The Wonderful Variety of The White Album by The Beatles

Lately, Sunday is the day I take my THC edible, and I like to listen to classic rock albums on my Alexa. I’ve been enjoying my rediscovery of The White Album by The Beatles. It’s a double album of 30 songs released during 1968. Rolling Stone magazine praised the album’s “ambition” and “eclectic nature.” Years later, this magazine rated it the 29th best album of all time. This album has a greater variety of songs than any other album I’ve ever listened to. There are rock songs, rhythm and blues, pop songs, kids’ songs, lullabies, parodies, weird songs, dumb songs, psychedelic songs, political songs, and pseudo-country songs.

List of songs on The White Album

Although Ringo Starr didn’t contribute as much creatively to the songwriting as Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison; his percussion is excellent and underrated.

The album begins with “Back in the USSR,” a rock parody of The Beach Boys music, complete with excellent vocal harmonies. A line in the lyrics suggests The Beatles found Beach Boy music nauseating.

The 2nd song is “Dear Prudence,” a pretty love letter kind of song.

“Glass Onion” features Ringo Starr’s impressive percussion and has lyrics that mention lyrics from previous Beatles songs, including the revelation that the walrus in “I am the Walrus” was Paul McCartney.

“Ob La Di Ob La Da” is a pop song influenced by a Jamaican man’s comment, but it doesn’t sound like reggae. I can play this song on keyboard and glockenspiel.

My cat likes “The Continuing Adventures of Bungalow Bill” because the lyrics ask “Hey, Bungalow Bill, what did you kill, Bungalow Bill.” My cat is a killer of baby birds, insects, and other small animals. I learned to play this melody too.

“Wild Honey Pie” is just a weird song.

” While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is George Harrison’s biggest contribution to this album. It’s the best song on the album in my opinion.

“Happiness is a Warm Gun” includes double entendre lyrics and nice vocal harmonies.

“Birthday” has an interesting guitar riff, played fast, alternating with percussion and some really exciting pounding on a piano that was fed through a guitar amplifier. I learned to play this riff on my glockenspiel, and it’s fun to play.

“Yer Blues” as the title suggests is a rhythm and blues song. It’s not the best song on the album, but it is my personal favorite.

“Revolution #1” begins with a kick ass electric guitar riff and is a political song with a good melody.

“Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey” is a catchy tune.

I would categorize “Helter Skelter” as punk metal 10 years ahead of its time.

“Revolution #9” is just a weird song for people who are stoned.

“Rocky Raccoon” is a pseudo-country song that sounds like it’s sung by Ernest T. Bass, a fictional character from The Andy Griffith Show. Ernest T. Bass was a crazy hillbilly who threw rocks through people’s windows.

“Why Don’t We Do It in the Road” is a dumb song with a heavy rhythm and blues beat.

“Piggies” is Orwellian social satire.

“Good Night” is a lullaby written by John Lennon for his young son.

Most critics rate Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band as The Beatles best album, though Rolling Stone magazine in a review liked The White Album better. I formerly rated The White Album The Beatles 4th best album after Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper, and Magical Mystery Tour; but after further analysis I rank it 2nd only to Abbey Road.

Climate Models are not Wild Guesses

Whenever I’ve discussed anthropogenic global warming on this blog, I’ve often written climate models were wild guessing. I’ve come across a study that suggests I was wrong. The study looked at 11 scientific papers with 14 projection models that estimated changes in average global temperatures over time. The papers were published between 1970-1993. The authors of this study then compared those projections from the models to average temperatures as of 2017. Though some models slightly overestimated temperatures and others slightly underestimated temperatures, most were remarkably consistent. The models were based on estimates calculating natural climate change plus manmade emissions of CO2 influence.

Climate models were remarkably consistent with real observations. Chart from the below study.

