I know it's no longer sub judice but the sentence hasn't yet taken place. It's inevitable it will be discussed among the fans but speculation about whether Scott Bennet had behaved this way before or whether Brian and the band knew is IMO completely indefensible. There is more than one victim here. Scott's wife, family, friends, Brian and his band have all been affected by this and need our consideration.

that's all true Ang, but keep in mind that the fans all had a pretty spiritual connection to Scott as of ... a couple hours ago, so everybody posting and commenting is a way folks are dealing with their own shock and confusion about what happened.  People are going to talk when they find out a musician they loved is a violent rapist.  

SweetDudeJim, did you miss the part where I said people shouldn't have sex with strangers?  That kind of precludes this rape situation, doesn't it?  What the f*** is wrong with you?


I'll take my apology publicly. 

In other words, maybe I'm being reactionary but I'm really really scared of Trump.

In my opinion, you shouldn't be very afraid of Trump.  He'll be to the left of George Bush and everybody survived that.  I'm sure you've heard it a million times but Trump treats all of this like a business negotiation, he stakes out an extreme position that he can negotiate half of away later to get what he wants.  What appears to be inconsistencies in his positions is his signal to those he'll be working with (if elected) that he's willing to negotiate. 

For instance, the wall.  That's probably his most extreme position.  He's going to build a wall, and deport everybody.  We currently have a country that A. has a wall that hasn't fully been built, and B. has laws requiring people to be deported.  So what his real position on that is, is saying that he'll follow the law that's currently on the books.

That's not how he presents it, though.  He says he'll build a huge wall, everybody's got to go, blah blah blah.  It gets him a tremendous amount of support... but again he's only really saying that he'll leave the law as it is now.  It appears to be an extreme position... so surely he'll negotiate some of it away which will be good optics... but realistically will leave us in a position farther to the LEFT than we are, legally, right now!

He's a genius, he's basically heading left but running as if he's far right.  He's completely usurped the republican party by doing that and has them willfully moving to the left.

Look how far to the left he is on foreign policy (military intervention).  He's essentially running to the LEFT of Hillary!  How will Hillary moderate in regard to that?  She won't move further right, she'll be able to move further left to mimick some of the Donald's positions in the G.E. 

He's able to run so openly liberal on foreign policy because everybody (including the republicans) is in agreement that the Iraq war was all B.S.  By accusing Hillary of supporting it, and proclaiming he was against it, he pulls Hillary to the left on that issue. 

This is the craziest political campaign ever.  I know he says crazy things but try to look at what he's really going to do.  I know you have to take him at his word, especially when he claims up and down everything he says he's going to do, but he's a MASTER manipulator who's got a game in everything he says. 

That's why I feel he'll win in a Landslide.  Hillary is all about the policies, and of course that's how it ought to be.  That's not how it is, though... most people couldn't care less about how practical policies are, look how Trump destroyed a traditional, powerhouse candidate like Jeb Bush in the primaries.  He will do similar to Hillary in the fall. 

Of course you'll vote for Hillary, because you care about policy details.  The vast majority of the country though is smarter than both of us, they ignore politics and just show up every few years to vote for whoever has the nicest smile and the catchiest slogan. 

Taco bowls. What a moron.

There's a couple of things going on with Trump that I don't think everybody gets.


1. Probably 80% of what he says is Trump trying to get you pissed off so you'll talk about him more.

2. He's a genius, not a moron.  He appears to be a moron because he actually has no ego.  People think he's an egomaniac, but would an egomaniac say things that get them ridiculed so much in the public?  He says the things he says because he doesn't care what anybody thinks of him, he only cares if he gets what he wants.  If you have to call him a moron so that he can win the election, so be it... to him he'd rather win than be loved. 

He's been a master of this for decades and still people don't get it.  They've made fun of his hair for 40 years... and he never changed it... because he uses even NEGATIVE attention to get what he wants.  He's the most brilliant politician the world has seen in decades and in my opinion he'll win the election in a landslide in November.


The longer you believe he's a moron, the longer you won't understand anything that happens. 

