Music critic and CBS Sunday Morning contributor Bill Flanagan stated last Sunday that Michael Jackson was the third and final “Big Bang” in popular music.

“The first explosion was Elvis. That was about sexual liberation and racial integration, and that blast lasted about ten years.

The second explosion was the Beatles – and everything they issued in. Suddenly pop music was about long hair and experimental sounds, progressive politics and outlaw rhetoric. Rock was about a counter-culture. That blast reverberated for 20 years, right through Springsteen, Prince and U2.

The third explosion was “Thriller,” Michael Jackson’s 1982 album – the best selling record of all time, and an album that invented the pop world we are still living in 25 years later.”

While I will agree that Thriller was one of the major turning points in popular music, I can’t concede that it was bigger or more important than Elvis or the Beatles.

First of all, the effects of the first two are still influencing popular music and culture as we speak. In fact without either one of them, the phenomenon that was Michael Jackson would never have existed. So to say that Elvis’ explosion only lasted ten years or that the Beatles’ only twenty is to greatly under value exactly what they did.

Second, neither Elvis nor the Beatles imagined the success and influence they sparked. They basically came out of nowhere and unwittingly changed the course of music and popular culture forever. MJ’s rise was measured and planned. There’s no denying that the man had more than his share of talent and charisma. But he only really did exactly what he was groomed to do. Thriller was his sixth studio album and had been in the spotlight for ten years before his explosion. So it was less meteor and more slow-burning forest fire in my opinion, not realizing that it was as big as it was until suddenly it was impossible to escape. (Did you try to watch MTV the day the Thriller video was released? It was impossible!)

I know that both the Beatles and Elvis had their share of scandal and tabloid-worthy personal storylines, but no one has ever been more of a freak show by design than Michael Jackson. As far as I’m concerned, the whole thing was part of his master plan; to stay in the spotlight as long as possible regardless of the headline. He made a conscious effort to seem bigger, more mysterious, and enigmatic than he ever actually was. And it worked. Packaged and marketed perfectly for that specific time in history.

But bigger or more influential than Elvis & the Beatles? I don’t think so.

based on recent headlines:

1. A secret adulterous love affair will forever be known as “hiking the Appalachian Trail”.
2. Being surprised by someone’s talent is being “Boyled Over”.
3. “Going back to Neverland Ranch” will be when someone famous dies causing the media to blow every minute detail of their life & death out of proportion for an undetermined amount of time.
4. Yelling derogatory slurs at people in an effort to offend, while actually just degrading yourself, is “Pulling a Perez”.

Anybody have any more?

Jonathan Coulton – BEST. CONCERT. EVER.

Albums labeled “comedy” don’t usually appeal to me with very few exceptions. The ones that do are the ones that seem as though the artist is just too serious about their craft to be comedy, and as a result are hilariously funny. The two that come to mind first are the A Mighty Wind soundtrack and Flight of the Conchords.

On its initial listen, you might think that Jonathan Coulton’s work falls into that same category, but it really doesn’t. Sure, some of his songs are funny; like Mr. Fancy Pants, Tom Cruise Crazy, or his cover of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s Baby Got Back. But the ones that succeed even more are the ones that are multi-layered with tragedy and sadness.

From his internet sensation Code Monkey, a semi-autobiographical tale about a software writer who hates his job, to I Crush Everything, a song about an introspective, self-loathing giant squid’s sadness because he ends up killing everything that he loves, to Skullcrusher Mountinan, a love song about a conflicted evil genius, JoCo’s catalog is filled with songs of pain and loneliness that are somehow still very funny.

BEST. CONCERT. EVER. Is Jonathan Coulton’s first commercially distributed album. The rest of his catalog falls under what’s called “Creative Commons” licensing and was distributed primarily through the internet. It’s also his first live album which brings a whole different vibe and intimacy to many of the songs.

I was probably initially drawn to JoCo because of his tendency towards themes of geek culture, science fiction, and semi-educational topics like science and history. It probably also didn’t hurt that he is friends with Daily Show correspondent and the star of the “I’m A Mac” commercials, John Hodgman, who I also find ridiculously funny.

Here’s one in the form of a business memo from a former colleague who happens to now be a zombie, gently prodding his coworker to let him eat his brains, called re: Your Brains

I am not going to start off with that whole, “I haven’t been blogging much lately” song & dance. Truth is, I’ve been blogging quite a bit – in my head. It’s just that none of it has actually made it to the blog. Which is probably a good thing considering how scattered and out-of-whack I’ve been here lately. Work has been overly stressful due to a major project that I’m in charge of not progressing on schedule. Home has been busy. Not in a bad way, just a lot of projects that need to get done that I’ve either been putting off or that need to be completed in a tiny window of time due to weather and other schedules.  And that’s not even taking into account the fact that I’ve been battling with minor bouts of depression lately. We are also trying to squeeze in a “date-night” that we’ve been planning for a month, but hasn’t come to fruition yet.

Most of my writing for the last week was focused on a sermon that I delivered yesterday. For whatever reason, I really struggled with this one. There was a particular scripture that was stuck in my head that I couldn’t shake no matter how hard I tried. It didn’t make sense that it would be for Father’s Day either, but every other direction I tried to go fell flat. So I just kept coming back around to where I started. I think it ended up okay. I got some positive feedback, but my cynical nature keeps telling me that they’re just being nice because they like me or don’t want to hurt my feelings. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’ve never been one to take a compliment very well.

Only being able to speak two or three times a year makes it even harder in my opinion. But why is it that the ones that come easily usually end up stinking, and the ones that you really wrestle with come out fairly decent? Is this common, or is it just me?

I did have a wonderful Father’s Day though. My wife is awesome. I got to meet my wonderful daughter for lunch at one of my favorite local restaurants. I grilled-out for my Dad and my Father-In-Law for supper. My Cardinals won again. And I was able to get in a nice long afternoon nap. It was a great day!

One of the big things that we are preparing for this summer is baby-sitting. In July our seven year old niece is going to be staying with us for a few weeks while my wife’s sister & brother-in-law go on a cruise. Our daughter is 21, so having a young one in the house again is going to be a challenge. It will also mean that my Father-In-Law will be at our house nearly every day too. After all, she is his only biological grandchild and lives 350 miles away. So I understand why. It’s just that dealing with that many extra bodies in a house that is typically just me and the wife could be tricky. Wish me luck & say a little prayer if you’re the prayin’ kind.

Luckily her stay will be punctuated by our July 4th Family Soiree, a Southern Illinois Miners’ game, a quick trip to St. Louis for the Magic House & Grant’s Farm, as well as whatever else Mrs. Arachnerd has planned.  We should have a good time if all goes well. I’m sure there will be some much needed blogging during this time and pictures that will just have to be posted! (So stay-tuned!)

I’m not sure why musicians tend to always write about girls who are entirely too young. But they do! So young in fact that when you sing along, if you pay attention to the lyrics, they make you feel like a creep. They do me anyway. More than once I’ve been singing along and abruptly blurted out, “GAAAAAHHH! That’s younger than my daughter!“

I mean, you know where Chuck Berry was coming from – he was arrested for messing around with a 14 year old girl. At least Paul McCartney was only 20 when he wrote his contribution. Here’s the rest of my list:

• Sweet Little Sixteen – Chuck Berry
• Sexy & 17 – Stray Cats
• Christine Sixteen – Kiss
• I Saw Her Standing There – the Beatles, “Well, she was just 17 / You know what I mean / And the way she looked was way beyond compare”
• Only Sixteen – Dr. Hook (originally by Sam Cooke, but I remember listening to the Dr. Hook version from my Mom’s vinyl collection)

(Imagine what kind of weirdos are going to find my page now!)

Now that summer has arrived, our home has become something of a halfway house for wayward critters. They can’t stay at the school, and we can’t kick them out on the street, so the only thing we can do in good conscience is invite them in.

