Author Archives: Robby

Cheap Sunglasses: ZZ Top and the Price of Fame

Posted on May 26, 2008 by Robby

Previously posted on last.fm, now with political addendum at the end. The concept of the price of fame is usually applied in the sense of the personal cost to the famous, from the relatively mild annoyance of not being able … Continue reading →

Posted in Domestic Politics, Music, Robby's Page | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Lance and the R.E.M. Tickets

Posted on February 13, 2008 by Robby

Love letter, 1982-1985. In between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, a section of I-10 stretches out as a low, dead straight bridge across 25 miles of swamp. This is the story of how I came to be hauling ass across … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Robby's Page | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Walking Spanish

Posted on January 21, 2008 by Robby

[audio:Walking_Spanish.mp3] To love a song, it’s not important that you understand the words. And I say that as a onetime lyricist and singer. As one of my guitarists often reminded me, “the words don’t matter.” Well, yeah they do, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Great Lyrics Series, Music, Robby's Page | Tagged , , , | 19 Comments

Fire Does Not Melt Steel!

Posted on April 30, 2007 by Robby

La la la la la I can’t hear you! So, was the MacArthur Maze wired for demolition or was it hit by a missile?

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Logic Problems at Salon

Posted on March 12, 2007 by Robby

The subtext of this Salon piece? People in Louisiana sure are stupid. Because everything that went wrong after Katrina was Bush’s fault, and yet the state is growing more staunchly Republican. I’m going to just leave the “it’s all Bush’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Domestic Politics, Louisiana Politics, Race, Robby's Page | 3 Comments

Listening Notes: A Project for Punkologists

Posted on March 8, 2007 by Robby

I am loving my new discovery Jason Forrest (his myspace here and his main site here[some pages NSFW]). Well, I didn’t really discover him. I mean, other people were already there, and since I do not have a technological advantage … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, Robby's Page | 9 Comments

How to Piss Off a Hippie

Posted on March 8, 2007 by Robby

People who love music sometimes identify a little too closely with the musicians/songs they love, to the point that any criticism of those musicians/songs becomes, in the music lover’s mind, a personal attack. That’s true even if the music lover … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Humor, Music, Robby's Page | 7 Comments

Great Lyrics Series: Sunday Morning Coming Down-Updated with audio and Video

Posted on March 4, 2007 by Robby

(Lance’s listening notes: I just spent the evening with my wife and a friend at a little bar, in a very little town, Fordoche Louisiana, called the Red Monkey. I loaded up the Juke box with what interested me (no … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Great Lyrics Series, Music, Robby's Page | 6 Comments

Listening Notes: Comfortably Numb

Posted on February 9, 2007 by Robby

Note: Google, and thus YouTube, is down. So the video is unavailable at the moment. Please check back later. The entire online world seems to be suffering from rolling outages right now. I don’t know why. *********************************************************************** I love good … Continue reading →

Posted in Lance's Page, Music, Robby's Page, Uncategorized | 30 Comments

Listening Notes: Golden Years

Posted on January 3, 2007 by Robby

How deeply, unfathomably weird the 70s were. Roughly contemporaneously at mid-decade, top 40 radio hitspace included an existential dirge, a sea chantey, a heavy metal love song about death, and a chorusless rock opera. I’m not even mentioning any novelty … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Lance's Page, Music, Robby's Page, Uncategorized | 7 Comments

Listening Notes: Walk on Gilded Splinters

Posted on December 17, 2006 by Robby

Dr. John’s “Walk on Gilded Splinters” has been covered by a slew of artists from Humble Pie to Paul Weller, but the Dirty Dozen Brass Band’s version is the spiciest. The tight horn arrangement, underpinned by a rumbling tuba, is … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Lance's Page, Music, Robby's Page | 2 Comments

Songs and Celebrities

Posted on November 8, 2006 by Robby

When I decided to start writing about rock lyrics, I promised myself I wasn’t going to talk about the Beatles or Bob Dylan, because forests have already been harvested to provide the paper for musings on their lyrics, and I … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Great Lyrics Series, Humor, Media, Music, Robby's Page | 1 Comment

The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul

Posted on September 22, 2006 by Robby

Theology and moral codes tell us to be good, in conflict with our natural desires and appetites, which tell us the opposite: be bad! Take what you want! Look out for #1! Socializing ourselves to develop a sense of empathy–that … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Great Lyrics Series, Music, Robby's Page, Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Let’s Not Talk About Bombs: X’s Marriage Songs

Posted on August 14, 2006 by Robby

(Second installment in the Great Lyrics Series) I agree with Paul McCartney. There is nothing wrong with a silly love song, a perfectly useful thing to have around. A love song amplifies the feeling when you are in love and … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Great Lyrics Series, Music, Robby's Page | 4 Comments