Saturday, March 15, 2025

BATTLE OF THE BANDS: 2025, MARCH 15 (Or, THE BABYS Versus THE BABYS)


The famous Whisky-A-Go-Go on the famous Sunset Strip. Photo by Mike Dillon.
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My friend, Sheboyganboy Six ðŸ‘Œ > "Be seeing you" (a.k.a. Sixgun McItchyfinger, The Amazing Sixwell, Sir Six-A-Lot, Sir Sixy, and Six), had a birthday not so awfully long ago. I ain't sayin' what month it was, nor even what year it was. I'm jus' sayin' that it was "not so awfully long ago". 
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Sheboyganboy Six and I met online briefly before BigBitch.com (a.k.a. Amazon.scum) "cancelled" me. He, along with Arlee Bird, was one of my earliest blog readers and is probably still the most regular reader of my blogs. So, this BATTLE OF THE BANDS' Battle Of The Booze installment is being posted in his honor!
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I'm not sure that Sir Six finds it as humorous as I do but, although our genuine friendship has been ongoing for about 18 years, there isn't much that we agree on -- especially when it comes to music. We call it "The Great Musical Divide". 
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In fact, I maintain a rarely changing, very short list of things that we DO agree on. Here's the fully updated list as it appears today: 
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MUSICAL AGREEMENTS: 
1. Tom Petty 
2. Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 
3. The 'Who's Next' album.
4. Louis Prima & Keely Smith 
5. Joe Morello (best drummer ever).
6. Johnny Cash & U2 were highly overrated songwriters / singers / musicians.
7. The Dip
8. Rare Earth
9. The Babys
10. Loggins & Messina
11. 'Drinking Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee' by Jerry Lee Lewis (> is better than 'Rock This Town' by The Stray Cats).
12. Traffic 
13. Brian Auger
14. Steely Dan
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NON-MUSICAL AGREEMENTS: 
1. GOD Is!!!
2. Tiny Tim (er... 'The Tiny Tim Christmas Day Wish', that is).
3. Valerie Bertinelli was cute & hot! 
4. Jean Gonzalez was a VERY hot girl!
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If you were paying attention, 9. The Babys should have stood out for y'all. Sir 6 and I both dug & still dig The Babys. 
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Who are The Babys? A late '70s / early '80s English Rock band that had a couple big hits. Their first hit (#13 in Billboard), from their second album scored in late 1977, and was titled > 'Isn't It Time'. That song grabbed me immediately & I went out and bought both of their albums, 'The Babys' & 'Broken Heart'. 
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Other than the hook-laden songs, I think 6 digs The Babys primarily because of John Waite's vocals. I dig them primarily because of Wally Stocker's "Paul Kossoff School of stun-vibrato guitar playing" and drummer Tony Brock's "rolling thunder style & sound". In fact, Brock is one of my all-time favorite Rock music drummers! So... 6 & I disagree even when we agree. GOL! 😄
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Originally, I was planning to tell y'all 3 short stories about my strongest memories associated with The Babys. Like, Eric & I listening to > 'Dying Man' while drinking Southern Comfort & Coke in Redondo Beach. Like, my Ma & I seeing some sort of "Baby" while we were having lunch at Le Dome, where > Even A Dog Can Shake Hands. Like, Eric & I seeing The Babys live at The Whisky-A-Go-Go on the Sunset Strip on December 31, 1978; and me yelling > "READ MY STARS!" all night, while The Babys pretended not to hear me. The Bloody British! I'd like to catch 'em sometime "in the town of New Orleans!" ðŸ˜Ž 
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But I can't tell ya them 3 stories because it would take too long. So, let's get on it! Let's get ON this thing!
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Please vote for the song you like best. And then please visit all of the other BOTBers and vote in their Battles. I plan to return here on March 22nd with my own vote and the Final Tally.
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"At home on the Boulevard
Cheap whiskey and Tarot cards
Man, she's outrageous!"
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"Feels like I'm falling on a whiskey sea
Come on, baby, and rescue me"
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~ D-FensDogG 
DogGtor of Alcohology & 
King of Inebriation Nation
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Saturday, March 1, 2025

