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

Friday, September 06, 2024

3 Chords & the Truth: Weaving

It's good to be here in Sioux City; my best fans are here in the city of the Siouxes.

What? Oh.

As I was saying, I love Omaha. Omaha is, they tell me, an Indian word for the land of the Omahs. And apparently they laughed a lot . . . they laughed a lot. But not like Comrade Kamabala Biden, who should not laugh ever again. So annoying. So annoying.

And how about that 3 Chords & the Truth on the computer machine . . . or on your smartphone? Great music on the show, but a very poor host -- very biased. And what is a Mighty Foovog?

Mighty Foovog. It sounds like something I caught when I was going through my own personal Vietnam in the '70s; it took two or three Shots in the Ass -- I had a very good doctor then, very quick to give you an Ass Shot. His Ass Shots didn't hurt as much as they could have . . . Ass Shots can be so painful, so painful.

BUT THE Shots in the Ass got me back in the battle. I prefer the battles where if things go bad -- but things don't go bad for me, only if people are being very unfair. Things can go so bad when the fake news and all the haters are being so unfair. I preferred the Vietnam where you sometimes had to get a Shot in the Ass instead of getting shot in the face. Or getting shot in the chest.

Both very bad. I don't understand why you'd want to volunteer to get shot in the face. Faces are very important. I saw a guy once try to eat a hamburder without a face -- he didn't have the face . . . can hamburders have a face? That's a question for some of the great minds in this country to work on. Very big Question.

He couldn't eat the Mickey D's because if you don't have a face, you don't have a mouth.

Now that thing they call the Big Show would be a lot better if that very unfair host didn't have a mouth. Just play the music and keep quiet -- shut up and spin the tunes, I say. But he has some great music on there if you can get past his Being a Communist. Very biased, very unfair.

I LIKE music. Music is good to play when you're doing battle in your own personal Vietnam.

Did you ever notice that they generally play very poor music in the doctor's office when you're in there for a Shot in the Ass? Very poor music. But what can you expect from all the Commie Musicians out there?

You've been a very wonderful crowd. They're telling me I have to wrap this up because we're running behind schedule, and I have to be in Omaha in a couple of hours. But you just stick around, listen to the tunes. Some very excellent tunes today, so I am told.

One more thing, and then I'm ditching this burg. . . .

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

Friday, August 30, 2024

3 Chords & the Truth: Remembering a friend

Did you have a friend who, in a roundabout way, is why you do what you do today?

Was that friend, by chance . . . a radio station?

As it happens, I am among that geeky subset of folks who can answer yes to that. My radio friend's name was WLCS, also sometimes known during various eras as the Big Win 910 or the Big 91. It made up a big part of the soundtrack of my youth and, sometimes, it was the bright spot during some dark days.

If you appreciate 3 Chords & the Truth, there are a small number of the radio stations of my youth in Baton Rouge, La., that you can thank. WLCS is at the front of that list.

FORTY YEARS ago today, the Big 91 faded into the mists of history. Now it lives only in the memories of those of us who are, as they say, "of a certain age" . . . and as part of the Big Show.

WLCS was, I'd argue, a higher form of social media than what we call "social media" today. Oftentimes, today's social media is downright antisocial. The radio of my youth actually brought people together. The media of today often drives people apart.

I REALIZE this might come off as the whining of an old man, a geezer complaining that things absolutely were better back in the day. I am from the Deep South; that tends, if one is honest with oneself, to immunize against silly nostalgia.

But some things were better. The Big 91 was one of those things. I have it to thank for this thing we call 3 Chords & the Truth.

And, like a friend who has slipped this mortal coil, it lives on. It lives in our memories and in our hearts, and -- in a way -- it lives on right here.

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

Friday, August 23, 2024

3 Chords & the Truth: E pluribus unum

I don't do verbatim transcripts of what I say during 3 Chords & the Truth in this space, where I'm enticing you to actually listen to 3 Chords & the Truth.

And you know what? F*** that. This week, I will, because I had a revelation about what the hell I'm doing here on the Big Show. . . after nearly 17 years.

Here goes.

BEING THE politics nerd that I am, I’ve been watching the Democratic National Convention — and note there’s an -ic on the end of Democrat. Calling a political party the “Democrat Party,” is like calling a Jewish barber a “Jew barber.” It’s a slur; it’s dehumanizing, and we don’t do that in this country.

Or, at least, we used to not do it most places. During Jim Crow, it was the strategy of all the wrong people in the South. I hope I don’t need to elucidate, here.

Anyway, something occurred to me as I watched. Something occurred to me about this show as I reflected on this convention and that other one last month. As I reflected on folks who get their knickers in a twist if, at some social event or another, they think there’s not enough “White” music being played.

