Today's November PAD Chapbook Challenge asked for a poem having something to do with music. These people all had something to do with music, and they all died after the turn of the twenty-first century. And if anyone wants to be a wanker and demand to know how I can have Jeff Hanneman and David Cassidy in the same collage, I will tell you that I can because it's my damn collage and I'm not a narrow fuck who only listens to one kind of music.
However, the great thing about being someone that no-one pays attention to is that I can do something like this, and ain't nobody gonna give a fuck.
This song was shared one year ago today. Enjoy it again! Then join us for Friday Flashback to share a blast from your blog's past. Just click the banner.
Since I love Rickey Medlocke, we just won't go into what I think about his reforming the band as a Blackfoot cover band without a single original member after having lawyers send cease and desist letters to the band's original surviving members aside from himself, ordering them to stop using the name. Sorry, Rickey, but not cool.
Oops, guess I went there.
Train Train was written by Rickey's grandfather, Shorty Medlocke (1910 - 1982), who was a great blues and bluegrass musician.
Oh, here it comes Well, train, train, take me on out of this town Train, train, Lord, take me on out of this town Well, that woman I'm in love with, Lord, she's Memphis bound Well, leavin' here, I'm just a raggedy hobo Lord, I'm leaving here, I'm just a raggedy hobo Well, that woman I'm in love with, Lord, she's got to go Well, goodbye pretty mama, get yourself a money man Goodbye, pretty mama, Lord, get yourself a money man You take that midnight train to Memphis Lord, leave if you can Oh, take that midnight train to Memphis Lord, leave if you can
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All poems are copyright of the poet. Permission for this poet to post their work here has been granted by blog owner. All rights remain with the individual poet and their respective publisher.
Although Michael Jackson is not mentioned in the lyrics, vocalist Debora Iyall wrote the song as a response to Jackson's Billie Jean.
Debora Iyall is one of the most underrated pop vocalists of the late 20th century. She is a member of the Cowlitz tribe. She still performs although she has stepped back from the pop scene to be an art teacher in Desert Hot Springs.
Other than substance addiction issues, one might not think that Bon Scott and Amy Winehouse have much in common. However, both of them were involved to the point of obsession with people who were incredibly bad for them, and although musically speaking they are both artists I can't get enough of, I have to stop listening after a fairly brief period of time because I know what and who they're singing about and it's really depressing.
The other issue is the fact that I can relate all too well to being obsessed with a person who is really, really, really horrible for you. I did it more than once. People think that all-consuming "love" is wonderful. It's anything but, and usually, it isn't really love, it's an obsession. So, yanno, no thanks to ending up in the ER with bloody wrists over some asshole who doesn't deserve my pain. Better to be alone than to be with someone toxic.
Although, unfortunately, in my case, more often than not, I'm alone in bad company.
Plus, in the case of AC/DC, I can only listen for just so long (and that isn't long these days) before I start getting really pissed off about the way Malcolm Young went out. Dementia is the absolute fucking worst, particularly when it takes out someone whose intelligence was a key part of who they were. Malcolm Young was a high school dropout, but he was smarter than a lot of people with strings of letters behind their names.
The late Glen Campbell's wife said of dementia "It's better to die some other way," and she's absolutely right. Fuck dementia.
As Bob Seger once said, sometimes I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then.
Hipster music journalists love to decry this band as a one-trick pony, but they were actually full of surprises. Sure, the same five songs get played over and over and over on commercial radio stations. Even though I was an early fan of AC/DC, I started changing the station whenever "For Those About To Rock" would come on so I wouldn't start hating it. That's how badly that particular song was overplayed.
Musical chops aside (and the musical choppage is strong in this lot) these guys were obviously not professional models. Bon seemed fairly well at ease with striking poses, and Angus is a ham. The others never seem to know quite what to do with themselves.
