I come here everyday because something inside of me craves dynamic juxtapositions like Richard Hell and E.Power Biggs . I don't envy many people, I got it good and I'm lucky enough to realize it, but man, I envy the shit out of your New York punk scene experience. Closest I ever got was seeing Talking Heads in 78 and Richard Quine play with Lou Reed in 84. That was at the Agoria Cleveland
Yea, but ya gotta go with what ya got. And X was way better than OK. Musta been an anti-lLA prejudice. New York is great, but it can still be a bit provincial.
I'll speculate that Roy thought X was ok because he was comparing them to what he'd just seen the Contortions do. I've experienced that many times. As an example, Siouxsie and the Banshees put on a great performance, but DOA had opened for them, and that was at a time when DOA were at the height of their powers, and there was no way the Banshees could live up to that.
Nice post, Roy. Listening to a James Chance playlist (thanks to you) as I'm typing this. Yeah, I'd pay to see these guys! I almost feel like doing a running comment on each tune I hear, but I'll spare you all. It's all good!
I'm so glad that Willie got to see the Negro League stats rolled into MLB and Josh Gibson can assume his rightful mantle as the best hitter in baseball PERIOD FULL STOP. It's like Willie was thinking, "well, now my work here is done.
And baseball fan or no, if you've never seen The Catch, well, prepare to be amazed.
Mays is the reason I ever got interested in baseball, or even sport generally. And he had as much to do with me seeing how it should be to be a fully realized person in America, and how obvious and important it is.
I only saw him a couple times live, and one of those included the single best fielding play I have ever seen by a first baseman...who that day was Willie Mays. It also included one of the smartest plays I've ever seen by a baserunner (Mays again), and one of the greatest displays of hitting in the moment (yeah, Mays). Each of those plays either saved or manufactured a run, and the Giants won in the bottom of the ninth when the runner on 3rd (of course) scored on a short sac fly to left.
That's why I'll take a baseball game over anything else. Best to be there (pencil and scorecard ready? - you betcha), second best is radio. TV tends to be lousy - no you have not been given a sports talk show, fool.
"Nothing happens at a baseball game". Oh, child. Now yeah, watching on TV, it gives that impression. You don't see the infielders and outfielders shifting for each batter. At least on the radio they give you that info. And when you're there, you get dinner AND a show, because there will be drama in the stands, that's a whole nother venue. One of games at Wrigley I saw, heck there were still warming up. Smack! Fly heading right toward me, oh Jesus give me strength, if it comes to me this is really going to hurt. Hit a bald guy two rows ahead of me who was looking at the scoreboard, for reasons known only to God, instead of WATCHING THE BALL, fool. Bam! Right on his noggin'. As me sainted pappy would say, "and he went down like a turd in a well".
My pal gets a few tix to Nats games every year and parses out the extras to friends, which is how I managed to take in a ball game yesterday afternoon. Al knows the stadium and always gets good seats in the shade.
The Mays memorial was perfunctory, which frosted me, but a few old guys in the stands adjacent to us (one rattled off a long list of all the ballparks he had seen games in, including Seals Stadium!) had things to say about him. More importantly, it was a tidy 2 hour & 15 minute game, Nats beat Diamondbacks 3-1. Two teams under .500, playing well enough to be mildly entertaining. Nats bullpen dominated. They are on a 8-2 run in their last 10 games, making the scene a little more festive.
The important breeze-shooting occurred over two issues:
1) can baseball regain something of its place in American society (because damn, it used to be a CONTENDER). My friend pointed to several of the rules changes (some are insane, others are positive) to speed the pace of play (looking at YOU, Yankees), but we agreed that the main thing that killed baseball as a spectator sport is television's pandering to spectacle and especially to commercials. Irrespective of television's power of the replay to enhance understanding and appreciation of the individual talent in action, the longer the game, the more stepping outta the box to adjust/readjust the gloves (repeat as necessary), the more commercials, and the less likelihood someone will say "Let's go to the ballpark". (and yes, the facts of the rise of football and basketball, with more or less predetermined ending times, as alt.outlets for the earning of tons'cash, are on the ledger)...alla this is well known, and bemoaned.