Energy use is projected to increase exponentially in the future, and this means an increase in burning fossil fuel and even greater CO2 emissions. The creation of bitcoins alone equals the energy use of New York state or the country of Poland. I don’t understand how cryptocurrency is even legal. Bitcoin creators are wasting earth’s resources creating artificial wealth out of nothing. Data centers that support internet infrastructure already use almost 5% of the power generated in the world. This computational infrastructure is going to increase as humans rely more and more on robots.

Bitcoin mining uses an enormous amount of energy, creating nothing that is useful for society. A few people will get rich at the expense of a lot of chumps.

Data centers will expand, as humans rely more and more on robots, hence increasing energy use even more.

As more fossil fuel is used, earth’s climate is headed for an uncomfortable atmosphere that resembles what it must have been like for dinosaurs during the Cretaceous Age. There is no reversing this nightmare scenario. People aren’t going to give up driving cars and central heating and air conditioning. (Especially air conditioning, since the world is going to become so much warmer.) Selfish totalitarian rulers don’t care about the environment. Wind and solar won’t be able to provide enough power for the world to end use of fossil fuels. We are doomed to live in a world of misery caused by climate change.

Robots will contribute to an apocalyptic future, but probably not in the way depicted in the Terminator movies. Instead, the energy demand to drive robots will cause global warming that will devastate the atmosphere.

Reference:

Hausfather, Z.; H. Drake, T. Abbott, G. Shmidt

“Evaluating the Performance of Past Climate Model Projections”

Geophysical Research Letters 2021

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Evaluating-the-Performance-of-Past-Climate-Model-Hausfather-Drake/93cf8a01b3674e63a74d983573f05f5136c6ca1d

Scientists Now Recognize Three Species of Alligator Snapping Turtles

I learned about this from a Facebook post that algorithms randomly chose for my feed. Chris Gillette manages the Bellamy Acres Animal Sanctuary where injured wild animals are nursed back to health and released back into the wild, if possible, and he shares results on Facebook. This post was about an alligator snapping turtle they restored to good health but couldn’t release to the wild because it was not from the correct river drainage. Apparently, someone had captured the turtle and didn’t return it to its river of origin. At first the decision not to release it back into the wild didn’t make sense to me. Why not improve the genetic vigor of the population? I didn’t know that in 2014 scientists determined there were 3 different species of alligator snapping turtles. The study was published in a really obscure scientific journal and didn’t get much publicity, so no wonder I was ignorant of it.

Former range map of alligator snapping turtles. The soup industry extirpated them from the northern parts of their range.

Map showing where specimens of alligator snapping turtles were sampled in the below referenced study. The different colors represent different species.

The 3 species differ anatomically. They have different sized caudal notch areas in the rear of their shell. Photo from the below referenced study.

The 3 species also differ in the angle of the squamosal region of their skulls. Photo also from the below referenced study.

The wormlike tongue of the alligator snapping turtle lures fish to their doom.

The scientists who published this article looked at the anatomy and genetics of 93 alligator snapping turtles from the Mississippi River and Mobile Bay Drainage systems, 17 from the Apalachicola River Drainage, and 18 from the Suwannee River Drainage. They determined from genetic evidence that Western alligator snapping turtles (Macrochelys temminckii) diverged from Apalachicola alligator snapping turtles (M. apalachicola) 5.3-13.4 million years ago. The latter diverged from the Suwanee alligator snapping turtle (M. suwanniensis) 3.2-8.9 million years ago. This is quite a difference in their genetic ancestry. Unlike common snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina), alligator snapping turtles don’t disperse great distances over land. (I’ve seen common snapping turtles a considerable distance from any body of water.) Therefore, these populations of alligator snapping turtles became genetically isolated from each other a very long time ago. Sometime during the middle of the Miocene, the Mississippi River and the Apalachicola Rivers must have been connected but became geographically separated, and the same must be true for the Apalachicola and Suwannee River systems. The study suggests ancestors of alligator snapping turtles diverged from common snapping turtle ancestors at least 17.5 million years ago.

The study also found that purported fossils of alligator snapping turtles from the peninsula of Florida dating to the early Pleistocene were probably an extinct species of giant common snapping turtle. Sea level rise during an Interglacial caused the extinction of this yet to be named species.

These 3 species of alligator snapping turtles differ anatomically as well. They have different sized notches on the back of their shells, and the angle of the squamosal region of their skulls differs.

All 3 species of alligator snapping turtles are endangered, and the western alligator snapping turtle was extirpated from the northern part of its range because Campbell’s soups used them for their turtle soup during the 1970s and 1980s. This is a shame. They are fascinating long-lived creatures that unfortunately breed slowly. Some live alligator snapping turtles have been found with musket balls and Indian arrowheads embedded in their shells, demonstrating just how long they live. They grow up to 200 pounds, growing fat by luring fish to their doom with their worm-like tongue.

Reference:

Thomas, T. ; M. Granatosky, J. Bourque, and K. Krysko

“Taxonomic Assessment of Alligator Snapping Turtles (Chelydridae: Macrochelys) with the Description of Two New Species from the Southeastern U.S.”

Zoo Taxa 3786 (2) 2014

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261556927_Taxonomic_assessment_of_Alligator_Snapping_Turtles_Chelydridae_Macrochelys_with_the_description_of_two_new_species_from_the_southeastern_United_States

Keown Falls, Georgia

A homemade sign along the highway near the top of John’s Mountain in Walker County, Georgia says, “don’t pick up dogs.” This always puzzled me because there are no houses within miles of the sign. Then, a couple of weeks ago, we took an unplanned side trip to Keown Falls located in the John’s Mountain Wildlife Management Area, and I saw 2 mutts alongside the road leading to the falls trail. It occurred to me that people living in and around this wildlife management area (itself within the Chattahoochee National Forest) let their hunting dogs run loose in the woods. These mongrels were several miles from any houses, and these habitations resemble 19th century cabins. One of these dogs eagerly began following after our car. (It looked like a grey hound but was obviously not purebred, the other looked like an odd mix of cocker spaniel and dachshund.) The dogs that run loose in the wildlife management area are likely friendly to humans and easily adopted by strangers. The sign is probably a request for strangers not to take their dogs. Forest officials don’t want people’s hunting dogs running loose in wildlife management areas, and it might explain why Keown Falls Trail is strangely devoid of wild animals. I saw some squirrels on the road but didn’t see any deer or rabbits. The trail winds through an open woodland, and I could see for a considerable distance. The dogs likely keep deer on the run.

My daughter requested a nature hike on the way home from visiting relatives, so I did not bring my own camera and have to use other people’s photos for this blog entry. I had 5 hours of driving ahead of me including a stretch through Atlanta. I’m a grouchy old man who hates driving. Despite my foul mood, I found Keown Falls Trail to be unlike any natural area I had ever seen. It is an open woodland with a floor covered in saplings, ferns, and many different kinds of herbaceous plants I could not identify (and without a camera to photo them, I couldn’t study the pictures to figure them out). There is little grass and no shrubs. According to The Natural Communities of Georgia, Keown Falls Trail “starts in a mesic forest that grades into a dry calcareous forest with oaks, hickories, beech, sourwood, and tulip tree and becomes more mesic in the northern part of the loop. The trail begins climbing the slope and loses its calcareous nature as it passes through a dry oak-pine-hickory natural community that contains a small, embedded stand of pines with a luxurious understory.” There is a seep above the falls with 5 species of ferns. This is what I saw: an open woodland (not a forest) dominated by mountain chestnut oak and hickory (including shagbark). Maple, beech, sweetgum, and shortleaf pine also occur. The falls are unimpressive, but the open woodland is nice and unique. This woodland looks under browsed, probably because hunting dogs and natural predators keep the deer from staying on the range for long. Or perhaps, local hunters are taking more than their bag limit. It also looks as if the landscape has been kept open by prescribed fire. It appears as if a controlled burn may have been conducted here maybe 5-10 years ago, but information about this is not available on the internet. The open nature, lack of shrubs, and abundance of ferns is evidence of fire.

