A scene from The Wonderful Whites of West Virginia. I still haven't seen that movie but I have seen Dancin' Outlaw many, many times. http://youtu.be/G5ZCfo9RzO8

Actually, in 2011 the "sideman" category was replaced by something called the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame Award for Musical Excellence which came into play when Leon Russell was inducted. Even though I don't always agree with their choices, I really don't see the Hall as a place for non-music fans. For instance, I don't think of the Velvet Underground and similar bands as artists that "non-music" fans would be into so if their induction (which I feel was deserved) brings them to someone's attention that they otherwise may have never heard then their induction would have been worth it. One thing I really don't understand is denying artists such as Lynyrd Skynyrd and Black Sabbath their due for years on end because someone at the Hall has a stick up their ass about them. If they were influential and "had a significant impact on the evolution, development and perpetuation of rock and roll" (to quote the Hall's own criteria for induction), then by all means, induct them. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I feel like the Replacements are worthy of induction but will they ever be recognized by the Hall? Probably not.

Funny to watch this interview (which was conducted just as the tour for Monster was getting underway in '95) in light of their recent disbanding as well as how their stance on "Shiny Happy People" has become much more tempered through the years.

Tsunoshima Bridge in Japan Sunset somewhere in Sweden Both photos are from Imgur

Donna the Buffalo's take on "Let It Bleed":

I'm not trying to knock YouTube as a way of listening to Zeppelin, I'm just saying I tend to think of it more as a visual medium. That said, I'm well aware that sometimes entire concerts are uploaded there (such as ones by our own Conneyfogle) that are audio only and contain no visual elements other than maybe some photos.

As I previously mentioned, I was more of a fan of the TV show than I was of the Monkees themselves. In other words, I watched the show regularly but have never owned a Monkees record, nor have I ever had the desire to. That's not to say that that I never listened to one of my older brothers' Monkees records because I most certainly did (their self-titled debut to be specific). Growing up in the 60s and early 70s (I was born in '62), bands like the Monkees, the Partridge Family, Herman's Hermits and yes, even the Jackson Five and the Osmonds were a huge part of my musical landscape so they were inescapable. They were a big part of my youth but that sort of stuff quickly fell by the wayside once I was exposed to the Beatles, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Steppenwolf, Grand Funk Railroad and the like. In that regard, that early bubblegum pop will always hold a special place for me.

I'm not entirely sure if I follow you here but I can't say that I've really ever thought of the Faces as sidemen. Plus, they're being inducted into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame this year. As for Gram, I'm not sure if he's ever even been nominated. Certainly his work with the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers is noteworthy but I wouldn't consider his work with the latter group to be that of a "sideman". Thing is, if he's ever nominated (or inducted) I have a feeling it would be as a solo artist instead of the Flying Burrito Brothers as a whole. Even though I love his solo work, I think it was his tenure with the Flying Burrito Brothers that was more significant from an influential perspective. Sadly, a lot of people probably didn't even know who he was until after he died.

I don't really watch TV so there's that. The majority of my exposure to media these days is NPR, print and the innerwebs. It wasn't that long ago that I went to the movies but right now I can't even think of what it was I saw.

Most of you have probably already seen this but in case you haven't, I thought this was worthy of passing along. The Monkees React to Davy Jones' Death: Mike Nesmith "Won't Abandon Him to Mortality"

I'm sure I'll attend another concert prior to this but this benefit that's coming up later this month in Raleigh is still worth mentioning. Back when tickets went on sale for it a month or so ago I passed but not today when a fourth venue was announced. Racing For the Cure is a benefit for Oliver Gant, a local two year old who was diagnosed with cancer last year. To learn more about him and this benefit, click here. The fourth venue is the Lincoln Theatre who will host Tift Merritt, Bombadil, Holy Ghost Tent Revival, Small Ponds and Brice Randall Bickford in concert on Friday, March 23rd. Below is the revised poster for the event.

I've never seen Head myself. I'm going to have to fix that. I don't think that's entirely true. I'm not sure if you've ever seen this but during this interview with Jerry Garcia, the interviewer tries to corner Garcia into talking shit about the Monkees, which he refuses to do. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXs_rwjb_x4

For the first time since she left the Truckers Shonna Tucker talks about her solo career, specifically her appearance this weekend at the 40 Watt as part of a tribute to the release of Cracker's debut album. Life after Truckers (from Online Athens)

Even though I've seen no coverage of either of their deaths on TV I've been able to measure it somewhat by the online and print response. I think the difference lies in how Whitney Houston was constantly fodder for the tabloid press (print and TV) whereas Davy Jones lived his life largely out of the public spotlight. She lived her life in the spotlight and was the subject of much sensationalism so it's no wonder the press (in general) gave so much attention to her passing. Same thing for Amy Winehouse.

