The issue also contains an interview with Carly Simon conducted by Scissor Sisters front man Jake Shears. The interview has yet to be put online. Anyone with access to the article is encouraged to write in and tell us about it.

[W]hen Carole King came to the studio with Semisonic while we were mixing All About Chemistry and we listened to the playback of "One True Love," the Semisonic song I wrote with her. That was just about as good as I expect it to get.

Read the entire interview at Globecat.com.

First of all, check out all the names that show up in this New York Times blog just a couple days ago, reporting on the acts that will show up at the conventions. My hunch is the list is much, much longer.

Excuse my Boomer attitude but, I've gotta wonder, where's the real political conviction that we saw in past decades from pop stars? McGovern, despite his abysmal showing on the electoral map in '72, was among the first to successfully line up a pantheon of political pop personalities -- James Taylor, Carole King, and Barbra Streisand, among others. Now it seems more of a career move for artists as they choose just the right venue and release advance notices to just the right media for obviously promotional purposes. And then there's Chris Daughtry who, infuriatingly, will perform at private events for both conventions. For the first time, I almost regret all those damned text votes I cast a couple years ago during a better-than-usual season of American Idol.

Let me share a bit of history -- did you know that every campaign going back to Washington has had a quasi-official song? I came across this recording, "Presidential Campaign Songs, 1789 to 1996" by Canadian-born folksinger Oscar Brand. It contains a few expected classics, like "I'm Just Wild About Harry" for Truman and "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" (the Fleetwood Mac hit) for our first Boomer president, Bill Clinton ('92 and '96). And then there are a few discoveries like "Hello Lyndon" (for LBJ, '64, to the tune of "Hello Dolly") and "Rumadum Dum" for Zachary Taylor early in the nineteenth century. I just like the title of that one. OK, enough history, already.

You probably saw that Jackson Browne had to do a "cease and desist" just a few weeks ago with the McCain campaign's co-opting his hit "Running on Empty." Bruce Springsteen, one of the few current rock stars with a heartfelt passion for politics, is sure to provide some recognizable melodies and sentiments in the coming weeks. It's worth noting that his "Born in the USA" was seized by the Reagan campaign a few decades ago and then had to be relinquished when the Boss protested its use for a candidacy he didn't support.

So give a good listen over the coming weeks as music weaves itself into the campaigns. In the avalanche of words with the reporting, debates, press releases, and spin sessions, one thing is for certain: music -- with its ability to rally, energize, speak to the heart, and get people on their feet -- will play a big role in American politics, this year and always.

Oh, did you wonder about this blog's title. "Happy Days Are Hear Again"? The Ager/Yellen tune from 1929 was written for the movie Chasing Rainbows and then used for FDR's first presidential campaign in 1932. Since then, it's been the unofficial song of the Democratic Party. You'll hear it this next week, who knows, maybe sung by J Lo. But the best interpretation still belongs to Barbra Streisand, first recording it on her debut album. I'll close with this YouTube performance of Babs appearing on the Dinah Shore show in May 1963, when America was captivated by JFK's Camelot.

"I'm Into Something Good" was recorded in 2006. From a 2007 Sydney Morning Herald article, King had the following to say about the recording session:

"The environment that Brian creates has a lot to do with the fact that he carries with him a childlike innocence and spontaneity," King said in an interview last year, just after that session.

"That is one facet to his brilliance, and yet he is like a savant. You have to care for and nurture that quality because he brings out a protective nature in those around him. Over the years he has revealed that sort of powerful dichotomy of being vulnerable, yet extremely powerful at the same time."

King described the updated treatment of her song as "Brianised". 

La interpretación original de Carole King de esta excelente canción, usada en un excelente episodio

Venga mi muerte, Kimba... digo, Simba

With a mind boggling wealth of research and detail, Sheila provides us with a social history of the women's movement, the Vietnam War, the sixties assassinations, while also giving us the juicy personal biographies of these three fascinating women, born in the mid-1940's.

First of all, I enjoyed this thick tome for its reminders of how much life has changed in America for women since the 1950's. All of these women struggled mightily against a male dominated, sexist world, where womens' identities were very much about the men they were with, and women on their own had few rights and very little power.

They also struggled against their upbring which taught them to minimize themselves and their talent for the men in their lives. The man were seen as the "amazing talent" that these women should put aside their own personal pursuits for, a social phenomenon I call 'selflessness.'

The 1960's were the first time in American history when "young women suddenly stopped seeing marriage as the ultimate event of their early twenties." Conflicts between love and ambition were finally acknowledged as valid and crucial in womens' lives, and these three world class musicians had to live these contradictions on a daily basis.

Joni Mitchell especially struggled with her fundamental need to be an unbound creative spirit in a world that did not appreciate that kind of behavior in women. "She didn't want to be like her grandmothers. They had given up artistic careers to take care of husbands, " said Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills, Nash fame.

BTW, CSN's song "Our House" was written by Nash soon after he moved in with Joni in Laurel Canyon in the late 1960's. Joni's song "My Old Man" from her Blue album is written with Graham Nash in mind.

