3 Chords & the Truth: The BIG Show

This week's edition of the Big Show is indeed a BIG show.

You might think you know where the music is going this week, but you'd be wrong. Surprise is a way of life on 3 Chords & the Truth. 

Now, I could tell you some of the twists and turns of this particular episode, but then I'd have to kill you. It is far safer for all involved to just find out when you find out.

That, of course, is achieved by listening. So get to it, OK?

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Lent everlasting

We're at the end of another season of Lent smack in the middle of a seeming everlasting season of Lent -- and the 'rona. 

That, at least, is how it seems here at the Big Show. I'm guessing it feels pretty much the same way at your place.

Understandably, and also given that it's late on Good Friday as we post this episode of the program, it's pretty much a Lenten kind of 3 Chords & the Truth this week. That doesn't mean it's not an excellent edition of the show . . . just kinda dialed back and thoughtful. As is fitting on the most solemn day of the Christian calendar. 

Did I mention that dialed back absolutely, positively can be great? I wouldn't want to underemphasize that. Besides, reflection is good for the soul.

That's probably what I should be doing right now instead of giving you the hard sell. For a podcast that, frankly, should be able to sell itself. So I'll shut up . . . for Lent. 

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Classing the joint up

I sit here in the studio listening to Juan Garcia Esquivel at ear-splitting volume, because that's what the hell I do. I love this stuff . . . but that's probably the next edition of the Big Show.

Mrs. Favog loves the "space age" of space age bachelor pad music. She's highly suspicious of the "bachelor pad" part.

Her husband turns 60 on Wednesday, so I'm not sure how much she has to worry about on that front. 

None of that, however, tells you much about this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth as we continue classing up Omaha, as we have since 2008.

Well, I'll tell you. Now that I'm a certain age, I just don't care. I do what I want -- like that wasn't already the case -- and this particular program is about as eclectic as it gets. We have a bit of everything (almost), and it's quite the ride. Strap in. 

Heck, we even have what Lawrence Welk once called "a modern spiritual." Poor Lawrence. He was neither hip nor happening, and certainly not "now." 

As I said,  it's a hell of an episode of the Big Show. 

And that's all I have to say about that. Now on to getting the first vaccine jab -- yay! -- and turning a certain age. Old age is gonna be lit. 

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

3 Chords & the Truth: We got the beat

We got the beat.

We got all the colors of the rainbow. 

We got the music. 

We 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. And we still hangin' in there and holdin' out against the 'rona. While we're waiting on the miracle vaccine jab, we'll just play some really good music for you.

Truly, it's been a terrible year since the world stopped last March. The Big Show has done what we could to make it a little less intolerable, because what else can you do that doesn't involve curling up into a little ball under the covers?

Now there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and if we don't do stupid things and if we keep masking up for a bit longer, there's every chance that light won't just be the 'Rona Blossom Special. All you have to do is keep calm and listen to the music. Right here.

It'll take the edge off.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: The point of it all

Somewhere, there's a point to this show.

Maybe the music is the point to 3 Chords & the Truth. (OK, obviously the music is the point to the show.) But beyond that, I mean, for this week's tunefest. 

You discuss. I'll wait. 

OK, THIS WEEK I guess the point to the Big Show is whatever you want it to be. I'm open-minded that way.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Stereo rock

I pity those who never  got the chance to be inspired by the radio -- at least inspired to do something other than storm the Capitol. 

I suppose this is yet another step down the road to old farthood, the compulsion to tell the young'uns how much better it was back when we were whippersnappers. Some of that is, undeniably, bullshit. The thing about how special radio once was -- especially that brief moment where freeform radio shined -- definitely is not.

This week, I find myself thinking of my first encounters with enlightenment, my early forays into subversion of the constipated world The Man desperately was trying to foist upon my young self all those years ago. And remembering lying in bed out at our camp in south Louisiana, which was within the range of the glorious FM signal of Rampart 102 in New Orleans, WWL-FM.

Rampart 102, named for the street where the good music lived, was a middle finger in the face of The Man. Kind of fittingly, it was owned by the Jesuits back then. And it played what my parents would call "hippie music," which was what they called it when they were in a good mood. What they called it when they weren't would make them, if they were still with us, MAGAs of the Year. 