BATTLE OF THE BANDS: 2025, MARCH 1 (Or, ELTON JOHN Versus BRIAN SETZER)

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2 MAJOR ANNOUCEMENTS 
before we begin this E-Ticket Show:
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#1) Judge Al Bondigas received an Email from Elon Musk (via dogGe.gov), informing him that he is no longer employed in the Federal Court System. Therefore, henceforth (and going into the future, too), Judgey will no longer be making "rulin's" in the Battle Of The Bands contests....
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...other than mine, of course. After all, he still owes me 'cuz I did save his life once, after he chased a badminton birdie and went crashing through my bedroom window, cutting his artery and slicing himself open from the armpit straight down Lincoln Boulevard to the bend in the road near Culver City! And then he had the audacity to tell me what to do: 
"Just let me die". 
I'm sorry but NOBODY breaks my bedroom window and then tells ME what to do!! 
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Scars? Judge Al's got 'em!
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New window & new (wealthy) homeowner.
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BTW, Judge Al's life wasn't the only one I've saved. I probably also saved my own Ma's life when she panicked and likely would have drowned in a Lake Tahoe motel swimming pool. (At some point, someone should have enough respect for me to address me as "Saint Bernard"). 
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It may possibly be within 'The Realm Of Possibility' that I also saved the life of some unknown young woman at the northeast corner of Wilshire Boulevard & Gayley Avenue early one morning in early 1982.
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Northeast corner of Wilshire Blvd. & Gayley Ave.
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She had NO business... being near the scene of the crime 10 hours later! But then again, neither did I. ...Something about a massive bank window being kicked in (15 feet tall & 5 feet wide) and... somebody (i.e., the kicker, who was not me) having to retrieve the shoe that fell off his drunken foot and landed inside the bank. I dunno... I'm felly confused-uh! To me, it all seems like something from a Mr. Peabody's 'Waybac Machine' dream.
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Regardless & nevertheless, in the early morning fog, a speeding car ran a red light, and some exceedingly hungover guy -- who felt very remotely like me -- extended his right arm to prevent the lovely lady from stepping off the curb and getting hit by the speeding, red light-running asshole driver.
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That's all I can recall about the event, but if you greatly desire less info about it, you should consult your copy of 'The League Of Soul Crusaders', chapter 12 ('In Formation'), pages 80 & 81, wherein the incident is not at all mentioned.
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#2) Uhm... uh... Sorry, but I've forgotten what the second major announcement was supposed to be.
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Alright, let's get on it! 
Let's get ON this thing!!
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In my last BOTB's Battle Of The Booze [here], I featured two ballads (also Dodger Stadium, Lifeguard Station #26, as well as Disneyland and its formerly great Hotel). This time we're turning 180-degrees and listening to some high-energy Rockers! (You should must crank the volume up to eleven!) 
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In 1973, Elton John had a big hit with 'Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)', a song that I strongly feel deserves a place in the official Punk Rock timeline.
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Sometime after Brian Setzer broke up his neo-Rockabilly band the Stray Cats, he formed a new group called The Brian Setzer Orchestra. (Methinks it shoulda been called Brian Setzer & His Domesticated Dogs. But what could a poor, uncelebrated blogger like me know?)
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Anyway, Elton's hit is facing off against Setzer's remodeled Stray Cats hit 'Rock This Town'. Both songs mention booze ("belly full of beer" & "whiskey on the rocks") and both of them also mention Saturday night & fisticuffs.
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Please vote here and at the other BOTB contests. I intend to return here on March 8th with my own vote and the Final Tally.
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'SATURDAY NIGHT'S ALRIGHT (FOR FIGHTING)'
by Elton John
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'ROCK THIS TOWN' 
by The Brian Setzer Orchestra
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TTFN, 
~ Saint Bernard 

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