The World’s A Mess, It’s In My Kiss (Matador Playlist[s] 6/9/16 + 6/16/16 + 7/7/16)

08 Jul The World’s A Mess, It’s In My Kiss (Matador Playlist[s] 6/9/16 + 6/16/16 + 7/7/16)

Posted at 06:46h in Music, Playlist, Uncategorized by inkyinkinc

A thousand pardons are begged of you, Gentle Reader(s), for the regrettable paucity of postage as of late. The usual distractions of travel, beisbol, work, beisbol and more travel have been in play with the addition of summertime bicycular activities, the inevitable result being that time spent wracking of the brain and pounding of the keys has suffered. Back in early June I was getting ready to add my two centimes worth of sentiment regarding the passing of the great Muhammad Ali when events such as the horrific massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando and the mind boggling Brexit vote across the pond came crashing down. Next thing you know you’re wallowing about in a bewildering swampy slosh of WTFs?? and OMGs!! for which there are no answers and no easy explanations. A bit overwhelming. I attended the Orlando vigil on the Santa Fe Plaza on Monday the 13th, presided over by our estimable Mayor Javier Gonzales and I felt that it did some good. It was a display of solidarity and community in the face of hate and intolerance—a display only, perhaps, but better than doing nothing at all.

As of this writing, on the night of July 7th, the past 72 hours have seen Alton Sterling shot dead by the cops in front of a convenience store in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile blown to kingdom come by the police in a car in Minnesota, dying before our eyes on a live Facebook feed narrated by his girlfriend with her 4-year-old daughter witnessing the horror from the back seat. It’s almost beyond belief. Or, worse perhaps, all too believable. And tonight from Dallas comes the news that five police officers have been murdered by snipers at a rally to protest the killings of Sterling and Castile. What the FUCK is going on out there?????? And if these horrors weren’t way more than enough on their own we still have Shithead Trump spewing ever more hateful sewage, Bill Clinton instigating an entirely inappropriate meeting with the Attorney General on the tarmac at the Phoenix airport and the FBI’s scathing report on Hillary’s wildly inappropriate use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State. Aren’t these people (two out of three at least) supposed to be smart?? Aren’t they supposed to think before they do stupid shit?? How about just not doing stupid shit at all—was that not an option?? I certainly don’t expect any sort of common sense or decency from that evil racist fuck Trump but I do expect it of the Clintons. Am I totally naive? Is it really too late to nominate Bernie? Speaking of which, we have two political conventions to go this month and the national atmosphere could scarcely be more toxic. 1968 anyone?? I have the feeling that it’s going to be a long, hot summer and it’s only just begun.

So, I turn to Exene Cervenka and her poetic, pithy, poignant and prescient assertion, over 30 years ago, that the World’s A Mess:

no one is united
all things are untied
perhaps we’re boiling over inside
they’ve been telling lies
who’s been telling lies?

there are no angels
there are devils in many ways
take it like a man

the world’s a mess, it’s in my kiss

So, events have more or less overtaken me, but for better or worse here’s the bit I wrote about Muhammad Ali a few weeks ago:

Time to say a few words about Muhammad Ali. There are few passings that could be more significant than that of this most singular man. Ali was and will forever be remembered as one of the most remarkable people of the 20th century. Despite all of the points of contention he had with the country of his birth he remained a proud and patriotic American, but, ultimately, he belonged to the world. Back in the analog 1970s his was determined to be the most recognizable face on the planet. You could go to rural China, deepest Africa, the Amazonian rain forest, the Siberian steppe, and if shown a photograph of that amazing face the natives would smile and say ‘Ali!’ He was, of course, an exceptionally gifted athlete—undoubtedly the Greatest, as he never hesitated to proclaim—but he was so much more than that. The superlatives tend to run out well before one can give the man his full due.

Growing up in New Orleans in the 1960s and ’70s, in a predominately African American neighborhood in a predominately African American city, Ali was omnipresent. He was in the news almost without cease from the time he burst onto the international scene as a brash young gold medalist in the 1960 Olympics in Rome. From his early days as the Louisville Lip Ali grew into the primary protagonist of the late golden age of professional boxing, doing battle in the squared circle with the likes of Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Sonny Liston, Ken Norton, Larry Holmes, Leon Spinks and others. Sometimes they beat Ali, but mostly Ali beat them.

