Covers: Different Drum

Okay: who had a favorite Monkee? Come on, it's okay, I won't tell anyone... okay, if you don't pick someone soon, I'm going to pick for you, and then - okay, that's better. No, I'm not going to wait for your answer, you had your chance. Besides, this is my blog, and I can do whatever I damn well please. And it pleases me to share that my favorite Monkee was Mike Nesmith. He wasn't the goofball, he wasn't the ladies' man, he wasn't even the one who danced like Axl Rose. Maybe it was the toque, foreshadowing my soon-to-be move to Canada. Maybe it was his height. Maybe it was the fact that you could tell that he really just wanted to be writing and playing songs, and especially in later episodes didn't seem as keen on the cheeseball "acting" sequences.

Nesmith always was a songwriter. The other guys all chipped in, and later on even wrote some of their own original material. But Nesmith had more of a gift - my favorite Monkees song, period, has always been You Just May Be The One. Here it is on YouTube, and notice that the audio is slightly different from the version that usually surfaces on Monkees recordings:





Anyway, that's where my appreciation for Michael Nesmith started. Now we move on.

Like everybody else in the history of the world, my musical interests were molded somewhat by what my parents were listening to when I was a child. This explains Meat Loaf, ELO, and the soundtrack to Jesus Christ Superstar, as well as The Beatles, Billy Joel and the Rolling Stones. It also is my explanation (excuse?) for Linda Ronstadt. (As an aside: yes, I promised both here and in a comment on Armagideon Time that I'd be posting about her soon, and am only now getting to it. Better late than never.) So, here goes.

My parents had Linda Ronstadt's Greatest Hits album, which played a lot in that house on Long Island. There's a bunch of covers in there to begin with, like Desperado and That'll Be The Day, but my favorite was Different Drum, which it turned out was written by, you guessed it, Michael Nesmith. I didn't learn this until I was much older, but maybe this too had something to do with the choosing of my favorite Monkee.

And look at her back then: such a cutie. Damn. I know that for the Living In the USA album, they did a photo shoot with her in short shorts and roller skates, which seemed a natural fit as I keep going on about roller derby lately, but I can't for the life of me find the image I recall. Not that this isn't a marvelous picture to begin with. Taken around 1970, I think, which would be around the time she recorded Different Drum with the Stone Poneys. I've dug up a couple of other reverential covers of the song by appropriate people, who get it.

Michael Nesmith - Different Drum



Linda Ronstadt (Stone Poneys) - Different Drum



Matthew Sweet with Susannah Hoffs - Different Drum



Evan Dando - Different Drum (Live)



You can get Linda Ronstadt's Greatest Hits here.
You can get Michael Nesmith's early hits "The Older Stuff" here.
Matthew Sweet and Susannah Hoffs' track comes from Under the Covers, available here:
The Evan Dando track was apparently on the Lemonheads' Favorite Spanish Dishes EP, which appears to be out of print. Not sure if this was a separate recording or the original.
As usual, enjoy them while they're here, and if you really enjoy them, go out and buy them.

Our new streetcar

The TTC has started its public consultation process regarding new streetcars and light-rail vehicles for its fleet. The current fleet - those on the left in this photo - is nearing the end of its anticipated lifetime. Plus, there is the hoped-for Transit City plan, which would result in the vast expansion of high (or higher) speed rapid transit throughout the city of Toronto. We may possibly be looking at two different types of vehicles - more traditional-style streetcars for the downtown fleet, and euro-style light-rail for the new suburban right-of-way routes. I'm kind of excited about this, as it is the first time in years I can recall a genuine interest on the part of the province and the city to properly invest in intelligent expansion of transit here. (And no, the Sheppard subway does not count - basically that was the result of a tickle fight between Mike Harris and Mel_Lastman that continues to suck money.)

