Greatest Song Evah 2/21/25

Chestnut Mare

Sometimes you can really misread a song badly. For years I had naturally assumed that Chestnut Mare was a sexually charged song which used a wild horse as a metaphor for the narrator’s potential conquest. Some of the lines read that way, even if they sound creepily stalkerly in doing so. “I’ll give her my brand.” “And I take a choice and I jump on her.” I eventually learned that I was terribly wrong; it’s exactly what it appears to be, a song about a horse.

From the 1970 album by The Byrds which was simply titled Untitled, it was originally written by Roger McGuinn and Jacques Levy for a musical project that they were collaborating on; an adaptation of Peer Gynt set in the American Southwest. That was never completed, but many of the songs that were written wound up appearing on later period Byrds albums. This song uses the titular horse as a stand-in for the notion of untamed nature. The narrator’s attempts to catch and corral the chestnut mare equal settlers’ attempts to tame the frontier.

By this point in The Byrds’ career Roger McGuinn was the last remaining member of their classic lineup. They were not entirely McGuinn and a random set of backing musicians; guitarist Clarence White was a brilliant picker, and more importantly his roots in bluegrass and country were crucial to The Byrds’ sound in this period. He was tragically killed in 1973 after being struck by a drunk driver. He was only 29.

White’s impeccable guitar work elevates this track to a superb level, and McGuinn is on top of his game. His spoken word approach to the verses adds a lovely atmosphere, which makes the intensity he adds to the chorus that much more powerful. This was one of The Byrds’ last great moments. They would release 3 more albums, one of which was an ill-fated reunion of the original lineup, before calling it a day. Just remember that this is a song about a horse, you sickos.

Meet The Nominees - Bad Company

Time to begin barreling through the 2025 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame ballot. I’ll intermittently interrupt my alphabetical run through the ballot to discuss some potential inductees in the side categories, but let us begin with the first name from the official list of candidates.

It’s clear that the Hall stubbornly refuses to let go of rock bands from the 1970’s, but if they insist on continuing to dig into that mine I suppose they could do worse than Bad Company. Sort of a supergroup, the lineup was made up of former members from the bands Free, Mott the Hoople, and King Crimson. A perfectly competent rock band, they came up with their fair share of memorable earworms and the best way I can describe them is that when I hear one of their songs on the radio I don’t turn the dial, but nor do I crank up the volume.

That’s the issue. Ideally the Hall Of Fame should be the way to separate artists that are some combo of great/important/groundbreaking/influential enough from the rest of the pack. Hall induction should not be a participation trophy to reward bands that populate the middle portion of your local rock station’s annual holiday weekend countdown of the 500 greatest classic rock songs of all time.

That said, Bad Company at least has one thing going for them. One of the questions to ask in assessing the quality of an artist’s candidacy is: who is in the band? Is the front person a strong or distinctive vocalist? That is a yes on Paul Rodgers. In his peak years he was certainly one of the strongest singers in rock; blessed with a powerful bluesy voice you knew it was him from the very first note.

Is Rodgers’ presence enough in and of itself to warrant induction? Not to my ears, but as I said there are any number of 1970’s bands who could have easily gotten this slot on the ballot, so Bad Co is a better choice than any of the alternatives. Knowing the makeup of the voting bloc, they have a better than average chance at induction. There are worse bands in the Hall.

Biggest Billboard Hot 100 hit: Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy

My Personal Favorite: Shooting Star

If elected, will they perform at the ceremony? : We might be looking at another Foreigner type situation, in which show producers try their best to discourage a reunion. Only 2 of the 4 would be available. Is that enough, or would the show go with an all-star tribute instead? Rodgers suffered a pair of strokes several years ago, from which he has not fully recovered. Mick Ralphs is in worse shape, he suffered a more serious stroke and Rodgers has implied that his health is quite poor. Boz Burrell passed away in 2006. That leaves Simon Kirke and possibly Rodgers.

Measles & Quicksand

Not that this has anything to do with what is going on in the country right now, but… All of us who are either Boomers or Gen-Xers have seen all of the jokes. We have learned how much the entertainment that we watched while growing up has lied to us. We were certain that the biggest and most constant danger that we would face in life would be quicksand. It was everywhere and so many of us lived in constant fear that every time we ventured into the outdoors quicksand would be somewhere we least expect it, waiting to sink us to our doom.