And as segregated and as nasty as the Deep South could be when I was growing up, there’s one thing that was great about it — “Black” music was “White” music, too. It was a bunch of what all-white Favog listened to back in the day. And “White” music was a bunch of what my Black high-school classmates listened to.

There was one thing ol’ Jim Crow failed miserably at, and that was in trying to segregate music and make our ears as separate and unequal as everything else.

If you want to know what 3 Chords & the Truth is all about, it’s about America. It’s all “E pluribus unum” all the time — “Out of many, one.”

In brief, there’s only two kinds of music, good and bad. And the bad, we don’t mess with.

If you like this program, there’s one thing I do not need to tell you: Music, like America, cannot be segregated. It does not recognize bigoted hierarchies of worth or authenticity.

And it all belongs. Period. End of sentence . . . and of the argument. If you disagree, you probably have figured out this isn’t the place for you. And, perhaps, neither is this country.

WELL, that's all I have to say about that.

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

Friday, July 19, 2024

3 Chords & the Truth: America today

We find ourselves living in the Age of Disunity. Now, more than ever, the mother's milk of politics is bullshit.

This applies much more to some political parties than others. Boy, does it.

Listen, I watched all of Donald Trump's historically weird acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, otherwise known as Nuremberg for Dummies. That über über gathering in Milwaukee was notable among American political conventions for the placard handouts that got right to the point -- "MASS DEPORTATION NOW."

Sieg heil, y'all.

THIS IS the American milieu from which 3 Chords & the Truth emerges every week. You sometimes wonder whether doing this thing, amid this level of ugly, every week amounts to whistling past a national graveyard.

Oh, yeah. Some 20-year-old nutter attempted to assassinate Trump last week. So there's that.

I absolutely cannot wait for what lies ahead . . . said no one ever the past few years.

Then we have the Democrats trying to force a diminished and doddering Joe Biden off the ballot. The niceties disappear when the stakes are existential, and losing may be death.

Ready for some music yet?

Ready or not, here it is, and it's damn good. As usual. In times like these, you have to keep on keepin' on -- until you can't. We'll keep the eclectic wonderfulness of the Big Show coming . . . until we can't.

It's that kind of America right now.

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

Saturday, April 27, 2024

3 Chords & the Truth: Spiraling

This is where I'm supposed to be clever or funny -- or something -- as I say something that's vaguely about this week's episode of the Big Show.

And perhaps you've noticed that I'm rather late posting this week's 3 Chords & the Truth.

Truth is . . . clever, funny or saying much about this week's show isn't really in the cards this early Saturday morning. I'm posting the show because it's been in the can since early Friday morning, but hyping it would be, in my reckoning right now, kind of vulgar.

Maybe you've heard on the news that Omaha (a.k.a., Omaha, by God, Nebraska) was hit hard by tornadoes Friday afternoon. The biggest one, out in far western Omaha, was massive and powerful -- perhaps an EF-4 or EF-5. That has yet to be officially determined, but it was really big, really powerful . . . and there are many homes and a few neighborhoods that no longer exist.

ON THE OTHER side of town, just north of downtown Omaha, a tornado tore through our airport, heavily damaging the general aviation section. My wife and I saw that happen on live TV.

The monster tornado missed our house (a.k.a., the Culture War bunker) by about 9 miles or so. The other one missed us by about 7 miles and change. We were lucky.

Not so for folks in a ruined path through western Douglas County, the western suburbs of Omaha and up through Bennington and well into Washington County. Also down toward Lincoln, Neb. And across the river in Iowa, tornadoes leveled huge parts of a few small towns, as well as some areas in Council Bluffs.

This area hasn't seen anything like that since the Tornado of 1975, an EF-4 monster that ripped through the middle of Omaha and was the United States' first billion-dollar twister.

Yes, this week's Big Show is as fine as ever. It's just that that seems rather unimportant now. As is the self-serving social-media hype one is expected to do these days.

I mean, "Too bad about the devastation across town, but now let's get back to the bitchin' tunes!" just doesn't cut it.

The show's done, and I didn't want to junk it, and that's about all I feel like saying about it. So I suck at modern marketing. Whoopee.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Listen. Or don't.

In the grand scheme of things, it's not that important, actually.

Friday, April 05, 2024

3 Chords & the Truth: Off to the races

Ever had one of those weeks when all you could manage was to go off on a tangent?

This has been one of those weeks, following a couple of weeks off. Which led to this week on 3 Chords & the Truth, with what I could manage.

But -- oh! -- what a tangent. Actually, make that two legitimate tangents. Sometimes, all you can manage after a couple of challenging weeks turns out to be pretty glorious.

And this week, that is your Big Show.

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

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.