Gratitude 6:31 PM

Back in 1621 the white man shared the first Thanksgiving feast with the Wampanoag Indians.  It was basically an act of gratitude because without the Wampanoag, those stupid white folks would have all perished of exposure, scurvy and contagious disease outbreaks before half of them even set foot off the deck of the Mayflower.  Those Indians brought five deer to the party and I am sure they enjoyed themselves very much.  Good thing too, because a short century later they would be victims of early Germ Warfare when Jeffrey Amherst would supply them with small-pox infected blankets.  And everyone is aware of the controversial reality of modern Native American reservations.  But, that's neither here nor there.  Grab yourself some Green Bean Casserole and put some extra whipped cream on that slice of pumpkin pie while you enjoy:

5 Songs About Native American Indians

1.  "White Man"  Queen - A Day at the Races

A Night at the Opera is well known because the album includes the overplayed song Bohemian Rhapsody.  I think the companion album, A Day at the Races is much better.  It has one of my favorites, a track called "Drowse" that absolutely encapsulates a lazy Sunday afternoon and the feelings from those teenage days when your innocence is long gone but you are not yet faced with the burden of being an adult.  White Man, written by Brian May is the second track on side B.  It's definitely not his best and it's pretty heavy handed with the cliches but still confirms that Brian May is one of the most underrated guitarists of all time.

2.  "Indians"  Anthrax - Among the Living

In Junior High I wore a denim jacket regardless of the weather.  I ran the earphones from my Walkman up the sleeve and I would cup them in my palm and then rest my head in my hand with my elbow on the desk in a typical bored classroom position.  It looked like I was paying attention but really I was rocking the fuck out!  No wonder I suck at math and geography.  Among the Living was a tape I pretty much wore out along with Megadeth's Peace Sells... But Who's Buying and Eddie Murphy's Delirious.  Indians is pure thrash metal goodness with Joey Belladonna shrieking shit like "Even though they know how much their live are really missin, we're dissin them".

3.  "Run to the Hills"  Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast

Iron Maiden!  It's awesome that Iron Maiden's twin guitar assaults are paired with lyrics that have been inspired by history, film and literature instead of some typically asinine doom/gloom/sex metal bullshit.  The Number of the Beast was Bruce Dickinson's first effort with the band after replacing Di'Anno.  Run to the Hills is an epic song with lyrics depicting both sides of the war between Native Americans and the evil White Man.

4.  "Castles Made of Sand"  Jimi Hendrix -  Axis: Bold As Love

This album was playing the first time I ever smoked pot.  Track two, Side two of the Album is Castles Made of Sand, known for it's insanely weird backwards solo.  I love the second verse about a young Indian Brave whose dreams of becoming a fearless Indian Chief are cut short.

5.  "Johnny Kick a Hole in the Sky"  Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mother's Milk

I almost didn't include this one because I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I used to like the Red Hot Chili Peppers.  Whatever, fuck it.  This was the first album of theirs that I bought.  I still liked them through Blood Sugar Sex Magic then I pretty much woke up.  Hearing anything from their current, radio friendly abortions, makes me want to grab the nearest implement I can find that can be used to stab my fucking eardrums into ruin.  You would think that although I no longer like this band, I could still go back and at least get some nostalgia listening to those old albums.  Not the case at all.  When I listen to Mother's Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magic or Uplift Mofo Party Plan, I fucking cringe at how terrible that shit is.  They are the embodiment of everything that sucks about mainstream music.

SHP Bonus Video:  This song is less about Indians then it is about making sweet love to those hot, all-natural 70's chicks.  Check out the full Indian feather headdress Steve Priest is rocking.  So good.

The Music Made Me 9:45 AM

Music has shaped and informed my life more than anything else.  All of history has a soundtrack and the musical trends of the time reflect the political and socioeconomic climate as well as the popularity and effects of every drug known to mankind.  Most of us are able to associate our most significant life experiences with specific music.  Do you remember what was playing on the radio when you were dry humping your boyfriend/girlfriend in the back of your dad's big Buick?  What was that anthem you would crank up and play loud as fuck the summer you graduated from High School?  What was the first album you bought with your own money?  What did you listen to the first time you smoked pot or dropped acid?  How many albums can you sing every word to, air guitar every solo perfectly and even tap out every drum fill with? 

The soundtrack of our lives is endless and as varied as each of our personal life experiences.  Sleeping Horse Pills documents some of our most memorable music milestones in The Music Made Me.  Eric Karg (Nam Diaries, A Milwaukee Mugging) begins the first installment with First Albums, where we learn about his discovery of Combat Rock by the Clash.

Please comment freely and share the album/artist/band that will permanently reside in the inscribed, modulated spiral groove of your life.  As always, if you would like to submit something more in depth contact Sleeping Horse Pills at shpestamuerto@gmail.com.

First Albums by Eric Karg 

There are so many firsts all jumbled together stammering for a spot on line.  Several loom large as first albums for me.  The Who's Face Dances, The Go-Go's Beauty and the Beat, but today the one that stands out the most is The Clash's Combat Rock.  All allusions to the side, this was the album that felt as if it were written for me.  In matters of fact, it wasn't even mine.  I borrowed it from the library when it came out.

I played it as all the records were played in my household, on my father's Panasonic turntable, a model that had an accompanying tape deck and tuner. I brought it home one afternoon and set to listening, surrounded by the blue flowered bedspread on my parents' bed and the white motif of the rest of the room.  Before this, I would listen to the radio there. You know, Lipps Inc. Funky Town where I would sing along (with strong conviction) the chorus.   Tattoo You by the Rolling Stones.  They were the choices of whatever the local DJ's were playing at WSPT.  Or conversely, my sisters' albums; the Divinyl's, Duran Duran.  But the Clash was something I could call my own.  The musicians bedecked in camouflage fatigues on a train track for the album cover.  Bold, but unlike the posters of REO Speedwagon or Bad Company. Those other bands took the positions of musicians in the sales pitch.  They were arrogant and flagrant in their stances.  The Clash were standing, trying it seemed to share something to the person with the right kind of ears.  I (as instructed by my older sister) gently plied the needle to the record and with total inexperience and anticipation, absorbed the content.  I still do it the same way today despite years of accumulated cynicism.   I can't recall interpreting any distinct messages at the time.  I just listened to it this afternoon and it has lost no power.   Listening today, I can still see how my personal acculturation during that time made this such an important album.  And this day I posit to you that the Clash was so far ahead of their time in the sense of political rock, it has existed almost unnoticed in that arena.   MTV was just a baby at the time and you can forget the inclusive Rock the Vote. 
 

In no particular order:

Rock the Casbah:  It's seemingly casual with the topic, pitting the Muslims against the Catholic in a combat situation while lyrically being almost playful.  “The jet pilots listen to the catholic radio blare, as soon as the Sharif was out of there, they began to wail.”  Wail in this case suggesting that it's at this point where the pilots were to drop “bombs among the minarets”.

Straight to Hell Boys:  This was the most emotional for me.  The inner sleeve photo of the band set in a hut somewhere in Thailand.  With the punk style fatigues suggesting more in the way of combat, looking world weary.  This, coming on the heels of America's involvement in Vietnam stood out strong.  This was years before Oliver Stone did Platoon, and as a country we were still a little new at this kind of war.  A war in which every engagement can be won and the people you're fighting to save don't care.  Forty years later I still can't bring myself to say we lost the war.  But that's what it says in the books and it's a focus for rock and roll Brits.   The cover of the album itself was provocative while the song again, not in a judging way, calls into question the very nature of the human psychological involvement in a war assumed to be just.

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?:  A lot could be said about the inner workings of the punk social-cultural scene of the early eighties, but I'll leave that for a more qualified scholar.   For me, I spill more pounds in sweat dancing to this song than any other!  I'm including Ballroom Blitz!  Punk meets Pop in the repetition of the music with a demanding query in the chorus.  The song fit nicely with a boy who was good at football but not good at model airplanes.   I could gyrate as violently as was my want, while in tandem with overwhelming hormones, put the ball in the theoretical other persons court.  God I miss punk.

