There is a massive 710-page book titled The Complete Johnny Cash: Lyrics from a Lifetime of Songwriting

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back on April 4, 2011 I blogged about Stories in words and music: country edition. Of course, I mentioned Johnny Cash (February 26, 1932 to September 12, 2003) and his songs Folsom Prison Blues, I Walk the Line, and Tennessee Flat Top Box. Songs are magical – they tell a story in a few minutes with poetic words and music.

 

At my friendly, local public library I found and am leafing through a massive 710-page book from 2025 assembled by Mark Stielper and titled The Complete Johnny Cash: Lyrics from a lifetime of songwriting.

 

Folsom Prison Blues (from 1955) appears on page 26. I Walk the Line (from 1956) appears on pages 40 and 41. Tennessee Flat-Top Box (from 1961) appears on page 120.

 

I Still Miss Someone (from 1957) with Roy Cash Jr. appears on page 52. There is a video from  1990 with Highwaymen – a duet with Willie Nelson. The lyrics lament:

 

“At my door the leaves are falling
A cold wild wind will come
Sweethearts walk by together
And I still miss someone

 

I go out on a party
And look for a little fun
But I find a darkened corner
'Cause I still miss someone

 

No, I never got over those blue eyes
I see them everywhere
I miss those arms that held me
When all the love was there

 

I wonder if she's sorry
For leaving what we'd begun
There's someone for me somewhere
And I still miss someone”

 

Elsewhere there is a curious description for a song Johnny wrote with another person. That song, Tiger Whitehead (from 1973), is listed as being with Nat Winston. An article at Bob Cox’s Yesteryear on February 24, 2014 titled Dr. Nat Winston Fondly Remembered as a Noted Psychiatrist, Musician says that:

“Martha Winston recalled that Nat often talked about the time he received a call from June Carter Cash urging him to treat her husband. Although Johnny would not agree to enter a hospital for rehabilitation, he was perfectly willing for Nat to come to his Hendersonville, Tennessee home for private therapy. Nat did this over a period of one year, visiting Johnny every day after work without accepting compensation. He did it out of friendship and love for Johnny and members of the Carter family. Also, since he was serving as Commissioner of Mental Health, he felt it would be a conflict of interest to continue to treat patients for a fee while he was serving the state.

‘Johnny Cash credited Nat,’ said Susan, ‘both in his biography and publicly on the Larry King Show for his medical treatments that restored his life and career.’

‘On one visit,’ Nat told him of James ‘Tiger’ Whitehead, a colorful Carter County mountaineer, mill operator and bear hunter (reportedly killed 99 bears during his lifetime). On another trip to Nat's cabin, he took Johnny to visit Tiger's grave on Tiger Creek Road between Hampton and Roan Mountain. Johnny was so impressed by the story that he wrote ‘The Ballad of Tiger Whitehead,' which he later recorded on an album. Nat had no idea that Johnny gave him credit as co-writer until one day when he received a royalty check. Listen to Johnny talk about Tiger Whitehead and sing the song.”

 

There also are some clearly mistaken attributions in the book. Gold All Over the Ground (from 1967) on page 192 is listed as with Brad Paisley. But Brad was born later, on October 28, 1972. Chinky Pin Hill (1970s) on page 248 is listed as with Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, and Sara Watkins. Sarah Jarosz was born on May 23, 1991. Aoife O’Donovan was born on November 18, 1982. Sara Watkins was born on June 8, 1981. Those three women formed a band, I’m With Her, in 2014.

 

There is a 2016 posthumous book by Johnny Cash titled Forever Words: The Unknown Poems. And there is a 2018 album by that same name. The thirteenth song is Chinky Pin Hill  by I’m With Her. There is a review of it at RedGuitarMusic on April 23, 2018 titled Johnny Cash – Forever Words (Album Review). The song Gold All Over the Ground by Brad Paisley is the second one on the Forever Words album.

 

And To June, This Morning on page 320 (1970) is listed as with Ruston Kelly who only was born on July 31, 1988, and Kacey Musgraves, who was born on August 21, 1988. The song is the second one on the Forever Words album. There is a video of them from April 6, 2018 titled Ruston Kelley, Kacey Musgraves – To June This Morning (Johnny Cash: Forever Words).

 

The 1977 image of Johnny Cash came from the Library of Congress.

