dimland radio 1-21-17 show notes

Who Named Led Zeppelin?

It is difficult to say. There are a few differing versions of the story. I went over the version I was familiar with and the variations of it. It seems clear that this history is difficult to know for certain and that, as far as naming the band, Keith Moon and John Entwistle of The Who were at least involved. 

Behind The Name has this version. And starting at the 15 minute mark of a Led Zeppelin documentary we get another version. I also mentioned Beck's Bolero with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page, featuring Keith Moon on drums. Moon blasts and screams his way on at about 1:38. I believe I said John Entwistle also plays on this song. He does not. John Paul Jones is on bass.

Planetary Retrograde Just Looks That Way From Earth

Astrology is still popular. Hard to believe, but it is. And I have friends who still buy into that silliness. In the early days of my hanging out in the Z Talk chat room, I kept hearing show hosts and guests attributing various odd occurrences to some planet in our solar system being in retrograde. I didn't quite understood what they were talking about, but I have since learned that a planet in retrograde means that its orbit appears to have gone weird.

Before smart people of the past figured out (and accepted the fact) that the earth isn't the center of the universe, and that our sun is the center of the system of planets and other bodies, including earth; people believed the planets changed direction in their orbits around our planet. In reality, all those bodies, including earth, orbit the sun. When that was figured out the apparent retrograde movement of the planets made sense. 

Retrograde is just the way the planets appear to move when viewed from earth. Besides, the planets have no effect on us anyway. Astrology is just silly.

A Complaint About The Inauguration

Being a staunch supporter of science and scientific skepticism, I was not a supporter of Donald Trump. I was not happy when he was elected. Still, because it is a moment in history and I support the American tradition of the (mostly) peaceful transfer of power, I watched the Inauguration Day coverage.

I didn't complain about the coverage. I didn't complain about our new President's speech. Nope. I complained about the fact that Pres. Trump doesn't button his suit coat when standing.

Last winter, I became a suit owner for the first time in my life. In preparation, I studied suit etiquette or whatever you call it. I learned that when standing while wearing a suit, it is to be buttoned. Below are the rules of how men are to button their suits.

Now, I don't know who makes the rules, but there they are. And Pres. Trump doesn't seem to be aware of the rules. Perhaps he's trying to set a new trend. To my eye, though, a suit looks better buttoned.

Now why the second or third button is even included on a two or three button suit coat is a mystery to me. According to the rules, it is to never be buttoned. I speculated as to why the button is even there.

That led me to an old rant about how men's suit have become too small. At least, the hip, young fellows are wearing them that way. I don't like the look of the coat appearing to strain at the button and I don't care for the skinny pants and low waist lines.

Go ahead, call me a curmudgeon.

A Family Of Blobsqatches At Yellowstone

Oh, yeah. A family of bigfoots. Can't get any clearly than that.

So, yet another fuzzy video of a bigfoot has surfaced. A whole family of them, in fact. One of the cameras placed in Yellowstone National Park has captured half a dozen or so dark blobs milling about in the snow. I just can't see how anyone would get excited about this one. It's pretty clear to me upon watching the video that it's just a group of people, human beings, hanging out in Yellowstone. Simple as that.

But, I do have a shame on me to point out related to this story. The preview image on Facebook included in the link to the story (see photo above) looked as though the dark blobs might be American bison. They are known to hang out in Yellowstone. I suggested just that in the comment thread. However, I made that suggestion before watching the video. The video clearly negates my bison hypothesis.