Mark Evans and Cliff Williams both tended to have neutral facial expressions in photos. Maybe it's a bass player thing. In this particular photo, I'm not sure there was much else that Phil Rudd could have done. After all, Angus was stepping on his head.
I really do wonder what Malcolm was doing, though. Did the photographer tell him to do that? Was there someone up above pouring some sort of beverage down on him and he was hoping to drink it rather than getting soaked by it? Is he performing a Stupid Big Brother Trick and pretending he's going to bite Angus' leg? Did he feel stupid when he saw this picture after the fact?
Although Angus was the one who became (in)famous for stripping off, Bon was the band member who had a tendency to dress like a member of Chippendale's. There are many photos of him wearing pants which looked like they'd been painted on, and he often struck poses indicating that said pants were about to come off.
This incarnation of AC/DC really wasn't around that long in the scheme of things.
I've likened the way I feel looking at photos of AC/DC to the emotions expressed by the priest in Arthur C. Clarke's powerful story, The Star. The priest experienced a crisis of faith after discovering that the Star of Bethlehem shone as brightly as it did because it had gone supernova, destroying a peaceful civilization.
In some ways, AC/DC had a (crossed) binary star system. There was the band in its incarnation with Bon. This was the beta star in the system. It shone brightly but was short-lived.
The alpha star continued on for 37 more years after Bon's passing. It started going into its death throes when Malcolm became too ill to perform anymore and collapsed on itself when Brian Johnson was no longer able to continue performing due to hearing problems and Cliff Williams retired because things had become too fucking depressing.
I'm in the camp that thinks that AC/DC needs to rock in peace, to remain a nebula rather than trying to cobble together some sort of zombie version of itself. To be clear, I am not one of those ageist assholes who thinks that only the young and the hawt should play music. I subscribe to the belief that as long as you can and want to play, you should, and most of the truly talented musicians I can think of are not "Hawt."
Angus and Stevie Young should work on other projects. Whatever they create together ought to be good, because they're both talented musicians. Certainly, there's no problem with them playing AC/DC's material. AC/DC was, after all, half Angus' creation. He was the face of the band while Malcolm was the brains.
Without its brain, AC/DC was a different band. It was still a good band, but the material on Rock or Bust shows the marked change in a band that had lost its leader and one of its key components. Still, the band could arguably continue working under the AC/DC name at that point. Malcolm's replacement, his nephew, had learned much of his technique from the original and had been given the green light by Malcolm himself to take up the reins.
With the loss of Brian Johnson and Cliff Williams, AC/DC was done although Angus Young was still there.
I feel very sad for Angus. Not only did he lose his best friend of a lifetime, but he also lost the project which had been his reason for living for some 44 years. I hope that if continuing to play can bring him some semblance of peace, he will do so. Despite being a broke fuck, I would find a way to support his work by buying his albums. However, I hope he lays AC/DC to rest. Whatever lineup was created at this point would be a hollow echo of the band's past glory.
AC/DC needs to be allowed to fade to black.
~Cie~
AC/DC, doing stuff that got them on the Satanic Panic Shit List.
Oddly enough, my favorite Luke Perry role was not one of his bigger ones. It was this small part in The Fifth Element where he played a snarky archaeology assistant who found himself suddenly facing down the Mondoshawans, a benevolent but intimidating extraterrestrial race wearing bulky armor.
We truly hope that people can enjoy this bit of disaster fantasy without resorting to the sort of inane comments found on YouTube about how this is not pure science. Because, after all, this blog is committed to pure science and contains no fantasy at all.
We admit that reading the comments on YouTube is a very bad idea.
Tends to onset earlier than Alzheimers * Often initially misdiagnosed as Parkinsons * Progresses rapidly * Fatal *
We love you Malcolm Young
January 6, 1953 - November 18, 2017 "As his brother it is hard to express in words what he has meant to me during my life, the bond we had was unique and very special. He leaves behind an enormous legacy that will live on forever. Malcolm, job well done." --Angus Young
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