (a great version) with:

Hey, welcome, Virginia. Welcome, Hampton. And welcome to everyone watching it on TV. Hope you're having a good time there drinkin' a few beers, smokin' a few joints at home wit' you, allll right.

Dave and I saw The Cult in Hampton in 1990 or so. FOGTB Lecky reached down to grab a tambourine that singer Ian Astbury brilliantly threw into the crowd down in front. He came up with a couple of fingers barely attached. But it was a good show otherwise. 

For the Grateful Dead, Hampton Coliseum was a regular tour stop. 21 times, including two shows in 1989 appearing as The Warlocks owing to Hampton's weariness of "Shakedown Street," the traveling Deadhead bazaar and its lovably (to some) grubby, narcotic-bringing, trash-leaving inhabitants. I attended the first night of this stand, which was eventually given the box set treatment.

That group of friends saw more than our fair share of Dead shows there in high school, among many other offerings. Two Novembers ago, I went back to the Coliseum for Dead and Company show that brought back all the feels, including the neighborly pass-along ones.

Phish picked up where the Dead left off at Hampton Coliseum. "The mothership" was a mainstay, sometimes for a trio of shows at a time, and in 1999, the six-disc Hampton Comes Alive was released.  Other than that, the venue had been dormant in recent years, at least relative to its heyday in the 70's and 80's. Plenty of Disney Princesses on Ice and such. I did see a terrific Pearl Jam show a few years ago.

I used to travel past the Coliseum twice a night when grad school class was in person. One night a song idea struck me, and by the time I got home, most of the words were written, via voice to text. For months to come, I dabbled in Les Coole Studios on my third floor, sketching out a song structure thanks to the aforementioned NOLA-dwelling friend Ned. Tracks would be exchanged on Dropbox, and here's the result.

The Coliseum

The Coliseum / Lay in ruins
Wasn’t nothin' / Nothin' doin
So many Dead / So long ago
The sun had set / On the old live show
Around the bend / A moonlight drive
Lights are up / She comes alive

CHORUS
Recount the times we came to see ‘em
Playing in The Coliseum
History like a museum
Hear it at The Coliseum

Gladiators / They don’t fight
But sloshy moshers / They just might
No emperors / On golden thrones
But skeletons / They shake their bones
The ghosts they fly / The boss, the king
The edge, the stones / They let Phil sing

CHORUS

BRIDGE
Tonight in old Virginia / I’m the evening Squire
So run with me and can’t you see / the Scarlet in the Fire?

All the shows / And all the showmen
Ancient now / But we’re still roamin’
So pack a bag / And hop a train
Or hitch a ride / Back home again
50 points / Of colored light
The mothership / She flies tonight

CHORUS

Song 2: Just One More

15 years ago, Ned and I exchanged some song ideas about the end of the summer here at the beach. I wrote a whole lot of lyrics. Ned roughed out a scratch track for guitar with a drum track behind it. I found myself in the Crescent City for work, and I spent an afternoon in his home studio laying the vocals down. And left town.

Around the holidays, a CD appeared in many of our friends' mailboxes. Ned had fleshed out the recording with a couple of his friends adding bass and a whopped of a harmonica track. The Last Resort was the makeshift name of the band we'd had in high school, and that name was attached to this song, called "Just One More." Les Coole and The Cukes have absorbed it, and it gets a formal release 15 years after its creation.

483 words, including "panoply" in 2 minutes and 42 seconds. Yeah, it's a lot. I'm happy that we immortalized our old friend Bill, who died in October 2019 from the flu, which just had to be COVID. And happy that it gets a new light of day.

Enjoy... and keep making music.

2020 Music in Review

Here's some songs to fill the air for you this weekend. Les Coole has once again selected his favorite tunes from the prior year.  The usual Top 20, as well as an expanded Top 50.

Of note: a lot of bands of distant yesteryear (yestermillennium?) issued worthy releases in 2020.  Springsteen and my hometown band Waxing Poetics made the Top 20, but there are enjoyable tunes in the Top 50 by:

• The Boomtown Rats
• Wire
• X
• Midnight Oil
• Neil Young
• Paul Heaton (of Housemartins fame)
• The Psychedelic Furs
• Nada Surf

Oh, and Ian Dury's kid.  Check it all out.

(If Dave/Greasetruck were on Spotify, his song would be on the list. Sorry for the non-Spotify listeners, but you can at least see the lists and listen via your usual methods.)