Music-Lovers!
Hear Ye! Hear Ye! I'm pleased as spiked punch to announce Battle Of The Bands has a new participant! He's an E&I (Educated & Interesting) fellow named Boromax (a.k.a. Ed) from the blog titled
[link> Trivial Music Silliness. Please be sure to welcome him, vote in his Battle, and add to your BOTB blogs a link to his blog! Thank ye.
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This is my 5th installment of Battle Of The Bands' Battle Of The Booze, an ongoing musical challenge in which winning songs will eventually meet other winning songs in the postseason Playoffs. (It's kind of like the NFL but not rigged.)
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Brief reminder: Every song I use in BOTB's BOTB must mention a type of booze and/or a brand name of booze or a cocktail made with booze.
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In Round 5 we have The Doors' 'Roadhouse Blues' against ex-Eagle Don Henley's 'Sunset Grill '.
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In my teens & early twenties I was a major Doors fan; and as a [link> League Of Soul Crusaders member, I could really wrap my mind around a "hair of the dog" line like this:
I woke up this morning and I got myself a beer. The future's uncertain and the end is always near.
(I consider that lyric important in the development of the Punk Rock timeline.)
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In 'Sunset Grill', Don Henley sings:
Maybe we'll leave come Springtime
Meanwhile, have another beer
What would we do without all these jerks anyway?
Besides, all our friends are here
.Very late one night-- er... about 3:30 or 4:00 one morning in 1985, my friend > Lin and I were driving around dark & deserted Hollywood in her Volkswagen Beetle. We had an open keg of beer in the backseat with the dispensing tube running up to the front seats. We'd just pour another beer straight from the keg whenever we felt like it. (It would have been the all-time ultimate "open container" citation ...if the cops had caught us!)
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Lin was enrolled in film school, preparing for that career as an editor. She and her team needed to produce a 20-minute movie for the final exam.
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At one point, we pulled up to the curb, parked right in front of the > Sunset Grill, and poured us a couple of beers.
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| Curb in front of the 'Sunset Grill' |
It was there, in her VW Bug parked directly in front of the Grill - while drinking beer from the backseat keg - that Lin yakked me into writing a screenplay for her film school project. It would be 'A Day In The Life Of Jim Morrison'.
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Before long, Lin had also yakked me into playing the role of Morrison. I then yakked .
That was the last bit of "acting" I ever did... in front of a camera. And it was 6 years before Val Kilmer portrayed Jim Morrison in the Oliver Stone movie.
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So, Morrison, The Doors, and the Don Henley song 'Sunset Grill' are all very much connected in a personal way for me.
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In fact, "Matt-Guy" (brother of the legendary Countess), used to insist that I looked like Jim Morrison. Mmm-maybe a li'l bit:
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| Photo by Kelly "Andy" Anderson |
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| Photo by The Countess |
OK, enough yakking! Let's get ON this thing!
In ye olde comment section, please vote for which song you liked better betwixt these two, and then please visit the other wonderful BOTBers and also drop your two cents in their comment sections.
* See the BOTBer links over there --->
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Roadhouse Blues by The Doors
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Sunset Grill by Don Henley
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~ Stephen by Stephen
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I will post the BOTB voting Results at this blog on or about March 8th.
Hey Stephen,
ReplyDeleteHow are you doing? All is going well here. You sure did favor Van Morrison - curly hair and dimpled chin. You can tell everyone, when you look at me, you see Morrison if he were still alive. Wouldn't have been really neat had you had a picture of yourself with your hair fixed liked Morrison's?
Okay, moving along to your battle. I know both of your songs by title only. I don't know why I don't remember them. Surely to goodness, I've heard them before today, right? Maybe, I need to brew another pot of coffee. There's no question, I enjoyed both tunes. Perhaps, it's the hour of the day and find "Sunset Grill" is more to my liking. Please give my vote to Don Henley!
Have a bandtastic day, my friend!
Howdy, CAThy!
DeleteI'm doin' pert-goot, pert-goot.
Still kickin'... scratchin'... clawin'... and throwin' a wicked right hook! (for an old guy).
>>... You sure did favor Van Morrison - curly hair and dimpled chin.
Well, to be completely upfront and intellectually honest about it...
I only got my chubby belly from Van-The-Man.
The dimpled chin I got from Jerry Lewis.