2) Is there anyone alive who can take up the mantle of Willie Mays in the 21st century? Universal answer: no.
And as I was thinking about the Giants in the 60's (winningest team in the majors that decade, I think) I also remembered a stat from who knows where, that asserted the Giants were the most popular opposing team. That is, baseball fans preferred seeing their home team play the Giants over any other team, as measured by daily attendance. At the time I saw that stat I assumed it was because the team was remarkably popular, but yesterday I had the jolting realization that without Mays the Giants were just another team.
Everyone wanted to see Mays in action, apparently more than any other player.
He knew he had it from the moment Wertz hit it (there's a moment when Giants fans knew it to, when Mays taps his glove on the way to running it down – trademark move), and his thought process was focused on keeping the baserunner at second from scoring (which Mays knew was a possibility because he'd scored from second on sac flies several times himself). So the question at hand was Can I get the ball back to the infield in time to keep the runner from advancing beyond 3rd? Which he did. Saving a run. And the Giants went on to win in extra innings...point being, without that throw, Giants lose in 9.
I think that was a one-off or failed experiment. Teenage Jesus and the Jerks were on the bill and they cleared the room! Lydia Lunch introduced the last number with "we're gonna play one more song because we're so great!"
Great memories, Roy. That dust up between Chance (or substitute any downtown curb crawler) and Walter/Jerry/who ya got? seems like a regular occurrence at Thunders’ gigs back then. A couple old Waldos pals are doing a a few Heartbreakers tribute gigs in Japan next month. Apparently there’s an audience. Who’d a thunk? Adele’s book is a good read, too.
Hah. A classic example of my peripheral hipness. I kept thinking this guy sounded familiar and finally broke down and searched--------Ohhhhhhhhh. James White and the Blacks.
James Chance and his bandmates did something with their music that no one else in that scene when they showed up were even dreaming of doing. And the bands that his bandmates went on to do were also quite incredible (1). I never had the chance (pun intended) to see the Contortions or the Blacks live, but I did see the Bush Tetras and the Raybeats many times. His death was a sad bit of news for me.
As for his confrontationalness, well, you were there, Roy, so I trust what you say about it. I've always heard that sometimes it wasn't so much a thing he did as part of the show. I've got a book that has a picture of him with a handful of someone's hair and it looks like he's about to slug them
in the face - yikes!
A side note: a friend of ours puts on a regular burlesque show in SF, and one night he was complaining about performers who couldn't get their music to him before the show (he and his sound engineer want to be prepared!), and I suggested that he tell the performers that if they don't get their music to him on time, they have to perform to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jItaXa6rKis
I'm doing a very unfortunate amount of driving today and have been listening a lot to Chance. Great stuff. Pretty sure there was an album of his I used to listen to a lot, Don't know much about the comps you were referring to? Maybe Morphine? I'd agree Chance blows them away. I only know John Lurie through his HBO show Painting with John. One of the greatest shows of all time, easily.
Nice column. Just found this, recorded 7 yrs ago, not playing horn but seems as lively and driven as he did that day at La Plaza....so it was released a few months after he played at the garden. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps9F0LWe8FA
Chaser: the fun is ever more seeping out of Fun City. FIRE extraction and the need to be tourist-friendly.
I come here everyday because something inside of me craves dynamic juxtapositions like Richard Hell and E.Power Biggs . I don't envy many people, I got it good and I'm lucky enough to realize it, but man, I envy the shit out of your New York punk scene experience. Closest I ever got was seeing Talking Heads in 78 and Richard Quine play with Lou Reed in 84. That was at the Agoria Cleveland
Yaz is a great writer.
He deserves wider exposure
Yea, but ya gotta go with what ya got. And X was way better than OK. Musta been an anti-lLA prejudice. New York is great, but it can still be a bit provincial.
