wmsheppa - June 24, 2010 | 12:58 am · Link

I think this song sums up the strategy the US has been using in Afghanistan for the last few years:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5puAN1PGQw

Send Lawyers, Guns, and Money, the shit has hit the fan.

hamletta - June 24, 2010 | 1:26 am · Link

eemom cracks me up! I never thought of it, even though every 5th grader at WG Elementary knew all the words.

The late Mr. Silverstein used to hang out at my favorite hangout in the mid-’90s, but I never worked up the gumption to approach him. Of course, I’m too old to have caught his children’s work as an actual child, just bought it for the godchirren.

hamletta - June 24, 2010 | 1:31 am · Link

As to ’erman’s ’ermits, the really great music hall song about the Tudors was the one my grandpop used to sing so sweetly to me:

With ’er ’ead
Toocked
Oonderneath ’er arrrm
She wallllks the bludy tow’r
With ’er ’ead tooked oonderneath ’er arrrm!

Mark S. - June 24, 2010 | 1:49 am · Link

@Steeplejack:

I’d never heard No Milk Today before. That was a lot better than the two dogshit ones Oldies stations love to play: Mrs. Brown’s Daughter and Henry VIII.

asiangrrlMN - June 24, 2010 | 2:03 am · Link

I got nothing. I just wanted to drop in and say hey. Steepman, I think I may have to ‘shop that pic of me as a six-year-old with my first rusty pitchfork. The idea is just too too tempting.

asiangrrlMN - June 24, 2010 | 2:21 am · Link

@Steeplejack: Oh, I think you’re funny lots of time. It’s just that particular reply of yours (the whole thing including the gooey-talk to SamKitten) seemed a bit stream-of-consciousness looped funny to me. I was in stitches as I pictured me as a little girl holding an old plastic fork.

And, this song is groovy. I’ve never heard it before. I wouldn’t have thought it was Bob Seger. More edgy than other stuff I’ve heard from him.

ETA: Oh, I knew that. I saw you didn’t get any love from Anne Laurie.

Steeplejack - June 24, 2010 | 2:53 am · Link

@Mark S.:

This is a common problem with our musical heritage—groups being reduced to their “one big hit” as time moves inexorably forward. I don’t want to get into the position of defending Herman’s Hermits, because they were a bit too saccharine even back in the day, but they were a valid component of the British invasion and had some good stuff that deserves to be remembered. “No Milk Today” was one—written by Graham Gouldman, who wrote a lot of hits for the Yardbirds and the Hollies and went on to be a member of 10cc, I think (“I’m Not in Love”)—and “This Door Swings Both Ways” was another. Wretched clip here (song at 1:00). Also “Listen, People.”’

Not saying these are the greatest songs ever. But they do fill in a little of the back-story to one of the groups that has been reduced to late-night oldies-infomercial hell. (Plus these might bring back some memories for the older Balloon Juice demographic.)

fucen tarmal - June 24, 2010 | 3:20 am · Link

all this other people’s nostalgia makes me miss my own nostalgia, which, oddly enough is making fun of your nostalgia.

this by mike watt, with eddie vedder singing….

I asked him if he knew what time he had
He said he wasn’t sure, maybe a quarter past

The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s

I peered in his eyes as we stood in line just to have a look
But the pages I found looked like an unbound coloring book

The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s
The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s

It’s not reality, just someone else’s sentimentality…
It won’t work for you…

Baby boomers selling you rumors of their history
Forcing youth away from the truth of what’s real today

The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s

Stadium minds with stadium lies gotta make you laugh
Garbage vendors against true defenders of the craft

The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s
The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s
It’s not reality, just someone else’s sentimentality…
Look what it did to us…

(Speakin’ as a child of the 70’s)

The kids against the 70’s…
Kids against the 70’s…

The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s
The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s

The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s
The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s

The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s
The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s

The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s
The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s

The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s
The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s

The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s
The kids of today should defend themselves against the 70’s

Steeplejack - June 24, 2010 | 3:36 am · Link

I’m going all in on the Animals tonight—“Shake.” Great Hammond B-3 organ starting at 1:10. Bass and drums are tight. And this is one of the few clips from the era that appears not to be lip-synched.

Goin’ out on “See See Rider.”

Okay, not quite done. Here’s Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels—their take on the same song.

fucen tarmal - June 24, 2010 | 3:48 am · Link

@MikeJ:
absolutely, worse yet, middle-aged old people music, and mike watt was old even in the mid 90s….but with even older people music still trying to hang around, like 40 years of the same stuff isn’t enough , and led zepplin being used to sell cadillacs, old people cars, it still retains a relative relevance…

fucen tarmal - June 24, 2010 | 4:02 am · Link

@Steeplejack:

wah-wah, because we know your pop favorites from the music of your life, were all so well adjusted….

btw courtney didn’t kill him, and contrary to rumors from people who would have preferred to simply hate the record she put out, she wrote her own song. last thing people can say when they want to tell you you suck, is that someone else wrote your songs….there is an admission there.

Steeplejack - June 24, 2010 | 4:29 am · Link

@NobodySpecial:

Thanks. Pretty good. You kids can wait until the song ends before you get off my lawn.

James in WA - June 24, 2010 | 4:33 am · Link

I like eemom’s comments for the most part, but her stance with regard to Abby Sunderland really struck me as being short-sighted. As in “I’m a parent so I know and have a valid opinion about kids and you aren’t and thus you don’t know and can’t possibly know anything about children EVAR and therefore fuck you.” I kind of signed off on her after that.

Nicole - June 24, 2010 | 7:08 am · Link

Whatever. I wasn’t born yet when they were big, but I still like Herman’s Hermits. Though I remember being terrified as a kid by the video for “I’m Into Something Good” (back when VH1Classic meant 60’s videos and not 80’s) because the lead singer would grin brightly on the chorus, revealing a terrifying set of scraggly fangs. I really thought all the girls were screaming in fear. I sometimes wonder if Peter Noonan (that’s his name, right?) was Mike Myers’ specific inspiration for Austin Powers’ bad teeth.

I also like The Grass Roots. And I’m not ashamed of that. But I draw the line at Barry McGuire.

debbie - June 24, 2010 | 7:24 am · Link

I caught Pearl Jam on a recent Austin City Limits. When did Eddie start enunciating?

WereBear - June 24, 2010 | 8:04 am · Link

@Steeplejack: Yep, the Animals were utterly unique, and very soulful.

I know it’s not my imagination that my favorite era was Really Good Music, because it wasn’t the music of my own adolescence. It was the music of the previous generation’s adolescence that I happen to like.

And if any whippersnappers don’t get it, perhaps they should spend some time with what came before, those ‘50’s pop hits from the likes of Pat Boone and Paul Anka.

But only an hour or so, because I’m not a cruel person.

debbie - June 24, 2010 | 8:47 am · Link

Speaking of the Animals, I don’t think the Beau Brummels get enough respect (Laugh, Laugh; You Tell Me Why).

Paul in KY - June 24, 2010 | 1:00 pm · Link

I think if Herman’s Hermits had never done the ‘Henry the VIII’ song that they might be in the Rock Hall.

It detracts from some of their other hit songs, IMO.

Kered (formerly Derek) - June 24, 2010 | 2:33 pm · Link

The Animals fucking rule.