knightni

Is Matsui "done" in the outfield? How are his legs?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 21, 2009 -> 10:13 PM) No joke. This board has made me just hate anything to do with Kansas and Ohio State. The homerism is just like a stench. Pretty much how I feel pissed about the Notre Dame hate, Mike...

QUOTE (rowand's rowdies @ Nov 21, 2009 -> 05:42 PM) P.S. How is this still in Pale Hose Talk? I've had threads that were 3% non baseball related and they were moved within 5 minutes of me posting it. It's the offseason. There's more leeway.

QUOTE (SAVVY18 @ Nov 21, 2009 -> 01:32 PM) I can't stand it when people write Sox's. That's just a double plural. It bugs the hell out of me. Especially from cubby fans. Yeah I hate it when mainstream journalists use it. http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2009/...f-the-year.html http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/soxnet/200...gold-glove.html http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index...ame%3dlaw_keith http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009...soxs-spring-ho/ http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/20...e-perfect_N.htm http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,534620,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/jul/2...le-perfect-game http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/base....cnn/index.html

With your title, I thought that Oz was asking Jenks to wear a bra.

'Ralph'-ing might be the result.

I remember the old days the Score with North and Jiggets where they'd hang up on anyone just because they disagreed with them and think that they were hilarious doing it. It seems now though, that the phone guys let the crazies through on purpose for show entertainment purposes, i.e. B & B. Honestly, if the caller gets too dumb acting with you, I get uncomfortable and change the station (sorry!).

QUOTE (KyYlE23 @ Nov 21, 2009 -> 03:41 PM) Chapman fired his agent and is now with the Hendrick brothers They've really helped Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon.

I'm enjoying Marco's right now. Not bad for the price. Certainly better than the Big 3.

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 21, 2009 -> 08:29 PM) Ha, trust me I know, but I can't even imagine how long it would take me to torrent a movie. For much of the day my internet is close to 56k speed. Do they have NTSC or PAL in Brazil? You could get one cheap on Amazon (pun!).

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Nov 21, 2009 -> 07:08 PM) Could you read bass cleff? As a converted trumpet player I could only read treble cleff, so either a chart had to already be transposed or I had to rewrite them in treble. Only had to do that a couple times. I learned it as bass clef. Sometimes I had to transpose treble into bass if there was no bass.

QUOTE (Kalapse @ Nov 21, 2009 -> 06:39 PM) That Griffey deal was a goodwill contract. He's not being counted on give them much in 2010 and will only make $1M-$1.5M to sell a few tickets and keep their relationship with Griffey strong. Griffey could have fit in with the Sox again as a lefty DH if that's the case. You really think that he's "done" as a player?

QUOTE (bmags @ Nov 21, 2009 -> 08:22 AM) Damn, no. And unfortunately, it will be difficult to any time soon. Pssst. Dey have dis thing called the "Internet", see...

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Nov 21, 2009 -> 05:08 PM) Played euphonium (baritone horn) in school and can still play fair to middling. Me too! I bought one a few years ago as a reminisce because I had a school horn when I played and never owned one. I realized then how long ago high school really was.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Nov 21, 2009 -> 04:55 PM) I'm loving the s*** out of these write-ups. I find the drama of these bands, especially those that were formed back in the 60's and 70's, incredibly fascinating. Thanks so much for doing this, Jeremy. I appreciate the thanks in putting it together. But someone with more music history knowledge than me penned the articles.

21. Velvet Underground / Lou Reed 4 of 24 lists - 52 points - highest ranking #4 TheBones The Velvet Underground was an American experimental rock band formed in New York City, New York. First active from 1965 to 1973, their best-known members were Lou Reed and John Cale, who both went on to find success as solo artists. Although never commercially successful while together, the band is often cited by many critics as one of the most important and influential groups of their era and to many future musicians. The Velvet Underground first gained a degree of fame and notoriety in New York City in 1966 when they were selected as the house band for Andy Warhol's Factory and his Exploding Plastic Inevitable events. The band's music and lyrics challenged conventional societal standards of the time, and broke ground for other musicians to do the same. The band favored experimentation, and also introduced a nihilistic outlook through some of their music. Their outsider attitude and experimentation has since been cited as pivotal to the rise of punk rock and, later, alternative rock. Their 1967 debut album, titled The Velvet Underground & Nico (which featured German singer Nico, with whom the band collaborated) was named the 13th Greatest Album of All Time, and the "most prophetic rock album ever made" by Rolling Stone in 2003. The foundations for what would become the Velvet Underground were laid in late 1964. Singer/guitarist Lou Reed had performed with a few short-lived garage bands and had worked as a songwriter for Pickwick Records (Reed described his tenure there as being "a poor man's Carole King"). Reed met John Cale, a Welshman who had moved to the United States to study classical music. Cale had worked with experimental composers John Cage and La Monte Young but was also interested in rock music. Young’s use of extended drones would be a profound influence on the early Velvets’ sound. Cale was pleasantly surprised to discover Reed’s experimentalist tendencies were similar to his own: Reed sometimes used alternative guitar tunings to create a droning sound. The pair rehearsed and performed together, and their partnership and shared interests steered the early direction of what would become the Velvet Underground. Reed’s first group with Cale was The Primitives, a short-lived group assembled to support a Reed-penned single, "The Ostrich". Reed and Cale recruited Sterling Morrison—a college classmate of Reed’s who had already played with him a few times—to play guitar, and Angus MacLise joined on percussion. This quartet was first called The Warlocks, then The Falling Spikes. The Velvet Underground was a book about the secret sexual subculture of the early '60s by Michael Leigh that Cale's friend Tony Conrad showed to the group. Reed and Morrison have reported the group liked the name, considering it evocative of "underground cinema", and fitting, as Reed had already written "Venus in Furs", a song inspired by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's book of the same name, dealing with masochism. The band immediately and unanimously adopted the book's title for its new name. The newly named Velvet Underground rehearsed and performed in New York City. Their music was generally much more relaxed than it would later become: Cale described this era as reminiscent of beat poetry, with MacLise playing gentle “pitter and patter rhythms behind the drone.” In July 1965, Reed, Cale and Morrison recorded a demo tape at their Ludlow Street loft. When he briefly returned to Britain, Cale gave a copy of the tape to Marianne Faithfull, hoping she’d pass it on to Mick Jagger. Nothing ever came of the demo, but it was eventually released on the 1995 box set Peel Slowly and See. Manager and music journalist Al Aronowitz arranged for the group's first paying gig - $75 to play at Summit High School, in Summit, New Jersey. When the group decided to take the gig, MacLise left the group, protesting what he considered a sellout. “Angus was in it for art,” Morrison reported. MacLise was replaced by Maureen “Moe” Tucker, the younger sister of Morrison's friend Jim Tucker. Tucker’s abbreviated drum kit was rather unusual: she generally played on tom toms and an upturned bass drum, using mallets as often as drumsticks, and she rarely used cymbals. (The band having asked her to do something unusual, she turned her bass drum on its side and played standing up. When her drums were stolen from one club, she replaced them with garbage cans, brought in from outside.) Her rhythms, at once simple and exotic (influenced by the likes of Babatunde Olatunji and Bo Diddley records), became a vital part of the group’s music. The group earned a regular paying gig at a club and gained an early reputation as a promising ensemble. Andy Warhol became the band's manager in 1965 and suggested they feature the German-born singer Nico on several songs. Warhol's reputation helped the band gain a higher profile. Warhol helped the band secure a coveted recording contract with MGM's Verve Records, with himself as nominal "producer", and gave the Velvets free rein over the sound they created. During their stay with Andy Warhol, the band became part of his multimedia roadshow, Exploding Plastic Inevitable, for which they provided the music. They played shows for several months in New York City, then traveled throughout the United States and Canada until its last installment in May 1967. The show included 16 mm film projections and colors by Warhol. In 1966 MacLise temporarily rejoined the Velvet Underground for a few EPI shows when Reed was suffering from hepatitis and unable to perform. For these appearances, Cale sang and played organ and Tucker switched to bass guitar. Also at these appearances, the band often played an extended jam they had dubbed "Booker T", after musician Booker T. Jones; the jam later became the music for "The Gift" on White Light/White Heat. Some of these performances have been released as a bootleg; they remain the only record of MacLise with the Velvet Underground. MacLise was said to be eager to rejoin the group now that they'd found some fame, but Reed specifically prohibited this. In December 1966, Warhol and David Dalton designed Issue 3 of the multimedia Aspen. Included in this issue of the "magazine", which retailed at $4 per copy and was packaged in a hinged box designed to look like Fab laundry detergent, were various leaflets and booklets, one of which was a commentary on rock and roll by Lou Reed, another an EPI promotional newspaper. Also enclosed was a 2-sided flexi disk, side one produced by Peter Walker, a musical associate of Timothy Leary, and side two titled "Loop", credited to the Velvet Underground but actually recorded by Cale alone. "Loop", a recording solely of pulsating audio feedback culminating in a locked groove, was "a precursor to [Reed's] Metal Machine Music", say Velvets archivists M.C. Kostek and Phil Milstein in the book The Velvet Underground Companion. Indeed, "Loop" predates Reed's almost identical concept (Metal Machine Music being a double album, obviously with different feedback, also concluding side four with a locked groove) by nearly ten years ("Loop" also predates much industrial music as well). More significantly, from a retail standpoint, "Loop" was the group's first commercially available recording as the Velvet Underground. At Warhol's insistence, Nico sang with the band on three songs of their debut album, The Velvet Underground & Nico. The album was recorded primarily in Scepter Studios in New York City during April 1966. (Some songs were re-recorded, along with the new song "Sunday Morning", later in the year with Tom Wilson producing.) It was released by Verve Records in March 1967. The album cover is famous for its Warhol design: a yellow banana with “Peel slowly and see” printed near a perforated tab. Those who did remove the banana skin found a pink, peeled banana beneath. This gimmick would later be repeated on the cover of one of several Velvet Underground boxed sets, also titled Peel Slowly and See, released in 1995. Eleven songs showcased their dynamic range, veering from the pounding attacks of "I’m Waiting for the Man" and "Run Run Run," the droning "Venus in Furs" and "Heroin", the chiming and celestial "Sunday Morning" to the quiet "Femme Fatale" and the tender "I’ll Be Your Mirror," as well as Warhol's own favorite song of the group, "All Tomorrow's Parties." The overall sound was propelled by Reed’s deadpan vocals, Cale's droning viola, Nico's equally deadpan vocals, Morrison's often rhythm and blues– or country-influenced guitar, and Tucker’s simple but steady beat. The album was released on March 12, 1967, peaking at #171 on Billboard magazine's Top 200 charts. The promising commercial debut of the album was dampened somewhat by legal complications: the album’s back cover featured a photo of the group playing live with another image projected behind them; the projected image was a still from a Warhol motion picture, Chelsea Girls. The film’s cinematographer, Eric Emerson, had been arrested for drug possession and, desperate for money, claimed the still had been included on the album without his permission (in the image his face appears quite big, but upside down). MGM