22 responses to “Mostly, though, it’s a laugh.”

1. 

   johnthebasket

   03/26/2025

   Nice photo of Les Paul and Paul McCartney, two very good guitarists. Where did you find it?

   jtb

   (Yeah, I know McCartney was a bassist with the Beatles, but he was damn handy with the six-string as well)

   Reply
   1. 

      Doug Holland

      03/26/2025

      Where did I find it? Oh, heck if I know. I swipe stuff from all over, but if I notice I’m swiping a lot of stuff from the same place, they’ll get a “tip o’ the hat’ at the bottom of the page.

      Reply
      1. 

         johnthebasket

         03/28/2025

         Oh, my, I looked again at the photo and noticed Paul is wearing braces — not the kind that button, but the Woolworths kind that clip. He started toward the bottom, but brought some customs with him. Now he’s standing next to the man who popularized the guitar in the United States wearing clip-on braces. I find him more likable in this attire.

         John

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         1. 

            Doug Holland

            03/28/2025

            Which Paul? What braces? I only know braces kids wear on their teeth, and braces the disabled wear on their legs. I don’t know from buttons and clips. I am braced for an education!

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            1. 

               johnthebasket

               03/28/2025

               Sorry. I try to write clearly. Braces are what Americans call suspenders, and Paul McCartney is British, where suspenders are generally called braces. I just thought that, since Paul would have been a multi-millionaire at the time the photo was taken, that he (or one of his assistants) would have purchased nice buttoned braces to keep his pants up, because by this time he was also keeping his pants up. As someone who has recently lost a fair amount of weight, I can tell you that that is one cheap-ass pair of suspenders Paul is wearing (while examining what I assume to be a fairly expensive guitar). Sorry for the confusion. It was unintentional.

               John

               Reply
               1. 

                  Doug Holland

                  03/29/2025

                  Well, it’s perfectly clear now!

                  I’m usually belted, but I’ve spent a few years suspended, and mine were cheap like Mr McCartney’s. Hadn’t even noticed, but I endorse even a millionaire’s cheapskatery.

                  All I know about the difference between English English and American English is what I’ve learned watching Doctor Who. Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor wore purple suspenders, but the show never mentioned it in the dialogue, so today I learned something — thanks!

                  Reply
                  1. 

                     johnthebasket

                     03/29/2025

                     By the way, here are Les Paul and Mary Ford singing and playing “How High the Moon” with what I believe are three overdubs each (thus, the camera focuses on one of the tape recorders).

                     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkGf1GHAxhE

                     jtb

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                     1. 

                        Doug Holland

                        03/29/2025

                        Rock’n’roll before it was called rock’n’roll. I think my parents had it on vinyl, but it’s terrific anyway.

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                        1. 

                           johnthebasket

                           03/31/2025

                           Mary Ford had horrible stage fright, and couldn’t go on stage or on the air without imbibing several cocktails. Besides being able to harmonize with Les Paul’s guitar and with her own voice twice, she was able to do the whole thing drunk. Les Paul wouldn’t give her a vacation or a day off, and she slipped into alcoholism and divorce. She kept drinking and died at 53 of alcohol related illnesses. That’s the short version — the long version is much sadder.

                           But for five years, Les and Mary had more #1 hits than anyone else in music. They were on top of the world.

                           John

                           Reply
                           1. 

                              Doug Holland

                              03/31/2025

                              No vacations allowed? That’s assholy. Not like they couldn’t afford some time off.

                              Everybody’s assholy. Except Fred Rogers.

                           2. 

                              johnthebasket

                              04/01/2025

                              I’m all out of replies, so I’m replying to your comment/question before you make it. Vacations wouldn’t have helped — wouldn’t have made a bit of difference. Everybody gets jumpy when they talk or perform in front of a large group of people. Stage fright describes a condition in which the patient gets ill when (in this case) performing in public). It’s true now, and it was more true then that money in the entertainment business comes mostly from doing live shows. But you can make a reasonable living by making records, especially if they sell like Paul/Ford records.

                              Pharmacology has come a ways since the early 50s, and Alprazolam might have gotten Mary on stage and off in one piece, but there wasn’t an anxiety drug available in the 50s that didn’t screw up your ability to perform while calming you down. So, as talented and brilliant as Les Paul was, he managed to make her life hell and end it early. Nobody claims that talented people have to be good people, but many of them pretend to be.

                              John

                           3. 

                              Doug Holland

                              04/02/2025

                              Oooh, this is the way to do it when the software runs out of ‘reply’ room. Thanks!

                              You said Les wouldn’t give her a vacation or a day off, which makes him sound like a prick. Stage fright is real, and a bummer for a performer who never gets over it, but I hope she was happy sometimes. The bottle is a fucking harsh master.