Map of Keown Falls Trail in John’s Mountain Wildlife Management Area.

Photo someone took of the woods alongside Keown Falls Trail.

Keown Falls is not impressive, but the botany in the woodlands alongside the trail is unique and interesting. The area immediately around the falls is considered an acidic cliff community.

A study examined and dated all the burn scars found in 30 dead and living shortleaf pines in John’s Mountain Wildlife Management Area. The vertical lines indicate years when there was a fire. Chart from the below referenced paper.

Burn scars and annual rings allow scientists to determine when there were fires in the past here.

Scientists studied the frequency of fire on the Cumberland Plateau by using fire scars on dead and living shortleaf pine trees in John’s Mountain Wildlife Management Area and other sites in Tennessee and Kentucky. Shortleaf pines have thick bark and can survive light fires deliberately set by humans or accidentally by lightning. Indians set fire to the woods to improve habitat for game animals, to make it easier to hunt, to improve visibility and help prevent being ambushed by other hostile natives, and to reduce the population of stinging insects and ticks. At John’s Mountain scientists found 131 burn scars on 30 dead and living shortleaf pines that dated from 1664-2017. Burn intervals ranged from 1-26 years. Fires occurred on average every 4-5 years when Indians lived here but decreased in frequency when Indians became depopulated due to diseases brought by Europeans. After first European settlement burn frequency averaged every 2-3 years, but then fires were suppressed, though there was a major fire in 1934 during a drought.

Refererence:

Edwards, L.; J. Ambrose, L, Kirkman

The Natural Communities of Georgia

The University of Georgia Press 2013

Stambaugh, M.; J. Marschall, E. Abadir

“Revealing Historical Fire Regimes of the Cumberland Plateau, USA, through Remnant Fire Scarred Shortleaf Pines (Pinus echinata milli)

Fire Ecology 16 (24) 2020

https://fireecology.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s42408-020-00084-y

Some Selected Dragonfly Species Native to Georgia

There are 125 species of dragonflies that live in Georgia and 6000 species in the whole world. Dragonflies along with damselflies belong to the Odonata Order of insects. They are predatory insects during both their larval and adult stages. Dragonfly larvae are aquatic and crawl along the bottom of ponds and streams where they prey upon insects, snails, worms, tadpoles, and minnows. The larvae molt several times before emerging as adults. Adult dragonflies grab other flying insects such as butterflies and moths, flying ants, mosquitoes, flies, other dragonflies, bees, and even wasps. They use their spiny legs and mandibles to catch their prey. Some species of dragonflies, like some butterflies, migrate, but individuals don’t live long enough to reach the northern parts of their ranges. Instead, descending broods gradually expand their range north during spring and early summer, then during late summer and fall, the next generations migrate south.

Dragonfly lifecycle. They can fly like helicopters, hovering and flying backwards.

During the Paleozoic dragonflies reached astonishing size. Meganuera meganiseptera lived during the Permian Age about 300 million years ago and had a wingspan of 28 inches. This giant species of dragonfly perished during the end of Permian mass extinction when 96% of marine animals and 75% of land animals went extinct. Some scientists think insects can’t grow this large in modern atmospheric conditions because oxygen levels are much lower now than they were then. However, it’s more likely insects don’t grow that large today because they would be more vulnerable to bird predation.

Insects probably don’t grow this large today because they would be more vulnerable to bird predation.

Common species of dragonflies occurring in Georgia today include black saddle bags (Tramea lacerata), green darners (Anax junius), and eastern amber wings (Perithemis tenera). Black saddlebags grow up to 2 inches. I’ve seen these in my yard, far from water. Green darners, so named because they resemble darning needles, are even larger, reaching lengths of 3 inches. I see these nearly every time I walk along a marsh during the warmer months. Eastern amber wings are smaller, less than an inch, and they mimic wasps as a defense mechanism. They occur in swarms.

Pleistocene Insects from the Yukon

Scientists can learn about past climates and environments by studying the insect species composition found in dated layers of sediment. This isn’t possible in most parts of the world because of poor preservation processes, but it is in the Yukon were rapid sedimentation combined with permafrost conditions have preserved insect remains for the past 250,000 years in some localities. This includes 2 full glacial and interglacial climate phases. Today, the Old Crow River valley consists of coniferous forest, wetlands, and wet tundra; but in the past the environment has fluctuated between dry desert grassland during Ice Ages, and open spruce parkland during Interglacial periods. (This region was north of the massive glaciers that covered most of Canada when Ice Ages occurred.) The present day Interglacial is different from previous Interglacial periods because forests are thicker. The extinction of megafauna likely explains why denser forests predominate today. During past Interglacial times herds of horses, camels, mastodons, mammoths, and ground sloths kept woodlands more open.

Location of study area from the below referenced paper.

Insect remains found in sedimentary cores from the Yukon.

A specimen of Dyschirius laevifasciatus was found in a Yukon sediment core. It no longer lives this far north.

A species of rove beetle (not the one in the above photo) that today is only known from the Pacific Coast formerly lived in the Yukon interior. It probably lived on a glacial lake shoreline, similar to the beach zones it occurs in today.

Some fossil insect remains suggests previous Interglacial periods were warmer than the present day Interglacial. Scientists found remains of Dyschirius laevifasciatus, a species of ground beetle that lives much farther south today in sediment layers dating to the Sangamonian Interglacial. Beetles in this genus prefer wet sand habitats, and these remains indicate a glacial lake beach occurred here. They also found remains of a species of rove beetle (Kallisus nitodus) that not only doesn’t live this far north but is today only known from the Pacific Coast. This species formerly was able to range into drier inland habitats. Why its range has contracted is a mystery. Perhaps, it never recolonized the region after a glacial lake dried up.

The insect species composition during previous Interglacial periods differs from present day species composition. There were some species that live in wooded areas–bark beetles, a species of weevil, and a few ant species–but much fewer than today. Even though the climate was warmer and probably wetter than today, forests weren’t as dense, and trees grew farther apart, like a parkland. Steppe grassland species still occurred.

The scientists who authored the below referenced study took sample cores from 4 sites in the Old Crow River Valley. They often encountered ice wedges marking areas when the permafrost melted during previous Interglacial periods. Then the water refroze. The insects were buried in sediment when rivers flooded and when glacial lake levels rose as temperatures increased. The scientists used wet screening to find the subfossil insect parts. Insect exoskeletons float to the surface when sediment is immersed in water. From dozens of sample cores they collected thousands of specimens from over 100 species. Radiocarbon dating can only be used for organic material that is younger than 50,000 years, but insect species composition can be used in conjunction with other methods to date sedimentary layers older than this. Layers with mostly steppe grassland species indicate Ice Ages, and layers with some woodland species indicate Interglacial periods.

Though climate changed in the Yukon, evidence from this study suggests it has changed less here than in other regions of the world. The Yukon is near the Arctic Circle and has remained cold for millions of years.

Kazima, S. et. al.

“Middle Pleistocene (MIS 5) to Holocene Fossil Insect Assemblages from the Old Crow Basin, Northern Yukon, Canada”

Quaternary International 341 August 2014

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329626444_Middle_Pleistocene_MIS_7_to_Holocene_fossil_insect_assemblages_from_the_Old_Crow_basin_northern_Yukon_Canada

Great White Sharks (Carcharadon carcharias) Almost Went Extinct During the Last Ice Age

Scientists attempting to solve a genetic mystery about great white sharks instead discovered a surprising detail about the history of this species. 20 years ago, scientists learned there were big genetic inconsistencies between great white shark mitochondrial DNA, mostly inherited from the female side, and nuclear DNA material inherited from both parents. This could be caused by genetic variation before speciation, hybridization before speciation, different dispersal patterns between sexes, or different environmental selection processes between sexes. Scientists collected genetic data from great white sharks for 13 years and put this data into different models to try and understand why. They assumed this dissonance was most likely caused by females staying in the same geographic area, while males migrated long distances and interbred with other populations. The models they used couldn’t solve the mystery. Even extreme models that assumed females didn’t migrate at all couldn’t explain why mitochondrial DNA was so different. However, the scientists who studied this did learn great white sharks almost became extinct during the last Ice Age.

