God, man.  I never stop loving this dude.  Thing is, even when his songs are cheesy, and they often are, they are still amazing.  He is best performing live – he goes into the zone.  Here is one youtube of Wavelength. Oh Van.

The wailing sax. It wails like the long tail of a lion, flicking itself up arrogantly, swaying, slithering, and always with its own personality from the lion; the lion can’t do without the tail and the tail can’t do without the lion – so goes the relationship between Bruce Springsteen and his sax player, the great Clarence Clemons. Fans of Bruce know that it wasn’t just the way Clarence wailed on that thing, but the light and humor he brought to the stage. In the personality department, no one in the music industry at all can compare with Bruce. Bruce is Mick Jagger and Keith Richards combined. He is John Lennon and Paul McCartney. He is both the genius and the enigma, the saint and the sinner, the hurricane and the rain.

I recently had a conversation at a school fundraiser with an actor. He was talking about his early days wanting to be in a Rock n’ Roll band, being from New Jersey. At one point way back when he found himself in Asbury Park auditioning for a club. The opening act before he went on were nobodys. He didn’t know the name of the band but when they took to the stage, the wiry lead singer launched into a version of Proud Mary that stopped him in his tracks. Everyone in the room quieted to watch this righteous bolt of lightning sing a bluesy, raunchy version of a classic. Now, of course, everyone does Proud Mary like that. But then, it was something new. When the singer got off the stage everyone wanted to know his name. And of course, his name was Bruce Springsteen.

Some people are born that way.

But the E. Street band was a whole different thing. It wasn’t just Bruce Springsteen. Sure, he could have been successful – lord knows – without his band but with his band? He was a religion.

Much of that religion was due to Clarence Clemons, who died this week. Clarence, forever immortalized in Tenth Avenue Freezeout:

The best collaboration between them is probably most famously Jungleland off of Born to Run – but I prefer Darkness on the Edge of Town, mainly because Bruce plays the guitar on that one and plays it really well.

The E. Street band did a lot of touring in the past ten years, after breaking up and reuniting. I was glad I got to see them play throughout the past twenty years. But it isn’t until one of them dies that the impact can be detailed, outlined and understood. Clarence Clemons, it turns out, was so much a part of the E. Street experience the audience loved him and needed him as much as Bruce did. And so we say goodbye to the future of the whole fucking city.

Rest in peace, big man.

There are people out there who lend their voices to our collective. They are truth seekers and independent thinkers. They do not reside inside any box. Henry Rollins one of those: a punk rocker with Black Flag turned spoken word genius turned DJ turned philosopher. And playwright/newly minted conservative David Mamet is another.

This is the reason I love Henry Rollins. He wrote this song – which helped me through a terrible phase in my life:

And David Mamet, writer of Glengarry Glen Ross, has decided to “come out” as a conservative. While I think this shows less intelligence on his part, and perhaps a late-age fear of losing all of his money to taxes, you have to admire someone who is risking so much by speaking his mind.

Free thinking. Why not.

I made the above video so that I could put this song of his on YouTube. But I suspect it might get yanked fairly soon.

I first met Bob Dylan when I was in high school. 18 year old, or thereabouts. Pretty close to losing my virginity, if it hadn’t been lost already. What I knew about music was all wrapped up in the minds of my best friend and her brother. Mostly, I didn’t know much. I had listened passionately to Shaun Cassidy. I liked Billy Joel. Fleetwood Mac, sure, why not. I was introduced to Bruce Springsteen by my friend and it was love at first site. But my friend’s brother was a Dylan fan. I heard a song called Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight. The lyrics caught my attention immediately. They didn’t just catch my attention. They strolled up to me and took me, hook line and sinker. It was more than love. It was probably whatever I should have been focusing on religion. This was god to me. Who was this person? Who wrote this song?

The funny thing is, after thirty years of loving Bob Dylan it wasn’t even his most lauded work that drew me in – but a throwaway love song, a lesser work, probably one most people have never even heard of. But that was it. From then on, it was All Dylan All the Time. It has been a reliable, faithful relationship. I’ve had minor affairs with Van Morrison, Springsteen and Leonard Cohen. But my true devotion has always been to Mr. Dylan and always will be.