In addition to the two rosehair tarantulas, Elvis & Aretha, we now share a roof with Mona, a Degu

Johnny Weissmuller, a Red-Eared Slider turtle

Mr. Heatmiser, a Fire-Bellied Toad

A pair of Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches named Paul & Ringo (there were four, but John & George both died)

A couple of always exciting Hermit Crabs, Sonny & Cher

And Dory, a male Betta – not pictured. He’s pretty camera shy, probably because he was named after Ellen DeGeneres. But that’s just a guess.

This week I’ve been grooving to the mellow sounds of the new Iron & Wine album Around the Well, an excellent compilation of B-sides & Rarities. I’m digging it so much, I thought for Friday Five I would just throw some videos up for those of you who aren’t familiar with Sam Beam’s work. Seriously, take a listen. It’s good stuff!

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— Lt.-Col. John McCrae (1872 – 1918)

Lately I have been listening to the KCRW Guest DJ Project podcasts where they invite famous or influential people on to choose five songs and talk about them. It’s interesting to hear what different people pick and their reasons why. So I thought I would do the same today with my Friday Five; it would fulfill the usual FF format and at the same time allow me to write a little bit.

My brother once blogged about how a lot of his musical tastes can be traced back, or “bottlenecked through” as he put it, a short list of other artists. I’m not sure I can do that, but I can trace my musical tastes back to certain people or specific times in my life.

The first of which is Kiss.

I will forever trace my love for Kiss back to my brother. It was the first band that I can recall being crazy about. In 1979 our parents took us to Evansville, IN to see them live in concert. It was the first real concert I had ever attended. I was a month away from being 8 years old, but I can still remember quite a bit of it. I picked the song Love Gun because somewhere around that time I called into a local radio station and won that album, completely oblivious to the not-so-subtle double entendre (if you can even call it that).

It was actually more difficult to narrow down my second choice because I wanted one that would exemplify just how influential my father has been on my musical tastes over the years. To put it as simply as possible, Dad loved music. He exposed us to a wide range of great stuff that we both still listen to today; Blues, Country, Soul, Doo-Wop, Rockabilly… I picked Miss Etta James’ Stop the Wedding because first of all no singer in history can match the level of emotion Etta could convey with just her voice, but most of all because of how Dad’s face would light up when she belted “WAIT – WAIT…”

Next we have John Cougar Mellencamp.

JCM’s Scarecrow Tour was the first concert I went to without parental supervision. Technically they drove me to the arena, but they didn’t go in with us since I wasn’t quite old enough to drive. But I still see it as a major step not only in my musical history, but also in my life. To me John represented what I referred to in my youthful ignorance as “denim rock”, which included basically just the music I liked at the time like Springsteen, Tom Petty, and stuff like that because most of the bands that other people my age were listening to at the time wore a lot of spandex.

Tori Amos represents another time of transition in my life. In the 90’s I had to try to find myself again after having a baby girl too young, getting married and divorced, and moving away to finish college and do something with my fife. I discovered her by accident along with my close friend and classmate Chris. It may seem odd that two college guys would get into Tori Amos, but she was so different; beautiful and chaotic. Her voice fulfilled some unknown need in our psyches.

And now I can’t see or listen to Tori without thinking about Chris and that time in my life.

My final choice is an odd one, but one that I will always associate with another transitional moment for me as well as with my beautiful wife. During the time that we were dating, before I had even asked her to marry me, she absolutely loved the band Savage Garden. One day she needed to borrow my truck for some reason, so I drove her little red Pontiac Firebird to work. This cassette was in the player and I listened to it because it made me think of her. I remember vividly that the song To The Moon & Back was playing when I found myself in a five-car accident, busting-up that pretty Firebird real good.

And she married me anyway!

I’ve not been blogging much lately. Not because stuff in my life hasn’t been blog-worthy, more because I’ve just had too much going on. I feel like I need to curl up and sleep for about three days and maybe when I wake up I will not only feel rested finally, but things will also look brighter and less complicated. I will eventually be able to commit more thoughts to this boring blog; it’s fairly therapeutic and I enjoy it so I’m certainly not giving it up. But until that time presents itself, enjoy the most recent video from my favorite band…