My favorite thing:

I also enjoyed the rant about the monitor dude in Santiago, the implicit history about the lighting designers and how to EQ Iggy's voice.

"My voice is what you call 'not very loud' and thin. Iggy's voice is quite powerful and frequency-full."

His voice is full of frequencies! That explains it!

Sometimes in this ProTool era you forget about the distinct physical nature of the human voice. Ira Louvin's (of the Louvin Brothers) voice was so strong he had to stand about four feet back from the mic even while harmonizing with his brother. The opera singer Birgit Nilsson's voice was so powerful and penetrating that even just talking to you she could produce frequencies that would give you a headache. (She's the singer who shattered a window in her church when singing. She also exploded somebody's turquoise earrings during a concert.)

I liked the Bob Hope imitator clause, too.

That's a classic!

I'm working on my new Halloween mix to be put up at Buffrawk.

This is last year's mix which is still available there:

DavidS "Buffista Music III: The Search for Bach" Oct 16, 2005 3:44:40 pm PDT

Tidbit gleaned from the current issue of Mojo: Johnny Mercer (the great songwriter) had a fling with Judy Garland and fell deeply in love with her. He wrote the lyric to "That Old Black Magic" about her, and when they broke up...that's right..."One For My Baby (and One More For the Road)" is for her.

That's a cool story. Not fun for him -- but productive, no?

That's a cool story. Not fun for him -- but productive, no?

You gotta keep your songwriters broken hearted if you want anything decent out of 'em.

Yeah, Lou Reed started to suck once he was happily married.

OK, that's an exaggeration, but....

Apparently Mercer went back to the bar where he uttered the opening lines (in presumably less rhymey fashion) and apologized to the bartender, Tommy Joyce, that his name wouldn't scan in the lyric. Hence, "Set 'em up, Joe."

Yeah, Lou Reed started to suck once he was happily married.

There aren't a lot of instances of a songwriter doing great work when they were happy. Moondance. Graceland.

He wrote the lyric to "That Old Black Magic" about her, and when they broke up...that's right..."One For My Baby (and One More For the Road)" is for her.

I included both of them on a Buffistamix. Mercer was probably happier with what Sinatra did for the latter than what Spike Jones & Co. did to the former. ("Aflame with such a burning desire...OOWWWOOOO!!" I love Red Ingle!) I'll also note that Harold Arlen was the composer on both & that he wrote (with Yip Harburg) the songs for The Wizard of Oz starring whatshername.

Yeah, Lou Reed started to suck once he was happily married.

The Blue Mask sucked? Huh? And though I think the marriage was turning bad by the time of New Sensations it's a terrific album & pretty upbeat by his standards. (I love how he sounds happy when he sings "Hey, look, they're setting fire to that jeep!" in "High in the City.")