I used to be on the Nominating Committee of the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame. I stopped going when one of the top guys there kept telling me Patti Smith isn't rock'n'roll and shouldn't get in. After a couple years of me not showing up to the meetings they kicked me off. Ironically, the same year they kicked me off, Patti was voted in! I still vote after the nominations are put in by the committee and a couple days ago my ballot arrived in the mail. Voters are asked to pick 5-- in order of preference; it's a weighted ballot.

Let's do a LNMC version tonight. I'll tabulate the ballots and randomly pick one voter to get an Impeach Cheney cap. Send your ballots to downwithtyranny@aol.com. The nominees for the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame-- the one Patti was supposedly not rock'n'roll enough for-- are:

Afrika Bambaataa, Beastie Boys, Chic, Leonard Cohen, Dave Clark Five, Madonna, John Mellencamp, Donna Summer, and The Ventures.

Send 5 picks in order of preference. Your first pick gets five points and your last gets one point. Although I was incredibly nonplussed by this year's crop, this is the band that got my #1 vote, although I had a harder time deciding if I should pick Walk Don't Run or this song as tonight's LNMC track:

(guest blogged by Howie Klein)

I mentioned before that I spent some time in 1977 touring England with the Clash and that that was how I became a Specials fan. Well, the Clash also introduced me to Generation X, Billy Idol's old band. The guitar player, Tony James, was Mick Jones' best friend and he used to come around a lot. It was obvious Billy wanted to break free of the confines of the tiny punk scene, where people didn't quite take him seriously anyway, and become a pop star, which sort of happened later. But Tony and the guys made him sing some pretty cool songs while he was still in Gen X.

Years later, a friend and I turned Sammy Hagar on to Patti Smith and he covered "Free Money." This was post-Montrose and pre-Van Halen and Sammy was happy for the attention he got from Patti fans all over the world. He asked me for another suggestion and I sent him a tape of "Wild Youth" by Gen X. He called me up a few days later and said he couldn't do it because it sounded too anti-Semitic. Isn't it cool for someone from Fontana to be so... sensitive?

No prize tonight but I do have a question. What do you like better-- the Gen X song or the Patti song (at the link)? Or something by Sammy?

And congrats go to C&Ler Jackie for winning the George Jones CD set.  Thanks for being part of our LNMC community.

Radio Ethiopia

I'm feeling good for a lot of reasons today and this song is one of them.

Collapse into Now
	Artist: R.E.M.

R.E.M. is set to release their fifteenth studio album Collapse Into Now on March 8th, and a few of the tracks are making their way around the interwebs. Bassist Mike Mills asserts that this album will be more 'expansive' than 2008's Accelerate, adding that "We wanted to put more variety into it and not limit ourselves to any one type of song. There are some really slow, beautiful songs; there are some nice, mid-tempo ones; and then there are three or four rockers". Guests on the record include, Patti Smith, Eddie Vedder, and Peaches. Here's a stripped down track that reminds me of something off of 1988's Green. What do y'all think?

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Patti

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Patti Smith

Sandy Pearlman, the man who first applied the term "heavy metal" to music, has been using the concept of frisson, long used to explain "goosebumps" in film, as a way of describing music. In a recent essay at DWT he explains his concept and gives examples like Bach, Magnificat; Beethoven; Berlioz, Requiem; Holst, The Planets; The Doors, Light My Fire and When the Music’s Over; Patti Smith, Horses and Bird Land; Gordon Lightfoot, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald; etc. How about "April Skies" by Jesus and Mary Chain song from Darklands? Or, better yet, pick a song and explain why you think it's an example of frisson. The best paragraph wins the writer a 5 disc Byrds box set, There Is A Season. Send your paragraph to downwithtyranny AT aol DOT com.

Lou Reed wrote "Pale Blue Eyes" in the late 60's and his band, the Velvet Underground, recorded in it 1968. Although the original, somewhat melancholy, version has the most power, the song has been covered, like so many of Lou's songs, by tons of bands. I've especially loved Patti Smith's version, although R.E.M., Alejandro Escovedo, Counting Crows and Eric Anderson have all done excellent takes on the song. Here's the original music, with C&L pal Lucas' visuals:

What's your favorite Velvet Underground song?

(guest blogged by Howie Klein)
Last night some exceptionally great bands were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. My two favorites were Patti Smith and R.E.M.

I've had a lot of favorite R.E.M. songs since I first got turned on to their music by my friend and fellow KUSF dj Denise Sullivan in 1982. But the first time I really listened to "Everybody Hurts" it was because someone came running into a meeting at Warner Bros, kind of hysterical, yelling that he was holding the best video he'd ever seen. He played it. I loved it too-- but not as much as I loved the song. I was just floored. I can never get enough of its power, intensity and shear humanity.

Take a look and take a listen and join everyone here at Crooks and Liars World Headquarters in congratulating R.E.M. on a well deserved honor-- and on a career that has brought so much beauty into a world that needs beauty so badly.

Tonight's contest is simple. Send us a paragraph about anything you want-- but using the titles of your 10 favorite R.E.M. songs in the body. Send the enties to downwithtyranny@aol.com and then keep your fingers crossed that you win the XL-R.E.M. hoodie and the DVD, When the Light Is Mine: The Best of the IRS Years.

(guest blogged by Howie Klein)

Jimi Hendrix was long gone by the time I became president of Reprise Records. Coincidentally, though, as a college concert chairman I had booked the Jimi Hendrix Experience for their first appearance in the U.S. The last time I ran into him was in a small seaside town outside of Essaouira, my favorite spot in Morocco, in 1969. Soon after that, I met another revolutionary artist who has changed the course of pop music: Patti Smith.

And last week I got to hear Patti's next album, TWELVE, a collection of a dozen covers that have meant a lot to her-- and to many of us. The album starts with a brilliant and sensual rendition of Jimi's "Are You Experienced?" (informed by lots of Beatles). Patti's album is amazing and I'll try to get an advance for Crooks and Liars.

Meanwhile, here's the original:

So tonight's contest: without having heard a note of it, review Patti Smith's new album. Send your entry to downwithtyranny@aol.com and if yours is the best review, we'll send you the mindblowing 15 CD boxset-- BOB DYLAN REVISITED, 15 classic albums by a master who influenced the work of both Patti and Jimi.