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Today's
Stories
December 3
/ 4, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
The
Revolt of the Generals
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Iraq,
Brains and Lies
Saul Landau
Latino
Troops Have Parents
Ralph Nader
Consumerama
Paul Craig Roberts
Don't Confuse the Jobs Hype with the Facts
Mike Whitney
Blood Feast: Celebrating Executions in America
Allan Lichtman
The DeLay Scheme: Blatantly Buying Our Government
Dave Lindorff
A Sudden Rush for the Exits?
Brian Concannon, Jr.
Haiti's Elections
Fred Gardner
Oregon NORML Honors Growers
Manuel Garcia, Jr.
On Freeing the CPT
Carol Wolman
Rememering the 60s
Website of the Weekend
Free the CPT
December 2,
2005
Stan Goff
An
Open Letter to Congress from a Veteran and Military Dad
Mike Ferner
Beware Iraqization: Melvin Laird, Vietnam and Christmas Bombings
Over Baghdad?
Christopher Brauchli
Bush's Constitutional Kamikazes: Padilla's No-Win Dilemma
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Questions
for the President
Manuel Talens
The Chávez Theorem
Peter Phillips
Death By Torture: Media Ignores the Hard Evidence
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr.
Alabama's
Taliban: Judge Roy Moore, Preachers and Dixie Hypocrisy
Website of
the Day
Support the Hampton University Peace Activists!
December 1,
2005
John Walsh,
MD
The
God Gaps
Ron Jacobs
Hard Rain: Toward a Greater Air War in Iraq?
Jenna Orkin
EPA's
Latest Betrayal at Ground Zero
Joshua Frank
Howard Dean's Blunt Message: Forget Palestine
Tiffany Ten
Eyck
Rank and File Resistance to Delphi
Missy Comley Beattie
Home on the Range: Where the Fear and the Animus Play
Eli Stephens
The Reed and Kerry Show
Elaine Cassel
A Government Game of "Gotcha" with Jose Padilla
Website of
the Day
Rare Erotica
November 30,
2005
Allen / D'Amato
Incident
at Oglala 30 Years Later: the Long Struggle of Leonard Peltier
Mike Whitney
The Cheerleader at Annapolis
Kevin Zeese
The Hallucinations of Joe Lieberman
Norman Solomon
Colin Powell: Still Craven After All These Years
Ramzy Baroud
Sharon's New Party
Dave Lindorff
What Happened to All Those Bush/Cheney Bumperstickers?
Stephen Soldz
Mental
Health Workers in Iraq
November 29,
2005
Phil Gasper
Live
from Death Row: an Interview with Tookie Williams
Behzad Yaghmaian
The Ghost of Sangatte
Joshua Frank
Jack Abramoff's Bi-partisan Sleaze
Walter A. Davis
Life on Death Row: a Monologue
Gary Leupp
Bush the Dupe?
Len Colodny
Woodwardgate: Still Protecting the Rightwing
Jeffrey St.
Clair
The
Duke and the Enterprise: Randy Cunningham's Crash Landing
Bill Quigley
Human Rights Leaders Call for Release of Haiti's Political Prisoners
Website of
the Day
Watch Chomsky vs. Dershowitz Live, Tonight at 7PM, EST!
November 28,
2005
Chris Reed
The
"Bomb Al Jazeera" Documents Trial
David Isenberg
Cooked
Intelligence: the Dog that Didn't Bark
Ron Jacobs
Contraindications: a Review of Blood on the Border
Norman Solomon
The
Woodward Scandal Must Not Blow Over
Justin E.H. Smith
Schwarzenegger's Curious Power
Mickey Z.
Abbie Hoffman at 70: Steal This City
Mike Whitney
The Pentagon's Domestic Spying Operation
David Swanson
Is Impeachment an Election Issue?
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Grave Threat of the Bush Administration
Website of
the Day
"Don't Bomb Us!": a Blog by Al Jazeera Staffers
November 26
/ 27, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
How
the Democrats Undercut John Murtha
Saul Landau
Who We Are: Torture and the Empire
Ralph Nader
Junk Television: Excluding Voices That Save Lives
Brian Cloughley
What Are They Dying For?
John Ross
When a Language Dies
Gary Leupp
The Nepal Pact
Fred Gardner
Dr. Denney Goes to Arkansas
Christopher Brauchli
Compassion for Corporations: Northrup Grumman and Katrina's Victims
Dave Lindorff
US War Crimes List Keeps Growing
P. Sainath
See, Neoliberalism Really Works: Net Worth of India's Billionaires
Soars!
Timothy J.
Freeman
The Price of Freedom
Lila Rajiva
Of Mice, Men and GM Peas
Eric Ruder
Beat the Needle: Saving Tookie Williams
Seth Sandronsky
Working Toward Whiteness: an Interview with David Roediger
Joaquin Bustelo
What Really Happened at Mar del Plata
Lewis Alper
Is the President's Soul in Jeopardy?: an Evangelical Christian
Looks at Bush's Skull and Bones Initiation
Will Youmans
In Search of Paradise
Phyllis Pollack
The Stones' Rough Justice in Bush Time
St. Clair /
Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Barbara LaMorticella
Poetry and the City of Ideas
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Buknatski, Engel, Albert and Davies
Website of the Weekend
NLR: The Chequered Rainbow
November 25,
2005
David Price
How
US Anthropologists Planned "Race-Specific" Weapons
Against the Japanese
Brian McKenna
Will
Bush Miss the Next Bhopal?
Jeff Halper
Peretz or Bust?
Ray McGovern
Will
the US Seize the Opportunity for Troop Withdrawal?
Leigh Saavedra
Thanksgiving at Camp Casey
Ingmar Lee
How Have the Mighty Fallen?
Website of the Day
Saving Cathedral Grove
November 24,
2005
James Petras
How
to Think About War and Peace
Bob Shirley
Thanksgiving
Torture: What the Puritans Fled
Mike Fox
Torture
Survivors Speak for Themselves
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Adrift?
Perhaps. A Draft? Never!
Greg Moses
Thanksgiving Delayed: TX High Court Blesses Inequality
Alexander Cockburn
Turkeys
in the Larger Scheme of Things
November 23,
2005
Ramzy Baroud
The
Great Gaza Border Deal: What Does It Mean?
Mike Whitney
Bush, Padilla and Thomas More
Stan Cox
Red, White and Blue Dawn: What a Bad Hollywood Film Can Teach
Americans About Life Under Occupation
Linda S. Heard
Targeting Al Jazeera
November 22,
2005
Kevin Gray
/ Mike Hersh
Maxine
Waters, the Real Leader of the Anti-War Caucus
Ralph Nader
What Do Dems Stand For?