I saw it at home. I didn't even know about it until recently so I missed it when it came to theatres.

I could see Page being inducted again but I don't think Plant qualifies as being all that influential as a solo artist, whereas Led Zeppelin most certainly was. People tend to forget the criteria for induction isn't based on popularity (due to record sales or sell out concerts), it's largely based on influence. That said, it's quite possible that Plant could be considered influential for some of his late career moves by not doing what's expected of him at all.

Although portions of it sound a bit dated I also still really like Shaken n' Stirred a lot myself. I always liked that Plant was never afraid to go out on a limb musically and still isn't.

I may be wrong but I think maybe redrum is making a joke in relation to "The Monkees" and "apeshit".

From the All Things Music Plus page on Facebook: ON THIS DATE (24 YEARS AGO) February 29, 1988 – Robert Plant: Now and Zen is released. # ALL THINGS MUSIC PLUS+ 4/5 # Allmusic 4/5 # Rolling Stone (see original review below) Now and Zen is an album by Robert Plant, released on this date in 1988 under the label Es Paranza. The album made the top 10 in both the U.S. and the UK, reaching #6 in the former, and #10 in the latter. The album was certified triple platinum by the RIAA on September 7, 2001. "Walking Towards Paradise" was originally a bonus track available only on CD versions of the album. Rhino Entertainment released a remastered edition of the album, with bonus tracks, on 3 April 2007. With a new band and a new perspective on his music, Plant returned in late 1987 with more of the sound that had previously defined him in Led Zeppelin. Although Plant continued to utilise computerized audio technology in a similar fashion to his previous solo albums, for this album Plant integrated the blues that had all but been abandoned on his most recent album Shaken 'n' Stirred (1985). A prominent guitar sound and an exotic feel to the recordings also marked another change in direction for the artist, who now added Middle Eastern tones in songs like "Heaven Knows". This is a direction that he would eventually follow in the 1990s with Page and Plant. The tracks "Heaven Knows" and "Tall Cool One" featured Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. (On the liner notes, Page's participation on the songs was noted with a Zoso symbol.) In response to the Beastie Boys' unauthorised sampling of some Led Zeppelin songs on their 1986 album Licensed to Ill, Plant also used samples from Led Zeppelin songs ("Whole Lotta Love", "The Ocean", "Black Dog", and "Custard Pie") on "Tall Cool One", additionally singing words from "When the Levee Breaks". Plant performed "Ship of Fools", "Tall Cool One" and "Heaven Knows" at the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert in 1988. "Ship of Fools" was also featured on the final two-hour episode of Miami Vice titled "Freefall". It is the musical accompaniment to Crockett and Tubbs return to Miami via motor yacht after rescuing General Bourbon (a thinly veiled Manuel Noriega-type character) from the fictional Central American nation of Costa Morada. In an interview he gave to Uncut magazine in 2005, Plant commented that "by the time Now and Zen came out in '89, it looked like I was big again. It was a Top 10 album on both sides of the Atlantic. But if I listen to it now, I can hear that a lot of the songs got lost in the technology of the time." ORIGINAL ROLLING STONE REVIEW ~ Kurt Loder (March 10, 1988) This record is some kind of stylistic event: a seamless pop fusion of hard guitar rock, gorgeous computerization and sharp, startling songcraft. Now and Zen, Robert Plant's fourth solo album, is so rich in conceptual invention that you barely notice that Plant sings better on it — with more tone, control and rhythmic acuity — than he has in the seven years since Led Zeppelin imploded. Better, in some ways, than ever. The punning title is apt. The nine tracks on Now and Zen don't simply sound contemporary; they point to new ways to transmute roots-rock verities of swing and harmony amid the technological conventions of late-Eighties pop. At the same time the songs show Plant humanizing and enlivening the cool synthetic sound of such Euro-synth units as Kraftwerk and D.A.F. In addition, there is a certain pop-Zen aspect to such songs as "The Way I Feel," in which Plant sings, "The future rides beside me/Tomorrow in his hand/The stranger turns to greet me/Take me by the hand" — one of the wittier lyrical loops since Lou Reed walked hand in hand with himself through the vinyl grooves of Loaded. Plant does have some major help on Now and Zen. It's a tribute to his taste that after listening to the demo of "Heaven Knows" (now the album's first single), he hired its creators, the