The Padres sign a closer, the Mets and Brewers make a trade, what Ohtani's contract means for L.A., janky uniforms, a frightened car, A woman after my heart, Jackwagons, and The Rolling Stones
People take offense at overrated, and they shouldn't. Like bacon is good. It's not "push over your own mother to get your hands on it" good, but it's good. It goes well with eggs or on a cheeseburger. But, some people act like they're sexually aroused by it, and want it on everything, and it ends up overused. Therefore, good, but overrated.
I mean, best case scenario for the Brewers is that Coleman Crow turns into Houser 2 years from now, which is pretty unlikely. TT is one of those guys who has a knack for getting hot right when you expect him to get DFA'd. He's useful if you've got room on the bench.
Imagine being Adams and having to say "we're excited" to acquire a middling pitching prospect whose going to miss the year in exchange for a swing-arm innings eater making 50% of what he's worth and even at that low salary it's a deal to cut payroll.
Don’t know what Houser and Taylor are going to be paid in 2024, but this looks like pure salary dump. Coleman is young but he isn’t a particularly good or interesting prospect. If he was healthy this would be a questionable trade.
Combined about 8 million. Houser will probably exit arbitration/settlement around a bit under 6 million. Taylor will probably be around 2 million or below. That's not a ton of money but it's pretty clearly a salary dump even if the Brewers like Coleman because his production and the loss of a year at 23 make the odds of him being 2023 Houser in 2025-2027 fairly long.
As I Cubs fan I understand the financial challenges the Brewers have, though not sure how the RSN bankruptcies are impacting them. But the Brewers seem to have found sustained success with guys like this who are cheap and decent. Strange to see them dumped vs trying to get out of the Yelich contract.
I'm not sure they really have an opportunity to get out of the Yelich contract in any event, at least not right now. I will say that even though he's not the player he was he's successfully transformed himself into a different kind of productive player, and he sells tickets and jerseys even now.
The Brewers were one of the teams that actually got paid by Diamond Sports all last season, although that could change. Houser was a pure salary dump I think. Taylor probably needed to go because Chourio will break spring training with the big league club and barring a trade or injury Frelick, Chourio, Mitchell, Yelich and Wiemer already puts them 5 deep in the OF. The Brewers are cheap but clearing 1.7 million in moving Taylor probably mattered less than the reality that he was out of options and there was no way to keep him playing regularly in the organization as a result.
I'm not sure Houser qualifies as a salary dump. They just tendered him a month ago. If they wanted out from under whatever his contract or arb award is, why not just non-tender him when they had the chance?
Since I live in Virginia, I follow her activities and statements. She is a live wire for sure. Among other things, she has a specially decorated trash can to deposit Republican-proposed legislation that would reduce people's rights (which seems to be what they're about these days).
That piece on the financial impact of Ohtani’s deferred compensation has more than a bit of Madoff energy to it. Invest the $46m annually in T-bills paying today’s rate and in ten years, the distribution is nearly exactly the $68m payable to the player. Invest it in T-bills paying the average rate from 2010-2020 and LAD comes up short and must kick in more to pay the player. Invest it in a Guggenheim fund and it is much riskier; could be a windfall for LAD, could be a flop.
There is a reason the Union and League negotiations came up with a 5% compounding rate and it isn’t that Tony Clark wants the owners to get a larger piece of the pie.
Edit: the biggest miss is that the team can’t unilaterally pick how the deferred money is held. Article XVI sets out explicitly what is done. Absent player agreement it can’t be in unmarketable securities like a Guggenheim closed fund.
Have to think that the people from Guggenheim, correctly or not, believe in their product. Though if the estimates of PROFIT! are accurate, the Dodgers should be able to afford whatever they owe. And if not, they kind of dug their own grave anyway. Ohtani will be paid, I am sure.
Believe? Sure. Guarantee? Hell no. And unless Shohei also believes in it, that’s irrelevant as by contract it has to be in cash equivalencies (bonds, treasuries) or *marketable* securities (stock or mutual funds) not private placement. That rule came into being because of the Mets and their financial mess via Madoff.
