Somebody to love

We're drawing dangerously close to the point where kiddies refer to SSS as "music geezers talking about music geezers.'' But how could we not mention the 70th birthday of Grace Slick?

I know, I know. Spoils it for me, too. Grace Slick was too sexy, surly and snarly good to get old. When we listen to "White Rabbit'' or "Somebody to Love'' we want to think about the former model with the yowly vocals who helped transform Jefferson Airplane into a smoldering rock powerhouse.

Some great musicians came through Airplane, and later Starship. Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, Jorma Kaukonen (who would split and form Hot Tuna with Jack Casady) and Skip Spence (Moby Grape). But the key change came when Slick replaced Signe Anderson at the mic. Can you imagine anyone else delivering the lyrics to those songs?

"White Rabbit'' ushered in the age of psychedelic rock with Slick's mind-altering intro:

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Call Alice
When she was just small

From there she just blows the drawers off the song. She was 27 at the time, and that's the way I'm going to remember her. You can too by viewing this video:

Pssst: Dark Side's still caviar, four star

Our list of favorite albums changes through the years as we hear new music and artists and our musical palettes continually expand. The choices also get harder over time.

Today I would be hard-pressed, after all I've heard, to name a Top 5 -- I'm just not able to be that restrictive and confining with my choices. But I can tell you one album that lived on my list for a very long time:

Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon.''

And I must not have been alone. On this date in 1983 "Dark Side'' became the longest-charting record of all time by racking up its 491st week on Billboard's Hot 200 album chart. It wouldn't slip off the list until it had been there an astounding 741 weeks.

This choice coincided with the purchase in college of a new Pioneer stereo system and top-of-the-line Koss headphones, which made the listening experience deep, dark and deliciously satisfying. (Another album purchased near the same time would also stay on my list for several years: The Doors' "L.A. Woman.'')

"Dark Side'' is almost too obvious to be a Personal Six String Sanctuary Tout (PSSST). But it would make even less sense to ignore it, so there it is, No. 14 on a growing list of music we just plain dig and shouldn't be without.

David Gilmour was not a shitty guitar player, and Roger Waters could write lyrics, as "Money'' attests:

Money, get away
Get a good job with good pay and you're okay
Money, it's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New car, caviar, four star daydream
Think I'll buy me a football team

Money, get back
I'm all right Jack keep your hands off of my stack
Money, it's a hit
Don't give me that do goody good bullshit
I'm in the high-fidelity first class traveling set
And I think I need a Lear jet

Money, it's a crime
Share it fairly but don't take a slice of my pie
Money, so they say
Is the root of all evil today
But if you ask for a raise it's no surprise that they're
giving none away

I've gotta find a new set of headphones.

The corner of North and Swan

"Little Green Apples'' has been recorded by no fewer than 27 artists, but nobody did it better than O.C. Smith.

The sweet Bobby Russell song coulda, shoulda and probably woulda been a No. 1 hit in 1968, if not for the Beatles' "Hey Jude,'' which blocked several contenders during its nine-week run atop the Billboard chart. Even so, it sold a million copies and won a well-deserved Grammy award for Russell. Remember the setup?

And I wake up in the mornin'
With my hair down in my eyes and she says "Hi"
And I stumble to the breakfast table
While the kids are goin' off to school... goodbye
And she reaches out 'n' takes my hand
And squeezes it 'n' says "How ya feelin' hon?"
And I look across at smilin' lips
That warm my heart and see my mornin' sun

The song works because God DID make little green apples, and it DOES snow in Minneapolis when the winter comes. And there ARE such things as make-believe, puppy dogs and autumn leaves and BB guns.

I'm tapping this out while sipping a cup of joe at Alterra, corner of North Avenue and Swan Boulevard in Wauwatosa, my new hometown. Wauwatosa is a Potawatomi name for firefly. The locals just call it Tosa, which suits me just fine.

The leaves here, by the way, are in full color and I just met a puppy dog named Reggie. A nearly perfect day.

Remember when football was violent?

Before we get back to music, a few words about Ultimate Fighting Championships. Have you seen this? It's scary stuff.

We went to a major chain sports restaurant Saturday night to watch some college football and have a bite to eat. There weren't many good, competitive evening games so we didn't think it would be a problem finding a seat in the place. The American League Championship Series game in New York had been rained out, so no baseball either.

Before we could get to the bar we had to find a parking spot outside, which proved nearly impossible. I had never seen so many cars parked outside the restaurant. Finally inside, there was not a single stool at the bar -- and this is the biggest sports sports bar I've ever been in.

While waiting to be seated at a corner table in the jam-packed restaurant we looked around to see what was being shown on the jumbo TV screens. It was frightening. More than half of the 40 or so sets were tuned to UFC. This was fight night, and the rabid crowd had come to drink and cheer for blood and mayhem.

It's this way every Saturday night, we were told by the waitress who finally seated us in a little cubby off the bar. We couldn't ask her to change the set nearest us because a pack of juiced up viewers was watching UFC, cheering as if Tennessee was lining up to attempt a winning field goal try against Alabama. (OK, this isn't SEC country, but since when do you go to a sports bar on Saturday and not expect to see the best football games available?)