1. How'd a moron end up with 10 billion dolllars?

2. How'd a moron get divorced twice, but both women still talk positively of him?

3. How'd a moron raise what appears to be a well adjusted intelligent bunch of kids?

4. How'd a moron win more votes than any candidate in the history of the republican party?

5. How'd a moron break every rule in the book, and STILL win?

6. How'd a moron get in a fight with the pope and win?

7. How'd a moron call Ted Cruz a "p*ssy" on live t.v. AND HIS POLL NUMBERS WENT UP

You may disagree with everything he says... but if you're sitting around thinking he's a moron you're missing the REAL show here. 

Onetime on campus back in the day, I was walking through the courtyard and there was one of those end is near preachers standing out on a box preaching to everybody, there were probably 30 people gathered around giving him hell basically.  So he's telling everybody to repent for their sins, etc, etc. and as I'm walking away, just before the door closes to the building I'm going into I hear behind me him loudly yelling back at somebody arguing with him 'I'm not saying ALL College girls are whores....."

I'm white.  I don't see it as white privilege... I agree with some of the premises of what's discussed but calling it the privilege of being born white is wrong in my opinion.  I was born homeless, for instance, there was no privilege built into my skin color, and my family and myself made my life get better from then on out. 

I think a lot of times and for a lot of reasons, minorities feel as if they're at a disadvantage and that kind of negative thinking drags them down in every aspect of their life.  Racism is real, it exists... there is no denying that.  The truth is every individual faces challenges that they have to overcome, some of them, many of them are't fair.  It wasn't fair I was born homeless.  It wasn't fair my mother was disowned by her family because she got pregnant.  I've excelled at life anyways. 

Some people hate black people because they're black... and that's something that individual has to overcome... regardless of how unfair it is.  Even if nobody was racist every individual has an entire lifetime of challenges to overcome, if you walk around believing that you have it harder because of your skin color you're losing from the beginning, inside your own mind. 

You can't go through life saying you have a disadvantage because of your skin color, and then ignore all the advantages you have because of your skin color.  Even worse is to accuse people with ANOTHER skin color of having a privilege because of it.  We all have the privilege of waking up this morning, make the most of it regardless of your situation, and don't bitch about what others have that you don't.  Not because it's unfair to them, but because it poisons your own mind. 

My opinion on the hipster thing, sometimes i see people I might identify as hipsters do things that make me roll my eyes... but at the end of the day, I always try to realize that that's their THING, I have my THING and they probably see it as just as strange.  Most people don't do annoying things because they're assholes, most of them do annoying things because they're trying to stumble through life like the rest of us. 

T Graham Brown is awesome.  Great voice, very soulful.  Here he is with his sweet band about a year ago singing "Darlene"...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tfu2nObo58


In some hole in the wall.  Here's a great video of him doing his fantastic "Wine Into Water", written after he sobered up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntHe0hZpzcs

STRONG songwriting skills, in my humble opinion.  That's C-O-U-N-T-R-Y !

And another kind of upbeat one, "I Tell It Like It Used To Be"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8MoFOTPHbI

Some of these guys are all we have left now that all the legends of the 60's are gone...

It is almost guaranteed the victim will be suing Bennett and the hotel for substantial damages.   That will be another element of justice.

To be honest, she deserves a fortune, doesn't get more clean cut then "raped in the hallway on camera".  Hell the place may go bankrupt, who would ever stay there again?

They were possibly working to the principle of "innocent until proven guilty". Which to my mind was absolutely the way to go.

Without seeing the video (which Brian's management almost certainly never saw before the trial)... and with knowing Scott for so long, it would have been easy for him to explain it away by saying he met a woman, she was coming on to him, practically begged him to take her back to his room, then the next day cries rape. 

If your friend framed it that way, would you drop all association with them?   I probably wouldn't.  Once everything came out in trial though I'm sure all the acquaintances were shocked.

Crap this is horrible all around.  Lots of bad decisions to take life lessons from

1. If you're going to get drunk (both sides) do it around people you know and trust... or just don't do it at all, it's a horrible idea

2. Crazy wild sex with strangers you just met sometimes puts you in prison.  Buy your wife a wig instead

3. There's sick people everywhere hiding amongst us

Brian has such a straight forward, almost autistic way of saying things, I'd bet money that he was like that perhaps in a more reserved way even in his teens.  Has anybody ever heard any stories about him doing that when he was young?  Before the problems?  You can ALMOST detect it in the "bull session", Brian's talking in the background and you can't see what's going on, but it's almost like he's having his own little comments nobody's paying attention to... but I haven't heard really any early interviews with him to see if he had similar mannerisms p re 1967 or so...

