Confessions of a Fanboy

31 albums made their Billboard 200 chart debut, and George Strait came out on top. There are at least 166,000 people not depressed by that fact. I am not one of them. Troubador, or True Bore, as I like to call it, is his fourth #1 album
R.E.M. came in second place […]

Filed under: Billboard Beatdown, Counting Crows, R.E.M., Rolling Stones | 5 Comments »

We’ve all got those time and place songs. I’ve written about several of mine on this site, and that doesn’t even scratch the surface. When I decided to start collecting a few of the Beatle solo records, I knew that George Harrison’s 1979 self-titled album was going to have to be one […]

Filed under: Billboard Beatdown, George Harrison | 5 Comments »

“You know what the news is, well this is my news and you are welcome to it.”
–Keith Larson
Now that we know who our 2007 BMA winners are, what do we think about it?
The big stories of the night were Charlie Musselwhite’s dominance and the shutout of Watermelon Slim. I admit mild surprise […]

Filed under: Billboard Beatdown, Charlie Musselwhite, Otis Rush, Watermelon Slim | 2 Comments »

Given to Fly

Among my many amazing talents is the ability to find a song for every occasion or situation. TheWifeToWhomI’mMarried had just taken her literature final and was telling me about some of the stories she liked best from the semester. One of those was “A Very Old Man With Enormous […]

Filed under: Billboard Beatdown, Pearl Jam | 4 Comments »

Guster -
“Hang On”

“No one seems to know just who to follow anymore.”
It’s interesting line, that. It’s not always popular to espouse the idea that any of us should be following anyone or anything.
Let’s back up for a second. Here’s the opening couplet:
“Here we are inside a novel waiting for […]

Filed under: Billboard Beatdown, Guster | No Comments »

“Breed”

Nothing says “Breed” like Major League Baseball.
Some co-conspirators and I spent some time recently kicking around the whole “selling out” debate. When discussing it, I took the position that an artist was entitled to do whatever they wanted to do with their song and it shouldn’t change my feelings towards it. […]

Filed under: Billboard Beatdown, Nirvana | 4 Comments »

I don’t know what “Anna Begins” is about- not exactly. I can’t follow Adam Duritz’s lyrical labyrinth- not exactly.

“Anna Begins”

None of that really matters, because I know exactly what “Anna Begins” does to me when I listen to it. It destroys me. It creates a lump in my […]

Filed under: Billboard Beatdown | No Comments »

I’ve had this one written for awhile, but decided to hold off on any Nirvana-speak until after the anniversary of his death had passed. I did listen to some Nirvana as well as some Alice in Chains around that time, but I did that of my own accord. Now that some […]

Filed under: Billboard Beatdown, Nirvana | 11 Comments »

Some mornings I have a specific song in my head when I wake up. Some mornings, I feel the need to ease in to my day and I will look for something sonically gentle. Then there are mornings like today when I feel the need for an anthem.
The first one that came to […]

Filed under: Billboard Beatdown, Bruce Springsteen | 11 Comments »

One of these days I am going to put together one of those “Ultimate Highway Companion Road Trip” playlists, and when I do you can pretty well guarantee this song will be on it. The name alone makes it fun, but there is more to this song than a quality nonsense title.
The […]

Filed under: Billboard Beatdown, Joe Satriani | 3 Comments »