I'm not here to debate the value or legitimacy of UFC -- a form of no holds barred, mixed martial arts fighting where competitors basically tee off on each other and blood squirts everywhere. "Human cock fighting'' it has been called by legislators who have attempted to ban it. I just can't help but believe some kids who watch this stuff over drinks don't think they can take care of any problem in the parking lot with a sucker punch. But, hey, I'm no psychologist. Maybe football does the same thing.

I miss walking into a sports bar on Saturday to watch a football game and catch a few highlights. When I ask what's happening to society I already know the answer. Some of us are turning into old farts who stubbornly hold on to traditions and societal values that are sadly slipping away.

Destination Pearl Harbor

Here she is, friends, the USS O'Kane. Zach's new ride.

This is quite a step up from my kid's Chevy pickup. She's a destroyer, 505 feet long with nearly 7,000 tons of displacement. She has a cruising speed of 30 knots and a range of 4,400 miles, with a complement of 23 officers and 300 enlisted men.

And her home is Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Zach just received his orders and he'll be shipping there soon for his first assigment as a seaman. Way to go, kid.

Richard O'Kane was a sub commander whose heroic exploits in World War II are well documented. In five patrols in the Pacific aboard the legendary USS Tang he wreaked havoc on the enemy, sinking a record 31 vessels and damaging two others. He was also credited with the recovery at sea of more than 20 downed airmen.

The Tang was eventually stopped by an errant torpedo that sank the sub and caused the deaths of all but eight sailors. O'Kane, who was thrown from the deck into the water by the initial explosion, survived the ordeal but spent the balance of the war in a Japanese prison-of-war camp.

O'Kane, who would rise to the rank of Rear Admiral, received the Medal of Honor, the Purple Heart, the Legion of Merit, the Navy Cross and a slew of other decorations. He died in 1994 at age 83. He's buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Section 59, Grave 874.

He was the kind of sailor they name ships after. The USS O'Kane. Now it means something.

Be safe out there, Zach. You're riding with history.

Old treasures, new beginnings

Cardboard sign says "Yard Sale"
Real estate sign says "sold"
Family picnic table holds all that it can hold
On the grass and on the sidewalk, well there must be half the town
Ain't it funny, how a broken home can bring the prices down

What ever became of Sammy Kershaw?

I ask that after listening to Kershaw's weepy "Yard Sale'' from the 1991 album "Don't Go Near the Water.''

A post at Amazon included this comment about the album: "My very favorite singer of any kind of music is George Jones. And this album will remind people of the type of songs George would sing; not to mention that Sammy's voice is strikingly similar on this album to George's. In fact, I know many people who were fooled. This is EXCELLENT!!!!''

Damn, I never heard this one. How could I have been in the dark for 18 years?

I only brought up "Yard Sale'' because it's Saturday morning and I'm about to make a "garagin' run'' to snag a few functional items for my new pad. But once I started thinking about that Possum-like voice I really did wonder about Sammy.

SSS is happy to report Kershaw is still touring, and proud to be your source for his upcoming schedule:

Nov. 14: Orleans County Fair, Cartersville, Ga.
Nov. 15: Von Braun Civic Center, Huntsville, Ala.
Nov. 20: Peppermill Casino, Wendover, Nev.
Nov. 27: Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity House, Auburn, Ala.
Nov. 28: Hog Creek Ice House, Speegleville, Texas

If I spot a Sammy Kershaw album this morning I hope you know I'll be snapping it up.

One Cadillac short of heaven

Looky here: Somebody who doesn't have 70 or 80 birthday candles to blow out! Dwight Yoakam's working on it, though: He turns 56 today!

We mentioned the Bakersfield sound in a recent blog. Nobody has taken it and run with it like Yoakam, a Kentucky native who grew up in Ohio and made his way to California after an early stint in Nashville didn't pan out.

Although Yoakam is almost always seen with an acoustic guitar in hand, his sound is distinctly Telecaster driven. Credit is due Pete Anderson, a longtime producer and gitarzan who provided the Tele twang on many of Yoakam's records.

This seems the perfect time to mention that "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.'' is one of the greatest country albums of the past 25 years, but barely: it came out in 1986. Let's just say that few artists have come along and topped it.

You might not know it, but underneath that cowboy hat is a bit of punkish allure. Early in his West Coast career Yoakam mixed it up with the Blasters and X, and he toured with the Twin Cities punk progenitors Husker Du. Once "Guitars'' rocketed to No. 1 there was nothing to do but ride that pony, which Yoakam certainly has done.

Included on the album -- Yoakam's first of three consecutive No. 1 sellers -- are a pair of Top 5 singles that'll hold their own against anything that's come out of Nashville since then: "Honky Tonk Man'' and "Guitars, Cadillacs.''

Now it's guitars, cadillacs, hillbilly music
Lonely, lonely streets that I call home
Yea, my guitars, cadillacs, hillbilly music
It's the only thing that keeps me hangin' on

I'm just one Cadillac short of making that work.