Singer/songwriter Warren Zevon dies
From staff reports-USA Today

Warren Zevon, who struggled with terminal cancer while finishing his latest album, The Wind, died Sunday in his sleep at his home in West Hollywood, Calif., a spokesman said. Zevon was 56. He was the author of such wry tunes as Werewolves of London and I'll Sleep When I'm Dead.

His illness, diagnosed a year ago, resonated in the lyrics of his new album. He beseeched in the fragile Please Stay, "Will you stay with me to the end?"

Zevon succumbed to mesothelioma, a rare lung cancer usually linked to asbestos.

Housebound because of his illness, Zevon finished The Wind by recording his last session at his home. He lived long enough to see his daughter Ariel give birth to twin boys in June.



The Indifference of Heaven
written by Warren Zevon 1993 Zevon Music BMI

Time marches on
Time stands still
Time on my hands
Time to kill
Blood on my hands
And my hands in the till
Down at the 7-11
Gentle rain
Falls on me
All life folds back
Into the sea
We contemplate eternity
Beneath the vast indifference of heaven

The past seems realer than the present to me now
I've got memories to last me
When the sky is gray
The way it is today
I remember the times when I was happy

Same old sun
Same old moon
It's the same old story
Same old tune
They all say
Someday soon
My sins will all be forgiven
Gentle rain
Falls on me
All life folds back
Into the sea
We contemplate eternity
Beneath the vast indifference of heaven

They say "Everything's all right"
They say "Better days are near"
They tell us "These are the good times"
But they don't live around here
Billy and Christie don't--
Bruce and Patti don't--
They don't live around here

I had a girl
Now she's gone
She left town
Town burned down
Nothing left
But the sound
Of the front door closing forever

Gentle rain
Falls on me
All life folds back
Into the sea
We contemplate eternity
Beneath the vast indifference of heaven

Top 10 One-Hit Wonders (where did they go?? LOL)

10) Unbelievable – EMF
9) Boom Boom (Let's Go Back to My Room) -- Paul Lekakis
8) What Is Love – Haddaway
7) It's Raining Men -- The Weather Girls
6) I'm Too Sexy -- Right Said Fred
5) Pump Up The Volume – MARRS
4) Achy Breaky Heart - Billy Ray Cyrus
3) Rico Suave – Gerardo
2) Take On Me - A-Ha
1) Tainted Love - Soft Cell

Soft Cell are still going!! Well, Marc Almond is anyway. He still does the rounds :oD

Yeah but he ain't getting any big hits!! LOL

A-ha (the best act ever, next to Orville) also had a hit with, 'The Sun Never Shines on TV'.

I had loads of A-Ha posters when I was a kid, they weren't a one hit wonder!! The sun always shines on TV, Take on me....

(UK)chart (US)Chart

06 DEC 85 7 12 TAKE ON ME (2) (1)
07 MAR 86 8 11 THE SUN ALWAYS SHINES ON TV (1) (20)
18 APR 87 13 9 CRY WOLF (5) (-)
25 JUL 87 5 14 THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS from the James BOND film of the same title (5) (-)
11 JUN 88 4 16 STAY ON THESE ROADS (5) (-)
05 NOV 88 11 13 THE BLOOD THAT MOVES THE BODY (25) (-)

Well tehre you go, you're wrong!! ROFL!!! They weren't one hit wonders and they had the most gorgeous guitarist!! Ha ha ha!! you can keep Morten Harket (?sp) I want that guitarist!!! :oD

Technically Harley they only had one number 1 hit??

Take on me only got to number 2 in the UK! Although I take solice in the fact that in Ireland we can choose which chart to go by, European or US (very rarely the UK!! LOL)

Try E-bay.

Well... ok I'll let you off, but they came very close!! And they were around for quite a while... on my bedroom wall at least!! Ha ha!
:o( Tried eBay, Bumbly, but my fella won't let me have one!! :oD

LMAO - maybe you could buy your b/f a nice white suit??

with white socks ofcourse!! LOL

Erm... no. ROFL!!