The book is filled with interesting little tidbits, brief glimpses into the lives of famous people, that remind us of our past while also showing us that being a rock star doesn't solve any of our personal problems. That's always somehow reassuring to me.

It is far too easy to project all sorts of euphoric fantasies onto other peoples' lives and, in that way, feel cheated in our own. In the end we all have to learn to live with ourselves. There's the rub!

Because in the end, domestic abuse is not what you see in the movies; it’s not the erotic passion of Kim Basinger crawling across the floor in "9 ½ weeks," but it’s also not a Lifetime tale of a helplessly shattered woman.  The harsh reality of abuse is that it is full of emotions on both sides, but not the beauty and heart wrenching dysfunctional love that people have come to find enthralling. I know I will not be the only woman to admit that a man unleashing his aggression on me makes me feel wrongly passionate, alive…and well, pretty damn turned on.  Just think back to the innocent pop sound of the 1962 song “He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss),” written by none other than Carole King and co. - listen to the original by the Crystals and check out a great live cover by one of my favorite inappropriately badass babes.

But neither extreme holds true to reality. If your boyfriend hits you, it doesn’t mean he loves you.  But just because he hits you doesn’t mean he is abusive.  There is some line in this blurry universe of domesticated war that seems natural for people to hang around…when the heat rises, horrible words, hands or other foreign objects may start flying.  Now if this is a daily part of you and your partner’s routine, you may want to rethink the relationship, or at least hide all the sharp objects in your house.  But the occasional expression of physical aggravation is normal and I don’t think that every woman should be throwing the word “domestic abuse” around.  The allegations against "Batman" star Christian Bale are close to being dropped, for example, because the motivation has been rumored to be money.  Cases like these simply weaken the support behind those who really do suffer from abusive relationships.  It's a more dangerous version of “the boy who cried wolf" because true domestic violence is a real problem.  Statistics show that in the U.S. about 1.3 million women are assaulted by a partner each year.  Even worse, 1,247 women in the U.S. were killed by an intimate partner in 2000, and those are only the allegations that have been proven (think of the crack in the judicial system that allows a man like O.J. to fall through).

I am not trying to say that hitting people is justified, because in all moral concerns it is wrong.  But humans are not strictly moral beings, and in that way I can understand how a person can hit another person – or, God forbid, how a man could hit a woman.  I know my behavior, and I can understand why ex-boyfriends might think about realigning my teeth with their fist.  For the record, I sometimes want to punch them too.  And I feel a lot more comfortable expressing this desire simply because I am a woman.  While women are most commonly victims of abuse, men are as well - but it's almost a joke in this society for a man to come forward against an abusive woman. For some reason, it is acceptable for women to hit a man across the face as way of expressing their disgust, but a man doing the same thing would get slapped with an assault charge.  In my mind, domestic abuse has been so popularized and trivialized that it takes attention away from the real cause, the real battered women who most often sit in silence rather than throwing around accusations against former NBA players who have deep pockets.  And these men could be abusive, but I can not believe that every acquittal in domestic violence cases is wrong.

Ike, OJ, and even smooth-voiced Jackson Browne.  There are probably a million reasons how truly abusive men like these got their women to stick by them for so long.  Society saw it as almost commonplace.  I do not believe that anyone wants to endure that pain, but if a woman doesn’t leave after that first punch, then chances are she will be around for many more of those throughout the years, if not forever.  At the end of the day I am not sure the “how” matters.  They stayed, and the men received little or no punishment for the tragic outcomes.

Photo Credits: Abuse ads by Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore for Association of Women for Action & Research (2008)

Okay, maybe I'm expecting too much from popular culture. I know I was spoiled during my 70's childhood and I never recovered from it. I realize I'm processing it. But there is a glimmer of hope. I saw this article in the NEW YORK TIMES this morning and I thought "Yes!" You have to do it yourself (make sure you watch the video along with the article). I love these guys! Get on the bus! Show some heart! Do it yourself! Fuck the corporate sponsors! Fuck the PRODUCT PLACEMENT! When GEMINI RISING is finally completed (when that will be who knows but I do have an ending in mind) my plan is to take it on tour in a KEN KESEY magic bus and show it all over the country. There has never been a better time for artists whether in music or film to Do it yourself. It's so cool that people are getting back on the bus, so to speak. It sucks that these guys end up $30,000 in debt at the end of their tour. That speaks volumes about the world we live in and economy this generation of young people are inheriting. A bus can't run on gasoline or vegetable oil or love alone. By eschewing the contamination of corporate sponsorship, funds have to come from somewhere. That's what everyone is trying to figure out now, including me. The model I'm working with now is what a lot of people are doing and I think it's a good way to start. Give away the product (music, film, whatever) and leave it to the fans and viewers to support it. If you like it, make a contribution (on our site you can do that by buying a very cool GR T-shirt) modeled by the gorgeous and talented PAM MCGARVEY :) who we are very lucking to have starring in GR. You can't make excuses, you just have to do it. Alright, Basta! I'll give PATTI the last word! Right on!!