                              Yeah, they made great music though.

                              Tell me please that they weren’t conservatives.

                           4. 

                              johnthebasket

                              04/02/2025

                              Good luck finding this comment. I’ve read three or four books about Les & Mary, although a couple of them were technical (how they did their overdubbing). I’ve not read a single word about their politics, which probably means that they didn’t lean right or left, but I’m willing to be corrected. After Mary left, Les spent the last 30 years of his life playing with other musicians, some C&W but mostly rockers. Interestingly, rockers like Brian May who rarely hit the stage for less than six figures, would come to New York and jam with Les for free. Les, in his later years, became sort of the godfather of rock. As you can see from that small sample, he could play a little.

                              jtb

2. 

   turnip

   03/27/2025

   Elections aren’t rigged, the bad economy decided Trumps election, blame the first past the post system. We got two years of this and the world won’t end.

   Reply
   1. 

      Doug Holland

      03/27/2025

      That reminds me of my dear old uncle, who died of lung cancer that the doctor told him was just a cough. “Go home, take some Robitussin, it’ll clear up.”

      Reply
   2. 

      johnthebasket

      03/29/2025

      Bad economy? No, mostly not. Yeah, it was a difficult economy for many Americans, but a significant reason it was a difficult economy is the national income tax rate schedule. In the year I was born, the top marginal income tax rate was 84.36%. The next year, it was 91%, and the following year it was 92%. Under LBJ, it creeped down to 70%, and it has been under 40% since Reagan took office. Today, it’s 39.6%. And that’s not just for millionaires. People making several hundred thousand dollars a year are getting that Reagan “gift” marginal rate. Meanwhile, the national budget has skyrocketed, so people making a median income are paying, in taxes and fees, much more for government than they were when I was born. Orders of magnitude more. So it sure as hell feels like a “bad economy” because our tax rates favoring the wealthy have made it into one for the rest of us.

      And there are seven states where thousands (and in several cases tens of thousands) of legitimate voters had their ballots invalidated for bogus reasons. In all seven, the invalidated ballots were overwhelmingly for Democrats. Is the Trump Justice Department investigating this vote rigging? Nope. (The majority of those who appealed had their ballots restored, but not many appealed).

      John

      Reply
      1. 

         Doug Holland

         03/29/2025

         Taxes are rigged in favor of the rich. Elections are rigged in favor of the rich. Laws, Congress, access to power, freedom, and democracy are all rigged in favor of the rich. Seems to be there’s a pattern in there somewhere…

         Reply
3. 

   Anonymous

   03/27/2025

   I’m saing you’re both rightish. First past the post sucks ass, but also we’re in dark times which we really don’t know if we’re going to pull out of. Doug wins this battle of despairland.
   I’m a Yang homer since he first came on the scene and I’m with him as we need more parties. That being said, we’re fucked now and more parties now aint helping us.
   I don’t know man, at this point shit is flyng so fast, can anyone know?

   Reply
   1. 

      Anonymous

      03/27/2025

      Sigh- Tom

      Dammit

      Reply
   2. 

      Doug Holland

      03/28/2025

      Thank you Sir for adjudicating my victory!

      Yang had my interest for a while a while ago, but now he’s trying to start a centrist party. Don’t we already have a centrist party — the Dems? I’m a believer in the actual left, which hasn’t had a voice in American politics since the 1960s.

      Reply
4. 

   Tom

   03/28/2025

   Yang is centrist, but damn if it doesn’t seem liberal in this climate. He’s also a realist which I thing reasonates. I was just now watching Chuck Schumer on Colbert and he was saying that the anti-semitism is all about Oct 7th. My god that is so out of touch.
   Anti-Semitism is dog shit. Anyone who is an racist/sexist/decrimintoriry for any reason is a shit apple. THAT SAID. I can see folks being agast at the horrible acts that occured on Oct 7th and also be agast at the mass destruction of lives that we’ve seen in Gaza.
   I hate this stupid choice that “leaders” put out there.
   d
   I’m going to leave my spelling fuckups

   Reply
   1. 

      Doug Holland

      03/28/2025

      The ghost of my 7th grade English teacher haunts me, but I welcome other people’s spelling fuckups.

      Yang would be preferable to what we have, and I’d happily vote for him. I would also vote any of my flatmates, but I will never again vote for a Democrat unless that Dem is of the genuine left.

      My political concerns are almost entirely about America. The Middle East bores me, and Americans who are constantly angry about that corner of the world are wingnuts. Palestine and Israel can both get fucked, in my opinion. I am, however, opposed to genocide and war crimes. This makes me an anti-Semite, apparently.

      Reply

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