Ali fought at the Superdome in New Orleans in 1978—a rematch with Leon Spinks that broke attendance records but which is widely regarded as an uninspired and ill-advised fight. Be that as it may, Ali won the bout further cementing his place in history as the first to reclaim the heavyweight championship for a third time. So far as I know, it was the closest I ever came to the man himself—a distance of about three miles. The closest I guess I’ve ever felt to the man himself was probably the first time I watched Leon Gast’s Academy Award winning 1996 documentary film When We Were Kings. This exceptional film documents Ali’s 1974 ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ fight in Zaire in which he took on George Foreman—a formidable foe who was considered to be all but unstoppable. If you have never seen this movie I encourage you to seek it out ASAP to experience a document of the the Greatest in his prime. Ali is electrifying and there is the added bonus of the musical festival that was staged along with the rumble. The concert footage of James Brown, B.B. King and Miriam Makeba alone is worth the effort.

Matador Playlist 6/9/16

Grammar of Life – Charles Bukowski
Look-Ka-Py Py – the Meters
It’s A Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock n’ Roll) – AC/DC
Warm Leatherette – the Normal
I’m A Ramblin’ Man – Waylon Jennings
I Don’t Wanna Hear It – Minor Threat
Trapped By A Thing Called Love – Denise La Salle
Take Up Thy Stethoscope and Walk – Pink Floyd
Void You Out – OFF!
Bartender’s Blues – George Jones
Shiftless When Idle – the Replacements
May the Living Be Dead (In Our Wake) – Flogging Molly
Custard Pie – Led Zeppelin
We Won’t Tolerate It Anymore – Run Like Hell
Come On Eileen – Dexy’s Midnight Runners
The Never Ending Why – Placebo
Cosmic Slop – Funkadelic
Make Some Noise – the Beastie Boys
Wouldn’t It Be Nice – the Beach Boys
I Don’t Want To Be the One to Say It – Leatherface
Hey Bulldog – the Beatles
Atmosphere – Joy Division
Wiggle Stick – Rev. Horton Heat
After the Lights Go Out – Channel 3
What’d I Say, Pts. 1 & 2 – Ray Charles
Police & Thieves – the Clash
Most of My Heroes Still Don’t Appear on No Stamp (feat. Z-Trip) – Public Enemy
Neighbor, Neighbor – ZZ Top
Let’s Have A War – Fear
Victoria – the Kinks
Breakdown – Buzzcocks
That’s Right – Ghostland Observatory
Underwater Moonlight – the Soft Boys
Keith Case – the Get Up Kids
George Jones Talkin’ Cell Phone Blues – Drive-By Truckers
The Letter – the Box Tops
Quiet Dog – Mos Def
Bad Believer – St. Vincent
The Nights of Wine and Roses – Japandroids
Narcotic Prayer – Chris Whitley
Facet Squared – Fugazi
(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes – Elvis Costello
How Many More Times – Led Zeppelin
The Passenger – Iggy Pop
I’d Rather Be Sleeping – D.R.I.
Cowboy Song – Thin Lizzy (please forgive the Ted ‘Shithead’ Nugent intro)
Bug – Wavves
Chinese Rocks – Richard Hell
Live Forever – Black Sabbath
Boys Don’t Cry – the Cure
Roadhouse Blues – the Doors
Believe Me – Beastie Boys
Wasted Days and Wasted Nights – Freddy Fender
Rebel Rebel – David Bowie
Double It (feat. Big Freedia) – Galactic
TV Set – the Cramps
Elliptical – the Blisters
The Love You Save – Jackson 5
Come On, Let’s Go – Girl In A Coma
I Got You (At the End of the Century) – Wilco
In The City – the Jam
Mess Around – Ray Charles
Island In The Sun – Weezer
Neat Neat Neat – the Damned
Tighten Up – the Black Keys
Somebody to Love – Jefferson Airplane
The KKK Took My Baby Away – the Ramones
Fortunate Son – Creedence Clearwater Revival
How Soon Is Now? (live) – Morrissey
Son Of A Gun – the Vaselines
Get Up Offa That Thing – James Brown
Monsters In the Parasol – Queens of the Stone Age
What You Need – INXS
Surfin’ With Satan – the Creepniks
Feud – Band of Horses
Stoned To Death – Crocodiles
Rush – Big Audio Dynamite
Fun Fun Fun – Big Boys
Love In Action – Utopia
The 32nd of December – Babyshambles
The Mad Daddy – Cramps
Ashes – Pussywarmers
I Want More – Bangs
Lamplight – Bombay Bicycle Club
Heart Skipped A Beat – The XX
Always For You – the Album Leaf
Love and Happiness – Rev. Al Green
Heroes – David Bowie
World Without Tears – Lucinda Williams
Buona Sera – Louis Prima
Happy Trails – Roy Rogers & Dale Evans (feat. Trigger on Heffalumpaphone)
Taxi – Bryan Ferry