me and you too

Good gravy, I’ve been a bit heavy on the news the last few days. It happens. I found out this morning that one of my favorites, Todd Snider, is coming back to D.C. over the summer and this has nudged me off the news for a bit. While I’m in the vein of musical thought I figured I’d throw out a video I’ve watched a number of times over the last month. I think I latched onto it while watching U2’s weeklong stand on Letterman when the new album was released last month – while searching youtube, I came across this gem. I haven’t bought a U2 album in well over a decade – no grand reason, I simply haven’t been moved – but I was a huge fan throughout the 80s and just maybe into the early 90s. This song, With or Without You was on the Joshua Tree album that was released during my time in Monterey at the very opening of my military career and I remember listening to it over and over on the Mazda 323’s cassette deck; Joshua Tree was a fantastic album. I still love the band, I think they’re one of the greatest to tread the stage, and Bono’s voice can still rivet the listener. Here’s the live version of With or Without You that closed a show at Slane Castle, County Meath, Republic of Ireland. Put on some headphones, crank it up, and enjoy one of the great bands doing one of the great songs…



“We’ll shine like stars in the summer night.
We’ll shine like stars, it’ll be alright.
One heart, one heart, one heart.”

t

i can't believe that you need my love so bad....

I'm not sure what triggered the rock n' roll tonight but I was watching the very first Huey Lewis and the News hit (Do You Believe in Love) and then started to wander a bit. Feel free to depart the blog at this point if you must; there's nothing deep going on here. I did a bit on Guns n' Roses a few months back so I decided to pull up a well-recorded version (BBC, no doubt) of Knockin' on Heaven's Door from the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. This was not long before they returned to Wembley the weekend before Use Your Illusion (I and II) was released. You get some Axl, some Slash, some Dylan. I owned this on CD single, if you can believe or imagine something that crazy.



There's no reason why the next step should be to this song aside from the fact that I think it's in the great hall of fame: The guitar, drum, bass, and Rob Halford trying to kick your ass by singing, is first ballot stuff. I'll admit that I know next to nothing about the great metal bands but I first heard this diddy when my friend's band (Doc Friday) added to their live set and practiced it often. My friend Buzz, of playing the saw and cutting hair fame, ripped some guitar on this baby. Maybe since Buzz was in town last night it triggered this strange memory. This cut of Green Manalishi is from the 1985 Live Aid concert session in Philly. Get out the headphones and turn it up to 11...



t