max abelson's super groovy music video spectacular

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1960s on mon
1970s on tues
1980s on wed
1990s on thurs
2000s on fri


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this website ft. the beatles, aretha franklin, neil young, dr. dre, will oldham, serge gainsbourg, the kinks, dusty springfield, jimi hendrix, pavement, the clash, the smiths, al green, rolling stones, cat power, yo la tengo, stevie wonder, antony, wilco, elvis, talking heads, elliott smith, r.e.m., ray charles, velvet underground, the monochrome set, randy newman, the cure, queen, duke ellington & more


"sing a simple song but keep the swing strong." -de la soul


"mtv makes me want to smoke crack." -beck


see the archives & a random post


"i just happen to be here, and it's okay." -caetano veloso


"gotta think straight, keep a clean plate." -joanna newsom


"keep a clean nose, watch the plain-clothes." -bob dylan


"it took me about three or four weeks to toilet train my cat, nightlife. most of the time is spent moving the box very gradually to the bathroom. do it very slowly and don't confuse him." -charles mingus


"she had a chihuahua named carlos that had some kind of skin disease and was totally blind." -tom waits


"you can't hold the hand of a rock 'n' roll man." -joni mitchell


"think about something else. was art tatum talented?" - shoot the piano player


"hey there, hey now, well, you can make a pacemaker blink, yeah, easy thing, make a man's heart go bibbity bom like a gentle drum. -john cale


"i’ve still got things inside me, sad things, happy things, that people don’t know about." -loretta lynn


"to try to maximize the relationship of listening to a record through promotion is like experiencing driving a car by reading about stimulus programs." -bonnie 'prince' billy


"after cheesecake with all of your friends and family, who's gonna front the bill? me... say you want to take first-class trips, well i want to work those first-class hips. yes i do." -r. kelly


"we can make each other happy, or we can make each other happy." -harry nilsson


"my mother used to tell me about vibrations. to think that invisible feelings, invisible vibrations existed scared me to death." -brian wilson


"i'm an idiot for you." -iggy pop


"i mean every letter in the words in the sentences of my quotes." -lil' wayne


"lyrics choochoo from my mouth like locomotion." - pato banton


"i'm going to boogie my scruples away." -lowell george


"i drive a rolls-royce, cause it's good for my voice." -t.rex


"i'm dealing in rock and roll. i'm not a bonafide human being." -phil spector


"at a certain point phil approached me with a bottle of kosher red wine in one hand and a .45 in the other, put his arm around my shoulder and shoved the revolver into my neck and said, 'leonard, i love you.' i said, 'i hope you do, phil.'" -leonard cohen


"they’d whisper at each other and look at phil and whisper at each other. finally this lady, tanked, comes over to phil and says, 'alright, sonny, what’s your problem?' and he said, 'premature ejaculation, what’s yours?'" -tom wolfe


"he's got a mind like a sewer, and a heart like a fridge" -elvis costello


"i bite my nails and if that fails i go get myself stoned, but when i do i think of you and head myself back home." -gram parsons


"i would say groucho marx, to name one thing, and willie mays, and the second movement of the jupiter symphony, and louis armstrong’s recording of potatohead blues, swedish movies, naturally. sentimental education by flaubert, marlon brando, frank sinatra, those incredible apples and pears by cézanne, the crabs at sam wo’s, tracy’s face." -woody allen


"where have you been all my life?" -emmylou harris, to my brother tommy


"the first time i got stoned on grass was with john paul jones of led zeppelin. we'd been talking to ramblin' jack elliott somewhere and jonesy said to me, 'come over and i'll turn you on to grass.' he had a huge room with nothing in it except this huge vast hammond organ, right next door to the police." -david bowie


"tired of the tango? fed up with fandango? dance on moonbeams, slide on rainbows, in furs or blue jeans. you know what I mean." -roxy music


brian eno songs that will make good book titles for my 10-volume memoir, in order: here he comes, baby's on fire, golden hours, brutal ardour, taking tiger mountain, events in dense fog, through hollow lands, some of them are old, everything merges with the night, dead finks don’t talk


ry cooder albums that every man should own: into the purple valley, boomer's story, paradise and lunch


thelonious monk's middle name: sphere


"really, we don't want people twiddling their goatees over our stuff." -radiohead


#1 song on the white album (tie): long long long, happiness is a warm gun


"the only word is love." -john lennon


"i love songs about horses, railroads, land, judgment day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. and mother. and god." -johnny cash


"i could even find it in my heart to love mike love." -belle & sebastian


"the moon is clear, the sky is bright, i'm happy as the horse's shite." -the pogues


"i hope that you all out there, young, old, tall, short, fat or thin, quick or slow, no matter what kind or color or shape or person you are, if you like to make music, why, go ahead.” -pete seeger


"but chuck berry isn't merely the greatest of the rock and rollers, or rather, there's nothing mere about it. say rather that unless we can somehow recycle the concept of the great artist so that it supports chuck berry as well as it does marcel proust, we might as well trash it altogether." -robert christgau


mashable.com says about us: "you can expect the unexpected with this awesome gem. groovy," 33 1/3 says: "it's nice to have someone steer me in a more worthwhile direction," others say: "pulitzer."


download albums, see album covers, photos, posters, quotes & 'staches


the olden days: 08 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 09 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 10 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 11 j. f. m. a. m. j. j. a. s. o. n. d. 12 j.