And the curly hair I got from a "toy poodle". (At least that's what Chief Julio said, and a peon-ic brave-- er, I mean coward like me ain't one to argue with a Chief!)
I thanks you for stopping by with two cents for the brew, my friend!
~ D-FensDogG
I'm the first here!?? Wow. I'm never the first...anyhoo, I must go with the Doors. I love the opening of this song and Morrison is great but he could sing the phone book and make it sexy sounding.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if your friend still has this video of you?
BIRGIT ~
DeleteClose! You didn't get the gold; but the silver trophy is definitely yourn!
39 years later, the film ('A Day In The Life Of Jim Morrison') is still an irksome issue with me. Long Story shortened: The film school student (whose name I forgot about 35 years ago) who "directed" the short film (because his family had money and he primarily financed the filming), left the L.A. area for the Lake Tahoe area *immediately* after graduating from the film school... and the entitled boy took the film with him!
Believe it or not - even though I WROTE the screenplay and played the PRIMARY CHARACTER in the film - I never got to see the finished product. I remember being with Lin at her house while she was editing *some* of the raw footage, but that's all I ever saw of the shi-- stuffs!
The *only* reason it still bugs me is because there was one - and ONLY ONE - scene I wanted to see in its completed form! In my screenplay, I wrote a scene in which Jim Morrison left the "Hollywood" sign area and was driven back down into Hollywood. The way I wrote it, and the way we filmed it, showed the skinny, winding, tightly-curving roads of the Hollywood Hills at high-speed while the song 'Peace Frog' played. ('Peace Frog' has always been my favorite Doors song and it is absolutely awesome, E-Ticket driving music! Probably the best ever... after Steppenwolf's 'Born To Be Wild'.)
We mounted a camera on the hood of a car and drove all over the Hollywood Hills roads to get that effect! I'm sure it looked as fantastic on film as it looked in my mind when I conceived the idea at my typewriter. (Yes, typewriter. None of us had PCs back then.)
To quote Ike Clanton from the movie 'Tombstone':
"I'm the one got cheated!"
~ D-FensDogG
I too was a big Doors fan so this is a song that I listened to often. But over the years my tastes changed and Don Henley's song better exemplifies the direction my musical tastes have gone.
ReplyDeleteGive my vote to "Sunset Grill".
Lee
BOIDMAN ~
DeleteYour "bote" has been given to 'Sunset Grill'.
But, just so ya know, The Doors STILL love you! (The Beach Boys do, too.)
~ D-FensDogG
You definitely looked like Morrison in that first photo and Amy was very pretty. What, no video? ☺ Getting back to the songs, I like both, but am always drawn more to blues, plus I love Jim Morrison's baritone! Jeff Healey did an excellent cover too, featured in the movie "Roadhouse" (a personal fave). Gotta go with The Doors on this one.
ReplyDeleteDEBBIE D'DOGLADY ~
Delete>>... "What, no video?"
Well, actually, it weren't video. It were real, authentic, genuine film. And... no. (Please see my response to Birgit above.)
>>... "Jeff Healey did an excellent cover too, featured in the movie "Roadhouse" (a personal fave)."
Hmmm.... I don't think I ever saw the movie 'Roadhouse'. Was that the movie starring... what's-his-name? The dancer boy? (OK... OK... I'll "giggle" it and find out. I'll also check out Jeffy's version... Jeff Healey... Hmmm... the name sounds very vaguely familiar. But anyone who became a star after 1985, I protly don't know hardly at all. 1985 was my final year and I dropped out after that.)
~ "Stephen"
Too bad you never got to see the completed film. I love Roadhouse! It' s a cult classic. ☺Yes, it starred Patrick Swayze, but also Sam Elliott. And Jeff Healey was a talented jazz and blues musician from Toronto who was blind (cancer). He died tragically young. Here's the video for you: Link
DeleteI agree with Lee. I'm for the longing- for- old- times sound of Sunset Grill. You do favor Morrison a bit. Wish I'd seen Kilmer's depiction in the movie.
ReplyDeleteWhat a terrific matchup!
Thanks, dIEDRE!
DeleteGlad you dug the match-up. I figured it would be a pert-goot juan... even though Judge Al predicted a blowout in favor of The Doors. (What does a judge know, anyhows?)
