21 Comments

1. POSTED BY Spiro T. Quayle  |  August 16, 2010 @ 4:23 pm

   Oh, hi cathar, I’ll now opine on Elvis, and you will likely have another tantrum.
   I agree with statements made by John Lennon in interviews. Elvis was best in the old Sun Records recordings. He went downhill from there.
2. POSTED BY cathar  |  August 16, 2010 @ 4:49 pm

   Hi back, Spiro.
   One might plausibly counter that ALL of John Lennon’s own solo work is much, much less tuneful, likable or accomplished than his efforts within the Beatles. (And can I blame Yoko for everything here, as so many liberals still blame Bush?) That you may cherish your own well-grooved copy of the “Two Virgins” album does not change this general observation at all. (And croiagusanam, this can serve as your cue to jump in with your own hoary recollections of having once seen Lennon busking on the streets of Liverpool.)
   Also, that John Lennon may have claimed to have heard Elvis’s handful of early Sun singles as in fact Sun singles doesn’t necessarily make it so. (This kind of hard to prove claim re a lot of hard-to-find American records is often made by Brit artists citing the “roots” of their music; the film f mistaken memory may play a small role here.) According to real record collectors I’ve met (I occasionally attend old record fairs, in futile search especially of old Five Keys singles), those early cuts were spottily distributed at best, and generally not in the UK. (Or even in Hamburg, where Lennon once spent a lot of time.) Indeed, most Americans only got to hear stuff like “Mystery Train” and “Milk Cow Blues” when RCA bought up the masters and put them out on its own label as part of Elvis’s earliest LP’s. Well-known sales figures from Sun itself tend to bear this out, by the way.
   You may now safely return to playing your old Archies and Partridge Family albums, Spiro. Dance as if nobody’s looking; I’m sure even those who might see you dancing won’t care a whit.
3. POSTED BY Spiro T. Quayle  |  August 16, 2010 @ 4:55 pm

   well, cathar,glad to see you have calmed down now that your spleen has discharged. Do you feel better? That’s nice. (Open the window in the event something else has discharged.)
   Nonetheless it is always faintly amusing when someone ( you come to mind at present) makes bizzare assumptions about a relative stranger ( did you really think I had a copy of Two Virgins? )
4. POSTED BY Kaity Creasy  |  August 16, 2010 @ 5:17 pm

   Hey cathar, have you ever listened to the album “John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band”? I don’t know if it’s your “style” (I guess I don’t really know what your style is), but it’s really an incredible solo effort and, I think, just as good (in a different way) as some of his stuff with The Beatles.
5. POSTED BY croiagusanam  |  August 16, 2010 @ 6:11 pm

   Never saw Lennon in Liverpool, cathar old boy. And I don’t believe he ever “busked” — he was in a band, you know, and not the type to play solo for a shilling on the corner.
   If I may now slip into cathar mode, however….
   I once saw Fat Eddie Philbert, he of “The Slitherers” fame. What, you never heard of The Slitherers? Perhaps you missed their early work, mastered in Arkadelphia under the watchful eye of Sam Soundboard, legendary mixer and delightful raconteur. Of course, Sam later perished in a fire he caused when he fell asleep in bed whilst smoking and reading Father Hubert Pompous’s “Musings on The Faith”. You doubtless didn’t know, you philistine, that Pompous was Belgian rather than French, and thus not susceptible to the charms of Haliday or even, God forbid, Edith Piaf.
   Which reminds me of Algeria and a brief, if I may, sidebar as to the ineptitude of the French military, the early stirrings of Islamic militancy, and the superiority of their couscous vis-a-vis the Tunisian variety (by the way, you can get it in Clifton, which has more Tunisians than Tunis and more Algerians than Algiers — and I’m not talking Louisiana!).
   I’ll be back to finish my treatise after a short Scotch and bathroom break.
6. POSTED BY Spiro T. Quayle  |  August 16, 2010 @ 6:26 pm

   bravo, cro, awesome cathar riff.
   I can’t top that in the cathar department, so I’ll do a whatsupwiththat impersonation:
   “your a b’dag”
   I know, the limited vocabulary of the spoofee limits the arsenal of the spoofer. Nonetheless, resorting to an economy of means, I still has something in my budget to trash wuwt’s inability to spell even the simplest words.
7. POSTED BY croiagusanam  |  August 16, 2010 @ 7:03 pm