song-writing-production team of Phil Johnstone and Dave Barrett. Johnstone and Barrett are young, hungry and gifted, and Johnstone, in particular, is invaluable — as co-writer (with Plant, on most of the tracks), coproducer (with Plant and Tim Palmer), computer programmer (with Barrett, who also helped engineer the LP) and keyboardist. There's a freshness and excitement to the sound of this album that's rare today — that harks back, in fact, to the sonic audacity of Zeppelin's sainted predecessors, the Yardbirds. Even Jimmy Page, who is a guest guitarist on two of the tracks, flourishes in this hot new context. Now and Zen lifts off with a synthesized whoosh and remains airborne throughout. "Heaven Knows," the lead track, is graced with a soaring, up-above-the-clouds solo by Page — but there the Zeppelin connection ends. With its clamorous hammer-and-anvil percussion and its jaded take on the new mating game ("Nothing will show as we're shedding our clothes"), this is exactly the kind of electromantic fusion that Bryan Ferry has sought in vain for years. The protagonist of "Heaven Knows" is distanced to the point of disconnection. Plant's own persona, however, especially in the songs he had a hand in writing, is engagingly humane. He gently deflates his old Zep sex-stallion image (in "Dance on My Own" — a metaphor for masturbation — and in the spectacular "Tall Cool One," which contains the curious come-on "With my one hand loose I aim to satisfy"). Instead he offers himself as is: a rocker turning forty, with deep roots in the music's past but a lively interest in its present — and future — as well. This is a stance that allows for both historical resonance and up-to-the-minute instrumental crunch. "Tall Cool One," for instance, takes its title from a 1959 Wailers instrumental, its motivating stomp from a 1962 Routers hit and its underpinning riff from the Yardbirds' own cover of the Elvis-era bopcat classic "The Train Kept A-Rollin'." Yet, with its expertly deployed monster electronics, the song might easily be mistaken for an anthem from Kraftwerk's computer land. "Tall Cool One" is a walloping rockabilly track that cleverly avoids all retro pretensions. (It also further bends history with another Page guitar solo, as well as computer-sampled snatches of "Whole Lotta Love" and "Black Dog," among other Zeppelin oldies.) Even more complexly affecting is "White, Clean and Neat," an extraordinary evocation of teen life in the mid-Fifties, when the arrival of rock & roll divided families and whole generations. The singer recalls the white-bread pop music that his parents loved — the songs of Pat Boone and Johnnie Ray that rock would soon displace — and his own youthful-rocker's contempt for that music's emotional fraudulence. (As a smarmy announcer imparts background gossip about the singer-starlet Debbie Reynolds and her then husband, Eddie Fisher — "They're married to stay!" — Plant sings, "Beneath her skirts, between clean white sheets/It's such a long way from the streets.") But his youthful intolerance has clearly been tempered by the years, and his reminiscence takes on a bittersweet tone that says more about what was won and lost in that time than many a more windy critique. It is exhilarating to discover such lyrical substance in music already so technically arresting. Plant's young band performs with ferocious expertise (particularly amid the breathtaking roll-and-tumble rhythms of "Helen of Troy" and on the Jeff Beck-like "Billy's Revenge"). But the central revelation here is Plant himself, whose taste and intelligence appear to have informed every stage in the making of this record. It would be unfair to call him a headbanger with brains — the lamented Zeps were much more than riff-mongering metalists. But with Now and Zen, Robert Plant does prove himself a hard rocker with a whole lotta heart. TRACKS: "Heaven Knows" (Barratt, Johnstone) – 4:06 "Dance on My Own" (Crash, Johnstone, Plant) – 4:30 "Tall Cool One" (Johnstone, Plant) – 4:40 "The Way I Feel" (Boyle, Johnstone, Plant) – 5:40 "Helen of Troy" (Johnstone, Plant) – 5:06 "Billy's Revenge" (Johnstone, Plant) – 3:34 "Ship of Fools" (Johnstone, Plant) – 5:01 "Why" (Crash, Plant) – 4:14 "White, Clean and Neat" (Johnstone, Plant) – 5:28 "Walking Towards Paradise" (Williams) – 4:40 2007 remaster bonus tracks "Billy's Revenge" (live) – 6:00 "Ship of Fools" (live) – 10:35 "Tall Cool One" (live) – 5:07

Details on the Mermaid Avenue box set from Pitchfork here.

As a longtime R.E.M. fan I was aware of the Minus Five for quite sometime because of Peter Buck's involvement but I never really got into them until I saw them on the Fast Horse Hootenanny Tour back in the early 00s along with the Wayward Shamans, Tuatara and bluesman CeDell Davis during their stopover at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC.