Just listen to the background vocals. Blows me away - it's a sound I've often tried to get on my recordings, and even live with my band. It's like catching a platypus in Wisconsin.

(OK, I know I sound curmudgeonly, but I actually was this cynical at age 16 about music...!)

Just discovered this sweet Yellow Submarine-esque vid for H & V, though.

Typically, I'm all about the music and less about the lyrics (though, as I age, that polarity (and my hair) has begun to gray). Instrumentals still seem to be too much for me usually, like too much of a good thing. I need a melody. (Obviously, this is excepting of classical music.)

Still, some of my fave songs ever are instrumentals. There's some magic combination, I'm not sure what it is; it's almost where you almost forget that there's no singing or vocal melody at all. Here are my best examples of that:

1. Jessica - Allman Brothers

2. Flying - The Beatles

3. Overture - The Who

4. In Memory of Elizabeth Reed (Live At Fillmore East version) - Allman Brothers

5. La Villa Strangiato - Rush

6. Mo Better Blues - Terence Blanchard & Branford Marsalis

7. YYZ (love the Exit Stage Left live version) - Rush

8. Riviera Paradise (I was 15 when I saw this Austin City Limits version. Changed my life.) - Stevie Ray Vaughan

[6.] I was 16 when this movie came out. The title tune was so formative for me... the layers of emotion in the playing have stayed with me most of my life:

Off the top of my head, I can think, historically, of a few (mostly) cock-rock stars with eternally-balding hairlines:

• Klaus Meine (Scorpions)
• Ronnie James Dio
• Kevin DuBrow (Quiet Riot)
• David Lee Roth
• Mark Knopfler
• Paul Simon and for that matter, Art Garfunkel, co-lead man
• Bob Geldof 

Klaus Meine makes sense because, well, he's German.

Were these guys born with little vampire hairlines? Seems like they were balding at age 19.

Any more I forgot?

Kari and I saw all-time fave the Jayhawks on Tuesday night at the Cain's here in Tulsa. It was the fourth time I've seen them, but the first with Mark in the band. If you haven't checked them out - needless to say, DO IT NOW, folks.

The set was a beautifully-balanced mix of new and old - the new from their growing-on-me-in-a-big-way latest, Mockingbird Time, and the old mostly from Hollywood Town Hall and (our fave with Mark) Tomorrow the Green Grass. All the comparisons of Mockingbird to Green Grass, to me, are not accurate - the album (and the band now) sounds much more like ca. '92 Hollywood Town Hall.

I was so stoked that they overcame whatever internal strife they had concerning material from post-Mark albums, and did Break In The Clouds (so freaking awesome) and Angelyne. I yelled for Sixteen Down from my all-time Top 10 album, the WAY underappreciated and now out-of-print Sound of Lies, and Gary acknowledged it with a smirk. Also, when Mark suggested that people give the new album as a stocking stuffer, I yelled out "Chanukah!", and he laughed. Fanboy here.

They loved our hometown legendary venue, Cain's, and mentioned it numerous times during the concert, and were obviously feeling the Western Swing/Bob Wills thang since they subbed the rarity (and Karen-sung) Last Cigarette for Settled Down Like Rain... Also, as maybe expected, Tim sang Tampa To Tulsa.

The crowd was appreciative but ridiculously sparse. Couldn't believe my fellow Tulsans couldn't make a better showing - in such a great music town - the last time the Jayhawks were here was opening for the Black Crowes in the early '90s. Come on, people. $20 a friggin ticket!

Pics above were shot from our stage-front spot two feet from Gary's two feet.

I feel like the mashup is unpredictable and cool, and that the raw nature of both of their music might, theoretically, be a good match.

Unfortunately, Lou contributed all-new material from a performance-art piece, instead of tailor-making it specifically for this project, and the results are less than great. His best material, to me, has been when he creates standard-form songs, regardless of a theme, rather than experiementing with rhymeless and sometimes unmelodic artsy chazarei. I mean, come on - New York and Transformer - case and point.

Whereas it's an occassional great success for a band to make a first-take only rule in new album sessions (see Farmhouse), the results are not good here. It sounds like two distinct sounds and vibes not meshing together. Metallica constantly sounds lost and trying to keep up with whatever seems to be coming into Lou's drifting and unfocused musical brain.

I've always thought that Metallica's amazingness and true power come from detailed arrangements that they hammer out with painstaking refinement in the studio - they then perform these tight bursts of metal live close to those studio versions. That means their early takes probably suck.

Well, that's what this sounds like to me. Plus, you've got a more-than-he-usually-is out-of-tune Lou fronting them, heading into areas where they're obviously uncomfortable. That could potentially be good, to hear Metallica go into areas they haven't been before - but not here.

Rhapsody In Blue.

Yeah. Try cranking that mofo next time you have the urge for some Radar Love or Free Fallin'. Not kidding. At all.

Beethoven, Dylan, Beatles, Paul Simon... I am in awe of their natural abilities.

Beatles aside - for whatever reason, I always come back to Paul Simon and his solo career.

His music is also in another rare category for me - I never get sick of listening to it. Never. And it's not like he was very prolific, or at least Elton John-prolific (Randy Newman said, "Elton John put out six albums while I was brushing my teeth"). I just hear new things in the music every time, and much of it goes beyond my own musical ability.

I've been back in a There Goes Rhymin' Simon phase. Every song is a classic, every note played by Simon and his classic bunch of session guys perfection (my fave session band - say what you will about Steely Dan or Beach Boys). I wanted to post a vid of a completely underrated classic on this album, Learn How to Fall, but there's no good one to put up. If you don't know it, do check it out. Instead, I'll feature what I consider the best performance of the centerpiece of Rhymin' - American Tune. Garfunkel's harmonies and the extra bridge just take the song into space. Close your eyes and absorb.