the official archive of
rexblog bumper music
from the iTunes Store

October, 2004

Get a Job (Sha Na Na)

I Have a Devil in Me (The Meat Purveyors)

Vote Baby Vote (Dee-Lite)

Ghostbusters (Ray Parker Junior)

The Old Gumbie Cat (”Cats” Original Broadway Cast)

Hit Me With Your Best Shot (Pat Benatar)

Ballad of Spider John (Sam Bush)

Uptown (Grover Washington Jr.)

My Ding-A-Ling (Chuck Berry)

Even the Losers (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers)

Killer Wants to go to College (Paul Simon)

Thanks for the Memories (Bob Hope)

Video Killed the Radio Star (The Buggles)

Public Relations (Jimmy Buffett)

Respect (Aretha Franklin)

What is Hip? (Tower of Power)

If I Had a Million Dollars (The Boswell Sisters)

Murder on Music Row (George Strait)

Traffic Jam (James Taylor)

Automobile (John Prine)

Whoomp! There it is (Tag Team)

Protection (Graham Parker)

Nashville Tears (John Anderson)

Getting to Know You (Fred Hersch)

Your Picture (Camera Obscura)

Geezer Rap (Dixon DeVore II)

Mickey (B*witched)

September, 2004

Mountain Dew (Willie Nelson)

Two Different Worlds (Ricky Skaggs)

Radio Fodder (Cloud Cult)

Send in the Clowns (Judy Collins)

I’m Gonna Miss You (Dolly Parton)

You Can’t Do That (K.T. Oslin)

Too Young (Royal Crown Revue)

Story of My Life (Social Distortion)

The Agony and the Ecstasy (Smokey Robinson)

Embrace the Sun God (Kevin Kendle)

Dueling Banjos (Smokey River Boys)

Hot Links (Star Pimp)

It Takes Two (Marvin Gaye)

Outbound Plane (Nanci Griffith)

Peek-a-Boo (Devo)

Don’t Give Up (Peter Gabriel)

Cover of the Rolling Stone (Dr. Hook)

I’ve Been Everywhere (Johnny Cash)

Gonna Fly Now (Rocky Theme) (Maynard Furguson)

Something for Nothing (The O’Jays)

Television Man (Talking Heads)

England Swings (Roger Miller)

I Could Write a Book (Harry Connick Jr.)

Ashokan Farewell (Mark O’Connor)

My First Trip to Mars (Atticus Fault)

Empty Pages (Traffic)

The Way Things Are (Fiona Apple)

Cocktails for Two (Spike Jones)

On the Road to Find Out (Cat Stevens)

Don’t Be Shy (Cat Stevens)

Life (Cat Stevens)

Hard Headed Woman (Cat Stevens)

(Remember the Days of The) Old Schoolyard (Cat Stevens)

First Cut is the Deepest (Cat Stevens)

Picture Perfect (Nelly Furtado)

Pump up the Volume (Colourbox)

Money, Money, Money (ABBA)

Born to be Wild (Steppenwolf)

Friends (Elton John)

Voyeur (Blink-182)

I Smell Trouble (Ike and Tina Turner)

Man of the Year (Alice Cooper)

I Don’t Have to Hide (Bachman-Turner Overdrive)

Martha Stewart (VaGiant)

Monster Mash (The Misfits)

When the Funk Hits the Fan - Mood II Swing Vocal Dub (Sylk 130)

I’m Sorry (Brenda Lee)

Little Brother (Hootie & the Blowfish)

Photographic LIfe (The Timewriter)

I’ll Be Seeing You (Jimmy Durante)

Stuck on You (Elvis Presley)

Time and Time Again (Counting Crows)

C.C. Rider (Chuck Berry)

Chain Reaction (Diana Ross)

I’m a Woman (Peggy Lee)

Over the Rainbow (Judy Garland)

In the Jailhouse Now (Jimmie Rodgers)

Search, Find (Bee Gees)

Colour My World (Chicago)

Couch Potato (”Weird Al” Yankovic)

Handy Man (James Taylor)

Suede (Tori Amos)

Math Suks (Jimmy Buffett)

Saturday Night (Ozomatli)

Big Shot (Billy Joel)

Nine to Five (Dolly Parton)

Twisted Teen (Béla Fleck & Tony Trishka)

One Way or Another (Blondie)

Money for Nothing (Dire Straits)

Black (Pearl Jam)

Crazy Train (Ozzy Osbourne)

Foggy Mountain Breakdown (Flatt & Scruggs)

Breathe (Faith Hill)

Everything Old is New Again (the Method and Result)

Legend sighting: As an accidental bluegrass fan (having kids does the darndest things), I’ve come to discover there are many people I’ve never heard of who are genuine legends in a home-grown American art form. Ironically, even when one lives in Nashville as I do, it is a rather staggering statistical long-shot for non-musical, city-slicking parents with no ties or affinity for anything twang to look up one day and see their off-spring fiddling Orange Blossom Special in front of a couple thousand screaming folks. It’s a long-shot, but believe me, it can happen. But even when you’re an accidental bluegrass fan (which, and this may be hard for some to understand, is quite different from being a country music fan) living in Nashville you have the chance to actually recognize it when a bluegrass legend is standing next to you in a check-out line or at the airport.