This may seem surprising, but I don't really recommend the movie 'The Doors'. It seemed pointless and actually bored me. I saw it once and I was done. (Val Kilmer is better in 'Tombstone'. Now *THAT* movie I do recommend. Even though I am 423.83% sure that you have already seen 'Tombstone', the movie... and the town.)
~ D-FensDogG
Ha! You got that right, I OWN it - the movie, not the town ;-)
DeleteCowgirl dIEDRE ~
DeleteI own 'Tombstone' too. I would rate it as one of the most quotable movies ever made. (Up there with the likes of 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest', 'American Graffiti' and 'It's A Wonderful Life').
I've been to Tombstone 3 or 4 times, and I'm really glad I got to see it *before* the movie 'Tombstone' was released and became so popular. It was all grungy before, and looked like a real Western town. Then Val Kilmer and the Earp Brothers got everybody going there and it really turned into a touristy looking place like 'Frontierland' in Disneyland!
The last time I was in Tombstone, it was on a road trip with General Poohregard and my Brother. Below is a photo Pooh took of Judge Al Bondigas in one of the Tombstone gift shops. It's one of my all-time favorite pictures of the Judge:
[Link> Kid Knucklehead
~ D-FensDogG
Great picture! I can almost smell the dust and new leather.
DeleteYou are so right about the town upgrades.
Quotable movie, indeed! One of my favorites is emblazoned on a couple of my Tees and gets a few comments ;-)
"I'm your Huckleberry,"
My 'Goldenshadowland' playlist at YT includes an 11-minute video of Tombstone that a guy filmed in October of 1992, which was only 5 months after I visited the town for the first time. That video really captures what Tombstone looked like before the movie turned it into a real tourist destination.
DeleteTwo lines that my Brother and I often use from the movie are:
"No. He ain't bluffin'."
and
"I'm the one got cheated!"
~ D-FensDogG
Hi-Ho, Steverino!
ReplyDelete"Roadhouse Blues" really got me rocking, and "Sunset Grill" didn't. The Doors it is!
DR. JOHN ~
DeleteIf a person wants to seriously rock-out, the first thing they must do is... walk through The Doors! (Outside of The Doors, there's nut'n but snowy streets and over-priced valet parking.)
~ D-FensDogG
I think the cowboy hat and trimmed beard suits you more than the curly mop, but I also can't grow the beard or rock the cowboy hat, so maybe that's just envy speaking.
ReplyDeleteI like both of these songs, but I like The Doors more overall. Give my bote to Roadhouse Blues... and give that hair back to the toy poodles, where's they belong.
~Chief Julio
Dear [Link> CHIEF BOX TOP ROBBER
Delete(#1 Of 12) ~
In the first photo (1977), I hadn't fully found my "voice" yet. I was a mere outsider at that point in my life. Later, I fully found the *real* me and that's when I became an outsider's outsider (a.k.a. a maverick's maverick).
>>... "and give that hair back to the toy poodles"
I got news fer ya: I TOOK that hair off'n a Tyrannosaurus Poodle while it was awake and very hungry! I told that T-Poodle (to paraphrase Jim Morrison here) I want that hair and I want it now. NOW!
I thanks ya for dropping your two ounces of whiskey into the kitty punch bowl.
~ D-FensDogG
I'm sure you had this vote counted before you even thought up the battle. I am not a fan of The Doors. When I saw them in real time on TV at an age old enough to judge, I thought "nope." Morrison always seemed so pretentious to me. His cool shtick was not believable and I was puzzled that girls would fawn over him. Of course at that time I had no idea about HIS LOOKS, which had much to do with their interest. I'd watched the film of girls going after John, Paul, George, and sometimes Ringo, but with them I thought "well, sure! They have talent." Morrison? meh.
ReplyDeleteHowsumever, in the LOOKS dept., you do indeed look a lot like him. But you never used your superpower! Instead, you decided to be shy! A certain Jean G. could have been flagged down... maybe just have adopted some of Jim's hip movements also and you'd have been In Like Flint.
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=CokN5HgyfD8
UHP! You're an idiot!
I liked the Eagles and I liked Henley when he did solo work. He gets the vote.
Sixgun McItchyfinger
SIR SIXALOT ~
Delete>>... "I'm sure you had this vote counted before you even thought up the battle. I am not a fan of The Doors."
[Link> I am shocked - SHOCKED! - to find that you don't like The Doors!