"When you hear hoofbeats, think horses not zebras." ~ Dr. Theodore Woodward

"When you see dark blobs in a video that look like people moving about, think people not bigfoots." ~ Jim 'Dr Dim' Fitzsimons  

Movie Recommendation: None

I ran out of time this week, so you are on your own.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Throw Your Arms Around Me' by Hunters & Collectors & 'Under Cover Of The Night' by The Rolling Stones

Second ad break bumpers: 'Never Follow' by Naked Raygun & 'Entre Nous' by Rush

Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

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concert memoirs pt. 38 - the who

The Who w/Counting Crows
9/24/02 Xcel Energy Center w/Amy Ticket Price: $150.00

The image for this installment isn't a ticket stub. I know I saved it, but I can't find it. What you see is the cover of the CD of the show. It's part of a two disk set, recorded live that night, that could be purchased from The Who's website. A CD set was available for each show of the tour. It's a recent option in the music industry to try to make money from music.

These days with buying songs online and with pirating songs as well, there just isn't as much money to be made on album sales. So the real money is made from the concert tour, that is if the musical act is a big enough name. Hence the astronomical ticket prices. (Did you see what we paid for one ticket?) I think it's a very cool idea to offer the show you just saw on CD, making a great keepsake.

So, that's what the image is all about.

This also is the last blog of this concert series in which I know the date of the show. I will continue the series highlighting shows that I just remember seeing, but have nothing else to show for it.

Amy and I spent $300 on a pair of tickets!! By far the most either of us had ever paid for concert tickets. It was The Who! Amy had never seen them and I wanted to see them with her, so $300 be damned! We only live once.

But, before we could even get the credit card out to go $300 in debt, we got the bad news. It was a Saturday morning when our friend, Dave (the Dave with whom I attended the previous Who concert - Target Center, 7/22/97) called to ask if we'd heard the news.

"What news?" I asked.

"John Entwistle is dead."

"What?!"

It was true. Entwistle was in Las Vegas just prior to the tour beginning. He was having a coke party with some strippers in his hotel room, when his heart gave out. I guess that's rock 'n' roll!

But, what about the tour?

Our worries of whether The Who would tour or not were short lived. Rog and Pete decided the tour would go on (goon?). A tour that included a stop in St. Paul.

Counting Crows opened. You may have heard of them. They're a future rock 'n' roll footnote that Amy and I don't particularly care for, so while they played we wandered around the Xcel concourse. Amy had never been to the Xcel Energy Center so it was as good a time as any to have a look around. It's a very nice building which is located on the spot where the St. Paul Civic Center had been. Readers of this blog series will remember that it was at the St. Paul Civic Center where I had seen The Who for the first time (10/2/82). Twenty years and I'd come full circle.

The warm up act finished their whining and wailing, so Amy and I went in to take our seats. We were looking forward to the show, but we had a minor concern. There was a group of two forty-something couples seated directly behind us. That in itself isn't a concern, but they were doing quite a lot of yakking. Loudly. One of the fellows fancied himself an expert on whatever it was they were talking about. So, he was particularly annoying. Our concern was that the group would continue yakking through the show.

"They had better shut up for the show or you'll have to beat them up, Honey Bunny!" my sweet, loving wife said to me.

We needed have worried though. When The Who came out to perform, the couples turned their attention toward the stage. Phew!

The Who (or maybe they should have changed their name to The Two?) were in great form, despite the absence of John Entwistle. Pino Palladino filled his spot. Pino was good if not the same, but who could be?

Zak Starkey, Simon Townshend and John "Rabbit" Bundrick made up the remainder of the band, as they did when Dave and I saw them on the Quadrophenia tour in 1997. A great band, but not on the same level as when they were the original four. If only I could borrow Mr. Peabody's way-back machine and witness The Who at their height. I have seen John play (twice), but I never saw the mad brilliance of Keith Moon in person.

Roger's voice had become a little rougher over the years. Roger made note of his voice being especially croaky that night, because the night before they had played Chicago's House of Blues. They played in front of about 1200 people, "All smoking!" Roger declared. He promised to give us he all that he had and he kept his promise.

Pete mentioned that that night we had, along with them; rock 'n' roll, Oprah and masturbation, with a bit of political satire. He told us that he thought we were so spoiled living in the Twin Cities. An area he considered "one of the cultural capitols of the world, if not THE cultural capitol of the world." The crowd roared its approval, but I thought Pete was laying it on a bit thick. I wondered how many other cities he said that about on that tour. Just call me cynical.