   My theory is that clotty is the sober whatsupwitthat, but then I saw a guy on the grassy knoll, some MI6 types at Diana’s crash scene in Paris, and lots of lights over Roswell.
   So, I could be wrong.
8. POSTED BY Spiro T. Quayle  |  August 16, 2010 @ 7:45 pm

   That was a remarkable album when it came out, Kaity.
   I’m not sure if cathar would be too keen on the song “God”
   but I always liked that intro line – “God is a concept by which we measure our pain”.
   The instrumentation throughout had a spare but beautiful sound to it, very minimalistic, a striking contrast to the elaborate productions on Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper and Revolver.
9. POSTED BY Tom Traubert  |  August 17, 2010 @ 9:29 am

   This might be the funniest thing ever posted to Baristanet.
10. POSTED BY walleroo  |  August 17, 2010 @ 10:38 am

    I’ll be back to finish my treatise after a short Scotch and bathroom break.
    You must have had a good break this summer, cro. You’re in top form.
11. POSTED BY Kaity Creasy  |  August 17, 2010 @ 10:45 am

    I’m glad to hear that you appreciate that album as much as I do!
    I love how the raw, unfinished nature of John’s vocals and instrumentation seem (to me, at least) to get such extremely complex feelings across so effortlessly. This, to me, is what makes this album just as good as a Beatles album, in its own way.
12. POSTED BY jerseygurl  |  August 17, 2010 @ 10:54 am

    Cro, had you not posted with your own moniker, I would have been convinced this was actually Cathar.
13. POSTED BY State Street Pete  |  August 17, 2010 @ 10:56 am

    You all are in rare form these past few days. Nice work!
14. POSTED BY walleroo  |  August 17, 2010 @ 11:06 am

    You realize, though, cro, that by impersonating cathar you are flattering him.
15. POSTED BY silverleaf  |  August 17, 2010 @ 11:18 am

    Riiight…and I was a drinking buddy of Jim Morrison!
16. POSTED BY DagT  |  August 17, 2010 @ 12:02 pm

    Come on you all would miss Cather’s posts if they stopped.
    As I noted last evening the bomb throwing is both funny and thought provoking.
    And tud – yes I have a few fetching red hats worn with the right shade of purple. We have a few pink hats that join us in order to learn from their elders.
17. POSTED BY croiagusanam  |  August 17, 2010 @ 12:27 pm

    No one would miss cathar more than I would Dag, were they to stop.
    But you and I both know that there is no danger of that happening. Like the rest of us, he is far too full of himself to give up posting. And really, this is far from “bomb-throwing”. That’s happened here for sure, but this latest exchange is just some good-natured, late-summer nonsense.
    And silver, Morrison was a lightweight. Cathar used to sip with Dylan Thomas, and that boyo was the real deal, I’ll tell you!
18. POSTED BY croiagusanam  |  August 17, 2010 @ 12:29 pm

    they=he
19. POSTED BY DagT  |  August 17, 2010 @ 12:53 pm

    Yes, I know that the exchanges have been sort of mild when compared to some of the more robust diatribes I’ve read here. But I must say again, I’m still a newbie to this blog and I’ve been impressed with some of the wit and obvious intelligence that’s so apparent here even when I’m in disagreement with a basic premise. I’m glad I found this web party!
20. POSTED BY silverleaf  |  August 17, 2010 @ 2:34 pm

    Yes, croiagusanam…it has been rumored that cathar, while sipping a particular brand of imported British tea, would discuss the gods and poets with Thomas at The White Horse Tavern during those heady halcyon days of the post war.
    To this day however, the rumor is unsubstantiated and purely speculative.
21. POSTED BY walleroo  |  August 17, 2010 @ 2:40 pm

    I wish he’d hurry up with the broadside retort. It seems my day will be spent waiting in vain for it. Oh well, I suppose I could always try and get some work done in the meantime. I wish there was some kind of blackberry email alert service. Barista?
    In the meantime, cro, DagT, or one of you other knuckleheads: when cathar surfaces, please notify me at walleroo@gmail.com. Thanks.

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