30 May Matador Playlist(s) 5/21/15 – 5/28/15
That guy in the photograph above—his name is Dave—is someone who I have never met but I spent a portion of my day with him, five nights a week, for about thirty years. He’s older than me me by a good bit but in a way we sorta growed up together. It’s interesting how much you can come to feel that you know someone that you’ve never actually met. It seems likely that this notion—a popular one—is a complete fantasy, for how often does one find out that one doesn’t even really know the people that one has met, like the people one is related to or romantically involved with? On the other hand, I have long been intrigued with the notion that perhaps one can, in fact, get a more accurate impression of a person through their work than you might be able to obtain through direct contact. Perhaps the public expression of the private person can offer the more precise insight into the nature of the individual than we might expect. Is it possible that listening to the music of John Lennon or studying the paintings of Mark Rothko or reading the works of Thomas Bernhard might give us a more accurate portrait of who they really were than one would be able to get if one actually met the person and their personality got in the way? Or is the opposite more likely to be true? I mean, in the end, who the hell really knows anybody?? Tis an conundrum, Gentle Reader(s), an conundrum indeed.
But back to that gap-toothed Dave feller. Good corn-fed Midwestern boy. Has a mom named Dorothy, just like Your Humble Narrator. He had a television show that, since I was about 21 years old, I was rather addicted to. When the show first appeared it was revelatory for its anarchic spirit and freewheeling absurdist sense of humor. I felt that the people who were behind that show were my kind of people—they were speaking my language. The show had a rocking little house combo (“The World’s Most Dangerous Band”) with the perennial Paul Shaffer and Will Lee on keyboards and bass, respectively, accompanied by the late, great shoeless Hiram Bullock on guitar and Steve Jordan on drums—a classic funky in-the-pocket style skin man. Over time, the show moved from NBC to CBS and became significantly slicker and more staid. The funky little four-piece rock n’ roll combo evolved into the eight-piece CBS Orchestra and Paul Shaffer became increasingly partial to over-the-top glam Doc Severinsen-inspired outfits. The writing became more tame and the surrealist bent that characterized the show’s first two decades diminished steadily. Appearances by the irregular cast of wacky characters, both inside and outside of the Ed Sullivan Theater (Larry Bud Melman, Rupert Jee, Mujibur and Sirajul, etc. etc.), declined steadily as well. The guests veered away from the obscure, bizarre and argumentative (Manny the Hippie, Brother Theodore, Harvey Pekar, etc. etc.) and eventually even long-term mainstays like Tony Mendez (star of the webtastic Tony Mendez Show, along with naughty Dave’s mistress, Stephanie Birkitt) disappeared from the fold.
But still, regardless of how pared down the show’s signature mania became, Letterman was ALWAYS head and shoulders above middle-brow slobs like Jay Leno. The whole notion of how Dave ‘lost’ the late night fight to the perpetual ratings leader Leno is simply absurd. I don’t wish to be mean spirited, but who cares if Joe and Josephine Shithead liked Leno more than Dave? That’s the whole goddam point!! Celebrating the utter cluelessness of Leno’s dimwit audience became a regular feature of the Tonight Show with its depressing, desperately un-funny “Jaywalking” segment. I accidentally saw it once and it made me ill. Letterman was too smart, too snarky, too funny for the vast, great unwashed to even begin to appreciate.
Who else but Dave could have brought back late night television after 9/11? Who else could have spoken to America with the honesty and heartbreak that Dave brought to the show that night? How could any musical guest other than the completely unexpected Tori Amos have broken our hearts a million times over with her rendition of Tom Waits’ Time? How the hell did she manage to sing that song—a song which suddenly seemed so perfect to the timelessly tragic occasion—without completely breaking down? I was crying like a baby in amazement. It was utterly shattering and utterly perfect. Late Night with David Letterman and The Late Show with David Letterman were New York shows, all the way. New York, baby. Screw L.A., screw Jay Leno. He’s a footnote. A boring fucking footnote. As the New York Times most aptly put it, Leno won the ratings but lost the legacy.
So here are my Dave stories. Back in 1984, when Dave was still at NBC, I took the NBC studio tour at Rockefeller Center. We saw the studio where Dave taped the show but I didn’t get any further than that. The NBC page who was our guide was taking our group down a hallway when he pointed out that the late, great Don Pardo was in an adjacent studio that had a window that fronted on the hallway we were passing through. The page knocked on the glass and Don turned and waved to everyone. He held up a finger to indicate ‘Wait a sec’ and scribbled furiously on a sheet of paper he had on a clipboard. He held the clipboard up the glass and it read ‘The page is picking your pockets!!’ Very cool. I bought a Dave sweatshirt and treasured it for long, long time, joe.
