We all want to hear one thing from our sports idols: "I play for the Love of the Game". Even though we know it's BS, it's still a nice mental salve. Our egos do tend to take a bit of a blow when we realize that our athlete worship is being wasted on rich guys with titanic egos who couldn't urinat »»
Night Ranger - Hole in the Sun VH1 Classics (7/1/08) Pop/Rock From Back When Pop/Rock Was Good First Greg Norman at the British Open, now a new release from Night Ranger... I Love The '80s! Even if it's supposedly 2008, I Love The '80s! Seriously, I Love The '80s (and if you're wondering why I k »»
Ramones - It's Alive 1974-1996 Rhino Records (10/2/07) Unrated 262 minutes This review is dedicated to the late Linda Stein. Without the efforts of her and her husband, the CBGBs scene might have remained in the Bowery. Let's all hope that the cops catch whoever did this. Why, yes, indeedy, I s »»
John Fogerty - Revival Concord/Fantasy (10/2/07) Rock A great many of the younger contingent are currently foaming at the mouth at the actions of the RIAA in court. That recent six-figure judgment stirred up the bile even more. However, you're not seeing such dramatic reaction from the older set »»
You'll pardon me while I go off to some e-corner right now and start giggling like a six-year-old girl. It's the appropriate response after seeing Saturday's result. Over at SI.com, Stewart Mandel says he feels totally unqualified to interpret a scoreboard in Ann Arbor that stated, as night fell i »»
I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon By Crystal Zevon Ecco/HarperCollins (5/1/07) ISBN 0-060763-45-9 480 pages Available at Amazon.com This review came about for a rather peculiar reason. I was essentially dared into it. Let me explain... One Friday evening, I was »»
The Grand Illusion: Love, Lies, and My Life With Styx By Chuck Panozzo with Michelle Skettino AMACOM Books (5/15/07) ISBN 0-814409-16-4 225 pages Available At Amazon.com This is a very difficult review to handle from my perspective. After all, Chuck Panozzo is essentially me with a couple of deca »»
Okay, quick question: what's the richest tournament on the PGA Tour? The US Open, right? Gotta be one of the majors, surely? Nope. It's the Players' Championship. Well, it's traditionally been that way. The WGC events have pushed their purses up this year to match the Players' $8M payoff, but »»
Elton John - Rocket Man: Number Ones Island Records (3/27/07) Pop Available at amazon.com So Sir Reginald Dwight recently celebrated his 60th birthday and threw a party for a few thousand of his closest friends at his favorite venue, Madison Square Garden. For those of us closest friends who coul »»
The full text of this column can be found over on Pulse Wrestling - Daniels You just have to shake your head sometimes. Over the last decade, we've seen Tigger do everything, right? Well, he did something Sunday that no one will ever match, until Tim Finchem or his successors get another wild hair »»
Spotlight on James Brown, y'all. He's the king of 'em all, y'all. He's the king of 'em all. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. - Arthur Conley, "Sweet Soul Music" "Sweet Soul Music" is undeniably one of the greatest songs of the late Sixties. But for some reason, it's now turned into a curse. Over the last »»
Once upon a time, there was Burst, a little band from Houston. Back in 2000 and 2001, they put out a couple of songs on mp3.com that received some good notices and a lot of downloads. They successfully fused an edgy, modern sound with classic pop sensibility to give them a unique voice. There was »»
Chicago - Chicago (X)XXII: Stone of Sisyphus Rhino Records (6/17/08; should have been 1993... will explain later) Popus interruptus This one's so weird that VH1's Behind the Music would think twice about broadcasting it. Let me take you back to late 1982, if I may. Yr Humble Scrivener was in col »»
Xanadu on Broadway - The Original Broadway Cast Recording PS Classics (1/8/08) Broadway Available at Amazon.com Oh, is this one going to require an explanation. Fortunately for you, I was there for all of it. And, yes, I remember it well. So grab a seat, a refreshing beverage made by PepsiCo, a »»
Chicago - The Best of Chicago: 40th Anniversary Edition Rhino Records (10/2/07) Classic rock / Anniversary Cash-In Okay, so the math is simple. Get the guy from Chicago who only listens to oldies and classic rock stations to review a Greatest Hits Anniversary Collection from the band named after »»
Pink Floyd - The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (40th Anniversary Edition) EMI/Capitol (9/4/07) Psychedelia / Classic rock / Anniversary Cash-In Like James Agee and Walter Evans, I praise famous men. Actually, I tend to praise men who should be more famous than they are; people you may have heard of »»
The Traveling Wilburys - The Traveling Wilburys Collection Wilbury/Rhino (6/12/2007) Rock Available at Amazon.com In the English language, there are a number of ten-letter obscenities. Lenny Bruce was hauled into court for using one of the more popular ones on one of his many obscenity busts. Bu »»
Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer By Chris Salewicz Faber & Faber (5/15/07) ISBN 0-571211-78-X 640 pages Available At Amazon.com The question still rings out like a challenge and accusation across three decades: "Where were you in '77?" If you worked for one of the three major British »»
Elvis Costello - The Best Of Elvis Costello: The First 10 Years and Rock and Roll Music Hip-O/Universal (5/1/07 for both) Rock / Punk / New Wave Both Available At Amazon.com: The First Ten Years Rock and Roll Music It's a story that just sounds too good to be true. But this is the world of roc »»
Erasure - Light at the End of the World Mute Records (5/22/07) Pop / Electronic / Dance Available At Amazon.com In the beginning, there was a band you may have heard of called Depeche Mode. In their early days, their sound was centered around some of the most unique keyboards of the entire New Wa »»
In Memoriam: Eddie Robinson. Not only a great coach, but a great leader of men and an inspiration to athletes of all colors. Normally I wouldn't throw something like that in here, but a column for Tailgate Crashers seems to be an appropriate place for it. When the calendar turns to April, golfer »»
A Disorderly Compendium Of Golf: Wisdom, Folly, Rules, Truths, Trivia, And More Lorne Rubenstein and Jeff Neuman Workman Publishing Published October 2006 Trade Paperback - $13.95 Amazon link So, you think that since it's after Christmas, your gift-giving season is over, right? Wrong. Not if you »»
And in those days, Giants strode the Earth... We'd see them occasionally on TV, cherubic old men with perpetual smiles watching the game being played, knowing that those smiles were hiding the fact that there was nothing more they wanted than to be out there with a club in their hand and a ball on »»
