WILD HORSES COULDN’T DRAG ME AWAY

Good morning, InterTubes.

It’s Monday. Hope yr commute went well.



THWACK!

[Glommed from WFMU]

Chariots of fire,

This is dF

EXILE ON WALL STREET

SEGUE: Speaking of wild horses ...

ITEM: As some of you may know, the Rolling Stones will be releasing the remastered edition of Exile On Main Street this week, with a number of previously unreleased tracks from the Exile recording sessions, some with all-new vocals and lyrics.

Sir Mick Jagger talks to the BBC about the bonus tracks and the making of the album here, but I thought the bit at the end was worth highlighting.

The Beeb asked him his thoughts about downloading and its impact on the ability of artists to make money – something the Stones don’t have to worry about, of course, so they can afford to take a lackadaisical view on it. But Jagger makes an interesting point:

It is a massive change and it does alter the fact that people don't make as much money out of records.

But I have a take on that - people only made money out of records for a very, very small time. When The Rolling Stones started out, we didn't make any money out of records because record companies wouldn't pay you! They didn't pay anyone!
Then, there was a small period from 1970 to 1997, where people did get paid, and they got paid very handsomely and everyone made money. But now that period has gone.

So if you look at the history of recorded music from 1900 to now, there was a 25 year period where artists did very well, but the rest of the time they didn't.

His math is probably a little fuzzy, but you get the idea.

FULL DISCLOSURE: For the record, while plenty of people name Exile On Main Street as the greatest Stones album ever, it’s not my personal favorite. That would be this one.



Still, Exile has a lot of good stuff on it, so I’ll probably be getting the re-released version when it comes out.

Shine a light,

This is dF

HIS NAME IS DIO AND HE DANCES ON THE SAND ...

Aw man. Def Agent jasonfranks  reports that Ronnie James Dio is gone.

This was unexpected. Yes, he was 67, and yes, he was undergoing treatment for stomach cancer, but I’d heard the treatment was going well, so the news is still a bit stunning.

I’m a fan, as many of you may have already deduced from reading this blog, And like a lot of people my age, my introduction to RJD was his Black Sabbath work – specifically, Mob Rules, which I scammed from the Columbia House Record Club.

I was already familiar with Ozzy-era Sabbath at the time (albeit mainly via Paranoid), and some of my peers didn’t care for Dio as a replacement singer. I liked Ozzy too (and I was on the Crazy Train by this time as well), but I saw Dio-era Sabbath as almost a different band entirely. Ozzy prophecized doom. Dio brought it to yr front door, kicked the fucker in, then told you to run for it. NOW.

Which made an impression on my 16-year-old psyche, I can tell you. As Holy Diver would a year later.

Granted, by Dream Evil, Dio was becoming a bit of a self-parody, but years later I would revisit his stuff, pay a little more attention and see there was more to him than slaying dragons on stage than I realized at the time. I would also discover his earlier work with Rainbow (after having grown up wit Joe Lynn Turner-era Rainbow), which was when I learned Rainbow used to be a lot better before they started having hits in the US.

Anyway, Dio was a master front man with a distinctive voice that could make Christmas carols sound apocalyptic. And say what you will about his sword/sorcery fantasies – Dio always stuck to his artistic guns, never changed his style to sell more records and (as far as I know) never took himself too seriously.

Not bad for a kid from New Hampshire.

Watch on YouTube

CREDITS: Headline idea stolen from Goldfinger, who comically deployed some Dio around the 2:00 mark in their cover of Duran Duran's "Rio". 

DISCLAIMER: I'm not a big Goldfinger fan. But I appreciate a good Dio reference.

Tomorrow never comes,

This is dF

HK BY-ELECTIONS 2010: WE’LL NEVER HEAR THE END IF IT

Hong Kong had partial democracy last night with by-elections for five (5) districts. I shall now bore you with the results.

I say “bore” because there’s a lot of backstory to this election. In fact, you’d probably be better off reading the Wikipedia page on it. But let me break the basics into bullet points:

1. Hong Kong – the property of China since 1997 – does not have full one-person-one-vote democracy for all govt positions. Half the govt is elected directly, the other half by functional constituencies (i.e. business leaders), and the chief exec by an 800-person panel of businessmen and electors personally approved by Beijing.

2. HK was initially promised full democracy by 2007, but Beijing changed its mind, saying HK wasn’t “ready” (by which it meant “you can’t have it until we’re sure you’ll elect people we like”).

3. HK chief Donald Tsang is currently pushing a constitutional reform package that will see HK get slightly more democracy by adding ten new LegCo seats (only half of which citizens can vote for) and expanding the CE electoral committee from 800 people to 1200 people by 2017. Pro-democracy activists want full-on democracy by 2012, and say they won’t even consider the 2017 proposal until the govt at least drops the functional constituencies.

4. Five hardcore pro-democracy legislators resigned in January for the sole purpose of triggering yesterday’s by-election in the hopes that it would serve as a de facto referendum for universal suffrage by 2012 (the logic apparently being, “If we win our seats back, that proves the public wants what we want” – which is kind of like Orly Taitz running for Congress and claiming, “If I win, that proves everyone believes Obama is Kenyan and wants him impeached”).

5. Last night, all five legislators won their seats back – but with a voter turnout of 17%, the lowest in HK’s history and 25% lower than the last council elections two years ago.

And my first thought was, “Oh Christ, there’ll be no shutting them up now.”

( Gibbity gibbity gibbity ... )

That’s all from me. The 80s flashbacks, naughty CPR videos and Vlad Putin furry pr0n will resume shortly.

Bedtime for democracy,

This is dF