Showing posts with label progressive rock. Show all posts
Showing posts with label progressive rock. Show all posts

Friday, March 08, 2024

3 Chords & the Truth: Let's put on a show!

Perhaps you've rolled your eyes through a less-than-stellar production put on by not-so-good high school thespians.

Well, if you sat through U.S. Sen Katie Britt's response to the State of the Union address, you certainly have had that experience. Alabama's got some 'splainin' to do.

Well, this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth is not that. If it ever is, I'm hangin' it up for the public good.

But the proof is in the listening, and I guaran-damn-tee that there's not a cringe in the entire 90 minutes. I play music on the Big Show; you decide.

That is all.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, March 01, 2024

3 Chords & the Truth: Reflections

Right now, my mind has drifted back 45 years, to the strictly analog age of radio.

I'm picturing the old control room at WBRH, the FM voice of Baton Rouge High School. When we'd do the rock show after school let out, student announcers like myself liked to turn off all the lights in the studio, save for one lamp right over the audio board -- just enough to see what we were doing and read what we had to read.

Then we'd crank it up. The music, that is.

WE WERE "setting the mood."  If I knew then what I know now, this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth would have been perfect.

Perfect.

I would have been sitting there at 2825 Government St., and my target listener would have been sitting in a bedroom, stereo cranked and the lights off . . . except for the dial light and one of those flickering bulbs mounted in an old 7-Up can.

If you're under 60-ish, you had to be there.

Man, it'd just be you, the music and your thoughts. Yeah, this week's Big Show would have been perfect for that. It would be the next best thing to hopping on a cross-country train to Somewhere Else.

I bet you might know the feeling. This show just might bring it back . . . even if the only escape lies in your thoughts and in your dreams. All aboard.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, February 23, 2024

3 Chords & the Truth: Feebling stubbfy

Ogbayb, dis willb be shorbt anb sweeb. I hab a code in my nobe and keeb coughinb.

I dib a showb, anb I managbed to keeb thinbs togebber longb enough to doob dis edibsion ob da Bibg Showb. Anb ib turbed oubt prebby goob despibe eberythinb.

And I dib nob cough onb anythinb, so I don'b thinb you bill catchb anybing fromb libbening to dis 3 Chorbs & da Trub.

Ib reallyb ib prebby goob dis weebk. Lobs ob goob mubic.

Ib's 3 Chorbs & da Trub, y'all. Be dere. Alobha.

Friday, February 09, 2024

3 Chords & the Truth: Placement is everything

Placement is everything.

Placing the right players in the right positions on the right team? It's everything.

Hiring the right coaches? Everything.

Placing the right people in Congress, while placing the wrong people far, far away? As we have seen the past few years . . . everything.

Placing the right man in the White House? Everything.

Placing the man with 91 criminal counts pending before a jury -- and definitely not placing him in the presidency again? Everything.

Here at 3 Chords & the Truth, it's an undisputed canon of life that placement is everything. And that covers everything, including the music you hear. If the wrong song is in the wrong place, it will not be pleasant for anybody.

If a totally unexpected song is in just the right place, it can be magical. On this episode of the Big Show -- every episode, actually -- we go for the magic. Thank your lucky stars for good placement.

You see, as I've said previously, placement is everything.

Now, if you would be so kind as to place yourself in a comfy chair and place your favorite high-fidelity audio device on "loud," we can commence with some musical magic.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, February 02, 2024

3 Chords & the Truth: Mind games

If you've been watching some of the 357 channels on which there is nothing much, you may have seen that MAGA Nation is convinced that Taylor Swift and Chiefs wide receiver Travis Kelce are the center of some sort of psyops operation to ratf*ck the election against Donald Trump.

It's the Deep State, don't you know.

Now, you may be saying these people have lost their damned minds. It does look that way.

You, however, do not know the whole story. The music superstar and the future NFL hall of famer, indeed, are not the centerpiece of a CIA (Or is it the Department of Defense?) psychological-warfare operation. In a world of budget continuing resolutions in Congress, alas, the Deep State cannot afford Taylor Swift.

