Tomorrow Never Knows

"Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream,
It is not dying, it is not dying?

Lay down all thought, surrender to the void,
Is it shining? Is it shining?"


Tomorrow Never Knows. It was the last song on the Beatles' "Revolver" album. Two years earlier, the Beatles released the album "A Hard Day's Night," which contained such finely crafted pop standards as "And I Love Her" and "Can't Buy Me Love." The Beatles hinted at an evolution from poppy love songs to something else with their previous album "Rubber Soul," but for many, the first playing of "Tomorrow Never Knows" must have been a bit of a WTF moment.

Mustang Sally

One of the first record albums I encountered as a kid was an album by the Young Rascals. One of the hit singles from the album was the song "Mustang Sally". I didn't find out until much later that the song was a cover of the Wilson Picket hit from a couple years earlier. And MUCH later, in 1991, Chicago's own Buddy Guy did a blistering cover of the tune on his album "Damn Right I Got the Blues". It showed me that sometimes musical history lessons arrive in a sort of circular fashion.

The Right to Live Your Best Life

"When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw." -- Nelson Mandela

The Most Famous Pandemic in All of Literature

And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

We miss you, Frank!

We could all use more Zappa...and more T.P....right now.

John Prine

The world just lost one of the generation's great singer/songwriters. His songs like "Dear Abby" and "Illegal Smile" made us laugh. His songs like "Sam Stone" and "Hello in There" made us cry. In short, his songs made us feel. You can't ask much more of a song or a songwriter.

There's nothing like a little music to help you through the rough times.