 

 

A magazine article with 18 practical strategies for accepting and managing stage fright among musicians

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an interesting and useful article by Eva Bojner Horwitz and Paulina Valtasaari at Frontiers in Psychology on June 24, 2025 titled Acceptance and management of stage fright among musicians: a manual of practical strategies. Most of their 18 strategies also apply to speech fright (fear of public speaking). The article has a series of eighteen useful stick figures that are shown in Figure 1. And Table 1 presents themes for them describing how you should feel and act, and the result. (The seven-page .pdf file has a much clearer version of Table 1 than the text does).

 

Table 2 presents their 18 strategies grouped into five categories related to stage fright. For brevity, I have just listed each theme and how to feel. They are as follows:

 

Awareness and Attention

Conscious Awareness: Locate emotions in your body and observe thoughts.

Listen! Hear and feel the sound resonate in your body.

Feel Your Body: Scan body sensations neutrally.

Breath: Sense breathing patterns and muscle tension.

Concentration: Notice sensations and interactions with your instrument.

Focus on Your Mind: Observe thoughts and their effects on the body.

 

Stress and Relaxation

Unwind: Recognize arousal and post-stress recovery needs.

Relax: Recognize when relaxation is possible or obstructed.

Heat Control: Adapt to warmth or cols.

When Alarm Goes Off: Recognize early signs of stress.

 

Self-Reflection

Self-Reflection: Process successes and failures constructively.

Suggestion: Notice self-critical thoughts’ physical effects.

 

Visualisation and Goal Setting

Set a Goal: Balance excitement and self-efficacy.

Visualize: Imagine playing vividly, noting sensations and movements.

Inner Vision: Focus on specific parts or tasks in your body.

 

Recalling Positive Experiences

Memorize Good Memories: Relive successes and supportive interactions.

Happy and Pleased: Sense happiness in your body.

Satisfied: Identify physical sensations of satisfaction.

 

The pianist image was cropped from one at Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

More about living with a stutter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Stuttering Foundation has an article from their Summer 2016 Newsletter about Mr. John Moore titled Stuttering and Public Speaking. It says:

 

“When speaking in public, John says there are two things he does at the beginning of every presentation. ‘I tell the audience two things about myself. First is my mantra: I take my job seriously, and myself lightly.’ And second, ‘I tell the audience that I stutter, and it will happen during this speech.’ “

 

There is a 13-minute TEDxSydney video from 

singer-songwriter Megan Washington on April 2014 titled Megan Washington: Why I live in mortal dread of public speaking.

 

At 7:54 she says that:

 

“Singing for me is sweet relief. It is the only time when I feel fluent. It is the only time when what comes out of my mouth is comprehensively exactly what I intended.”  

 

John Hendrickson wrote a long article titled What Joe Biden can’t bring himself to say in the January/February 2020 issue of The Atlantic. I blogged about it on April 18, 2020 in a post titled Joe Biden has a problem – he’s a mostly recovered stutterer. Then in 2023 there was a book by John Hendrickson titled Life on Delay – Making peace with a stutter. There is a 49-minute YouTube video interview of him from the Library of Congress [National Book Festival] titled Life on Delay: Making Peace with a Stutter with John Hendrickson. Sometimes it’s painful to watch.  At ~ 7:20 he says:

 

“Because of all the gears that are constantly turning in your head as a person who stutters, all the word switching, all of it’s like you’re … I think of it as like you’re trying to get to the other part of one of those rotating logs. You’re just trying to get there, you know, to the other side. That’s what it’s like getting through sentences as a person who stutters. So, it takes a lot of energy and it takes a lot of focus and many people who stutter are constantly trying to avoid these moments of repetitions and prolongations and blocks and they’re putting in other words, things like that.”  

 

There also is an article with a 28-minute podcast of John by J. D. Gray at the ASHA Leader on January 4, 2024 titled ASHA Voices: Author John Hendrickson on Stuttering, Disclosure, and ‘Life on Delay.’ The article links to two previous podcasts about stuttering.

 

The image was adapted from this one at Openclipart.

How should we present a huge number like the two billion dollars earned by the Taylor Swift Eras tour?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an interesting article by Carmine Gallo at Inc. on December 21, 2024 titled What Taylor Swift’s staggering tour numbers teach us about presenting data. He says:

 

“As you’ve probably heard, Taylor Swift has ended her two-year Eras Tour. Swift’s camp sent the final numbers to the New York Times, and the statistics are staggering: 149 shows over 21 months in 19 countries drew 10 million fans and generated just over $2 billion in ticket sales.”