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January 25

#895: bob dylan and van morrison - crazy love (1991)

now that seven and a half years have gone by, is it alright to declare that chronicles volume one is one of the best books ever written? “the moon was rising behind the chrysler building, it was late in the day, street lighting coming on, the low rumble of heavy cars inching along in the narrow streets below—sleet tapping against the office window” is the first line of the final chapter. and is there going to be a chronicles volume two and even three or what?

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bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better than you at yours part 5 of 5

bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better than you at yours

part 5 of 5

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bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better than you at yours part 4 of 5

bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better than you at yours

part 4 of 5

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bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better than you at yours part 3 of 5

bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better than you at yours

part 3 of 5

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bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better than you at yours part 2 of 5

bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better than you at yours

part 2 of 5

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bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better than you at yours part 1 of 5

bob dylan not at his finest in the early 1980s is still better than you at yours

part 1 of 5

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January 24

#894: u-roy - natty rebel (1978)

when u-roy does that walk at 2:45, halfway between a glide and a wiggle and a wade, wearing his spotless orange suit, what he’s doing is apologizing for the relatively light posting recently on this blog. it’s a magical walk, readers, and it can mean whatever you need it to mean.

but i can change. and you can change, too, if you in your arrogant blindness have somehow conducted your lifelong affairs without at least once enjoying u-roy’s perfect orange-suited shuffle. enjoy it, friends.

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January 22
i would never under any circumstances get a tattoo, but if i did it’d be this. or “mom!”. thank you, u-roy.

i would never under any circumstances get a tattoo, but if i did it’d be this. or “mom!”. thank you, u-roy.

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even though these are partisan times filled with divisions and prejudices, i think we can all maturely agree that the best use of melodica was not actually on an augustus pablo album, despite his ferocious playing, but at the end of u-roy’s dread in a babylon. another inarguable thing is that those pictures of u-roy on the back cover are reggae’s only use of drug photographs that’s both glamorizing and also a caricature of an ad council warning not to get lost in a metaphoric (or literal!) cloud of smoke.

even though these are partisan times filled with divisions and prejudices, i think we can all maturely agree that the best use of melodica was not actually on an augustus pablo album, despite his ferocious playing, but at the end of u-roy’s dread in a babylon. another inarguable thing is that those pictures of u-roy on the back cover are reggae’s only use of drug photographs that’s both glamorizing and also a caricature of an ad council warning not to get lost in a metaphoric (or literal!) cloud of smoke.

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January 17

#893: the band - rocking chair (festival express, 1970)

not liking the band is like not liking human virtue. it is disliking childhood and the sun. it is exactly like disliking comfort, foothills, telecasters, tobacco, oceans, and your better parent. it would be like disliking brassieres and brasseries at the same time. it is disliking accordions, chairs, and half-sour pickles pickled by your friend’s smiley older sister. it is disliking geriatric beards. it is disliking mint, oyster sauce and soil, and old hats. and salt.

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January 16

#892: john coltrane, mccoy tuner, jimmy garrison & elvin jones - alabama (1963)

this is the song that john coltrane played in rhythm to martin luther king’s funeral speech for three of the girls who were killed by the bomb in the 16th street baptist church in burmingham in 1963. “history has proven over and over again that unmerited suffering is redemptive. the innocent blood of these little girls may well serve as a redemptive force (yeah) that will bring new light to this dark city. (yeah) the holy scripture says ‘a little child shall lead them.’ (oh yeah) the death of these little children may lead our whole southland (yeah) from the low road of man’s inhumanity to man to the high road of peace and brotherhood,” he said. “good night, those who symbolize a new day (yeah, yes) and may the flight of angels (that’s right) take thee to thy eternal rest.”

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January 11
the litigable banana

the litigable banana

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#891: john cale - i keep a close watch (1983, germany)

bloomberg news, don jeffrey, jan 11 2012: the velvet underground sued the andy warhol foundation, accusing it of infringing the trademark for the banana design on the cover of the rock group’s first album in 1967. the band’s founders, lou reed and john cale, said that the foundation infringed the design by licensing it to third parties, according to the complaint filed today in federal court in manhattan. the warhol foundation claimed it has a copyright interest in the design, according to the lawsuit. the velvet underground partnership said in the complaint that the design can’t be copyrighted because it’s in the public domain. the banana image warhol furnished for the illustration came from an advertisement that was in the public domain, according to the complaint. the illustration appeared on the album cover without a copyright notice and no one sought to copyright it, according to the complaint. that put the design in the public domain, the group said… 

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January 10
let’s shed a tear for eddie hazel’s album covers. and a second for his parliament-funkadelic guitar playing. and a third for his album covers.

let’s shed a tear for eddie hazel’s album covers. and a second for his parliament-funkadelic guitar playing. and a third for his album covers.

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#890: parliament-funkadelic - p. funk (wants to get funked up) (1976, live in houston)

how appropriate that these five minutes begin softly and dimly and end in the bright flashes of all-encompassing funk. because george clinton’s intergalactic army found the road from lifelessness and silence to the great ear-bopping bang. to the aqua-boogieing, space-wiggling, affair-motoring, rubbery flashes of truth and goodness! funk for humanity, and funk for those devoid of funk! funk from trombones stretching across all seas! funk for all ages! loving funk that loves all! universal funk!

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