Bagwell #16

[Holly]

On the list of "biggest" retires in 2006, according to SI:

The Link

[NeilT]

First baseball player on the list.

[Alkie]

THE Ian Thorpe retired??

My world is shattered.

[Fredia]

finally he gets the respect he is due. bagwell will be missed

[Alkie]

No question.  I bet when he started playing ball his ultimate dream was to finish somewhere in the Top 18 or so of people who retired that year, as reported by SI.com.

[Holly]

I'm relieved that you world was not instead shattered by Martina Navritalova's (sp) retirement.

[Alkie]

I've HEARD of Martina.

[NeilT]

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I'm relieved that you world was not instead shattered by Martina Navritalova's (sp) retirement.

That's Mr. Navritalova to you.  NTTAWWT.

[utastro]

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I'm relieved that you world was not instead shattered by Martina Navritalova's (sp) retirement.

That's Mr. Navritalova to you.  NTTAWWT.

Does she have too many Y chromosomes?

[NeilT]

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I'm relieved that you world was not instead shattered by Martina Navritalova's (sp) retirement.

That's Mr. Navritalova to you.  NTTAWWT.

Does she have too many Y chromosomes?

Doubt it.  It was just a weak joke about her sexual orientation.  Very weak.

[utastro]

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I'm relieved that you world was not instead shattered by Martina Navritalova's (sp) retirement.

That's Mr. Navritalova to you.  NTTAWWT.

Does she have too many Y chromosomes?

Doubt it.  It was just a weak joke about her sexual orientation.  Very weak.

I know, and my reply was a weak joke referring to this The Link

[HudsonHawk]

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On the list of "biggest" retires in 2006, according to SI:

The Link

I wonder how Deion Sanders feels about being almost as big a star athlete as Lindsey Davenport.

[Limey]

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THE Ian Thorpe retired??

My world is shattered.

Thorpedo...done at 24.  Paging Dr. Kavorkian...

[Texifornia]

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On the list of "biggest" retires in 2006, according to SI:

The Link

I wonder how Deion Sanders feels about being almost as big a star athlete as Lindsey Davenport.

That's got to smart.

BTW love Love LOVE your avatar. Best rock and roll almum ever...EVER!

[HudsonHawk]

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BTW love Love LOVE your avatar. Best rock and roll almum ever...EVER!

Thanks.  For the last three years, my avatar has been memorable characters from my favorite movies.  I've decided to start a new thing with my favorite rock and roll album covers.  Since I started with my favorite character in my favorite movie (Michael Corleone from The Godfather), I decided to start with my favorite album.

[Craig]

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BTW love Love LOVE your avatar. Best rock and roll almum ever...EVER!

Thanks.  For the last three years, my avatar has been memorable characters from my favorite movies.  I've decided to start a new thing with my favorite rock and roll album covers.  Since I started with my favorite character in my favorite movie (Michael Corleone from The Godfather), I decided to start with my favorite album.

Great choice. That's my favorite album too.

[Reuben]

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BTW love Love LOVE your avatar. Best rock and roll almum ever...EVER!

Thanks.  For the last three years, my avatar has been memorable characters from my favorite movies.  I've decided to start a new thing with my favorite rock and roll album covers.  Since I started with my favorite character in my favorite movie (Michael Corleone from The Godfather), I decided to start with my favorite album.

Great choice. That's my favorite album too.

Yeah, pretty much all 19 (?) songs on there are excellent, and the whole thing works together amazingly well, despite the relative diversity in style. It's hard to say what my favorite track is- Hateful maybe?

[TangerineDream]

 

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Yeah, pretty much all 19 (?) songs on there are excellent, and the whole thing works together amazingly well, despite the relative diversity in style. It's hard to say what my favorite track is- Hateful maybe?  

I'm going with Spanish Bombs.

[Col. Sphinx Drummond]

I love, London Calling. But. It's not my all time favorite. I've a tough time ranking things as such. It still gets played several times a year. It is a great album. Why quibble? I'm going go with "Lost in the Supermarket" as my favorite track off the LP.

