So, I started a blog...

I've always wanted to be a rock critic. Recently I was thinking about this and realized that you no longer need to be hired on at a magazine or newspaper to write about music. By virtue of this here Internet thing, you can get a blog and start typing.

So, anyway, I plan on trying to write some about rock and roll every day, and then give this site address out to a few friends. Hopefully, I'll be interesting enough for people to bother reading. Even if they aren't, I think I'll write anyway.

"Rock 'N Roll Astronaut? What's that about?" Well, I'm glad you asked. As many of you know, Bo Diddley recently passed away. In the (way too few) obituaries that came out shortly after his death, I saw him referred to as a "rock 'n roll pioneer." No way. Elvis, Little Richard, and Chuck Berry were rock 'n roll pioneers. With coon skin caps and Bowie knives they forged their way, entirely Earthbound, through the 50's music landscape like Davey Crockett and Kit Carson.

Bo Diddley on the other hand wasn't even on the same planet as Elvis and the rest. He was so far out into outer space with what he was doing that calling him a pioneer just doesn't quite do it. He was a rock 'n roll astronaut and there were very few others like him. Johnny Burnette, Link Wray, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins are the only others that immediately come to mind as being so way out, so way ahead of their time that they simply didn't seem to inhabit the same planet as the rest of their contemporaries.

So, "Rock 'n Roll Astronaut," that's my tribute to Bo Diddley, a little tip of the hat to the man whose death was announced somewhere back on page 5 of the paper, when we should be going through a national week of mourning while his body lies in state in the Capitol Rotunda being visited by international (and interstellar) dignitaries. I'll write a more extensive entry on Bo some time in the near future.

Anyway, as a final introductory move, I'll put up the top 10 most played songs from the last time I updated by i-pod. I figure that'll be as good a heads up as any as to whether you want to keep reading RnR Astronaut in the future...

"Weakness" - Inspiral Carpets
"Tracy Hide" - Wondermints
"Help You Ann" - Lyres
"Sun Stoned" - Spirit Caravan
"I Only Want You" - Eagles of Death Metal
"Devil Nights" - Electric Six
"Pink Frost" - The Chills
"You're My Drug" - The Dukes of Stratosphere
"96 Tears" - ? and the Mysterians
"Final Solution" - Pere Ubu

Yeah, four of those ten are off the Children of Nuggets boxed set. I happened to get that (quite excellent) set within a couple months of getting my i-pod. So it was the first thing I put on there. Still, I think that list is a fairly representative indication of my listening tastes.

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