Sean Flynn:  Does this one speak to me because of the beautiful intro suggesting the Irish countryside?  Does something sad lurk nearby?   This is one of those songs that always seemed to be playing well into a reflective study after a purgative rock out session.   I have never listened to this song while listening to this song.  I am always lost in a reprieve.  I hope it's the same for you.

Car Jammin':  Pretty tame in my estimation.  A nice intro to the album.   Strummer explores his interest in the migration of island music into America's lower economic class and pairs it with the Raga and Ska that was so popular in England at the time.  I'm probably projecting here, but Strummer made music that reached a wider audience, and it really was inclusive.  He never seemed to judge the humble people of the world while at the same time, pouring it on thick to old people and their crumbling institutions.  So, I feel a little redemptive self forgiveness in this song, but it still maintains my youthful arrogance.

Overpowered By Funk:  Well .….not every song is a hit.  I wonder if looking back, this wasn't just a song meant to get down to without all the mental bullshit attached to politicking.  It kind of says it in the title.

Know Your Rights:  This starts the album off with a frenetic pace but yet it's still just barely contained.  This song is an example of Strummer straight from the heart.   It's a less revolutionary and more sardonic representation of living in a top heavy capitalist society.  Who amongst us has not been hassled by the cops at a traffic stop or been forced into community obligation that costs real money.  It's not about class warfare but rather about the dismissive and arrogant nature of man's behavior against his neighbor.  It's the way the Jones' are behaving while you're trying to keep up with them.

Atom Tan:  Reminiscent of some Adam Ant songs.  Fun.

Red Angel Dragnet:  This is the song that started the memory.  Not because of the content or its powerful message, but rather the experience I had the day after I brought the album home.  Now for those of you who did not grow up in the Midwest during the nineteen eighties, I will fill you in.  As a practitioner of Dungeons and Dragons and a listener of Rock and Roll, the number one danger to the youth was indoctrination to Satanism.   It was a bit of hysteria set up by some enterprising youth pastors without a flock.  I remember sitting in one church youth group after another watching video tapes describing in detail, the pitfalls of Satan worship inherent in Dungeons and Dragons.   Let alone the tsunami of backwards messaging secretly recorded onto the popular albums of the time.  I and my friends spent many an hour in the basements of our respective homes listening to Styx, Beatles and lots of Led Zeppelin!  We really scared the hell out of ourselves.   It was in this environment that my caring and concerned mother found Combat Rock.  After perusing the song titles, she found Red Angel Dragnet.   To my mother, this could mean only one thing;  a task force of the devil was working their way across America, gathering up undisciplined and foolish children who, in their cut off jean shorts were listening to AC/DC and swimming at undesignated swimming holes. 

 

Truth be told, this song is about the inception of a NYC citizen police force protecting people from a dangerous subset of drug using villains who covered New York like lice during the eighties.  Founded by Chris Sliwa in 1979, it now patrols over 144 different cites.  I met the founder in 1989 when I more resembled the persons he was guarding the rest of society from.  But thats another story.  My mother gave me a brief and stern correction and left with the album to the library in the belief that its very discussion was an invitation to the Dark Powers.  Best just to be rid of the thing in short order.  It was years till I was able to listen again in detail.  Unlike most of the music out at the time, or even compared to music today, Combat Rock hasn't lost a thing.  I'm listening to it now.

Hollywood Refugees 10:21 PM

You must have heard by now that Randy Quaid and his wife Evi are in legal shit up to their elbows and buried neck deep in crazy.  They are "Hollywood Refugees", seeking asylum in Canada for protection against a mysterious group known as Star Whackers.  They believe that their very lives are in danger and that they are the target of both Star Whackers and the Hollywood Mafia, whom they claim are responsible for the deaths of Heath Ledger and David Carradine among others.  They claim that Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Mel Gibson are also targets.  Last year, Evi was given probation and community service when the couple failed to settle up on a $10,000 hotel tab.  They are currently awaiting a hearing on their refugee status in Canada while wanted in the U.S. for missing court dates related to allegations that they are responsible for $5,000 in damage to a guest home they previously owned and were recently caught squatting in.