Great white sharks almost went extinct during the last Ice Age because their shallow water habitat was replaced by dry land. There were no great white sharks in the Atlantic Ocean until about 7000 years ago, though they may have repopulated it during previous interglacials. Loss of shallow coastal habitat is probably the same reason megalodon went extinct 2 million years ago when Ice Ages became more severe.

Seals make up a good part of great white shark diet in some regions.

Frontal view of a great white shark.

10,000 years ago, great white sharks were on the decline and limited to 1 population between South Africa and Australia. Their favored habitat–shallow coastal waters–was nearly eliminated when sea levels fell, as so much of earth’s atmospheric moisture became locked into massive glaciers. Dry land extended into what was formerly and would become shallow coastal waters. This is also likely the reason megalodon became extinct at the beginning of the Pleistocene. 7,000 years ago, great white sharks began to increase in numbers and today there are 3 populations–the coasts of South Africa and Australia, North Atlantic coasts, and North Pacific coasts. Scientists estimate the great white shark population worldwide is only 20,000. They are still vulnerable to extinction.

Reference:

Lasa-Judart, R.; S. Corrigan, C. Yang

“A Genomic Test of Sex-Biased Dispersal in White Sharks”

PNAS 122 (32) July 2025

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2507931122

See this article for an explanation about how scientists use the molecular clock to study the history of a species.

https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/the-molecular-clock-and-estimating-species-divergence-41971/

Pleistocene Doves

Mourning doves (Zenaida macrura) are the most common bird species in Georgia, but they aren’t nearly as abundant as the now extinct passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) used to be seasonally in state. Their cooing can be heard in fields and yards throughout the breeding season. It’s a peaceful sound, perhaps explaining why doves are considered a symbol of peace. Mourning doves are an ancient species known to have occurred in North America for at least 2 million years. They favor open habitat with trees for nesting. They feed upon grass seeds, berries, and buds. Meadows, fields, and pastures are where these sources of food abound. Mourning doves found plenty of favorable habitat when Pleistocene megafauna kept woodlands open with their foraging and trampling. Pleistocene-aged fossil and subfossil specimens of mourning doves have been found from California to Florida, and they likely had a continent-wide distribution for over a million years.

Mourning doves are the most common bird species in Georgia.

Non-native Eurasian collared doves occur in Georgia.

Common ground doves range into southern Georgia, but I have only seen them in Florida.

All doves and pigeons belong to the Columbidae family which includes 51 genera and 352 species. Some like the dodo and the passenger pigeon have gone extinct within the past few centuries. The Bermuda dove, an extinct subspecies of ground dove went extinct when rising sea levels at the end of the last Ice Age inundated their habitat. Scientists used to think pigeons and doves diverged from other birds during the Cretaceous when dinosaurs still roamed the earth, but more recent genetic studies suggest they diverged from other birds about 30 million years ago. Their closest living relatives are sand grouses and tropical turacos.

A genetic study places pigeons and doves between sand grouses and turacos. From the below referenced study by Stiller, et al.

Another genetic study determined pigeons and doves diverged from other bird species about 30 million years ago. From the below referenced study by Soares, et al.

3 species of pigeons and doves live in Augusta, Georgia where I reside. Mourning doves are common in my neighborhood, and recently I have been seeing non-native Eurasian collared doves, also known as ring-necked doves (Streptopelia decaocto). City pigeons, also known as rock doves (Columba livia) occur in more urban areas of the city where they nest on buildings. Common ground doves (Columbina passerina) range just south of Augusta. I did see some when I visited Bradenton, Florida a few years ago.

