Friday Arts

If you liked Kingsman: The Secret Service, you probably won’t hate Kingsman: The Golden Circle, but the first in the series is much the better film. Still, the second one did manage to pass a couple of silly hours well enough. It’s one of those movies where famous people keep showing up, and it’s best not to know anything about it in advance so that you can be surprised by them. Other than that, the movie is little more than an excuse to eat some popcorn.

On the music front, new additions to the playlist:

The First Cut is the Deepest & Kitty, Cat Stevens, New Masters — Very early Cat, and not that great an album, but a big Yusuf/Cat fan can always find a cut or two in anything he’s done. “First Cut” was apparently his first big hit.

Parchman Farm, Bluesbreakers, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers —This particular album was regularly pulled out of the pile by self-appointed cognoscenti back in the day because Mayall worked with so many people who went on to great fame, like Clapton on this album. But I didn’t like it much then, and I didn’t like it much now. There’s nothing revelatory about the music, which just churns through basic blues riffs, sometimes laid end to end in random order, making you wonder exactly what song they’re performing. More than that, I don’t like Mayall’s voice. But “Parchman Farm” is simple and clean enough, included in the playlist mostly for historical purposes.

Angelina, She Just Wants to Dance, & Am I Wrong, Keb Mo’, Keb Mo’ — If you want to understand more why I don’t like Mayall, compare him to Kevin Moore. Play the two back to back. You’ll get it.

Copperhead Road, Snake Oil, & The Devil’s Right Hand, Steve Earle, Copperhead Road — I spent most of the 70s and 80s listening to non-rock. Among the genres I grew to love was Texas Swing and Old Timey Music. WKCR, the Columbia radio station, had a lot of shows that introduced one to different music, most especially jazz, but also Cowboy Joe’s Radio Ranch and the like. (Cowboy Joe was some guy not named Joe who lived in New Jersey.) Meanwhile, rock was going through glam and grunge and punk and whatever. When I decided I wanted to get back in, I eased my way with various “country” artists who seemed to be carrying the flame of good old rock and roll better than anyone else, via honkytonk and rockabilly and so forth. Steve Earle was one of these. There’s country in him, but also serious rock. I’m still a fan.

157 Riverside Avenue & Prison Women, REO Speedwagon, REO Speedwagon — As any crossword puzzle person can tell you, REO stands for Ransom E. Olds. This group came along after I was on my rock sabbatical, so I really don’t know much about their work. Their name popped up in a list of “other artists,” and I did like these couple of tracks. They’re not bad at all, and I’ll keep tracking down their discography.

Summertime Blues, Blue Cheer, Vincebus Eruptum — Deleted. How did this get into my playlist? What was I thinking? Aaaaarrrggghhhh! Do you realize that this group had about a thousand members over the years and recorded about as many albums? Wikipedia credits them as “pioneers” of heavy metal and “influential” in punk, grunge, stoner, etc. Reason enough to never listen to them again.