jack’s musings

The 1960s were a turbulent time in American history to say the least, but one of the many major cultural developments of the time was the emergence of the monsters of soul music that would play a huge rule in the development of popular music for years to come. The well known legends of the day included Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Eddie Floyd, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, Sam and Dave, and Ray Charles, but one name often lost in the shuffle was Mississippi’s James Carr. Carr was blessed with the same raw, emotional delivery of Otis Redding, but he was also cursed with crippling bipolar episodes which severely hampered his career. As a result, Carr only released three records, 1968’s A Man Needs a Woman, 1991’s Take Me to the Limit, and the legendary 1967 release You Got My Mind Messed Up.

Recorded in 1966 and 1967 in Memphis, TN for Goldwax Records, the album actually received only modest commercial success, but that did not change the fact that this is one of the greatest soul albums ever recorded. It possesses the same superb combination of excellent session musicians, heart clinching soul, and superb production that made Redding so legendary. In addition to all of these great components, the album features the first performance of my single favorite soul song of all time: “The Dark End of the Street”. Written by Dan Penn and Chips Morman about a love that’s so pure that it could only be forbidden, the song has become one of the most covered songs from the southern soul circuit, and because of the superb songwriting and composition, it’s largely impossible to perform a poor version. The original rendition however belongs to Carr, and his performance of the song is with a delivery that cuts to your core in a way that only a masterpiece of the Memphis soul circuit could provide. However this was by no means the only superb track on the album. Other incredible cuts include the opening “Pouring Water on a Drowning Man” and title track “You Got My Mind Messed Up”; however just about every song on the release just oozes soul and is largely considered to be a masterpiece.

This album truly possesses the fire and passion that so many soul musicians of the 1960s and 1970s tried to capture. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always felt that if someone ever listens to this album and doesn’t feel that raw soul emotion and power coursing through their very being, they might want to check to see if they even have a soul.

One of the things I really wish I had experienced in my collegiate career was the collaborative thinking power of the legions of fans behind big-time college athletic powerhouses. While we certainly had our clever signs among the student body, we never had the clever signs and slogans associated with the tens of thousands of combined non-student fan (Read: Unemployed) brain cycles. A great example is the long-standing Texas-Texas A&M rivalry. Those of us who have lived in Texas for any period of time have certainly seen this A&M jab against Texas:

Now this isn’t exactly clever, if anything it’s a rather ironic choice because I’m guessing there are quite a few A&M fans out there who raise cattle for a living. (I mean, A&M stands for Agricultural and Mechanical.) Regardless, I found Texas’ reponse to this all-too-common sticker to be quite hilarious:

For those of you not familiar with the rivalry, that would be Texas A&M’s Reveille, the official mascot of the school that has some very strange traditions associated with it. These include being the highest ranking officer over the A&M Corp of Cadets and having a weird doggy-graveyard located on the north end of Kyle Field complete with custom scoreboard so those doggie graves can see the score, but I digress. I wish we had similar fan insanity at Vanderbilt, but alas, it was not to be.

While watching this evening’s Texas A&M vs. UCLA second round game, I was reminded by UCLA’s Kevin Love of another great douche identifier, that weird, pencil thin beard getup that’s been becoming popular over the past 7, 8 years or so. (I don’t even know if it has an actual name, and frankly I don’t care.) Facial hair in general is a nebulous region in the realm of manly style. There’s a wide range of possible options, but there is no other style that’s quite as douchey as the strip o’ beard. Other notable wearers of this horrific style besides Kevin Love include Paul Teutul Jr. of American Chopper and perhaps the best example of all that is douchey, the club rat. (I know what the latter is more commonly called; I’m just not sure if it’s a racial slur or not.)

But why does said hair style turn one into a douche? Well the answer is quite simple, it all boils down to really to the common thread among all my other “Douche Identifiers”, a misguided “LOOK AT ME!!!!!” attempt. However this time it’s generally rocked by someone who can’t grow a beard (Like myself) and decides to shave his pre-pubescent scruff into a chin strap. (Not like myself) Should you be wearing one of these things and can in fact grow a beard, I apologize, you’re a complete moron as well as a douche.

OK, I’m going to accept whatever smack I deserve after Vanderbilt’s crushing loss this evening, but for now, I might as well release all the backlogged Elliott Cole Photoshop jobs I have hanging around.  So here we go…

7:20 EDT tipoff tonight.

I thought I’d seen just about lame attempt possible when it came to distracting free-throw shooters, but those crazy Duke kids found a new, horrifying one. I’m not sure if this makes me wish I had watched the UNC-Duke game or if it makes me appreciate on a whole new level that I didn’t.

[Via Digg]

Sometimes I just hate pop culture…

I’ve noticed more insane things than normal on the tubes today, so I figured I’d knock out a bunch of quick hits.

- An Australian man successfully built a robot to kill himself. WOW, I guess I’d accept this as an acceptable way to go if I had my choice.

- I hoping this is a joke, otherwise I’m terrified that this person was allowed to reproduce.

- Fred Phelps and his merry Westboro Baptist Church crew apparently made a music video. Whenever I see something crazy that phelps and his posse have created, I always think back to one of the Vanderbilt student body’s finest moments. This would be at the corner of 21st and West End by Kissam Quad, for those of you familiar with the area. Phelps was protesting on the campus earlier in the day, but was forcibly removed for trespassing and transplanted to this corner.

- I feel like insulting the current administration has almost become cliche. It seems like most people on both sides of the aisle understand that King George II has done some questionable things over the past 8 years, and we’ve all just resigned to ignore him as much as possible as he crawls to the finish line. That being said, I can’t help but give props to someone with way too much free time who used old Bush sound bites to re-create R.E.M’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It“.

It turns out the “peace sign” turned 50 today, and the aforementioned article taught me that the sign didn’t mean “peace” to begin with. It’s actually an abstract representation of the letters “N” and “D” in semaphore; characters which stand for Nuclear Disarmament. It was the symbol for the British organization Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1950s. Ouch, my heard hurts.

It all begins today…

(Note I picked the character who got off heroin.)