Michael Donnelly
The "Vetting" of Bernard Kerik
Mike Ferner
The CIA's "Torture Taxi" in the Spotlight
Pierre Tristam
The Justice Deficit
Marshall Auerback
Bush's "Compassionate Conservativism": Neither Compassionate
Nor Conservative
Website of
the Day
I Don't Like Geldof
November 21,
2005
Mike Marqusee
Clinton's
Hypocrisies on Iraq
Josh Frank
Democratic Hawks: the Avian Flu of the Antiwar Movement
Mike Whitney
Hugo Chavez vs. the King of Vacations
Norman Solomon
Getting Out of Iraq
Russ Baker
Woodward's Weakness
Robert Jensen
A National Day of Atonement
Paul Craig
Roberts
Lies
and Official Secrets
November 19
/ 20, 2005
Fred Gardner
The
Raid on MendoHealing
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
The House GOP Has Done a Heinous Thing: Stop Playing Politics;
Get the Troops Out Now
Ron Jacobs
A Pathetic Congress: If It Walks and Talks Like a Withdrawal
Resolution, Why Won't You Vote For It?
David Vest
The Politics of Surrender: It's as American as Robert E. Lee
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr.
Condi Rice's Disdain for the Civil Rights Movement
John R. Bomar
Staying the Course on "Freedom's Frontier": a Vietnam
Vet on Iraq
John Ross
The
Dragon Flies High, But Not Over Mexico
Phillip Cryan
Colombia: "Political Kidnapping" and Murder in Cauca
Dave Lindorff
RIP In These Times
Dick J. Reavis
The Future of the Daily Press
Jeremy Scahill
Vegetarian Between Meals: This War Can't Be Stopped by a Loyal
Opposition
Dan Wright
Cleaning Up Alaska's Scan Bay
John Stanton
Scowcroft Talks Turkey; Edmounds Fights Fascism
St. Clair / Vest / Walker
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Phyllis Pollack
The Stones: Rarities
Dr. Susan Block
Our Night of Weimar Love
Poets Basement
Albert, Engel, Ford, Harley and Louise
November 18,
2005
Michael Neumann
The
Palestinians and the Party Line
Dave Lindorff
Murtha and the L Word
Michael Donnelly
Black November 15
Mark Chmiel
/ Andrew Wimmer
Uncrucify Them
Don Monkerud
A Decent Workplace
Tom Kerr
Grant Clemency to Tookie Williams
Trish Schuh
Faking
the Case Against Syria
November 17,
2005
John Walsh
A
Fractured Anti-War Movement
Rep. John Murtha
Iraq Must Be Freed from the US
Occupation
Brian J. Foley
We Are All In GITMO Now
CounterPunch
News Service
Guardian
Apologizes to Chomsky; Publishes Total Retraction of Brockes'
Slurs
Dave Lindorff
In Post-Saddam Iraq, There are No Civilians
Mark T. Harris
Coming Out in an Up-and-Coming Sport
Cockburn /
St. Clair
From
Reporter to Courtier: the Decline of Bob Woodward
November 16,
2005
John F. Sugg
Al-Arian
Speaks: In His First Interview Since the Trial Began, Al-Arian
Talks About What the Jury Didn't Hear
Noam Chomsky
Putting Out the Englightenment
Dave Lindorff
Shake
and Bake: Pentagon Admits Using Phosphorous Bombs on Fallujah
Evelyn Pringle
Laurie Mylroie's War
Sam Husseini
Trying to Look a Female Suicide Bomber in the Eye
Pierre Tristam
Toturers' Theater
Greg Bates
Waffling Alito Charms DiFi
Farrah Hassen
Moustapha
AkkadDavid Lean of the Middle East Killed in Amman Blast
Bill Christison
Evidence
Mounts That Bush Wants New Wars
Website of
the Day
Violent Oscillations
November 15,
2005
Todd Chretien
My
Evening in the No Spin Zone; Or Why Bill O'Reilly Hates San Francisco
Leah Caldwell
Death
of the Jailhouse Press
Frederick Hudson
Rosa's Wreath: Miss Parks and Robert Williams
Harry Browne
Bush-Linked Judge Bows Out: Another Mistrial in Irish Ploughshares
Case
Jason Leopold
Secret CIA Testimony: Iraq Posed No Threat
Ingmar Lee
Logging Lackies vs. Canada's Most Endangered Species
Diana Barahona
Showdown on the Silver Coast
Tom Andre
New Orleans, Two Months Later
Website of the Weekend
Ernest Crichlow: 1914-2005
November 14,
2005
Diana Johnstone
The
Origins of the Guardian's Attack on Chomsky
Paul Craig Roberts
Power Over All: Unlimited Detentions and the End of Habeas Corpus
Conn Hallinan
Provoking
Syria: Cambodia All Over Again?
Joshua Frank
Off She Goes: Hillary in Israel
Christopher
Reed
The
Persistence of Racism in Koizumi's Japan
November 11
/ 13, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
First
the Lying, Then the Pardons
Gwyneth Leech
Cross Connections: a Painter Reimagines the Passion of Christ
in the Wake of Abu Ghraib
Elmas Mallo
Chillin' in the Blazin' Texas Sun: Inside the Texas Prison System
Michael Neumann
The Rebel King of Bluegrass: Jimmy Martin, an Appreciation
Saul Landau
Leakgate: the Screenplay
Sam Husseini
Bush and Zarqawi Bomb Because We Let Them
Brian Cloughley
Sleaze, Deceit and Torture
Ron Jacobs
Rep. McGovern's Withdrawal Resolution: a Step in the Right Direction?
Lila Rajiva
Dover Bitch: the Curses of Pat Robertson
Michael Donnelly
Hypocrisy Watch
Joe Allen
Murder in El Salvador: Who Killed Gilberto Soto?
Roland Sheppard
Lessons from the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Justin E.H.
Smith
Another Monkey Trial?
Ben Tripp
The Cost of War
St. Clair /
Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Jones, Louise, Ford, Smith, Albert and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Iraq Vets and Against the War Need Your Help!
November 10,
2005
Peterside,
Ogon, Watts and Zalik
Delta
Blues Again: Ken Saro-Wiwa, 10 Years Gone
Pat Williams
Will Alito Cost the Republicans the Senate?
Steve Higgs
Bush Crony Targets Indiana's Forests: 400% Hike in Logging
Jimmy Massey
Is Ron Harris Telling the Truth?
Lucson Pierre-Charles
Haiti: Insanity Takes Over
Anthony Newkirk
Syria in the Crosshairs
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Why Did Libby Lie?
Website of the Day
Imperial Margarine
November 9,
2005
Gary Leupp
The
Niger Deception / Plame Affair: an Incomplete Chronology
Tariq Ali
Blair Defeated on Terror Laws
Chris Floyd
The
Philosopher's Stone
Elaine Cassel
The
Shocking Trial of an American Citizen: the Case of Ahmed Abu
Ali
Joshua Frank
Sen. Max Baucus's NASCAR Pay Day
Alison Weir
Memo to Jon Stewart: Glad You're Against Torture, So Why'd You
Give Israel a Pass?