Thinking about this a little more. How much does Ohtani’s experience and knowledge of the Japanese stock markets affect his decisions here? Basically the Nikkei has been flat since 1990. Invest the $46m at its historical return and ten years later it is not $68m or the much higher value that the authors posit but rather still $46m. What guarantee do we have that Wall Street won’t see similar results in the mid term?
I didn’t click through to the article, but from Craig’s excerpts it doesn’t make any sense as a model.
It’s like saying buying my house and getting a mortgage is a $11M windfall. Since I have a mortgage instead of paying cash, I can invest $1M for 30 years and wind up with $8M and then my house will be worth $4M 30 years later.
Problem is I don’t need the house to invest $1M and it assumes I have that million. Nothing prevents any other team from investing $46M/year. In fact that’s what teams like the A’s and Pirates are doing, rather than spending it on payroll. You can’t MAKE money by adding an expensive contract, at least not the way they suggest. (You should make money by winning games which draws more fans and sponsors and whatever not financial BS.)
And from what you suggested the CBA restricts how they can invest the money, so it’s actually a penalty not a windfall.
Kinda came here to say this. I thought the "windfall" would be that Ohtani would be worth far more than $70M a year, or $46M a year or however you want to count it, in merchandise sales and other expanded opportunities, especially in Japan. Not some financial whizbangery on the level of Steve Martin's old joke about how to be a millionaire and pay no taxes: First, get a million dollars. Then ...
Making $70M a year in merchandise requires some optimism too. I'll leave it to the dlf's and Stein's to fix my assumptions and math, but I figure that if the Dodgers net $20 per item (low?), they need to sell 3.5 million jerseys a year. Maybe Year 1, but then you have to do it again in Year 2, and Year 5... Even if you double the net after COGS it's still hard to believe.
Merchandise, higher ticket prices, better ratings meaning better advertising rates, more licensing opportunities. I mean all the ways a team can cash in on winning and having a marketable superstar, of which I'm sure there are many I have no idea about. I didn't just mean they'd sell more T-shirts.
It wouldn't shock me to see a Japanese company win the bidding for the uniform patch advertisement on the Dodgers' uniforms this year. Whatever Sam Bankman-Fried / FTX paid MLB for the umpire patch or , that could be topped by a significant multiple. Or, the amount that ATL gets from Quikrete, the official concrete sponsor of the Atlanta club, will be rather modest in comparison.
Thinking about this more, it’s really absurd. I’m willing to believe Ohtani has some off the field value in LA that wouldn’t exist in a smaller market. And I also believe he really wanted to play for the Dodgers.
But if you believe there’s $500M in excess value, you have to wonder why the Cubs, Giants, Yankees, Mets, or Blue Jays didn’t outbid the Dodgers by $200M and pocket some of that “windfall”.
Journalists who specialize in finance can be hit and miss. Journalists who specialize in sports when writing about finance can only dream of one day being within shouting distance of the Mendoza line. Combine that with a general distrust of the wealthy driven in no small part by pure envy and we get this kind of silliness.
Craig is clearly demonstrating that he’s a middle-aged white guy who listened to too much classic rock growing up to only think of the Beatles, the Stones and Dylan having that kind of peak. Yes, the Stones were incredible over a 4 year period, but what about Stevie Wonder? From 1972 to 1976, he released Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness’ First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life. And like the Stones, entered a long period of irrelevance after that, even if he still sold a crap-ton of music.
All respect to Stevie, but let’s give some love to Marvin Gaye, too. (Ok, they’re not mutually exclusive — I just want to mention him.) Best voice ever, to my ears.
I was just thinking about him as I was reviewing a Bob Weir set list from this weeks shows. He covered What's Going On. Marvin Gaye was amazing for his voice and social commentary. My favorite rendition of the National Anthem is Marvin's from the 1984 NBA All-Star game. It is so beautiful.. Still hard to fathom that his dad shot him in the face. So sad.
My brother recently shared this video with me, a mashup of Marvin Gaye and some heavy metal band I’d never heard of called Five Finger Death Punch. At first I thought it was going to be funny but then as I kept watching I was like, wait, this is good! Somehow it just works.