I'D LIKE to think 3 Chords & the Truth carries the torch today for that lost moment in time -- the subversive moment, not the reactionary one. The reactionaries today have no problem carrying their own torches. Literally.

If you'd like to authentically relive the 1971 experience of kids like me, surreptitiously listening to The Music of Which Your Parents Would Not Approve, the music that would get your ass labeled an Enemy of Right Thinkin' (say this in your head with a Southern accent), you'll listen to the Big Show late at night, in bed, under the covers, with an earphone to hide your inner subversiveness from the agents of repression. 

For the full glory of the music, however, I recommend a good stereo system or listening through good headphones -- not crappy earbuds. 

And remember the days when listening to the radio -- listening to the FM radio -- could be an enlightening experience, a chance to connect with that late-night radio host, sitting with an audio board and a couple of turntables in a darkened studio somewhere in the ether, through the music. It was a supremely human thing.

It's Rampart 102 . . . er . . . 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: The picture is better in here

Do you ever think that living in the United States is like watching a TV with really bad reception?

The picture keeps going to random pixels , the sound keeps going out, and you know that pretty soon everything will just go to black, waiting for the "NO SIGNAL" thingy to pop up on the screen.

Yeah, that.

I mean . . . I meeeeeeeean, do you ever feel the need to watch the network news with a fifth of bourbon? Do you ever think that this crap's too ugly to stand?

Well, Bucky, we have something here that might help what ails you -- a magic elixir called 3 Chords & the Truth.

BEST OF ALL, it's absolutely free, you don't have to brave a virus-threatening trip to the store, and it contains absolutely no alcohol. (It's excellent as a mixer, however.)

And it's right here, just a click away.

The pictures it will summon in your head are amazingly better than the ones on your television screen. It's not only the Big Show, it's the much better show. The music dancing in your ears ain't half bad, either.

That's all there is to say about that. So. . . .

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

3 Chords & the Truth: The Big Show @ 500 (episodes)

It all started at a 10-watt radio station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana -- a young man behind the microphone with little ambition and less talent. . . .

And 43 years later, well . . . it is what it is, 3 Chords & the Truth.

I kid. Sort of.

But what did start four decades ago at WBRH radio at Baton Rouge Magnet High School does live on today, on the Internet, in the form of the Big Show. Unsurprisingly, you'll hear a lot of what I was playing then on the program now -- because my generation did have the best music.

The occasion for all this ruminating is a landmark edition of the podcast. This is No. 500.

Five. Hundred. Shows.

FOR A YEAR or so, Revolution 21 was the home of the brilliantly named Revolution 21 Podcast. On Jan. 11, 2008, that became 3 Chords & the Truth, and we've been plowing ahead ever since -- always eclectic, always adventurous and always trying to surprise you.

Well, at least a little now and again.

Being this is the 500th episode of the Big Show,  we'll celebrate by giving you bonus podcast this week. You'll get a half hour more of the best music you'll find online -- lagniappe for just being here and sharing in No. 500.

Did I mention this is the 500th program? It is, you know.

I'll shut up now so you can enjoy in just a second.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Shots in the dark

This edition of the Big Show comes at the end of a week that began with seven shots in the back.

Then it saw two protesters shot dead in the middle of the night by a teenage vigilante, then had a hurricane and Nuremberg for Dummies -- because the other mayhem wasn't enough to satisfy fate.
I need a drink, and you need the music. Because the crazy never, ever ends.

Otis! Take us away! (And if you want to know what that's all about, listen to the show.)

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Carry on

The stupid, it burns!

So consider 3 Chords & the Truth as your personal fire extinguisher and burn cream. Extinguish flames before applying to skin.

I mean, really. Some days, it's just hard to roll out of bed, because the stupid -- and the ugly and mean -- is so strong in this country. And then there's the virus, so you're smart if you don't venture too far beyond your bed. Y'know?
 
WELL, you just have to keep on keeping on, keeping the ugly reality in mind but also hoping for the best. The Big Show is a big part of my keeping at it . . . despite everything. (Don't make me think I shoulda stayed in bed! I do like to sleep.)

That said, the music is typically great, your host is typically somewhat adequate, etc., and so on.

And I spend one set of music pretty much showing off. If you're a music geek, you'll appreciate it.

If not, you'll probably still appreciate it.