Diana Johnstone
Rage
in the Banlieue
November 8, 2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Still
No Jobs
Roger Burbach
Bush
v. Chavez: the Imperial President Meets the Bolivarian Democrat
Ron Jacobs
An Interview with Behzad Yaghmaian on the Paris Uprising
Ralph Nader
"The Worst Marketed Disease on the Planet"
Jim McGrath
Voter Beware: a Cautionary Tale for Election Day
David Bloom
McCain, Israel and Torture: Setting the Record Straight
Stan Goff
Jimmy Massey, Ron Harris, and Ambush Journalism
November 7,
2005
Dick Reavis
The
Origins of Mr. Danger
Jason Leopold
Cheney and the Cover Up: the Vice President Lied
Dave Lindorff
What Country was Bush Talking About?
Eli Stephens
A Tale of Two Generals: the Lies of Colin Powell
David Swanson
The Bush-Cheney Ethics Refresher Course: a Syllabus
M. Junaid Alam
An Interview Stan Goff
Matt Reichel
Paris Uprising: a Rebellion in Real Time
Naima Bouteldja
Paris is Burning
Jeff Halper
Israel
as an Extension of American Empire
Website of the Day
Dispatches from Paris
November 5
/ 6, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
Storm
Over Brockes' Fakery: Guardian Fabricates Chomsky Quotes
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Lying,
Law Schools and Executive Power: What Senators Should Ask Alito
Diana Johnstone
Srebrenica: a Response to Certain Criticisms of My Essay
Roosa / Nevins
The
Mass Killlings in Indonesia, 40 Years Later
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Missing
the Bus: When Conscience Bows to Calculation
John Ross
The Zapatistas' Otra Campaign for Mexico's Presidential Elections
Mike Whitney
Globalizing Sadism: the United States of Torture
Mark Engler
Will Big Business Turn On Bush?: the Economic Nightmare Unfolds
Juliano Mer-Khamis
They Shoot at Children, Too
Ron Jacobs
When Gen. Westmoreland Visited
Jill S. Farrell
Bird Flu and the Posse Comitatus Act
Missy Comley
Beattie
Trent Lott's Untroubled Sleep
Mitchel Cohen
People of the Dome, Revisited
Evelyn J. Pringle
Bush-Cheney and Big Oil's Big Summer
Reza Fiyouzat
Signs of Life or Last Gasp? Structural Problems in the Democratic
Party
Charles Sullivan
When Courage Fails: a White Southerner on Rosa Parks
Zachary Richard
Return to Louisiana
Ben Tripp
Beginning of the End? Don't Start Cheering Just Yet
St. Clair / Vest
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
November 4,
2005
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Blood
on the Tundra, Betrayal in the Rotunda: Losing ANWR
Dave Lindorff
A Majority Now Favors Impeachment: If He Lied, He Must Be Tried
Phillip Cryan
Crackdown
in Colombia
Christopher Brauchli
Katrina and Tax Breaks for the Very Rich
William S.
Lind
Exit Strategy: You Can't Stay the Course in a Lost War
Daryl G. Kimball
Of Madmen and Nukes
George Beres
Laurels for Negroponte?
Peter Montague
Why We Can't Prevent Cancer
November 3,
2005
James Petras
The
Libby Affair and the Internal War
Saul Landau
Torn
Families and Shot Down Planes: a Cuba Story
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
An Occurrence at Gretna Bridge
Michael Dickinson
Bang! Bang! You're Deaf! Sonic Weapons Over Palestine
Joshua Frank
Sham Behind Closed Doors
Remi Kanazi
Dancing with Perseverance
Reza Fiyouzat
Taxation or Racketeering?
Website of the Day
CIA Leak Investigation: Bigger Fish, Deeper Water?
November 2,
2005
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Holy
Alito!: Not as Crazy as Scalia, But Just as Bad
Robert Oscar Lopez
Saving Rosa Parks from American Hypocrisy
John Walsh
The Philosophy of Mendacity: From Leo Strauss to Scooter Libby
Brian J. Foley
Why Most Americans Don't Care About Gitmo (and Why They Should)
Ramzy Baroud
Rolling Back Syria
M. Junaid Alam
What Moral Values?
Todd Chretien
Judgment Day for the Governator
Bruce K. Gagnon
The Democrats' Slap Happy Day
Website of the Day
Hands Off Dave!
November 1,
2005
Ron Jacobs
An
Interview with Kent State's Dave Airhart
Gary Leupp
The Plame Affair Leads to Rome
John Ross
Days
of the Dead on the Border
Bill Quigley
Why
Are They Making New Orleans a Ghost Town?
Joseph Nevins
From a Boundary of Death to One of Life
Dave Lindorff
Thinking About Impeachment
Linda S. Heard
Bashing Syria: Another Trojan Horse from the UN?
Heather Gray
Thank You, Mrs. Parks
Michael Dickinson
To Di For: Charlie and Camilla Cross the Pond
Jeffrey St. Clair
Kent State: Wise Up and Back Off
October 31,
2005
Elaine Cassel
Libby's
Lies
Mark Weisbrot
Pop Goes the Bubble: Bernancke and the Fed
Mike Whitney
Carry On, Patrick Fitzgerald
Norman Solomon
After the Libby Indictment, the Press Acquits Itself
Farooq Sulehria
Trading Weapons While Kashmir Burns
Nicole Colson
Scapegoating Immigrants
Madis Senner
Dhafir Sentenced to 22 Years: Another Erosion of Civil Rights
Paul Craig
Roberts
Scooter
and the Neocons
October 29 / 30, 2005
Cockburn /
St. Clair
The
Libby Indictment: Gotterdammerung for the Bushies?
Peter Linebaugh
The
Wedges of Hephaestus
Tim Wise
Framing the Poor: Katrina, Conservative Myth-Making and the Media
John Chuckman
Bushspeak: Dark and Garbled Words
Steven Higgs
Green Hoosiers: Forging a New Democracy in the Heartland
Brian Cloughley
The Fifth Afghan War
M. Shahid Alam
Israel and the Consequences of Uniqueness
Nikki Robinson
Crack Down at Kent State
Ralph Nader
Let the PIRGs Begin!: Student Activism Thrives
Joe DeRaymond
Requiem for Bethlehem Steel?
Joshua Frank
Karl's Great Escape: Did Rove Rat on Scooter?
Laura Santina
Tongue-Tied on Iraq: Why Aren't the Dems Screaming Bloody Murder?