This is where you and I come in. We get a say, of sorts, in what sort of vehicles the TTC gets. First of all - if this interests you - you should read up on the history and pros and cons, at both Steve Munro's website, as well as on Spacing. For a handy guide to other systems around the world that use light rail and streetcars, check out The Toronto LRT Information Page and its blog. Then, have a look at the site the TTC has set up to gauge public demand and interest: mynewstreetcar.ca. There are virtual tour slide shows to see, plus a survey to fill out, of what you would like to see in new transit vehicles, and what does not work that we have now.

Personally, I have a short list of my own requirements:

• vehicles should be low-floor to allow for full access to wheelchairs and strollers
• ideally the same vehicles used for downtown routes and other right-of-way or tunnel routes uptown to allow for interchangeability
• air-conditioning a must
• placement of maps and route information on board
• seats a little further apart - my 6'5" legs get bent out of shape in the ones we have now
• wider aisles required anyway for wheelchairs, but extend that area for more standing access

Aesthetically, I would like to see something that reflects the heritage of the older vehicles, like the PCC car on the right in the above photo - most of the others that the TTC is looking at are uber-modern, European looking things. This coming Thursday from 12 to 8 pm, at Yonge/Dundas Square downtown, the TTC is holding an information session including, among other things, a short version of the cars used in Minneapolis to see in person. I'm going to try and make it after work to have a peek, and have a say.

Heh-heh. Heh-heh.

Oh yeah. So, there was a roller derby event last weekend - I'm not kidding when I tell you that this was absolutely the coolest thing ever. Three hours of full-tilt skating, and wipe-outs, and screaming and yelling - it was a right blast. I know that the D-VAS defeated the Smoke City Betties, but I can't for the life of me recall the score, nor can I find it anywhere. I suppose I could just ask H, but that somehow seems too easy. In the above picture, she's more or less dead center about to start a round. I haven't used this camera for much more than taking pictures of the cats around the house, so I wasn't prepared for the complete inability to take action shots that are decipherable. I was hoping for some action shots, but what I kept getting was blurred all to hell. Next time I'll probably bring along the Pentax and do it the old-fashioned way.
Andrew from work came with me, and he's posted a couple of video clips from the night on You Tube. Have a look:


I'm hoping to organize a bit of a posse for the next event - July 14th at George Bell Arena, I believe between the Chicks Ahoy! and the Bay Street Bruisers. Tickets again appear to be $10 in advance - through Soundscapes or Rotate This. Other venues for tickets are on the Derby home site - there's also links to all 6 teams, so you can have a look and decide if one squad is more deserving of your support than another. Or let me know, and maybe Penny Whistler can hook you up. (No word on the intermission entertainment - this time around it was the Pillow Fight League, which is exactly what you think it is.)

I think as time goes on, you'll see more animosity creep in to the matches, as at this point I think many of them are still pretty friendly and haven't made their enemies yet. Don't get me wrong, there's definitely a competitiveness there and passions and tempers flare a bit. But you're not going to get the flat-out fist fights that no doubt 50% of the male audience is there to see - so if that's you, don't get your hopes up. And, as with Nascar, the main reason for some people to watch roller derby is for the accidents and injuries. Nothing too serious happened last week - I think one woman sprained an ankle.

I'm digging the rockabilly aesthetic with derby, and I'm still digging the Detroit Cobras.

Detroit Cobras - Bad Girl

End of another era

So on Monday I was downtown getting my haircut. (This woman took an hour to cut my hair, showered me with baby powder at one point, and even cut her fingers on the scissors. But this is not that story.)

Anyway. Afterwards, I walked in to Sam the Record Man, which is, alas, closing its doors for good at the end of the month. I've been going there as long as I can remember going downtown, and have bought probably most of the cassettes that are sitting in a box somewhere, because after the advent of CDs you realized that listening to tapes is such a pain in the ass, so you don't do it anymore. Now CDs are the new pain in the ass - everything's online now anyway.

So I walked in, likely for the last time, and poked around. They've thinned stuff out a bit, but there's the makings of a great sale there. There's a bunch of 99 cent bins - if you need a copy of The Button Down Mind of Bob Newhart they've got about 50 of them - but it was an interesting piece of nostalgia to walk around in there. I miss the smell of the vinyl. Once record shops ceased being, well, record shops, they lost a lot of their charm. The sound that those plastic security cases that held tapes or CDs slapping against each other wasn't the same, either.