Records pulled all copies of the album until the legal problems were settled (by which time the record had lost its modest commercial momentum), and the still was airbrushed out. Nico moved on after the band severed its relationship with Andy Warhol, however recording began on their second album in September 1967, White Light/White Heat, with Tom Wilson as producer. The Velvet Underground performed live often, and their performances became louder, harsher and often featured extended improvisations. Cale reports that at about this time the Velvet Underground was one of the first groups to receive an endorsement from Vox. The company pioneered a number of special effects, which the Velvet Underground utilized on the album. Sterling Morrison offered the following input regarding the recording: There was fantastic leakage cause everyone was playing so loud and we had so much electronic junk with us in the studio—all these fuzzers and compressors. Gary Kellgren, who is ultra-competent, told us repeatedly: "You can't do it—all the needles are on red." and we reacted as we always reacted: "Look, we don't know what goes on in there and we don't want to hear about it. Just do the best you can." And so the album is fuzzy, there's all that white noise.... we wanted to do something electronic and energetic. We had the energy and the electronics, but we didn't know it couldn't be recorded.... what we were trying to do was really fry the tracks. The recording was raw and oversaturated. Cale has stated that while the debut had some moments of fragility and beauty, White Light/White Heat was "consciously anti-beauty." The title track and first song starts things off with John Cale pounding on the piano like Jerry Lee Lewis. The eerie, hallucinatory "Lady Godiva’s Operation" remains Reed’s favorite track on the album[citation needed]. Despite the dominance of noisefests like "Sister Ray" and "I Heard Her Call My Name," there was room for the darkly comic "The Gift," a short story written by Reed and narrated by Cale in his deadpan Welsh accent. The meditative "Here She Comes Now" was later covered by Galaxie 500, R.E.M., Cabaret Voltaire, and Nirvana. The album was released on January 30, 1968, entering the Billboard Top 200 chart for two weeks, at number 199. However, tensions were growing: the group was tired of receiving little recognition for its work, and Reed and Cale were pulling the Velvet Underground in different directions. The differences showed in the last recording session the band had with John Cale in February 1968: two pop-like songs in Reed’s direction ("Temptation Inside Your Heart" and "Stephanie Says") and a viola-driven drone in Cale’s direction ("Hey Mr. Rain"). (None of these songs were released until they were included on the VU and Another View compilation albums.) Further, some songs the band had performed with Cale in concert, or that he had co-written, were not recorded until after he had left the group (such as "Walk It and Talk It," "Guess I’m Falling in Love," "Ride into the Sun," and "Countess from Hong Kong"). Before work on their third album started, Cale was eased out of the band and was replaced by Doug Yule of Boston group the Grass Menagerie, who had opened several VU shows. The Velvet Underground was recorded in late 1968 (released in March 1969). The cover photograph was taken by Billy Name. The LP sleeve was designed by Dick Smith, then a staff artist at MGM/Verve. Released on March 12, 1969, the album failed to make Billboard’s Top 200 album chart. It has often been reported that the early edition of the Velvet Underground was a struggle between Reed and Cale's creative impulses: Reed's rather conventional approach contrasted with Cale's experimentalist tendencies. According to Tim Mitchell, however, Morrison reported that there was creative tension between Reed and Cale but that its impact has been exaggerated over the years. In any case, the harsh, abrasive tendencies on the first two records were almost entirely absent on their third platter, The Velvet Underground. This resulted in a gentler sound influenced by folk music, prescient of the songwriting style that would form Reed's solo career. Another factor in the change of sound was the band's Vox amplifiers and assorted fuzzboxes being stolen from an airport while they were on tour; they obtained replacements by signing a new endorsement deal with Sunn. In addition, Reed and Morrison had purchased matching Fender 12-string electric guitars. Doug Yule plays down the influence of the new equipment, however. Morrison's ringing guitar parts and Yule's melodic bass guitar and harmony vocals are featured prominently on the album. Reed's songs and singing are subdued and confessional, and he shared lead vocals with Yule, particularly when his own voice would fail under stress. Doug Yule sang the lead vocal on "Candy Says" (about the Warhol superstar Candy Darling), which opens the LP, and a rare Maureen Tucker vocal is featured on "After Hours," a song that Reed said was so innocent and pure he couldn't possibly sing it himself. The album's influence can be heard in many later indie rock and lo-fi recordings. The Velvet Underground spent much of 1969 on the road, feeling they were not accepted in their hometown of New York City and not making much headway commercially. The live album 1969: The Velvet Underground Live was recorded in October 1969 and released in 1974 on Mercury Records at the urging of rock critic Paul Nelson, who worked in A&R for Mercury at the time. Nelson asked singer-songwriter Elliott Murphy to write liner notes for the double album which began, “I wish it was a hundred years from today….” During the same year, the band recorded on and off in the studio, creating a lot of material that was never officially released due to disputes with their record label. What many consider the prime of these sessions was released many years later as VU. This album has a transitional sound between the whisper-soft third album and the pop-rock songs of their final record, Loaded. The rest of the recordings, as well as some alternate takes, were bundled on Another View. After Reed’s departure, he later reworked a number of these songs for his solo records (“Stephanie Says,” “Ocean,” “I Can’t Stand It,” “Lisa Says,” “She’s My Best Friend”). Indeed, most of Reed’s early solo career’s more successful hits were reworked Velvet Underground tracks (albeit, the ones he wrote), released for the first time in their original version on VU, Another View, and later on Peel Slowly and See. By 1969 the MGM and Verve record labels had been losing money for several years. A new president, Mike Curb, was hired. Curb decided to purge the labels of their many controversial and unprofitable acts. The drug or hippie-related bands were released from MGM, and the Velvets were on his list, along with Eric Burdon and the Animals and Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention. Nonetheless MGM insisted on retaining ownership of all master tapes of their recordings. Atlantic Records signed the Velvet Underground for what would be its final studio album with Lou Reed: Loaded, released on Atlantic’s subsidiary label Cotillion. The album’s title refers to Atlantic’s request that the band produce an album “loaded with hits”. Though the record was not the smash hit the company had anticipated, it contains the most accessible pop the VU had performed, and several of Reed’s best-known songs, including "Sweet Jane” and “Rock and Roll.” Though Tucker had temporarily retired from the group due to her pregnancy, she received a performance credit on Loaded. Except on a few songs, drums were actually played by several people, including Yule, engineer Adrian Barber, session musician Tommy Castanaro, and Doug Yule’s brother Billy, who was still in high school. Disillusioned with the lack of progress the band was making and pressured by manager Steve Sesnick, Reed decided to quit the band in August 1970. The band essentially dissolved while recording the album, and Reed walked off just before it was finished. Lou Reed has often said he was completely surprised when he saw Loaded in stores. He also said, bitterly, “I left them to their album full of hits that I made.” However, Reed was particularly bitter about a verse being edited from the Loaded version of “Sweet Jane.” “New Age” was changed as well: as originally recorded, its closing line (“It’s the beginning of a new age”) was repeated many more times. A brief interlude in “Rock and Roll” was also removed. (Almost three decades later, the album would be reissued as "Fully Loaded" with the edits restored and all versions included.) On the other hand, Yule has pointed out that the album was to all intents and purposes finished when Reed left the band and that Reed had been aware of most, if not all, of the edits. The few weeks between Reed’s departure in late August and Loaded’s arrival in the shops in September of the same year also would have left little room for the whole process of editing, reviewing, mastering and pressing. Even though Loaded’s spin-off single “Who Loves the Sun” had little success, “Sweet Jane” and “Rock and Roll” became U.S. radio favorites, and the band, featuring Walter Powers