Fred Gardner
Death of an Organizer
Michael Dickinson
Insult Your Country
Ron Jacobs
Autumn in America
Dr. Susan Block
Fear and Sex: a Halloween Greeting
Vanessa S. Jones
Self-Portrait, 1994. Bronte Beach
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Marbet, Gardner, Ford, Albert, Engel, Krieger & St. Clair
Website of
the Weekend
Red State Update
October 28,
2005
Jared Bernstein
Inflation
Up; Wages Down: Fastest Decline in Wages on Record
Virginia Tilley
Embracing
the Anti-Aparthied Movement in Israel/Palestine
Phil Gasper
The
Race to Execute Tookie Williams
Jennifer Matsui
It's Mardi Graft Time!
Manual Garcia,
Jr.
Is the US Really Against Torture?
Monica Benderman
In the Name of Justice
Jason Leopold
Fitzgerald
Focuses on the Forgeries
Dave Lindorff
Suddenly, Bush Endorses Right of Fair Trials
Otober 27, 2005
Saul Landau
The
Scandal Isn't the Leak, But the Illegal War
Stuart Hodkinson
Bono
and Geldoff: "We Saved Africa" Oh No, They Didn't!
Ingmar Lee
Stop
the Troops!: No Glory or Honor in Iraq
Lila Rajiva
License
to Bill: Gates Does India
Ilan Pappe
The
Last Moment of Hope
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Waiting for Fitzgerald
Michael Donnelly
Look Who's Talking Now: the GOP on Perjury
Ron Jacobs
Escape the Weight of Your Corporate Logo
Cockburn / St. Clair
White House in Meltdown
October 26,
2005
Kathy Kelly
For
Whom They Toll
Gary Leupp
Dialectics
of the Plame Affair
Mike Marqusee
Empire of Denial
Eric Ruder
War Crimes in Afghanistan
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq: a Constitutionally Divided Nation
Joshua Frank
Fitzgerald v. the Bushies: Hold Your Elation in Check
J.L. Chestnut, Jr.
The Legacy of Rosa Parks
Website of
the Day
Decent Work in America: the 2005 Work Environment Index
October 25,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Condi
and Syrian Regime Change: Could Somebody Recommend a President?
Ken Sengupta / Patrick Cockburn
Attack on the Palestine Hotel
Conn Hallinan
Sleight of Hand: Iran, India and the US
Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed
Pulling the Court Strings
Jackie Corr
Barbara Bush: Poster Gorgon of the Houston Astros
Robert Day
Talk to Strangers
John Sugg
Judith
Miller and Me
October 24,
2005
Dave Lindorff
Revoke
Judy Miller's Pulitzer
Michael Donnelly
Shades of Iran/contra
Patrick Cockburn
A Nation Stands on Trial
Mike Whitney
Apres Rove
Norman Solomon
Iraq is Not Vietnam, But...
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
US
Foreign Policy and Palestine
October 22
/ 23, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
When
Divas Collide: Maureen Dowd v. Judy Miller
Billy Sothern
Letter
from the Circle Bar, New Orleans
Saul Landau
Bush, an Assessment
Ralph Nader
An
Open Letter to Bush on Harriet Miers
Behrooz Ghamari
Whose Justice Does Saddam's Trial Serve?
Brian Cloughley
Bush the Strategist: Pyrrhus Without a Victory?
Diana Barahona
Venezuela's National Workers' Union
Fred Gardner
Dershowitzed!
Lee Sustar
What the War on Terror is Really About
Patrick Cockburn
Murder of Saddam Trial Defense Lawyer
Laura Carlsen
Mexico City Seamstresses Recall 1985 Quake
James Petras
China Bashing and the Loss of US Competitiveness
Joshua Frank
Invading Iran: Who is to Stop Them?
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
Disasters are Us
Michelle Bollinger
When Abortion Was Illegal
Missy Comley
Beattie
CSI: Iraq
Kona Lowell
Intelligent Design: Making High School Fun
Ben Tripp
Tanks for the Memories
Jeffrey St. Clair
Playlist: What I'm Listening To This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert and Engel
Website of
the Day
Indictment Watch
October 21,
2005
Dave Lindorff
The
Democrats' Abortion Hypocrisy
Winslow T. Wheeler
Paying for Their Mistakes: Incompetence, Deception and the Defense
Budget
Col. Dan Smith
The Destruction of the National Guard
Norman Solomon
Media at Crossroads: 25 Years After Reagan's Triumph
Madis Senner
Abusing Katrina
Michael Donnelly
Richard
Pombo: DeLay in Cowboy Boots
October 20, 2005
Dave Lindorff
Impeachment
Comes to NYC
Ray McGovern
16
Fatal Words: Cheney's Chickens Come Home to Roost
Jeremy Brecher
/
Brendan Smith
Attack Syria? Invade Iran?: By What Constitutional Right?
Patrick Cockburn
Saddam Refuses to Recognize Court
Kevin Zeese
Was the Iraqi Constitution Vote Fixed?
Ross Eisenbrey
Millions Would Lose Pay and Protections Under Enzi Amendment
Randy Shields
James McMurtry Makes It in Dayton
Justine Davidson
Prosecuting Bush in Canada for Torture: a Small Victory
After Lucas
Cranach
Judy and Holofernes
Joe Allen
The
Scandalous History of the Red Cross
|
Weekend Edition
December 3/4, 2005
CounterPunch Playlist
What We're Listening
to This Week
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR,
DAVID VEST, JESSE WALKER, PHYLLIS POLLACK
JEFFREY
ST. CLAIR
1. Clarence Gatemouth Brown--San
Antonio Ballbuster: the Original Peacock Recordings (Rounder)
The musical polymath of the
Bayou country, Clarence Gatemouth Brown died this fall a few
weeks after Hurricane Katrina destroyed his canal-side home near
Lake Ponchartrain in Slidell, Louisiana. Weakened by cancer,
close friends say that he was devastated by the loss of his home
and the city he loved and soon lost the will to live. He was
81 when he died near the house where he was born in Orange, Texas.
Brown had been recording music for more than 60 years and had
played a dynamic set at Jazzfest in March. Gatemouth could and
did play nearly any kind of music at a very high level, from
electric blues to Cajun stomps, jazz to swing, country to a blazing
style of rock-and-roll guitar that rivaled Chuck Berry. He also
loved to tell musical tall tales, a blend of Tennessee Ernie
Ford and Mississippi John Hurt. Over the years, I saw Gatemouth
5 or 6 times and though his guitar playing was original and first
rate, it was his fiddling that I most enjoyed. And, as he danced
across the stage with those long, bowed legs, it often seemed
he felt the same way. Brown's father, a railroad worker, was
a fiddler, who taught him to play music. Brown often said he
wanted to make his guitar mimic the sound of his father's fiddle.
Gatemouth made hundreds of records in a career that dates to
the late 1940s, but these Peacock recordings from the 1950s standout.
Here Gatemouth does a precise imitation of his idol, T-Bone Walker,
right down to the snazzy suit, which would be sacrificed in later
years to his signature cowboy hat, rodeo shirt, jeans and pipe,
ala Albert King. In his final interview, Brown was asked to classify
his own music and responded tartly: "I'm so unorthodox,
a lot of people can't handle it. There are too many sound-a-likes
in this world today. So when people ask me what kind of music
do you play I tell them quickly American music, Texas style."