That's pretty much it. Brevity is the soul of wit -- or something.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Mostly sanitary

The Big Show, we are proud to announce, is sanitary. Sanitation has been achieved.

Being sanitary is important these days -- there's the 'rona goin' round. And we have a very sanitary lineup of music on 3 Chords & the Truth this week.

Except for that one thing. And maybe that other one. We do the best we can; it's a filthy world out there. Ask the president . . . but don't get too close. He's not sanitary.

Is this enough for you, Skipper? Sometimes, it gets hard to think of new ways to describe the Big Show. Still, I must write something -- and this is it.

So, is this enough for you, bucko?

Well, it better be. After all, the proof is in the listening, not in my blathering.

And remember to stay away from Donald Trump. Not sanitary . . . or anything else that fittin'.

That is all.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Yet, we persist

This edition of 3 Chords & the Truth starts out by cleaning up -- or fervently hoping we'll have the opportunity to pick up, sweep up, mop up and wash up after this fine mess we've made for ourselves in these Benighted States of America.

This comes after your Mighty Favog was forced into a week away from the turntables and the microphone, because the doctor was afraid he'd contracted COVID-19 despite his paranoia about catching the Trump virus. The test was negative, but because the test ain't the greatest, there was a week confined to the bedroom and away from the studio.

Here's hoping to make up for lost time here on the Big Show.

And despite everything . . . we persist.

Our backs are against the wall. Yet, we persist.

We will persist. And we'll persist to a hell of a soundtrack, right here on this here program.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Push back

“Push back against the age as hard as it pushes against you."

-- Flannery O'Connor

That goes double in these times of fascists, cranks, the plague and a radically deviant conception of "freedom" and "liberty."

If 3 Chords & the Truth has to turn into some sort of Resistance podcast, so be it. This thing -- meaning America -- has gotten out of hand, and we'll be lucky to live through it.

We'll have to hope and pray that we get lucky. While we're waiting to see, the Big Show will have some great music to salve your soul just a bit.

Push back like hell, my friends.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Same old song

It's the same old song. Second verse, same as the first.

And here we are in Coronavirusland -- right back where we started in March.

In March.

Apart from "We live in f***ed-up times in a f***ed-up country," I really don't know what to say. Rather, I don't know what to say that's any different from what other rational believers in science are saying right now.

We here at 3 Chords & the Truth got nothin' . . . except the music. And the music is exceptionally good.

One hopes it's so good that it'll make you feel a little bit better for a while. I would say "make you forget," but that's a bit of a stretch -- even for the Big Show.

But that's just the same old song, isn't it?

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Whatever works

How are you getting by this week in this time of disease and woe?

Me, I've found that the best method for coping is . . . whatever works.

A big part of "whatever works," we at the Big Show hope, is the Big Show itself. A weekly dose of good music helps a lot when you're afraid to turn on the news for fear of what fresh hell awaits.

But while you're listening to the program -- listening to the finest in recorded music from the vast 3 Chords & the Truth library -- might I suggest sitting in a comfy chair with a refreshing libation. It might just be the shot in the liver you need.

PERHAPS A Skyball would do the tri . . . tri . . . hic . . . trick.

This classic 1960s bit of alcoholic nostalgia is sort of like a spruced-up highball, only made with vodka, lemon juice and lemonade. And I'm sure it's healthier than sitting on the stoop with a Lieutenant Dan cigar and muttering the F-word a lot.

Like I said, whatever works.

Of course, if you happen to be under 21 -- or if you just don't like booze -- I'm sure a nice refreshing glass of no-octane lemonade would work just fine, too.

Listen to me, I was pre-med in college. Wait, I was a journalism major.

Hell, what's the difference?

Good music and good libations -- that will help you get through this time of pandemic and pan-idiots. And helping you get through it all is our special mission on 3 Chords & the Truth.

S'alright? S'alright.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Doing what we can

First, the pandemic. Then, the reckoning.

Hell of a spring you're having, America.

Amid a double-barreled storm -- a double-barreled world of hurt -- what then are we to do? The answer is both complicated and really simple. Being a simple sort, I'll stick to the latter with this episode of 3 Chords & the Truth.

Now, the envelope, please. And the answer is . . . what we can.

