From the St. Petersburg Times:

Here, nestled against the plump white pillows of a hospice bed, tucked under four soft blankets and sipping coffee through a straw, lies a man who does not exist. He is very old, and maybe a little deaf. His hair has gone white and his teeth have gone missing. He will tell you he is 95. But later he might say 94, or 93. He says he has traveled the world as a hobo. Slept under trucks, on park benches, in barns. Played football with Burt Reynolds and baseball with Fidel Castro. But his stories shift and change, and he admits he hasn't always been truthful. But no one knows why. He carries no identification. He swears he's never smiled for a passport photo. He has no birth certificate, no Social Security card. No family. Just a couple of old friends. And before he dies, even they want to know: Who is Roger George?

This is the type of story you won't see much in the 21st century. Worth a read.

There are times when I wish I had a ready archive of old rock mags to use as reference to refresh my memory about this band or that album. Someone at Google Books must feel the same way, because they've put up every issue of Spin magazine - going all the way back to May of 1985 - online. Have at it, reader users...

...this latest charge against NY governor Paterson is pretty fucking stupid.

So he got World Series tickets. Whoop de damn do. Does the phrase 'perks of the job' ring a bell with anyone?

Besides - doesn't anyone remember that St. 9/11 not only got tickets, but his pick of World Series swag and a goddamn Series ring?

Geeze. Can we get a little perspective here, please?

I've long held the opinion that Joanna Newsom is a brilliant songwriter and musician, and she offers further proof with her new album, 'Have One On Me.' If you have a couple of hours to kill listening to one of America's most endearingly quirky recording artists (even though her voice has matured quite a bit from the first album, Milk Eyed Mender), NPR Music will let you listen to the whole album online. Well worth your time.

This comes out of the blue. Sad news.

T-Bone Wolk, best known for his work with Hall And Oates, died Saturday, 27 February, of a heart attack at the age of 58.

Since the late '70s, Wolk has been one of the steadiest-working bassists in popular music. A small sampling of his discography is as follows: Carly Simon, Shawn Colvin, Elvis Costello, Roseanne Cash, Cyndi Lauper, Harry Nilsson, Amanda Marshall, Grey Eye Glances, Paul Carrack, Diane Ziegler, Charlie Musselwhite, Jewel, Ivo, Jellyfish, Avril Lavigne, Billy Joel, Joe Pesci, Leslie Miller, John Eddie and Chynna Phillips.

Wolk's two highest-profile gigs, however, were his long-standing stints with Hall And Oates, which began in 1981 (he got the job after playing on Kurtis Blow's breakthrough rap smash, The Breaks) and his on-camera role as bassist in the Saturday Night Live house band, in which he was paired with fellow Hall And Oates band member, guitarist GE Smith.

But Wolk wasn't simply a bass player. He co-produced several Hall And Oates albums, and recently, on Daryl Hall's continuing Internet Show, Live From Daryl's House, he played guitar and served as musical director.

T-Bone was an exceptionally gifted bass player. As my soul-playing friends would say, he always knew where The One was. RIP, Tom.

Anybody want to buy one of the most historic recording studios in history? I'd grab it, but I'm a little short this week...

Cash-strapped music company EMI Group Ltd. is seeking a buyer for Abbey Road studios, where The Beatles recorded some of their most famous songs, a person familiar with the situation said Tuesday.

The person said talks had been going on for several months, but a buyer had not yet been found. The individual spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.

A spokesman for EMI refused to comment on the sale bid, which could raise tens of millions of dollars for the label.

EMI, whose artists include Coldplay, Lily Allen and Robbie Williams, has struggled financially since it was bought in 2007 for 2.4 billion pounds by private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners.

[...]

EMI bought the Georgian town house in London's residential St. John's Wood neighborhood in 1929 and turned it into one of the world's most sophisticated recording studios.

Since the 1960s, it has been one of the world's most famous rock music studios. Albums recorded there include Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon," Wings' "Band on the Run" and Radiohead's "OK Computer."

It is most closely associated with The Beatles, who recorded most of their albums there. The crosswalk in front of the north London studio was immortalized on the cover The Beatles' final studio album, 1969's "Abbey Road."

Skippy introduced me to ReinaDelCid, for which I am eternally grateful.

"Bull Riding Babe" Official Music Video from rma productions on Vimeo.

For folks of a certain age...folks that like NRBQ....folks remembering driving around in cars in the summer with a first love...here's Jim Boggia ready to get ya all wistful:

Never heard of this guy before until Crooks and Liars linked to a different version of this song. So I got the album, and it just goes to show there's real good stuff out there that'll feed your Power Pop Jones (althought I gotta admit, I prefer the album version a bit more, what with being more electric. So when Boggia sings "Big Al took a solo and it sounded like this", well, it does, since NRBQ's Al Anderson guests on the track. Good stuff that puts a grin in your step. Glide in your stride is optional.