I'll speculate that Roy thought X was ok because he was comparing them to what he'd just seen the Contortions do. I've experienced that many times. As an example, Siouxsie and the Banshees put on a great performance, but DOA had opened for them, and that was at a time when DOA were at the height of their powers, and there was no way the Banshees could live up to that.
(spelling error corrected)
Nice post, Roy. Listening to a James Chance playlist (thanks to you) as I'm typing this. Yeah, I'd pay to see these guys! I almost feel like doing a running comment on each tune I hear, but I'll spare you all. It's all good!
Fuck, Im listening to "King Heroin." Messed up shit. Fuckin love it
Glad to be of service
I'm so glad that Willie got to see the Negro League stats rolled into MLB and Josh Gibson can assume his rightful mantle as the best hitter in baseball PERIOD FULL STOP. It's like Willie was thinking, "well, now my work here is done.
And baseball fan or no, if you've never seen The Catch, well, prepare to be amazed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTSGIy8HXnc
The Catch--and the Throw, three hundred fifty feet on the fly--broke the Clevelanders. That series was *over.*
I know, right? I love hearing the recordings of the announcers as it happens, especially the radio announcers. They are just speechless. It's great.
Mays is the reason I ever got interested in baseball, or even sport generally. And he had as much to do with me seeing how it should be to be a fully realized person in America, and how obvious and important it is.
I only saw him a couple times live, and one of those included the single best fielding play I have ever seen by a first baseman...who that day was Willie Mays. It also included one of the smartest plays I've ever seen by a baserunner (Mays again), and one of the greatest displays of hitting in the moment (yeah, Mays). Each of those plays either saved or manufactured a run, and the Giants won in the bottom of the ninth when the runner on 3rd (of course) scored on a short sac fly to left.
That's why I'll take a baseball game over anything else. Best to be there (pencil and scorecard ready? - you betcha), second best is radio. TV tends to be lousy - no you have not been given a sports talk show, fool.
"Nothing happens at a baseball game". Oh, child. Now yeah, watching on TV, it gives that impression. You don't see the infielders and outfielders shifting for each batter. At least on the radio they give you that info. And when you're there, you get dinner AND a show, because there will be drama in the stands, that's a whole nother venue. One of games at Wrigley I saw, heck there were still warming up. Smack! Fly heading right toward me, oh Jesus give me strength, if it comes to me this is really going to hurt. Hit a bald guy two rows ahead of me who was looking at the scoreboard, for reasons known only to God, instead of WATCHING THE BALL, fool. Bam! Right on his noggin'. As me sainted pappy would say, "and he went down like a turd in a well".
There's a reason that "keep your eye on the ball" has been a thing in baseball for one hundred and seventy-five years.
Obligatory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YgRLuvfblg
My pal gets a few tix to Nats games every year and parses out the extras to friends, which is how I managed to take in a ball game yesterday afternoon. Al knows the stadium and always gets good seats in the shade.
The Mays memorial was perfunctory, which frosted me, but a few old guys in the stands adjacent to us (one rattled off a long list of all the ballparks he had seen games in, including Seals Stadium!) had things to say about him. More importantly, it was a tidy 2 hour & 15 minute game, Nats beat Diamondbacks 3-1. Two teams under .500, playing well enough to be mildly entertaining. Nats bullpen dominated. They are on a 8-2 run in their last 10 games, making the scene a little more festive.
The important breeze-shooting occurred over two issues:
1) can baseball regain something of its place in American society (because damn, it used to be a CONTENDER). My friend pointed to several of the rules changes (some are insane, others are positive) to speed the pace of play (looking at YOU, Yankees), but we agreed that the main thing that killed baseball as a spectator sport is television's pandering to spectacle and especially to commercials. Irrespective of television's power of the replay to enhance understanding and appreciation of the individual talent in action, the longer the game, the more stepping outta the box to adjust/readjust the gloves (repeat as necessary), the more commercials, and the less likelihood someone will say "Let's go to the ballpark". (and yes, the facts of the rise of football and basketball, with more or less predetermined ending times, as alt.outlets for the earning of tons'cash, are on the ledger)...alla this is well known, and bemoaned.
