Road trip today, and I don’t know when I’ll be back tonight, so, I’ll post this a bit early, today:
The Music: Lighthouse: One Fine Morning, 1971
This was their fourth album, released in July of 1971. Their first three efforts for RCA, where, frankly, disappointing… particularly their first one. RCA is ability to handle rock acts at the time was to say the least limited. Then, too, was the addition of vocalist Bob McBride. McBride had a sound not unlike that of David Clayton Thomas of Blood Sweat and Tears, whose best album I also recently posted in a Ramble.
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In this case, now that they were away from RCA, the production values were actually quite good.. to the point where they actually strained the limits of the vinyl analog medium at the time. I’ll tell you point blank, that it’s a hard song to duplicate over to cassette… I HF saturation being what it is on that medium.
There were a number of different mixes of the title tune, “One Fine Morning” out there… plus two single mixes that I’m aware of, and one slightly less bright mix for CDs that were released later. After hearing the original (on the Evolution Label, pressing 3007) these others just sound, well, wrong. That 3007 version still takes my breath away, 35 years after first hearing it, for the sheer power of it.
One could hardly live in Rochester, or anywhere in upstate New York, Michigan, Ohio, or for that matter anywhere within shouting distance of Toronto, where they were from, without hearing this town. Given Canadian content laws, and the fact that the record itself was hotter than hell of the time, it was all over play lists of the big top 40’s in southern Canada such as 1050/CHUM and the Big 8, CKLW, and so on. Those two I mentioned, were both 50kw burners at the time… And were by virtue of that, play list leaders for the entire region.
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I managed to catch Lighthouse live, just after this album came out, when they played here at Rochester at an outdoor concert. in doing so, one could easily understand why they continued to be popular despite the first three albums. Their live performances were nothing short of spectacular.
This particular album, I fear, it is hard to find any more. Amazon doesn’t even have it listed , showing instead a “best of” compilation, Which, if memory serves, has the inferior mix of “One Fine Morning”
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If you like Chicago, BS&T, Gerard, T.O.P., and some of the other horn bands of the seventies, you will love this one. Trust me on this. Always assuming, of course, that you can find the bloody thing, anymore.
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* I mentioned a few days ago, that I thought Fred Thompson should run based on a number of factors, which I listed. Apparently, we can add one more factor to that list; Bob Novak is reporting that Thompson’s wife Jeri is arching him to run, as well. Talk about your political insider.
Over at TownHall, Mark Alexander says that the democrats are in fear of Mr. Thompson and so they should be.
Democrats clearly understand their Republican opponents’ limitations, which is why they are confident that one of their far-left-of-center frontrunners, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, will win the presidency in ’08.
While there are conservative candidates for the GOP nomination, any of whom could deservedly win the Republican primary, none of whom would be likely to carry a majority in the general election. This list includes some true luminaries of the conservative movement: Sen. Sam Brownback, Gov. Jim Gilmore, Gov. Mike Huckabee, Rep. Duncan Hunter, Rep. Ron Paul, Rep. Tom Tancredo, Gov. Tommy Thompson and possibly former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
However, if conservatives and the rest of the Republican electorate want to line up behind the most capable, qualified and electable candidate in the ’08 presidential race, a man who can carry the Reagan mantle and draw an enormous crossover vote (as President Reagan did in 1980 and 1984 see 1984 election map), then call out Fred Thompson.
Truly.
* Sorry to see a White House press Secretary Tony Snow is in the hospital after receiving some bad news. Reportedly, he will undergo surgery come Monday. Best wishes, Tony.
Of course, the Democrats, being the grand humanitarians that they are, and open minded too, are expressing their best wishes:
– “Sure holding all that bulls**t in your gut would make anybody sick..!”
– “The growth in his abdomen is his head stuck up his a**. F**k him!! He is pure lying scum and should die ASAP!!”
– “You can only swallow so much…………can you say karma……………..”
Those are from the Huffington Post, who of course removed those comments from the web pages; Wouldn’t want your readership to be seen as the animals they are, would ya, guys? Nahhhh. A Bit’s ball cap tip to Hewett for grabbing them and reposting them, thus exposing the true nature of the Democratic party today.
* Extending this discussion, about the reaction to Snow …Fran mentions today, in reference to something else, that…
Left activists tend to be vicious and ruthless toward those they perceive as their adversaries — i.e., toward conservatives. This is well confirmed by experience; there’s no need to reason out the wherefores. In any event, the consequences are far more important: a few of us rear up on our hind legs and give back as good as we got if not better, but the rest, who are frequently the majority of us, surrender the rhetorical field and lapse into quietism.