WHAT THE government can afford . . . is me. Your Mighty Favog. And 3 Chords & the Truth.

Unfortunately for the gummint, you get what you pay for. Make sure your passport is current.

The good news, though, is that amid the psychological warfarin' on this edition of the Big Show, there is a lot of great, great music. As usual. So that's not nothin'.

Actually, that a whole lot of something to enjoy while you're researching how to obtain resident visas for various countries not this one. So, if I were you, I'd start listening right now.

Crank it up. You'll be glad you did.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some brainwashin' to do, which is -- to say the least -- is challenging to accomplish when a sizable percentage of the population's minds are gone.

A good psyops officer wouldn't have said that, would he? Again, one gets what one pays for.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, January 26, 2024

3 Chords & the Truth: What a drag it is. . . .

What a drag it is living here.

Life is different today, I hear everybody say. People need something today to calm us down.

And though we're not really ill, there's a big, big podcast show. We go running for the shelter of the Big Show outlook helper.

And it helps us on our way -- gets us through our busy day.

FOLKS ARE different today, I hear everybody say. Watching the TV news has become such a drag.

So here's 3 Chords & the Truth, and life seems less uncouth. We go running for the shelter of Favog's little helper.

And it helps you on your way -- gets you through your busy day.

Let's go running for the shelter of your Big Show podcast helper. . . .

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, January 19, 2024

3 Chords & the Truth: Fruit salad . . . frozen

If you put together a lovely fruit salad -- say with apples, peaches and cherries -- and you sit it on your front porch today in Omaha, by God, Nebraska . . . how long before it freezes solid?

My guess is around five minutes.

That where we are, right here, right now. Baby, it's cold outside. Damn, I should have worked that song into 3 Chords & the Truth this week. Ah, the things one thinks of when it's too late to do anything about it.

ANYWAY, we've been in the deep freeze for more than a week at the culture-war bunker, which lies in an urban enclave somewhere between Hooterville and Pixley. If only Arnold Ziffel were governor. . . . We'd all be sleeping better; I'll tell you that right now.

Ice see you! You're wondering what this has to do with this week's edition of the Big Show.

Why does it have to, and why are you being such a pedant about it? Just go with the flow, why don't you?

C'mon, man. Life is just a bowl of cherries. Very, very frozen cherries.

And what was I going to say? Very, very frozen brain.

Just know that this week's program is a gosh darned good one -- as usual. Well worth an hour and a half of your time . . . well worth it.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, January 05, 2024

3 Chords & the Truth: Truth or lies?

The good book tells us that the truth will set us free. If that is so -- and I believe it is -- America today might as well be a gulag.

And there will be no great escape. Welcome to 2024, the year we've been dreading.

Hell of a thought to sell another episode of 3 Chords & the Truth with, but it is what it is, and we are where we are this election year in America. The choice this election year in these Disunited States of America isn't just between a representative, constitutional democracy and a crazy man's authoritarian dystopia, it's also as simple as a choice between truth and lies.

Reality and delusion.

A MORE perfect union and "Screw it. Let's find some scapegoats to persecute, so that we might feel holy."

That, frankly, is what on my mind as we dive into the year we've all been dreading, and dive into it with music -- as is our want.

Fortunately, unlike the political news, the music on the Big Show is quite good. And it goes down a lot easier.

And that's the state of things today, as seen from the culture-war bunker here in Omaha, by God, Nebraska. Now you know why I have a bunker.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, December 15, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: Bleak midwinter

It's gray. It's raining. It's December, and Christmas is nigh.

The rain, in these parts, actually is something of a holiday treat. Drought, don't you know? The gray and the chill and the nights that begin in the afternoon, that's just midwinter in the upper Midwest.

This time of year, you have to make your own light. You have to add color to the world by whatever means necessary. In the case of 3 Chords & the Truth, that would be through playing the best music anywhere.

This week, like every week here in the studio, is no exception.

I've got the tunes; I've got my Community coffee shipped from South Louisiana, and that's all anybody needs to keep the gray -- and the December chill -- at bay.

