Established A.D. 2000, March 19. Now in our fifth calendar year! Number 220 (Vol. 5, No. 24). This edition is for the week of June 7--13, 2004. Reagan Remembered
Earlier this week, the 40th President of the United States of America, Ronald Wilson Reagan died at the age of 93 from complications of Alzheimer's Disease and pneumonia. At 93 he is the oldest former President who ever lived, outliving even John Adams' record by a scant few months. It is not the first time Reagan made history, but would undoubtedly and sadly be his last.
He brought old-school traditional conservatism back to the White House and the people (generally) loved him for it. Enough to re-elect him by a huge landslide for a second term.
That said, since my politics is rabidly left-wing (not to be confused with simply "liberal"), I have a little more jaundiced memory of the Reagan administration. HOWEVER, even I cannot deny the accomplishment of the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and the fall of Communism, as we knew it.
"The Great Communicator" moniker was well-earned, and Reagan was easy to trust. His reduction of government was exemplary on many levels, but his approach to "deficit spending", while welcomed in many quarters, led to a Federal Deficit that quadrupled everything built up since the founding of the country up to that time!
The "Star Wars" program was possibly the weirdest thing he got obsessed with although many credit that (partially, anyway) with the caving in of the Soviet Union. We simply proved we could outspend them. The SDI program is still in place, but nobody can point to anything that it has actually built.
My sourest memory of that era has been published in an essay at Legion Studios.com. Reagan never seemed to like policy based on science or proof as much as he liked "beliefs". To me, his greatest impact on politics in this country was making it fashionable to determine policy based on "beliefs", particularly religious ones. NOT PROOF. NOT STATS. "Beliefs". That is, of course the very basis of arch-conservatism. Every speech would be peppered by sentences starting with "I believe..." uttered in the familiar sing-songy folksy manner. VERY easy for a proto-Rush Limbaugh to get inspiration from that.
Toward the end of his administration, Reagan decided Pornography was responsible for the downfall of man and orchestrated a witch-hunt not seen since the McCarthy era. It was also at this time witch-hunts for (falsely-accused) child abusers and devil worshippers were instigated based solely on the now-discredited "recovered memory" phenomenon. While Reagan was not soley responsible for this outrage, his adminstration encouraged the use of fanciful thinking, based on "beliefs".
I won't irritate the Reagan faithful further by bringing up the Iran-Contra scandal for which he had no recollection, recovered or otherwise.
His announcement in 1994 that he had Alzheimer's disease was saddening to even his harshest critics. Many claimed he had memory lapses during his Presidency and Alzheimer's made his wife Nancy the acting President, but even I have a hard time believing that.
Reagan was also the very image of the cowboy-statesman. A tough old bird, he survived as assassination attempt mere weeks into his administration, and several operations for cancer-related maladies in the years that followed. He even recovered from a broken hip incurred only a year or so ago. That he lived to 93 after all that is truly amazing. Hell, if he were to have suddenly recovered from Alzheimer's, he could run for President and win again!
Be that as it may, Ronald Reagan stands as the last representation of the "Greatest Generation", the WWII group who saved the world, and that much is a fact. We will not see their like again, and actually, that is a shame.
While I haven't had time for columns the last several weeks, I have tried to find the time to at least read the Pop Culture Review, so I've known about this top 10 since it was first mentioned by the Mikester. A few songs immediately came to mind, and to see some of the lists, I have to laugh that we all have so many similarities in what we deem worst songs. 1. Blind Man In The Bleachers -- David Geddes: This has to be the worst song in the history of life. The first time I heard it I laughed my butt off. There are several others that could make this list, and it pains me to include my beloved Stones, but I consider "Emotional Rescue" to be an afront to all Stones fans. The rest pretty much speak for themselves.
