Lenny Kravitz – Let Love Rule

- sittin’ on top of the world    -             

Skid: Lenny Kravitz… Multi-instrumentalist and performer/songwriter extraordinaire, with his debut masterpiece Let LoveRule.

Rux: His only masterpiece.

Skid: That is correct. We had to get to this one before Tyler did

Rux: I don’t know that he would have. I don’t know if this is his…

Skid: Beating him to the punch. Hey can you rewind that? Did he just have a Peter Brady moment?

Rux: Totally.

Skid: I never noticed that.

Rux: Hey Peter! I know what we can do. Let’s put on a show.

Skid: We can do it right here in the barn.

Rux: We have to save the orphanage.

Skid: So that is my understanding…. That he performed all of the instruments on this album. Is that correct? Is that your understanding?

Rux: Yes. That is my understanding. That is my interpretation and understanding. That was the big thing when we first heard this record, when you first brought it to my house when we were… however old we were. You were like, “Dude! Ngahyahahhhaaayyahghfff. Look at this!” And wow, he played all the instruments, he wrote all the songs, AND he married Lisa Bonet. How can you go wrong?

Skid: There you go. If someone said that to me, Ngayaahahaaah… I’d run away.

Rux: I just did. Run little man, run.

Skid: It’s obviously all his voices on there. Some nice jangly guitar… How do you get that, uh, loose string tone?

Rux: On the acoustic? You tune your strings a little bit. Tune them way down. Let them flop around.

Skid: They do. They flop around. I love that.

Rux: I don’t know how one man played all of these instruments at once, but… he sure did.

Skid: Nope. He cleaned up when he was playing on the streets, I’ll tell you that. An accordian, a harmonica… he be tappin’ his feet to the cymbals and honking on horns with his heel.

Rux: I remember the first time we met Lenny Kravitz… He was in the park with a cymbal on his head and an accordian.

Skid: And a bass drum strapped to his back.

Rux: And we said: “Keep it up, kid… you’re going somewhere. And that wife of yours… rowr rowr.”

Skid: Man! If you’re writing music for Lisa Bonet, yeah, you’re going to write a masterpiece.

Rux: That’s fair.

Skid: What do you think… influenced more by Prince or Stevie Wonder?

Rux: Yes.

Skid: All right then.

Rux: A little bit of both.

-let love rule-

Skid: There you go, banging on some pots and pans back there.

Rux: Thanks for hitting the walls there, Lenny. Thanks for making some noise off the door jambs.

Skid: Did we mention anything about that song? Oh, there’s the good song. Love… is gentle… Love is a rose and you‘d better not pick it… or is that a nose?

Rux: Yes. Now they actually did play this song on some radio, I believe.

Skid: Oh yeah. Nice organs in there… Nice organ, Lenny. Hey Lenny, I like your organ.

Rux: The uh… The way that all the vocals work together on this song, is just so amazing. And with the organ. Cause the mouths and the organs, the harmony is just incredible.

Skid: Your organ’s in my mouth. Your mouth’s on my organ.

Rux: It’s the 2 great tastes that taste great together. Mouths and organs. They go together like ram-a-lam-a-lama geddingitty-ding-I-dong.

Skid: Like chutes and ladders. Your ladder is in my chute.

Rux: Chutes and ladders?

Skid: I did. So, you like Lenny with or without the dreads?

Rux: With.

Skid: With the dreads.

Rux: I like the old style, the old school Lenny Kravitz. The pre-suck lenny Kravitz. Not that I’m saying he cut his hair and all of a sudden he sucked, because he sucked pretty bad when he had some hair also.

Skid: Yeah, he started sucking…

Rux: well, let’s wrap it up for these people… He’s done like 5 or 6 records now… and it’s been a downward spiral since this record.

Skid: Yeah, and now the albums, if they do have one good song on them, it’s not the one that they’re playing on the radio.

Rux: Yeah, which we’d just like to say: Music industry people… Screw you guys. You always pick the wrong song to play on the radio.

Skid: If Lenny Kravitz makes a bad song, which he will… don’t play it. That “Flyaway” song… Lame. The last good song that they played from him… This is him on the sax… The last good song they played from him was “Are you going to go my way”.

Rux: Yes. And that was a remarkable album in that it followed up the Smokey Robinson album with a rocker. And that album really wasn’t so bad.