IF I TRY hard enough, I can smell the big blue spruce tree of my childhood Christmastimes. That's not nothing -- these days, our household trees run toward the plastic and metal. "Trees" is not a typographical error. If one tree is good, two are better.

This year, a new wrinkle on the fake-tree front: fixing a loose branch with electrical tape and a bit of faux-fir camouflage. I don't recall ever fixing a real evergreen, so chalk up an advantage for artificiality.

Anyway, as we continue the run-up to the Big Show's big Christmas show next week, we have a mix of all the great music you normally hear, plus some holiday classics, plus some yuletide tunes that might not be so familiar to you. You'd expect no less from this program, right?

Ring those Christmas bells, then settle down in a comfortable chair with your favorite hot beverage for another full-fledged musical experience.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, December 08, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: Sundown serenade

In my mind's eye, I've always seen 3 Chords & the Truth as something best listened to in the dead of night, in a room dimly lit by the dial of an old radio.

Just as good, I think, would be listening to the Big Show with your smartphone (or whatever) playing through a classic piece of audio gear, the room lit just by the glowing face of a 1960s or '70s stereo receiver. I am a hi-fi nerd, so I'm funny that way.

Still, I think that concept resonates with Baby Boomers like myself, who spent many a night listening to the radio in our rooms -- or attached to the earphone of a transistor radio hidden under the covers -- instead of sleeping like our parents demanded.

Who needs dream time when you have far-away voices and all your favorite music drifting through the sky and into your head?

THAT'S THE VISION in my aging mind's eye, the vision I've always had for 3 Chords & the Truth. Your mileage may vary. After all, it's your head, your room and your particular Internet appliance.

That said, we're winding our way toward Christmas here in the culture-war bunker in Omaha, by God, Nebraska, and the music just keeps on a-comin'. And, boy, is it good. If you happen to be celebrating Hanukkah instead, it's just as good as a plate of warm latkes.

I do love me some latkes, so that should tell you something about this week's program. The show, in my humble opinion, is even as good as a nice brisket.

Perhaps I was born the wrong religion, come to think of it.

Let's just say this week's musical selections are nice -- holiday nice.

So let's get on with the show, shall we?

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, November 17, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: What, me worry?

When I was a young'un, if there was stuff in the world that damn well needed a good dose of ridicule, MAD magazine was there to do what needed to be done.

And at 60 cents -- cheap -- we angsty adolescents well could afford a crucial element of our education.

This week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth testifies to the impact MAD has had on me half a century later. And I regret MAD is no longer on the periodical stands in drugstores and supermarkets everywhere in a country so, so ripe for a good satirical roasting.

REALLY, it's gonna be good on the Big Show this week. I'd give it a listen if I were you.

Never, ever completely let go of the 12-year-old inside you. The kid will come through exactly when you need him. Or her.

And so will MAD, even though it's disappeared from drugstores and supermarkets. Now -- where you can find it -- it overwhelmingly consists of reprinted classic material. Pity. More than ever, this country is, as they say, a target-rich environment.

The best thing I can say about this here podcast, probably, is it's produced by a child of MAD. And that's pretty damn good.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, November 10, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: Whatever

You’re in tune with 3 Chords & the Truth. Welcome to my stream of consciousness.

Most weeks, I have no idea where the Big Show is going when I start to pick the music. I’m just looking to mix it up and not play stuff that I’ve recently had on the program.

That’s about it.

This week. . . . This week is that on steroids. I had no effing idea.

I SCROLLED through stuff, and I picked something that caught my fancy. Then I picked something else that sounded good to me. Then something that I figured would go with what came before.

The stream of whatever got to be something else.

Again, welcome of stream-of-conscience programming on 3 Chords & the Truth. It is what it is, and you get what you get.

And I’m hoping it doesn’t suck. Maybe I’m the best judge of that; then again, maybe not.

Note the slick use of the semicolon there.

And that pulled pork in the Whole Foods dinner really was almost pureéd. Not bad tasting, just baby foodish. The collard greens and macaroni and cheese were surprisingly good for store food.

OK, the stream-of-conscious thing is getting out of hand here.