As a middle-aged white guy who listened to too much classic rock growing up, I can say that the Stones do not even have the best 4 year period for an English blues rock band whose lead singer, lead guitarist, and bassist are still alive but whose drummer is deceased, that includes the years 1969-72.
Stevie Wonder was and is a singular genius. Different thing than being a great "band." The Stones required the collective dysfunction of the whole rabble to find greatness. Gram Parsons helped a bit too.
If Dane Dunning is the working man 40s and 50s actor associated with the Red Scare, Coleman Crow should be a working actor trying to capitalize off a memorable performance on Kojak or Miami Vice. His inevitable eighth inning meltdown against the Braves in a meaningful early season game will bring back memories of his guest role in a Homicide episode where he played a character who won $1,000 on a scratch off and was subsequently robbed by some corner boys, one of whom was played by a young Jamie Hector, who would later return to Baltimore in The Wire.
I never said Exile sucked! It’s good, actually. Just lesser than the other albums the Stones released in that stretch.
Also, they sold maybe 2% of what those Stones albums sold, but Hüsker Dü’s five-album run from July 84 (Zen Arcade) to January 87 (Warehouse: Songs and Stories) is utterly insane, and compares very favorably with any 3, 4, or 5 year run any band ever had.
Maybe I should’ve gone with that as my unpopular take given that Hüsker Dü were, by definition, not that popular.
While we're in Minneapolis, let's also mention The Replacements run of Let It Be, Tim, and Pleased to Meet Me. Only three records, but each an all-timer.
Funny coincidence, last night I went to see a band and couldn't get anyone to go with me. I don't like drinking alone so while I was waiting for the band I wanted to see, I just stood there like a mope. There was no service in the club so no phone to scroll through and judging from the "X"'s on so many hands I was wildly over aged so talking to people just seemed creepy.
.
While standing, hands in pocket the sound guy played "Sorry ma forgot to take out the trash." It is an outstanding record. I don't think I have listened to it in a while. That was released in 1981 and tim in 1986 (I think). I think those are all outstanding records.
But that is the thing. It's a matter of taste. I am happy to like what I like. I don't need validation for stuff that I like or stuff i don't find joy in.
Hüsker Dü are absolutely my favorite band that sounds *waves hands* anything like Hüsker Dü. And you're not wrong about that run. I'm not sure I'd put Candy Apple Gray and Warehouse on the same level as Zen Arcade, New Day Rising, and Flip Your Wig, though.
Once upon a time I had a 90 minute cassette and on one side, I made a hypothetical album I called Warehouse: The Single LP. I'm going to fail if I try to recall the exact track listing but I'm pretty sure these were the songs on it:
These Important Years
Charity Chastity Prudence and Hope
Back From Somewhere
Ice Cold Ice
Standing In The Rain
Friend You've Got To Fall
Too Much Spice
Could You Be The One?
Actual Condition
You Can Live At Home Now
...and probably Visionary.
Today, I'd take off "Visionary" and replace it with "Bed Of Nails," and also add "Up In The Air."
Candy Apple Grey is the weakest of those five albums. But it's... what, a B+ at absolute worst? The other four are all A or A+. With the two double lp's, that's basically seven albums worth of absolutely top drawer material in 2-1/2 years.
you’re not wrong at all about the Stones’ recorded output*, but I will say that I saw them twice in the 90s (with my mom, a lifelong fan) and twice in the oughts on the “A Bigger Bang” tour, and they were still putting on a hell of a show. I kind of hope they just keep going to see how long it can be done. Die with their boots on.
*i do have a soft spot for a couple of the 90s songs, mainly “Love Is Strong” and “Thru and Thru”
Saying the Stones aren't great anymore is like saying Willie Mays isn't great anymore. It's true of course, but once greatness is achieved you can never really take it away.
The older I get the more I realize how true this is. Great is great. Short of some catastrophic behavior or something, great will remain great. Media loves to worry about legacy artists or athletes ruining their "legacy" by putting out sub-standard post-great material, or continuing to play (Mays on Mets, Jordan on the Wizards, etc). That's content, sure, but in the end it doesn't matter. Great will remain great.
