1970 Playlist

  1. Led Zeppelin — “Celebration Day”
  2. Paul McCartney — “Maybe I’m Amazed”
  3. Grateful Dead — “Truckin'”
  4. The Beatles — “Dig A Pony”
  5. Diana Ross — “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”
  6. Curtis Mayfield — “Move On Up”
  7. The Who — “Young Man Blues”
  8. The Stooges — “Down On The Street”
  9. John Lennon — “Instant Karma”
  10. The Temptations — “Ball Of Confusion”
  11. Alice Cooper — “Eighteen”
  12. Black Sabbath — “Black Sabbath”
  13. Amon Duul II — “Archangels Thunderbird”
  14. Toots & The Maytals — “Pressure Drop”
  15. The Slickers — “Johnny Too Bad”
  16. Bob Marley & The Wailers — “Soul Rebel”
  17. Dave & Ansel Collins — “Double Barrel”
  18. The Velvet Underground — “Rock & Roll”
  19. Janis Joplin — “Piece Of My Heart”
  20. The Guess Who — “American Woman”
  21. Lucifer’s Friend — “Ride The Sky”

I Do Love Oi! But Ai Ai Ai

The song is “Someone’s Gonna Die” by Blitz, from 1981, if it doesn’t already say that.

There is a great article by the music journalist Garry Bushell, who was, along with others, at the center of the Oi! scene in the UK in the early 80s. But its terrific detail does beg the question, if it’s so hard to explain a genre, perhaps people who have a problem with it can’t be all wrong.

In the excellent Don Letts documentary “The Story Of Skinhead” an interesting point came up when they started talking about Oi! You could like the music, but you had to be white to go to the shows. The first wave of Oi! may have been all leftist, but it was inclusive enough to tolerate the far-right, and that very call for unity, I think, when it was naive, led to a second wave, Rock Against Communism. Bands like Skrewdriver. The kind of stuff that, if someone offered you a chance to listen to a Skrewdriver cassette back in the 80s, it was a sign that you couldn’t hang out with them. Or … I guess that’s up to the individual. But that’s the kind of thought process Oi! does lead to, after all.

I’m So Desperately In Love With Colleen Wing

Who is a fictional character, otherwise the obsession would be disastrous, as she would be a real person. She does, however, represent a real person. A nurse who took care of me when I was in the hospital recently, and gave me a reason to live. All I remember about her is that she looked like Colleen Wing, and had the same kind of giving heart.

I can’t sleep tonight because I have to spend it with her. That happens to entail re-watching Iron Fist S01. Which I think is a great show anyway. But I can’t let her out of my heart for a second.