2. Chris Whitley--Living
With the Law (Sony)
Chris Whitley died last week
at the tender age of 45, his lungs destroyed by a thirty-year
long addiction to cigarettes. I met Chris in the early 1990s
when he breezed through the PNW on tour to promote his stunning
debut album, Living With the Law, which contains two of my favorite
songs "I Forget You Every Day" and "Big Sky Country."
Chris had a day or two off between gigs and said he wanted to
see some big trees. We headed up to Opal Creek, one of the last
unravaged valleys of ancient forest in the Oregon, and sat under
800-year-old Douglas-firs. We called down a spotted owl that
day and Chris boiled with rage at the miles of clearcuts we drove
past on the way back from that misty valley. As much as Chris
loved our rainforest, his heart and his music were planted in
the more arid landscapes of the Interior West, from Texas to
Montana. A master of the National Steel guitar, Chris Whitley
was also a gifted blues singer and an even better songwriter.
I have a special affection for his first album, but you shouldn't
overlook any of the others, from Dirt Floor to War Crimes Blues.
Chris, we'll remember you every day.
3. Cecil Taylor-Love
for Sale (Blue Note)
An American original, Cecil
Taylor is all but ignored in his home country. Perhaps the most
literary of living musicians, Taylor broke all the rules that
governed bebop, blues and stride piano. Then he flouted even
his own new standards. Taylor did for the piano what Ornette
Coleman did for the sax: he busted open the box. If Taylor isn't
always considered part of the "free jazz" movement,
that's because Taylor is Taylor. Sui generis. He also freed the
drummer from the role of time keeper making him an equal participant
in shaping the musical improvisations, though no one truly met
the challenge until Taylor briefly hooked up with Tony Williams.
Williams even coined a term for the new style: open drumming.
If you're looking for an entry point into Taylor's challenging
body of work this succinct demolition of Cole Porter may be the
place to start. Warning: the learning curve is steep and treacherous.
If you still spin vinyl, Love for Sale has one of the most provocative
album covers of the Eisenhower Era, featuring Taylor lighting
the cigarette of a street hooker. The miniaturized version on
the CD doesn't do the original justice.
4. O.V. Wright--A
Nickle and a Nail: the Soul of OV Wright (MCA)
If Overton Vertis Wright had
been backed by Booker T. and the MGs he might be as well-known
today as Otis Redding. He certainly had the voice, a smoky and
powerful engine of southern soul resonating with the deep gospel
gravitas that he had mastered in the churches of his homes in
Leno, Tennessee and Memphis. Then again maybe he wouldn't. Although
he cut most of his records just down the road from the Stax studios
in Memphis, Wright's songs and his voice are darker than Redding's,
more anguished, and at times, such as on the incredible "Ace
of Spades", even slightly threatening and scary. It's that
aspect of Wright's music that may have limited his crossover
appeal. It's also the quality that makes the best of his music
worth listening to four decades after it was recorded. Wright
died in Memphis in 1979 at the age of 41.
5. Booker T. and the MGs
-- McLemore
Avenue (Stax)
A few weeks after Abbey Road
was released, Booker T. Jones took the MGs into the Stax Studio
on McLemore Avenue in Memphis and recorded their own largely
instrumental version of the Beatles' masterpiece. The result
is more than just a novelty. McLemore Avenue is a deeply grooved
gem. I dig most of the songs on Abbey Road, but the lush production
of the record almost overwhelms the music. Not so here, as Booker
T. and the MGs strip the songs down to their core and demonstrate
that a vital sound can still be generated by a Hammond B-3 organ,
a rhythm guitar, a bass and a drummer. This is the original Abbey
Road Naked. By the way, Al Jackson, Jr, whose 1975 murder remains
unsolved, gets my vote for the best drummer of rock/soul era.
6. Billy Joe Shaver -- Tramp
on Your Street (Zoo/Praxis)
Billy Joe Shaver may be the
best songwriter you've never of heard of. A legend among musicians
from Austin to Nashville, Shaver remains grossly under-appreciated.
His career roughly parallels that of Waylon Jennings and Willie
Nelson, but until 2002 Shaver hadn't won a single award for his
music. Admittedly, awards don't count for much, except as a kind
of barometer for critical and popular recognition. Still the
laurels were late in coming. Shaver is a prolific songwriter.
He reportedly went into the studio to record his most recent
CD with 500 new songs. And they're good songs, too. After all,
Shaver wrote all of the songs for Waylon Jennings's best album,
Honky Tonk Heroes. This CD is from the early 1990s and it features
Shaver playing with son Eddie, on a blistering electric guitar
(once owned by Duanne Allman), and Al Kooper on keyboards. Waylon
sits in on two songs, singing in Oklahoma Wind, a song about
the genocidal treatment of American Indians, "the red man
speaks his peace to gain his long lost dignity / Washington just
turns the other way". It's been a rough few years for Shaver.
In 2000, Eddie died from a drug overdose, a few months after
Shaver's mother and wife both had succumbed to cancer. By the
way, the tramp of the title is Billy Joe; the street is the one
paved by Hank Williams.
7. Keith Jarrett Trio --
Bye,
Bye Blackbird (ECM)
I've always appreciated the
music of Keith Jarrett, even as I've found myself nodding off
during those long, abstract excursions that he has unleashed
every year or so following the commercial success (more than
2 million copies sold) of his remarkable Köln Concert record
in the 1970s. Frankly, I have difficulty distinguishing the Köln
solos from the Paris solos and the Paris concert from the Vienna,
Lausanne, Tokyo and Bremen performances. All long improvisations
recorded years apart. Still they strike me as variations on the
same complex theme. (Of course, Jarrett has recorded the Goldberg
Variations, as well as the Well-Tempered Clavier.) Perhaps he's
performing at an order so lofty that only fellow pianists can
truly appreciate the nuances of the music. But there's a parallel
Keith Jarrett. He's too aloof to call this incarnation the workingman's
Jarrett, but at least this music, made with Gary Peacock on bass
and Jack DeJohnette on drums, swings. Don't forget that Jarrett
was a hard bop prodigy, playing with sax man Charles McPhereson,
when Miles Davis recruited him to play in his fusion band. Jarrett
hated playing the electric piano, but submitted to Davis' demands
and Davis, never known for handed out false praise, later called
him "the best pianist I ever had." After leaving Davis's
group, Jarrett says he never touched another electric instrument.
Instead he turned his talents toward the long solo improvisations,
working his way through the classical songbook and recording
jazz standards with his trio. Bye Bye Blackbird is a tribute
to Davis recorded only weeks after his death. And it is an excellent
tribute, with Jarrett miming Miles's phrasing and DeJohnette
driving the music with his propulsive, almost violent, drumming.