 

And he notes that when compared with the previous biggest rock tour by Coldplay ($945 million) the Eras tour was more than twice as large. The AFL-CIO has a web page about the Highest paid CEOs 2023. At number one was Jon Winkelried of TPG who made $198.7 million – roughly a tenth of what the Eras tour earned.

 

Carmine makes another comparison:

 

“Swift’s longest engagement was a Wembley Stadium, where, over eight nights, she played for 750,000 people [an average of 93,750 per night]. That’s about the number of people who live in Seattle.”  

 

There is another article by Emma Keates at AVCLUB on December 9, 2024 titled Taylor Swift ends her Eras Tour era with $2 billion in earnings with more detailed numbers – a total of 10,168,008 attendees over 149 shows. That means each seat went for an average of $204. And over the whole tour there was an average of 68,242 people at each show.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 What is in it for me? The planet has a population of about 8.2 billion people, so we each paid Taylor an average of $0.24 – not quite a quarter. But to get a ticket ($204) those other folks paid 850 times more.

 

Back on July 12, 2016 I blogged about How to make statistics understandable.

 

Images of a quarter and a stack of dollars came from Openclipart.

 

 

UPDATE December 28, 2024

 

This post was featured in the LinkedIn Public Speaking group with 14,450 members, which led to the spike in page views shown as follows. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What were the Top 25 Boise radio stations for spring 2023, based on Nielsen Audio ratings?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When driving I listen to the radio both for music and news. Which stations in Boise are popular? There is an article by Michael Deeds at the Idaho Statesman on August 2, 2023 titled Boise has two #1 radio stations, but one is on the AM dial? Really? Here are ratings. The bar chart made using Excel shown above lists the Top 25 from his article. There indeed is a tie for #1 (a 6.6 share) between the news-talk KBOI 670 AM and the country KQBL FM 101.9, who call themselves The Bull. #2 is a variety hits station (with a 5.2 share), KSRV FM 96.1 who call themselves Bob and say they play anything. #3 is a classic rock station (with a 4.4 share), KKGL FM 96.9 who call themselves The Eagle. #4 is a Christian contemporary station (with a 3.9 share), KTSY FM 89.5. For #5 there is another tie (with a 3.7 share) between the Boise State U.’s NPR news/talk station KBSX 91.5 and the hot Adult Contemporary (AC) KZMG 102.7 who call themselves My 102.7.          

 

It's not that surprising that KBOI tied for the largest share. They are a 50 kW AM station and also began simulcasting on 93.1 FM about a year and a half ago. Their powerful AM signal can be heard for ~ 100 miles during daytime. They carry ABC news, but also added the 4 to 5 AM Fox News Rundown. In comparison, KKOO AM 1260 is 8.4 kW, and KIDO AM 580 (#14) is just 5 kW. In 2018 KIDO also added FM at 107.5.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I last blogged about ratings on January 25, 2021 in a post titled What are the Top 25 radio stations people in Boise were listening to in fall 2020? The bar chart from that post is shown above. Then news-talk KBOI 670 AM was a definite first (a 7.8 share) – with country KQBL FM 101.9 second (a 6.9 share). Third was 107.9 Lite FM (a 4.9 share) – but in 2023 they fell to a 3.3 share. Fourth was KSRV FM 96.1 (a 4.7 share) – which in 2023 went up to a 5.2 share. Just behind at fifth was a tie between Boise State U.’s NPR news/talk station KBSX 91.5 (a 4.6 share) which fell to 3.7 in 2023, and KIDO AM 580 news/talk (which in 2023 fell to just a 2.5 share).   

 

One surprise is just how concentrated the ownership of those 25 stations is. Just four organizations own 20 of 25. Cumulus owns four: KBOI AM (#1), KKGL 96.9 the Eagle (#4), KIZN FM 92.3 (#9), and KQFC 97.9 Magic (#25). And Iliad Media Group owns another six: KQBL FM 101.9 (#2), KSRV FM 96.1 (#3), KZMG FM 102.7 (#7), KWYD FM 101.1 (#13), KQBL FM 99.1 I-Rock (#23), and KQBL FM 96.5 (#24). Lotus Communications owns another four: KQXR 100.3 (#8), KJOT 105.1 (#15),KTHI 107.1 (#16), and KRVB 94.9 (#20). Finally, Townsquare owns six: KXLT FM 107.9 Lite (#10), KAWO 104.3 Wow (#12), KIDO AM 580 (#14), KCIX FM 105.9 Mix (#18), KFXD FM 105.5 Power (#19), and KSAS FM 103.5 KISS (#21).

 

Share is not the same as percentage. Shares for the Top 25 only add up to a total of 73.2, rather than nearly 100.

 

Importance of a previous context for music

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few days I heard a radio ad for the 2023 Boise Fourth of July Parade. For background music they used John Philip Sousa’s 1893 stirring march, The Liberty Bell. I suspect the producer wasn’t old enough to know about a previous association for that tune. It had been used in the opening for Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the BBC sketch comedy TV series (1969 to 1974), which you can watch on YouTube here or here.

 

Five decades ago I saw an Air Force Now newsreel film using Edvard Grieg’s 1875 In the Hall of the Mountain King as background music for B-52 bombers taking off. That music was horribly inappropriate. It had previously been used in M, Fritz Lang 1931 mystery suspense thriller film. The melody was whistled by the child murderer Hans Beckert (who was played by Peter Lorre).

 

Back on April 15, 2011, I posted about Does your introductory music clash with your presentation?

 

An image of a marching band was adapted from this one at Openclipart.

 

In the public library they didn’t shelve this CD where I had expected

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ken Jenkins was Toastmaster at last Wednesday’s meeting of the Pioneer Toastmasters Club. His theme was Early Rock n Roll Music, and among other things, he played part of an Everly Brothers song. The Wikipedia article says that The Everly Brothers:

 

“were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing.”

 

A few days ago I went looking for an Everly Brothers CD under Rock at the Ada County library on Victory Road. All-Time Original Hits by The Everly Brothers was not there. As shown above, it instead was shelved earlier in the alphabet under Pop & Easy. But the Caldwell library has another CD, The Very Best of the Everly Brothers, shelved under Rock. At Ada on Victory I also found Ladies of the Canyon, the 1970 third album by Joni Mitchell, shelved under Pop & Easy. To me it obviously instead belongs under Folk.

 

How things should be classified may not be obvious. Before I go to either the Lake Hazel or Victory Road library I usually check in the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) and write down where to find a book, CD, or DVD of interest. Wikipedia defines taxonomy as:

 

“the practice and science of categorization or classification”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A book or otherr item may be classified in more than one category, as shown above. A primary one gets chosen. Public Speaking books are shelved under 808.51, while Business Presentations are under 658.45.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above, hose washers are rubber seal rings which sit in the female end fitting on a garden hose. Where would I find them shelved at a home improvement and hardware store like Lowe’s? Are they inside, in the aisle with plumbing supplies, near the other faucet washers? No,  they are outside in the Garden and Lawn department, next to the garden hoses.

 

‘America First’ is a phrase over a century old

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On July 25, 2022 Donald J. Trump made a memorial statement:

 

“….A proud Marine, Mike Long knew how to fight with great spirit for the State that he loved, championing the campaigns of so many America First Warriors, long before the term ‘America First’ was even put forward by me.”

 

But that policy phrase is way older than he is. An article by Anna Diamond at Smithsonian on October 2018 titled The original meanings of the “American Dream” and “America First” were starkly different from how we use them today traces it back to a 1915 speech by Woodrow Wilson. Also, as shown above, it was the title for a 1916 march by John Philip Sousa (which you can listen to here).

 

And an article by David Emery at Snopes on February 9, 2018 titled Was ‘America First’ a slogan of the Ku Klux Klan? found it indeed was used by them back in the 1920s. Then, in 1940 there was the isolationist America First Committee. The December 6, 1941 issue of their Bulletin included a dismissive headline stating U.S. Interests Not at Stake in Japanese ‘Crisis.’ But the next morning was the attack on Pearl Harbor.

 

I got started on this topic by seeing an article by Scott Simon at NPR on July 23, 2022 titled ‘America First,’ invoked by Trump, has a complicated history.

 

What are the Top 25 radio stations people in Boise were listening to in fall 2020?

 

There are multiple reasons why people still listen to radio. One is to hear local news and weather on the hour. Another is as a jukebox for background music (country, rock, contemporary, classical, etc.).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On January 19, 2021 there is an article by Michael Deeds at the Idaho Statesman titled Welcome to modern Boise, where an AM radio station is No. 1 in the market. As shown above in a bar chart for Fall 2020, the news-talk station KBOI 670 was number one with a 7.8 market share. Country station 101.9 The Bull (KQBL) was number two with a share of 6.9. 107.9 Lite FM was third with a share of 4.9. 96.1 Bob variety hits was fourth with a share of 4.7. Just behind it at number five, there is a tie for a 4.6 share between two other news talk stations – 580 KIDO AM and 91.5 Boise State Public Radio.  

 

In a blog post on November 30, 2020 titled Overstepping your authority I showed ratings for Spring 2020, when KBOI was number two with a share of 6.5. Another blog post on August 12, 2019 titled Which radio stations are people in Boise listening to? showed that for Spring 2019 KBOI also was number one but with a share of 5.4. In Spring 2020 The Bull was number one with a share of 8.7, and for Spring 2019 it was tied for number two with a share of 4.5.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bar charts for Spring 2020 and Fall 2019 are shown above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bar charts identify the format for each of those stations. Adding them up for Fall 2020, as shown above in yet another bar chart,  the most common specific format is news/talk (17.0), followed by adult contemporary (12.5), country (11.9), rock (11.1) hits (10.9), and contemporary hits (6.2). More broadly contemporary (we put the con in temporary) just is an overblown synonym for modern, which can cover a grand total of 22.5.  

 

There’s a song for everything in country music

As shown above, Maren Morris sings about how There’s A Song For Everything. I found that song on her second country album, Girl. But I first heard her crossed over onto Adult Contemporary Radio singing The Bones. She also belts out the lyrics on the Zedd song The Middle.

Back on April 4, 2011 I blogged about Stories in words and music: country edition. In that post I mentioned (among others) Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, and Mary Chapin Carpenter. More recently Rosanne Cash sang A Feather’s Not a Bird and Modern Blue. Rodney Crowell sang It Ain’t Over Yet and Deep in the Heart of Uncertain Texas. Mary Chapin Carpenter sang Sometimes Just the Sky and Our Man Walter Cronkite. Almost two decades ago Steve Earle sang both When I Fall and The Galway Girl.

Another recent country music voice is Kasey Musgraves, who sang Follow Your Arrow and Slow Burn.

Here in Boise there is Eilen Jewell who sang Rain Roll In and Half-Broke Horse. There also are Tylor and the Train Robbers who sang about a Storyteller and Fumblin’ for Rhymes.

Also, there are hilarious videos, like the Pistol Annies singing Got My Name Changed Back.

The Tiny Desk Concert series from National Public Radio (NPR) has excellent live performances (typically a set of three songs) from Maren Morris, Rosanne Cash, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Brandi Carlisle, John Prine, Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires, and Taylor Swift.

Which radio stations are people in Boise listening to?

On Friday, August 9, 2019 the Scene entertainment guide at the Idaho Statesman had an article by Michael Deeds titled Not again, Boise! Your favorite radio station is on AM. A bar chart with the 23 stations he listed from the Spring 2019 Nielsen Audio ratings is shown above. Michael noted that those rating shares are a logjam - no one station comes close to dominating. An AM news-talk station, KBOI 670, (50 kw) had the biggest, 5.4, share. It was followed by a three-way tie at a 4.5 share by FM stations: KSRV (variety hits, “Bob FM”), KQBL (country, “The Bull”) and KKGL (classic rock, “The Eagle”). The Facebook page for KSRV has the slogan We Play Anything – a non-format. Presumably that makes up for not having the usual nickname based on their call letters. The public radio and NPR news-talk station KBSX tied for fifth place – better than I would have expected. Another less powerful AM news-talk station, KIDO 580 (5kw) only tied for ninth place with the classical music FM station KBSU (Boise State University).

I added up the shares for the six top formats based on a word or two, and listed them in another bar chart. They were Country (12.8), Hits (12.5), Rock (12.4), News-talk (12.0), Adult contemporary (9.7), and Contemporary hits (8.0). Wikipedia has a web page on Adult Contemporary (AC) Music which says there are subtypes of hot, modern, smooth, soft, rhythmic,  and urban. The Wikipedia web page on Country Music says some subtypes are alt, bro, neotraditionalist, outlaw, and truck-driving. Mr. Deeds didn’t bother with that.

I have a dozen FM stations on car radio buttons and my iPod. They include those three AC stations. I have both AM news-talk stations on my car radio, and the FM one. But I have none of those four country stations. Also, I ignore one AC station (KXLT) between Thanksgiving and Christmas because then they only play Christmas music.  