I know that Hollywood can be a bitch and that many successful industry people, at some point face the fact that they are penniless while their agents, lawyers and other vermin really have control of their money.  But Star Whackers?  Come on man.  I really think that Evi is more than slightly imbalanced in the cranial capacity that commands common sense and sanity.  Perhaps she has been the bug in Randy's ear for too long.  I do believe that lawyers, even friends and family members could be accused of manipulating Randy for his money, but nobody is involved in a major conspiracy to end their lives in order to gain access to their fortune.  However, when I entered "Star Whackers" into the Google search bar, nothing substantial came up!  What does this mean?!  Maybe it really is a super secret organization that is underground, malicious and capable of offing Hollywood's finest.

STAR WHACKERS HIT LIST

Apparently, there is a large contingent of people out there that believe 110% in this conspiracy as well as others.  Here is a link to a recent statement made by Randy to the Canadian press. The best part is reading the comments.  And here is a good article from the Ottawa Citizen.

Sleeping Horse Pills does not have the energy to report fully on all the Hollywood goings on so we will leave that to the experts.  However, regardless of the current Randy Quaid debacle, he is a 30 year veteran of the silver screen and has blessed us with characters as unforgettable as Cousin Eddie in National Lampoon's Vacation franchise.  He had a small part in 2005's Brokeback Mountain but his last worthwhile performances were in 1995's Kingpin and Independence Day.  Since then, he has been in about 45 other projects.  I recognize none of them.  Most of them are television credits or what appear to be films that went straight to DVD and straight from the dusty corner of your now defunct Blockbuster into the 3 for $5 bin at your local car wash.

Although he is better known for his appearances in Vacation and Independence Day, my favorite film with Randy Quaid is 1973's The Last Detail.  The young Quaid earns an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor in his role as Meadows.  Hal Ashby directs this awesome rite of passage, road trip buddy flick also starring a young Jack Nicholson.

5 Reasons you need to watch The Last Detail 

1.  Randy Quaid shows incredible talent in his portrayal of Meadows.  It is his best, most honest work before he goes on to being stuck in the character actor roles of the "Big Dumb Guy" in his later career.  He is 23 when The Last Detail is filmed.

2.  The script contained so much profanity that filming was put on hold for two years, at which time the foul language standards were relaxed.  If you think I use coarse language in my writing, then fuck you!  The characters in this film cuss like, well, sailors.  The tag line for the film is "No *#@!!* Navy's going to give some poor **!!@* kid eight years in the #@!* brig without me taking him out for the time of his *#@!!* life".

"Always wanting to call me Bad Ass"

3.  It's directed by Hal Ashby.  Yeah, the same dude that gave us Being There and Harold and Maude.  While re-watching The Last Detail recently I thought that it could have been something done really well in the hands of Wes Anderson.  Anderson references the film in The Royal Tenenbaums when Royal turns to his grandsons, Ari and Uzi, after a failed visit to the graveyard and says "C'mon, let's shag ass".

4.  I cannot stress enough how amazing Jack Nicholson is in his 70's flicks.   He did Five Easy Pieces (1970), The Last Detail (1973), Chinatown (1974), and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).  And to bookend the 70's he gave us Easy Rider (1969) and The Shining (1980).

5.  This scene has "Bad Ass" Buddusky fucking with a redneck bartender while Meadows and Mule look on.  It is the catalyst to every crazy, heartfelt, unrealized, disappointing, hilarious, uncomfortable, necessary and fruitless moment that follows in the film.

Meadows enjoys a hotdog despite having no bun. It makes me think of the line he says 10 years later in Vacation:  "I don't know why they call it Hamburger Helper.  Does just fine by itself".