[HudsonHawk]

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I love, London Calling. But. It's not my all time favorite. I've a tough time ranking things as such. It still gets played several times a year. It is a great album. Why quibble? I'm going go with "Lost in the Supermarket" as my favorite track off the LP.

I realize (or realiSe, for you Limey) that London Calling is not everyone's taste.  But for me, it's not only brilliant, but marks a kind of special time in my life.  I was in Jr. High the first time I heard it, and my friends were listening to whatever was popular at the time, Top 40 stuff, the occassional Led Zeppelin or Lynyrd Skynyrd, which I love, but it just didn't grab me at the time.  I wanted something different.  This was also the beginning of the New Wave craze, and the music didn't sound, I don't know, angry enough for me.  When I heard The Clash, it was like a switch going off in my head.  The irony is that I was not a punk in real life, not really rebellious, fairly quiet and obedient.  Perhaps that's why I wanted the opposite in my music.  At any rate, I listen to London Calling probably once a week, and after 25+ years and changing musical tastes, I'm still amazed at how good it is.  For the record, my favorite tune off the album is "Death or Glory" (though I think The Clash's greatest song is "Straight to Hell" off of Combat Rock).

[No? in Austin]

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I love, London Calling. But. It's not my all time favorite. I've a tough time ranking things as such. It still gets played several times a year. It is a great album. Why quibble? I'm going go with "Lost in the Supermarket" as my favorite track off the LP.

I realize (or realiSe, for you Limey) that London Calling is not everyone's taste.  But for me, it's not only brilliant, but marks a kind of special time in my life.  I was in Jr. High the first time I heard it, and my friends were listening to whatever was popular at the time, Top 40 stuff, the occassional Led Zeppelin or Lynyrd Skynyrd, which I love, but it just didn't grab me at the time.  I wanted something different.  This was also the beginning of the New Wave craze, and the music didn't sound, I don't know, angry enough for me.  When I heard The Clash, it was like a switch going off in my head.  The irony is that I was not a punk in real life, not really rebellious, fairly quiet and obedient.  Perhaps that's why I wanted the opposite in my music.  At any rate, I listen to London Calling probably once a week, and after 25+ years and changing musical tastes, I'm still amazed at how good it is.  For the record, my favorite tune off the album is "Death or Glory" (though I think The Clash's greatest song is "Straight to Hell" off of Combat Rock).

Yeah, London Calling saved me.  Yes, I said it.  This was a dark time in music: nothing original in rock and roll, all was tripe rehash.  "Where was the albums that were inspired like Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks?" asked I.  The new Christian (Jesus Rock) music had more flavor to it at the time, guys like Larry Norman and groups like Love Song were better at fresh sounds than the existing rock groups... and much more fun to listen to.  Pop music was starting to assert itself and one could only take so much with sugary music like that.  Disco was on a low swing downward level of it's roller coaster ride (thank goodness, one good thing about that time) and pseudo country western (in Houston) was now the big craze (replace bad with worse).

Screw you John Travolta and the drug store cowboy rage!

I was confused and angry.  None of this was *my* music.  Then it happened.  One night at the Roxy (on Westheimer) and then another night at Numbers (non-gay night... I think it was on a Tuesday night) and I heard the music.  Not just music... *THE* music.  I had to hear more.  I rushed out to a little music store on Shepherd St. right before I-10 (near the original Star Pizza).  There is was... THE music, all for my asking (and paying too).  I ask, "what is the album you recommend."

"London Calling... The Clash" was the reply from the multi earring wearing sales clerk.  "London Calling... London Calling... here it is!"  I found it!  I almost wore the record to death playing it, so I went back and bought the tape cassette to listen to it on my car deck as well.

No more disco, no more pseudo-country western (screw you "Looking for Love In All the Wrong Places" playing FM radio!), no more pop.  THIS was the music I wanted to hear.

