I have nothing interesting, profound, or funny to say in the way of introductory comments, so let’s talk theme song.
Neil Finn wrote Distant Sun for Crowded House’s 1993 album Together Alone. It has become a staple of their live shows over the years hence the 2024 live version that follows the OG promo video.
If you were expecting another sun tune, you got it wrong. We’re going the distance this week:
There are so many puns I could make on that song title. I’m showing what passes for strength of character in the pun community by not punning and posting this sun song instead:
Another day, another Ella Fitzgerald tune. I guess it’s just:
Unlike Macca, I have never tugged on a ram’s ears and never will. In fact, I haven’t even met a Los Angeles Ram let alone a four-legged one.
This week, our second act is devoted to rock music.
Bad Blood: A Musical Feuds Reading List comes from the good people at Longreads. It’s a compilation of articles about some juicy feuds including Beatles vs Stones, Miles Davis vs Wynton Marsalis, and Gallagher vs Gallagher.
Bad Blood (Longreads’ Version): A Musical Feuds Reading List
We’ll let the recently reunited Gallagher brothers play us out of this segment:
Old Rockers Never Die, They Reboot: There’s a swell piece in the NYT by Ben Sisario about how rockers dealt with the changes in the music scene wrought by the advent of MTV. Sisario focuses on how Don Henley, ZZ Top, and Yes dealt with the changing times.
I dig this quote about the impact a monster hit single had on Yes:
“Owner of a Lonely Heart” hit No. 1, and “90125” went triple platinum, with a world tour that Anderson said was like a real-life version of “This Is Spinal Tap,” the classic mockumentary of rock-star inanity. “We were super-duper stars,” Anderson said, “and I never laughed as much in my life.”
He who laughs last, laughs best or some such shit.
The last word of our second act goes to Yes with the aforementioned monster hit.
We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.
Separated At Birth: I usually eschew overtly insulting SAB images but this one works on so many levels. It’s all in the eyes with Kash Patel and Charles Manson.
In a word: Scary.
Here’s the song that Dennis Wilson bought from Manson. It was originally called Cease To Exist.
This transformation so enraged the creepy cult leader that murder most foul eventually ensued.
Let’s move on to a more cheerful subject.
Your Weekly Oscar: Here’s a thematically relevant tune from OP.
Have I told you lately how much I love Oscar Peterson?
The Return Of The Movie List: When I wrote about The Big Combo recently, I neglected to say that the only thing I didn’t like about it was that Whit Bissell’s scenes were cut out of the final film. I don’t want to be haunted by the ghost of this fine character actor so I’m repeating this list from 2021:
My Top Ten Favorite Whit Bissell Movies
- Seven Days In May
- Brute Force
- The Magnificent Seven
- Hud
- Riot On Cell Block 11
- He Walked By Night
- The Sellout
- Soylent Green
- I Was A Teenage Werewolf
- Creature From The Black Lagoon
I have no wit and wisdom about Whit Bissell. I just like saying his name.
The Best Of Johnny: Steve Martin cracks me up. He had the same effect on Johnny Carson. The Santa bit comes near the end of the clip.
Saturday GIF Horse: Words of wisdom from my favorite character in a famous Christmas movie:
That’s the name of my next band. We’ll cover this Warren Zevon tune out of, well, sentiment:
Weird Christmas Ad Corner: Before Bad Santa, there was Smoking Santa.
The Junk Drawer: Silent movie comedy Gods Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin only worked together once. It happened in Chaplin’s 1952 movie Limelight. Hit it, guys:
Let’s close down this virtual honky tonk with some seasonal music.
Saturday Closer: I bummed everyone out with that first Beach Boys song. This video should put some pep in your step. Should that be peppermint since that’s a holiday flavor? Discuss amongst yourselves.
That’s all for this week. The last word goes to Whit Bissell in I Was A Teenage Frankenstein. Whit plays Professor Frankenstein.
🫶 I, too, love Whit Bissell. His full name was Whitner Nutting Bissell and that gives you an even better name to speak aloud! Bissell was such a solid working actor that he was in at least one episode of every TV show my family watched when I was a kid. My favorite movie he was in, although his part was small, is “The Hallelujah Trail.” My all-time favorite character actor, Noam Pitlik, was also in “Hallelujah” and several other things Bissell did if memory serves. In fact, Bissell was known in my family as “one of Cleora’s Noam Pitliks!” I prided myself in cherishing the names of the actors down lower in the lists (and Pitlik most of all) that the family took to pointing and asking “isn’t that one of your Noam Pitliks?” I would get haughty and say things like “yes, and the man’s name is Whit Bissell!” “Harumph!” 🤨🤣