Years later, around 2000 or so, I was back in the city and my pal and beisbol bud extraordinaire Dougy Wuggy was in town as well. Dougy had never been to New York before–his first trip! What a gas! I wish I could have my first trip to New York all over again. Anyway, I was Dougy Wuggy’s tour guide for his First Goddam Trip to New York City and I was determined to make it cool. We were going to hit it hard and one of our stops had to be Times Square before we headed downtown to McSorley’s and on to Chinatown for soup dumplings at Joe’s Shanghai on Pell Street and Battery Park. So there we were, standing at the corner of something like 48th Street and Broadway and I’m saying, ‘Dougy Wuggy–this is Times Square!’ and a guy walks up to us with a clipboard and says ‘Hi guys, how are you today?’ I think he’s some sort of huckster so I’m pretty standoffish at first, and then he announces that he works for The Late Show with David Letterman and that they’ve got some empty seats for the taping that afternoon and would we like to attend? WOULD I FUCKING LIKE TO ATTEND????? Does the Pope shit in the woods? HELL yeah!! But then I remembered, I got Dougy Wuggy here–his first trip to the city! ‘When is the taping,’ I inquired. In about two hours time, and we would have to be in the studio a good 45 minutes ahead of time and the taping would take about two hours. It broke my heart, but I had to say no. Dougy Wuggy and his NYC debut had to take precedence: We simply could not set aside our whirlwind tour of Manhattan to hang around Times Square for the next three hours. Not even for Dave. It was beyond tough, it was killingly tough, but I said no and we headed downtown. That was my one and only opportunity to hang with Dave. I passed it up and I yam filled with regret to this very day, but I did it for purely altruistic reasons. My place in Heaven is secure.
So, the point is, thank you, Dave. Thanks for all the laffs and for thirty-plus years of the best free entertainment that money could buy. Fare thee well, Dave—we hardly knew ye…
Oh–playlists… righty right. Here they are.
May 21, 2015
Grammar of Life – Charles Bukowski
It’s Raining – Irma Thomas
Slow – Tricky
The Regulator – Bad Brains
Save Me From What I Want – St. Vincent
Egg Man – Beastie Boys
Strawberry Fields Forever – the Beatles
Sunglasses After Dark – the Cramps
Rock You Like A Hurricane – the Scorpions
Purple Haze – the Cure
Machine Gun Etiquette – the Damned
The Drag – Ty Segall
Anarchy In The U.K. – the Sex Pistols
I’m Not Like Everybody Else – the Kinks
Used To Love Her – Voodoo Glow Skulls
Hot for Teacher – Van Halen
Frankenstein Twist – the Crystals
Once In A Lifetime – Talking Heads
Jump, Jive an Wail – Louis Prima
Brown Sugar – the Rolling Stones (request)
The Letter – PJ Harvey
The Letter (live) – Joe Cocker
Wolf Like Me – TV On the Radio
Roadhouse Blues (live) – the Doors (request)
Neon Jesus – Crocodiles
Custard Pie – Led Zeppelin
I Wanna Meet Dave Grohl – Wavves
Everlong – Foo Fighters
Rock n’ Roll Nigger – Patti Smith
Drifters – Paul Weller
Baby, I Love You – Aretha Franklin
Fire Woman – the Cult
Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick – Ian Dury & the Blockheads
See My Friends – the Kinks
Gone Daddy Gone – Violent Femmes
The World Is A Ghetto – War
What We All Want – Gang of Four
Communication Breakdown – Led Zeppelin
Meet Ze Monsta – PJ Harvey
Waiting On A Dream – Lee Ranaldo
Is Anybody Going To San Antone – Texas Tornados
The Kids Are Alright – the Who
Cabbage Alley – the Meters
One Wing – Wilco
Hang You From the Heavens – the Dead Weather
The Have Nots – X
China Girl – David Bowie
Forget You All The Time – Cloud Nothings
Ex Lion Tamer – Wire
So You Want To Be A Rock n’ Roll Star – the Byrds
Gonna Hitchhike Down to Cincinnati & Kick The Shit Out of Your Drunk Daddy – Nashville Pussy
Francene – ZZ Top
No Language In Our Lungs – XTC
Jet Black Girls – OFF!