I think it’s time for me to stand down now. Just listen to the show and let me know. Wait, is the LED lightbulb in the studio fixin’ to go out? Blink, blink. blink. I hate that.

It’s 3 Chords & the Truth, y’all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, November 03, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: Don't be a monster

We're going to go places -- musical places -- during this edition of the Big Show. Not that that's surprising by now.

I am hopeful it will take us far, far away from the ugliness, strife and hatred enveloping everyday life in these Disunited States of America.

At a time when the worst of us is on full display, as it has been for a while now and keeps getting worse, it's all the more important to keep sight of the best of us. It's important to hear the best of us.

THAT'S what 3 Chords & the Truth is all about.

Yesterday, someone told me he could have sworn I was a Jew. It wasn't a compliment. Amid my visceral sickness at the exchange, I nevertheless took it as a backhanded one.

The past three weeks or so, we've been getting a master class in how the "friends of the oppressed" left can be just as awful as the MAGA right. And when you can't bring yourself to condemn terrorism, regardless of the perpetrator, you are demonstrably awful.

You are not the best this country or world has to offer, and that's a profound understatement.

Things here are ugly, and people ain't playin' anymore. I can't single-handedly stop that; I can remind people of the beauty surrounding us instead. Without that, we become inhuman.

Without that, we become monsters.

Don't be a monster. Do listen to the Big Show.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, October 28, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: It's not nothin'

World affairs have not improved in the last week. There was another spasm of mass murder via assault rifle in the United States. And MAGA Ned Flanders is the new speaker of the House.

It's still time to be desperately worried about . . . well, everything.

Good thing there's 3 Chords & the Truth to elevate the mood around here. Fine pieces of music, expertly crafted into an eclectic, yet coherent, whole can do that for you even in the darkest of times.

That's not nothin'. And that's the Big Show -- though I'm not sure "not nothin'" is the best slogan one could craft.

It's a good thing I'm not relying on myself to be the advertising guy. Oh, wait. . . .

Well, shit.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, October 20, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: Can I even?

It's been a couple of weeks.

Last week, I couldn't even.

This week, I'll give it the ol' college try.

Welcome to 3 Chords & the Truth. Some weeks, I feel like I'm playing music in the darkness and hoping for the best. This week, I feel like I'm playing music in the darkness inside an insane asylum.

SUCH IS LIFE in the United States -- and inside a red state in the United States -- these days. And here I am doing a freeform radio show on the Internet. Congress is paralyzed, thanks to the Rabid Weasels Eating People's Faces Party . . . now engaged in eating one another's faces.

Normally, the sight of that would be highly gratifying. But we really could use a legislature right now, when Hamas terrorists are beheading Israeli babies, and the whole Middle East is a powder keg in the middle of a bonfire.

I can't even. But I'll try here on the Big Show.

For so many reasons, I can't even. For so many reasons, I have to try.

Shalom.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, June 16, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: The art of sound

Welcome to the art of sound, which today especially trumps the insanity of American politics.

Crap. There’s that word again — trump. Or, in our case, Trump.

Donald Trump is the boil on our collective arse that resists all treatment. And now he’s up on federal espionnage and obstruction charges. Cue the flying monkeys hooting, whining and threatening revenge and civil war.

Music is art, but it also can be a balm in these troubled times. 3 Chords & the Truth, overwhelmingly comprised of music, alas, can soothe our collective angst . . . I think. At any rate, it’s all I got, so it had better.

It seems to me that the art of sound resides within the music, but not only that. The art of sound also encompasses how we use the music, how we present the music.

Yes, it’s the Big Show. But I also hope it’s, in some way, art. And I hope it’s something of a balm.

I mean, like I said, it’s all I got.

This week on the program, we’ve got a progression of music going, so to speak. You’re going on a journey — a pleasant one, I trust.

And the farther we go on our musical journey, I’m hopeful the farther it takes us — even if it’s just for a while — from the insanity and ugliness of this present American political dystopia. One does what one can.

This show is what I can do.

Enjoy.