My wife sent me a link today that details Windows Phone 7. Judging by the video and article, they've finally come up with an OS for their phones that can not only keep pace with, but maybe even surpass, the iPhone. Josh Topolsky at EnGadget puts it this way:

Forget everything you know about Windows Mobile. Seriously, throw the whole OS concept in a garbage bin or incinerator or something. Microsoft has done what would have been unthinkable for the company just a few years ago: started from scratch. At least, that's how things look (and feel) with Windows Phone 7 Series. This really is a completely new OS -- and not just Microsoft's new OS, it's a new smartphone OS, like webOS new, like iPhone OS new. You haven't used an interface like this before (well, okay, if you've used a Zune HD then you've kind of used an interface like this). Still, 7 Series goes wider and deeper than the Zune by a longshot, and it's got some pretty intense ideas about how you're supposed to be interacting with a mobile device.

Too bad the wife and I just got new phones. This looks like quite a development.

I just heard a second track from the Upcoming Jimi Hendrix release, Valleys Of Neptune. The song is called 'Bleeding Heart,' and it's every bit as good as the title track which I heard last week. Apparently an Elmore James cover, it was recorded in April,1969 in London with Billy Cox on bass and Rocky Isaacs on drums.

Some of you may know that Hendrix was my hero when I was learning to play guitar, and over the years since his death I'd cringe when I heard about a 'new' release - the quality of the material was spotty at points, when the albums weren't made up of recycled tracks from other albums.

This one stands a chance of being a pretty good record. I'm actually kind of excited to get my hands on it.

If you're in the mood to check out the tracks, you can hear the title track here and 'Bleeding Heart' here. Good stuff.

I've been listening to Phantom 105.2 out of Dublin all day, after my wife tuned it in on the Squeezebox this morning. Eclectic, independent, very enjoyable. If you want to cover some uncharted territory in independent radio, Phantom is a pretty good choice.

A little history, if you're so inclined.

The leader of one of the most notorious American bands ever has passed away.

Doug Fieger, the lead singer of the rock band The Knack, has died after a battle with cancer, his brother, the prominent Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger, confirmed today.

He was 57.

Fieger sang lead vocals on the 1979 hit "My Sharona," which held the No. 1 spot for six weeks.

[...]

Fieger was living in Woodland Hills, Calif. and was being treated at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

"Everybody knows they're going sooner or later," Fieger told Detroit News columnist Neal Rubin in a January interview. "I don't know any better than anyone else when I'm going.

"I've had 10 great lives. And I expect to have some more. I don't feel cheated in any way, shape or form."

Geoffrey Fieger said the family will issue a statement later today.

Detroit native Jaan Uhelszki, a former editor at Creem Magazine in Detroit who is now a music writer based on the West Coast, knew Doug Fieger when he had the band Sky, which predated The Knack.

"He had a radiant talent," she said. "He was determined and pugnacious with big dreams, most of which he achieved."

A little background on why The Knack was such a controversial band:

The "power pop" of "My Sharona", coupled with the band's "retro" 1960s look, earned the band comparisons to the early Beatles. Many music critics of the era disliked disco, which dominated the music industry at the time, and were, at best, coolly receptive to other developing genres like punk rock, new wave and heavy metal music. The Knack's power pop and hard rock influences earned them some critical credibility; one example was a highly technical and long guitar solo during "My Sharona" which seemed equal to any that a metal band would use. After subsequent albums, there was a critical backlash against the band and they broke up amidst internal squabbles.... Part of the backlash was that the object of some of the Knack's songs were girls "of the younger type", meaning teenaged girls, when the band was at least ten years older.

R.I.P., Doug.

In light of Stranger's recent "rant" about the state of the blogosphere and where he intends to take B3 (e.g. back to its roots), I thought it appropriate for me give him my thanks and add a bit of color.

We're certainly far removed from the Knicks Usenet group on which Stranger and I first met some 15 (good grief!) years ago. No need to bore everyone with the painstaking details of all that's happened between then and now. Suffice to say that I could not be more appreciative of the platform Stranger gave me to opine about the economy, one of my favorite things to do. As much as I disliked Bush -- and I really, truly did -- I tried to be objective in my analysis of what was going on in the world of dollars and cents, and went where the numbers and my analysis took me. I hope that -- to borrow a phrase from Obama -- I either "saved or created" wealth for some of you; nothing would make me happier.

I couldn't agree more with Don that our politics have become more than toxic, that Washington is more of a cesspool than it's every been, and that our nation has become virtually ungovernable. And it's also true that there are thousands of blogs saying exactly that day after day after day. It's old, tired, and stale. I don't know exactly how the blogosphere became so stratified, but it always grated on me -- as Don knows -- that B3 never seemed to get the respect it was clearly due as one of the best group blogs around. I often referred to us as the Rodney Dangerfield of the blogosphere. The whole crew here is as passionate as any other site I've visited; perhaps the cream doesn't always rise to the top.

As for me, of late I have been posting economic commentary with Bonddad and also on one of the most widely read economics blogs on the web, Barry Ritholtz' The Big Picture. I sincerely hope that those of you who enjoyed my work on the economy will continue to follow me at those sites.

Sincerest thanks to Don for all he's done for me. To the crew for being the best around. And to you folks, the readers, for providing the motivation I needed to get my thoughts out there.

Peace.