Could there possibly be any better outcome for the Left, which strains to silence us as completely as it can? Can you, Gentle Reader, think of any other tactic — any other legal tactic — that would offer them as great a gain as that?
Certainly, this response to Snow, is an indication that Fran is correct, so far as I’ve quoted here. Trouble is, Fran attempts to mitigate the consequences of this conclusion of his, however, and the whole thing goes awry;
No, your Curmudgeon is not suggesting that we reply in kind. That’s beneath a decent man — gee, what does that say about the Left? — and would ultimately bring us beneath contempt, alongside those who practice the art today.
Frankly, I disagree.
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One of the reasons that we’re currently in a certain amount of trouble in Iraq is because we’ve tried to fight it whilst being polite about it. Whilst being politically correct. One simply cannot win a war in that fashion. Similarly, one cannot win against people such as Fran describes, without tossing at least a certain amount of fire back at them. And what kind of battle are the left waging against us at this point? Fran says himself;
Apparently, the most effective way to discourage a man’s entry into activism is to make it plain that his adversaries will extract a high price for it. That message is best conveyed by brutalizing those who are already active or showing signs of becoming so: vilifying them in public, besmirching their reputations, and showering abuse upon them and their loved ones whenever possible. This sort of “stitch in time” has prevented the development of many conservative and libertarian activists who might have become serious thorns in the Left’s political flesh.
They’ve been pulling this stuff, since the middle sixties. Taking the “high road” and making nice with these people, is obviously not working. Fran argues that we should be taking our positions purely on the merits of each individual issue. While I agree that it’s certainly high minded, it is simply not going to work. The reason it’s not going to work is simple enough; the people we are arguing with about these points don’t give a tinkers dam about facts, and the merits of each position. They are not founded in fact, truth, or logic. They are founded in socialism which fails on all three counts. Trying to make nice, and argue high mindedly with such people, is like bringing a knife to a gunfight, and is demonstrably about as successful.
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Where a we have made inroads against the socialist left, is where we have been willing to stand up and toss a little fire around, in defense of our ideals…Where we weren’t constantly apologizing for simply holding those ideals. The choice on what level to fight these issues out, has already been made for us. The battlefield has been chosen, long ago. To attempt to fight this war on another, more palatable battlefield is to lose the war in absentia. When we become so worried about “offending” those of the left with our positions, we become less willing to fight for them. Recent history has proven that these people are going to take offense at anything that we do. The only thing to do, then, is simply state our position and ignore the response. It’s called leadership. “I’m marching in this direction. Who is following me ? ”
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Ann Coulter, recently, took some serious condemnation from both the left, and some of the weak-kneed right… mostly the left, for her comments recently. I think this was wrong. Coulter if nothing else, is fighting the battle against the left on the battlefield that they have chosen. She’s also fighting it on the only battlefield we can win on.
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The battlefield has been chosen, the issues are in place. We have but one choice; to fight and win. They’re the ones who set the standard. I say it’s about time we started beating them up with it.
* An interesting note from Carrie Lukas today… she suggests that the Democrats are staying the course, in spite of all evidence.
* And did you know that AlGore is now running a blog? Bill Hobbs, down in Nashville made note of this this morning, but, he says, the site is incomplete;
Unfortunately, the Gore blog doesn’t allow for readers to post comments. Al does invite readers to “Please join the conversation” – by submitting their email address. That’s not a “conversation,” Al, that’s an email mailing list. Email newsletters are for one-way communication. Blogs are for conversations.
Yeah; I really have to agree with Bill, here. But you know, the bottom line is that with Gore a one sided conversation is the best you could possibly help for. As demonstrated by his reaction when faced with the possibility of real debate on his global warming nonsense.
* Sorry to see that Little Green Footballs is having some database issues. Mostly, I’m sorry because I foresee database problems in my future, once this site starts catching on more than it has been. He’s converting over to MySQL, which is what this site runs on. I’m not quite sure what the reasons for the conversion are, but I suppose that would entirely depend on what kind of database he was running on.
* Matt Hoy passes along That the Los Angeles times editorial page editor Andres Martinez has apparently resigned. The reason? Somebody let slip that he was dating a publicist who represented a Hollywood producer Brian Glaser, who Martinez had selected as the first of several guest editors of the papers Sunday Current Opinion section. Oops, huh? However the situation is even more serious than this; as Matt explains. Go and read.
* Nice story about Billy’s nephew, today.
Tags: BitsBlog, Nightly Ramble
