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Today's
Stories
Dec. 31 / Jan.
1, 2005/6
Patrick Cockburn
The
Year in Iraq
December 30,2005
Evo Morales
I
Believe Only in the Power of the People
Earl Ofari
Hutchinson
The
Toxic Air in Black America
Dave Lindorff
Bush's NSA Spying Jeopardizes National Security
Gary Leupp
Targeting Iran and Syria: Goss Builds Case for Turkey-Based Attacks
Ron Jacobs
A
Dead New Year's Eve
Brian Concannon
Down
in Haiti, the Chickens are Coming Home to Roost
Sandra Lucas
Inside TeenScreen: the Making of Mental Patients
T.W. Croft
The
Wind Has Changed: Gulf Storms, Fables of Reconstruction and Hard
Times for the Big Easy
Website of
the Day
Images
of Mass Consumption
December 29,
2005
Norman Solomon
Journalists
Should Expose Secrets, Not Keep Them
Missy Comley
Beattie
Christmas
Without Chase
Dave Zirin
Over the Edge: the Year in Sports
Kevin Zeese
Top
10 Antiwar Stories of 2005
Derrick O'Keefe
Bolivia and Venezuela Offer an Alternative to Neo-Liberalism
Sam Bahour
Turning the Page in Palestine, Again
Macdonald Stainsby
What's Behind Paul Martin's Broadside Against Bush?
Bill &
Kathleen Christison
Let's Stop a US/Israel War on Iran
Website of the Day
Deconstructing the Democrats
December 28,
2005
Jeffrey St.
Clair
The
Worst Day of Ted Stevens' Life?
Lila Rajiva
Operation Romeo: Lessons on Terror Laws from India
Amira Hass
The Humanitarian Lie
Joshua Frank
Let the Drilling Begin: Iraq's IMF Loan
David Swanson
Leaking Top Secret Lies
Richard Thieme
High Time for Torture
Paul Craig
Roberts
Three
Books to Wake You Up
Website of the Day
Conyers Report: "Constitution in Crisis"
December 27,
2005
Evan Jones
Whither
the National Guard?
Uri Avnery
The Peretz Shuffle
Mike Whitney
Pop Goes the Bubble!
Gideon Levy
Dusty Trail to Death
David Swanson
Kurt Vonnegut: a Man Without a Country
Norman Solomon
NSA Spied on UN Diplomats During Push for Invasion of Iraq
December 26,
2005
Lawrence R.
Velvel
The
Usurpers of Our Freedoms
Lance Olsen
The Toughest Challenge for Intelligent Design
Ben Terrall
No Holiday Compassion for Haiti's Political Prisoners
Scott Boehm
Santa Drove a Bulldozer
Charlie Ehlen
A Vietnam Vet's Appraisal of Bush
Tom Kerr
The Atheist Dad at Christmas
December 24/25,
2005
Aleander Cockburn
The
Year of Vanished Credibility
James Petras
Iran in the Crosshairs: Israel's Deadline
Ralph Nader
Talkin'
About the "I"-Word
Lila Rajiva
Horowitz's New Project: Begging for Brownshirts
Fred Gardner
Dialogue with the DEA
Ron Jacobs
When Impeachment was Taken Seriously
Dave Lindorff
Xmas Games for a Gitmo World
Gary Leupp
Happy Birthday Mithras!: the True Meaning of December 25th
Saul Landau
Bush's Year in Review: a Report Card from Santa
John Chuckman
A Christmas Tale for Bushtime
Dr. Susan Block
Merry XXX-mas!
St. Clair / Vest / Pollack
/ Donnelly
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Holt, Jones, Landau, Ross and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Merry Xmas, From the Beatles
December 23,
2005
John Ross
The
Corrido of Death Row: Mexico Ends the Death Penalty
Chris Floyd
Gospel
Truth: Bush Hypocrisy, Radical Holiness and Woody Guthrie
Lawrence Mishel
/ Ross Eisenbrey
The
Economy in a Nutshell
Joanne Mariner
Bringing
Torture into Court: the Loopholes in McCain's Bill
Eric Johnson-Debaufre
The Trew Law of Free Democracies?
Ray McGovern
Cheney the Bully; Rockefeller the Coward
J. L. Chestnut,
Jr.
What
White America Doesn't Hear
Website of
the Day
BB King: What I've Learned This Year
December 22,
2005
Ingmar Lee
The
Citizen's Metamorphosis: I Awoke an Object of Suspicion
Elisa Salasin
Classrooms
in Cages
Christopher
Brauchli
Absolut Bush: "I Swear to Upturn and Rear End the Constitution
of the United States"
Robin Blackburn
Rudolf Meidner, a Visionary Pragmatist
Evelyn Pringle
Dan Olmstead, Autism & the Dangers of Thimerosal
Amira Hass
A 14-Year Old's Prison Journey: "I Refused and He Hit Me"
Francis A.
Boyle
Iraq and the Laws of War: US as "Belligerent Occupant"
Stew Albert
The
Spies Who Thought We Were Messy
Website of
the Day
How to Reach a Human Voice
December 21,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
One
Nation, Under Prosecutors: Presumed Guilty
Lila Rajiva
A Short History of Radio Free Iraq
Joshua Frank
Nancy Pelosi's Truth
Dave Zirin
The Bray of Pigs: Bush Nixes Beisbol Cubano
Ramzy Baroud
US Image Problem Rooted in History, Not Media
Sonia Nettnin
Connect the Dots: Decoding Bush's Mumbo Jumbo
Ben Saul
Torture as Calculated Policy
Jonathan Cronin
Anniversary of a Handshake: Cherry-picking History in Iraq
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq
Election Spells Total Defeat for US
Website of
the Day
Nixon on Presidential Power
December 20,
2005
Jackie Corr
Natural
Gas: a Montana Tragedy
Earl Ofari
Hutchinson
Nothing
New About NSA Spying on Americans
Michael Donnelly
"Eco Terrorism": Cui Bono?
Gian Paulo
Accardo
Empire of Shame: a Conversation with Jean Ziegler
Pierre Tristam
Trifler, Fibber, Sophist, Spy: How Bush Flouted the Constitution
Norman Solomon
The Foulest Media Performances of the Year
Sen. Robert Byrd
No President is Above the Law
Dave Lindorff
Missing
Black Boxes in WTC Attacks Found by Firefighters, Analyzed by
NTSB, Concealed by FBI
Website of the Day
FBI's Spy Files: Got Yours Yet?
December 19,
2005
Mike Marqusee
The
Global War on Civil Liberties
Gary Leupp
Feds Ask Student: "Why are You Reading that Little Red Book?"
Ron Jacobs
The Antiwar Movement, the Democrats and the Delusions of Bushworld
John Blair
Stealing the Golden Shovel: Lessons on Civil Disobedience
Gideon Levy
Sadism at the Qalandiyah Checkpoint
Kevin Zeese
The
Global War on Civil Liberties
Missy Comley Beattie
Warnings from a Military Man and Dad
Don Santina
Ride 'Em Brush Cutter: Cowboy Imagery and the American Presidency
Website of the Day
A Call for Justice in Palestine
December 17
/ 18, 2005
Cockburn /
St. Clair
Time-Delayed
Journalism: the NYT and the NSA's Illegal Spying Operation
Gabriel Kolko
The
Decline of the American Empire
Susan Alcorn
Texas: Three Days and Two Nights
Werther
The Democrats are an Impotent and Tolerated Opposition Party
Ralph Nader
The Senator Without Guile: Proxmire of Wisconsin
Patrick Cockburn
Counting Ballots and Bodies in Baghdad
Fred Gardner
When Prosecutors Deceive: Did the Feds Frame Bryan Epis?
Dave Lindorff
Spy Scandal Far Larger Than Just NSA
Ned Sublette
Essence is Gasoline
Lee Sustar
The Class War Economy
Jason Leopold
Did Karl Rove Destroy Evidence in Plame Case?
Laura Carlsen
Report from Hong Kong: Deciphering the Language of Globalization
Jeff White
Teacher Fired for Talking About Peace?
Ray McGovern
Torture Between the Lines
Chris Floyd
Pale Fire: the White Death of Fallujah
William Loren Katz
Remembering the First Quagmire at Xmastime: Zachary Taylor vs.
the Seminoles
Rose Miriam
Elizalde
Mashenka and the Bear: a Tale for Our Time
Greg Moses
Pinter's Provocation: Self Love in America
Heather Gray
Privatizing the Social Contract
Alison Weir
My Bethlehem Experience: the Sequel
St Clair /
Walker / Pollack
Playlists: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Landau, Engel and Albert
Website of
the Day
At Least Homeland Security Believes that Mao Still Matters
December 16,
2005
Tom Kerr
CNN's
Goddess of Vengeance: What's Not to Love About Nancy Grace?
Mark Engler
The
WTO in Hong Kong: Is Market Access the Answer to Poverty?
John Bomar
When Ollie North Came to Hot Springs
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq Votes; Now What?
Pierre Tristam
Iraq, Ourselves
William S. Lind
The Fine Art of Withdrawal
Cyril Neville
Why I'm Not Going Back to New Orleans
Robert Jensen
Monkey See, Monkey Do: Reason, Evolution and Intelligent Design
Saul Landau
Bolivian
Democracy and the US: a History Lesson
Website
CounterPunch & Dr. Price Vanquish Anthropologist Spies
December 15,
2005
Oren Ben-Dor
The
Ethical and Legal Challenges Facing Palestine
Stan Cox
"Agroterrorists"
Needn't Bother
Joshua Frank
Organic Inconsistencies: Federal Food Politics
Ben Terrall
Waivers for State Terror: Bush and the Indonesian Generals
Patrick Cockburn
Silence Descends on Baghdad
Monica Benderman
What Peace Needs
Walter A. Davis
Fear and Loathing in San Quentin
Vijay Prashad
Our
Torture Problem
Website of
the Day
Hourly Wages After Four Years of "Recovery"
December 14, 2005
Patrick Cockburn
Iran
Poised to Win Iraqi Elections
Paul Craig
Roberts
Lethal
Developments
Lawrence R. Velvel
A Bore Called Bob: On Trying to Read Woodward
Wayne Garcia
The Summer of Sami
John Sugg
Preach Peace, Sami; Get Truthful Prosecutors
Gary Leupp
Bush and the Constitution: "Just a Goddamned Piece of Paper"
Ray McGovern
Torture: a Defining Moment
Alan Maass
They Murdered a Peacemaker
April Hurley, MD
NPR Swallows Bush's Guestimate on Iraqi Dead
Kevin Alexander
Gray
Richard Pryor's Mirror on America
December 13,
2005
Stephen T.
Banko, III
Heroes
Patrick Cockburn
America's
War So Far: 1000 Days of Getting It Wrong
Laura Carlsen
What's at Play at the WTO
Karl Grossman
Nuclear Routlette in the Troposhere: Another NASA Plutonium Launch
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The Original Sin
Kevin Zeese
Report from the International Peace Conference in London
Norman Solomon
At the Gates of San Quentin
Michael G.
Smith
Ending the Death Penalty
Stew Albert
California Killers
Bob Dylan
Song for Tookie: George Jackson
Phil Gasper
California Murders Tookie Williams: a Report from San Quentin
Website of
the Day
Boot Hill
December 12,
2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Defenders of Torture
Lawrence R.
Velvel
George the Disconnected
Jessica Stewart
My Husband is at the Gates of Gitmo
George Bisharat
Busharon: a Fusion of Like Minds
Nate Mezmer
Killing Tookie Williams: If a Black Man Dies in America, Does
It Make a Sound?
Earl Ofari
Hutchinson
Richard Pryor Wasn't Crazy
Alison Weir
My Bethlehem Experience
Seth Sandronsky
Thank You, Richard Pryor
Patrick Cockburn
Iraq:
the Beginning of the End
Website of
the Day
Wrestling for Peace
December 10 / 11, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
All
the News That's Fit to Buy
Landau / Hassen
The Condemned of Nablus
Ralph Nader
The
Widening Wasteland of American Media
Linn Washington, Jr
The Philly Media and Mumia: When They Don't Bash, They Ignore
Bill Christison
Apathy, US Culpability and Human Rights Day
Mike Ferner
The Courage of Jim Loney
Elizabeth Schulte
Abortion and the Bush Court
Neve Gordon / Yigal Bronner
Murder in Jerusalem
Linda S. Heard
Saddam's Trial: Grandstanding in the Theater of the Absurd
Ingmar Lee
A Kayak Journey to Vancouver Island's Wildest Forest
Ray McGovern
Lies, Torture and the Six Blind Mice
John Chuckman
Torture and White Phosphorous: the Moral Hell of Condi Rice
John Ryan
An Honorary Degree in Child Sacrifice?: Madeleine Albright and
US Foreign Policy
Dick J. Reavis
From Waco to Baghdad
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush's Hired Pens
Behzad Yaghmaian
Trapped at the Gates of the European Union
Aseem Shrivastava
The Winter in Delhi, 1984
John Ross
Bushlandia in Black and White
Ben Tripp
War, What is It Good For?
St. Clair / Pollack / Vest
/ Despair
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Hassen, Bear Dog, Ford, Mickey Z, Albert & Engel
Website of the Week
Burn a Brick for Bush
December 9,
2005
Linn Washington,
Jr.
Roots
of Gitmo Torture Lie Close to Home
Dave Zirin
/ Mike Stark
On
Seeing Wesley Baker Die
Patrick Cockburn
Blair
Tries to Cover Up $1.3 Billion Iraqi Theft
Alexander Cockburn
Murtha Returns to Attack; Flays Bush
Lila Rajiva
Shooting the Mentally Ill
Gary Leupp
White House Liars on the Defensive
Jason Leopold
Rove Running Out of Answers, Time
Bruce K. Gagnon
So These Are the Democrats?
Andrew Cockburn
Meet
Rahm Emmanuel, the Democrats' New Gatekeeper
Website of the Day
"X-mas Time for Visa"
December 8,
2005
Kathy Kelly
Blessed
are the Merciful in Baghdad
James Petras
The Venezuelan Election: Chavez Wins, Bush Loses (Again)
William S.
Lind
Questionable Assumptions: Dissecting the Stategy for Victory
Laura Carlsen
The Strange Mission of Vicente Fox: Free Trade and Mexico
Justin Akers
Bush's Border War
Thomas Graham, Jr
A Nuclear Pearl Harbor in Outer Space?
Norman Solomon
Rumsfeld's Handshake Deal with Saddam
Tariq Ali /
Robin Blackburn
The
Lost John Lennon Interview
Website of
the Day
Pigs at the Trough of War
December 7,
2005
John Ryan
Dershowitz vs. Chomsky: a Review of the Harvard Debate
Gary Leupp
Suicide
Before Dishonor in Occupied Iraq
Fran Quigley
How the ACLU Didn't Steal Christmas
Jeremy Brecher
/ Brendan Smith
Bush
War Crimes: the Posse Gathers
Joshua Frank
Bird Dogging Hillary
William W.
Morgan
Rendition, Torture and Democracy
Dave Lindorff
A Stunning Win for Mumia Abu Jamal
Patrick Cockburn
Saddam: "Come Visit My Cage"
Harold Pinter
Art, Truth and Politics: the Nobel Lecture
Website of
the Day
Witnesses to Torture
December 6,
2005
Ron Jacobs
No
One is Illegal; No One is an Infidel
Patrick Cockburn
Inside
Saddam's Trial: Tales of the Human Meat Grinder
Yifat Susskind
Death, Politics and the Condom: African Women Confront Bush's
AIDS Policy
Mike Whitney
How Greenspan Skewered America
Pat Williams
Public Land Should Stay Public
Paul Craig
Roberts
Condi
to Europe: Trust Us
Website of
the Day
Debunking Woodward
December 5,
2005
John Walsh
The
Lies of John Edwards: What Did the Democrats Know and When Did
They Know It?
Brian Cloughley
The Poor Dead: the Relative
Value of Human Lives
Mokhiber /
Weissman
The Corporate Crime Quiz
Robert Jensen
How Big Money Eviscerates the First Amendment
Norman Solomon
Hidden in Plane Sight: US Media Ignores Iraq Air War Plan
Peter Rost, MD
An Open Letter to the Justice Department: Pfizer May Have Violated
Federal Laws When They Fired Me
Lila Rajiva
The
Torture-Go-Round: CIA's Rendition Flights to Secret Prisons
Website of the Day
National Day of Counter-Recruitment
December 3 / 4, 2005
Alexander Cockburn
The
Revolt of the Generals
Lawrence R.
Velvel
Iraq,
Brains and Lies
Rev. William Alberts
The Forgotten Christmas Story: Saying No to King Herod
Saul Landau
Latino
Troops Have Parents
Ralph Nader
Consumerama
Paul Craig
Roberts
Don't Confuse the Jobs Hype with the Facts
Mike Whitney
Blood Feast: Celebrating Executions in America
Allan Lichtman
The DeLay Scheme: Blatantly Buying Our Government
Dave Lindorff
A Sudden Rush for the Exits?
Brian Concannon,
Jr.
Haiti's Elections
Fred Gardner
Oregon NORML Honors Growers
Manuel Garcia,
Jr.
On Freeing the CPT
Carol Wolman
Remembering the 60s
St. Clair /
Vest / Walker / Pollack
Playlist: What We're Listening to This Week
Poets' Basement
Albert, Engel and Orloski
Website of
the Weekend
Free the CPT
December 2,
2005
Stan Goff
An
Open Letter to Congress from a Veteran and Military Dad
Mike Ferner
Beware Iraqization: Melvin Laird, Vietnam and Christmas Bombings
Over Baghdad?
Christopher Brauchli
Bush's Constitutional Kamikazes: Padilla's No-Win Dilemma
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
Questions
for the President
Manuel Talens
The Chávez Theorem
Peter Phillips
Death By Torture: Media Ignores the Hard Evidence
J.L. Chestnut,
Jr.
Alabama's
Taliban: Judge Roy Moore, Preachers and Dixie Hypocrisy
Website of
the Day
Support the Hampton University Peace Activists!
December 1,
2005
John Walsh,
MD
The
God Gaps
Ron Jacobs
Hard Rain: Toward a Greater Air War in Iraq?
Jenna Orkin
EPA's
Latest Betrayal at Ground Zero
Joshua Frank
Howard Dean's Blunt Message: Forget Palestine
Tiffany Ten
Eyck
Rank and File Resistance to Delphi
Missy Comley Beattie
Home on the Range: Where the Fear and the Animus Play
Eli Stephens
The Reed and Kerry Show
Elaine Cassel
A Government Game of "Gotcha" with Jose Padilla
Website of
the Day
Rare Erotica
|
Weekend
Edition
December 31 / January 1, 2005/6
CounterPunch Playlists
What We're Listening
To This Week
By JEFFREY ST. CLAIR,
JESSE WALKER and PHYLLIS POLLACK
JEFFREY
ST. CLAIR
1. Miles Davis: Cellar
Door Sessions (Columbia)
Finally exhumed from Columbia's
catacombs, this 3-cd package captures the Miles Davis Band's
weekend of performances in December 1970 at Washington, DC's
Cellar Door jazz club with Keith Jarrett on Fender Rhodes piano,
Jack DeJohnette bashing the drums, John McLaughlin on a screaming
electric guitar, Wayne Shorter on sax and Miles on an electrified
cornet. The jazz equivalent of Dylan going electric.
2. Don Byron: Nu
Blaxploitation (Blue Note)
Don Byron may be the most accomplished
clarinetist since the great Eric Dolphy and, like Dolphy, Byron,
is a restless player, always seeking out new genres of music.
He has a peculiar fascination with klezmer music and has done
some surreal improvisations in that format. But here Byron, with
his band Existential Dred, is in full funk mode (the cd is dedicated
to the 70s funk band Mandrill), reaching a feverish pitch in
their fractious cover of Hendrix's "If 6 Was 9". But
the musical highlight of the CD is probably the deep grooving,
15-minute "Schizo Jam", featuring Biz Markie and Byron
bursting forth with a blizzard of notes. In the tradition of
Archie Shepp, Byron infuses his music with radical politics,
as on the hip-hop number assailing the NYPD's killing of Abner
Loima, which is far more trenchant than Springsteen's timid "41
Shots," where poet Sadiq chants: "Loima, Loima ran
from little Papa Doc/To find himself a piece of the rock/He was
crushed under the pressure of hate/Shut down this historic fate."
There's also a furious attack, both verbally and musically, on
the LAPD in a song called, naturally, "Furman."
3. Patty Griffin: Living
with Ghosts (A&M)
Patty Griffin is one of the
best singer/songwriters to come along in years. It may be heresy
to say so, but I don't crave her more recent albums (where her
soaring voice overwhelms the songs like a kind of gorgeous tsunami)
nearly as much as her debut, Living with Ghosts, which was recorded
in a demo-like fashion featuring only Patty's wonderful voice
and an acoustic guitar. Griffin reportedly shunned the results
as being too "pop oriented", which just shows you that
sometimes an artist can be the worst critic of her own work.
One of the best albums of the 90s or any decade.
4. Jeff Beck: You
Had It Coming (Sony)
Okay, Beck (that is Jeff
Beck) is one of rock music's great ego-maniacs. But he is also
one of the two or three most influential guitarists since Robert
Johnson and, unlike the other two tired veterans of The Yardbirds,
Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page, Beck continues to stretch out into
new terrain from jazz and funk to blues and some of the heaviest
metal guitar you're ever likely encounter.
5. Dave Brubeck Quartet:
Jazz:
Red Hot and Cool (Columbia)
This 1954 live recording from
Manhattan's Basin Street Club opens with a cover of the Rodgers
and Hart standard "Lover" where drummer Jim Dodge sets
the beat in 4/4 time. Then Brubeck enters playing in 3/4 time.
He is followed by the smoky tones of Paul Desmond's alto, also
in 3/4, accompanied by bassist Bob Bates. All the while, Dodge
pounds away in 4/4. Brubeck called this approach "playing
three against four" and the rest of this album, as well
as the ones which would follow (notably Time Out), offer other
experiments in time and counterpoint. But the beauty of the Brubeck/Desmond
partnership is that these inside jokes and innovations never
intrude on the music--but they're there if you like digging for
them. Call me a homer, but my favorite tune on this cd is the
rompish version of "Indiana."
6. Gram Parsons: Sacred
Hearts and Fallen Angels: a Gram Parsons Anthology (Rhino)
Gram Parsons almost single-handedly
invented country rock, but he shouldn't be held solely accountable
for the manifold sins of those (the Eagles, Pure Prairie League,
et al) who followed in his wake. Parsons had heart, Don Henley
doesn't. And that makes all the difference in the world, a distinction
you can clearly hear in "Hickory Wind" or "Sin
City." This two-CD collection of 46 songs charts Parsons'
career from the International Submarine Band to the Byrds to
the Flying Burrito Brothers and his own tragically abbreviated
Fallen Angels Band.
7. Los Lobos: Good
Morning, Atzlan! (Hollywood Records)
Los Lobos returns to its roots
as a hard-driving Latin funk band, deeply informed by R&B,
and fronted by one of the best living blues singers, David Hidalgo.
8. Guy Clark: Cold
Dog Soup (Sugarhill)
Clark is often feted to as
the best songwriter in Texas. You won't get much of an argument
from me about that, except to note that such a label tends to
discount his skills as a musician and singer, gifts which are
in full display on this 1999 recording where, in addition to
some excellent new compositions, particularly the haunting "Red
River," he returns the favor by covering some of the songwriters
who've lifted from him, such as Steve Earle, Richard Dobson and
Anne McGarrigle.
9. John Cale: The
Island Years (Polygram)
The best solo recordings by
the brains behind the Velvet Underground. In Bushtime, Cale's
mid-70s song "Fear is a Man's Best Friend" suddenly
gains a new relevance. Cale's menacing cover of Jonathan Richman's
"Pablo Picasso" transforms one of the funniest songs
ever written into one that sounds like it's being sung by a serial
killer. Perhaps Cale was on edge because, yes, that's Phil Collins
whacking away on the drums?
10. Monroe Brothers: What
Would You Give in Exchange for Your Soul? (Rounder)
Answer: a chance to see Charlie
and Bill perform these songs live.
By the time Jeffrey St.
Clair was 18, he'd been 86'd from more bands than Dickey
Betts. Complaints can be registered to: sitka@comcast.net.
JESSE WALKER
1. Twink: The
Broken Record (Seeland)
Mike Langlie mashed up hundreds
of ancient children's records to make this weird, funny, sometimes
eminently danceable CD. One of the best albums of 2005.
2. Marty Stuart: Souls'
Chapel (Universal South)
When Stuart plays Pop Staples'
guitar on this album, it's not just a gimmick: The spirit of
the Staple Singers hovers over all these spare, tight, and bluesy
gospel numbers. Another entry for my best-of-2005 list.
3. Wilmoth Houdini: Poor
But Ambitious (Arhoolie)
Before Belafonte, calypso was
gritty stuff: songs about murder, prostitution, racial politics,
and a brand of braggadocio that wouldn't be out of place on a
modern rap record. You can consider this Trinidad's hip hop of
the '20s and '30s.
4. Al Green: Call
Me (Right Stuff)
His version of "I'm So
Lonesome I Could Cry" is the best Hank Williams cover ever.
5. Terry Allen: Lubbock
(on everything) (Sugarhill)
Move over, Roy Acuff -- there's
another wreck on the highway:
Yeah a truckload of art is
burning near the highway
Precious objects are scattered all over the ground
And it's a terrible sight if a person were to see it
But there weren't nobody around
6. The Kinks: Soap
Opera Live
The Kinks' penultimate music-hall
album -- the critics called them "rock operas," but
they were far closer to vaudeville than to Verdi -- was 1975's
underrated Soap Opera; it's what "The Secret Life of Walter
Mitty" might look like if it were reimagined by Philip K.
Dick and scored by Noel Coward and Link Wray. (And Charlie Rich:
The chorus to "You Make It All Worthwhile" is a direct
steal from "Behind Closed Doors.") This bootleg is
culled from several live performances of the show; it's for Kinks
aficionados only, but I'm an aficionado and I adore it.
7. Ben Harper: Fight
for Your Mind (Virgin)
Speaking of stealing tunes:
Ever notice that Harper's "Please Me Like You Want To"
sounds an awful lot like "Sweet Home Alabama"?
8. Bob Dylan: Self
Portrait (Sony)
Cut it by about a third, and
it would be a pretty good album. But it's the crap that
makes it great.
Jesse Walker is managing editor of Reason
and author of Rebels
on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America. His
blog is The Perpetual
Three-Dot Column.
PHYLLIS
POLLACK
1. Marty Balin: Balince
(Rhino Records)
Balince is a bewitching set of period pieces
from Marty Balin, who like Ron Wood and Joni Mitchell, also paints
and draws. Although most of the press surrounding the Jefferson
Airplane and its later incarnation, Jefferson Starship, centered
on Grace Slick, Marty Balin's silky smooth contributions to both
groups were undeniable, if not inescapable. This compilation
of work from the soulful troubadour features works from the Airplane's
post-virgin flight, "Surrealistic Pillow," to more
recent, previously unreleased solo tracks.
2. Ringo Starr: Choose
Love (Koch Records)
Once more, love is all you
need.
3. Rob Halford: Resurrection
(BMG)
Rob Halford has the one voice
in heavy metal that can both crack glass and kick ass at the
same time. On his debut solo album, Resurrection, Judas
Priest's front man from Birmingham, England, punctuated with
the ballad "Silent Screams," flaunts more killing floor
bangers. While "Silent Screams" may be an oxymoron,
so is Halford, himself, a gay musician, in the machismo world
of metal. The Priest, which has had massive, multi-platinum success
for thirty years, has also had their share of drama that includes
an asinine lawsuit brought against them, which was wrought with
accusations of suicide-inducing backwards messages. The First
Amendment, along with Judas Priest's attorneys, prevailed, however.
4. Geto Boys: Geto
Boys (Def American)
Hailing from Fifth Ward, Houston,
Texas, this trigger happy rap trio caused record producer Rick
Rubin to sever his ties with his distributor, Geffen Records,
when the label refused to press and distribute the album because
of its hardcore tracks like "Mind Of A Lunatic" and
"Let A Ho Be A Ho." Rubin, who has produced the likes
of Black Crows, Johnny Cash, Mick Jagger, proved himself to be
one of the group's staunchest supporters.
5. Geto Boys: We
Can't Be Stopped (Rap-A-Lot Records)
The album cover photo features
group members Willie D and Scarface wheeling a hospital gurney
carrying Bushwick Bill, whose eye was shot out that night by
his girlfriend. This is not a staged photo. It really happened.
Despite its shock value on the album packaging, the disc features
one of the most prolific hiphop songs ever written, "Mind
Playing Tricks." Songs like that and "Trophy,"
a dis to the Grammy Awards, helped take the group to another
level, into the world of gold and platinum.
6. Three-6 Mafia: Chapter
2/World Domination (Relativity Records)
Opening the album, while sampling
the theme from Mash, this group from the Dirty Dirty comes
clean, as they ride with the brothers from the Mafia, as well
as Ms. Gangsta Boo. The Three-6, along with their assorted posse,
has released a respectable slew of albums, and this one exemplifies
their no-holds-barred approach to expression. Their later album,
Sippin' On Some Syrup, landed in Billboard's top
ten albums. Southern fried hiphop, indeed.
7. Nils Lofgren: Code
Of The Road/Greatest Hits Live (Right Stuff/EMI/Capitol Records)
Having recorded with Neil Young,
and then Bruce Springsteen, as a part of the E Street Band, this
album sets out to prove Lofgren is more than a sidekick. The
road worthy guitarist released this set of live, self-penned
tracks, which includes "Keith Don't Go," presumably
a tribute to Rolling Stone Keith Richards.
8. Sex Pistols: Filthy
Lucre Live (Virgin Records)
Johnny Rotten and company reunites
for sentimental look back. Unfortunately, by the time these live
tracks had been recorded, however, Sid Vicious had already died,
as had his legendary girlfriend, Nancy Spungeon. Despite the
death count, Rotten decides to go down in flames here. Like Neil
Young said, "It's better to burn out than to fade away."
9. Soundtrack: The
Wizard Of Oz--Green Deluxe Edition (Rhino Records)
This is some really heavy stuff.
If you can't dig it, be gone, before someone drops a house on
you, too.
10. T Rex: 20th
Century Boy: The Ultimate Collection (Hip-O Records)
If you believed the lie of
terrestrial radio, you would think that all T-Rex ever did was
"Get It On (Bang A Gong)." Tyrannosaurus Rex, also
known as Marc Bolan, was actually born with the name Marc Feld.
Tragically, it all came to an end at the age of thirty when his
girlfriend accidentally drove into a tree. Bolan would personify,
if not certainly escalate, the concept of glam rock. His cult-like
following still keeps his music close to heart.
Phyllis Pollack lives in Los Angeles where she is
a publicist and music journalist. She can be reached through
her blog.
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