I knew now how my oldest sister felt the first time she heard the Beatles.  The second revolution was about to begin and I was ready.  Ironic that the revolution actually begun in American and was on it's way back repackaged and made better by the British and Europeans.  I didn't care.

Bring on the New Wave!

Later, it was "Boy" by U2 that helped make it all so real to me.  Then "The Joshua Tree" replaced "London Calling" and "Boy" as my all-time favorite.  It is hard to replace "Joshua Tree" for me, but "London Calling" will always have a special place in my heart because it all started right there for me!

[Craig]

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I love, London Calling. But. It's not my all time favorite. I've a tough time ranking things as such. It still gets played several times a year. It is a great album. Why quibble? I'm going go with "Lost in the Supermarket" as my favorite track off the LP.

I realize (or realiSe, for you Limey) that London Calling is not everyone's taste.  But for me, it's not only brilliant, but marks a kind of special time in my life.  I was in Jr. High the first time I heard it, and my friends were listening to whatever was popular at the time, Top 40 stuff, the occassional Led Zeppelin or Lynyrd Skynyrd, which I love, but it just didn't grab me at the time.  I wanted something different.  This was also the beginning of the New Wave craze, and the music didn't sound, I don't know, angry enough for me.  When I heard The Clash, it was like a switch going off in my head.  The irony is that I was not a punk in real life, not really rebellious, fairly quiet and obedient.  Perhaps that's why I wanted the opposite in my music.  At any rate, I listen to London Calling probably once a week, and after 25+ years and changing musical tastes, I'm still amazed at how good it is.  For the record, my favorite tune off the album is "Death or Glory" (though I think The Clash's greatest song is "Straight to Hell" off of Combat Rock).

I think "Death or Glory" is my favorite also, though "Four Horsemen" is a close second. But in the last couple of years with all the bullshit Homeland Security laws being passed, "Guns of Brixton" seems relevant again. "When they kick at your front door ..."

[JB77]

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I love, London Calling. But. It's not my all time favorite. I've a tough time ranking things as such. It still gets played several times a year. It is a great album. Why quibble? I'm going go with "Lost in the Supermarket" as my favorite track off the LP.

I realize (or realiSe, for you Limey) that London Calling is not everyone's taste.  But for me, it's not only brilliant, but marks a kind of special time in my life.  I was in Jr. High the first time I heard it, and my friends were listening to whatever was popular at the time, Top 40 stuff, the occassional Led Zeppelin or Lynyrd Skynyrd, which I love, but it just didn't grab me at the time.  I wanted something different.  This was also the beginning of the New Wave craze, and the music didn't sound, I don't know, angry enough for me.  When I heard The Clash, it was like a switch going off in my head.  The irony is that I was not a punk in real life, not really rebellious, fairly quiet and obedient.  Perhaps that's why I wanted the opposite in my music.  At any rate, I listen to London Calling probably once a week, and after 25+ years and changing musical tastes, I'm still amazed at how good it is.  For the record, my favorite tune off the album is "Death or Glory" (though I think The Clash's greatest song is "Straight to Hell" off of Combat Rock).

I think "Death or Glory" is my favorite also, though "Four Horsemen" is a close second. But in the last couple of years with all the bullshit Homeland Security laws being passed, "Guns of Brixton" seems relevant again. "When they kick at your front door ..."

You're obviously a terrorist, hell bent on destroying our freedom. Oh the irony, Orwell had it right.

[chuck]

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(though I think The Clash's greatest song is "Straight to Hell" off of Combat Rock).

HH, you and I have previously discussed our mutual love for London Calling, the greatest rock and roll record in history. [I exclude the Beatles' records because rather than thinking of a Beatles record as a 'rock and roll record' I think of it as a Beatles record.]

It's hard to pick a favorite song, isn't it? I think that mine is probably Revolution Rock. (...and bongo jazz a specialityalityality)

But I saw the Pogues (with Shane) earlier in the week at the Brixton Academy and prior to the band's taking the stage the pre-set music included Straight to Hell. I love that song, too, and I was pretty mesmerized by how it sounded through a giant PA. The song is a lot bigger than you might think if you listen to it only through, for example, the speakers in your car.

