Greatest Song Evah 8/18/23

Night In My Veins

The first thing you notice about Chrissie Hynde is that voice. It is sultry and defiant, traits that combined with her tremendous swagger to make her one of the premiere front women in rock history. This week’s selection ideally demonstrates that skill set. This is one of the flat out sexiest songs that The Pretenders ever recorded.

And it is certainly a sex song, not necessarily a love song. The narrator wants some action right here, right now. The location is not as important as the act is. Her tone conveys the idea that she’s having the time of her life. Her actions in the song’s video add to that as well; she shows a real walk of shame vibe.

This song came out at a crucial time in her career. It was released in 1994, which was the peak period for exciting young female singers in alternative rock, many of whom showed a clear Chrissie Hynde influence. It might be a stretch to call her an elder stateswoman, but it was undeniable that the airwaves were filled with singers that shared her musical DNA. This song perfectly fit in with the sounds of the time.

Passing The Quarter Pole

Each MLB team has played around 120 games at this point, which puts us roughly 75% of the way through the season. As you may have heard once or a thousand times, a season isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. Every spring we apparently forget that point, as we have a tendency to make snap judgements based on what happens in the opening weeks. I’m not talking about the small sample size jokes that are made every April. “Player A is on pace to hit 324 home runs!” I’m talking about the conclusions so many of us drew about teams based on opening month results.

Remember when it looked like this would be the year that the Pirates break through? When it looked like that this would be the year that the Dodgers would fully lose their stranglehold on the NL West and sink into mediocrity? When fans in New York and San Diego assured ourselves that these were mere slow starts, and that the cream would eventually rise to the top? When Yankees fans commenced their annual mockery of their New York neighbors, assured that their dominance would continue? Gosh, we were so naive.

The change from early assumption that really stands out concerns the Tampa Bay Rays. They got off to a rocket start, with all signs indicating that this could be the beginning of a special season. They eventually cooled off - that opening surge was unsustainable - and the Orioles were lurking. Now, not only has Baltimore taken full control of the division, but there are ominous signs that the Rays may be on the verge of a sharp decline. Shane McClanahan’s Tommy John surgery will likely keep him off the mound until 2025. Suddenly, they no longer have a pitching staff capable of storming its way through multiple playoff rounds.

Worse, the Wander Franco situation has cast a dark cloud over the entire organization. The allegations are awful, and with each day it seems that an additional shoe drops. The news stories that have been leaking out of the Dominican Republic sure sound ominous. This is worse than the Trevor Bauer story. I can envision the league constantly kicking the can down the road as it continues to gather information. If what is being alleged is anything close to the true story, it’s certainly likely that he never appears in a major league game ever again. I won’t say more, because I know as much as the rest of you do. The best we can hope for at this point is to hope that the young girls whom he allegedly harmed turn out OK. Just an awful story, the baseball ramifications are the least important aspect.

Which Is It?

There’s always going to be an unavoidable amount of irrationality when it comes to political criticism. I’m guilty of it too at times, it’s human nature to defend your side. Where I believe that goes too far is when the argument gets too absurd or contradictory. So much of the complaints directed towards Barack Obama were completely senseless. He was often accused of being both Hitler and Neville Chamberlain at the same time. That’s not easy. And of course the birther controversy doesn’t hold up to the slightest scrutiny. His birth announcement was listed in a Hawaii newspaper, for Pete’s sake. Yet some people actually made the argument with a straight face that that’s how deep the conspiracy ran. My head hurts just thinking about that logic.