A new study surveyed 82 sites in the Pee Dee Region of the Carolinas, looking for Eurasian collared doves. They found 36 of the sites occupied by this species. 22 of the sites were urban and 14 were rural. The study indicates this species has been undercounted by traditional bird surveys. They are expanding into the piedmont from the coastal plain, a region that experiences more habitat loss.

References:

McNair, D

“Population Persistence and Landscape Use of Eurasian Collared Doves in North Pee Dee Region of the Carolinas”

Southeastern Naturalist 24 (1) 2025

Soares, A.; et. al.

“Complete Mitochodrial Genomes of Living and Extinct Pigeons Revises the Taxonomy of Columbiformes Radiation”

BMC Ecology and Evolution 12 (230) 2016

Stiller, J.; et. al.

“Complexity of Avian Evolution Revealed by Family-Level Genomes”

Nature 629 (8013) 2024

Led Zeppelin’s “Custard Pie” and 10 Years After’s “Spoonful”–A Contrast

I’ve been listening to many of the same rock songs for as long as 50 years now. I still love rock and roll, but a few years ago I began listening to Big Band music from the 1930’s, and this summer I’ve been reading a book about the history of jazz. My discovery of a Louis Armstrong song from 1929 entitled “Mahoghany Hall Stomp” was by itself worth the cost of that book. After listening to jazz when I return to rock, I often choose music by Led Zeppelin and 10 Years After. Their music is deeply rooted in rhythm and blues, a cousin of jazz. Both groups have a depth of sound from the musicianship they demonstrate on their instruments that matches the Big Band sound the old masters accomplished using large brass sections. Solos by these groups are jazzy sounding. Not long ago, I noticed an interesting contrast between 2 rock songs: “Spoonful” by 10 Years After and “Custard Pie” by Led Zeppelin.

“Spoonful” by 10 Years After. They also performed a live version at Woodstock that can be found on youtube where interested listeners can look for the original Howlin’ Wolf song.

“Spoonful” was written by Willie Dixon for Howlin’ Wolf in 1960. Led Zeppelin also used songs by both Willie Dixon and Howlin’ Wolf. The version of “Spoonful” played by 10 Years After was recorded for their first self-titled album in 1967 which mostly consisted of cover songs. “Spoonful” has the same stubborn bass line through the entirety of the song. The bass line consists of 2 G notes, 2 C notes, and 2 G notes, alternating. A microphone was apparently right next to the bass guitar played by Leo Lyons. Meanwhile, Alvin Lee plays his electric guitar in the background, and his performance is amazing, yet it sounds like he is desperately vying for attention with the bass. They briefly play in unison, but for most of the song it sounds as if they are playing 2 different pieces. The bass line is easy to learn how to play and grabs the listener’s attention, but they should be paying attention to Alvin Lee’s wild guitar playing in the background. 10 Years After also recorded this song at the famous Woodstock concert in 1969. They are not as well-known as Led Zeppelin, but they are long overdue to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Yet they have never even been nominated. Other great songs in their catalogue include “Love Like a Man,” “20,000 Miles Beneath My Brain,” “I Go Home,” “I’d Love to Change the World,” “Woke up this Morning,” and “Woodchopper’s Ball.”

“Custard Pie” from Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti album. I figured out how to play this riff on my glockenspiel.

Led Zeppelin’s “Custard Pie” was recorded for their Physical Graffiti album in 1975. It was influenced by 3 songs–“Drop Down Mama” by John Estes, “Shake ’em All Down,” by Bukka White, and “I Want Some of Your Pie” by Blind Boy Fuller. The titles of all these songs are used in the “Custard Pie” lyrics. Jimmy Page uses 2 two note chords on his electric guitar and his rhythm is followed exactly by bass and drum. In contrast to “Spoonful” they play in complete unison. They really play as a team unlike in “Spoonful” which sounds as if 2 different musicians are vying for attention, while the most interesting parts of the song are relegated to the background. “Custard Pie” also has nice guitar instrumentals, and Robert Plant plays a harmonica instrumental to add interesting variation.