O Katrina! – Black Lips
Gold Lion (Diplo Remix) – Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The Shock of the Lightning – Oasis
Black Mold – Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Heart Full of Soul – the Yardbirds
Maggie Mae – the Pietasters
Power To The People – John Lennon & the Plastic Ono Band
Angela – Jarvis Cocker
Is She Really Going Out With Him? – Joe Jackson
Albuquerque – Neil Young
Everything Sux – Descendents
Get With It – Charlie Feathers
Home By Now – Bombay Bicycle Club
War Pigs/Luke’s Wall – Black Sabbath
Surfin’ USA – the Beach Boys
Hang Loose – Alabama Shakes
Love Song – the Damned
Lark’s Tongue In Aspic – King Crimson
Gimme Shelter – the Rolling Stones
See No Evil – Television
Rat In The Kitchen – UB40
Soul Kitchen – the Doors
World Without Tears – Lucinda Williams
Buona Sera – Louis Prima
Happy Trails – Roy Rogers & Dale Evans (feat. Trigger on autoharp)
Taxi – Bryan Ferry
May 28, 2015
Grammar of Life – Charles Bukowski
Feel – Big Star
Lupine Ossuary – Thee Oh Sees
Salute Your Solution – the Raconteurs
Hotrod Vampires – Demented Are Go
I Lost It – Lucinda Williams
Get Off – the Dandy Warhols
I Got It (What You Need) – Galactic
Demon to Lean On – Wavves
A Fruitfly In The Beehive – Gang of Four
Walkin The Floor Over You – Ernest Tubb
The Good Rebel – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
Blue Boy – Orange Juice
Pictures of Lily – the Who
Living In America – James Brown
High Fashion Queen – Chris Hillman & Steve Earle
Web – Thee Oh Sees
Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today) – the Neville Brothers
Redneck Friend – Jackson Browne
The Mad Daddy – the Cramps
Stranger In The House – Elvis Costello
Pipeline (live) – Agent Orange
Guitars, Cadillacs – Dwight Yoakam
Rabbits Foot – Turbowolf
You Say You Don’t Love Me – Buzzcocks
Bull Black Nova – Wilco
Who Dat? – the Jury
Transmission – Joy Division
Deep Down – Calexico
Now (RAC Remix) – Mates of State & RAC
Use Somebody – Kings of Leon (for Brother Phil! He wanted to KILL me!)
She Things – Submachine
Lies – SkyBombers
Joe Strummer’s Grave – Wild Billy Childish & the Musicians of the British Empire
Hots On For Nowhere – Led Zeppelin
I Got Nothing – Dum Dum Girls
Bad Baby – Public Image, Ltd.
Lithium – Nirvana
Adios Mexico – Texas Tornados (for il Sicario)
Why Can’t I Touch It? – Buzzcocks
The Punk and the Godfather – the Who
Freedom of Choice – Devo
Train In Vain – the Clash
Blitzkrieg Bop – the Ramones
Rock and Roll All Nite – Kiss
Kung Fu Fighting – Carl Douglas Burning Down the House – Talking Heads
The Hand That Feeds – Nine Inch Nails
Traveling Riverside Blues – Led Zeppelin
Mrs. Robinson – the Lemonheads
Hard To Explain – the Strokes
Cure for Pain – Morphine
Just Can’t Get Enough – Depeche Mode
Tick Tick Boom – the Hives
Smoke On The Water – Deep Purple
Bales of Cocaine – Reverend Horton Heat
Strychnine – the Sonics
Something’s Gone Wrong Again – Buzzcocks
Trapped By A Thing Called Love – Denise La Salle
Hang You From The Heavens – the Dead Weather
Freak Scene – Dinosaur, Jr.
Babe I’m Gonna Leave You – Led Zeppelin
If You Could Read Your Mind – Clinic
Shed No Tears – Flipper
Hong Kong Garden – Siouxsie & the Banshees
From the Ritz to the Rubble – Arctic Monkeys
Life On Mars? – David Bowie
Cool Scene – the Dandy Warhols
Brass In Pocket – the Pretenders
Green River – Creedence Clearwater Revival (for Iris)
Always A Friend – Alejandro Escovedo
Cookie Thumper! – Die Antwoord
Sixteen (feat. David Bowie on piano) – Iggy Pop
Southern Girls – Cheap Trick
Future Starts Slow – the Kills
American Girl – Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
Carnation – the Jam
World Without Tears – Lucinda Williams
Buona Sera – Louis Jordan
Happy Trails – Roy Rogers & Dale Evans (feat. Trigger on virtual oboe)
Taxi – Bryan Ferry