Some Jarrett partisans call this grouping the greatest trio in
jazz history. I don't know if I'd go that far. Then again I don't
know of any, including the Bill Evans Trio and Tony Williams's
Lifetime Trio, that have performed at a higher level.
8. Dolly Parton -- 9
to 5 and Odd Jobs (Buddha)
Nashville purists dumped on
Dolly Parton for this record and several other albums that followed
which were produced in LA. It was a bum rap, first because there
was scarcely anything "pure" about the music coming
out of Nashville in those lean years and second because the songs
Dolly made in LA were as good as anything she had ever done-which
means they are very good indeed. Although this record
contains the hit "9 to 5", it's not a soundtrack to
the movie in which Dolly co-starred with Lily Tomlin and Jane
Fonda. (That Dolly was willing to co-star and befriend Fonda
in the 70s tells you a lot about her character and her willingness
to take crap from jarheads and crackers.) Instead, these are
songs about the conditions of working class America in the grip
of a recession, and they are as keenly observed as anything by
Hazel Dickens. Naturally, the album is now deleted.
9. Peter Tosh -- Talking
Revolution (Pressure Sounds)
If Che Guevara had played music,
it wouldn't have had any more revolutionary zeal (and wouldn't
have been nearly as much fun) than the rebel reggae Peter Tosh
produced for 30 years, until he was machine-gunned September
11, 1987 in his Kingston, Jamaica home by a mysterious con named
Dennis 'Leppo' Lobban. Some still suspect that Leppo Lobban may
have been hired by the cops to assassinate Tosh. There are probably
a dozen or so Tosh collections, but I like this newly released
2-cd package which includes his One Love Peace Concert in Jamaica
and an assemblage of rare acoustic performances on the radio
recorded while Tosh toured the US. While Bob Marley and Tosh
played together in the Wailers, its impossible to imagine Marley
singing Tosh's Stepping Razor ("If you wanna live / You
better treat me good") and meaning it. James Brown or 50
Cent could sing it with feeling, though.
10. Natalie McMaster --
Fit
as a Fiddle (Rounder)
The Paganini (or, at least,
Tommy Jackson) of Cape Breton Island.
By the time Jeffrey St. Clair
was 18, he'd been 86'd from more bands than Dickey Betts. Complaints
can be registered to: sitka@comcast.net.
DAVID VEST
1. Wallace Stevens (Voice
of the Poet) -- Random House Audio.
Hearing Stevens read "The
Idea of Order At Key West" aloud was a crucial moment in
this writer's life. "Ramon Fernandez, tell me, if you know
..."
2. Eudora Welty Reads "Why
I Live At The P.O." and others -- Caedmon.
To hear Welty read this story
(not to mention the others) would convince the most hardened
skeptic that fiction is truly written to be heard aloud, at least
in one's head. The ultimate antidote to "speedreading."
3. William
Faulkner Reads - HarperCollins.
Though Amazon (or the publisher)
couldn't even be bothered to get the title right, Faulkner reading
from "Old Man" is proof that "O Brother, Where
Art Thou" should never have been made, or at least not by
bozos too ignorant to know that putting Odysseus in the Delta
had already been done, for all time. Besides, Odysseus wasn't
a "rude clown" and Faulkner wasn't fooling.
4. Bill Monroe, The
Music of Bill Monroe, from 1936-1994 -- MCA.
One box set they really did
right. You even get to hear "Jenny Lynn," a much talked-about
but seldom played fiddle tune. Worth the price for "My Last
Days On Earth" alone, even if the tune is now available
elsewhere.
5. Darby and Tarlton, On
the Banks of a Lonely River -- County.
"Down in Florida On A
Hog" and "Maple On The Hill" on the same CD, featuring
one of the kings of country slide/lapstyle guitar.
6. The Black Eyed Peas--Monkey
Business -- Interscope.
Let the Super Bowl have Paul
McCartney and Janet Jackson. The halftime entertainment at last
week's Grey Cup overtime CFL classic was provided by The Black
Eyed Peas. About as hip as it's gonna get for a stadium. James
Brown puts it where it's at on "They Don't Want Music."
And you'll never hear Dick Dale the same again after "Pump
It."
7. Henry Dumas and Sun Ra
in Conversation, The
Ark and the Ankh (Ikef).
Listening (on iTunes) to snatches
of this 1966 conversation between a poet and a piano player,
with space music in the background, makes me long for the days
of cross-pollenization in the arts, when musicians who could
name three living poets weren't quite so rare.
8. Sun Ra, Piano Recital:
Teatro
la Fenice -- Leo.
To call Sun Ra a "piano
player" -- a piano player from Alabama, at that -- isn't
to insult him. Far from it, as this CD proves. Stripped of all
the trippy accoutrements, his music sounds spaciest of all when
it's just him playing it.
9. Lil Hardin Armstrong--Chicago:
The Living Legends (Riverside).
Recorded in 1961, when the
composer of "Struttin' with Some Barbecue" was listening
to Thelonious Monk, not Satchmo. Check out her great entry on
Wikipedia.
10. Jerry Lee Lewis--Jerry
Lee Lewis (Sun).
On the flipside on "Whole
Lot of Shakin' Going On" was a song by Jack Clement, called
"It'll Be Me," played at an absurdly fast tempo. Lewis
had another crack at the tune on his first album, this time at
a saner pace. Or maybe it's just an out-take. At any rate, it
rocks. Even cooler is the fact that Lewis stuck it right to Elvis
right off the bat, opening the album with a blistering take on
"Don't Be Cruel." And how fine is that slap-back echo
on the drums on "Fools Like Me"?
David Vest's newest CD is Serves
Me Right to Shuffle.
JESSE WALKER
1. Jean Knight: Mr.
Big Stuff (Stax)
An addictive assortment of
funky Stax soul. About a third of the tracks are just rewrites
of the title single -- but with a song that good, who cares?
2. Bud Powell: Jazz
Giant (Polygram)
A brilliant pianist whose life
was destroyed by the cops who beat him senseless and the psychiatrists
who gave him 40 rounds of electroshock "treatment."
This may be the only album I own whose author had to convince
the authorities at a mental hospital to let him record it.
3. Duke Ellington: Far
East Suite (RCA)
This pianist, by contrast,
ended up getting along so well with the powers that be that the
State Department sponsored his world tour in 1963. Ordinarily
I'm opposed to the co-mingling of art and state, but since the
tour in question inspired him to compose this masterpiece, I'm
not going to complain.
4. Hasidic New Wave: Kabalogy
(Knitting Factory)
Avant klezmer. Like someone
mashed up Frank Zappa with Naftule Brandwein.