2) Is there anyone alive who can take up the mantle of Willie Mays in the 21st century? Universal answer: no.
And as I was thinking about the Giants in the 60's (winningest team in the majors that decade, I think) I also remembered a stat from who knows where, that asserted the Giants were the most popular opposing team. That is, baseball fans preferred seeing their home team play the Giants over any other team, as measured by daily attendance. At the time I saw that stat I assumed it was because the team was remarkably popular, but yesterday I had the jolting realization that without Mays the Giants were just another team.
Everyone wanted to see Mays in action, apparently more than any other player.
and his rehash of it is cherce...
He knew he had it from the moment Wertz hit it (there's a moment when Giants fans knew it to, when Mays taps his glove on the way to running it down – trademark move), and his thought process was focused on keeping the baserunner at second from scoring (which Mays knew was a possibility because he'd scored from second on sac flies several times himself). So the question at hand was Can I get the ball back to the infield in time to keep the runner from advancing beyond 3rd? Which he did. Saving a run. And the Giants went on to win in extra innings...point being, without that throw, Giants lose in 9.
He probably made a better play in the top of the tenth, holding Wertz to a double on what should have been an inside-the-park home run.
Aha! You know the glove tap. Very good. Yeah, Willie lived a few seconds in the future compared to the rest of us.
A friend of mine made a doc on the Milwaukee punk scene called Taking The City by Storm, James appeared in it. Worth checking out.
My dad (R.I.P. El difunto) used to walk by the Polo Grounds like the Giants would magically reappear.
When I used to go to the Paradise Garage it was a very different place.
I think that was a one-off or failed experiment. Teenage Jesus and the Jerks were on the bill and they cleared the room! Lydia Lunch introduced the last number with "we're gonna play one more song because we're so great!"
Great memories, Roy. That dust up between Chance (or substitute any downtown curb crawler) and Walter/Jerry/who ya got? seems like a regular occurrence at Thunders’ gigs back then. A couple old Waldos pals are doing a a few Heartbreakers tribute gigs in Japan next month. Apparently there’s an audience. Who’d a thunk? Adele’s book is a good read, too.
I heard! I should read it
Hah. A classic example of my peripheral hipness. I kept thinking this guy sounded familiar and finally broke down and searched--------Ohhhhhhhhh. James White and the Blacks.
James Chance and his bandmates did something with their music that no one else in that scene when they showed up were even dreaming of doing. And the bands that his bandmates went on to do were also quite incredible (1). I never had the chance (pun intended) to see the Contortions or the Blacks live, but I did see the Bush Tetras and the Raybeats many times. His death was a sad bit of news for me.
As for his confrontationalness, well, you were there, Roy, so I trust what you say about it. I've always heard that sometimes it wasn't so much a thing he did as part of the show. I've got a book that has a picture of him with a handful of someone's hair and it looks like he's about to slug them
in the face - yikes!
A side note: a friend of ours puts on a regular burlesque show in SF, and one night he was complaining about performers who couldn't get their music to him before the show (he and his sound engineer want to be prepared!), and I suggested that he tell the performers that if they don't get their music to him on time, they have to perform to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jItaXa6rKis
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Chance_and_the_Contortions#Band_members
Don't know about dreamers in that scene, but up on 125th, James Brown was living it.
I'm doing a very unfortunate amount of driving today and have been listening a lot to Chance. Great stuff. Pretty sure there was an album of his I used to listen to a lot, Don't know much about the comps you were referring to? Maybe Morphine? I'd agree Chance blows them away. I only know John Lurie through his HBO show Painting with John. One of the greatest shows of all time, easily.
Nice column. Just found this, recorded 7 yrs ago, not playing horn but seems as lively and driven as he did that day at La Plaza....so it was released a few months after he played at the garden. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ps9F0LWe8FA
Saw it! Lovely.