on bass, with Doug Yule taking over lead vocals and guitar, went on the road once more, playing the U.S. East Coast and Europe. By that time, however, Sterling Morrison had obtained a B.A. degree in English, and left the group to pursue a Ph.D. in medieval literature at the University of Texas at Austin. His replacement was singer/keyboard player Willie Alexander. The band played shows in England, Wales, and the Netherlands, some of which are collected on the 2001 box set Final V.U.. In 1972 Atlantic released Live at Max's Kansas City, a live bootleg of the Velvet Underground’s final performance with Reed, recorded by fan Brigid Polk on August 23, 1970. Meanwhile, the Doug Yule-fronted edition of the band was touring the United Kingdom when Sesnick managed to secure a recording contract with Polydor Records in England. He then allegedly sent Tucker, Powers and Alexander back to the US (effectively ending their tenures with the group) while Yule recorded the album Squeeze under the Velvet Underground name virtually by himself, with only the assistance of Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice and a few other session musicians. Prior to the release of Squeeze, a new Velvet Underground lineup was assembled to tour the UK to promote the upcoming album. This version of The Velvet Underground consisted of Yule, Rob Norris (guitar), George Kay (bass guitar) and Mark Nauseef (drums). Sesnick left the band shortly before the tour started, and Yule left when the brief tour ended in December 1972. Squeeze was released a few months later in February 1973, in Europe only. The album is a controversial item among Velvet fans, generally held in low regard by fans and critics: Stephen Thomas Erlewine notes that the album received “uniformly terrible reviews” upon initial release, and was often "deleted" from official V.U. discographies. Although Yule had theoretically put an end to The Velvet Underground in late 1972, in the spring of 1973 a covers band featuring Doug Yule (vocal guitar), Billy Yule (drums), George Kay (bass) and Don Silverman (guitar) played the New England bar circuit, and was billed as The Velvet Underground by the tour's manager. (The Yule brothers and Kay had all previously played in various Velvet Underground incarnations.) The band members objected to the billing, and in late May 1973, the band and the tour manager parted ways. . . . In 1971 Lou Reed signed a recording contract with RCA and recorded his first solo album in London with top session musicians including Steve Howe and Rick Wakeman, members of the progressive rock group Yes. The album, simply titled Lou Reed, contained smoothly produced, re-recorded versions of unreleased Velvet Underground songs, some of which were originally recorded by the Velvets for Loaded but shelved (see the Peel Slowly and See box set). This first solo album was overlooked by most pop music critics (although Stephen Holden in Rolling Stone called it "almost perfect") and it did not sell in significant numbers. In 1972 Reed released the glam rock record Transformer. David Bowie and Mick Ronson co-produced the album and introduced Reed to a wider popular audience (specifically in the UK). The hit single "Walk on the Wild Side" was both a salute and swipe at the misfits, hustlers, and transvestites in Andy Warhol's Factory. The song's cleverly transgressive lyrics evaded radio censorship. Though musically somewhat atypical for Reed, it eventually became his signature song. The song came about as a result of his commission to compose a soundtrack to a theatrical adaptation of Nelson Algren's novel of the same name, though the play failed to materialize. Ronson's arrangements brought out new aspects of Reed's songs; "Perfect Day", for example, features delicate strings and soaring dynamics. It was rediscovered in the 1990s and allowed Reed to drop "Walk on the Wild Side" from his concerts. Though Transformer would prove to be Reed's commercial and critical pinnacle, there was no small amount of resentment in Reed devoted to the shadow the record cast over the rest of his career. A public argument between Bowie and Reed ended their working relationship for several years, though the subject of the argument is not known. The two reconciled some years later, and Reed performed with Bowie at the latter's 50th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden in 1997. The two would not formally collaborate again until 2003's The Raven. Reed followed Transformer with the darker Berlin, which tells the story of two junkies in love in the titular city. The songs variously concern domestic abuse ("Caroline Says I", "Caroline Says II"), drug addiction ("How Do You Think It Feels"), adultery and prostitution ("The Kids"), and suicide ("The Bed"). As he had done with Berlin after Transformer, in 1975 Reed responded to his glam rock success with a commercial failure, a double album of electronically generated audio feedback, Metal Machine Music. Critics interpreted it as a gesture of contempt, an attempt to break his contract with RCA or to alienate his less sophisticated fans. But Reed claimed that the album was a genuine artistic effort, even suggesting that quotations of classical music could be found buried in the feedback. Lester Bangs declared it "genius", though also as psychologically disturbing. The album was reportedly returned to stores by the thousands after a few weeks. Though later admitting that the liner notes' list of instruments is fictitious and intended as parody, Reed maintains that MMM was and is a serious album. He has since stated though that at the time he had taken it seriously, he was also "very stoned". In the 2000s it was adapted for orchestral performance by the German ensemble Zeitkratzer. By contrast, 1975's Coney Island Baby was mainly a warm and mellow album, though for its characters Reed still drew on the underbelly of city life. At this time his lover was a transgender woman, Rachel, mentioned in the dedication of "Coney Island Baby" and appearing in the photos on the cover of Reed's 1977 "best of" album, Walk on the Wild Side: The Best of Lou Reed. While Rock and Roll Heart, his 1976 debut for his new record label Arista, fell short of expectations, Street Hassle (1978) was a return to form in the midst of the punk scene he had helped to inspire. But ironically Reed was dismissive of punk and ...'disclaimed any identity with punk '"Its... [r]idiculous I'm too literate to be into punk rock...The whole CBGB's, new Max's thing that everyone's into and what's going on in London — you don't seriously think I'm responsible for what's mostly rubbish?" ''The Bells (1979) featured jazz great Don Cherry, and was followed the following year by Growing Up in Public with guitarist Chuck Hammer. Around this period he also appeared as a sleazy record producer in Paul Simon's film One Trick Pony. Reed also played several unannounced one-off concerts in tiny downtown Manhattan clubs with the likes of Cale, Patti Smith, and David Byrne during the period, but full reconciliation between Cale and Reed was implausible. Cale later wrote the song "Woman" about Reed on his album BlackAcetate. In 1980, Reed married British designer Sylvia Morales. They were divorced more than a decade later. While together, Morales inspired some of Reed's best known love songs, particularly "Think it Over" from 1980's Growing Up in Public and "Heavenly Arms" from 1982's The Blue Mask. After Legendary Hearts (1983) and New Sensations (1984) fared adequately on the charts, Reed was sufficiently rehabilitated as a public figure to become spokesman for Honda scooters. On September 22, 1985, Reed performed at the first Farm Aid concert in Champaign, Illinois, USA. He performed "Doin' The Things That We Want To", "I Love You, Suzanne", and "New Sensations" from "New Sensations", and "Walk on The Wild Side". In 1986, he joined the Amnesty International A Conspiracy of Hope Tour and was outspoken about New York's political issues and personalities on the 1989 album New York, commenting on crime, AIDS, Jesse Jackson, Kurt Waldheim, and Pope John Paul II. Following Warhol's death after routine surgery in 1987, Reed again collaborated with John Cale on 1990's Songs for Drella (Drella - Warhol's nickname - is a blend of the words "Dracula" and "Cinderella"). The album marked an end to a 22-year estrangement. The album took the shape of a Warhol biography; on the album, Reed sings of his love for his late friend, but also criticizes both the doctors who were unable to save Warhol's life and Warhol's would-be assassin, Valerie Solanas. In 1990, following a 20-year hiatus, the Velvet Underground reformed for a Cartier benefit in France. Reed released his sixteenth solo record, Magic and Loss in 1992, an album about mortality, inspired by the death of two close friends from cancer. In 1993, the Velvet Underground again reunited and toured throughout Europe, although plans for a North American tour were cancelled following another falling out between Reed and Cale. In 1994, Reed appeared in A Celebration: The Music of Pete Townshend and The Who, also known as Daltrey Sings Townshend. This was a two-night concert at Carnegie Hall produced by Roger Daltrey in celebration of his fiftieth