As the late great Sam Cutler reminisced: “At the beginning of the [1969] tour the band was rusty. When I first called them ‘the Greatest Rock and Roll Band n the World,’ I meant it sarcastically. Mick got upset. He said, ‘Hey, man, don’t say that. It’s over the top.’ I said, ‘Well either you fucking are or you’re not, right?’”
My daughters' softball coach, only 4 or 5 years older than me, used the term Jackleg all the time - umpires, opposing coaches, kids' fathers, it didn't matter. It still makes my girls giggle.
I haven’t worked in construction for 30 years so I don’t know if this is still true, but in Virginia in the 70s when I was a beginner carpenter a jackleg was a faker. As in, “any jackleg can own some nice tools, but only a real carpenter can use them.” A guy I worked for would sometimes ask a job applicant to build a set of sawhorses to see how he/she worked - are they legit or just a jackleg.
People take offense at overrated, and they shouldn't. Like bacon is good. It's not "push over your own mother to get your hands on it" good, but it's good. It goes well with eggs or on a cheeseburger. But, some people act like they're sexually aroused by it, and want it on everything, and it ends up overused. Therefore, good, but overrated.
I like the Mets trade. We need an innings eater. Though strictly as a baseball fan, not loving any salary dumps, even ones that help my team.
Even before getting to the end of that snippet about Senator Lucas, I was also looking her up on Wikipedia. Inquiring minds wants to know.
I mean, best case scenario for the Brewers is that Coleman Crow turns into Houser 2 years from now, which is pretty unlikely. TT is one of those guys who has a knack for getting hot right when you expect him to get DFA'd. He's useful if you've got room on the bench.
Imagine being Adams and having to say "we're excited" to acquire a middling pitching prospect whose going to miss the year in exchange for a swing-arm innings eater making 50% of what he's worth and even at that low salary it's a deal to cut payroll.
But yeah, MLB is fine.
Don’t know what Houser and Taylor are going to be paid in 2024, but this looks like pure salary dump. Coleman is young but he isn’t a particularly good or interesting prospect. If he was healthy this would be a questionable trade.
Combined about 8 million. Houser will probably exit arbitration/settlement around a bit under 6 million. Taylor will probably be around 2 million or below. That's not a ton of money but it's pretty clearly a salary dump even if the Brewers like Coleman because his production and the loss of a year at 23 make the odds of him being 2023 Houser in 2025-2027 fairly long.
Thanks.
As I Cubs fan I understand the financial challenges the Brewers have, though not sure how the RSN bankruptcies are impacting them. But the Brewers seem to have found sustained success with guys like this who are cheap and decent. Strange to see them dumped vs trying to get out of the Yelich contract.
I'm not sure they really have an opportunity to get out of the Yelich contract in any event, at least not right now. I will say that even though he's not the player he was he's successfully transformed himself into a different kind of productive player, and he sells tickets and jerseys even now.
The Brewers were one of the teams that actually got paid by Diamond Sports all last season, although that could change. Houser was a pure salary dump I think. Taylor probably needed to go because Chourio will break spring training with the big league club and barring a trade or injury Frelick, Chourio, Mitchell, Yelich and Wiemer already puts them 5 deep in the OF. The Brewers are cheap but clearing 1.7 million in moving Taylor probably mattered less than the reality that he was out of options and there was no way to keep him playing regularly in the organization as a result.
I'm not sure Houser qualifies as a salary dump. They just tendered him a month ago. If they wanted out from under whatever his contract or arb award is, why not just non-tender him when they had the chance?
Since I live in Virginia, I follow her activities and statements. She is a live wire for sure. Among other things, she has a specially decorated trash can to deposit Republican-proposed legislation that would reduce people's rights (which seems to be what they're about these days).
That must be a huge can. A blue recycling bin for red state trash.
That piece on the financial impact of Ohtani’s deferred compensation has more than a bit of Madoff energy to it. Invest the $46m annually in T-bills paying today’s rate and in ten years, the distribution is nearly exactly the $68m payable to the player. Invest it in T-bills paying the average rate from 2010-2020 and LAD comes up short and must kick in more to pay the player. Invest it in a Guggenheim fund and it is much riskier; could be a windfall for LAD, could be a flop.