Noe, I think you might be referring to the Record Rack. It was on the southeast corner of Shepherd and Alabama.

[Taras Bulba]

"Tres Hombres."

Mas cerveza, por favor.

[Col. Sphinx Drummond]

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"Tres Hombres."

Mas cerveza, por favor.

Now you're talkin'. Or Who's Next, or Let It Bleed, or Absolutely Free, as much as I love London Calling, there are at least 20 or 30 other albums I love equally as much. I really appreciate those who can narrow things down to one album. I never could.

[NeilT]

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"Tres Hombres."

Mas cerveza, por favor.

Now you're talkin'. Or Who's Next, or Let It Bleed, or Absolutely Free, as much as I love London Calling, there are at least 20 or 30 other albums I love equally as much. I really appreciate those who can narrow things down to one album. I never could.

Is that catbox song on London Calling?

I came to London Calling late in my life, but early in it's life.  I was hanging out in Austin, post-college slacking, and hanging out with graduate students in American Studies Who Knew Popular Culture.  Punk had hit hard, but in a Talking Heads/Television/Jonathan Richman sort of way.  I can't listen to it anymore, though the one record that I still can listen to--and found in my daughter's 17-year old record collection--was London Calling.

So, if I had to name my top 5 all-time albums, more or less in order:

The Beatles,  Rubber Soul.  I bought this cheap in Juarez, along with a copy of  Revolver, when I was in high school. I knew Revolver, but I still like Rubber Soul a little better.

Derek and the Dominoes,  Layla I played this record and the next through high school, along with some stuff that now embarrasses.  

George Harrison,  All Things Must Pass.  Wah.  Wah.

The Clash,  London Calling

James Taylor,  Sweet Baby James I abandoned this record for years, but listening to it now makes me remember how startling and how good it was.  There may have been lots of dreck after, but when I was a freshman in high school it made perfect sense.

[Limey]

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BTW love Love LOVE your avatar. Best rock and roll almum ever...EVER!

The title track is my ring tone:  The ice age is coming, the sun's zooming in...

[Limey]

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You're obviously a terrorist, hell bent on destroying our freedom. Oh the irony, Orwell had it right.

Just because raging against the TV wasn't enough, I went back and re-read "1984" for the first time in 25 years.  Before it was just assigned reading, now it's truly terrifying because it's a fucking play book.

Oh, and Merry Christmas everyone.

[Outlawscotty]

 Then theres this......

Big Thanks

[strosrays]

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I love, London Calling. But. It's not my all time favorite. I've a tough time ranking things as such. It still gets played several times a year. It is a great album. Why quibble? I'm going go with "Lost in the Supermarket" as my favorite track off the LP.

I realize (or realiSe, for you Limey) that London Calling is not everyone's taste.  But for me, it's not only brilliant, but marks a kind of special time in my life.  I was in Jr. High the first time I heard it, and my friends were listening to whatever was popular at the time, Top 40 stuff, the occassional Led Zeppelin or Lynyrd Skynyrd, which I love, but it just didn't grab me at the time.  I wanted something different.  This was also the beginning of the New Wave craze, and the music didn't sound, I don't know, angry enough for me.  When I heard The Clash, it was like a switch going off in my head.  The irony is that I was not a punk in real life, not really rebellious, fairly quiet and obedient.  Perhaps that's why I wanted the opposite in my music.  At any rate, I listen to London Calling probably once a week, and after 25+ years and changing musical tastes, I'm still amazed at how good it is.  For the record, my favorite tune off the album is "Death or Glory" (though I think The Clash's greatest song is "Straight to Hell" off of Combat Rock).

Sweet.