5. Willie Nelson: How
Great Thou Art (Finer Arts)
Mostly this is a straightforward
gospel album, but on two tracks -- "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot"
and "Kneel at the Feet of Jesus" -- it turns into something
else. Nelson's habit of singing off the beat always owed a lot
to jazz, as does his Django-drenched guitar style; backed here
by a stand-up bass and a piano, he suddenly finds himself fronting
a fine jazz trio. He makes the most of it.
6. Hawaiian
Masters Collection, Volume 1 (Rounder)
I've always had some sympathy
for the view that Hawaii isn't really part of the United
States, but I can't listen to this music without thinking it
has a distinctly American feel to it. It might be the fact that
our country-western stations would sound completely different
if the Hawaiians hadn't introduced us to the steel guitar.
7. Robbie Fulks: Georgia
Hard (Yep Roc)
The year isn't over yet, but
this is my leading candidate for Best Album of 2005. Fulks' songwriting
is alternately dark, wistful, angry, and flat-out hilarious,
while his music runs the gamut of country styles -- with a special
focus here on the much-maligned "countrypolitan" pop
of the '70s, which Fulks rehabilitates with no embarrassment.
8. Jerry Reed: The
Essential Jerry Reed (RCA)
Let me say this firmly, with
no room for quibbles or dissent: Jerry Reed is the coolest motherfucker
who ever walked the planet. You think he's just a goofball who
recorded some novelty records and drove a truck in Smokey
and the Bandit? Then listen to the way he performs each song:
He's always an actor as well as a singer, not to mention a dynamo
guitarist. Listen to the way he jumps easily from country to
blues to swampy funk-rock, from funny tall tales to love songs
to political numbers so witty you almost forget he's making a
point. Listen to that LAUGH, son. Jerry Reed kicks ass.
9. Big & Rich: Horse
of a Different Color (Warner Bros.)
This funny, catchy, proudly
sophomoric hick-hop album was a monster hit last year, and deservedly
so. Someday I'm gonna write a long article arguing that the recent
boom in country-rap fusion isn't unusual at all: It's just the
two strands of southern soul music finally getting reacquainted
after three decades' confinement in the R&B and C&W ghettoes.
Plus a little rock'n'roll, just in case they need a lubricant.
Jesse Walker is the managing editor of Reason
and runs the Perpetual
Three Dot website.
PHYLLIS
POLLACK
1. John Lennon--Imagine
(Capitol Records)
Imagine Nothing to kill or
die for.
2. Tony Iommi--Iommi
(Divine Records/Priority Records)
Satan be praised, it is
finally going to happen.
The controversy has finally ended regarding the fact that Black
Sabbath had not been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of
Fame. Only days prior to it being announced by Cleveland that
we would actually live to see this happen in our lifetime, the
controversy had just been fueled again, when both Sabbath's lead
singer, Ozzy Osbourne, and the band's cross-wearing guitarist,
Tony Iommi, issued statements expressing their dismay about not
being inducted here in the U.S., while the Brits were giving
Sabbath their awards in the UK. After waiting all these years
for the music industry congregating at the Waldorf Astoria to
honor "evil witches like black masses," I honestly
can't wait to hear the speeches in March. Although in addition
to his work with Sabbath, Ozzy has also enjoyed a long and wickedly
successful solo career, and despite Iommi's long and illustrious
history as the dark and mysterious guitarist of Black Sabbath,
Iommi did not release this, his first solo album, until the year
2000. On Iommi, the British axe slinger delivers ten quite
alluring duets, featuring vocalists that include the Cult's Ian
Astbury, Billy Idol and Henry Rollins. Bob Marlette tastefully
produced the set of doomy, plodding songs on this anonymously
titled album. The best track on the album is arguably the hard
and heavy "Goodbye Lament," featuring Dave Grohl (Nirvana,
Foo Fighters). While Grohl is often mistakenly labeled as one
of those who helped kill "hair metal," don't be deceived
by this false notion. In his own way, when he gets around to
it, Grohl shows his love for metal, and his duo with Iommi is
testimony to his unique stamp that he lends to the genre here.
Pantera vocalist Philip Anselmo offers a riveting delight in
"Time Is Mine," and blacklit riffs on "Patterns,"
with vocals laid down by System Of A Down's Serj Tankian, offer
further transfixing musical moments. In "Who's Foolin' Who,"
guitar chords smash through church bells intersecting with Ozzy's
pipes. The princes of doom rock should be recognized as the highly
influential bad influences they are. And as we know, there is
really nothing that rock and roll loves more than its bad boys.
3. Maestro Alex Gregory--12 Jokes For Heavy Metal Mandolin
(Nidas Music Production)
Despite the album's title,
this daring Brit guitarist and mandolin player is no joke. Nor
is the Maestro title in his name, which was bestowed on him by
Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Government in 1983. Gregory's
Maestro title speaks volumes (and in this case, it utterly shrieks
volumes, cranked all the way up to eleven). The illustrious Brit
rocker's Maestro title given to him by HRM Elizabeth II was not
just some heavy metal photo op, or some tawdry downtown affair,
like Ozzy Osbourne requesting to get knighted. When it comes
to Gregory, here's a guitarist who very masterfully yanks it
like he cranks it. This is not a prank or hoax by any measure.
This album is as wickedly serious as the Princes of Darkness,
themselves, Black Sabbath, being inducted to the Rock And Roll
Hall Of Fame this coming March. Executing songs on 12 Jokes
For Mandolin like "She's Got Her Knickers Down,"
Alex Gregory is a true master of rock and roll guitar; he will
effortlessly put a spell on you with other molten tracks on this
disc, like the incendiary "Strat The Cat." If you want
to sell your soul for rock and roll, Gregory will take you down
to the Crossroads faster, longer and harder than Eric Clapton.
A virtuoso guitarist and luthier, Alex was instrumental (no pun
intended) in devising the Penta System based on the 5 string
electric guitars and mandolins, which has influenced bands and
rock stars that became fascinated by the results from tricked
out tuning and orchestration. Gregory flaunts extreme melody
and technical prowess throughout this renegade, impassioned album,
on which he used only Fender seven stringed guitars and electric
mandolin solos. If you can beg, borrow or conjure up a copy of
this disc anywhere, it is well worth hearing what rises out of
the cauldron when Gregory plays his little tricks like "Juke
Box Gigue."
4. Digital Underground--Sex
Packets (Tommy Boy Records)
This is some of the best work
ever recorded by the Underground and their rapadelic front man,
Shock G. How he likes to funk thee. Well, at least, he did,
until earlier this year, when he issued a statement announcing
he had just officially quit recording music in the studio, because
it no longer made him "happy." Like Keith Richards,
Shock G needs also love to keep him happy, but more importantly,
the inventive, psychedelic, Oakland, Cali-based gangsta mack
also needed to pull down some more duckets from those label execs
to keep himself happy. Disillusioned by the business end
of the music business, Shock said he wanted to move on to other
pursuits. In many ways, Digital were among the underdogs of hiphop,
in that they were like no one else, and to this day, no one has
come close to duplicating their vibe. The album's bass-laden
grooves are overlaid with capricious rhymes that never get too
serious; Digital, themselves, even described their music and
rhymes as something that sounded "like MC Hammer on crack."
