The lights grow ever dimmer across America. Darkness has come upon our land. Screw that. Shine a light and push back the shadows of our demons and dysfunction. Shine a light. Sing our songs. Listen to the music. Screw Washington. Push back against the hatred and nativism and racism and anarchists in tailored suits. Fight the power. Sing of the light amid the darkness. That's what we try to do on this -- and every -- episode of 3 Chords & the Truth. When we're doing that, even a little show can be the Big Show. Word. It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there.Aloha.
We're all amped up here on the Big Show as we come out of the big Thanksgiving turn and floor it down the straightaway all the way to Christmas. That is, if we make it through December. These days. . . . You know? Having dispensed with the preface here, allow me to attempt a summation of this week's episode of 3 Chords & the Truthin but a single sentence. It may be a run-on, of course, but still. . . .
Here we go.
IT'S NOT GOOD out there as we hurtle toward what promises to be a strange Yuletide, more or less, but we're celebrating anyway because we might pull through despite everything, just so long as we can keep anyone in Washington from getting his hands on a Les Paulverizer, because that assuredly would result in the end of life on Earth as we know it.
IF THIS confuses you -- and we're sure it does -- your only recourse is to listen to the Big Show forthwith, which should allay your concerns. I just used the word "allay." Yay, Favog! It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
There's a squiggly green line separating you from a world where you'd never know there once was a San Fransisco band called The Great Society, fronted by Grace Slick before . . . you know.
Before big things happened. And you'd never know, on the other side of the squiggly green line, that the big Jefferson Airplane hit "Somebody to Love" once was "Someone to Love," the B-side of The Great Society's first (and only) single back in 1966.
No, you'd never know that on the far side of the squiggly green line. The squiggly green line is what 3 Chords & the Truth looks like before it gets to your ears -- and into your head. It's a good thing to be on the right side of the squiggly green line. It's a good thing to have the Big Show in your head. In your ears, too. Who knows what surprises and what musical edification lies on the good side of the squiggly green line? Well, there's only one way to find out. It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
Your Mighty Favog escaped from one of the Southern -stans when he was a young man. Now he brings the best in music and information to the captive populations of his home region of the United States.
He brings young and old alike the world their governments censor. Free thought and a robust culture . . . with a beat.
This week, millions in the -stans on the American frontier will tune in to 3 Chords & the Truthfor uncensored news and music -- the "in" sound from outside. Join the Big Show this week for a program of special interest to listeners in Alabamastan, "Jesus Don't Like Ugly . . . or What Don't You Get About Jailbait?" Captive Bubbas may not be able to spell "freedom," but almost all can spell 3C&T. And that's enough to cut through the Kudzu Curtain just a little every day. Freedom's as close as the Internet, and 'Bamastanis spell it 3C&T. It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
(Apologies to the Radio Free Europe PSAs of the 1970s.)
You can follow the crowd, stand in line, empty your bank account and get a new iPhone X-tremely expensive.
Or, you can sit in your dwelling in a toasty houserobe -- or your drawers, I really don't care -- and listen to the new 2017 iAnachronism for absolutely, positively no cost whatsoever. And it will sound just fine on your iPhone 6.
But your iAnachronism -- 3 Chords & the Truth, to be technical -- will sound better if you feed your computer into your home stereo. Preferably an anachronistic one. They sound awesome. As usual, eclecticism reigns on the Big Show this week, as does freeformity. That's an anachronistic word. Listen to the show to catch the meaning, which has something to do with excellence in music programming. Is what we're saying.
Also this go around, we celebrate the life and music of Fats Domino. That's all I have to say about that.
This jive, that jive . . . we're hep to all that jive, Daddio. And Mama.
We live in a jive country in a jive world, and we're swingin' to some solid sounds on the Big Showthis week -- and every week. What more can I say?
Well, I don't know, either. So I guess we're cool on the content of the lil' hepcat hop we like to call 3 Chords & the Truth. Uh . . . we like to call it that, because that's its name. But if you just want to call it the Serenade of Solid Sounds, you could do that, too. We're not picky. Just so long as the good music drowns out the clunker notes of whatever lame tune the rest of the world is playing right now. It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
Charley, this week's episode of the Big Show is a real gasser. Man, I am talkin' the livin' end!
There's some stuff on 3 Chords & the Truththis go around that's just crazy. Coo-coo!
It's a real clambake. Parts of the thing will just fracture you, pally! Good as a tomato waitin' for you in every gin joint. MAN,ITISanything but Endsville. I'm tellin' you, whoever's behind this thing must be a big-leaguer. What a ring-a-ding show!You're startin' out real freaky like -- you know, trippy -- and then, next thing you know, you're at the Sands. Pally, this thing's a gas! But if you listen to the Big Show much, you knew that already, right? Three words: Wow-ee wow wow! It's 3 Chords & the Truth, Charley. Be there. Aloha.
Man, I was listening to me some Vanilla Fudge, and I was getting into the spirit of it all -- You know? -- and now . . . you sure you don't have any Doritos, man? I'm just Jonesing for some salty, crunchy, nacho-flavored goodness.
Well, once again, 3 Chords & the Truth is all over the place musically, only in a thoughtful manner instead of a hook-your-MP3-player-up-to-an-FM-transmitter-and-call-it-radio manner. That's no surprise, but . . . you know where I can get some @#$&%*+! Doritos, man?
DAMN, I like me some Doritos almost as much as I like me some psychedelic music to start off the Big Show. Like . . . where were we, man?
Oh, yeah. Eclectic are we on the program this week and every week. Lots of musical goodness, lots of stuff you haven't heard in a very long time, lots of good music to get turned on to . . . and by.
In other words, 3 Chords & the Truth is kind of a trip. Every week. Only the kind Joe Friday's not gonna bust you over, dude.
You SURE you don't have any Doritos, man?
Well, I'm gonna go find me some. Can I bring you back anything, man? Like, how about some marshmallows and spicy mustard? It's really good s***, man!
I think I may know where a Doritos stash is, man. You listen to this while I look for that, all right? I'll be back in about 90 minutes, man.
I wanna be . . . anarchy. Oh, wait, Anarchy, we got. Maybe I want to aim for something more original -- like putting out a kick-ass music program every week.
Yeah, that's the ticket.
And we call that little something 3 Chords & the Truth. It's a little bit punk; it's a little bit country. It's a lot rock 'n' roll, and it's the blues in the night.
Or jazz in the morning. Whatever.
THIS WEEK, we're all over the place, and we're topical, too. I'll bet you can guess.
Anyway, you're free not to like what we're doing on this Internet Age version of "Loose Radio" on 'shrooms -- if you're of a certain age and from Baton Rouge, La., you'll get that pop-culture reference -- and I guess you're also free not to give the best damned thing on the Internets a listen, either. But I just want to tell you that we at the Big Show are packin' bricks and petrol, and we know where you live.
Which I was too tired to work into this week's edition of the Big Show.
So here it is:
I'm so tired, I haven't slept a wink I'm so tired, my mind is on the blink I wonder should I get up and fix myself a drink No,no,no. I'm so tired I don't know what to do I'm so tired my mind is set on you I wonder should I call you but I know what you would do You'd say I'm putting you on But it's no joke, it's doing me harm You know I can't sleep, I can't stop my brain You know it's three weeks, I'm going insane You know I'd give you everything I've got for a little peace of mind . . . .
In a democracy, we generally get the government we deserve.
Now look at what's going on in Washington, D.C., right now and be afraid. Be very afraid.
As Congress lurches toward Debtpocalyse and we lurch toward the poorhouse, we find the American empire lurching toward an end. And as I reflect on these years of doing3 Chords & the Truth, it occurred to me that the Big Show is what historians call "primary source material."
In other words, future generations could pull up these things called "MP3s" of the program, cobble together something to read such an obsolete format, and then get an idea of how we reacted to the mayhem around us.
How we dealt with decline and "interesting times."
MAYBE they'll listen to this episode of 3 Chords & the Truth and tag it "Music for the End of Their Wits." Heck, I'll beat those future historians and archaeologists to it. I'll call this episode of the Big Show "Music for the End of Our Wits."
I know, looking at the news every day, I'm at the end of mine -- and I'll bet you're near the end of yours, too.
So, this week's episode of the Big Show will feature exactly that -- music for the end of our wits.
My first take on it was "the Hair-Pullin', Teeth-Gnashin', Congressional Debt-Limitin' Blues," but I think the present title is much more elegant.
And that's the deal with the Big Show this week. Venting through music, and then some sweet jazz to calm us down.
AFTER ALL, we're going to need all the serenity we can muster for the foreseeable future.
Yes, the tea party is nuts, and insanity is totally a contagious thing in Washington.
Yes, because of this -- and because of America's political dysfunction being turned up to 11 -- we have become the Dysfunctional States of America.
Yes, we're pretty much screwed, and we're sitting here in the studio waiting on Debtpocalypse Now.
And, yes, we at 3 Chords & the Truth are going to -- so to speak -- fiddle while Washington burns. What the hell else are we supposed to do?
APART, of course, from sending the cast of Swamp People to the District and having them set lines all around the Capitol, baiting the hooks with $100 bills.
Unfortunately, we here at the Big Show have no sway over Louisiana alligator hunters (And that John Boehner kinda looks like a "tree shaker," doesn't he?) despite having hailed from the Gret Stet. So there we are, back at Square One.
And we're just going to have to make the best of it, cheering ourselves up with some excellent tunage. It's the American Way.
Or something.
SO I'M rosining up the bow, boys, and we'll march off to the poor house with a song in our hearts. And with the swampers doing that voodoo that they do among the reptiles on Capitol Hill.
Guten Morgen! This is your daily Omaha or, in this case, your daily "Omaha," with Moby Grape on the Mike Douglas Show in 1968.
Perhaps, though, I ought to just call the seminal psychedelic group "the Moby Grapes," so as to not publicly embarrass the ghost of Mike Douglas. Moby Grape, and the whole counterculture thing, confused Mike*. A lot.
(I had forgotten to add the asterisk to Mike Douglas*, which is a major faux pas for anyone who lived through 1960s and '70s television. Mike Douglas* always gets an *. It may have been somewhere in federal law, actually.)
But, yeah, Moby Grape confused the hell out of Mike* in 1968.
OF COURSE, things had not gotten any better by 1976, when Tom Waits first appeared on The Mike Douglas Show*. Tom Waits may have confused Mike Douglas* even more than "the Moby Grapes" did.
Mainstream America doesn't do eccentricity well. It does "eccentric genius" even less well.
And by the time you're done watching Mike Douglas* and Marvin Hamlisch -- and let's face it, Mike* wasn't musically fit to hold Waits' ashtray -- awkwardly condescend to the young eccentric genius, you have this intense desire to travel back in time, flick your Bic and hold it really close to their polyester duds.
Don't miss the end of the show. Young people's lack of exposure to really, really dumb, really, really awkward spectacles such as that has left them wholly unequipped to deal with a lot of crap life can throw at a person.
Once upon a time, Walt Whitman could write this -- I Hear America Singing:
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear, Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong, The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam, The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work, The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck, The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands, The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown, The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing, Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else, The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly, Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
I THINK, when you distill all that besets up on this Independence Day of 2010, it comes down to this one thing.
We're having trouble remembering the tune.
The tune that America was singing. Anyway, that's what's on my mind for this holiday edition of the Big Show. Your mileage may vary.
There's some other stuff -- amazing stuff -- in there as well this week, so you really don't want to miss what we're up to as you go about whatever it is you're up to for the Fourth.
Diese Woche auf 3 Chords & die Wahrheit, könnte man sagen, dass wir mit einem musikalischen Turmbau zu Babel.
Musik aus aller Welt, die alle durch die Jahrzehnte, die alle in verschiedenen Sprachen. Nur nicht Englisch ist.
Das ist so ziemlich das Spiel für das erste Drittel des Big Show -- und es ist ein guter. Du wirst sehen. . . oder vielmehr zu hören. Einfach zuhören, OK?
QUESTA SETTIMANA il 3 Chords & la Verità, si potrebbe dire che siamo dotate di una torre di Babele musicale.
Musica da tutto il mondo, tutto attraverso i decenni, tutti in lingue diverse. Solo, non in inglese.
Questo è esattamente il piano di gioco per il primo terzo del Big Show -- ed è un buon compromesso. Vedrai. . . o, meglio, sentire. Basta ascoltare, OK?
DENNA VECKA på3 Chords & Sanningen kan man säga vi featuring en musikalisk Babels torn.
Musik från hela världen, alla genom årtionden, alla i olika språk. Bara inte engelska.
Det är ganska mycket i spelet planen för första tredjedelen av Big Show - och det är en bra en. Du kommer att se. . . eller snarare höra. Lyssna bara, okej?
ESTA SEMANA, el 3 de Acordes y la Verdad, se podría decir que estamos con una torre de Babel musical.
Música de todo el mundo, a lo largo de las décadas, todos en lenguas diferentes. Simplemente no Inglés.
Eso es más o menos el plan de juego para el primer tercio del Big Show -- y es una buena idea. Ya lo verás. . . o, mejor dicho, oír. Sólo escucha, ¿OK?
CETTE SEMAINE sur les3 Accords et la Vérité, vous pourriez dire que nous sommes dotées d'une tour de Babel musicale.
Musique de partout dans le monde, tout au long des décennies, le tout dans des langues différentes. Juste pas l'anglais.
C'est à peu près le plan de match pour le premier tiers du Grand Spectacle -- et c'est une bonne chose. Vous verrez. . . ou, plutôt, d'entendre. Il suffit d'écouter, OK?
There's nothing like a song to kick off the 100th episode of 3 Chords & the Truth.
Good thing, then, that happens to be our standard procedure here on the Big Show. Let me move on, though, before you accuse me of facetiousness.
But before I do, can somebody explain to me the concept of "Tobalby"? And if you can, I'll think that maybe you're a little tipsy on Potliquor.
YES, it's my show, and I love her madly, but sometimes the whole deal -- and tha late nights -- just make me loopy. If not Monster Raving Loony.
On this auspicious occasion of the completion of the100th of the 3 Chords & the Truth program -- or, if you will, programme -- I'll just get in the drivers seat and crank up the Radio, Radio. For it's a sound salvation.
After all, the last thing I want to be today is a Wallflower.
So repair all the broken bells and let them ring out greetings through the air to all the white birds . . . let them ring out this simple message from your Mighty Favog.
"Trust Me." And "Love Me."
BECAUSE it is that little fire in your belly that tells you the music here is important. That the program -- er, programme -- that is the Big Show fills an important niche that is ignored by the insipid tossers that fish and whistle while radio and the music industry burn.
But it's still, whatever way you cut it, quite easy to say "What a Wonderful World," even if we sometimes look on a fouled landscape and think . . . "Is That All There Is?"
Whatever. Sometimes you make good sense, sometimes you don't.
Screw Washington. Push back against the hatred and nativism and racism and anarchists in tailored suits.
