The Lint Screen

Author: PD Scullin

  • The Fifth Pick In The Great Album Game

    The Fifth Pick In The Great Album Game

    It’s a gun in his pocket and he’s happy to see you.

    I know it’s only rock and roll but… had to happen, the Stones on my list.

    For me, the band was at its best in the Mick Taylor years. While Keith Richards is undeniably great, and Charlie and Bill laid down a foundation upon which rock cathedrals were built, it was Taylor who took the band to new heights with his playing. This album is a classic example.

    The cover concept was created by Andy Warhol. On the original release, the zipper worked and the belt buckle had perforations. No, the model did not go commando. He was a tighty whitey dude.

    Remember the days when album covers were special? When you not only received the album, you also got cool gimmicks like The Beatles Sgt. Peppers insert card containing a genuine Pepper mustache, sergeant stripes, badges, and the Sgt. Pepper band stand-up (with perforation for easy assembly!), Beatle pics suitable for framing in The White Album, and the trippy lenticular cover of Their Satanic Majesties Request from the Rolling Stones? Those were glory days (what were your favorite album gimmes?)

    With Sticky Fingers, you got an operational zipper, and the classic songs Brown Sugar, Wild Horses, Can’t You Hear Me Knocking, Bitch, Sister Morphine, Dead Flowers, Moonlight Mile–– you get the drift. Great cheese, and lots of it.

    Much of the album was recorded at the famous Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabammy. The backstory of Moonlight Mile is that Keith had created a guitar riff on tape (he called it Japanese Thing). Mick Taylor worked with Jagger (playing acoustic guitar) on developing that riff into the song heard on the album. Taylor had the idea for strings. After all that creating, Taylor received no songwriting credit. It was another Jagger/Richards song in the publishing world.

    The Glimmer Twins are notorious for being stingy with sharing credits. They even took credit for Robert Johnson’s Love In Vain Blues, which Mick and Keith claimed as their own when they recorded it as Love in Vain on Let It Bleed. The Johnson estate sued and won. The blues legend got his credit. Oh, those boys–– bad, bad, bad!

  • The Fourth Pick In The Great Album Game

    The Fourth Pick In The Great Album Game

    Carnival barker, huckster, hip philosopher–– pull up a bar stool and let’s go!

    I didn’t discover the wonders of Tom Waits until the mid-’80s, but once I got my head out of my ass, I dove deep into his catalog.

    Discovering an artist late is good because you can sample his wares and gorge on the buffet he’s produced. This baby is his second album, the title track a tribute to Jack Kerouac.

    When you drop a diamond on this disc, it’s clear Waits is one way gone daddy–– balling the jack on his piano pedals and taking listeners on a journey through sweaty smoke-filled bars stinking of cheap booze and desperation. He understands lonely crushed souls nursing tender heartaches, and he does it with sweet beat poetry and woozy jazz sensibilities.

    Waits is a fine aged whiskey to savor. He’s an incredible songwriter, profound poet, charismatic performer, sideshow barker, and emotional huckster.

    Pour me another, buddy–– it’s going to be a long night, and I’m loving every moment.

    Should you ever have the chance to catch Waits live, which is about as rare as a dodo bird riding a unicorn, grab a ticket fast. The guy is a masterful performer.

  • The Third Pick In The Great Album Game

    The Third Pick In The Great Album Game

    The mutant clone of Buddy Holly, a force to be reckoned with.

    His birth name is Declan Patrick MacManus, but that moniker doesn’t have the rock buzz of Elvis Costello. His debut album in 1977 solidified this mutant clone of Buddy Holly as a songwriting force to be reckoned with. The band backing him on this disc is Clover, an American west coast band. Costello would soon form The Attractions and later The Imposters to back him.

    When the Sex Pistols bagged on playing “Saturday Night Live”, Elvis and The Attractions got the nod. Lorne Michaels forbid the band to play “Radio Radio” because NBC corporate owned a shit ton of radio stations and the song was critical of commercial airwaves. Costello agreed not to play the song. When the show was live, the band started playing “Less Than Zero”–– Elvis yelled “Stop, stop!” and kicked them into “Radio Radio”. Michaels was royally pissed and put the hairy eyeball ban on the band for the next 12 years.

    Over his prolific career, Elvis has collaborated with Nick Lowe, Paul McCartney, Burt Bacharach, T Bone Burnett, The Brodsky Quartet, and others. And if you’ve never seen his show “Spectacle” you’ve missed Elvis interviewing songwriting legends about their craft.