They played most of their big hits. They played them with all the power and energy you would expect from a band as great as The Who. There was a review in one of the local papers the next day that rated the show very highly. The writer made a comparison of the opening act, Counting Crows, and The Who. He stated that the show demonstrated the difference between a good band (his opinion) and a legendary one.

One last thing, as the lights went up and the audience began to file out, Amy turned to me and said, "He's so sexy!"

"Who? Roger?" I asked, though I should have known better.

"No! Pete!"

Yes, he is.

concert memoirs pt. 27 - the who

The Who
7/22/97 Target Center w/Dave Ticket Price: $31.00

Dave and I were working together in those days. Slaving away at small t-shirt printing shop in Minneapolis. I was in the art department, he was a printer. We discovered we had in few things in common. One being that we were both fans of The Who. We had both seen them at least once before and we were both uncertain about seeing them again if it was going to be another greatest hits tour.

It’s true that when I had seen them at the St. Paul Civic Center (10/2/82) it was a life-changing event for me. And it’s true that it was mostly a greatest hits show. I guess I wanted to keep those memories untarnished by seeing a show of aging rock stars going through the motions (as if The Who ever did that).

Then I heard on a local adult contemporary radio station that The Who would be performing their second rock opera, Quadrophenia. Quadrophenia is the favorite album of most Who fans. There’s just something about that album that gets into every fiber of your being. It’s hard to explain.

I told Dave. Dave said, “We’re going!”

Although we opted for the cheaper seats, we were geeked about the show. Working at a t-shirt shop, we were able to make up a shirt with a 100 day (or whatever the number was, I forget) countdown to the concert. Each day one of us would put the shirt on and the other would use a marker to X out the day. What a couple of dorks.

Our seats were decent. A bit far from the stage, but we had a straight shot at viewing John, Rog, and Pete. The good drummer, but a poor fit for The Who, Kenney Jones had been replaced by Zak Starkey. Starkey, unlike his father, Ringo Starr, is a drummer. (Ok, I stole that line from some cable show.) Zak Starkey is an excellent drummer. He’s a great fit for the band.

To flesh out the Quadrophenia story they had some film clips on the big video screens and a couple of extra performers to sing a couple parts. But it was still essentially The Who. Gone were the horn section, extra backing vocalists, percussionist and guests like Phil Collins and Billy Idol. All of which were used for their Tommy tour a few years earlier. They did have Pete’s brother Simon for an extra guitarist and vocalist to take over for John whose voice had gotten too low to be used in concert. And they had “Rabbit” Bundrick on keyboards.

Roger’s voice had aged, but he could still belt out the songs. Pete and John were as good as ever. These guys weren’t just going through the motions. Although the tour may have been put on mainly to get John Entwistle out of debt, the band still had the fire, the passion for rock’n’roll.

The absolute highlight of the night was Townshend’s acoustic solo performance of the song Drowned. On the album Roger sings the lead, but as far as I can tell, when performed in concert Pete takes the lead vocal. It’s one of my favorites off that album. And when Pete performed it that night it was glorious.

He has a power to pull so much sound out of an acoustic guitar. Townshend has said that when John plays he’s like an entire orchestra. I’ve heard the same said for Keith Moon. I say that when Pete Townshend picks up his acoustic and plays as he did that night it’s mesmerizing. Drowned alone was worth the price of admission.

Realizing that I came to The Who late in their career, I was very impressed with the number of younger people at the show. Dave and I were surrounded by many Who fans who were much younger than we. I was further impressed when, during the encore, the band played an acoustic version of Won’t Get Fooled Again and the youngsters recognized the song before I did. Imagine that!

It had been nearly 15 years since I had first seen them in concert. The Who could still deliver the goods. I’m glad Dave and I had decided to go to that excellent show.