birthday. In 1994, a CD and a VHS video were issued, and in 1998 a DVD was released. Reed performed a radically rearranged version of "Now And Then" from Psychoderelict. In 1996, the Velvet Underground were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the induction ceremony, Reed performed a song entitled "Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend" alongside former bandmates John Cale and Maureen Tucker, in dedication to Velvet Underground guitarist Sterling Morrison, who had died the previous August. Reed has since been nominated for the Rock Hall as a solo artist twice, in 2000 and 2001, but has not been inducted. His 1996 album, Set the Twilight Reeling, met with a lukewarm reception, but 2000's Ecstasy drew praise from most critics, including Robert Christgau. In 1996, Reed contributed songs and music to Time Rocker, an avant-garde theatrical interpretation of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine staged by theater director Robert Wilson. The piece premiered in the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, Germany, and was later also shown at The Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. In May 2000, Reed performed before Pope John Paul II at the Great Jubilee Concert in Rome. In 2000, a new collaboration with Robert Wilson called Poe-Try was staged at the Thalia Theater in Germany. As with the previous collaboration Time Rocker, Poe-Try was also inspired by the works of a 19th-century writer: Edgar Allan Poe. Reed became interested in Poe after producer and long-time friend Hal Willner had suggested him to read some of Poe's text at a Halloween benefit he was curating at St. Ann's Episcopal Church in Brooklyn. For this new collaboration, Lou Reed reworked and even rewrote some of Poe's text as well as included some new songs based on the theme explored in the texts. In 2001, Reed made a cameo appearance in the movie adaptation of Prozac Nation. On October 6, 2001 the New York Times published a Lou Reed poem called Laurie Sadly Listening in which he reflects upon the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Incorrect reports of Reed's death were broadcast by numerous US radio stations in 2001, caused by a hoax email (purporting to be from Reuters) which said he had died of a drug overdose. In 2003, he released a 2-CD set, The Raven, based on "Poe-Try". Besides Lou Reed and his band, the album featured a wide range of actors and musicians including singers David Bowie, Laurie Anderson, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, The Blind Boys of Alabama and Antony Hegarty, saxophonist and long-time idol Ornette Coleman, and actors Elizabeth Ashley, Christopher Walken, Steve Buscemi, Willem Dafoe, Amanda Plummer, Fisher Stevens and Kate Valk. The album consisted of songs written by Reed and spoken-word performances of reworked and rewritten texts of Edgar Allan Poe by the actors, set to electronic music composed by Reed. At the same time a CD version of the albums, focusing on the music, was also released. A few months after the release of The Raven, a new 2-CD Best Of-set was released, entitled NYC Man (The Ultimate Collection 1967-2003), which featured an unreleased version of the song "Who am I" and a selection of career spanning tracks that had been selected, remastered and sequenced under Lou's own supervision. In April 2003, Lou Reed embarked on a new world tour supporting both new and released material, with a band including celliste Jane Scarpantoni and singer Antony Hegarty. During some of the concerts for this tour, the band was joined by Master Ren Guangyi, Lou's personal Tai Chi instructor, performing Tai Chi movements to the music on stage. This tour was documented in the 2004 double disc live album Animal Serenade, recorded live at The Wiltern in Los Angeles. In 2003, Reed released his first book of photographs, Emotions in Action. This work actually was made up out of two books, a larger A4-paper sized called "Emotions" and a smaller one called "Actions" which was laid into the hard cover of the former. After Hours: a Tribute to the Music of Lou Reed was released by Wampus Multimedia in 2003. In 2004, a Groovefinder remix of his song, "Satellite of Love" (called "Satellite of Love '04") was released. It reached #10 in the UK singles chart. Also in 2004, Lou Reed contributed vocals and guitar to the track "Fistful of love" on I Am a Bird Now by Antony and the Johnsons. In 2005, Reed did a spoken word text on Danish rock band Kashmir's album No Balance Palace. In 2003, Reed was also a judge for the third annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists' careers. In January 2006, a second book of photographs called "Lou Reed's New York" was released. At the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, Reed performed "White Light/White Heat" with The Raconteurs. Later in the night, while co-presenting the award for Best Rock Video with Pink, he exclaimed, apparently unscripted, that "MTV should be playing more rock n' roll." In October 2006, Lou Reed appeared at Hal Willner's Leonard Cohen tribute show "Came So Far For Beauty" in Dublin, beside the cast of Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Antony, Jarvis Cocker, Beth Orton, and others. According to the reports, he played a heavy metal version of Cohen's "The Stranger Song". He also performed "One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong" and two duets — "Joan of Arc", with Cohen's former back-up singer Julie Christensen, and "Memories" — in a duet with Anjani Thomas. The tracks are available on bootleg releases. In December 2006, Lou Reed played a first series of show at St. Ann's Warehouse, Brooklyn, based on his 1973 Berlin song cycle. Reed was reunited on stage with guitarist Steve Hunter, who played on the original album as well as on Rock 'n' Roll Animal, as well as joined by singers Antony Hegarty and Sharon Jones, pianist Rupert Christie, a horn and string section and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. The show was being produced by Bob Ezrin, who also produced the original album, and Hal Willner. The stage was designed by painter Julian Schnabel and a film about protagonist "Caroline" directed by his daughter, Lola Schnabel, was being projected to the stage. A live recording of these concerts was also published as a film (directed by Schnabel) which was released spring 2008. The show was also played at the Sydney Festival in January 2007 and throughout Europe during June and July 2007. The album version of the concert, entitled Berlin: Live At St. Ann's Warehouse, was released in 2008. In April 2007, he released Hudson River Wind Meditations, his first record of ambient meditation music. The record was released on the Sounds True record label and contains four tracks that were said to have been composed just for himself as a guidance for Tai Chi exercise and meditation. In May 2007 Reed performed the narration for a screening of Guy Maddin's silent film The Brand Upon the Brain. In June 2007, he performed live at the Traffic Festival 2007 in Turin, Italy, a five-day free event organized by the town. In August 2007, Reed went into the studio with The Killers in New York City to record "Tranquilize", a duet with Brandon Flowers for The Killers' b-side/rarities album, called Sawdust. During that month, he also recorded guitar for the Lucibel Crater song "Threadbare Funeral", which appears on their full-length CD The Family Album. In October 2007, Lou Reed gave a special performance in the Recitement song "Passengers". The album combines music with spoken word. The album was composed by Stephen Emmer and produced by Tony Visconti. Hollandcentraal was inspired by this piece of music and literature, which spawned a concept for a music video. On October 1, 2008, Reed joined Richard Barone via projected video on a spoken/sung duet of Reed's "I'll Be Your Mirror," with cellist Jane Scarpantoni, in Barone's "FRONTMAN: A Musical Reading" at Carnegie Hall. On April 12, 2008, Lou Reed married Laurie Anderson in a private ceremony in Boulder, Colorado. On August 9, 2009, Lou Reed performed as a subheadlining act at Lollapalooza in Chicago's Grant Park. On October 30th, 2009, Lou Reed performed the songs Sweet Jane and White Light White Heat with Metallica at Madison Square Garden as part of the 25th-anniversary celebration of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Velvet Underground/Lou Reed discography 1966 All Tomorrow's Parties 1966 Sunday Morning 1968 White Light/White Heat 1968 I Heard Her Call My Name 1969 What Goes On 1971 Who Loves the Sun 1972 Walk on the Wild Side b/w Perfect Day - US #16 1973 Satellite of Love b/w Vicious 1984 I Love You, Suzanne - Mainstream Rock Tracks #31 1985 Foggy Notion 1986 No Money Down - Mainstream Rock Tracks #19 1989 Dirty Blvd. - Mainstream Rock Tracks #18 - Modern Rock Tracks #1 1989 Busload of Faith - Modern Rock Tracks #11 1990 Nobody But You - Modern Rock Tracks #13 1992 What's Good - Modern Rock Tracks #1 Factoid: After quitting the Velvet Underground in August 1970, Reed took a job at his father's tax accounting firm as a typist, by his own account earning $40 a week. "Satellite of Love" http://media-convert.com/convert/?xid=7-whlghrit