I can't do this lol. It's not as I expected too many but not enough-Don't get me wrong there's probably at least 100 bands I like a lot but to get into my favorites they have to be indespensible and it seems for the most part individuals have taken up that spot. Has anyone else noticed this going through their collections that individual artists fill up much more space than groups? I'm skipping individuals with back up bands here too. Maybe, I can do it with qualifiers. In somewhat random order:

1. The Beatles-everything including bootlegs
2. The Rolling Stones-Through "Exile on Main Street"
3. Creedence Clearwater Revival-Everything
4. The Velvet Underground-Everything (Except the fake Velvet album "Squeeze" with only Doug Yule-no one considers this to be the Velvets anyways)
5. Pink Floyd-I've only got around half their pre-Dark Side stuff but I would say all that and up to and including "The Wall"
6. Genesis-Through "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway"
7. Simon and Garfunkel-You can skip their first album.

Now here's where it get's easier-Groups I really like but wouldn't think fit in my top 10-Bauhaus ,The Stooges, King Crimson (all 3 incarnations of them but I liked the first best), The Violent Femmes, Dinosaur Jr., The Supremes, The Beach Boys (up through the "Surf's Up" time period), Traffic, Pearl Jam, AC/DC, The Band, early Chicago, Counting Crows, Love, The Lovin' Spoonful, Hole, Roxy Music, Public Image Ltd. (through "Flowers of Romance"), The Birthday Party (Need to have some alcohol though-pretty rough on sober ears), The Residents, Wall of Voodoo, Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Magnetic Fields (69 Love Songs is the best set I've bought in years), Nirvana, Blue Oyster Cult (though Spectres), The Raincoats, The Clash, Talking Heads and of course The Who and Zeppelin... (I'll probably edit this and add to it over the next couple of days)

my current favourite group is BOND!! They have brought classical music alive agian, which is good in my books ;o)

Hiya People!
...BTW, love the new dicussion group! ... [:-) ...

Anyone out there remember a 60's group called "The New Christie Ministrols" ?
(( sp., Christy? ))
A particular fav is called "Today"

~*~ Beginning Lyrics ~*~

Today while the blossoms still cling to the vine,
I'll eat your strawberries I'll drink your sweet wine...
A million tomorrows ................
((( don't know the exact words from here but I believe it goes ... )))
...would have to pass away,
then I'd forget all the Joy that is mine, Today.

Does it ring a bell?
[:-)

Till next time, keep smiling!
Omega Lady

Today while the blossom still clings to the vine
I'll taste your strawberries
I'll drink your sweet wine
A million tomorrows shall all pass away
'Ere I forget all the joy that is mine
Today

I'll be a dandy and I'll be a rover
You'll know who I am
By the songs that I sing
I'll feast at your table
I'll sleep in your clover
Who cares what tomorrow shall bring

I can't be contented by yesterday's glory
I can't live on promises
Winter to Spring
Today is my moment
Now is my story
I'll laugh, I'll cry, I'll sing

(written by Randy Sparks) It was also recorded by John Denver.

Magenta: if you'll scroll down you'll see I've put up 2 lists. On best bands The Beatles get top spot. On best solo artists, John Lennon gets top stop.

The Beatles are the best and John Lennon rules. :o)

Joy Division is not a 'little-known' band :) At least not for me.

Thanks Magenta, easy question-hard answer. Up until John's death I would of said Paul. Paul was doing much better in his solo career, still considered a rocker and had put out some really good albums while John seemed to be out of focus. I saw McCartney's first tour (Wings Over America), it was great. But in the years since, Paul has become much more pop oriented while John's legacy has gotten stronger and stronger. I think John's murder made everyone much more aware of his human qualities and the strength of his music-When someone who is singing about peace and love gets killed it makes everything he said resonate much more and become more important. I probably would have preferred John's music more now anyways as I got older and my tastes changed, but his death definitely had an impact on his popularity and the way we look at him. I remember how Yoko was reviled by most of the people before, now their relationship has become a legend.
Also, much more is known about the Beatles music now, more than could ever be expected as far as writing and recording goes. Before as I'm sure you're aware of, Lennon/McCartney was thought of as a writing team when this in fact was a rarity. It's now known who did what in almost every facet of their recordings, so things like Lennon's humor and sarcasm are more easily recognizable.