Skid: Yeah, I like some of the sounds he put in that, and I like the Sly and the Family Stone drummer.

Rux: Right, right, right, right. That chick is amazing, and I love that story about how she got that job.

Skid: I hadn’t heard it. How’d she get the job?

Rux: Well, they were going out on tour the next day and something happened to the drummer, and so he was in Los Angeles getting ready to start the tour, and she lived in New York – probably still does – and he heard about this drummer. So he called her on the phone and he said… Hey, we’re going out on tour tomorrow and we need a drummer… and she said, well I can come out there and audition for you. And he said, no no, just put the phone down and go play. So she put the phone down and went to her kit and played for about 5 minutes, came back and picked up the phone and he said, get on the next plane to Los Angeles.

Skid: Excellent… He didn’t even see her hair?

Rux: No. Sight unseen.

Skid: NICE. The Mod Squad doo, I love that. She does kind of rock hard. Now based solely on this sax solo, I’ll tell you right now that Lenny Kravitz is a far better sax player than David Bowie.

Rux: And Daniel Ash.

Skid: Haven’t heard Daniel Ash play… I had no idea.

Rux: He’s even worse than David Bowie. Daniel Ash tries to be David Bowie real hard.

Skid: That’s not the saxophone player of comparison. You know? you strive to be Charlie Parker…

Rux: Right, you don’t strive to be David Bowie. Glass Spider has some of the greatest saxophone work in the history of man!   

Skid: (mimics silly English tart) I’m a bit bored with the tambourine. Think I’ll take up the saxophone. It’s basicly just a prop.

Rux: Basicly, he just needed something to do with his hands.

Skid: If you know what I mean. Oh yeah, hey… forgot about Lenny Kravitz.

Rux: You got to got to yeah. The fuzz guitar on this… Sweeet. I’m sure there was no budget for this record… The tones that he gets and just the way the way the whole thing is put together is so amazing.

Skid: I’m surprised that they would let him do that, play all the instruments on his first outing.

Rux: I’m betting that he probably recorded the record and then sent it in. Said “Here I’ve got this finished record, does someone want to release it?”

Skid: And who wouldn’t?

Rux: Well back then, this was kind of a step in a different direction.  It was pre-folk revival folk-revival. It was a little pre-seventies funk-folk revival. All the kids are doing it now. When was this? ’89 huh?

-freedom train-       

Rux: Yeah, right into it.

Skid: Uh huh.

Rux: Go, no breaks.

Skid: Uh huh.

Rux: No brakes, keep it going Lenny.

Skid: Uh huh.

Rux: Keep it going. Keep it going.

Skid: Uh huh. Uh huh. So this led into your Brand New Heavies?

Rux: Oh yeah. The new soul.  It was at the front end of all that.

Skid: He just puts in new flavors every few verses here. I like that.

Rux: That crazy little keyboard thing. Eee…eee…eee. This is his original musicarium, songs from the key of Lenny Kravitz’ head.

Skid: Freedom train.

Rux: OK, with this guitar riff going, I think this a good time for me to make my next point.

Skid: Alright.

Rux: Ben Harper picked up where Lenny Left off.

Skid: Oh yeah.

Rux: But unfortunately Ben Harper has gone the way of sucking.

Skid: It’s the same kind of love/hate thing I have with Ben Harper. Some stuff I really really like. Sometimes he sounds exactly like Cat Stevens to me. Which was a surprise.

Rux: Yeah, oh yeah. Pre-crazy Cat Stevens?

Skid: But sometimes, well that’s kind of a judgment call. He might have been crazy back then too. He could have been crazy all along for all we know.

Rux: That’s true.

Skid: But that song Ben Harper did on The Jam tribute…Oh God.

Rux: Bad?

Skid: He took all the soul out of a Jam song. How does that work?

Rux: Out of white punk rock he took the soul out of it?

Skid: Yeah.

Rux: I’ve heard him do a couple of tribute songs.  Stick to your own, Ben, stick to your own.

Skid: Was that a racist comment?

Rux: Yeah, it was.

Skid: There you go, Ben, stick to your own he says.

Rux: It was a Racer X comment.

Skid: Racer X…

Rux: Stay in your own lane.

Skid: Rux Pipsqueak says, “Stay in your place, Ben Harper.”

Rux: Be it known. It is hereby decreed by the voice of  Rux Pipsqueak.

Skid: I don’t mind Ben Harper, as long as he knows his place.

Rux: Ben Harper…

Skid: I did.

-precious love-

Skid: Harper’s Bazaar…

Rux: I did.

Skid: Harpers Ferry…

Rux: I did. Go Lenny, go!

Skid: Gospel soul.

Rux: He’s getting all gospelly with the organ.

Skid: I love that. Love it.

Rux: This song…probably about Lisa Bonet.

Skid: I’d imagine.

Rux: The next song… probably about Lisa Bonet. Song after that… probably about Lisa Bonet. After that…not so sure. But maybe about Lisa Bonet. Song after that is not about Lisa Bonet.  It’s about some cab driver.

Skid: David Johansen?

Rux: Yes!

Skid: Or Tom Waits? Jake Johansen? The Joe Hanson brothers?

Rux: Don’t forget to look at the Marco Pirroni thing over there. The Marco Pirroni page.

Skid: Hey, wait…what’s the link? We’ll just talk it in. Http://

Rux: Something something Marco Pirroni.

Skid: Dot com.  Solomon Burke right here, folks.

Rux: Solomon Burke?

Skid: Oh yeah.

Rux: This to me has kind of a Chambers Brothers feel to it.

Skid: Oh I love the Chambers Brothers. Chambers Brothers, call us!

Rux: Wherever you are, even the white kid, call us!

Skid: Chambers Brothers…

Rux: Oh, I can’t do it anymore.

Skid: A little Percy Sledge, but Percy was a little…how do I say this? A little too white.

Rux: He wasn’t sticking to his own, huh?

Skid: Oh good Lord, we’re in so much trouble.

Rux: I’m going to hell, ladies and gentlemen. A little Marvin Gaye. Without the highness.

Skid: Well that comes later.

Rux: He hasn’t quite gotten to the Marvin Gaye Smokey Robinson stage yet.

Skid: Curtis Mayfield.

Rux: Now see I’d take Curtis Mayfield over almost any of those guys.

Skid: Oh, fer…we’re going to come to blows over this. Curtis Blow.

Rux: Who would win in a fight, Curtis Mayfield or Smokey Robinson?

Skid: In a fight Curtis Mayfield.

Rux: Curtis Mayfield or Marvin Gaye?

Skid: Marvin Gaye.

Rux: See, Chow said that too. He said, “Marvin Gaye’s dad beat him up all the time. He was a bad mother…” And I said, “Shut your mouth.” And I can dig it.

Skid: Tickling on the ivories here.   ********jeffersons*********

Rux: I wonder if this was the piano from The Jeffersons’ apartment.

Skid: That’s where he learned to play, on the set of The Jeffersons. And now he’s moving on up.

Rux: Lenny, it’s time to start filming. You get away from there. So he’s the kid of the neighbors.

Skid: Yes, the neighbors.

Rux: The white guy and the black lady.

Skid: Right.

Rux: Who were married in real life.

Skid: I don’t think so, I think she was married to a white guy, but it was a different white guy.

Rux: So that’s not his dad?

Skid: No, the actor’s not his dad.

Rux: Just the actress is his mom.

Skid: I think his dad had something to do with the show, but he wasn’t on it.

Rux: What was her name?

Skid: I don’t know.

Rux: It wasn’t Florence. That was the maid.

Skid: It wasn’t Florence.

Rux: The house lady. Can you call them maids anymore?

Skid: In the house coat.

Rux: Put your coats on, boys. **********jack coats*************

Skid: Get your coats, boys.

Rux: I was somewhere the other night…

Skid: So was I. I didn’t see you there. Must’ve missed you.

Rux: You must’ve gotten there right after I left.

Skid: I saw a bumper sticker the other day.

Rux: Really?

Skid: Mmm hmmm.

Rux: I laughed a lot, I saw it also. You know, if he could have kept up records like this, he would have been the most unstoppable force of the 90’s.

Skid: He could have been famous.

Rux: He would have been better than Madonna.

Skid: Uh…he is better than Madonna. What was the song he wrote for Madonna?

Rux: Did he?

Skid: He wrote Justify My Lump or one of those.

Rux: I hope not.

Skid: He wrote sumpin for her.

Rux: Excuse me while I get sick.

Skid: Mmm Hmm. Right after this came out.  She prolly took pictures of him naked too.

-i built this garden for us-

Rux: Lenny Kravitz’ attorneys, please call us.

Skid: This I love. I build this garden for us.  I think this one had a video.

