The five minutes that made me a Dave Matthews fan...

LISTENING RECOMMENDATION...

When we lived in Chicago, I loved to listen to Milt Rosenberg's radio program late in the evening. In my experience, his show, Extension 720, has proven to be an ongoing one-of-a-kind, post-graduate level seminar on a host of interesting topics. Now, when the atmosphere is right, I can still pick up the WGN signal occasionally and catch the general drift of the discussion when the static fades.

Of course, that is not necessary. WGN's website gives one the ability to listen online, and Extension 720 is also available as a podcast. I give it my highest recommendation as a way to keep your mind sharp as you participate in literate interactions on subjects that range far and wide with some of the world's most intelligent people.

THURSDAY THINGAMAJIG: Recommended Podcast

Here's a podcast that I have been enjoying lately. It's the voice of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and it's called, "Grace Matters." The host is the Rev. Peter W. Marty, who is hospitable and insightful as he interviews guests on a wide variety of subjects and then gives a message based on the topic of the day.

I have heard interviews from the field of religion, business, medicine, science, government, and from the lives of everyday people living out their faith in both ordinary and extraordinary circumstances. The show is well-paced and the spirit gracious and irenic.

Highly recommended!

TUESDAY TRAVELS: Nobody "Covers" like JT

Today we take a trip through the world of music. Dad is such a fan of James Taylor that our kids know every JT song since the 1980's by heart. They've heard them on every road trip, danced silly jigs to them as toddlers, enjoyed them on summer lawns in concert, watched them on DVD, and listened to dad play his own versions of them on the guitar.

One aspect of JT's music that I've always enjoyed is his ability to cover the songs of other artists and make them his own. Songs like "You've Got a Friend," "How Sweet It Is," "Everyday," and so many others have always satisfied. Now he's put together an entire album of covers, and it's amazing.

First of all, the new recording is more consistently upbeat than other JT albums. In concert, Taylor often uses covers to pump up the pace and volume, and several of those songs are here, including, "Summertime Blues" and "Not Fade Away." Backed by the fine "Band of Legends" that toured with him this summer, this collection rocks. I especially enjoy the brilliant horn section work and razor-sharp guitar solos.

Second, the variety is wonderful. Songs run the gamut, from the expected standard singer-songwriter material ("Suzanne") to traditional country ("Why Baby Why") to sublime pop ("Wichita Lineman") to smooth, so-fine R&B ("It's Growing," "Sadie").

This is a fine, fun, and fresh recording. According to the liner notes, the sessions took place over ten days in a converted barn studio with twelve outstanding musicians. The energy of this "live in the studio" approach is apparent from the outset.

Highly recommended!

Album of an Era...

Over the past week, I've had the opportunity to enjoy a rare treat. Twice while driving, I have listened through the entire Beatles' White Album, which was released 40 years ago, on Nov. 22, 1968.

I remember that year well as a time when I was beginning to come of age. On the other hand, many thought the world itself was beginning to come to an end. 1968 was a year of profoundly painful birthpangs in the U.S. and around the world...

• In Viet Nam...it is the year of the Tet Offensive, the Battle of Saigon, and the My Lai massacre. President Johnson orders the cessation of bombing in North Viet Nam by November. However, in the same month, 3 million tons of bombs are dropped on Laos. Student protests grow around the world.
  

• Presidential politics...Lyndon Johnson announces he will not run for re-election, Bobby Kennedy is assassinated, it's Nixon/Agnew for the Republicans and Humphrey/Muskie for the Democrats after a famously riotous convention in Chicago. Nixon is elected.
  

• Civil rights battles explode...Dr. King is gunned down. America's cities are on fire—sit-ins, riots and scenes of frightening urban chaos proliferate. The issue even shows up at the Mexico City Olympics with "black-power" protests.

• Near year's end, Apollo 8 orbits the moon and for the first time in human history, people see the far side of the moon and a complete view of Earth from space. The astronauts read from Genesis.
  

The mood and atmosphere of such a tumultuous year could only be captured musically by the immense talent of the Beatles. Fresh off the success of their groundbreaking Sgt. Pepper album in 1967, sequestered for a season in India to meditate under the guidance of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and with serious personal and creative tension and discord growing among them, the Beatles put together a wide-ranging, imaginative work that captures the prodigious skills of these four musicians at the height of their talent.

This record shares similarities with Sgt. Pepper, and it takes even greater advantage of the musical variety and technological advances that made the earlier record so innovative. In fact, I think of the White Album as Sgt. Pepper gone to seed—a further experimental "concept" album more like an encyclopedia of ideas rather than any one focused concept. As with Sgt. Pepper, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, although, unlike Sgt. Pepper, which has only a few exceptional songs, many songs on the White Album are true classics—and have no trouble standing on their own to this day.

Critics have asserted that this album represents the work of four individuals more than that of a cohesive band, that it is uneven, that it includes debatable material (e.g. "Wild Honey Pie," "Revolution #9," etc.), that it is pretentious, overblown and would have been much tighter as a single record, and so on. However, the simple fact is that musically and culturally this is one of the greatest albums ever recorded, that both its flaws and strengths work together to create a magical world in the listener's imagination as only the Beatles could, and that when the White Album is listened to as an album, it stands as a work of musical genius that enables its hearers to journey through the crazy-making, mind-bending days of the world that was in 1968.

It blew me away back then and it still does 40 years later. I encourage you to take some time and listen to it at one sitting and see if you don't agree.

Top Ten Songs, part one...

I've been trying to make a CD of the best 25 popular songs from my lifetime. What a task! I've gone back and forth a number of times and ultimately gave up on the original idea.

My criteria was going to be this:

• They have to be from my lifetime, that is, from the time that I really started listening to music (around age 10—1965 or '66).

• They have to be pop/rock songs. I have to place some limit on type of song. I'm talking about Top 40 kinds of songs, not genre-specific songs like heavy metal, or obscure FM tracks, folk music, jazz, etc.
  

• Only one per artist. (I had to do this or I might have 25 Beatles' songs!)
  

• They don't necessarily need to be my favorities; I might recognize some as great songs even though they are not my personal faves.

I may keep trying to boil things down, but for my first pass I ended up with a CD of 23 that only got me to 1971!

Here are my top ten...

10. For What It's Worth, Buffalo Springfield

9. You've Made Me So Very Happy, Blood Sweat & Tears

8. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, The Rolling Stones

7. Light My Fire, The Doors

6. I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Marvin Gaye

5. You've Got a Friend, James Taylor

4. Good Vibrations, The Beach Boys

3. Blowin' in the Wind, Bob Dylan

2. Eleanor Rigby, The Beatles

1. Bridge over Troubled Water, Simon & Garfunkel

Let me know what you think. I'd love to hear your list.