I gotta admit that for living in a post-rock 'n roll-oriented world I managed to get through 2021 musically well. Of course I know that rock 'n roll for all practical purposes has meant very little (despite all of the lip service given it) since the advent of hippie anti-mentalities in the late-sixties and really nothing since the valiant attempt to overthrow the "Classic Rock"/stoner boxboy arena rock mentality fizzled out for good sometime in the early-eighties, but for an old fanabla like me at least the malady lingers on. And true, I am to 2021what those old Fire House Dixieland types of groups were to the aging clientele of, say, 1980, but at least I, like those old guys pumpin' away on their tubas, still have some sense of dignity that defies trends and shucks of the week. Too bad there ain't some cheapo television series for PBS to air inna mornings showing the old rockers in their rest homes banging away like there were for fans of the old jass beat a good thirtysome years back.
An' yeah, I gotta face up to the fact that the more we drift away from those "days of the underground" the more I feel lost, alienated and generally out of touch with everything from my duty as a human being to reality for that matter. Pretty much like any broken down old man who was born in a world of relative ease and happiness and ended up in a sewer of a life that was not of his own making.
'n really --- why should we really care as much about music, an idiom which has let us down for most of our lifetimes what with the pallid sputum that once roared mightily just being nothing but a huge embarrassment to anyone who championed the cause hack when it was relatively younger, and fresh for that matter.
Anyhow, here's my best of list for the year, one which I am glad to see in the rear view mirror as I trudge along in life, even though I get the feeling that 2022 is going to make '21 look like a mere walk in the park.
ALBUM(S) OF THE YEAR!-Sex Tide-OHIO (Feeding Tube), Greg "Stackhouse" Prevost's SONGS FOR THESE TIMES (Mean Disposition)
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ALBUM REISSUE OF THE YEAR!-Remko Scha's GUITAR MURAL 1 FEATURING THE MACHINES two-LP set (Black Truffle Records), which proves that Lester Bangs was right when he said the machines were taking over.
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RE-ISHED SINGLE OF THE YEAR!-Ethix's "Bad Trip"/"Skins"(Mary Jane Records), a real wild trip into that part of the sixties that didn't quite jibe with "Kumbaya".
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FOLKIE RELEASE OF THE YEAR!-Myrian Gendron's MA DELYRE (Feeding Tube Records)
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CEE-DEE OF THE YEAR!-Edgar Breau's SHADOWS OF ECSTASY which shows you that maybe thirty years ain't that long of a wait after all.
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CEE-DEE REISSUE OF THE YEAR!-Tim Buckley's STARSAILOR. This album'll cost you more today than it woulda had you got it in the 49 cent bin in 1972, but then again were you alive in '72? I was but do you think I even had 49 cents back then? For that matter do you think I even KNEW that STARSAILOR even existed? Do you think I would even have been allowed to play this in the house back then?????
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CEE-DEE-ARE ALBUM BURN OF THE YEAR!-KABALAH FUCKEN SYRINGE---actually from 2019 and actually recorded much earlier, but boy has the concept of time mutated as of late!
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MOOM PITCHER OF THE YEAR!-SHOCK CORRIDOR...really woulda liked to have seen this 'un and THE SADIST battle it out for best pic of '63 at the Oscars!
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BOOK OF THE YEAR!-PUNKZINES a good 'nuff traipse into rockscreeding past which undoubtedly has nothing to do with rockscreeding present, or future for that matter.
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THE "HE'S NOT SO BAD AFTER ALL" AWARD GOES TO---MILO YIANNOPOULOS!
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ROCK 'N ROLL DISCOVERY OF THE YEAR!-Johannis and his Pale Boys
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SO LONG TO A GOOD THING!-THE COMPLETE DICK TRACY VOL. 29, a fine wrap up to one of the best comic strips to have hit the boards.
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TELEVISION PROGRAM OF THE YEAR!-a tossup between the RAWHIDE and WAGON TRAIN reruns that have popped up on fetv and insp as of late.
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HOPE OF THE YEAR!-Eric Zemmour. Here's hoping that he and Marine will bury the hatchet and team up to make France the place it was before Focault, Sartre, Genet and the rest of those degenerates ruined its name seemingly for good!
***DEATH OF THE YEAR!-Mike Nesmith.
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RELIEF OF THE YEAR!-the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict. Kinda makes me wish I was still steadily blogging so I could rub a few readers who were so anxious to see him spend his remaining days in prison noses in it.
Might re-start this blog up plenty soon, though at this time I don't see any reason why I should. After all, what is there out in soundsville these days that is worth any true hard-edged rock 'n roller's attention anyway?