As it turns out quicksand is nowhere near as common or as deadly as we were led to believe. Of course, by saying that I’ve talked about the no-hitter and guaranteed that I will somehow stumble into a quicksand pit later on today. If so, I will miss you all. Think well of me.

But it wasn’t just quicksand that TV & movies lied to us about. We were also convinced that measles was relatively benign. Ever since (ahem) mass vaccination reduced the chances of outbreaks, measles was treated as nothing more than a harmless little illness. The clearest example was that episode of The Brady Bunch in which all 6 kids caught it simultaneously. Therefore all of us who watched that episode multiple times became convinced that contracting measles simply meant having some temporary red spots on your face as you get a couple of days off from school. The only downside is that Alice had to work a little harder, but that’s it.

Not that concern over the actual seriousness of measles has anything to do with what’s going on in the country right now. Suffice it to say that there is a reason why the Ralph Wiggum “I’m in danger” meme has become so omnipresent lately. Maybe we would be better off with more quicksand.

The Worldwide Leader

Big news in broadcasting with yesterday’s announcement that as expected ESPN will opt out of its deal with MLB following this season. Beginning next year, on ESPN there will be no more Sunday Night Baseball, no more Home Run Derby, no more Wild Card Round, no more, umm, I guess there is other MLB content that the network shows.

The fact that there are so few things I can list is part of the reason why the news is not as seismic as it appears to be. The network has greatly reduced the amount of coverage they give to Major League Baseball, something that Rob Manfred mentioned in the league’s statement. ESPN has treated MLB exactly the same as Initech treated Milton, systematically pushing him into a smaller and smaller space in the hope that he’ll eventually go away.

What I will be curious to see is how ESPN treats Major League Baseball in 2026 and beyond. The network has a history of reducing the amount of resources it devotes to covering sports and leagues with which they do not have game contracts for. Time will tell.

TV Of the 21st Century - Veep

Oh, how this show looks so different now. Make no mistake, it remains one of the preeminent laugh out loud comedies of our time. It proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that in the right hands profanity can sound like poetry. But back when it initially aired we could take easy comfort. In real life there is no way that people this stupid and this incompetent could possibly go very far in electoral politics. Right? In real life there is no way that someone as rancid as Jonah could possibly win any type of election. Voters could never get past his toxicity. Right? Right??

Veep was a behind the scenes look at the workings in the staff of Selina Meyer, America’s first female Vice President. It was apparent that the (unseen) POTUS had zero respect for her, which is understandable when we can all see how truly awful she is both personally and professionally. Her staff was filled with people either blindly ambitious or terribly over their heads, both in some cases.

Meyer was portrayed by the great Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and this role clinched a high honor for her. One can make the persuasive argument that she is the single greatest television comedienne in history; at worst she is near the top of a very short list. She has the singular talent of allowing you to root for an inherently unlikable character. She was surrounded by a supporting team of comedy all-stars, led by Tony Hale as her needy personal assistant/bag man and Matt Walsh as her clueless press secretary. But really, the entire cast was magnificent, from a grown up Anna Chlumsky as the chief of staff who could match Selina profanity for profanity to later valuable additions to the cast such as Kevin Dunn and Gary Cole.

There were two supporting players who stood out the most, one of whom was Timothy Simons as Jonah Ryan. He was initially a White House liaison to the VP office, and he was a uniquely repulsive character. The disgusted reactions other characters had whenever he walked into a room was reliable comedy gold. Yet somehow, as awful of a man as he was, he consistently failed upward. You kept thinking his character arc was implausible, and yet, well, take a look at the world. He doesn’t seem so absurd now, does he?

And this was the show that introduced me to the wonderful Sam Richardson. Richard Splett, who entered the picture in season 3 as a campaign aide and gradually became more prominent as the seasons went on, was a first ballot Hall Of Fame character. An amiable people pleaser, Richardson had a knack for making the most mundane lines hilarious. He made for a great counterbalance to Jonah; perhaps there is hope for us all if there is place for someone as likable as Richard, ignoring the fact that his incompetence matches that of everyone else in the show.

Veep ran for 7 seasons, and in its own twisted way it taught us a lot about civics and the ways in which the political gears grind. JLD is a treasure, and it still makes for ideal TV comfort food. I just wish that there were not so many elements of the story arc that have proved to be prescient.

Originally aired on: HBO

Currently streaming on: Max

Closing Laughs

We did it everybody, we made it through another week. Hope you are all well, or at least trying your best to remain well. Have a great weekend and we will do this again on Monday.