Rux: Really, I don’t remember seeing any videos for any of his stuff. Other than Are You Gonna Go My Way. 

Skid: I think there was. Unless I’m thinking of Stone Temple Pilots.

Rux: Yes, Stone Temple Pilots, who were Lenny Kravitz.

Skid: That song they stole from Wire. Fly In The Ointment, or whatever. Flies In The Vaseline.

Rux: Oh yeah. Hey that was one of their three decent songs.

Skid: No it wasn’t.

Rux: One of their four decent songs?

Skid: No.

Rux: I liked it.

Skid: You can have it all you want.

Rux: So on speculation I’m going to say little Lenny Kravitz goes into the studio with all these instruments, records this fantastic record, goes out gets signed to whoever, Virgin. They say, “Hey kid, we love your stuff. “ They release this record and it does OK. So then he gets money to be in the studio and other musicians. Then it all goes downhill. 

Skid: That’s the fly in the ointment. That’s where I came in. 

Rux: You can blame it on the industry, you can blame it on the other musicians. Or you can blame it where the blame lays, and that’s with…

Skid: Stone Temple Pilots.

Rux: (as Curtis Mayfield) Come on Lisa, honey. I built this garden for us. Lenny does not ever remind me of the Jacksons.

Skid: Not even once.

Rux: Not even once.  Smokey Robinson, yes. Marvin Gaye, yes. Average White Band, yes. Jackson 5, no.

Skid: (aghast) OK.

Rux: Did you know they (AWB) were Scottish?

Skid: No, I’m a little surprised by that, but with the whole Thin Lizzy thing, not too shocked.

Rux: I guess that’s true. There’s a little bit of Average White Band in all of us.

Skid: If you say so. I think I’ve got a little more Vanilla Cherry myself.

Rux: Vanilla Cherry! What’s Vanilla Cherry?

Skid: Play that funky music.

Rux: Really?

Skid: What about Vanilla Fudge?

Rux: I was gonna say that. Vanilla Fudge, Vanilla Cherry.

Skid: Vanilla Stolli.

Rux: Vanilla Coke. Vanilla Raspberry. Orange Dreamsicles. I hope that in the end, Lenny Kravitz is measured by this record more than others. Because I hope people don’t immediately think of Circus.

Skid: I think of this, and that’s all that really matters.  Here’s something I didn’t realize…the lyrics on one song were written by Lisa Bonet.  Did you see Angel Heart?

Rux: This one?

Skid: No, Fear.

Rux: It wasn’t written about her then…or was it?

Skid: And Rosemary.

Rux: Yeah, I do remember finding out she wrote Rosemary.  No, I didn’t see Angel Heart.

Skid: Oh, I’m wrong about the Freedom Train Sax. Sorry Karl. I apologize to you and your Tiny Universe.

Rux: Played by Karl Denson? Of he and his Tiny Universe?

Skid: Uh huh.

Rux: See, he had contacts, man. You don’t just meet Karl Denson walking around.

Skid: I don’t think he was that big of a name back then.

Rux: In ’89? He got bigger since then? I thought he was a 70’s guy.

Skid: Maybe. It looks like Karl did do all the sax on this album.

Rux: Lenny played everything but the sax.

Skid: Where noted, he didn’t play it. Cello and violin, he didn’t play.

Rux: That’s good probably.

Skid: Whatever the harmonium is, he didn’t play.

Rux: I love harmonium. Especially the Vanilla Cherry harmonium. That’s my favorite flavor.

Skid: That’s some nice fuzz. I like that.

Rux: Fuzz without being noisy. That may be the harmonium, actually. I think harmonium means guitar with so much fuzz on it that you don’t actually have to use a pick. You just slide your finger on it.

Skid: Lets get us one of those.

Rux: I got some. Best use of harmonium in the 90’s…Gomez.

Skid: Hmmm. I like the Gomez.

Rux: Not Alex or Carlos.

Skid: Gomez Addams.

-fear-

Rux: We’re talking Sheffield’s own Gomez. All the English heshers who decided to play blues rock. There’s a little bit of Sly and the Family. Fuzzy bass. 

Skid: I’d like to see Macy Gray and Lenny.

Rux: Yeah. I was gong to say that last song, and I never got around to it. Dang, you and I are on the same railroad track headed right at each other at 55mph.

Skid: So if I leave at 30mph from Willoughby…

Rux: Willoughby?

