:Where is my left foot?

Susan and I were watching the tele this evening when I stopped by one of my favorite stations for semi-nostalgic weirdness, The RFD Network, rural television. Stops here always elicit a groan from Susan, especially during The Big Joe Polka Show, which is a mind-blowing excursion into 2/4 insanity…and I mean actual insanity.

Tonight was different, with a 1976(?) episode of Pop Goes The Country, with Charley Pride and Gary Stewart. Stewart was awesome, playing an ancient Telecaster and singing in a wild, killer style, two songs, one of which was a big hit, “She’s Playing Single (I’m Drinking Doubles)”. We looked up Stewart on allmusic.com, to read his story. Much familiar here — too much talent, too many drugs, too much drink, and unwilling/unable to be pigeon-holed into a comfortable niche for The Music Industry. The story has a sad ending, far more Robert Quine than Hank Williams. I’ll be checking out some of his classic recordings.

I’ve also been highly hypnotized by the original, unedited, complete, and authentic Basement Tapes. These are only available as bootleg releases, and yet are some of the greatest recordings of the 20th century. The official release from 1975 somehow manages to diminish the power of the originals, mainly by adding Band material not recorded during the 1967 Woodstock basement sessions, and by later overdubbing. “Banks of the Royal Canal”, “Sign On The Cross”, the first take of “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”…and all of it, all of it is great, grand, special, magical, and essential. But if you want to hear it, you have to go across the tracks to the record store on the other side of town, proverbially. It’s worth the trip, hysterically so.

After being in a cast last month for a hairline fracture in her foot, Adele now has a broken wrist after being knocked into and over and onto by a girl she dislikes at school. She has a purple cast for three weeks. She is a trouper.