Listen to the Lion

Ain't nothin' like the real thing

As someone who really loves language, differences in regional culture and soft drinks, I am fascinated by this page.

Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs

RS recently revised their list of the 500 greatest rock & roll songs of all time. The magazine itself gets worse and worse, mainly because of an increasing emphasis on far-left politics and flavor-of-the-month celebrities, but the list is fun to go through.

Here are my totally subjective best and worst top 10 lists of songs in the RS list, with the RS ranking in parentheses, leaving out country and blues stuff that isn't rock & roll:

Best 10:

1. (1) “Like a Rolling Stone” Bob Dylan

2. (27) “Layla” Derek and the Dominos

3. (77) “Mystery Train” Elvis Presley

4. (41) “The Weight” The Band

5. (6) “Good Vibrations” The Beach Boys

6. (21) “Born to Run” Bruce Springsteen

7. (109) “Brown Eyed Girl” Van Morrison

8. (38) “Brown Sugar” The Rolling Stones

9. (167) “Let’s Get It On” Marvin Gaye

10. (409) “Crossroads” Cream

Worst 10:

1. (3) “Imagine” John Lennon

2. (406) “I Believe I Can Fly” R. Kelly

3. (169) “Losing My Religion” R.E.M.

4. (243) “Love Shack” The B-52’s

5. (35) “Light My Fire” The Doors

6. (49) “Hotel California” The Eagles

7. (89) “California Dreamin’” The Mamas & the Papas

8. (172) “Dream On” Aerosmith

9. (202) “Come Together” The Beatles

10. (290) “Stan” Eminem

The Dan Rather Award...

...goes this week to Edward Lee Pitts, a reporter for the Chattanooga Times Free Press (why can't papers just pick one name, by the way?) who decided to make the news instead of simply reporting it.

The story he wrote didn't mention the role he played in the event.

The numskull then bragged about it in an e-mail (really bad OpSec, that).

So, what did he do wrong?

1. Injecting himself into events by taking soldiers to the meeting, at which only soldiers were allowed to ask questions, and making sure "his" soliders were called on is bad form, at best. If Rumsfeld never talked to the media, such suavity may be called for by a resourceful reporter, but he gives pressers all the time.

2. Not disclosing his role in the story is inaccurate, misleading reporting. Period. If I were his editor, I'd fire him and let him find his own way back from Kuwait for trashing my paper's reputation.

But for the genius e-mail from Pitts to his paper - where he preeningly refers to "my guys" and "my unit" - he would have got away with it.

Of course, the old media crammed the story into their template of Bush/Cheney/Rice/Rumsfeld are/were unprepared/unconcerned/unwilling to do what it takes to invade/secure/"win the peace" in Iraq/Afghanistan.

It's quite possible that Pitts is coming at this from the right - as I am, of course, I wouldn't have any problem doubling military spending as long as we took the money from education and poverty programs -but, in the current news landscape where we pretend to be objective, he really stepped in it.

Maybe one day, we'll abandon the pretense and each byline will be color-coded (red, blue, pink, black, etc.) so we know where the writer is coming from.

If Pitts actually does get fired, he'd fit right in at a paper that's transparently concerned not with the news, but bashing Bush.

Can't You Hear Me Callin'?

My review of a recent bluegrass boxed set posted today at NRO.

Willie vs. the Rhymin' Reverend

I don't think many people outside of Ohio have heard - or care - about the continuing, but winnowing, election saga. But Jesse Jackson has been in the state claiming fraud and disenfranchisement off and on since election day.

I don't think Jesse knew what he was in for when he called into Bill Cunningham's talk show on 700 WLW (the world's greatest radio station and a Clear Channel station) Thursday.

Willie bludgeoned the Rev, not only with the facts, but with a acerbic disrespect, something that Jesse deserves more than just about anyone I can think of.

After the interview, Bill found out that J.J. is apparently on Clear Channel's board of directors, a position he extorted from them after threatening to challenge one of their past mergers with charges of racist hiring practices. The career of a shakedown artist is pretty lucrative, I guess.

Anyone out there have the audio of this? I was in the car when it happened and again the next day when Willie re-ran it, and would like to post it here. Hook me up at lionblogger@yahoo.com