Majenta Spiral,imho,I think you are taking A M KM's words out of context. I think if you take a minute to reread what he wrote you will see that.
The message I got from his response was that in general people saw what John was writing and singing about much more clearly after his death. Sort of like understanding the force of a hurricane after living through one. That is human nature and not really a choice.
Also,A M KM states he would have preferred John's music over Paul's as he got older anyway (that part having nothing to do with John's untimely death).

1. I Am the Walrus
2. A Day in Life
3. Across the Universe
4. Working Class Hero
5. Imagine
6. Come Together
7. Jealous Guy
8. Mother
9. In My Life
10. God

PS Didn't say Paul isn't great!!! Just that John is the BEST.

I understand your frustration with the imperfections of the human race. But I honestly don't see how complaining about it will help.

Everything you say is true. And Elvis (who's been hanging out at my place the last couple of decades) couldn't agree more. lol

Nobody told me there'd be days like these. Strange days indeed! lol

awwwwww honey.....that was supposed to be our little secret..sheesh lol i wanted to keep the midnight serenades all to myself and the peanut butter and nanner samiches too lmao

the serenades just for you baby. but you gotta share the nanner samiches. lol

oooooooh ok (huff) but only because it is you otherwise i would keep em all to myself lol

rank has its privileges (nanner samiches!!! yummy) lol

How come Julian Lennon does not record anymore??I guess he just eat those sandwiches now days

Woodstock
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

(Written by: Joni Mitchell)

I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
When I asked him, "where are you going?"
This he told me

I'm going down to Yasgur's farm
Gonna join a rock and roll band
I'm going to camp out on the land
And try and get my soul free

We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden

Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
I feel just like a cog
In something turning

Well maybe it's the time of year
Or maybe it's the time of man
I don't know who I am
But life is for learning

We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden

By the time I got to Woodstock
They were half a million strong
Everywhere there was song and celebration

I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
Turning into butterflies above our nation

We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden

We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden

Magenta, when I first read your letter I perceived it as a personal attack, then I reread it and saw that perhaps it wasn't, You seem to be railing against the human race (myself included?) because of the fact that I stated Lennon was only truly appreciated when he was dead. To a large extent this is true. You weren't born yet when he died so you weren't around to see it but the world went into shock for precisely this reason. He had been ignored and now he was gone.

I was a fan of his before but as I stated I became a bigger fan after. There isn't so much as you say a sickness in people it was the fact that Lennon hadn't been putting out music as good as he had done previously for years. Plus his relationship with Yoko soured a lot of people, blaming it for the breakup of the Beatles etc. After he died though there was more perspective-such as how he lived his whole life instead of what he had been doing the past few years. I don't see this as being unnatural or sick, I think it could be seen as very logical.


To put in some perspective this is from "The New Rolling Stone Record Guide" 1979. The period from Imagine up until before Double Fantasy.

* * * Imagine / Apple (1971) If JL/POB was sparked by the cry "The dream is over," the message of Imagine, a much more accessible pop album, was "Long live the dream": as a popular artist, the angry man simply could not endure without a dose of utopianism in his music, his sense of romance and his politics. Imagine, despite its notorious attack on Paul McCartney ("How Do You Sleep?"), felt like a breath of fresh air in 1971; "Gimme Some Truth," a nasty rocker, "Oh Yoko," an almost girl-groupish ditty and the lovely "Jealous Guy" still do. At this point, John seemed to know where he was going, and to be going in a good direction.
* Some Time in New York City / Apple (1972) * * Mind Games / Apple (1973)* * Walls and Bridges / Apple (1974)
It didn't seem that way after Some Time, a disastrous collaboration between John, Yoko and the leftish rock band Elephant's Memory. This was a two-LP set divided between horrendous Phil Spector-produced protest epics and live recordings (some with Frank Zappa): the politics were witless and the live jams mindless. After John's ideological flip-flops of the previous years (from the Maharishi to "peace" to primal therapy, each em­braced as an absolute Answer), it was hard to take his new political commitments seri­ously; here the question of taking his music seriously never came up.
Both Mind Games and Walls and Bridges were drastic retreats from the anti-pop stance of Some Time, and both produced hits: "Mind Games," the trendy "Whatever Gets You thru the Night" and "#9 Dream." The sound was lush and conven­tional, the singing assured, but there was no real point of view at work—no point at all, in fact, save for continuing a career for its own sake; only "Going Down on Love" (Walls) recalled the gutty realism of JL/ POB, which seemed very far away. Like so many veterans of the Sixties trapped in the Seventies, Lennon (by then the subject of a brutal but accurate parody on the National Lampoon's Radio Dinner LP) had no idea of how to relate to his audience: with what ap­peared to be panic, he substituted production techniques for soul, building a bridge to his listeners with his sound but erecting a wall around himself with empty music.
* * Rock & Roll / Apple (1975) Lennon knew it; he just didn't know what to do about it, and so, again like many others, he tried to escape a dead end by going back to his roots with an oldies album. Rock & Roll (1975, a year that also saw John pop­ping up on a couple of Elton John 45s) began as a collaboration with Phil Spector, who needed a shot of rhythm & blues as much as John did, but the partnership soon came to grief—as did most of the album. Remakes of "Stand by Me" and "Just Be­cause" were deeply touching, but with the rest of the tunes—mostly classic hard rock­ers—John never found a groove. And so, no doubt tired of his helpless drift back and forth between adventure (JL/POB, Some Time) and retreat (Imagine, Mind Games, Walls, R'n'R), Lennon shut up, his battle with Paul McCartney apparently conceded.