Juxtaposed on Billboard charts between hiphop artists,
who were largely either gangsta rappers, or who were artists
that were seriously political, the irony of Shock G was that
he was one of those cats who was out to prove that you could
out-cool everybody else in the house by intentionally being as
uncool as possible, and by trying hard as possible to be unlike
anyone else who was around. He was not about to bite anyone else's
style, or one who would cling onto copying anyone else's philosophy,
no matter what. That makes for a radical backdrop---or at least
it does in music industry terms. Shock sometimes wore a prosthetic
nose to make his highly unorthodox stand, which deep inside,
really did have a heavy point to it. An incredibly gifted artist
like Shock can manage to turn weird into cool, and Michael Jackson
couldn't even do that. This album is a hiphop classic. It was
the Underground's next album that would introduce the voice of
someone else in their posse, Tupac Shakur. This disc from the
Underground is rockin' and we like the way they swing. The Jimi
Hendrix/Band of Gypsies sample on the album yields an incandescent
and inspired result, as well. Here, the Underground will Doowutchylike.
5. Axl Rose -- Chinese Democracy
Yeah, right! I don't think
so!@# ! Not this week, either, dude!
6. DeeDee Bridgewater--
J'ai
Deux Amour (Sovereign Records)
An exquisite performer, Dee
Dee Bridgewater has recorded with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie,
Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins. On the cool and jazzy J'ai
Deux Amour, she lends her vocals to eleven lovely French
compositions. The versatile singer has received countless awards
in both America and in the UK for her multi-talented works. Bridgewater
resides both in the States and in France, the latter of which
inspired her to record this album. Deeply committed to various
humanitarian causes, Bridgewater spreads the love on her new
CD that is stacked with ballads, some of which have previously
been hit recordings for other artists. Bridgewater won a Grammy
for Dear Ella, her tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, which featured
musicians including her brother, Cecil, and Kenny Burrell. Although
she has performed roles including Billie Holiday in "Lady
Day" and the part of Carmen in "Carmen Jazz,"
Bridgewater is most known for her longstanding performance in
The Wiz as Glinda the Good Witch. Here, she can get as
bad as she wants to be, as in bad is good. Like Joni Mitchell,
Bridgewater extends her boundaries, and becomes a free man in
Paris. French torch songs on this disc, which feature "Que
Reste-T-Il- De Nos Amours," the jesting "Dansez Sur
Moi (Girl Talk)," and the smoky, wistful French torch number,
"La Belle Vie (The Good Life)" add even more dimensions
to her already accomplished and extensive musical resume.
7. R. Carlos Nakai-- Quiet
Reflection (Canyon Records)
The twice Grammy nominated
recording artist has graced this earth with the natural sounds
emanating from his wooden flutes, made of red cedar. Nakai hails
from the seductive area that is the Route 66 town of Flagstaff,
Arizona, located just miles from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
Drawing from his Native American background, among the tracks
on this album is "Song Of The Evening Star," a traditional
song of the Kiowa tribe. Nakai's transcendent music is derived
from vocal chants and traditional Native American music. The
album includes improvisational works, and other self-penned melodies
from Nakai, which were inspired by the sky and earth. "Canyon
Reverie" was written while Nakai reminisced about the landscape
of the Colorado plateau. "Omaha Song" is based on a
musical transcription that was penned circa 1900. The album's
title track was recorded with an Eagle bone whistle.
8. Ian Hunter--Strings
Attached (Sanctuary Records)
After selling 20 million albums,
the former Mott The Hoople vocalist and guitarist, Ian Hunter,
decided to record a live album in Oslo, Norway. A masterful arranger,
this is a stunning departure from his past work, in that it was
recorded with an 18-piece philharmonic orchestra, hence the album's
title, Strings Attached. Hunter is never overpowered,
despite the incandescent layer of orchestration that serves as
a captivating background for his riveting, sometimes raspy voice,
and his evocative vocals. Hunter's delivery is amazingly expressive,
at times, somewhat bluesy, while at others, delivered with a
bit of a jagged edge; it is always a journey worth taking. "Wash
Us Away," "Roll Away The Stone," and "All
Of The Good Ones Are Taken" are within the many captivating
standouts on this album. Among its most unexpected moments are
those during the transcendent keyboard work that help bring the
house down on "Once Bitten Twice Shy," one of Mott's
first hits, one that was later covered by the hapless rock and
rollers, Great White. During the song's keyboard solo, Hunter
gives a shot out to Chuck Berry's late keyboardist, Johnny Johnson.
Needless to say, "Roller Ball" is also found on this
album. The British rock legend came into the consciousness of
rock and rollers after Mott's release of the David Bowie composed
and produced glam rock anthem, "All The Young Dudes,"
which Hunter also performs on this set. The version on this disc
is nothing less than sheer reverie.
9. Above The Law--Black
Mafia Life (Ruthless Records)
Executive produced by the late
Eazy-E, this album from Above the Law was part of the family
tree that later generations of hiphoppers don't know about, but
should. The group was led by Cold 187um (Gregory Hutchinson,
AKA Big Hutch), whose uncle, Willie Hutch, died in September
of this year. Willie was a songwriter who helped pen hits including
the Jackson 5's "I'll Be There," and classic tracks
for Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin and the Fifth
Dimension. 187 came into the game with one of the strongest work
ethics when it came to producing and writing hiphop tracks. In
addition to 187, the group also featured the intricate work of
DJ Total K-Oss, KMG The Illustrator and Go Mack. Bad luck often
crossed the group's path, which interfered with their releases,
including unfortunate label politics that ensued when the group's
distributor, Sony, announced their initial plans to distribute
Dr. Dre's The Chronic album, in the midst of a lot of
bad blood between Ruthless and Death Row. Sony would end up passing
on The Chronic, but the shift in the group's distribution
to another label would negatively effect Above The Law's promotion.
That circumstance is just one example of the several unfortunate
events that would affect the group. Must-listen tracks on this
album include "Never Missin' A Beat" and "Call
It What U Want." Black Mafia Life was influential,
not only lyrically, but also musically. Additionally, its track
"Call it What U Want" features one of Tupac Shakur's
earliest recording sessions. This song also marks the first time
the term "G-funk" was ever used on a disc, officially
kicking open the genre. Tragically, in 1995, Above The Law would
be among those to deliver a eulogy at Eazy E's funeral.
10. John Lennon--Walls
And Bridges (EMI Records)
It's been 25 years this week.
Bless you, wherever you are.
Phyllis Pollack lives in Los Angeles where she is
a publicist and music journalist. She can be reached through
her blog.
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