I am not sure if London Calling is my favorite, not because of anything to do with quality  (it doesn't get any better than those two vinyl 12-inchers), but because it was so much more than "just" an album, it seemed to me.  As you say, the climate at the time was way too casual, and of course all this shit was going on in England for awhile, but it took a couple of years to reach the U.S.  We kept waiting for something to hit, sort of like a tidal wave coming across the Atlantic.

As someone said, the first time I heard the opening riffs to "London Calling", there wasn't any question any more.  That album put everyone who needed to be on fucking notice, and the excitement and energy from that was so far beyond what one normally got from a record that I have a hard time thinking of it in purely those terms.

My favorite tracks aside from the title tune are probably "Brand New Cadillac" or "Rudie Can't Fail".  Or "Clampdown".  I love the lines "Judge said, 'Five-to-ten'/I said, 'Double that again'/I'm not working for the clampdown".

I remember it was right after hearing London Calling that I heard Gang of Four's Entertainment! or maybe the EP that had "To Hell With Poverty" on it, and "Cheeseburger".  Goddamn.  I used to turn up the feedback noise on "Anthrax" so fucking loud the neighbor downstairs came up and started beating on my door.  He ended up coming in and having a beer, because I told him he had to hear this song called "Damaged Goods". . .

What a time that was.

[Col. Sphinx Drummond]

By 1979 I had already a cynical son of a bitch. I consistantly railed at my friends for embracing the Journeys, Bostons, Kansases, Foreigners, REO Speedwagons, and Asias, while I favored the humourous comentary of artists like Frank Zappa, Devo, and The Tubes. And the outstanding musicianship of artists like Jeff Beck, Mahavishnu Orchestra, King Crimson, Miles Davis, Return to Forever, and Weather Report. I was also really into the post-Pub Rock of Nick Lowe, Graham Parker, Elvis Costello, & Joe Jackson. I thought the Sex Pistols were a mess but I loved The Ramones, The Damned, The Saints and The Clash.

I almost feel left out here, because London Calling really wasn't any kind of revelation for me. It was just a damn good album. I had already been familiar with the band, having owned their first two albums. I think it's great that London Calling was/is a watershed album for so many because music, being such a transcendent medium, is at it's best when it inspires and imbues change. I think it's by far their best album and damn near wore the grooves out of my vinyl copy when it came out. I liked Sandinista! and Combat Rock too but London Calling was their high-water mark.

[HudsonHawk]

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By 1979 I had already a cynical son of a bitch. I consistantly railed at my friends for embracing the Journeys, Bostons, Kansases, Foreigners, REO Speedwagons, and Asias,

Ugh!!!  Please don't lump Kansas in with other schmucks.  Kansas was/is a fabulous band, creative and extremely versatile.  Probably the one band I can listen to all day and not get tired of.  I had this argument with Ray K once.  He said he didn't own a Kansas album but had a Boston album, so he figured he was covered.  I said that's like saying "I've never heard the Beatles, but I've heard Herman's Hermits, so I'm good".

[Col. Sphinx Drummond]

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By 1979 I was already a cynical son of a bitch. I consistantly railed at my friends for embracing the Journeys, Bostons, Kansases, Foreigners, REO Speedwagons, and Asias,

Ugh!!!  Please don't lump Kansas in with other schmucks.  Kansas was/is a fabulous band, creative and extremely versatile.  Probably the one band I can listen to all day and not get tired of.  I had this argument with Ray K once.  He said he didn't own a Kansas album but had a Boston album, so he figured he was covered.  I said that's like saying "I've never heard the Beatles, but I've heard Herman's Hermits, so I'm good".

Sorry. My disdain for the aforementioned bands had nothing to do with their abilty or songwriting and everything to do with being a contrarian and rejecting what my friends deemed as good. Back then I had a stupid rule, if a band was named after a location, a mode of transportation, or reflected being from or getting to a place, they were rebuffed. For example, that list would have also included Head East, Rush, Atlantic Rhythm Section, Chicago, and The Cars, proving only that my logic was boundless and irrational. BTW, Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter, rocked!!!