Month: March 2024

No Daytona Beach or Ft. Lauderdale wildness for me this year. (That ship has sailed!)

My ten-day Spring Break is over.  Time to get back in the classroom which is fine by me.  The best part about being off like this is I had no agenda or schedule to follow.  No ‘have to be here by this time and do this’, it was just a go with the flow deal.  Still, I did get a few things done while off and here goes the list.

**I paid for and picked up my new season swim pass from the Elmhurst Park District.  Since I spend so many days at East End Pool the price of $75 is more than worth it.  It comes out to less than a dollar a day.  Also, this year all season pass owners get 4 free passes to take guests to the pool.  This was one of the suggestions I’ve issued to the Park District the last two years and now they’re rolling with it!  The EPD has also come through with other changes I and others advocated for so it pays to make your voice be heard!  Opening day is May 25^th.

We’re less than 2 months away from the opening of another swim season at East End Pool.

**I renegotiated my Comcast cable bill and landed more channels and a 28 dollar cut in monthly fees.

**My snowblower (which I only used a couple times this winter) got its gas blown out and that beast is in dry dock until December.

**Months ago, the DMV sent me fresh new license plates and I finally switched them out with the old ones.  This took about an hour because after 13 years of being mounted on my car, the screws that held the plates in were pretty rusted and messed up. Still, mission accomplished.

**I had my PC cleaned out of junk and scored updated spyware thanks to my good friend Luis of Alchemy Tech.  Luis does all this remotely and it’s well worth the annual cost I pay to keep things running well.

**My garage needs a new side door and I met up with a local carpenter to get that plan into action.  BTW, even the simplest new door isn’t cheap.  Damn materials cost more than ever.

Al Flash finished up a new parody video to a tune I wrote for Channel 9 Morning Show weather ace Paul Konrad and it turned out well.  We’re emailing it in for Paul’s birthday this week.

The TV Watch-

**I caught plenty of men’s and women’s NCAA March Madness games plus regular baseball with games that count started.  I see the Cubs struggling to get to the play-offs and sorry but the White Sox are going to lose at least 100 games.

**The remake of “Roadhouse” starring Jake Gyllenhall stepping into the late Patrick Swayze’s iconic role should’ve been titled “Road Apple.”  C- grade at best.

**I DID enjoy the nine part “American Rust” series which starred Jeff Daniels and Maura Tierney.  It came out on Showtime 3 years earlier to dismal reviews but I liked it to a grade of a ‘B.’

Mediocre reviews of this 9 part mini-series baffled me. I found “American Rust” to be well done.

**Comedian Dave Attell’s new Netflix special “Hot Cross Buns” was another good watch.  That guy often goes rude and wrong and there’s nothing better.

**Musically, I know Beyonce’s “Carter Country” release is the big story in Nashville right now but I rolled with some jams from “Hixtape Vol. 3.”  This is a collection of hits from the late great Joe Diffie that are re-worked with Joe swapping verses with singers like Clint Black, Luke Bryan, Luke Combs, Brooks & Dunn, Tracey Lawrence, the late Toby Keith and even Post Malone. Joe D passed away from complications of COVID 4 years ago but his influence on so many singers remain.

Clint Black & Larry Fleet get to join in on vocals with the late Joe Diffie as part of this Hixtape release.

So now we wrap up eight more weeks of regular school and then four weeks of Summer School and then on to our Summer break.  Yes, I am counting the days!

NEXT BLOG- Great performances on the Howard Stern Show.

I sometimes share my love for established songs being covered by other artists.  Well done or not so well done, it’s always interesting to hear a different singer or band’s take on a song we know so well by the originator.  Here are a few more of my favorite covers.

“Driver 8” by REM and covered by Jason Isbell.  This train song is my very favorite by the quartet from Athens, Georgia.  Jason Isbell is a major REM fan and it shows in his take of this track which was originally issued on 1985’s “Fables of the Reconstruction” album.

“Drive” by REM and covered by Eddie Vedder.  While I was lukewarm to most of 1992’s “Automatic for the People” record, this haunting track is one I never get tired of hearing. Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder does a solid job interpreting this cut adding his on the verge of a breakdown tone to it that I actually like better than the way Michael Stipe sang it.

