max abelson's super groovy music video spectacular

fine videos daily:
1960s on mon
1970s on tues
1980s on wed
1990s on thurs
2000s on fri


i'm a journalist at bloomberg news, here's recent work


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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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if you happen to find these very heavy and tar colored skies a little bit oppressive, take refuge in the only immaculately wonderful florida-related archive in the world, which i stumbled into accidentally an hour ago trying to find jean ritchie albums to download. 
the sunshine state’s official archives includes something called the folklife collection, it turns out. for starters it has full, free, exceedingly well organized and hilariously beautiful recordings from the florida folk festival, going back to 1954. (the 15-cent program covers are included too, somehow.)
and to make things even easier the wise and kind florida archivists—bless your souls, you floridians—made five complications from the years and years of the festivals: 
—shall we gather at the river, which has gospel groups whose names sound like fake bands joanna newsom would go under for secret shows, like the florida-alabama progressive seven-shape note singing convention.
—where the palm trees shake at night, with lots of creaky and astonishing guitar playing (especially from someone named emmett murray).
—look a-yonder comin’, which closes with his holiness norman blake singing about the elbow room in heaven, with his wife.
—the straightforwardly titled music from the florida folklife collection, which has at least two jaw-in-the-basement songs from children: the carver elementary school singing and clapping about a “sissy in the barn,” and 11-year-old little benny cox with the suwannee river jamboree boys complaining about marriage.
—and then more music from the florida folklife collection, which might be my favorite, on account of it having the jean ritchie song i was looking for in the first place, plus bill monroe, the stanley brothers, doc watson, and, best of all, a couple named richard and lillie williams, whom i’d never heard of before. they beat everyone else.

if you happen to find these very heavy and tar colored skies a little bit oppressive, take refuge in the only immaculately wonderful florida-related archive in the world, which i stumbled into accidentally an hour ago trying to find jean ritchie albums to download. 

the sunshine state’s official archives includes something called the folklife collection, it turns out. for starters it has full, free, exceedingly well organized and hilariously beautiful recordings from the florida folk festival, going back to 1954. (the 15-cent program covers are included too, somehow.)

and to make things even easier the wise and kind florida archivists—bless your souls, you floridians—made five complications from the years and years of the festivals: 

shall we gather at the river, which has gospel groups whose names sound like fake bands joanna newsom would go under for secret shows, like the florida-alabama progressive seven-shape note singing convention.

where the palm trees shake at night, with lots of creaky and astonishing guitar playing (especially from someone named emmett murray).

look a-yonder comin’, which closes with his holiness norman blake singing about the elbow room in heaven, with his wife.

—the straightforwardly titled music from the florida folklife collection, which has at least two jaw-in-the-basement songs from children: the carver elementary school singing and clapping about a “sissy in the barn,” and 11-year-old little benny cox with the suwannee river jamboree boys complaining about marriage.

—and then more music from the florida folklife collection, which might be my favorite, on account of it having the jean ritchie song i was looking for in the first place, plus bill monroe, the stanley brothers, doc watson, and, best of all, a couple named richard and lillie williams, whom i’d never heard of before. they beat everyone else.

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#464: randy newman - my old kentucky home (live in germany, 1975)

it’s like a whorehouse’s pianola and eudora welty’s short stories had a jewish baby who whistled stephen foster songs and could rhyme dandelion with turpentine, then add wine to make a ray bradbury reference. i swear, one day i’ll have a daughter named susan and a son named randy, just so he can say: “sister sue, she’s short and stout/ she didn’t grow up she grew out/ mama says she’s plain, she’s just being kind/ papa thinks she’s pretty but he’s almost blind.”

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#420: kate and anna mcgarrigle, rufus wainwright, emmylou harris, mary black, karen matheson and rod paterson - hard times (1995)

in 1854, the crimean war started, the broad street cholera outbreak killed 500 because of one water pump, the sinking of the rms tayleur killed 380, the great fire of newcastle and gateshead killed 53, the republican party was founded, the missouri compromise was rescinded, leading to the bloody kansas catastrophe, friedrich eduard beneke disappeared, charles dickens published hard times and stephen foster starting writing hard times come again no more, which is sadder than all the others combined.

wars, fires, sea wrecks, outbreaks, and republicans don’t matter when godly emmylou harris sings about “a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away, with a worn heart whose better days are over.”

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stephen foster died at age 37 with 38 cents and a scrap of paper in his pocket that said, “dear friends and gentle hearts.”

stephen foster died at age 37 with 38 cents and a scrap of paper in his pocket that said, “dear friends and gentle hearts.”

Comments (View)