Just stumbled upon this funny interview with Faron Young and Ray Price... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g84CIz_EfUc

Seems like a different world....


Trying to think of more blues based country songs... You've probably heard "Tennessee Stud", it's not really blues but it's got that kind of feel to it.  Eddy Arnold -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFJtD3y3n08

A straight up blues one done by a country singer is John Conlee's version of "Let The Good Times Roll"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V_kOBTfFJU


If you like Little Jimmy Dickens you might like this song he and Merle Haggard wrote called "Shopping for Dresses", it's about the most pathetic thing I've ever heard but it's well sung and well written.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QKCsB_yS4o

For whatever reason it really resonates with me, it has this picturesque quality to it that Merle was really good at.  He wrote these weird little stories and you could see what was happening visually.  Such a ridiculous concept but they ran with it and pulled it off imho. 

My favourite Beatles bridge is actually a middle 4 and comes from "The Word", an extraordinary song in my book. Four chords over an unchanging four-note riff----amazing!

Yes!  That's a great one.  Sadly I think John Lennon said he hated that song but I always liked it. 

Hank Locklin - Fraulein

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuzHgcp-eUI


I love this style of stuff, singing the hell out of it.  He's one of those guys whose voice was almost like an instrument, and the song's an instrumental... the lyrics are so dated and out of touch very few relate to them, but the vocal performance is so fantastic that it's as if his voice is a guitar or a violin or something. 



That style of singing reminded me of this old Little Jimmy Dickens song too, his version of "John Henry"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOMJxMD-usM

All this stuff was recorded in the 50's, probably in Nashville, with a room full of STRAIGHT KILLERS.

It's a damn shame guys like this can't make a bigger dent in the music industry, I remember a couple years ago when they were doing that tour you're talking about, they were really playing it up on XM (SiriusXM, I guess)... I always listen to the 50's and 60's channels and the dj's on there were talking about the Rascals constantly. 

It's such a strange human condition we have, where many people have a yearning for good music and lament that they don't make as good music anymore, but you've got bands like the Rascals and many others who are perfectly capable of great music... and nobody listens or buys it. 

One thing I always do is I listen to the same songs hundreds of times.  It seems to me that a lot of people are able to listen to stuff a few times then move on, so they hear a lot more stuff.  Basically if I like a song, I listen to it for quite awhile.  Most of the time when I listen it's driving to or from work. 

So as time goes on I have more and more songs that I really like, and I'm content to listen to those over and over again, so I don't hear anywhere near as much new music as I used to.  If i've got some time and I'm going to listen to something it's almost certainly going to be something I already know, it's just how my brain works.  It's the same for instance with food, I don't eat much new food, just the same food I already enjoy, sometimes I eat the same thing 3 or 4 nights a week!

Billy Joel had the best bridges, the one in Uptown Girl for instance is fantastic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCuMWrfXG4E

Great site breaking down the whole song's genius:

https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/billy-joel/uptown-girl?node=6.642.4

 The one in River of Dreams will break your neck, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSq4B_zHqPM

(coincidentally he's standing on a bridge for most of the video)

The one in "The Longest Time" is very good as well

https://youtu.be/a_XgQhMPeEQ?t=120

It just goes on and on with him, all his songs have nice bridges.


I love it when one of these modern pop divas or somebody you wouldn't suspect throws in a good bridge in something too, shows they've got the chops.

For instance:

Pink "Don't Let Me Get Me"

https://youtu.be/asaCQOZpqUQ?t=130

or

Britney Spears - "Toxic"

https://youtu.be/LOZuxwVk7TU?t=140


Now you might think that's just a variation of the verse, but if you listen to it, it serves the exact purpose a bridge or middle 8 traditionally does; it moves you away from the monotony of the verse and chorus and then when your brain is so far away from where you want to be, it slams you back into the chorus... and your heart goes "thank you".  I just think it's fascinating to see these pop singers who don't appear to have much talent.... actually construct some pretty decen t strong structure from time to time. 