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22. System Of A Down 4 of 24 lists - 50 points - highest ranking #4 SoxAce, whitesox901 System of a Down (sometimes simply referred to as SOAD or System) is a Grammy Award-winning Armenian-American rock band from Glendale, California, formed in 1994. System of a Down consists of Serj Tankian (lead vocals, keyboards and rhythm guitar), Daron Malakian (vocals and lead guitar), Shavo Odadjian (bass), John Dolmayan (drums). The band has released five studio albums and have sold over 20 million records worldwide. They have been nominated for four Grammy Awards, of which they have won one in 2006 for Best Hard Rock Performance. The group went on indefinite hiatus August 13, 2006. Daron Malakian met Serj Tankian in 1992, while they both shared the same rehearsal studio in different bands. They formed a jam band called Soil (Serj on vocals/keyboards and Daron on guitar; not to be confused with the Chicago band Soil) with Domingo Laranio (drums) and Dave Hakopyan (bass).[citation needed] Around this time, they also met Shavo Odadjian. After about a year, with one supposed jam session recording and one live show, Dave and Domingo left, thinking the band wasn't going anywhere (Hakopyan would later co-found the band The Apex Theory which, in 2007, changed their name to Mt. Helium). The band later broke up and Tankian and Malakian, along with Shavo Odadjian and Ontronik "Andy" Khachaturian, formed a new band "System of a Down," adapting the name from a poem Daron wrote entitled "Victims of the Down". Shavo Odadjian thought that the word System appealed to a much broader audience than "Victims," and they wanted their albums to be stored near the band Slayer. Odadjian was the band's original manager and promoter, but joined as the bassist, and managerial duties were taken over by the Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group and founder David "Beno" Benveniste. System of a Down quickly made what is known as their early Untitled 1995 Demo Tape, which had very early recordings of "Mr. Jack" (called "PIG"), along with a song called "Flake," and an early recording of "The Metro," a cover of the Berlin song of the same name. It is rumored that there are other tapes made, which contain early recordings of "Friik," "36" (called ".36"), and "Roulette." After this, the band recorded three public demos, which have been numbered as Demo Tape 1 to 3, as the early 1995 demo was not discovered until much later. Many of the songs featured on the demos would eventually make their way onto the band's debut album. In mid 1997, Khachaturian left the band due to a hand injury (he subsequently co-founded The Apex Theory, which included former Soil bassist Dave Hakopyan). Soon after playing at the Whisky-A-Go-Go and Viper Room with new drummer John Dolmayan, the band caught the attention of producer Rick Rubin, who asked them to keep in touch with him. Showing great interest, they recorded yet another demo near the end of that year. This demo, however, was made only to be sent to record companies. The tape was not released to the public until years later when it was leaked onto the Internet. After Rick helped them get signed onto American/Columbia Records, System of a Down began to record in his studio. In 1997, the group won the Best Signed Band award from the Rock City Awards. In the summer of 1998 (June 1998), System of a Down released their debut album, System of a Down. They enjoyed moderate success with their first single "Sugar" becoming a radio favorite, followed by the single "Spiders." After the release of the album, the band toured extensively, opening for Slayer and Metallica before making their way to the second stage of Ozzfest. Following Ozzfest, they toured with Fear Factory and Incubus before headlining the Sno-Core Tour with Puya, Mr. Bungle, The Cat and Incubus providing support. In 2000, the band contributed their cover of the Black Sabbath song "Snowblind" to the Black Sabbath tribute album Nativity in Black 2. Toxicity is the second album by System of a Down. Produced by Rick Rubin, Toxicity was released on September 4, 2001 by American Recordings, debuting at #1 on both the United States and Canadian charts. Toxicity has sold over 12 million copies worldwide and is multi-platinum in the United States. Toxicity received mass critical acclaim, making many end-of-year "best of" lists (such as being named SPIN Magazine's #1 record of the year), and earning a Grammy nomination for lead single "Chop Suey!". It is the only System of a Down album not to feature the Parental Advisory label, with only minor profanities. However, a limited edition of the album containing a bonus CD with behind the scenes footage of the making of the album does feature the Parental Advisory label, while a different limited edition containing a DVD with the "Toxicity" music video and live footage also does not feature the label. The song "Shimmy" was featured in the 2002 video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. The song "Chop Suey!" was featured in the 2008 video game Rock Band 2. The song "Science" was featured in the 2002 video game ATV Offroad Fury 2. The song "X" was originally recorded for the bands' 1998 self-titled debut but it was re-worked for Toxicity. "Toxicity" was made available as a downloadable song for the music video game series Rock Band on August 5, 2008, and it is also featured in the video game Guitar Hero: Metallica. The album is listed in Blender's 500 CDs You Must Own. From 2004 to 2005, the group produced a double album, with the two parts released six months apart. The first album, Mezmerize, was released on May 17, 2005, to favorable reviews by critics. It debuted at #1 in the United States, Canada, Australia and all around the world, making it System of a Down's second #1 album. First week sales rocketed to over 800,000 copies worldwide. The Grammy Award-winning single "B.Y.O.B.," which questions the integrity of military recruiting in America, worked its way up the Billboard Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts. The next single, "Question!" was released with Shavo Odadjian co-directing the music video. Following the release of Mezmerize, the band toured extensively throughout the United States and Canada with The Mars Volta and Bad Acid Trip supporting. The second part of the double album, Hypnotize, was released on November 22, 2005. Like Mezmerize, it debuted at #1 in the US, making System of a Down, along with The Beatles, Guns 'N Roses, and rappers 2Pac and DMX, the only artists to ever have two studio albums debut at #1 in the same year. In February 2006, System of a Down won the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance for "B.Y.O.B.," beating out other established artists such as Nine Inch Nails and Robert Plant. Their second single off the Hypnotize album, "Lonely Day" was released in March in the United States. System of a Down released "Kill Rock 'N Roll" and "Vicinity of Obscenity" as their next promo singles. The band headlined Ozzfest 2006 in cities where tour founder Ozzy Osbourne opted not to appear or wasn't playing on the main stage. System of a Down's songs were used in the 2006 film Screamers, directed by Carla Garapedian. They appeared in the movie, in an interview talking about the importance of helping create awareness and recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Screamers debuted in theaters in large city markets such as New York City, Detroit, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Fresno, Providence, and Boston. An earlier engagement started exclusively in Los Angeles on December 8, 2006. Also, "Lonely Day" appeared on the soundtrack for the 2006 movie Disturbia. System of a Down was honored at the USC v. Cal game at the Los Angeles Coliseum in Los Angeles, California in 2006. The Trojan Marching Band, along with Dolmayan and Odadjian, performed three System of a Down songs: "Toxicity", "Sugar", and "Hypnotize". System of a Down's song "Lonely Day" was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance in the 49th Grammy Awards in 2007, but lost to "Woman" by Wolfmother. In May 2006, the band announced they were going on hiatus. Malakian has confirmed the break will probably last a few years, which Odadjian specified as a minimum of three years in an interview with Guitar magazine. He told MTV, "We're not breaking up. If that was the case, we wouldn't be doing this Ozzfest. We're going to take a very long break after Ozzfest and do our own things. We've done System for over ten years, and I think it's healthy to take a rest." The stylistic variety and level of experimentation in System of a Down's music has made it difficult to describe. Though they have evolved their sound with each album, System of a Down has, for the most part, maintained a single style throughout their body of work. This style has variously been termed alternative metal, alternative rock, art rock, experimental rock, hard rock, heavy metal, nu metal, progressive metal and progressive rock. Malakian has stated that "We don't belong to any one scene" and that "I don't like the nu-metal drop-A 7-string guitar sound; it is not my thing, at least not yet". According to Tankian, "As far as arrangement and everything, [our music] is pretty much pop. To me, System of a Down isn't a progressive band. But it's not a typical pop project, obviously. We definitely pay attention to the music to make sure that it's not something someone's heard before." The band has used a wide range of instruments, including electric mandolins, baritone electric guitars, acoustic guitars, ouds, sitars and twelve string guitars. According to Malakian, he would often write songs in E♭ tuning, which would later be changed to drop C tuning in order to be performed by the band. Malakian states that "For me, the drop-C tuning is right down the center. It has enough of the clarity and the crisp sound—most of our riffy stuff is done on the top two strings, anyway—but it's also thicker and ballsier." The band's influences include Middle Eastern music, The Beatles, Frank Zappa and Slayer. The band's musical style has often been compared to that of Zappa. Malakian has stated that "I'm a fan of music. I'm not necessarily a fan of any one band." Dolmayan stated "I dont think we sound like anybody else. I consider us System of a Down." Odadjian stated "You can compare us to whoever you want. I don't care. Comparisons and labels have no effect on this band. Fact is fact: We are who we are and they are who they are." System of a Down discography 1998 "Sugar" - Main #28 - Mod #31 2001 "Chop Suey!" - Hot #76 - Main #12 - Mod #7 2002 "Toxicity" - Hot #6 - Main #2 - Mod #2 2002 "Aerials" - Hot #55 - Main #1 - Mod #1 2005 "B.Y.O.B." - Hot #27 - Main #1 - Mod #1 2005 "Question!" - Hot #58 - Main #3 - Mod #9 2006 "Hypnotize" - Main #57 - Mod #5 2006 "Lonely Day" - Hot #123 - Main #9 - Mod #10 Factoid: System of a Down's "Chop Suey" was in a list of songs that was to be temporarily removed from Clear Channel's airplay following 9/11 due to "questionable lyrics." "Chop Suey" http://media-convert.com/convert/?xid=7-aaakyyql