We do what we can. That's certainly what we're doing here on the Big Show -- what we can. It involves (one hopes) not being dumb, not saying dumb things (at least not extraordinarily dumb, which seems the fashion for American society today) and playing the best music available here in the Apocalypse Bunker.

MANY MIGHT know that better as "the studio."

That pretty much sums up this week's show -- playing good music to soothe your soul and not saying or doing anything extraordinarily dumb. Don't worry, we'll still have plenty of the ordinarily dumb.

Just ask my wife.

I suppose that's all there is to be said -- he says as the smartphone and iPad keep dinging and lighting up with the latest Fresh Hell Alerts. (Would it be appropriate to change the alert tone to something more appropriate to these times . . . like an air-raid siren?)

Ponder that after you rebalance yourself by listening to the show.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Ghost tunes for mellow moods

My hobby is dead people's music.

OK, maybe not all of them are dead. Some just have moved into nursing homes or senior apartments.

And, to be fair, some of the music I fixate upon probably was their kids', left decades ago at Mom and Dad's place. But what we're talking about today definitely was Mom and Dad's music . . . which, alas, they couldn't take with them. Wherever.

A fair amount of what you hear on 3 Chords & the Truth falls into that category -- especially on this episode. After all, when there's only two kinds of music in the world -- good and bad, and the bad, you don't mess with -- you tend to mix and match.

A lot.

BUT GRANDPA'S LOSS is your gain on the Big Show. My parents' generation, as it turns out, had much better taste than I gave it credit for four decades ago. Once again, the old folks' have the last laugh, even if it might be from the Great Beyond.

I've been grabbing music -- much of it long out of print -- at estate sales for a long time now. At first, the main attraction of the "grown-up music" from back when I wasn't yet one was one of sheer irony. It was a hoot. Turning the tables on oneself, and one's misspent youth, for kicks and giggles.

The other attraction of "the velvet sounds" was that, back in the day, it was actually owned by grown-ups. Grown-ups took care of their records, generally. Their kids . . . my generation . . . didn't, due to being teenagers, who are well-known idiots. (I have long, very personal experience with this from four decades and change ago.)

Thus, when I find "my" music at estate sales, good luck finding good rock LPs and 45s that haven't been beat to hell. So you grab Mom and Dad's stuff that hasn't.

AND THE funny thing is, well, it's not bad. Actually, it's damned good. The "elevator music" of one's youth, it seems, has been sullied by both your youthful prejudice and its (shall we say) leaden presentation on the radio back in the day.

Let's just say some of those easy-listening FM stations may have developed rigor mortis decades before their listeners did. That was a damn shame.

So here we go on this edition of the Big Show, which once again sees us in something of a mood. We're mixing and matching and re-contextualizing that at which we scoffed, snot-nosed punks that we used to be.

Now sit back, tune in, turn on and open your musical mind. And if you can't manage to do that . . . get the hell off my lawn.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Max tunes

Max tunes.

Max chill.

Max melodiousness.

Melodiousness?

Max music curation.

3 Chords & the Truth . . . the Big Show.

Yeah, that's what we're talkin' about.

Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: #NebraskaStrong

Dear World,

Here in Nebraska, after the flood, we're down. But we're not out.

In fact, we're #NebraskaStrong. And we shall, as W.H. Auden wrote, "stagger onward rejoicing."

Consider this edition of 3 Chords & the Truth one hell of a stagger. Rejoicing. With the music.

We go on.

We go onward.

Rejoicing.

It's the Big Show, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: The fault, dear Brutus. . . .

Sometimes, amid the exceptional music, we also have to acknowledge the societal elephants in the room here on the Big Show.

This week, we have some elephants we cannot ignore. It's been an ugly week, made that way by ugly people and our ugly society.

And for that, the fault, dear Brutus, is not in the stars . . . or in the Mexicans or the Muslims. It lies within the heart of our sick "Western civilization" -- the one white nationalists (and America's white-nationalist president) keep telling us is about to be overrun by those who are a darker shade than pale.

As for me and 3 Chords & the Truth, we call bullshit. It had to be done, though I usually am loath to go all Howard Beale on you and take time away from tasty tunes.

THAT SAID, we do have our usual compliment of great music on the program, eclectically presented. I think you'll find it mighty nice.

I go on during the show -- at least for a bit -- so I shall not do it here . . . though I did reiterate it in a blog post a little bit ago. So to the music we go.

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