Defending the 12th century since the 14th; blogging since the 21st.

Catholicism, Conservatism, the Middle Ages, Opera, and Historical and Literary Objets d'Art blogged by a suburban dad who teaches law and writes stuff.


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Who was Cacciaguida? See Dante's PARADISO, Cantos XV, XVI, & XVII.


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Categorizing Blondie

From a recent interview with drummer Clem Burke:

Q. You came out of the legendary CBGB's punk scene, but you're not a punk band --

A. No one at CBGB's was thought of as punk until people outside called them punk. It’s kind of chaotic, what we are. Depending on who you ask we're a punk band, a pop band, a band fronted by a woman singer, whatever. We kind of thrive on that. Debbie is a fantastic lyricist, she doesn't get as much credit for that as she should.

Incidentally, there's a mistake in this CNN story that I blogged a few days ago: "Good Boys" isn't the rap number on their new album; "Shakedown" is, and it's not my favorite -- i.e., neither my favorite cut on the album, nor my favorite Blondie rap. On the album, I prefer "Rules for Living" (sample lyric: "It's a small world after all, but it's older than you think").

As for the other Blondie raps -- I can understand that after the success of "Rapture", they feel there has to be a rap number on each new album. But "Shakedown" is kind of a dreary, angry number about New Jersey street life; in contrast, "Rapture" -- the saga of the Man from Mars and his voracious appetite for improbable edibles that rhyme with Mars -- was funny, and their second rap number, "No Exit", had at least one good line: "Now what they're saying 'round the neighborhood/Is that what he's drinkin' ain't aged in wood."

Apparently their current tour includes a number of the classics: not only "Rapture" but also "Dreaming" (yay!), "Heart of Glass" (yay), "The Tide is High" (er, yay, I guess) and "Call Me" (eh...). I'm really hoping for "X-Offender", "Picture This", "Sunday Girl", and "Maria", and I know that if Debbie asks the audience what our favorite color is, the answer is "blue", and this is the cue for "Look Good in Blue".
posted by Cacciaguida at 10:13 PM