Well, I'll tell you what I'm going to do for you. I am going to hire [Link> DR. MUSIC to analyze your psyche. He will find out what is wrong with you... "or I'll know the reason why!"
Yeah, Jim Morrison definitely had a pretentious side to him. Unlike Sting, and Rush, and The Beatles, and U2, and... well... "perhaps I've said too much" ;-)
>>... "Instead, you decided to be shy!"
Well, when you're right, you're right. And I've often regretted that decision I made. You s'pose God might give me a do-over? (Actually, at this point, maybe a comb-over would be more like it.)
>>... "A certain Jean G. could have been flagged down..."
Guffaw-Out-Loud! Yes, I saw zactly what you did there. A great many D-FensDogG kudos to you, you smart-minded smart-a.!
Incidentally (and, by the way) I found 'In Like Flint' and I am going to re-watch it felly soon-uh. I saw it once before - like, maybe circa 1970 - when I was too young to know anything 'bout nut'n. (I hope the movie includes a Cone Of Silence device.)
>>... "UHP! You're an idiot!"
But no, but no, but no!!! (To steal a famous line from Pooh Lynth.)
Thanks for bringing a shot of punch to the whiskey bowl, McBrother!
~ DR. MUSIC
OK, wiseguy! Intense wiseguy, that is.
DeleteMe not liking a goofball like Jim Morrison does NOT equate to shutting down Rick's Cafe! Unless The Doors were performing at Rick's Cafe, then by all means SHUT IT DOWN!
And Morrison was MUCH more pretentious than Sting, Rush, or the Beatles... but possessed only a tiny fraction of the pretense of "Bono" and "The Edge." What douchebags... er, maroons.
https://yewtu.be/watch?v=UJXqnYCWW7Y
I liked Blue Oyster Cult!
I am a big fan of those silly Our Man Flint movies. I think I liked the first one a bit better, but both were a hoot. I loved the music and the characters the writers created.
Finally: listen to "New York, New York" and see if that is your earworm. If it is, great! If not: listen to it over and over until it IS!
Six
Three - Four - Five - SIX! ~
DeleteI am going to watch 'In Like Flint' tonight ("tonight" starts in about 7 minutes).
Thanks for the shot at it but, no (thankfully), it's *not* 'New York, New York'. I can hear what you were hearing in the rhythm, but it's not quite right and the tempo is considerably too slow.
In my opinion, the following probably wins the 'Oscar' in the Pretentiousness department. It also wins the Gold medal for 'Worst Dylan Lyric Imitation' :
Here come old flat-top, he come groovin' up slowly
He got ju-ju eyeball, he one holy roller
He got hair down to his knee
Got to be a joker, he just do what he please
He wear no shoeshine, he got toe-jam football
He got monkey finger, he shoot Coca-Cola
He say, "I know you, you know me"
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free
Come together, right now
Over me
He bag production, he got walrus gumboot
He got ono sideboard, he one spinal cracker
He got feet down below his knee
Hold you in his armchair, you can feel his disease
Come together, right now
Over me
Right!
He roller-coaster, he got early warnin'
He got muddy water, he one mojo filter
He say, "One and one and one is three"
Got to be good-lookin', 'cause he's so hard to see
Come together, right now
Over me
~ D-FensDogG
VOTE = The Doors
ReplyDeleteI like both of these tracks a lot. They have both been featured on various mixtapes and playlists of mine more than once. The Doors' Roadhouse Blues strikes more of a chord for me - an echo of my rebellious misbegotten youth; clearcut rock-n-roll. Save Our City! Let It Roll!
I have always liked Don Henley - his solo work as well as his Shiloh and Eagles heritage. Sunset Grill is among my favorites of his tracks.
I dunno - it may actually boil down to a difference between '60s and '80s for me?
Great matchup!
Howdy, ED! ~
DeleteI'm pleased as spiked punch that you appreciated this match-up! I liked how it contained three common themes: The L.A. setting; 3 references to beer; and my own personal connection between Jimbo and the Sunset Grill.
As of your two cents in the BOTB kitty, the scoreboard is showing a 5-4 game in progress, and I loves to see a tight race like this one! This is the sort of thing that puts the word "battle" in Battle Of The Bands!
Very glad to have you playing along with us BOTBers now!
~ D-FensDogG
And Stephen,
ReplyDeleteI think you know where this is goin....Can't you just see us peeling out of Bay Street listening to Road House Blues in the Chop-Top Caddy and when we arrived at the Sunset Grill we'd get out and let who ever was in the trunk out and get on with the magic of the night.