Impossible, there is no way to limit just 10 worst songs. Not when it's so easy to dispose of entire categories of what's called music by some. Take for instance Opera, total shit, never have we heard a song in any opera (this includes Tommy) that warranted anything less than gunfire. Rap and Hip-hop, more shit, don't spare the ammo boys. Disco warrants the vertical deployment of anti-personnel devices (Bombs). "You dropped a bomb on me" is a suitable ending. All those '80s songs that used "synthetic drums" need to be included in a worst list somewhere but there is so many bad, bad songs during this period. New Wave, R&B, Rock and Pop all used those damn things. Included in the '80s category of "stuff that sucks" were all those Metal bands with a lead singer who had that shrill, squeal like a pig voice. Axle Rose comes to mind, great band, shitty front man. There were no less than a dozen others who sounded like they take it up the ass. Filling a list with Celine Dion or Olivia Newton John, Yanni, Whitney Houston, Barry Manilow and Prince would be too easy. I say delete the existence of all songs that are festering boils of estrogen. Anybody extending a note for more than 4 seconds or bending a note to a pretzel gets beaten on stage. Sometimes otherwise great artist have periods when they write really crappy stuff. John Lennon and Paul McCartney are fantastic overall but then you hear, "Say, Say ,Say" or "Silly Love Songs" or "Woman" or "Just Like Starting Over" and it gives me the urge to stomp on baby chicks just to get back in the right frame of mind. Maybe Hinkley did John a favor. John was about to eliminate himself career-wise anyway with a sucrose overdose. Sir Paul exemplified this perfectly. Death by sugar. Sometimes a really killer tune is ruined by not knowing how to end the damn thing. Here's where you insert 50% of The Allman Brothers library. "Jessica", great song but about a 3 hours too long. I've got songs I hate that I used to really like. A song like "Stairway to Heaven" is an all-time classic, right? It sucks now! Radio stations have played it to the point of torture for years. Add to that group "Layla", "Sweet Home Alabama", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Crazy Train" and a few other immortals I never want to hear again. There is just no way to cover only 10 worst songs but here are a few I really dislike in no particular order: Burning Love.............................Elvis I re-read your list of top 10 worst and noticed you excluded Ed Ames from your celebrities list because he did some cool stuff. You're absolutely right, including his single hit "My Cup Runneth Over (With Love)". But, the reason for his success is because he was a singer with The Ames Brothers long before he was 'Mingo' on Daniel Boone. The Ames Brothers were pretty big in the mid-to-late '50s. They had a hit with "RagMop" and "The Naughty Lady from Shady Lane" plus a few others. Ya know, Fess Parker (Daniel Boone) also had a hit with his rendition of the song "Davy Crockett". There are a few small benefits to turning 50 this year, namely, history. I remember these ancient songs because my parents were music geeks and had their HI-FI rocking around the clock with country, swing, western swing, Jazz, showtunes, big band and everything in between. I didn't start buying my own records until 1964 (Ricky Nelson) at 10 years old but my last download was Prong last week, I've covered some ground. By the way I could add William Shatner's version of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" as the single worst cover of all time. Except it would be beaten by his own even worse cover of "Tambourine Man", Leonard Nimoy's "Proud Mary" and Jack Webb's "Try A Little Tenderness". Readers, Mack wrote me back earlier to say he'd never heard these last few. I'm not surprised, very few people have, they've been buried for decades. I owe my hearing these classics of musical schlock to David T. ("Backbiter69" on the message board) who discovered them on an obscure compilation album, otherwise, I'd never know of them either. I replied to Mack that Shatner, et.al., to me, are among those I was referring to in my original list re: "TV and movie celebrities who're trying to 'break in' to the music biz."
UPDATE! According to David T./Backbiter69, the cassette we heard is called "Golden Throats" from Rhino Records! I found it as a CD available here: Rhino Records presents Golden Throats: The Great Celebrity Sing-Off--Various Artists!" It must be heard to be believed.
Thank you once again, Mack, for an outstanding contribution to our pages! ---Nolan
I know that I've included a couple of entire catalogs and genres, but these days that's how I see things.
Years before, I could never have disliked an entire genre of music.
1. Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks ('nuff said) *In New Zealand, we have "Juice TV" which is only okay on occasion. But when it's your only option, I suppose they have to try and please everyone...at some point.
Worst Singles of All Time Runners Up: "Pac Man Fever", "The Curly Shuffle".
To Will Moriaty: "Life is a Rock" is on your Top 10 Worst List? Say it ain't so!
While I have to agree with most of the previous selections, I have a Top Ten list of songs that I just can't stand! Now, I know they were supposed to have been a top forty hit so that everyone will know them, but I promise everyone will know (and loath) these songs, too.
10. We All Live In a Yellow Submarine by The Beatles - I love the Beatles, but I hate this song. It's one of those darn songs that stick in your head ALL DAY LONG! Watch, you'll see what I mean. Don't hate me if it gets stuck in your head, too! I wasn't sure if I was going to participate in this particular challenge. It's too easy to pick a handful of crummy songs from a particularly disliked genre. I could turn on any current country station, write down the first ten songs I hear (provided I don't hurt myself or others before the task was completed) and be done. The same thing could be said for Top-40 radio, One Hit Wonders (though I am loathe to include a Worst Songs list and not name "Mickey" by Toni Basil) (Hey, that was a close call for me, too!--N), novelty songs and most of the lightweight "haircut" bands that Lalino waxes nostalgic about. The real challenge is to find the Ten Worst Songs by Bands I Like.
"Jazz Police" - Leonard Cohen. The one bleak spot on the otherwise perfect "I'm You Man."
Whew! OK rock fans, that's all for this week! If there are any songs we've overlooked, send in your Top 10 Worst Songs List and comments to Crazedfanboy1@aol.com. --Nolan
The new Batmobile unveiled at a show in New York. Thanks to David T. for the link to this utter monstrosity: http://lfi.glbx.image-data.com/dynevent-action-nl.do?eventid=65156#
You can download some of their songs from here: http://www.hxcmp3.com/bands/9608
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"Mike's Rant" is ©2004 by Michael A. Smith "Matt's Rail" is ©2004 by Matthew Drinnenberg "La Floridiana" is ©2004 by William Moriaty "This Week's Movie Reviews" are ©2004 by Michael A. Smith and Nolan Canova "Oddservations" is ©2004 by Andy Lalino "Splash Page" is ©2004 by Brandon Jones "Couch Potato Confessions" & "Vinnie Vidi Vici" are © 2004 by Vinnie Blesi "Creature's Corner" is ©2004 by John Lewis All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2004 by Nolan B. Canova Crazed Fanboy dotcom is owned and operated by Nolan B. Canova |