There is a reason the Union and League negotiations came up with a 5% compounding rate and it isn’t that Tony Clark wants the owners to get a larger piece of the pie.
Edit: the biggest miss is that the team can’t unilaterally pick how the deferred money is held. Article XVI sets out explicitly what is done. Absent player agreement it can’t be in unmarketable securities like a Guggenheim closed fund.
Have to think that the people from Guggenheim, correctly or not, believe in their product. Though if the estimates of PROFIT! are accurate, the Dodgers should be able to afford whatever they owe. And if not, they kind of dug their own grave anyway. Ohtani will be paid, I am sure.
Believe? Sure. Guarantee? Hell no. And unless Shohei also believes in it, that’s irrelevant as by contract it has to be in cash equivalencies (bonds, treasuries) or *marketable* securities (stock or mutual funds) not private placement. That rule came into being because of the Mets and their financial mess via Madoff.
Thinking about this a little more. How much does Ohtani’s experience and knowledge of the Japanese stock markets affect his decisions here? Basically the Nikkei has been flat since 1990. Invest the $46m at its historical return and ten years later it is not $68m or the much higher value that the authors posit but rather still $46m. What guarantee do we have that Wall Street won’t see similar results in the mid term?
I didn’t click through to the article, but from Craig’s excerpts it doesn’t make any sense as a model.
It’s like saying buying my house and getting a mortgage is a $11M windfall. Since I have a mortgage instead of paying cash, I can invest $1M for 30 years and wind up with $8M and then my house will be worth $4M 30 years later.
Problem is I don’t need the house to invest $1M and it assumes I have that million. Nothing prevents any other team from investing $46M/year. In fact that’s what teams like the A’s and Pirates are doing, rather than spending it on payroll. You can’t MAKE money by adding an expensive contract, at least not the way they suggest. (You should make money by winning games which draws more fans and sponsors and whatever not financial BS.)
And from what you suggested the CBA restricts how they can invest the money, so it’s actually a penalty not a windfall.
Kinda came here to say this. I thought the "windfall" would be that Ohtani would be worth far more than $70M a year, or $46M a year or however you want to count it, in merchandise sales and other expanded opportunities, especially in Japan. Not some financial whizbangery on the level of Steve Martin's old joke about how to be a millionaire and pay no taxes: First, get a million dollars. Then ...
Making $70M a year in merchandise requires some optimism too. I'll leave it to the dlf's and Stein's to fix my assumptions and math, but I figure that if the Dodgers net $20 per item (low?), they need to sell 3.5 million jerseys a year. Maybe Year 1, but then you have to do it again in Year 2, and Year 5... Even if you double the net after COGS it's still hard to believe.
Also, what is Ohtani's cut of merch sales?
Merchandise, higher ticket prices, better ratings meaning better advertising rates, more licensing opportunities. I mean all the ways a team can cash in on winning and having a marketable superstar, of which I'm sure there are many I have no idea about. I didn't just mean they'd sell more T-shirts.
It wouldn't shock me to see a Japanese company win the bidding for the uniform patch advertisement on the Dodgers' uniforms this year. Whatever Sam Bankman-Fried / FTX paid MLB for the umpire patch or , that could be topped by a significant multiple. Or, the amount that ATL gets from Quikrete, the official concrete sponsor of the Atlanta club, will be rather modest in comparison.
Thinking about this more, it’s really absurd. I’m willing to believe Ohtani has some off the field value in LA that wouldn’t exist in a smaller market. And I also believe he really wanted to play for the Dodgers.
But if you believe there’s $500M in excess value, you have to wonder why the Cubs, Giants, Yankees, Mets, or Blue Jays didn’t outbid the Dodgers by $200M and pocket some of that “windfall”.
Journalists who specialize in finance can be hit and miss. Journalists who specialize in sports when writing about finance can only dream of one day being within shouting distance of the Mendoza line. Combine that with a general distrust of the wealthy driven in no small part by pure envy and we get this kind of silliness.
