1. “Meeting Across the River” 2. “Nebraska” 3. “Seeds” 4. “Cautious Man” 5. “Wild Billy’s Circus Story” More than I expected, but I’m sure there’s others I didn’t think of. Some of them would work better as talking blues than others. “Seeds” seems the most anomalous, by virtue of being an uptempo rocker.

posted 7 December 2009 in Tasty Bits. 1 comment

I’ve been listening to Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” for over twenty years now. (Thankfully, not continuously.) Only recently did I realize an odd quality of the song: the chorus doesn’t appear until the very end. Technically, that means it’s not a chorus at all, right?

posted 21 October 2008 in Tasty Bits. 10 comments

For those of you just joining us: I recently unearthed videotapes of MTV’s top 100 countdown from 1988, and I’m working my way through the broadcast one video at a time. To see all previous entries in this series, click on the “1988” category in the right-hand margin of this website; I predict you will […]

posted 4 September 2008 in 1988. 13 comments

Very little happens in this video. But then again, very little needs to. Somebody clearly made the calculation that having George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison in one room would provide enough entertainment value by itself, and they were right. Twenty years later, the appeal of the Traveling Wilburys and […]

posted 10 July 2008 in 1988. 7 comments