“Shine”, originally recorded by Collective Soul and covered by Dolly Parton.  “Better Now” will always be my favorite Collective Soul song but this one is well repped by Dolly from her 2001 record “Little Sparrow.”  Dolly is finely backed up by country bluegrass group Nickel Creek as they countryfy and bluegrass this cut.

“Lost Highway” originally written and recorded by Leon Payne then made popular by Hank Williams Sr. and years later covered by Tom Petty.  Outside of nursery rhymes, the first music I ever listened to was Hank Williams because that’s who my mom and dad loved and played on their stereo.  Many years later, on a whim, the late great Tom Petty laid down this track with his players and it’s excellent.  When the song ends, listen to Tom and his bandmates discuss the merits of “Lost Highway.”  ‘Just fucking great.’

“Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting” by Elton John and covered by The Who.  This was The Who’s contribution to the “Two Rooms” Elton John/Bernie Taupin tribute record from 1991.  One of the best lines Taupin ever wrote was “Get about as oiled as a diesel train” and Roger Daltrey belts it out just fine.  I also like how Pete Townsend tossed in a segment of Elton’s oldie “Take Me to the Pilot” in the midst of this cover.  Well done mates!

NEXT BLOG ON 4/1/24- How I Spent my Spring Break…

The current line-up of the Eagles comes to the United Center this week for two concerts.  I won’t be at either show but I saw them live back in 1995.  And a couple years before that I had a couple of meet-ups with Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey.  Here’s an excerpt from those encounters with Glenn which will be found in my media memoir “Raised on the Radio” whenever it comes out.

Glenn Frey came to Q-101 when in town to play in a charity golf outing and promote his “Strange Weather” album. I grew up on Eagles music and was cautiously eager to meet him. I knew of all the strife within the band before they stopped working together in 1980 and wasn’t sure how he would be with us. In the past, all members of the Eagles were very leery of, and hesitant to talk to the media. It turned out Glenn was an excellent guest with us; maybe no longer being in the band and butting heads with the Don Henley and the rest of the guys put him in a good mood.  He took calls and one listener even asked about the intestinal health struggles Frey dealt with for years with, and he openly talked about those problems. 

One thing I noticed was the cadence in which Glenn Frey spoke during his interview with Robert Murphy. He was clear and deliberate in his conversation but with an engaging style. I tend to talk in a similar manner so I identified with and liked the former Eagle from the start.

 When it came time to record a couple of promos for the Murphy show, Frey carefully looked over my typed lines in the production room. I asked if there were any problems and was told no, it was good copy.  He was just measuring everything out to make sure he gave good reads.   So yes, I’ve recorded in a studio with an Eagle.

Glenn Frey and yours truly after his visit with the Murphy in the Morning Show at Q-101. (We coordinated our blue jeans and gym shoes look)

Months after visiting us at Q-101, I saw Glenn play a concert at the Vic Theater. He did his solo hits and Eagles classics. Backstage after the show, again he was a pleasure to spend a few minutes with. I also made points with my date as he gladly took pictures and signed an autograph for her. 

The intestinal problems Glenn Frey was so open to discuss with Murphy listeners ended up being part of what ended his life in January of 2016. Those issues along with rheumatoid arthritis and pneumonia did him in at the way too young age of sixty-seven.  A number of celebrities I met over the years have since died, but Glenn’s passing was a tough one to take in. He was great with me in 1992 and I was thrilled to have seen the re-united Eagles in concert a couple years later. 

I also admired Frey’s solo music. From the Chuck Berry styled rock and roll of “Party Town” (a song that never got its proper due) to the sax and horns Memphis sound of “The One You Love” and “True Love.” The acting he did in “Wiseguy” and “Miami Vice” along with soundtrack work for those shows was good, as was his role as the tough-negotiating Arizona Cardinals general manager in “Jerry Maguire.” 

Backstage at the Vic Theater- Left to right- Record rep David Pearl, my date the lovely Joann, Glenn Frey and me with a concert t-shirt draped over my shoulder.

Over the years the Eagles have had their share of detractors; many citing Frey and Don Henley for being difficult and greedy rock stars. I choose to look past those stories and appreciate the music they brought us. Glenn’s hassles within the band be damned, he was first rate in my book and always will be. Rest in peace, Glenn Lewis Frey.

Next Blog- Some more fun cover songs.