Craig is clearly demonstrating that he’s a middle-aged white guy who listened to too much classic rock growing up to only think of the Beatles, the Stones and Dylan having that kind of peak. Yes, the Stones were incredible over a 4 year period, but what about Stevie Wonder? From 1972 to 1976, he released Music of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness’ First Finale and Songs in the Key of Life. And like the Stones, entered a long period of irrelevance after that, even if he still sold a crap-ton of music.
Yep. Great call. Whiff on my part. Which is all the more inexcusable given that I own Talking Book and Innervisions.
All respect to Stevie, but let’s give some love to Marvin Gaye, too. (Ok, they’re not mutually exclusive — I just want to mention him.) Best voice ever, to my ears.
I was just thinking about him as I was reviewing a Bob Weir set list from this weeks shows. He covered What's Going On. Marvin Gaye was amazing for his voice and social commentary. My favorite rendition of the National Anthem is Marvin's from the 1984 NBA All-Star game. It is so beautiful.. Still hard to fathom that his dad shot him in the face. So sad.
I’ve turned on several people to his version of the National Anthem. It’s so amazing.
My brother recently shared this video with me, a mashup of Marvin Gaye and some heavy metal band I’d never heard of called Five Finger Death Punch. At first I thought it was going to be funny but then as I kept watching I was like, wait, this is good! Somehow it just works.
https://youtu.be/u2hCBCM8c0U?si=d-8Vc6o6AtOgKq1A
Stevie Wonder: so good during that stretch that Paul Simon thanked him when he won a grammy for Still Crazy After All These Years, because he didn't release an album in 1975. https://www.grammy.com/videos/18th-annual-grammy-awards-album-of-the-year
As a middle-aged white guy who listened to too much classic rock growing up, I can say that the Stones do not even have the best 4 year period for an English blues rock band whose lead singer, lead guitarist, and bassist are still alive but whose drummer is deceased, that includes the years 1969-72.
Okay, let’s have it.
Guessing he means Led Zeppelin.
I did, although it's funny to see that other bands fit the criteria!
Somebody really loves Mott the Hoople!
Don't we all??
He really should be glad he said English blues band because Strawberry Alarm Clock was right there.
Stevie Wonder was and is a singular genius. Different thing than being a great "band." The Stones required the collective dysfunction of the whole rabble to find greatness. Gram Parsons helped a bit too.
The Russian Tesla Killer reminds me of a Simpson's episode:
"Put it in H!"
I bet that Russian "Tesla" won't even get 40 rods to the hogshead!
A GM making a deal with his old team could just mean he's the only one who thinks those players are any good.
Make sure to get Jackwagon shirts for your kids and wife, too. Possible x-mas gifts.
Other words that work well in place of profanity to insult someone: drillrod, crumbum.
My typical go to is schleprock.
The only way out of the Russian electric car is defenestration.
If Dane Dunning is the working man 40s and 50s actor associated with the Red Scare, Coleman Crow should be a working actor trying to capitalize off a memorable performance on Kojak or Miami Vice. His inevitable eighth inning meltdown against the Braves in a meaningful early season game will bring back memories of his guest role in a Homicide episode where he played a character who won $1,000 on a scratch off and was subsequently robbed by some corner boys, one of whom was played by a young Jamie Hector, who would later return to Baltimore in The Wire.
Or, some shit. I leave the TV writing to Craig.
I thought the Russian car looked like a cartoon hippo.
I never said Exile sucked! It’s good, actually. Just lesser than the other albums the Stones released in that stretch.
Also, they sold maybe 2% of what those Stones albums sold, but Hüsker Dü’s five-album run from July 84 (Zen Arcade) to January 87 (Warehouse: Songs and Stories) is utterly insane, and compares very favorably with any 3, 4, or 5 year run any band ever had.
Maybe I should’ve gone with that as my unpopular take given that Hüsker Dü were, by definition, not that popular.
100% there for that Hüsker run!
Not that popular? I saw them play at a frat party once with a beer pitcher being passed around for tips.
Nice Husker Du shout out!
While we're in Minneapolis, let's also mention The Replacements run of Let It Be, Tim, and Pleased to Meet Me. Only three records, but each an all-timer.
Funny coincidence, last night I went to see a band and couldn't get anyone to go with me. I don't like drinking alone so while I was waiting for the band I wanted to see, I just stood there like a mope. There was no service in the club so no phone to scroll through and judging from the "X"'s on so many hands I was wildly over aged so talking to people just seemed creepy.
.
While standing, hands in pocket the sound guy played "Sorry ma forgot to take out the trash." It is an outstanding record. I don't think I have listened to it in a while. That was released in 1981 and tim in 1986 (I think). I think those are all outstanding records.
But that is the thing. It's a matter of taste. I am happy to like what I like. I don't need validation for stuff that I like or stuff i don't find joy in.
Throw Hootenanny on there for four. Hootenanny is criminally underrrated. I like it better than Let It Be, in fact.
this is true
I like Hootenanny, but I can't agree with it being better than Let It Be.
Hüsker Dü are absolutely my favorite band that sounds *waves hands* anything like Hüsker Dü. And you're not wrong about that run. I'm not sure I'd put Candy Apple Gray and Warehouse on the same level as Zen Arcade, New Day Rising, and Flip Your Wig, though.
Once upon a time I had a 90 minute cassette and on one side, I made a hypothetical album I called Warehouse: The Single LP. I'm going to fail if I try to recall the exact track listing but I'm pretty sure these were the songs on it:
These Important Years
Charity Chastity Prudence and Hope
Back From Somewhere
Ice Cold Ice
Standing In The Rain
Friend You've Got To Fall
Too Much Spice
Could You Be The One?
Actual Condition
You Can Live At Home Now
...and probably Visionary.
Today, I'd take off "Visionary" and replace it with "Bed Of Nails," and also add "Up In The Air."
Candy Apple Grey is the weakest of those five albums. But it's... what, a B+ at absolute worst? The other four are all A or A+. With the two double lp's, that's basically seven albums worth of absolutely top drawer material in 2-1/2 years.
Like I said, an utterly insane run.
you’re not wrong at all about the Stones’ recorded output*, but I will say that I saw them twice in the 90s (with my mom, a lifelong fan) and twice in the oughts on the “A Bigger Bang” tour, and they were still putting on a hell of a show. I kind of hope they just keep going to see how long it can be done. Die with their boots on.
*i do have a soft spot for a couple of the 90s songs, mainly “Love Is Strong” and “Thru and Thru”
I think "Love is Strong" is good -- probably their best single since the early 80s.
Good Yule to those who celebrate! Just me? Okay!
Google some of the original art for Belle from Peanuts. There’s the inspiration for those headlights.
Now I want to see some lashes on that car's headlights.
H/t for mentioning The Kinks, a band that good, that influential and yet largely forgotten by people under 60.
Saying the Stones aren't great anymore is like saying Willie Mays isn't great anymore. It's true of course, but once greatness is achieved you can never really take it away.
The older I get the more I realize how true this is. Great is great. Short of some catastrophic behavior or something, great will remain great. Media loves to worry about legacy artists or athletes ruining their "legacy" by putting out sub-standard post-great material, or continuing to play (Mays on Mets, Jordan on the Wizards, etc). That's content, sure, but in the end it doesn't matter. Great will remain great.
As the late great Sam Cutler reminisced: “At the beginning of the [1969] tour the band was rusty. When I first called them ‘the Greatest Rock and Roll Band n the World,’ I meant it sarcastically. Mick got upset. He said, ‘Hey, man, don’t say that. It’s over the top.’ I said, ‘Well either you fucking are or you’re not, right?’”
Their new album is way better than it has any right to be, and parts of it are way heavier than people their age should be putting out.
My daughters' softball coach, only 4 or 5 years older than me, used the term Jackleg all the time - umpires, opposing coaches, kids' fathers, it didn't matter. It still makes my girls giggle.
I haven’t worked in construction for 30 years so I don’t know if this is still true, but in Virginia in the 70s when I was a beginner carpenter a jackleg was a faker. As in, “any jackleg can own some nice tools, but only a real carpenter can use them.” A guy I worked for would sometimes ask a job applicant to build a set of sawhorses to see how he/she worked - are they legit or just a jackleg.