Now of course anyone can disagree with these reviews but I am just trying to show that he was not held in nearly the reverence he is today and why.

While he was alive he had 2 number one albums "Imagine" and "Walls and Bridges". Each one stayed at the number one spot for one week. After he died "Double Fantasy" stayed at the number one spot for eight weeks. His best album "Plastic Ono Band" only reached number 6.

PS. I noticed in the "10 reasons" list every song was from 1971 or earlier-none from the time period I have been talking about.

NORTH

( Music by Joan Baez, Lyrics by Nina Duscheck )

Where icicles hung the blossoms swing,
but in my heart there is no spring.
You were my spring, my summer too,
it's always winter without you.

The flocks head north and the lilacs bloom,
at night they scent my moonlit room.
You were my spring, my summer too,
I'm going north to look for you.

Like a windblown bird my heart goes forth,
sent by the spring to the shining north.
You are my spring, my summer too,
and I won't rest till I find you.

*

David: my 10 reasons were a general statement, not aimed at anything you said. The time-frame in which they were written does not effect my point. :o)

RiffRaff:
It's astounding;
Time is fleeting;
Madness takes its toll.
But listen closely...

Magenta:
Not for very much longer.

RiffRaff:
I've got to keep control.
I remember doing the time-warp
Drinking those moments when
The Blackness would hit me

RiffRaff:
And the void would be calling...

Transylvanians:
Let's do the time-warp again.
Let's do the time-warp again.

Narrator:
It's just a jump to the left.

All:
And then a step to the right.

Narrator:
With your hands on your hips.

All:
You bring your knees in tight.
But it's the pelvic thrust
That really drives you insane.
Let's do the time-warp again.
Let's do the time-warp again.

Magenta:
It's so dreamy, oh fantasy free me.
So you can't see me, no, not at all.
In another dimension, with voyeuristic intention,
Well secluded, I see all.

RiffRaff:
With a bit of a mind flip

Magenta:
You're into the time slip.

RiffRaff:
And nothing can ever be the same.

Magenta:
You're spaced out on sensation.

RiffRaff:
Like you're under sedation.

All:
Let's do the time-warp again.
Let's do the time-warp again.

Columbia:
Well I was walking down the street just a-having a think
When a snake of a guy gave me an evil wink.
He shook-a me up, he took me by surprise.
He had a pickup truck, and the devil's eyes.
He stared at me and I felt a change.
Time meant nothing, never would again.

All:
Let's do the time-warp again.
Let's do the time-warp again.

Narrator:
It's just a jump to the left.

All:
And then a step to the right.

Narrator:
With your hands on your hips.

All:
You bring your knees in tight.
But it's the pelvic thrust
That really drives you insane.
Let's do the time-warp again.
Let's do the time-warp again.

harley, hope you doing it in time with me lol

*hastily reduces the page size from 100 messages to 50, thus getting rid of that infernal ditty more quickly*

Of course I am, MM!!

Bumble, you obviously have no taste in music!! ROFL!! Its not an 'infernal ditty'!!! :oP