Saturday morning tunes: There was a band playing in my head

Woke up this morning with this song in my head; don't know why. You're welcome. And props to Neil Young for writing a song this good, that would support a cover this good.

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And I ask the question again: Has Letterman ever gotten credit for the musical performances he's gotten on his show over the years?

Saturday tunes: After changes, we stay more or less the same

Adding to our list of Letterman-hosted reunions that make everyone uncomfortable even if the music is great, here's Paul and Artie singing one of their best:

The lost verse is prophetic: Over three decades after their careers went their separate ways and their dislike of one another could make audiences squirm, when they sing together it's like all those changes left things more or less the same.

Saturday tunes: I don't know if all that's true

But you got me, and baby, I got five of the most uncomfortable minutes in the history of American pop music:

Meme Watch: Teleprompter[tm]Gate!

I originally planned to ignore it, hoping it would go away. But in an era when GOP budget proposals without numbers get laughed out of court within hours, Teleprompter^[tm]Gate has shown a surprising amount of staying power.

Enough substance to keep it going for over six weeks, in fact.

By all rights, this--or something equivalent--should have put the whole thing down, like a horse with a broken leg, 'way back in February:

It makes me wonder: Could this campaign by the Obama-Fail Forces be an attempt at payback for this? They say elephants never forget . . . .

(H/t to Doctor TV.)

Bush's week

At least by some measures, last week would have to be considered an on-again-off-again time to be George Bush.

On the one hand, you could argue that Gonzales's pounding before the Senate Judiciary Committee, while unpleasant to watch, served two important positive functions from Bush's point of view:

First, of course, better that anyone face the consequences of Bush's policies than Bush himself, even if it means a long-time friend and loyalist must be hung out to dry while the nation watches. Painful, yes, but from that angle Bush still probably counts it as a win. (And of course, since he doesn't watch or read the news and gets his information about the outside world from tiptoeing loyalists inside the White House, it's entirely possible that Bush doesn’t yet know, may never know, that the AG took a six-hour pounding for the team.)

Second, whatever civics-class pageantry might have seemed to play out during the hearings, there's certainly a reasonable case to be made that, because Gonzales got flogged but nothing essential changed after it was over, the hearings will have no significant effect on Bush's continued anti-Constitutional plans to expand executive branch power at the expense of the legislative (and the judicial, when not otherwise useful). Such exercises would, by that calculus, simply be silly dog-and-pony shows that he must occasionally allow in order to keep unchecked power--not unlike a feudal monarch condescending to attend some rustic harvest celebration in the village before returning to the castle and continuing his plans of war, land, and treasure.

But, on the other hand, Bush did take something of a vigorous cuffing about the head and upper body last week when it came to satirical multimedia lists:

From Olbermann: Top 10 Bush administration excuses for being unable to produce important paperwork.

From the Daily Background: Top 15 most embarrassing photos of George W. Bush.

From Letterman: Top 10 favorite George W. Bush moments.

And yet . . . and yet . . . . One is reminded of Tom Lehrer's ironic musical comment on the Spanish Civil War: "Though he may have won all the battles, we had all the good songs!"

Biting video compilations are nice, don't get me wrong. And these are all pretty amusing, even if a little well-worn. And I wouldn't have the satirists lower their weapons for a moment in the days to come.

But do I think it's about time to see the subpoenas get sent to the White House, move this all to Federal Court, and get down to business. Shall we?

Zevon

From his last performance, on the Letterman show in 2002, here's a classic piece of Warren Zevon, who died three years ago today.

By this point the lung cancer that took him out had begun to make its mark on his singing, leaving his once-strong voice thin and reedy in spots, but it's a fair performance of a great tune.

I want to live alone in the desert
I want to be like Georgia O'Keefe
I want to live on the Upper East Side
And never go down in the street

Splendid Isolation