“Custard Pie” is one of my favorite Led Zeppelin songs, but most rock critics underrate it. Most rank it in the middle of the pack of their catalogue of songs, and none rank it higher than 40. They are wrong. I think it is one of their better songs. I could just listen to that catchy rhythmic riff all day long.

An Analysis of the Movie Hard Times

Smart televisions just piss me off. It takes 15 minutes for me to figure out how to turn them on. Then, it takes me at least another 15 minutes to find and decide on a viewing choice. I miss the good old days when there were just a paltry 3 choices over an antenna, but at least they were new shows. Now, most of the options on smart televisions are the same shows I watched when there were just 3 networks decades ago. I think smart televisions are the only TVs being sold these days and fancy hotels are equipped with them. On a recent vacation we stayed at a hotel with a smart television, and I did enjoy watching an old favorite cult movie–Hard Times on Tubi.com.

Hard Times was released during 1975. It starred Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Jill Ireland, and Robert Tressier. The movie is about gamblers betting on bare knuckle street fights during the Great Depression. The movie begins when a mysterious drifter (Cheney played by Charles Bronson) gets off a train and watches a bare-knuckle bout in a nearby warehouse. Sleep, a gambler played by James Coburn, bets on a fighter he backs, and his fighter loses. Cheney later meets with Sleep in a diner and offers all the money he has ($6) to match him against the winner of the fight he witnessed. Cheney knocks the fighter out with 1 punch. Sleep takes Cheney to New Orleans to make more money betting against a rich gambler. They watch his scary looking bald fighter destroy a skilled boxer, and they challenge him, but the rich gambler demands they put up more money than they have. To get more money, Cheney needs to win more fights, so they go to the country where Cheney defeats a big young Cajun man. However, the gambler, Pettibone, staking that fighter refuses to pay them and sends them packing at gunpoint. My favorite scene of the movie is next. Cheney makes a surprise entrance into Pettibone’s bar, knocks out his bodyguard, takes his gun, and forces Pettibone to pay them the money. He proceeds to shoot up the bar before they leave.

This scene has an odd flaw. Cheney shoots up the bar. He takes 7 shots with his left hand and 1 with his right. The movie never shows him switching hands.

Cheney defeats the scary bald fighter. Sleep blows all his money on whores and gambling and also falls into debt with gangster loan sharks. The rich gambler who staked the scary bald guy offers to pay the debt, if Sleep agrees to let him take ownership of Cheney. Cheney refuses, infuriating Sleep who makes some unkind comments early in the morning while drunk, seemingly ending their relationship. However, gangsters kidnap Poe, their intellectual drug addict cut man and threaten to kill him and Sleep, unless Cheney agrees to fight an undefeated street fighter from Chicago, staked by the rich gambler. Cheney defeats him, and they all win a lot of money again.

I don’t understand the ending. Cheney gives his share of the money to Sleep, hops on a train, and leaves town. He did all the work, risking his health, and gives all of his money to a degenerate gambler who used him. Cheney has no backstory and no certain future. Maybe the character is simply a metaphor for a gambler’s luck. It’s a curious ending.

Jill Ireland, Bronson’s wife in real life, plays his love interest in this movie. She’s a semi-shore who dumps him. Perhaps that’s why he left town. This subplot is extraneous.

Scene showing Cheney fighting the big Cajun. He won, but they didn’t give up the money easily.

Sleep and Cheney played by James Coburn and Charles Bronson, respectively.

Cheney fighting the scary bald guy.

Hard Times was produced by Larry Gordon and directed by Walter Hall who also wrote the screenplay. Philip Lathrop was behind the camera. The movie is beautifully shot on location in New Orleans and still looks really good on high definition. The movie was a great success. Filmed for $2.7 million, it made $26.3 million at the box office. It received good reviews and audiences rate it 4.7 on a 5-star scale. Charles Bronson starred in the movie at the peak of his career.