We’re seeing much of the same absurdity with the Big Lie. Remember, at its heart the same people are trying to make the case that Joe Biden is a senile fool, barely able to function, yet at the same time he is sophisticated enough to have spearheaded a multi-state conspiracy to steal the election from Dear Leader. There’s a simple way to shoot down every single election conspiracy theory. If the Democrats and the Biden campaign had actually stolen votes, why did they stop there? If they were actually going to steal the Presidency, wouldn’t it have also made sense to nab congressional seats at the same time? Instead, after the 2020 election the Dems held only a narrow margin, small enough that the House changed hands in the 2022 midterm election. Seems to me that the Cigarette Smoking Man would have made sure there would be a larger cushion. Or how about the Senate? An actual conspiracy would have stolen Senate seats, instead of winding up with a 50-50 split in the upper chamber. As a result, Kamala Harris needs to remain near Washington because she’s needed for tie breaking votes. And a larger majority would mean that not only would Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin not be the major pains that they are, but it would also be easier to gently persuade Dianne Feinstein that this is the time to step aside.

Really, make it make sense. If anyone has a cohesive argument to make about this I’d love to hear it. And show your work.

This Must Be The Place

This was a pleasant surprise to hear about. At next month’s Toronto Film Festival the 4 members of the Talking Heads will make their first public appearance together since their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame back in 2002. They are appearing in a Q&A with Spike Lee to celebrate a remastered release of Stop Making Sense, timed to coincide with the film’s 40th anniversary. The new version is also scheduled for a brief IMAX run.

The members have had a contentious relationship following the band’s breakup, or to be more accurate, Tina Weymouth, Chris Franz, and Jerry Harrison have had a difficult relationship with David Byrne. It’s a shame, not only were they a fantastic band but they were outstanding when they performed together at their induction ceremony. They were so tight that it was hard to believe that it had been more than a decade since they last performed together. This is scheduled to be a one time only appearance, but it’s nice to see that there appears to be a thaw between Byrne and the Weymouth/Franz/Harrison trio. It’s only right that a combo that produced so much wonderful music can at least act civilly towards one another.

TV Of the 21st Century

I’m sure that all of us have had some form of this conversation several times in the past few years:

“Have you watched ___ yet? It’s great!”

“Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard. But I still need to finish ___. And I haven’t even started ___”

“Oh, yes, I also need to start ___”

Bottom line, there’s a LOT of TV out there, it’s impossible to keep up with it all. Even unexpected opportunities to clear out DVR space don’t help much. Think back to 3 years ago, when we were all stuck at home, and the pipeline of new content shut down. Instead of catching up on good material, we as a society decided to collectively watch Tiger King. Strange times indeed.

Setting Tiger King aside, and keeping in mind that decision makers for streaming services have grown addicted to hitting the “cancel” and “delete” buttons, we are still in the midst of a golden age of television. I’m going to begin running a semi-regular feature in which I highlight some of my favorites from this century.

I’ll have a few ground rules for this. I’m going to limit it to shows that have completed their initial runs. It’s easier to fully evaluate a show that way - did it start off great and eventually lose its way, did it remain exceptional from beginning to end, was the ending satisfactory, etc. I WILL discuss shows that wind up getting revived years later. In that case one could treat a revival as a whole new creature. Also, at least initially I’ll largely steer away from the handful of shows with massive acclaim. Do I need to spend time praising Breaking Bad when Emily’s Reasons Why Not is begging for attention? I’ll also treat exact dates a little fluidly. Shows that began in the 90s are OK for this discussion, as long as the majority of their great episodes came after Y2K.

This should be fun, especially if/when I remind myself of shows that might have fallen through the cracks of history. Keep in mind that I’ll be talking about some of my personal favs - there have certainly been highly acclaimed shows that didn’t do it for me. This is going to be one man’s opinion. Your mileage may vary. If I can help introduce you to a show that you might have overlooked, great. And feel free to offer your own suggestions. I’ll likely offer an initial selection on Monday; still deciding if it will be a regularly scheduled feature or if it will recur whenever I have space to fill.

A Milestone

As I look at my stats I see that this is post #100 for Tending The Herd. Let me take this moment to thank everyone, from those who have been here for post #1 right up to those who have recently joined the club. I really appreciate that you all set aside a few minutes each day to read through my yammering. Here’s to the next 100. Have a great weekend, and let’s do this again on Monday.