Monday Music

Came across this yesterday:

The Pretenders frontwoman and punk pioneer takes questions from Observer readers… (source)

Punk pioneer? Oh please. The Pretenders, while awesome as hell, were NOT punk. The Dead Kennedys, Ramones, Hüsker Dü, Buzzcocks, Sex Pistols, Bad Brains and such—those were punk bands. The Pretenders were a great rock band. Not pop, not punk, not metal, not wildly innovative—just fun rock 'n 'roll.

Who were some of the early punk women? Patti Smith (DUH!), Poly Styrene, Exene Cervenka, Lydia Lunch and more.

From the same column:

‘I’m more relaxed now. Ageing is like being a pothead again.’

I’m aging too—I would like to feel like a pothead again. Of course, I would have had to have ever been one to know what that feels like first. Yes I’ve smoked an awful lot of the demon weed but not enough to be considered a reefer madness queen or a ‘friend of Willie’s.’

Details, details.

Possibly I could become a new, fresh pothead for the 2020s? I’m guessing it’s all about moving slow, letting my mind wander, going with the flow, wearing tie dye and snacking. I believe I’m a natural for this.
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Then there’s this:

A custom-made coat worn by Elvis Presley has sold for more than £120,000 at auction.

The leather and mink garment, worn by Elvis Presley during the last year of his life, went under the hammer at Henry Aldridge & Son auctions in Devizes, Wiltshire on Saturday. (source)

That’s about 160,000 in U.S. buckos. Who, I ask you WHO would spend that kind of money on an old coat worn by a dead, way past his prime, Vegas act? Also, mink and leather—BOTH? Did he keep hamburgers is the pockets. Was their a Canadian lynx hat to go with? Gloves made from dead puppies? I get it—Elvis was an asshole without a shred of respect for the beings with whom we share the planet.

I only mention it but the man didn’t write any of his own songs and he had wicked cheesy taste in stage costumes. He was a singer, an entertainer with some, for the ‘50s, daring moves. By the by, while he could play a few chords, he wasn’t an actual guitarist—the instrument he wore on stage was just a prop. Elvis had nothing on Little Richard who could actually sing, play and move all at the same time. Plus, he wrote his own songs.

If I had $160,000 to spare, I sure as fuck wouldn’t blow it on some dead, sweaty Vegas lounge act’s coat.