Thighs Wide Shut

Sean Lennon and Michael Jackson, at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn subway station in Brooklyn, where the music video for ‘Bad’ was shot, November 28, 1986

Bob Dylan
Mavis Staples
Beacon Theatre
November 21

I never wanted to see Bob Dylan.  I respect Bob Dylan, but I’m not a giant fan, and everyone always said how awful he was in concert anywayz.  But when Tom Petty died, I was like, OK, let’s not mess around here – Bob aint gonna live forever (and probably has already lived longer than any of us have ever thought he would) – and I need to see him before he goes.  HAVE TO!

To my surprise, a Bob Dylan show is wholly and udderly musically enjoyable.  His band is incredible!  And Bob totally seems with it, switching between piano jangling, and straight-up crooning, with a microphone stand in hand.  And shockingly, he sounds like Bob Dylan!  The problem?  He’s not singing the Bob Dylan songs the way that the Bob Dylan songs sound, or at least on how they are suppose to sound.  Also, he didn’t play guitar, AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTF BOB????  Look, he’s earned the right to do whatever he wants to do with his music, and while I’m not a deep Dylan catalog guy, the songs I knew that he played, I could barely recognize.  Oh, that was ‘Tangled Up In Blue’?  FOOLED ME!!!

Still, it had to be done. And while the concert was nice, it almost felt more like a chore, which I can now add a giant check mark next to…  

see Dylan before he dies ✓

Real best part of the show?  Opener Mavis Staples.  Long security line made me miss 2 of her 7 songs played, but the 5 she beautifully belted made me wish that she was the headliner, and Dylan the opener

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbvRoGnjFLY/

Dylan Setlist – Things Have Changed / It Ain’t Me, Babe / Highway 61 Revisited / Why Try to Change Me Now (Cy Coleman cover) / Summer Days / Melancholy Mood (Frank Sinatra cover) / Honest With Me / Tryin’ to Get to Heaven / Once Upon a Time (Tony Bennett cover) / Pay in Blood / Tangled Up in Blue / Soon After Midnight / Early Roman Kings / Full Moon and Empty Arms (Frank Sinatra cover) / Desolation Row / Thunder on the Mountain / Autumn Leaves(Yves Montand cover) / Love Sick’

Encore – Blowin’ in the Wind / Ballad of a Thin Man

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbvjM88D-Mf/

CBS Radio program, National Amateur Night promotes a contest to discover Americas greatest bathtub singer. Pictured is swimsuit model, Karen Benson. image dated  – November 14, 1935, New York, NY

Tower of Song: A Memorial Tribute to Leonard Cohen
Bell Centre
November 6

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbKsF1fjG8a/?taken-by=thighmaster

My birthday was once soiled by the public announcement that Magic Johnson has AIDS.  I’ve always wanted that stain on my birthday replaced by another more significant event, and while I wish Leonard Cohen had lived forever, he left this world on my birthday last year, and I’ll take that over MJ’s admittance as the ‘thing’ that happened on my day of birth  

Leonard is still gone, but he will never NEVER ever be forgotten, especially in his hometown of Montreal, where 364 days later, his son Adam put together a tribute concert to beautifully honor thy father

So with Leonard as an excuse, the wife, my parents and I descended upon Leonard’s hometown, to say goodbye to my 30s, and to Leonard Cohen, with a cast of WOWsands.  Big names like Sting, Elvis Costello, k.d. lang and Lana Del Rey commanded much attention and awesomeness, but it was the lesser known (to me), fellow Canadians who really shined on their takes of Leonard’s finest works.  Standouts include Ron Sexsmith (who is no stranger to Cohen covers), Feist, Patrick Watson and the haunting (Irish, not Canuck) Damien Rice 

It’s really hard to screw up a Leonard Cohen song, and while I didn’t really take to Sharon Robinson nor Betty LaVette’s contributions, they at least weren’t sacrilege… which is exactly what Courtney Love’s rendition of my personal favorite LC song ‘Everybody Knows’ (thanks to Pump Up The Volume) was.  An ear-sore and a blasphemous disaster, Love brought hate out of me on a night of pure… love.  I mean, not even Seth Rogen bothered me on this noche, and he always bothers me!  Take that Courtney!!  But why Courtney anyway?  Couldn’t she be replaced by someone more deserving and probably more loving, and actually talented, like dual US-Canadian citizen and LC fanatic Rufus Wainwright???  And while we’re here, Sting and Elvis C are lovely and all, but Leonard wasn’t beloved enough by the likes of McCartney, Dylan, Paul Simon or Neil Young to drag any of them out to this event?  Were they even asked?  

Whatever, dumb gripes aside, the event was perfect (aside from Cunt-ny Love) – it made my mom tear up often, and I did too, but mainly cause I was with loved ones and just so overjoyed.  And a big thanks and hug has got to go out to Leonard’s son Adam, who stirringly dueted on 4 of his father’s songs.  Dad would be proud.  The rest of us certainly were.  Son should go on tour and play pop’s music on the road – keep the legend alive, even though the legend will live on if son does or not.  Leonard’s still our man.  Not even death can change that

First Set – Sting – ‘Dance Me to the End of Love’ / Feist – ‘Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye’ / Patrick Watson – ‘Who by Fire’ / Sharon Robinson – ‘I’m Your Man’ / Wesley Schultz and Jeremiah Fraites from The Lumineers – ‘Democracy’ / Ron Sexsmith – ‘Suzanne’ / Elvis Costello – ‘The Future’ / Damien Rice – ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ / Adam Cohen and The Webb Sisters – ‘So Long, Marianne’ / k.d. lang – ‘Hallelujah’

Second Set – Shaar Hashomayim Choir – ‘Tower of Song’ / Sting – ‘Sisters of Mercy’ / Adam Cohen and Lana Del Ray – ‘Chelsea Hotel #2’ / Betty LaVette – ‘In My Secret Life’ / Courtney Love – ‘Everybody Knows’ / Seth Rogen – ‘Field Commander Cohen’ / BØRNS and The Webb Sisters – ‘If It Be Your Will’ / Adam Cohen, Coeur de pirate and Damien Rice – ‘The Partisan’ / Elvis Costello – ‘Bird on the Wire’ / Sting – ‘Anthem’ / Shaar Hashomayim Choir – ‘You Want It Darker’ / Adam Cohen and Basia Bulat – ‘Coming Back to You’ / Basia Bulat – ‘Closing Time’

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbLlXNED6QE/?taken-by=thighmaster

cars painted by Binder, Edwards & Vaughan (BEV)

1960 Buick Electra Convertible

later used for the album cover shot for The Kinks’ Sunny Afternoon

Tara Browne’s 1965 AC Cobra 289

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Guinness heir Tara Browne – The Doomed Socialite Behind The Beatles ‘A Day in the Life’  

David Vaughan’s art – in pictures

Who is Dudley Edwards?

Classic Driver