My favorite Beatles one is probably "Lady Madonna".  It's the same trick Neil Sedaka uses in "Laughter in the Rain", they do this weird thing where they change the key, but it uses a note (I believe) on the switch that's in both keys. 

https://youtu.be/r9LJp39-lDE?t=61

Of course they also do it three times in the song which you don't see too often.

Really almost all of the Beatles songs had great bridges.  Just timeless stuff that really worked well, check out the awesome one in "I wanna hold your hand".  That was right near the beginning, and they were already great. 

https://youtu.be/jenWdylTtzs?t=50

Listen how the girls start freaking out, then it builds back into the verse... you kind of expect it to go to the chorus, but it goes to the verse again so there's a little bit of a soft resolution, and they get to work the verse back into the fantastic chorus.  Since that worked so well... they do the WHOLE THING OVER AGAIN!  Bridge again... verse, final chorus.  They play the girls in the audience about three different times.  MASTERFUL songwriting, and that's one of the songs nobody thinks is even very good.  They were F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C.

here's the original "long Tall Sally"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1FNveyqgRQ

And here's what I believe is the re-recording from the 90's.  Incredible that he was able to pull that off that old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZypYBWBQR-o

I'm not familiar enough with the Everly Brothers to know which are the originals and which are the re-recordings, are the redos better than the original?

Here's All I Have To Do Is Dream:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxWZT0PXkGg

Bye Bye Love:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9YMXXXh8BM

Huh.   I'd have to say I prefer the originals, but probably mainly just because I've heard them my entire life that way. 

I saw Willie live a few years ago, we're in this big convention center with probably 4,000 people there, and before the show, they had Trigger sitting out at the edge of the stage, unattended.  Basically there were rednecks 5 feet from the guitar.  We kept talking about how dangerous that was, the guitar's priceless and anybody could have grabbed it and probably got the hell out of there before anybody caught them. 

That's always an interesting thing when they re-record the songs, I think they usually do it so that they can get a piece of their big hits, for instance just before he died John Denver did a 2 cd record with all of his greatest hits, re-recorded over a couple days at his studio.  If any of those versions get played on the radio, he'd get half the royalties since he owned the performance (but no longer owned the songs... or the original performances).  If you ever listen to that album it's kind of sad, he's of course in fine voice and everything but the songs are missing his happy, optimistic sound.

I've got one Little Richard did in the late 90's, re-recording all his original hits, I swear to god a couple of them are almost indistinguishable from the originals, and he's in his late 60's then!  Of course I still prefer the originals though...

Another interesting guy was Merle Haggard, I prefer several of his rerecordings, he has several versions of "Okie from Muskogee" and there's this awesome later version where it's got more of a shuffle going on. 

I'm not familiar enough with the Everly Brothers to know which are the originals and which are the re-recordings, are the redos better than the original?

Not gonna buy it. I don't have any interest in owning 100 versions of Pet Sounds and it songs. Plus the live section makes it kind of stupid listening experience (same songs multiple times). Bums me out they take time and "effort" to release this but no Holland, Sunflower or Love You boxsets, which I'd be drooling over. Mainstream doesn't care if it's Beach Boys Pet Sounds box or Beach Boys Love You box - they're not buing it. So why not please the fans?

I don't need a Love You box, but Holland or Sunflower? Yeah, I'd buy those. How many times are they going to reissue Pet Sounds, as if it was the only thing the band ever did?

Preach it brother.  Brothers.  I'd buy any of those three! 

I'm going to have to skip this one, hope I don't have to turn in my fan card.  I can afford it, but I can't 'justify' it since it's so similar to the 30th anniversary box set that I've already got... and to be completely honest I didn't buy it new, I bought it at a flea market for $10 ! 

I get it though, some people are really into the collectible aspect of it but generally I just ride around with the CD's in a case in my car.  The rest of the stuff I look at one time and put it on the shelf. 

The Pet Sounds Sessions boxset was so well done I just don't feel this is a huge improvement on it, enough to justify spending that kind of money to mildly update what I've already got...

When I was a kid I always was into those oldies concerts they played on PBS telathons.  This guy played several of those, he was the REAL DEAL, such a fantastic voice, soulful as hell.  An interesting thing too that was evident on one of those shows was that one of his lifelong  friends was Demond Wilson, the gentleman that played Lamont on Sanford and Son.