Of course, there are legends…and then there are icons. Earlier this evening, in as pedestrian a place as a big-chain Italian restaurant, I glanced over to notice that also waiting for a table was Earl Scruggs (official site w/ sound file). Even non-bluegrass fans know his music (Beverly Hillbillies Theme, for instance). But some of those of us “into bluegrass” can make a convincing argument that Earl Scruggs actually created the genre of music we now call bluegrass. (No time now for arguing the point, however. Bill Monroe gets the credit…let’s just say Earl Scruggs was instrumental in its creation.)

My 14-year-old son never got the chance to meet Bill Monroe, so it was a pretty cool moment this evening when he got to shake hands and chat a few seconds with a warm and friendly Earl Scruggs. The circle stays unbroken.

Sidenote: Speaking of bluegrass, back in May, I blogged my magazine-small world-connection to the young bluegrass group, King Wilkie. Recently, the group was nominated for a 2004 IBMA Award as emerging artist of the year. Congratulations guys.

rexblog bumper music from the iTunes store:
Foggy Mountain Breakdown (Flatt & Scruggs)

Inside information: As viewers in Nashville and Miami are the only people allowed to view today’s Titans-Dolphins game live (even Direct TV subscribers will have to wait until tomorrow [via mediadrop.com]), I’ll give you a tip for tomorrow: bet your clueless friends that the Titans will win 17-7. The rare September Saturday game was moved up 24-hours due to the approaching Hurricane Ivan.

Highlights (lowlights?): Tennessee’s Chris Brown (Eddie George’s replacement), gains exactly 100 yards rushing before leaving the game with an ankle injury. Punter-kicker Craig Henitrich doesn’t kick due to a back problem but substitute punter-kicker Aaron Elling, a Titans player for about 18 hours, punts and kicks respectibly — except for blowing a short one teed-up on dirt. Antoine Smith, who replaced the injured Brown, was shut down except for a 26 yard run in the fourth quarter. (Please, don’t be seriously injured, Chris.)

From the lack of attendees to what had to be a sold-out game, it is apparent that many Miami fans were enjoying the beach one last time before it gets blown away. That, or a lot of tickets were sold to Titans fans who decided to skip the trip to Miami. It’s going to be a long season for the Dolphins and despite the solid win, the Titans have much room for improvement.

Game’s over. Now, I’m pulling for Miami and all of Florida as they face Ivan. Our thoughts and prayers are with ya’ll.

Three years: On the one-year anniversary of 9/11, I posted the following observation:

There are so many words being recorded today on an experience we all shared together a year ago, yet all experienced in a uniquely personal way. Where we were when we heard the news will forever be a part of our individual life-stories. John Lavey will be a part of my memory as I will always recall him asking me if I had heard the news. A machine-gun wielding FBI agent guarding our locked-down office building is another. And then, that numb, disbelieving fog in my head that seemed to linger for about as long as the smoke hung to Ground Zero. Hugging family. And understanding the tragedy with childlike mystery and grown-up, hard-knocked insight. We made it through a year in which September 11 never really turned into September 12. But still, life went on.

In some ways, September 11 has still not turned into September 12, but sill, life goes on.

A few weeks ago, I was surprised to read within the context of a NYT Review of Books commentary regarding the 9/11 Commission Report that it is “an uncommonly lucid, even riveting, narrative of the attacks, their background and the response to them. The prose is free from bureaucratese and, for a consensus statement, the report is remarkably forthright. Though there could not have been a single author, the style is uniform. The document is an improbable literary triumph.”

While the reviewer, Judge Richard Posner, dissents from the conclusions of the report, primarily the “bromide” obviousness of the recommendations, the Clanceyesque description of the book caused me to pick up a copy to read in the days leading up to today. I, too, found the report an improbable literary triumph. I really didn’t want to read it as I’d so much like to pretend the events never happened. Yet as a narrative of the events of 9/11 and the background leading up to it, the report is riveting. And, no matter how one feels about the commission recommendations, I recommend reading the report as a reminder for how much our lives have changed since three years ago, today.

(You can purchase a print version via Amazon.com or download free PDF versions via the 9/11 Commission website. Also, here is a keyword search tool that indexes the report from Vivismo [via ResourceShelf.com]).

Update: Jeff Jarvis returns to the World Trade Center today and this year, he’s angry. And rightly so.

Update II: Library of Congress September 11 web archive. According to ResourceShelf.com, the archive was produced “in partnership with the Internet Archive, WebArchivist.org and the Pew Internet & American Life Project” and is a collection of digital materials known as the September 11 Web Archive…The September 11 Web Archive consists of over 30,000 selected Web sites archived from September 11, 2001 through December 1, 2001.”