It’s 3 Chords & the Truth, y’all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, May 12, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: Hearing ghosts

I'm hearing ghosts. At least it seems that way.

Of course, what you hear in a program like 3 Chords & the Truth depends on the context. The context of these times we live in has me hearing ghosts in the music.

Ghosts of times past. Ghosts of our past selves. Ghosts of those who've passed. Ghosts of normality. Ghosts of a country and world that seem long gone.

Good ghosts, evil ghosts. Ghosts all.

I hear ghosts. Perhaps you will, too.

I'LL TELL YOU now what I'll tell you during this week's edition of the Big Show -- the ghosts I hear in the music, hear in my mind . . . they feel like being at the end of your life and looking back at what was, and you're regretful, wistful. You regret what you -- we -- have come to, You regret the opportunities that were passed by.

You regret the things that were done but shouldn't have been. You wonder what the actual f***.

The ghosts often provoke nostalgia. Nostalgia can be a blessing. It also can be a curse.

Yeah, this week, I'm playing -- and hearing -- ghosts, and it's not even Halloween. They hearken me toward better times and remind me of worse, and the worse remind me of today in these disunited and dysfunctional United States.

And that's the way it is, May 12, 2023. I'm your Mighty Favog, reporting from 79 Wistful Vista.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, April 14, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: What do we do?

It's a stormy, stormy night here in Omaha, by God, Nebraska. Fitting for those of us living in a state that has become a shitstorm.

Pardon my French, but that's the best description I can muster for a place where the MAGA crackpots have taken full control . . . and now are doing what MAGA crackpots do. That would be punching down at The Other and generally waging war on what's left of civil society.

It's especially depressing when one's church is in on the action. Then again, Judas was a disciple, and Peter was a dolt. Things have gotten worse -- at least in these parts -- since.

"But what, Favog," you may ask, "does this have to do with 3 Chords & the Truth?

Excellent question.

And the only answer I have, as humble as it may be, is that the Big Show is a bit of a refuge -- for me and, one hopes, for you, too. That's all I got.

That's all I got.

As for the Nebraska unicameral, all I can say is that try as the booboisie might, the blind can't lead the blind. And it's pretty dark in there.

So, given the above, I'll enjoy the thoroughly enjoyable music as I ponder my options. I suspect you can, too. Actually, I really hope you do -- as usual, it's a hell of a show.

But not a shitshow. We'll leave that to the Republicans.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, November 19, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: What the cluck?

Ask any random podcast listener what is this thing we call 3 Chords & the Truth, and chances are they won’t know, eggsactly . . . er . . . exactly.

But if you weren’t shunned, punched or had the cops called on you when you asked, you could deduce that you were dealing with a good egg.

So, what is this thing we also call the Big Show? It’s . . . uhhhhhhhh . . . it’s . . . uhhhhhhh . . . ummmmmmm . . . it’s eggsactly that. Whatever that is.

I CALL IT postmodern freeform radio on the Internets. I call it that because I just made that label up. Yay, me.

But, really, what the program is, is good. It’s diverse. It’s full of surprises. Eggsactly that. Er . . . exactly that.

This week on 3 Chords & the Truth, we’re gonna get you moving. We’ll have the best in soul, and the best in. . . . Well, why would I spoil the surprise?

Maybe you need to listen and find out what the rest of the good stuff is. In other words, do yourself a favor and be a good egg.

Eggsactly.

Here in the 3C&T studio, your Mighty Favog works hard so as not to have egg on his face. That means your ears will be happy. Eggsactly that.

Do your ears a favor for Thanksgiving. And you’re welcome.

It’s 3 Chords & the Truth, y’all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, September 17, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: Chill, being

Ever feel the need to dial it back? To tone it down some? To mellow out, man?

To just chill?

Yeah, me, too. So the Big Show will this week. Yes, it will.

That's not to say it'll be moribund (stick that in your Funk and Wagnall's, pally). It's just going to be outstanding in a non-frenetic manner.

I guess I could say more, but how chill would that be? It wouldn't. It would be stretching . . . straining . . . trying too hard.

Nope. This week, we just let the show come to us. I'd recommend you do the same.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.