23. The Doors 3 of 24 lists - 50 points - highest ranking #1 Sox1422 The Doors was an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California by vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger. They are considered a controversial and influential band, due mostly to Morrison's cryptic lyrics and unpredictable stage persona. After Morrison's death on July 3, 1971, the remaining members continued as a threesome until disbanding in 1973. Despite a career that barely totaled eight years, The Doors still enjoy a huge cult following as well as status in the mainstream music industry as being hugely influential and original. According to the RIAA, they have sold over 32.5 million albums in the US alone. The origins of The Doors lie in a chance meeting between acquaintances and fellow UCLA film school alumni Jim Morrison and Ray Manzarek on Venice Beach California in July 1965. Morrison told Manzarek he had been writing songs (Morrison said "I was taking notes at a fantastic rock-n-roll concert going on in my head") and, with Manzarek's encouragement, sang "Moonlight Drive". Impressed by Morrison's lyrics, Manzarek suggested they form a band. Keyboardist Manzarek was in a band called Rick & the Ravens with his brothers Rick and Jim Manzarek, while drummer John Densmore was playing with The Psychedelic Rangers, and knew Manzarek from meditation classes. In August, Densmore joined the group and, along with members of The Ravens and bass player Pat Sullivan (later credited using her married name Patricia Hansen in the 1997 box CD release), recorded a six-song demo in September 1965. This circulated widely as a bootleg recording and appeared in full on the 1997 Doors box set. That month the group recruited guitarist Robby Krieger, and the final lineup — Morrison, Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore — was complete. The band took their name from the title of a book by Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception (1954). That title was in turn taken from a line in a poem entitled "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" by the 18th-century artist and poet William Blake: "If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite". The Doors were unusual among rock groups because they rarely used a bass guitar when playing live. Instead, Manzarek played the bass lines with his left hand on the newly invented Fender Rhodes Piano Bass, an offshoot of the Fender Rhodes electric piano, playing other keyboards with his right hand. On their studio albums (with the notable exception of their eponymous first record), The Doors did sometimes use bass players, such as Douglas Lubahn, Jerry Scheff, Harvey Brooks, Lonnie Mack, Larry Knechtel and Leroy Vinnegar. Many of The Doors' original songs were group compositions, with Morrison or Krieger contributing the lyrics and an initial melody, and the others providing harmonic and rhythmic suggestions, or even entire sections of songs, such as Manzarek's organ introduction to "Light My Fire". By 1966, the group was playing the London Fog club and soon graduated to the prestigious Whisky a Go Go, where they were the house band, supporting acts including Van Morrison's group Them. On their last night together the two bands joined up for "In the Midnight Hour" and a twenty-minute jam session of Them's "Gloria". On August 10, they were spotted by Elektra Records president Jac Holzman who was present at the recommendation of Love singer Arthur Lee, whose group was on Elektra. After Holzman and producer Paul A. Rothchild saw two sets of the band playing at the Whisky a Go Go, they signed them to the Elektra Records label on August 18—the start of a long and successful partnership with Rothchild and engineer Bruce Botnick. The timing was fortunate, because on August 21 the club fired the band after a profanity-filled performance of "The End". In an incident that foreshadowed the controversy that later followed the group, an acid-tripping Morrison raucously recited his own version of the Greek drama Oedipus Rex, in which Oedipus unknowingly kills his father and has sex with his mother. 'The Doors' self-titled debut LP was released in the first week of January 1967. It featured most of the major songs from their set, including the 11.5-minute musical drama "The End". The band recorded their first album at Sunset Sound Recording Studios - 6650 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, Aug. 24-31 in 1966; almost entirely live in the studio. In November 1966, Mark Abramson directed a promotional film for the lead single "Break On Through (To the Other Side)." To promote the single, the Doors made their television debut on a Los Angeles TV show called Boss City, circa 1966, possibly early 1967 and then on a Los Angeles TV show called Shebang, miming to "Break On Through," on New Years 1967. This clip has never been officially released by the Doors. The second single, "Light My Fire," became a smash hit after its release in June 1967, selling 1 million copies and reaching #1 on the Billboard Charts on July 29, keeping the top spot for three weeks. It helped established the group as one of America's counterculture bands. For AM radio airplay, the long middle organ and guitar solos were cut from the song making it 2:52 instead of the 7:06 original. In September 1967 the Doors gave a memorable performance of "Light My Fire" on the Ed Sullivan Show. According to Ray Manzarek, network executives asked that the word 'higher' be removed in favor of 'better', as you couldn't say 'high' on national TV. The group initially agreed to this, but nonetheless performed the song in its original form, either because they had never intended to comply with the request, or Jim Morrison was nervous and forgot to make the change (Manzarek has given conflicting accounts). Either way, 'higher' was sung out on national TV, and a furious Ed Sullivan canceled another six shows that had been planned, to which Jim Morrison reportedly said: "Hey man, so what? We just did the Ed Sullivan Show". The second Doors LP, Strange Days, continued to explore the genre of acid rock. The closing track, "When the Music's Over," evoked the length and drama of "The End." The album was also commercially successful and featured now-classic Doors songs such as "People Are Strange" and "Love Me Two Times." In April, the recording of the third album was marred by tension as a result of Morrison's increasing dependence on alcohol and drugs, and the rejection of his new epic "The Celebration of the Lizard" by the band producer Paul Rothchild who deemed the work not commercial enough. Approaching the height of their popularity, the Doors played a series of outdoor shows that led to frenzied scenes between fans and police, particularly at Chicago Coliseum on May 10. The band began to branch out from their initial form for their third LP. Because they had exhausted their original repertoire, they began writing new material. Waiting for the Sun became their first #1 LP, and the single "Hello, I Love You" was their second and last US #1 single. In 1968, controversy arose with the release of the "Hello, I Love You" single when the rock press pointed out the song's musical resemblance to The Kinks' 1965 hit, "All Day and All of the Night." Members of the Kinks have concurred with music critics; Kinks guitarist Dave Davies has been known to add snippets of "Hello, I Love You" during live solo performances of "All Day and All of the Night" as a sarcastic commentary on the subject. In concert, Morrison was occasionally dismissive of the song, and left the vocal chores to Manzarek, as can be seen in the documentary The Doors are Open. A month after riotous scenes took place at the Singer Bowl in New York, the group flew to Britain for its