Skid: Next stop Willoughby.

Rux: We went on down to Willoughby last night and got a little crazy.

Skid: Love this build up.

Rux: So Lisa Bonet, huh? She wrote the lyrics to this one.

Skid: Did she?

Rux: This is Fear.

Skid: (catching up) Ya.

Rux: So how old was he when he married Lisa Bonet?

Skid: I’m not sure. I think around 20, 22.

Rux: The Cosby girl. How old was he when he did this album?

Skid: 23, 24. I think he was pretty young. I’ll have to check on the interwebby.

Rux: We need to get some of those things people get to do their work for them but don’t have to pay them.

Skid: Robots?

Rux: No, the other thing. Radio stations have them all the time.

Skid: Interns?

Rux: Yes, we need to get some interns to do all our background for us. If you’re interested in becoming an Upstart Pipsqueak intern, please contact us. Upstarts@hybridmagazine.com. We will not abuse you, or harass you in any way shape or form. I can’t promise no verbal abuse.

Skid: That’s a given. It comes with the job.

Rux: There will be no sexual harassment from the Upstart Pipsqueaks.

Skid: I think we’d get more response if we did make it a sexual position. People like being abused like that.

Rux: Really?

Skid: Yeah, people like to be the submissive, apparently. To that I say whatever.

Rux: You would know. I don’t knowabout that wacky stuff.

Skid: Oh, yes, you’re a worm. Lick my feet or whatever.

Rux: That’s right.

Skid: Does that turn you on? He smells the beer that rains inside. Did I mention I have no funk?

Rux: I’ve smelled you before. You have funk.

Skid: But I have soul.

Rux: Your soles have funk.

Skid: Oh, really? Well lick my feet, worm.

Rux: Does that make you hot?

Skid: Are you horny? Does that turn you on? Whatever.

Rux: Alright if you want to be our intern and want to be harassed then let us know and we’ll try to oblige you in that manner also.

Skid: I’ll have to have another intern to harass the intern. Well that could work out.

Rux: That’s a really nice walk. It’s up down up. So much soul on this record, man. So much emotion without seeming forced. It really hearkened back to early soul records. Late 60’s, early 70’s. But with a fresh kind of folky feel, I think.

- does anybody out there even care-

Skid: Some of the 70’s Temptations, Papa Was A Rolling Stone stuff.

Rux: That was not the Temptations.

Skid: Ya.

Rux: Was it really?

Skid: Now he’s being all tender.

Rux: This is the song Ben Harper stole. He sounds more like Ben Harper than Lenny Kravitz here. On the record after this, the best song was “What the Hmmph Are We Saying?” He was just going off on everybody.

Skid: Fields Of Joy, that was good.

Rux: In a Beatles way.

Skid: Very Beatles.

Rux: But “What the Fuck Are We Saying” was the next step of this song.

Skid: I don’t remember that one.

Rux: We used to have to skip it in the record store. But when I was managing, we didn’t.

Skid: I was working in a record store at the same time. We didn’t skip it, we played it over and over. This is one of those albums I can’t get sick of.

Rux: I can’t either. And there was a time in our lives when we listened to this a lot.

Skid: Same year Pretty Hate Machine came out,

Rux: Yeah, another record I can’t get tired of. But every record he’s done since then, I don’t even have to hear it to know I’m tired of it.

Skid: Give that one to Tyler. Or should we do it?

Rux: We’ll just do it. And then the month after we do our column, he can do his. For those who don’t know what we’re talking about, visit Before They Went To Hell. In Hybrid Magazine.

Skid: Dot com.

Rux: Dot com. Sometimes he has really good things to say in that column, and sometimes he’s just talking out his butt.

Skid: Our new goal will be to pull the rug out from under him. Try to get all the records we think he’ll do and do them here first.

Rux: And we can say, “Upstart Pipsqueaks, you heard it here first.”

Skid: And Before they went to hell second. How mad do you think he’d get?

Rux: Oh, he’d be mad. He’d be crazy mad.

Skid: Beautiful.

Rux: That’s a Curtis Mayfield song.

Skid: No.

Rux: With the Impressions? Don’t you think.

Skid: Not to me.

Rux: Ever hear any Jackie Wilson in Lenny Kravitz?

Skid: I’d buy that. Especially the hopefulness.

