Viva Las Vegas

The seriousness and depth of contemporary politics came to the fore yesterday when Nevada Democrat Harry Reid joined Republican opponent Sharon Angle in opposing construction of a mosque and community center near Ground Zero in Manhattan, approximately 2200 miles from Las Vegas.

Citizen K. has learned that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg conducted a conference call with Reid and Angle in which he expressed thanks for their concern. The precise responses of Reid and Angle are unknown, but I can reliably report on Bloomberg's end of the conversation:

"Senator, Ms. Angle, I'd like express my heartfelt gratitude for your interest in New York and your concern for the people living here...

"Yes, I do have to thank you. That you could make time to express your opinion about events in a city on the other side of the country when Nevada has a 14.2% unemployment rate and the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, well...I'm touched to say the least...

"Along those lines, though, I have concerns of my own that I'd like to run by you. As you may know, we have a lot of Catholics here in the Big Apple. New York is also, I'm proud to say, the home of many successful career women. Both groups have their notions and, well, the thing of it is...well...they're awfully offended by the whorehouses in Nevada and would like you to shut them down.

"Look, it's no skin off Elliott Spitzer's nose if a coed wants to go to Nevada to auction off her virginity, but it looks bad if I don't express the same interest in Nevada that you've so courageously shown in New York.

"I'd hate to see this become a political football. When you get right down to it, though, who can come out in favor of whorehouses? A pimp, maybe, but that's about it. Say, are either of you?...Oh, never mind: The less said the better."

The Music Didn't Die

It was fifty years ago today that Buddy Holly accepted a ride on the small plane that would crash and take his life. Don McLean's 1971 "American Pie" raised Holly and the accident to iconic status, and people have wondered ever since just what the immensely talented 22-year old might have accomplished had he not taken that plane. Dave Tianen writess that Holly was floundering at the time and that the British Invasion would have swamped him. Myself, I believe that Holly was simply too gifted for that, that he would have responded to the challenges of the British Invasion (and Motown, that matter). As one of the first performers to write and produce his own material, Holly had the ability and luxury to choose his future direction. His innovations as a producer -- at the age of 22, no less -- indicate that he could well have become as influential behind the soundboard as he was in front of a microphone...

One thing we know for certain is that the music did not die that day. For example:

One Kind Favor, B. B. King. At first listen, this CD sounds like nothing B. B. King didn't do at ages 23, 33, 43, 53, 63, and/or 73. What makes One Kind Favor so special is that not only is he still doing it at 83, his vocals are better than ever. The album's elegiac quality comes from the songs, all covers originally performed by peers who have passed on. You can just about see their ghosts listening, smiling, and tapping their feet while the rest of us anticipate how great the immortal grand master of the blues will sound when he's 93...

She Ain't Me, Carrie Rodriguez. It starts so unassumingly that you nearly miss the penetrating lyrics ("You took me to the water then you told me not to look straight down/But I did"). The Rodriguez slows down the tempo for "Rag Doll," ups the emotional ante, and pretty soon she's reconnoitering the country first explored by Jackson Browne in Late For The Sky. Rodriguez, though, brings the perspective of a modern woman who's had it with men except for the one she can't live without. And therein lies the universality of She Ain't Me because, man or woman, we've all been there.

Wayback Machine: In 1969, Led Zeppelin released its debut album, Sly and the Family Stone sang for "Everyday People," and the Woodstock Nation converged on upstate New York for three days of peace, love, and music. Almost unnoticed, Elvis Presley walked into a Memphis studio to began a 10-day recording session that would stand as one of the most creative of his regal career. The sessions produced two gold albums -- From Elvis In Memphis and From Memphis To Vegas/From Vegas To Memphis. 

You can hear the fruits of the entire session on the 1999 RCA release Suspicious Minds: The Memphis 1969 Anthology. On these two brilliant CDs, Elvis displays his mastery of R&B, soul, country, gospel, and pop. Hits from session included "Suspicious Minds" (#1), "Kentucky Rain," (#16) and "In The Ghetto" (#3). If you ever wondered how a country boy could sing about life in the ghetto, listen to the way Elvis vocalized the simple phrase "and his mama cried." Hear this coming from someone who loved his mother deeply, and you realize that can be no greater expression of sorrow and loss, whether from the poorest shack in the Mississippi delta or the most desperate tenement in Harlem...

Support the troops with an Overseas Mardi Gras package...

In 1971, B.B. King asked the inmates of Sing Sing Prison, "How Blue Can You Get"? That's Joan Baez looking on...