After having Natalie Merchant's song "San Andreas Fault" stuck in my head for the past several days (I even sang it with D last night in the car on the way up to L.A. from Newport), I realize why:

Today I experienced my first one of these. Yup. Click the sentence before to read about my own little earthquake. It's the one at 11:42 a.m., the 5.6 originating in Chino Hills.

And here's the CNN article about it all.

Now I can't get Carole King's "I Feel the Earth Move" out of my head.

Det här hade jag inte sett förrän nu: Carole Kings Tapestry i nyutgåva (igen?) Bonusspår från livespelningar - är det Carnegie Hall-konserten igen? Eller ja, det finns förstås fler konserter att ta av. Jag har lyssnat fruktansvärt mycket på Tapestry, så mycket ett tag att jag inbillade mig att det gick att tycka om även hennes kompis James Taylor på egen hand. Men nä James, det klarar jag väldigt sällan.

Själv får jag skäll (eller...nja, men bandet brukar skratta) när jag ibland i låtar går till det klassiska "Carole King-ackordet". Jodå, det är faktiskt så att ackordet iblandet fått det namnet. Det är dyrt, lyxigt och vackert men kan överanvändas. (En teknisk förklaring vid spel i E-dur: Istället för att låta B7 leda tillbaka till E så spelar Carole King A-dur med tillagd B-ton i basen - ackordet kallas då A/B eller B11.)

Här är titelspåret från Tapestry i nån konstig hopklippt version. Lite brusigt - men fint!

"Sweet Baby James" has another name in my mind and that would be "The Cover King" ! Now I don't mean to take anything from his extraordinary talents as a singer/songwriter, because he has written plenty of classics cuts on his own (e.g. Fire & Rain, Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight, Your Smiling Face, etc.) that have been covered by the best.  It's just that while I was listening to this purchase I came to realize just how many tunes he had covered over the years. But I must say he selected the most beautiful songs to record and did them in his own sweet style.

I am going to share some of the originals with James' covers from this collection and then tell you to go out and make this purchase if you haven't already. I am always looking for commute music and riding along while listening to the mellow singing of Taylor suits me just fine: It really makes a  rush hour trek less stressful.

Released on the Warner Brothers Label in 2003 --

"The album debuted on the Billboard 200 album chart on April 26, 2003 at number 11, with sales of approximately 73,500 copies. It remained on the chart for 42 weeks. It was awarded a certified gold record on December 17, 2003, and a platinum record on April 15, 2005, by the RIAA." (SOURCE)

Track listing

1. "Something In the Way She Moves" (Composed by James Taylor)

2. "Sweet Baby James" (Composed by James Taylor)

3. "Fire and Rain" (Composed by James Taylor)

4. "Country Road" (Single Version) (Composed by James Taylor)

5. "You've Got a Friend"- Composed by the fantastic singer/songwriter Carole King  here is a live performance video of her performing the song followed by an audio clip of Taylor's cover.

[audio http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/1564112_zs5qj/05.You_veGotaFriend.mp3]

6. "You Can Close Your Eyes" (Composed by James Taylor)

7. "Long Ago and Far Away" (Composed by James Taylor)

8. "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" (Composed by James Taylor) BTW if you have never heard  The Isley Brothers' cover of this classic you are missing something awesome. Track it down if you can.

9. "Walking Man" (Composed by James Taylor)5

10. "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" - Composed by Motown's stellar songwriting team of Holland/Dozier/Holland this is one of Marvin Gaye's early breakout hits. Here is a vintage TV performance of him doing his original version followed by an audio clip of Taylor's cover. You may also read more about the song on my companion blog here.

[audio http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/1564084_bhyfb/HowSweetItIs_ToBeLovedbyYou_.mp3]

11. "Mexico"  (Composed by James Taylor)

12. "Shower the People" (Composed by James Taylor) This is one of my favorite Taylor songs. Beautiful sentiment and melody.

13. "Golden Moments" (Composed by James Taylor)

14. "Steamroller" (Live Version) (Composed by James Taylor)

15. "Carolina In My Mind" (1976 Version) (Composed by James Taylor)

16. "Handy Man" - Composed by Otis Blackwell & Jimmy "Handyman" Jones.  Jones not only co-wrote the tune, but was the first to record the song which earned a gold record in 1960. This is the original Jones' release followed by the audio of Taylor's cover version.

[audio http://www.hotlinkfiles.com/files/1564085_wjf5f/16.HandyMan.mp3]

17. "Your Smiling Face"  (Composed by James Taylor)

18. "Up on the Roof" (Composed by Gerry Goffin & Carole King) - This classic was first recorded   by the Drifters went to #5 pop and #4 R&B in 1962. Love it!

19. "Only A Dream In Rio" (Composed by James Taylor)

20. "Bittersweet" (Previously Unreleased)  (Composed by  John Sheldon)

Hope you enjoyed the music.