-mr cab driver-

Rux: Here’s my favorite song. Or my second favorite song off the record.  It’s the rocker.

Skid: I still love the radio edit.

Rux&Skid: Mr Cab driver, beep beep. I’m a survivor.

Rux: Think this is autobiographical?

Skid: Could be. But I do think it’s a Lou Reed song.

Rux: Oh, yeah.

Skid: Heh? Cept he sings more.

Rux: The guitar is total Velvet Underground. This breakdown is to soul for Lou Reed.but the rest of it.

Skid: I love how thick the bass is on this record.

Rux: Yeah. Thick bass without being real deep. Or real low, whatever. And one time, at band camp…we listened to a Lenny Kravitz record. And one time…

Skid: Still haven’t seen that movie. You think that Willow…

Rux: The red haired girl? Real cute.

Skid: She is cute.

Rux: That girl needs to call me.

Skid: She has no boobies.

Rux: I don’t care. She needs to call me. Perhaps marry me.

Skid: What is a one sixty fiver, people? Call in, let us know.

Rux: Beep Beep. Extra fuzzy guitar in the background on this break. 

Skid: Lenny Kravitz wears no underwear.

Rux: Ulp! Neither am I.

Skid: I’m the odd man out.

Rux: If I get into an accident today, I don’t have clean underwear. I don’t have underwear at all. I think he grew up listening to a lot of Beatles records.

Skid: There’s Beatles.

Rux: The harmonies have a Beatles quality. Not so much Motown as Beatles.(sings) Oh, Lemmy, if only we had known you when you were young and good.

Skid: (also sings) When you had fire in your belly.

Rux: So now he’s got short hair, and he’s getting back together with Lisa Bonet.

Skid: Really?

Rux: Well there was something a year ago or six months ago that they were trying to work it out.

Skid: So we’re going to get a new album that’s going to be kick ass! So did he lose her about the time the Cosby show did? After Angel Heart?

Rux: It all ties in with Angel Heart doesn’t it?

Skid: Oh, good Lord.

-rosemary-

Rux: Here’s the best song on the record. Without a doubt. For me. 

Skid: I like this one.

Rux: It’s got a few perfect things, first the acoustic guitar is beautiful. Second of all, it’s got this gradual build through the entire song to get you to the apex. It’s pretty much a perfect song.

Skid: Little harmonica for ya.

Rux: I believe he was breaking up with her on the second album.

Skid: Yeah, that was the please come back album.

Rux: Because it’s got Stand By My Woman, and It Aint Over Til It’s Over. That’s a good song.

Skid: I don’t like that.

Rux: What about More Than Anything?

Skid: Don’t know it.

Rux: But I’m telling you, it’s a good song.

Skid: I don’t like that Curtis Mayfield stuff.

Rux: What do you got against Curtis Mayfield all the sudden? He can kick your ass from beyond the grave.

Skid: Yes he can. I don’t like the falsetto stuff.

Rux: Mr “Oh, I’m having dreams of Marco Pirroni. What’s wrong with me?”

Skid: You know what? I also had this other dream, where there was this giant tidal wave.

Rux: We were nowhere near the ocean, were we?

Skid: And my taffeta dress almost got wet.  And I had nothing else to wear at the prom.

Rux: Let’s go through the catalog. You had this Let Love Rule, then Mama Said, Are You Gonna Go My Way, then Five, right? Then he’s got a new one, right?

Skid: Yeah. I like this guitar.

Rux: The wishy-washy…

Skid: George Harrison guitar.

Rux: He’s about ready to break it out here.

Skid: Hold on to the beads at your heart. That’s a great line.

Rux: And on Are You Gonna Go My Way the only good song was Are You Gonna Go My Way. On Circus, there were no good songs. So Mama Said was the Smokey Robinson album.

Skid: What was Rock & Roll is Dead on?

Rux: I guess it wasn’t so bad.

Skid: Yeah, it wasn’t so good either. Stop Draggin Around was OK. I just don’t like the falsetto stuff.

Rux: Yeah, the Smokey Robinson stuff. Sweet, sweet organ here.

Skid: Why thank you. I don’t like it when Prince does it, when Lenny does it, when Ween does it.

Rux: So you don’t like Ween’s falsetto? Tight-pants Ween?

Skid: No. But I do like Smokey, so what can you do?

-be-      

Rux: Do you like the Jackson 5?

Skid: I do like the Jackson 5. A lot.

Rux: Seriously?

Skid: Yes I do! I ain’t going to lie to you. I like the Jackson 5.

Rux: Alright. I can do without really.

Skid: And I can understand that. Because I know that you’d rather hear the Osmonds.

Rux: Not so much the Osmond family as the Partridge family.

Skid: Partridge Family, whoever wrote the songs, they gave them some good songs to go with.

Rux: They were good.

Skid: I Woke Up In Love This Morning.

Rux: Remember that one thing where everyone died because of the Partridge Family Opera?

Skid: No. I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Rux: Not the Manson Family Opera, the Partridge Family. David Cassidy was the cult leader. Danny Bonaduche was right there. We watched about 3 minutes of the Partridge Family movie. And let me say this, the little red-haired kid did not look like Danny.

Skid: Oh, it was a TV movie?

Rux: Yeah, the kid had David Cassidy’s hair and clothes, but he didn’t look like him. The girl was no where, nowhere near as cute as Susan Dey.  Susan Dey, please call me.

Skid: Chow’s got a thing for Shirley Jones.

Rux: She didn’t look like Shirley Jones either. I don’t have a thing for Shirley Jones. But I’ve got a thing or two for Susan Dey, if you know what I’m talking about

Skid: Even now that she’s a lawyer? Oh, wait she’s not a lawyer, she just plays one on tv.

Rux: Who does she play on tv?

Skid: I think her show got cancelled. I don’t remember the name.

Rux: I didn’t see her on anything else. I would love to make love to her.

Skid: In the 90’s she was on a lawyer show.

Rux: Yes, Lenny, you’re insane.

Skid: Oh yeah, we’re listening to Lenny Kravitz. I love the piano line plating on the left hand.

Rux: You’re back with the Upstart Pipsqueaks coast to coast. We need to start doing call ins.

Skid: Who’s going to call in?

Rux: I dunno.

Skid: Then we have to give someone our phone number.

Rux: Oh yeah, maybe we can call them. We’re going to have to start doing call outs.

Skid: We’ll have to call the line. We could pass out our phone number at bars.

Rux: Yeah, yeah.

Skid: Hi, how you doing? You’re on the air!

Rux: I’d love to give you a call sometime, can I have your number? Then call them for the show. I think that would make the girls mad. Susan Dey, please call me. Write to us.

Skid: She’s 50, you know.

Rux: I don’t care. I bet she’s still hot. The guy from Emergency 911 is still hot.

Skid: Richard Hatch?

Rux: That was not Richard Hatch. He was Battle Star Galactica.

Skid: Yeah, What’re you talking about? He was also on Emergency, is that the show you’re talking about?

Rux: Richard Hach wasn’t on it, his name was Tom something. The dark haired guy?

Skid: I don’t know that guy, but Richard Hatch was on Emergency. Is that the same show?

Rux: With the ambulance drivers.

Skid: Yeah.

-blues for sister someone-

Rux: That wasn’t Richard Hatch.

Skid: He was on that show.

Rux: Who did he play?

Skid: ...Starbuck.

Rux: Battle Star Galactica.

Skid: Well he was living out his dreams. When he was a kid he wanted to be a fireman, then an astronaut. I think he played a doctor later on, and then a clown.

Rux: I never wanted to be a doctor.

Skid: No?

Rux: No.

Skid: Didn’t like the doctor?

Rux: Nope. I didn’t even want to play one on tv, really. Of course if Susan Dey was my lawyer, I could be her doctor. If you know what I mean.

Skid: This is a good song, but I’m not enjoying it as much as I used to.

Rux:  The nice thing about this song is the vocal effects. Actually this whole record.

Skid: The lyrics

Rux: The lyrics and the vocal effects.

Skid: That’s right, I like it when he makes that turnaround.

Rux: Give it to me Lenny! Huh? He’s got the forceful....(tape ends)

Skid: Uh oh...we run out of tape?

Rux: No, it’s on the other side.

Skid: It just turned over? Hey welcome to side two.

Rux: Welcome to side two everybody!

Skid: Boop. Please turn the page.

Rux: This is the Beatles.

Skid: More Karl Denson.

Rux: Is it? The horns.

Skid: Flowers for Zoe was OK on the next album.

Rux: Oh, I thought that was on this one too. Yeah, that was OK. Zoe, of course referring to their daughter. And not that of David Bowie.

Skid: Oh ho.

Rux: More Bowie comparisons. And after Circus he cut his hair.

-empty hands-

Skid: This is the one that I like. The Marty Robbins song. God!

Rux: The castanettes.

Skid: It’s powerful.

Rux: Yeah this is a great song. This guy doesn’t have a big iron on his hip though. Which I think it would have changed the song a little bit.

Skid: Yeah. The sheriff without a gun.

Rux: You think this is some sort of symbolism in this song? You think he’s talking about somebody?

Skid: Hmmm, could be. Something or other?

Rux: Think he’s talking about...Jebus? That’s the other thing lacking on the records after Mama Said, was the spiritual aspect. I don’t know that the guy was really sporting his Christianity back here, but there was a spiritual aspect of his songs.

Skid: Yeah, almost every one. Except for Mr Cab Driver.

Rux: And on Mama Said the same sort of thing. It was there, but after that it sort of disapeared. All the songs about the Jeffersons were gone...

Skid: Yep, Slow Train Coming, gone. What do you think about that? I bet he listened to som Bob Dylan in his day.

Rux: I bet. I saw an interview once where he was talking about all the stuff he grew up listening to. What his parents made him listen to. It was interesting. I like hearing that kind of stuff about guys. What they grew up listening to.

Skid: I grew up listening to Adam & The Ants featuring Marco Pirroni.

Rux: As did I. We should do a Cash record.

Skid: Yeah, but which one?

Rux: A newer one. Maybe...

Skid: One of the American ones?

Rux: What’s with the weird clothes? See, he went all crazy downhill. In the liner notes of Circus, he’s wearing weird panties. And shower shoes.

Skid: He really Princed out.

Rux: He Princed out without the purple.

Skid: He’s got some dreadlocked pubic hair on this one.

Rux: Weird, man. Lisa’s gone for good. Now I’m getting all wacked. Then the music went all downhill. And the ass saw the angel.

Skid: Hellfire and brimstone.

Rux: This does have a western flavor to it. I’ll take your Marty Robbins. I just picked up a Marty Robbins collection, actually. It’s pretty nice. Couple things I’d never heard before. Like some of his rockabilly stuff. I really had no idea. Go go acoustic guitar man. A little discordant organ there building some tension.

Skid: Yeah, I like that song a lot.

Rux: That is nice.

Skid: A little circus organ.

Rux: Ok, I am going to give you one more song to prove that this is the greatest Lenny Kravitz album of all time. One more. And then I will prove my point

-flower child-

Rux: Scooby Doo, where are you? It kind of ends on a rocker here.

Skid: Some boogie woogie piano.

Rux: Now, I don't know that this is about Lisa Bonet… But I'm guessing it probably was.

Skid: Love that ring inside her nose. Velvet Underground.

Rux: Velvet Underground vibe again, huh?

Skid: If Lou Reed had soul…

Rux: All right.

Skid: And was a better musician…

Rux: Hey now! Lou Reed is not about being able to play your instruments, man.

Skid: Or sing.

Rux: He's just ABOUT.

Skid: The rhythms and the word placement… Lou Reed. And the rhyme scheme.

Rux: Yeah. Oh yeah, oh sure.

Skid: Maybe a little bit Bowie. Diamond Dogs era.

Rux: Yes. Especially the piano. Very Bowie. Now, he's not a very good sax player, but the guy can play piano.

Skid: Bowie?

Rux: Yeah.

Skid: I didn't know that.

Rux: Yeah. He's pretty good on the piano and the guitar.

Skid: I knew he could play guitar.

Rux: Now, Peter Murphy… wants to be Bowie. Plays the guitar just like Bowie. Sings just like Bowie.

Skid: Plays the sax?

Rux: Wears the white shirt and vest, just like Bowie.

Skid: White shirt and vest?

Rux: Remember when we saw him, he had the white shirt, black vest? And I said," Oh, the other thin white duke." The thinner, whiter duke. Thin white duke, it's not just for Bowie anymore. Lenny Kravitz, thank you for the wonderful record that you gave us.

Skid: Karl Denson, thanks for playing real nice when you had a song to go with it. Maybe you should do that more often.

Rux: Yeah. Too bad you do that jam stuff now.

Skid: Yeah , get some songs. Lisa Bonet, get back with Lenny Kravitz.

Rux: He digs your style.

Skid: Get us a new album… that we can all love and enjoy.

For the Record:

Stewart