    This is an important and essential album of the punk/new wave movement and it still sounds fresh.

    And “Allison”… well, it’s as good as a song gets. His aim was true.

  • The Second Pick In The Great Album Game

    The Second Pick In The Great Album Game

    darknessontheedgeoftown_albHe lost his money and he lost his wife, those things don’t seem to matter much to him now.

    While “Born To Run” was the album that made Springsteen a sensation (he was on the covers of TIME and NEWSWEEK, not too shabby), this one is my favorite one.

    It’s dark, bleak, brooding, introspective–– with glimmers of hope, optimism, and determination to carry on. It’s a young man struggling to find his way (don’t we all?).

    When he toured for this album, I somehow wrangled my way into working security for the show at The Richfield Coliseum in Cleveland. I then talked my way away from the duty of inspecting women purses to being a security guard guarding the seats behind the stage and making sure no one sat in them.

    I did my bouncer duty before the show, then plopped my ass in a seat to the side of the stage. I then enjoyed an incredible four-hour show.

    The songs on this album are all emotional lightning rods. They strike to the dark places within, the yearning that’s hungry to be satisfied.

    Years later, Bruce would confess he deals with depression issues. He does so through his music. This album is a prime example. It’s therapeutic, cathartic. As The Boss bleeds, strap into your car and enjoy this emotional roller coaster ride (please keep your arms inside the car for safety’s sake).

    Here he is performing the title track at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

    Enjoy.

  • Forget Politics–– Let’s Discuss Music, Shall We?

    Forget Politics–– Let’s Discuss Music, Shall We?

    I think this band will be pretty big if only they would get haircuts.

    I was recently invited on a social media platform called “Facebook” (why not just call it “Cover”–– that’s what the face of a book is!) to participate in a game of selecting ten albums that are important to you.

    This seemed an innocuous enough task, and I suppose it is if you just make your ten picks, sit down and shut up.

    I didn’t. I obsessed and went down rabbit holes of research and traveled down memory lanes I hadn’t visited in ages. It starts innocently enough, but then–– you’ll see.

    It ended up being a time-consuming but enrichening process. They will be shared in ten separate posts.

    They are not in an order of preference, that would be silly and way too difficult. Enjoy and feel free to give your two cents.

    Here’s day one. Beatlemania was in full swing, the boys rocked Ed Sullivan and owned the airwaves. Then, in 1964, they made a movie about living in the madness of pop stardom. In a beautiful black and white film, we followed the lads as they smoked cigarettes, were chased by mobs of girls, and played rock songs with more hooks than a Bass Pro Shop to adoring fans. What boy didn’t want to be a Beatle? I was all in on the devil’s music. Where are the old man’s smokes?

  • BFFs Starting Their Own Journalism Club

    A couple of kooky kids are making big plans!

    Saudi Arabia Prince Mohammed bin Salman and First Son-In-Law Jared Kushner are known to be best friends.

    “Jared calls MBS a couple times a day,” an anonymous White House insider told The Lint Screen. “They even talk at bedtime. I think it drives Ivanka nuts. Sometimes, I’ll be down the hall from their bedroom and hear Jared on the phone saying, ‘No, MBS, my broski bro, you hang up first! I’m not hanging up first — you do it!’ It’s kind of cute, really.”

    The source disclosed the two devil-may-care pals are forming their very own journalism club called THE HONEST TRUTH TELLERS!

    “Both men have a great respect for the freedom of the press,” the secretive blowhard bleated. “They think the president and the Saudi government have not been given a fair shake by the liberal mainstream media so they want to join the journalism conversation and set the record straight.”

    The media brouhaha concerns the bad press MBS and the Trump administration have received since the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who ended up on the business end of a bone saw.

    “The bestie boys, MBS and JK, think the whole Khashoggi thing was just a big misunderstanding. They think it’s time we all moved on since the past is the past and there’s nothing to be done. They’ll soon be publishing their report telling the world there’s nothing to see here so let’s move on. Also, no collusion, end the witch hunt!“

    The deep throat said THE HONEST TRUTH TELLERS are building their very own clubhouse, a $48 million treehouse.

    “It should be pretty luxurious. Jared says the treehouse will be a branch office of Mar-a-Lago, get it — branch office treehouse! Then Jared giggles uncontrollably and MBS chortles like a mule coughing up a Smith Brothers Cough Drop. These guys are real zany madcaps, I tells ya!”