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Remembering Fred Rogers and the Children’s Corner

Most of Monday’s Fresh Air program at National Public Radio was about how It’s a beautiful 50th birthday for ‘Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.’ That got me thinking about my joyful memories of Fred Rogers, from early childhood in Pittsburgh.

The Neighborhood actually was his third TV show. It was proceeded by Misterogers, a 15-minute program on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from 1963 to 1966. His first show was only in Pittsburgh on WQED beginning in 1954. It was called The Children’s Corner, and ran for an hour on weekdays. There is a summary for one episode. Fred produced, wrote and played the music, but the visible hostess on live TV was Josie Carey (who wrote lyrics). 

Fred also operated his puppets, who engaged in impromptu conversations with Josie when the educational films they were showing broke. For example, there is a minute of YouTube video about building a house.

Daniel Striped Tiger, King Friday XIII, Xscape the Owl, etc. all first appeared on the Children’s Corner. King Friday had a royally pompous version of Row, Row, Row Your Boat:

“Propel, propel, propel your craft

gently down liquid solution

Ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically,

Existence is but an illusion”

There was a 1954 book about the series called Our Small World. I vaguely remember that the Daniel Striped Tiger’s chapter contained several recipes, which all began something like: 

“Take four pounds of medium-grind hamburger.” 

Not much video of the show is easily accessible, but there are some audio recordings on YouTube, like from the 1958 LP Around the Children’s Corner.

A parody of what happens if you overstuff a presentation – The Saddest (Country) Song Ever

On YouTube I found a humorous video that Jason Isbell did last March for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In it Jason claimed to have written The Saddest (Country) Song Ever: a three-hour long, four-chord masterpiece which includes topics such as:

Unemployment

The Troops

Reliable Trucks Gone Done Breakin’ Down

The Devil’s Brown Liquor

The No-Good Bankerman Knocking on the Door with Papers

Ailing Family Dogs

Dying Family Dogs

Ten Thousand Dead Family Dogs

Long-Suffering Single Mother

Money Problems

Tragic Cannon Accident

A Sentient Tractor Wishes It Could Work Harder

Drunk at Custody Hearing

The Old Closed Down Skating Rink

Layoffs at the Baby Shoe Factory

A Man from the City is Mean

Oh No! Another Civil War!

Twin Brothers Have Buzzsaw Accident

Grampa Thinks His Grandson Is Hitler

A Clown Has to Retire

Toothless Dog Can’t Bite Burglar

Pregnant Lady Reads Sad Book

Honor Roll Student Experiments with Liberalism

A Father Outlives His Lawnmower

The Entire Plot of “A Farewell to Arms”

Local Magician’s Funeral

Frankenstein Attacks a Preschool

Presumably having A Farewell to Arms contributed most to the absurd length. (The 1957 movie was 152 minutes long). I suspect Jason got inspired by his cancer song Elephant.

So long Paul Revere

On Saturday Paul Revere, age 76, died of brain cancer at his home in Garden Valley, Idaho. Paul was the leader of the 1960’s rock band Paul Revere & the Raiders, who began in Caldwell as the Deadbeats. 

Today the Idaho Statesman has an article Remembering Paul Revere, Idaho’s rock revolutionary. Back when I was in high school their 23 hit records like Kicks and Good Thing were all over AM radio.

Don’t use a song that conflicts with your image

Here in Boise the early morning Kevin Miller talk show on KIDO-AM sometimes uses questionable rock music. He usually follows a series of commercials with a brief clip (bumper music) that repeats the title words from the 1982 song Up All Night by the Irish punk-rock group, The Boomtown Rats.

Kevin may think he’s describing how seriously he prepares for that show. The message I get instead is that he’s another blowhard carpetbagger who’s mocking this town as being far too quiet. That's because those lyrics also say:

“It’s an agreeable town,
it’s neat and sedate.
Why even the muggers
are off the streets by eight.”

The video with snakes also doesn’t fit his “Mr. Right” social conservative image. Did he ever listen to the whole song or watch the video? Perhaps an intern snipped out that clip for him. Last April I pointed out how Kevin has also used Prince’s Raspberry Beret for bumper music.

Popular songs with memorable, upbeat tunes, like Pumped Up Kicks and Sunny Came Home, can have very dark lyrics.

The Burmese Python image came from Wikimedia Commons.