And, while there were many meanwhiles where I had another beer, there were many a mornin' where we did just that: woke up in this mornin and got our selves a beer. Heck! I even had one in the shower now and then or polished one off on the way to Bay Street from the house on Pooh Corner. My vote goes with da Doors not to be confused with da Bears!
JW,
Poooooooooooooooooh!
...AND, POOH, THAT'S NOT ALL!...
Delete>>... "I woke up this morning and I got myself a beer."
Yip! I think one could go so far as to say that, to The League members, beer was a coffee substitute. And Lucky Liquor was almost a McDonald's.
>>... "or polished one off on the way to Bay Street from the house on Pooh Corner."
Ha! I think my favorite was when you got off work and had to play catch-up, so you'd come rollin' in with a bottle of 'Catch-Up 151' in your paw! :-D (I never understood why it was called "Bacardi".)
Thank you, Pooh, for coming by here in your Popcorn Machine and dropping two pints of Lighter Fluid into the punch bowl! BOTB just ain't the same without you. And that would be doubly true when the songs are helL.A.-centric, include beer, and contain such fuzzy, foggy near-blackout memories of days long past.
~ D-FensDogG
I like both artists. My vote is for The Doors on this one. Blues Rock still moves me.
ReplyDeleteThanks, MIKE! Glad to see you here again, Brother!
Delete~ D-FensDogG
Hey there!
ReplyDeleteGuess who finally showed up to play? I got hit with a blizzard over the weekend. Prolly nuthin like what year getting, but between my place and the casino (the next town over on the Rez) we had 27 power poles down. Ironically, I only lost power for less than a minute, but managed to lose my Internet. I was hoping it would be back by today so I could make my rounds, but according to their customer service, I'm the only one having issues. They need to send out a tech, but because of the weather, all techs are grounded - meaning they can't go anywhere.
So here I is doing everything from my phone.
I have really enjoyed both the Doors and the Eagles, but the Doors speak to my soul so much more these days.
Please give my middle finger to Don Henley and my vote to Mr Morrison.
Staying safe and warm...
-MMQE
MMQE ~
DeleteYeah, we had a nasty bit of weather recently. Snow and lots of wind. (I looked out my window at one point and saw Dorothy and her "little dog, too" go flying by in the air.)
But!... we didn't lose any power poles. So it looks like you got hit worse than we did.
Even so... shi-- er... stuffs like this makes me rethink my move to "Willoughberry". Sometimes I just want to go back to Lifeguard Station #26 in Dogtown, circa 1974. Surfing all day, lying in the sun, checking out the local scenery; walking up to the Hot-Dog-On-A-Stick stand for lemonade when the waves get to big. All that stuffs I took too much for granted back in "the day".
I don't know why you wanted me to give Don the middle finger for you (he speaks very highly about you!) but I followed your instructions. He just shrugged, pouted, and then crawled off into a Tequila Sunrise.
~ STMcME
Al Bondigas here. Well, I'm late to the dance as usual, but, at least I'm making it under the wire. Actually I'm just stalling, looking for a way out of leg day at the gym. Remember, if you're not cheating, you're not trying hard enough. Ok, I'm going to surprise you here. I agree with Sixgun that Jim Morrison was extremely pretentious. I've always had a strong dislike for people I thought were phony, and John Lennon and Jim Morrison were very high on that list. That being said, I'm makin' a rulin' fer "Roadhouse Blues". I'm not a Doors fan and I'm not a blues fan, but, I really dig this song and it sends me way back to a better time and place where I didn't have a leg day in the gym. Rulin' fer the Doors!! That's it, that's muh rulin!!
ReplyDeleteJUDGE AL ~
DeleteNot working on your lekkers is what slows ya down on the Ping-Pong table. And if you wanna compete with me on that table, yer dern-bethcha better be workin' on them lekkers!
I can't hardly believe you're voting for Jimbo and his swingin' saloon Doors here. Methinx the devil made ya do it!
And by the way, Don Henley said to me, "Please give my middle finger to your brother." (I believe there's a term for that... What is it? What is it?... Oh, *yeah*, I got it now: CONTEMPT OF COURT.)
Thanks for bringing some Evidence for the punch bowl!
~ D-FensDogG