Stones' Jubilee

As the Rolling Stones celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first gig, Paste identifies "You Can't Always Get What You Want" as their greatest song. Scrolling down from #50, I thought the winner would be "Gimme Shelter." I hoped it would be "Jumpin' Jack Flash."

From Nuts Into The Soup

During his Montreal bed-in with Yoko Ono in May 1969, John Lennon disclosed that he wanted to get some acorns to Richard Nixon. PASTE publishes the first transcript of the interview:

[Journalist Howard] Smith: Somebody told me about these acorns you’re sending around. What is that all about?

Lennon: Well the acorns started off as a piece of sculpture at a sculptor exhibition with all the Henry Moore’s and the Barbra Hepworth and all showing their big pieces of stone and brick and all that and we came up with the idea to put acorns in as a living sculpture you know. And from then on it sort of developed and we thought we’d send a living sculpture to everyone. Every head of state and then we came up with the idea instead of sending we thought we could take them and offer them as a token of peace and that’s all it is.

Smith: Have you done that yet?

Lennon: Well, we wanted to start with American you know so, that’s all we’re hoping to do you know.

Smith: Do you think you’ll be able to get to Nixon? What do you think?

Lennon: I don’t know you know, I really don’t know. We just hope we can and if not we’ll just post them to him or do something you know. We’re finding out the more we sort of say, “we’re coming to do this,” more fear or reaction happens before we even, you know some sort of strange vibe sort of sets in. So I’m shutting up a bit about acorns and Mr. Nixon and all that bit. You know, I just want to get in.

Lennon and Ono got their visas, but I don't think Nixon ever got his acorns. Soon the couple were hanging out with antiwar activists, the FBI was trailing them, and the INS was trying to deport them.

LAlt.-country

Ryan Adams premiers new songs.

"Short Dress Gal," Carolina Chocolate Drops

With the Luminescent Orchestrii
Hat tip to the good people at "Paste"

Another Bible Story

"We'll read the allegory to another Bible story out of deference, defiance, choice." Another intriguingly obscure theological reference from lead singer and composer Michael Stipe, occurring this time in "It Happened Today," a song from R.E.M.'s upcoming album, "Collapse Into Now." And another great-sounding, hook-heavy song from one of the best bands ever. Very acoustic, very "Automatic for the People." Eddie Vedder (shown here with Stipe) is on backing vocals. Listen here. Plus you can get the song for free if you preorder the album (which isn't due out until March).

Hat tip to the good people at PASTE

Klaxons' Kosmic Kitty

From the good people at "Paste," their choice as best album cover (does anyone remember album covers?) of 2010, from "Surfing the Void" by the Klaxons

"It's A Mess/Meets The Test"

Thanks to the good people at "Paste," whose print edition is struggling along with almost everyone else's, ten songs about print journalism, including a snippet of "The Newspaperman" as performed by Pete Seeger.

While he's at it, playlist compiler and journalist Mark Kemp sings this discouraging tune:

Today, journalism is a skeleton of its once-authoritative self. Newspapers have laid off all but a few copy-pushers and overworked editors who want complex information reduced to concise (and don’t forget, entertaining!) capsules. And the “reading” public doesn’t ask for more than that. Americans seem blissfully content getting their information from the pundits—those TV talking heads who shout angry diatribes and smirk out witty one-liners in lieu of facts—or from Internet pseudo-journalists who offer up wild conspiracy fantasies on websites run by potential Unibombers.