Sam's was also more of a Canadian institution. Once upon a time there were a couple hundred locations across the country. When I was younger there was one in my neighborhood, near Bloor and Jane. A friend of mine worked there at the time, in an era when the top 30 singles would still be represented by an ordered stack of 45s. There was a community feel to Sam's too - at this location, Trevor was generally the one who got the task of hand lettering little signs for the Top 30, usually with really awful, like Evil Dead awful, puns. One in particular that has always stayed in my mind was for a Paula Abdul song. Trevor drew a little sketch of the CN Tower, and the caption, "The CN Tower goes Straight Up". With any luck, this will be the only mention of Paula Abdul ever in this blog.

There will still be 2 independent Sam's locations left, holdovers from the old franchise days, in Sarnia and Belleville, I think. But losing the flagship store on Yonge Street will be a loss for Toronto, certainly. Those neon records were one of my earliest memories of Toronto, from a 1980 vacation with my parents the year before we moved here. We Stayed at a hotel a couple of blocks away, and our hotel room faced that way. At night I'd sit by the window for ages and watch the flashing lights simulate spinning. They were awesome. A note on the Spacing wire suggests that the sign will not be saved with the building, but will instead be auctioned off with the rest of the leftovers.

So. I browsed around for a while, but there wasn't much that was screaming out at me to liberate it from the shop, but I did pick up this:

Blue Peter's old albums have been remastered and are finally available on CD for the first time. Sam's is selling them for $5.99 each, or all 3 releases for $14.99, I think. I picked up Radio Silence, which comes with the ep Test Patterns For Living and a live track from 1983. It's incredible how well this stuff has held up. Video Verite in paticular kicks, and the title song as well. One of the pre-eminent Canadian New Wave bands of the late 70's early 80's, Blue Peter reassembled for a reunion gig in November that I was fortunate enough to attend, and rumor has it that there will be another in Toronto, maybe later this summer, or in the autumn. If hear anything definitive, I will pass it on asap.


In the meantime, you can get your Blue Peter fix at their site or their MySpace page. The former includes some video and a whole bunch of audio clips from back in the day.

And, to get you started, I'll pass this on to you:



Don't Walk Past was probably their biggest hit back in the day, and this is unfortunately a poor recording of it's video. Watch it more clearly on the band's site. And go down to Sam's before it closes for good - and while you're at pick up some Blue Peter why don't you.

Coming soon: the threatened Linda Ronstadt post.

Femme Fatality!

Hey. I don't make this shit up.

But this coming Saturday, the 16th, I'm going to see my first roller derby match. Does one cheer for referees? I'm gonna give it whirl. Full info is available over at ToRD. You can get tickets at Rotate This and Soundscapes, or from me - I've got a couple of H's, and the friends I thought would want to come are otherwise engaged - apparently the Ultimate Fighting match takes precedence, in one of those my-form-of-violence in better than your-form-of-violence sort of things. Anyway, it'll be a gas, and I will have full report next week some time. Apparently there was a feature on MTV Canada this week in which H (Penny Whistler) makes an appearance. I'll figure out a link for it at some point, too.

Here's yet another in my series of not-trying-hard-enough mp3 links:

Call and Response - Rollerskate



I have no idea how I came by this song. It's been in my collection for a few years, though. Anyone who knows anything is welcome to volunteer.

Hell yeah

Evil Dead: The Musical (yes, I'm serious) has announced it is extending its Toronto run through August 4th - if you haven't already gone to see this, you must do it now. You can order online at their website, here. We've seen it a couple of times, in its earlier ghetto incarnation, and the current production. It's more than worth the price of admission. I earlier wrote about it here.

I'm feeling a little lazy right now, so here's a couple of obviously-themed pieces of musical enjoyment:

The Zombies She's Not There



The Zombies Time of the Season



You can pick up their Greatest Hits on amazon.com.