What do I love about Dylan? His nimble mind. His obtuse personality. His arrogance. His voice. His autistic’s ability to draw upon the language.

He’s been with me through most of my silly adventures in life. He’s been with me through college, all of them. Through men, all of them. Through jobs, apartments, cities, hair colors. My favorite thing that I own is a picture of Dylan that my best friend Clara gave me – a poster for a concert in Paris with Dylan “avec Van Morrison.”

For me, there is no preferred Dylan stage. I love him from the beginning of his career all the way up to now. He is still making great music, still contributing to society in a meaningful way. He has never stopped. Does it mean he’s been happy? Hard to say. He’s happy in so much as his work seems to make him happy. Am I happy? I don’t know.

The only thing I do know is that I don’t know how I would ever gotten through life without Dylan. Really and truly. I feel like I’m renewing my vows to the one man who has never let me down. I know that our relationship will last forever. It really will. ‘Til death do us part.

I tried to do a top twenty on Twitter. But the songs I didn’t include — I mean, I’m telling you, a Dylan album has represented different phases of my life, different relationships – but always he’s the muse, tugging it out of me, whatever there is to get.

I didn’t include songs like Jokerman, Trust Yourself, Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, Leopardskin Pillbox Hat, Serve Somebody, Mr. Tambourine Man, Blowing in the Wind, The Times They Are A-Changing – I mean, a lot of the really known ones I’ve listened to so many times they’ve lost much of their impact – but god, they’re great songs.

Here is my twitter list:

1. Like a Rolling Stone
2. Mississippi
3. Positively 4th Street
4. Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright
5. Masters of War
6. Baby Let Me Follow You Down
7. Love Minus Zero, No Limit
8. It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding
9. Idiot Wind
10. Highway 61 Revisited
11. I’ll Keep it With Mine
12. It Ain’t Me, Babe
13. Ballad of a Thin Man
14. Dignity
15. Brownsville Girl
16. A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall
17. Hurricane
18. Most of the Time
19. Sara
20. I Don’t Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)

I will continue the list now.

21. To Ramona
22. A Sweetheart Like You
23. Up to Me
24. Tangled Up in the Blue
25. Shelter from the Storm
26. Maggie’s Farm
27. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
28. The Man in the Long Black Coat
28. Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight
29. Shooting Star
30. Blowin’ in the Wind
31. Mr. Tambourine Man
32. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
33. I Want You
34. Visions of Johanna
35. Girl from the North Country
36. Boots of Spanish Leather

I mean seriously – every song of his would make my list for godssakes.

And Youtube tutorial. Here is how you can download youtube videos and turn them into songs…You get a video downloader extension for Firefox (or whatever browser you use). Then you get a converter. I use xilisoft Then you drop your downloaded video into the converter and it becomes an mp3. It’s not CD quality but for podcasting and such, works well. Piece o’ cake.

This song — this song.

Word has it that Jeff Buckley’s short, tragic but prolific life will now be a major motion picture! No one knows who will play the sweet-faced Buckley. But his is one of the best voices of our collective past.

Mama, you’ve been on my mind (Dylan cover):

But this remains my all-time favorite Buckley song:

I happened to be doing a random iTunes search to find a song that would compliment our podcast discussion (the weekly Oscar Poker podcast I do with Jeff Wells and Phil Contrino) and I just typed in “Woody Allen” to see what came up. I found this song. And then I found this band. Smoky, seductive, beachy, dreamy, sweetly played – you want to spend eternity listening to them. If life were only like this.

Girlfriend just has a way about her. She does find a way, though, doesn’t she.

The Colour of the Earth first:

And Let England Shake:

And an oldie but goodie – one of my favorites — Send His Love to Me:

Finally, another great one – Dry:

Another oldie — Rid of Me:

Oh okay, one more – this is very oldie but goodie — Sheela-na-gig: