May 8

I'm writing a birthday passage about the guy you're not looking at in this picture.
This picture is considered one of the most iconic images in modern sport. I probably don't have to tell you about the guy standing in the center of the ring, the one they call "The Greatest". Today, I'm introducing you to the guy on the floor. He was Sonny Liston.

He was 6 feet tall, with a 7-foot reach. He was the most terrifying boxer of his time, an ex-con who punched his way out. By the time he met Cassius Clay in the ring, he had a 35-1 record and two championship belts; he was the heavyweight champion of the world.
Liston had fear and power. Clay was fearless, and his speed outdid Liston's power. Liston sat down after the sixth round, and Clay received the win decision by TKO. Clay declared himself "The Greatest" and changed his name to Muhammed Ali the next week.
But the picture you see was taken at the rematch. Liston attempted to take the title back the following year. Midway through the first round, Ali threw 'The Phantom Punch': a right to Liston's head that sent him to the canvas so fast that half the crowd didn't see it. While Liston lay sprawled on the ground, Ali stood over him, taunting him and the crowd. It took about 20 seconds for Liston to get back up.
A ringside photographer captured the moment, and the photo of that moment made the cover of Sports Illustrated; decades later, it made the cover of the magazine's "Greatest Sports Photos" issue.
Liston still boxed throughout the rest of the 60's; he would end with a 50-4 record. His body was found by his wife in their Las Vegas home in January 1971; authorities estimate he had been dead for about a week.
Local police declared it a drug overdose; Liston supporters cry 'cover-up', citing his phobia of needles, among other things... A medical examiner declared his death was due to lung congestion and heart failure.

To those who remember, Liston remains a fearsome legend. Mike Tyson considers Sonny Liston a personal hero, even before his own career echoed Liston's rise and fall. In both cases, their victories made them larger than life, but their losses revealed more about them, showed us how much they were like us after all.
Here's the punk band Stiff Little Fingers, with a live performance of their song about Sonny Liston, "Walking Dynamite":

May 4

Happy Birthday to Green Day's Mike Dirnt. Born Michael Pritchard, he got known in school for playing 'air bass', muttering 'dirnt, dirnt, dirnt' whenever he strummed - hence, the nickname.
Green Day is becoming that extremely rare punk band that manages to find success decades later, at the expense of their 'punk'ness. After all, isn't punk about being marginalized(Ramones, Fugazi) and/or self-destructive(Fear, Sex Pistols)? It certainly isn't doing arena shows or musical theater...
...and yet, the toast of Broadway is American Idiot, which is energizing a otherwise moribund box office season. Rock music on Broadway isn't new - The Who's Tommy, Hedwig, Rock of Ages... But are there enough Green Day/Glee fans willing to shell out Broadway ticket prices?
Here's the video for the cast recording/band mashup of "21 Guns":

March 23

I'm writing about Kevin Paul Godfrey, a.k.a. Epic Soundtracks, the British drummer who co-founded the Swell Maps with his brother, Nikki Sudden, in the late 70's. The Swell Maps first made waves in the wake of the Punk revolution, but their reputation is built more on who came after: Wire, Sonic Youth, lo-fi... Heck, before yesterday, I would have thought "Heard About Seymour" was an Artic Monkeys cover:

The Swell Maps rocked until 1980; Epic continued recording solo and collaborative stuff until he died in his sleep in 1997. His brother (who himself passed away in 2006) maintains that Epic died from a broken heart.
He was getting props from 90's alt-rock cogniscenti when his first solo album came out (he got assists from guys from Dinosaur Jr, The Lemonheads, Sonic Youth, The Waterboys...) But I haven't found any clips of his songs online. So here's another Swell Maps track for ya:

January 31

Okay, how can I explain how important John Lydon is? He didn't invent punk music; you have to look at New York, and bands like the Ramones, the New York Dolls, Television... You can't say that he started the Sex Pistols; that was Malcolm McLaren, an aspiring Don Kirschner trying to round up his own Monkees.
No, what Johnny Rotten did was give punk its heart, its conscience. And I'm not talking about the political protesting that draws a straight line from the Clash to Live Aid to U2. Their voices owe a debt to Johnny Rotten. When punk was about to become another pose, he showed everyone what a man with a microphone can do to the world. The empowerment that his tenure in the Sex Pistols inspired reached beyond musical trends, inspiring the art and politics of an entire generation, and beyond.

He remained true to his philosophy, even as he traipsed and trampled through pop culture. Here's a track from his follow-up band, Public Image Limited:

January 25

Call me Leroyski, 'cuz I'm still rushing to find a good net connection. Meanwhile, consider the wisdom of poet John Cooper Clarke, bard of the punk movement. Here's his rant, "Chickentown":

December 25

There's something about having a Christmas birthday that doesn't feel entirely fair. Sure, everybody's celebrating and you probably get the day off of work; on the other hand, you probably get used to people ignoring your birthday a lot sooner. I mean, how do you compare with the biggest birthday celebration ever? You could be born with the cure for cancer in your hands and little wings on your feet, and you'd still be competing with the Big Guy for attention.
Well, that's what the blog is for. But I'm still in busy mode, so it's one set of candles today, and that's for Shane McGowan, formerly of the Pogues. Alive a lot longer than anybody thought he'd be, he's got a set of new teeth and a just-completed tour with his old bandmates behind him. Good year for the man.
Let's sew things together with a video clip of McGowan's most famous musical composition, a Christmas song called "Fairytale of New York":

November 29

Looks like I'm 100 posts in; not fired up enough to pursue my next lofty goal, but I'm getting the hang of this...

Here's someone I discovered today: stage darling and poetess Sarah Jones. She has the transformative powers of Jim Carrey and the quest for social resonance of Sidney Poitier. Even Meryl Streep has her back.
Here's a speech she delivered at the TED conference in early 2009:



I know, you're saying, "Yeah, but she's no Anne Deavere Smith!" Well, does Anne Deavere Smith have her own punk anthem?



Before she embraced the one-woman show format, she was a beat poet on the Nuyorican scene, even made it on Def Poetry Jam. She's the first person to sue the FCC on censorship. Kudos for that, too...

October 21

Today's featured birthday boy is Lux Interior, lead singer of the Cramps. Here's why:

1) Celebrity deaths come in threes. So, here's my third entry this week featuring a dearly departed. I promise, the rest of my entries will be folks you can call/write/say 'Happy Birthday' to, and hope for a response...

2) The Cramps was one of the bands to come out of the 70's Punk revolution; taking the Ramones sound one step further, they embraced the sounds of early rock n' roll, or rockabilly, and established the sound of psychobilly. The Cramps and the bands that followed (Southern Culture on the Skids, Horrorpops, Hank Williams III) give us vivid reminders of what made Rock n' Roll (as opposed to today's rock music) the most dangerous music of its day.

3) Lux Interior's co-conspirator, the lovely ginger guitarist Poison Ivy. They were together in the band for all 33 years of its existence, and together in matrimony for 37 years.

So, in lieu of sending him a birthday shout-out, I guess today's a day to let out your inner freak, in honor of the Creature From the Black Leather Lagoon:

September 18

Pardon the cartoony mood today; it'll make sense in a moment or two...

Lance Armstrong is celebrating another birthday today, which apparently doesn’t surprise anybody. If I was talking about any other cancer survivor, I’d be impressed. What impresses me is that he got third place in the Tour de France this year, and he still plans on competing in 2010. His naturally conceived son was born this year, too, which impresses me even more. Is there anything he can’t do?

Apparently, there is…

Ami Onuki is the pink-haired half of Puffy Amiyumi, a Japanese pop-rock duo that crossed over to the US via cartoons.

In Japan, they’re known simply as “Puffy;” they added the “Amiyumi” for international audiences, to avoid legal trouble with P-Diddy. The rest of the world knows them for singing the “Teen Titans” theme, and their own 2004 cartoon.
This summer, they released their latest album in Japan, along with a song for the new Naruto movie.

June Foray has been voicing cartoon characters since World War II. She worked in radio, then children’s records. In the 40’s, she voiced Lucifer the Cat for Cinderella – and modeled as a mermaid for Peter Pan. But she became the go-to female voice in the cartoon world for decades. She even does voice-over work for the occasional live-action feature (you can hear her in Pirates of the Carribean.)
But here’s a collection of Foray performances you may have seen, and you’ve probably heard:



Dee Dee Ramone (born Douglas Colvin) was a bass player and songwriter for the Ramones. He’s the one who read that Paul McCartney would sign into hotels as “Phil Ramon”, and added the “e” to the end. He wrote most of the band’s songs, and had the most personal problems; the story goes, he traded the rights to three of his songs for bail money.


Finally, today’s column is dedicated to my daughter Sam.


Tommorow: the Rolling Stones are killed...

September 15

For today’s column, I let Milady pick out today’s spotlight (I was running late for work, and she’s been growing to enjoy the blog.) Here’s her picks:

Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein was, for many, the seminal guitarist for the Misfits, playing during the Glenn Danzig years (my Misfits) and the Michael Graves years (milady’s Misfits.) Last year, he toured his new band Gorgeous Frankenstein, an amalgam of the stage names of he and his wife, ex-WWF wrestler Gorgeous George. He’s also doing well with endorsements, hocking customized guitars, coffin-shaped amplifiers and effects pedals – even a “Made in Hell Hot Sauce.”
Today’s video features the Misfits, singing the title track from milady’s favorite album,
"American Psycho"


Next, milady has introduced us to Yuriy Norshteyn (say it Yuri Norstein, if you like,) the celebrated Russian animator. He has received awards and accolades for such stop-motion classics as “Hedgehog in the Fog” and “Tale of Tales.”
For over 25 years, he has been working on an animated version of the Nikolai Gogol story “The Overcoat.” From what I’ve read, it’s due to his exacting methods. He is the sole animator, with his wife as the art designer. He stopped for two years when the cinematographer passed away, before accepting one of his students to resume work. He is particular about the help he receives, will not use computers, and is shooting the movie on black-and-white film, which means he develops his own film stock.

Here’s a favorite of Hayao Miyazaki: 1975’s “Hedgehog in the Fog”


In January of this year, a statue of the Hedgehog from the film was erected in Ukraine, Kiev.

Finally, we’re talking about Signe Toly Anderson, the original female vocalist for Jefferson Airplane. The band was formed in 1965 by Marty Balin and Paul Kantner, who wanted to create their version of the fusions of rock and folk that were starting to develop in the country. Balin recruited Anderson, a Portland, Oregon transplant, to be a co-vocalist. She sang with the band as they graduated from the San Francisco music scene to their first album “Jefferson Airplane Takes Off,” released in September 1966.

By this time, she had married a Merry Prankster and given birth to a daughter. So, in October of 1966, the Jefferson Airplane did a run of six shows at the Fillmore Theater; the fourth was Anderson’s last. (Bootlegs of the final concert can be found on the web.) The next night, the band played with a new recruit: Grace Slick.
"Somebody To Love/White Rabbit" (Jefferson Airplane)


Hope you enjoyed today’s blog. Now, I’ve got to figure out what implied message she’s giving to me, before I start working on tommorow’s blog. See you then!