first venue outside of North America. They held a press conference at the ICA Gallery in London and played shows at The Roundhouse Theatre. The results of the trip were broadcast on Granada TV's The Doors Are Open, which was later released on video. They played dates in Europe, along with Jefferson Airplane, including a show in Amsterdam where Morrison collapsed on stage from a drug binge. The group flew back to the US and played nine more US dates before returning to work in November on their fourth LP. They ended the year with a successful new single, "Touch Me," (released in December 1968), which hit US #3. In 1969, they started the year with a sold out show at Madison Square Garden on January 24. The Doors' fourth album, The Soft Parade, released in June, further distanced the group from their core fan base, containing pop-oriented arrangements and horn sections. The lead single "Touch Me" featured saxophonist Curtis Amy. While the band was trying to maintain their previous momentum, efforts to expand their sound gave the album an experimental feel, causing critics to attack their musical integrity. According to John Densmore in his biography "Riders On The Storm" individual writing credits were noted for the first time because of Morrisons reluctance to sing the lyrics of Robbie Kriegers song "Tell All The People". Morrison's drinking made him difficult and unreliable, and the recording sessions dragged on for months. Studio costs piled up, and The Doors came close to disintegrating.[citation needed]. Despite all this, the album was immensely successful, becoming the band's fourth hit album. During the recording of their next album, in November 1969, Morrison found himself in trouble with the law after harassing an airline staff during a flight to Phoenix, Arizona to see The Rolling Stones in concert. He was acquitted the following April after a steward mistakenly identified Morrison as his traveling companion, American actor Tom Baker.[citation needed] The group started 1970 in New York with two well-received nights at The Felt Forum, just prior to the release of Morrison Hotel. The Doors staged a return to form with their 1970 LP Morrison Hotel, their fifth album. Featuring a consistent, hard rock sound, the album's opener was "Roadhouse Blues." The record reached US #4 and revived their status among their core fanbase and the rock press. Dave Marsh, the editor of Creem magazine, said of the album: "the most horrifying rock and roll I have ever heard. When they're good, they're simply unbeatable. I know this is the best record I've listened to ... so far". Rock Magazine called it "without any doubt their ballsiest (and best) album to date". Circus Magazine praised it as "possibly the best album yet from the Doors" and "Good hard, evil rock, and one of the best albums released this decade". The album also saw Jim Morrison returning as main songwriter, writing or co-writing all of the album's tracks (as opposed to the poppier The Soft Parade, for which Robbie Krieger contributed a large number of songs). Once The Doors had completed Morrison Hotel, with a tour to support it, Morrison and the band found their career consumed by the Miami trial. July 1970 saw the release of The Doors' first live album, Absolutely Live. The 40th Anniversary CD reissue of Absolutely Live contains outtakes and alternate takes, including different versions of "The Spy" and "Roadhouse Blues" (with Lonnie Mack on bass guitar and The Lovin' Spoonful's John Sebastian on a bluesy harmonica). The band continued to perform at arenas throughout the summer. Morrison faced trial in Miami in August, but the group made it to the Isle of Wight Festival on August 29. They performed alongside artists such as Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Joni Mitchell, Miles Davis and Sly & The Family Stone. Two songs from the show were featured in the 1995 documentary Message To Love. Back in Miami for his trial, Morrison took the stand on September 16, but the jury returned a guilty verdict for profanity and indecent exposure on September 20. Morrison was sentenced to eight months' custody but was allowed to go free pending an appeal. On October 30, 1970, Morrison was found guilty of two charges: profanity and indecent exposure. He was acquitted of the charge of drunkenness but found guilty of lewd behavior, a felony. The verdict was contested and Morrison died in July 1971 while his case was still on appeal. The Doors set to reclaim their status as a premier act with L.A. Woman in 1971. It contained two top 20 hits and has gone on to be their second best-selling studio album, surpassed in sales only by their debut. The album explored their R&B roots, although during rehearsals they had a falling-out with Rothchild. Denouncing "Riders on the Storm" as 'cocktail music,' he quit and handed the production to Botnick. The singles "L.A. Woman", "Love Her Madly", (the Doors last top ten hit), and "Riders on the Storm" remain mainstays of rock radio programming. During the sessions, a short clip of the band performing "Crawling King Snake" was filmed. So far as known, this is the last clip of the Doors performing with Morrison. Morrison died on July 3, 1971. In the official account of his death, he was found in a Paris apartment bathtub by Courson. Pursuant to French law, no autopsy was performed because the medical examiner claimed to have found no evidence of foul play. The absence of an official autopsy has left many questions regarding Morrison's cause of death. Herve Muller has reported that he believes that Jim died of a heroin overdose at the RnR Circus. This is corroborated by the manager of the club Sam Bernett in a 2007 interview, and subsequent book. Morrison was buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery on July 7. The Doors discography 1967 "Break on Through (To The Other Side)" - #106 1967 "Light My Fire" - #1 1967 "People Are Strange" - #12 1967 "Love Me Two Times" - #25 1968 "The Unknown Soldier" - #39 1968 "Hello, I Love You" - #1 1969 "Touch Me" - #3 1969 "Wishful Sinful" - #44 1969 "Tell All The People" - #57 1969 "Runnin' Blue" - #64 1970 "Roadhouse Blues" - #50 1971 "Love Her Madly" - #11 1971 "Riders on the Storm" - #14 1971 "Tightrope Ride" - #71 1972 "The Mosquito" - #85 1983 "Gloria" - #71 Factoid: Morrison died at age 27, the same age as several other famous rock stars, including Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, and Janis Joplin. "Roadhouse Blues" http://media-convert.com/convert/?xid=7-itnzadqp

Spoiled like yogurt.

Ah yes, "Song of the South."

I had to take this class 4 times in college to get a "C."

Bradley for Halladay?

QUOTE (JoeCoolMan24 @ Nov 19, 2009 -> 07:46 PM) And then last year I was sitting right next to the bullpen. The whole game I was trying to get Linebrink, Jenks, and Thornton to notice me or give me a ball saying "tomorrow is my birthday!!" (and it really was). They never paid me any attention. Then as Jenks was starting to go back down to the bench after throwing in the pen, my buddy and I yell out a joke to him. I figured he was ignoring us, but as soon as we said the punchline he looked up at us and starting laughing. My whole section enjoyed the joke and were shocked that Jenks acknowledged us and laughed at the joke. I was in Cleveland for a game a few years ago and Matt Stairs was in RF for Toronto. The Indians fans were merciless in taunting him. One guy though, cracks this joke, that damn I wish I could remember it, but everyone in our section and Stairs himself starting laughing. At the end of an inning, Stairs caught out 3 and tossed the ball to the heckler as a nod to the clever joke.

Iverson could play 40 minutes, but he'd shoot 25% because his shots would start getting short in the 4th quarter.