Secrets & Loose Ends

Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons On Sundays post. On the new music front, former Fear Factory singer Burton C. Bell has released a new single entitled Anti-Droid on March 8th. He will be releasing singles for the time being and there should be a new one coming out in late May or June. I mention him because I had done a post on Fear Factory last summer, as a Simpsons Sabbatical post. During an interview, Burton had also made reference to The Simpsons on a podcast focusing on nü metal and specifically Grandpa Simpson. You know how in Last Exit to Springfield, when Abe prattles on with his stories pausing to say “which was the style at the time”? Yeah, a singer from a metal band I like has finally mentioned The Simpsons and I am happy. The podcast is called Nu Pod with Joshua Toomey & Ro Kohli and I believe that you can find it on Apple Podcasts and all other podcast platforms. Hopefully, a clip will show up on Youtube and one, or both times Burton and the hosts had made reference to our favourite animated TV show. Anyway, one of the main reasons Burton was interviewed (besides looking back on the old days of Fear Factory) was to promote his new song Anti-Droid and if you are interested, here it is. https://youtu.be/ejssq84_4TA?si=GuUTghnF4jmOiiAR

On the death front, Eric Carmen, who is best known for rock fans, as a member of the power pop band The Raspberries and the song Go All The Way had passed away last weekend at the age of 74. He is also known for his more pop and soft rock hits such as All By Myself and Hungry Eyes, which had appeared on the 1988 soundtrack to the movie Dirty Dancing, which has other massive pop hits on it by artists such as Patrick Swayze, Bill Medley and Jennifer Warren, along with a rerelease of a 1962 hit by The Contours called Do You Love Me? I wasn’t a fan, but I respect him for what he did and more, after finding out that Eddie Trunk was a fan and probably, because of a song by The Raspberries I had mentioned earlier, which isn’t a bad song. Just do a search for it on Youtube and it rocks, compared to his solo work. RIP Eric.

Another significant passing this week for me is Karl Wallinger who was singer for The Waterboys and World Party, with the hit single Ship Of Fools. World Party was really a solo project for Karl. As for The Waterboys, for me one of their best known members is drummer Chris Whitten as a member of Paul McCartney’s touring band during 1989 and 1990, when Paul went on the road after years of not touring. Anyway, RIP.

On the birthday front, voice actor Frank Welker turned another year older on Tuesday. He is best known to The Simpsons as the voice of Santa’s Little Helper and other animals, including other dogs and cats. Also on the birthday front, Billy Corgan (guitarist,Front man and primary songwriter of Smashing Pumpkins) turned another year older today and I don’t think I need to remind you, of which episode he and the rest of the band guest star in. Right?

This week I have 2 things to take care of, with one as a loose end from last week. I will be going on about parts of a book, but first it’s unfinished business with Judas Priest, because I forgot to do something which I usually do with bands when it comes to The Simpsons and the rock or metal band in the spotlight with my Simpsons Sabbatical posts. I must confess that I had forgot because I was composing two posts at the same time, for March 10th for this blog and another, related to Queen. If you have read either of singer Rob Halford’s books you know that Freddie Mercury is a hero of his and Queenn are one of his favourite bands, as they are also mine. So, I am going to finish what I forgot to do, by listing all of what Judas Priest had done, from the early seasons of The Simpsons to today, which will not include solo work, side projects, or live albums. However, I will tell you that Glen Tipton has solo workout, Rob Halford also has solo albums and albums under his band name of Halford, as well as 2wo and Fight all having three albums out in total, mostly during The Simpsons golden age.

First, Pain Killer was released September 14 1990, less than a month before Season 2 got underway. Next is 1997’s Jugulator, which was released: October 28 of that year, without Rob Halford on lead vocals and despite it not being all that bad, it didn’t do as well as it could have done with The Metal God behind the microphone. It also came out a day after Treehouse of Horror VII had aired. Next was Demolition which came in July 2001 and again, without Rob. Next, 2005’s Angel of Retribution which came on February 23 during Season 16 after the episode There’s Something About Marrying had aired. Next, 2008’s Nostradamus which came out in June of that year outside The Simpsons airing timeline. Next we have Redeemer of Souls, coming in July 2014, months after Season 25 had finished. Next, Firepower which burned into our lives on March 9 during Season 29, 9 days before Homer Is Where the Art Isn’t would air. Then, we have Invincible Shield which came out March 8 this year. I could get into each of the singles lining them up with each episode of Season 35, but I won’t do that even if I really want to. Anyway, there are live albums and compilations, but I thought I would leave them alone because the studio albums are more important. Anyway, enjoy listening to Judas Priest if I had inspired any purging and bingeing on their music. Also, do check out any of Rob Halford’s solo albums under his own name and the Halford band, along with the bands 2wo and Fight. Even the track Light Comes Out of Black with Pantera from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Soundtrack. Now that I think of it, Pantera also has a 30th anniversary coming up on the 22nd, but that will be for another blog related to the band Queen, called All Gord’s People. Yes, the name of the blog is kinda taken from a Queen song called All God’s People and it was suggested to me, as a joke on a Queen fan Facebook group. If you are interested, Google it and check out all the posts, as I talk about not just Queen, but Ben’s within what I refer to as The Queen Family. It’s a long story and you will understand why if you decide to go through every post.

Okay, I’m done with Judas Priest for now in the blog and we can now move on to something else which relates more to The Simpsons than not. I had purchased an audiobook through the Apple Books app on iOS just after Christmas while I was sick. This book (or rather audiobook) is all about how The Simpsons had predicted many events over the years. The book is entitled The Simpsons Secret, by Lydia Poulteney, whom you may know from the Youtube channel The Simpsons Theory. She has a new coffee table book out now, but it’s not the same thing as this particular book. Lydia narrates the book, along with another person who does the bulk of the talking, but it doesn’t take away from the main purpose of this book.

Obviously, The Simpsons has seemingly predicted many events which had come to fruition, but calling the writers psychics and clairvoyance is wrong. Sure, they are among the brightest writers in television, but they are not predictors. It just so happened that most events (if you will) had come to be part of episode plot points many years before things had happened to come true. I think that it may have been Al Jean who had said that Donald Trump as President was a mathematical prediction. Remember, Al Jean is a math whiz so, it makes sense to figure that this could’ve happened, but when was not specifically specified, unless you go by the timeline of Bart To The Future. It could’ve happened in 2016, or 2024 for all we know in the Simpsons universe. After all, Bart To The Future looks ahead to a specific time in Bart’s life, much like Lisa’s Wedding and so, it makes sense. Isn’t The Simpsons supposed to be timeless?

I had no idea about the real life three eyed Fish, because I don’t remember hearing about it on the news back when it was reported to have been spotted. Remember, I had been too busy looking up episodes and plots on Wikipedia in 2013 and I was unaware that such a thing had existed and better yet, that life was imitating Art and not just the animal, but also the whereabouts.

The Sigfried and Roy Tiger attack was also something I didn’t think much about until I had found various websites posting about The Simpsons predictions, before the book had been published. Of course, we know that a similar event had happened 10 years earlier in a Simpsons episode, but with both Gunter & Ernst being torn to shreds, unlike Roy Horne only being dragged off stage and surviving along with Siegfried. Sadly, they are both gone as of 2021 and I had documented each of their passings as they had happened in past posts during the cOVID-19 pandemic lockdown periods.

The one that really got me was Paul McCartney responding to a long lost piece of tape from a couple of teenage Beatles fans who had written, or recorded a message in the 60s for him. Ringo has said that he doesn’t read fan mail all that much or something, but I guess that Paul does. Obviously, I don’t need to repeat the fact that all 3 surviving Beatles at the time had guest starred on The Simpsons within 4 years, with Ringo going first, George next and Paul last. Of course, John is still dead and a bunch of ashes so he can not be reached to do a guest spot.

The book had gone into many things which had come true and it is odd when life imitates art and especially when it is supposed to be a fantasy world, set in a more realistic setting like Springfield. Speaking of which, the book even talks about that long asked question, of which state Springfield is in. I am not even going to try to touch that question, because I don’t even care. I am a fan, but not to the point of obsessing about something where we will never get an answer. I refuse to get myself caught up in this, because of the geography or the state surrounding Springfield state. Springfield is in Springfield so, let’s all get a life and stop trying to get a straight answer out of The Simpsons writers. Besides, do we even know where Bedrock is in The Flintstones, or the exact location of where Sunnyvale Trailer Park is, other than it is fictionally located in Dartmouth Nova Scotia Canada, as a part of the Trailer Park Boys TV show and movie universe? Or, how we actually get to Sesame Street, or mister Rogers’ Neighbourhood?

I wonder if there will be more weird instances of life imitating The Simpsons either part way, or completely in the future. The show has certainly covered AI and even the iPhone and iPad, as well as the iPod. I know that they weren’t called that on The Simpsons and Apple was given a special name for the show, but I think you know what I mean when I mention all of those devices and the brand. Continuity may have been thrown to the wind like caution, but it doesn’t mean that The Simpsons will stop taking on issues which affect all of us. Some are close to home, like a war breaking out because a bunch of families are having a pissing match. Hmm! Anyway, you can get The Simpsons Secret on Apple Books and probably other places where you can find audiobooks. It was at a nice price so, I decided to purchase it just before New Year’s. Just do a search for Lydia Poulteney and that will be the only book so far. Otherwise, check her out on The Simpsons Theory Youtube channel and let her know about the blog, if she doesn’t know already.

At some point this year, I will be going over another audiobook I had recently purchased by Nancy Cartwright and I have already mentioned her first book, so you can guess what the other one will be. I may talk about it on June 2nd, which happens to be my 51st birthday. Here’s a hint, it turns out that Nancy and myself have at least one more thing in common that I had learned about from her latest book in 2021. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this post and will hopefully enjoy the audiobook too.

Simpsons Sabbatical, Judas Priest

Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons On Sundays post. This week as promised, a post on Judas Priest. Yes, I know I had done a post on them before, but it was meant to focus on The Simpsons and the connections to heavy metal in general. This time, it’s all about the band. I’m probably going to repeat most of what I said, but I have new material for this post about practical jokes by both the band and managers from their past.

Judas Priest happens to be another veteran band who are among my favourites, as well as being very influential. They have been around for over 50 years and have released 19 studio albums, with their latest album Invincible Shield having been released on Friday. They have shifted styles of metal over the years from time to time but have always stayed heavy. Of course, they wouldn’t be where they are today without singer Rob Halford and his high pitched operatic singing style. He guest starred on The Simpsons on the episode Steal This Episode, parodying the classic Priest song Breaking The Law, singing instead “Respecting The Law.” On the show they were refered to as a death metal band and some fans didn’t like that. The Simpsons producers apologized for this but I had no problem with it. Besides, as I had said in the other post a lot of bands and musicians within the various subgenres of heavy metal regard Judas Priest as a major influence. For example: Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Opeth, Pantera and many others. If you are not a metalhead, I know that those names are rather foreign to you, but if you are you know why I have mentioned all of the bands.

Another part of the secret sauce to Judas Priest’s music is the twin guitar attack of Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing, until Ken had quit the band in 2011 and Richie Faulkner joined and has been there ever since in Ken Downing’s place on guitar and as a part of the songwriting triumvirate between Ken (before he left the band in 2011) Richie (2011 to present day), Glen and rob. Unfortunately, Glen has had to step down because of Parkinson’s disease. Producer and guitarist Andy Sneap stepped up for live performances, even when Glen would come on stage to play a song or two at the end of shows (when he was up to it). Glen may have stepped down from life performing and playing in this studio sometimes, but not as a part of the songwriting trio.

The twin guitar sound was inspired by a band called Wishbone Ash, who also inspired Iron Maiden to do the same thing. Smile (Brian May and Roger Taylor’s pre-Queen band) even opened for Wishbone Ash around 1969! The addition of a second guitarist was suggested by Judas Priest’s first record label Gull, that they get a fifth member as they were a four piece at the time and such no frills bands seemed boring. So, ideas were considered such as a keyboardist, saxophonist and rightly chosen, a second axman.

Glen was in a band calledThe Flying Hat Band, who were not all that bad. They were heavy, but they weren’t slow like Black Sabbath. Anyway, Rob, Ken and bassist Ian Hill found Glen, asked him if he would like to join. When they told Glen that they had a record deal, he said yes after thinking about it for a short time and after a second call from manager David Cork. Glen came in with his own vision of the band and I wonder if that was the source of friction, between the two guitarists, besides their differing playing styles. Rob refers to Glen as a singing guitarist and I think Brian May of Queen is too, with KEN being more of a wild player with his solos. I would say the same for Richie Faulkner and that isn’t a bad thing as you have differing styles of guitar solos, dependent on the song and the same with playing. I prefer to stick to rhythm and not solo as much, so I like two guitar bands as it makes the sound more full live and in the studio, you have a similar full sound, with some extra backbone.

I can’t forget about bassist Ian Hill as another part of the secret sauce And a revolving door of drummers over the years, with: John Hinch (born June 19 1947 and died April 29 2021), Alan Moore, Simon Phillips, Les Binks, Dave Holland (born April 5 1948 and died January 16 2018) and current sticksman Scott Travis. Oh yes, I can’t forget that the original singer for Judas Priest was Al Atkins and he had a hand in writing at least one early Priest classic. The track Victim of Changes, which is a great song, but it is even better live. Just look for any Judas Priest live albums and you will hear what I mean.

I was introduced to the band in the early 80s when I had heard a number of songs from the albums British Steel, Point of Entry and Screaming for Vengeance on the radio, in regular rotation and later on, I would hear newer songs as they came out through 1986. I would also hear older tunes as well, but on shows which were programmed to play metal. Speaking of which, I would discover how large Judas Priest’s discography was at in March 1986, when a radio show called Metalshop had done an hour on nothing but Judas Priest. The idea of this episode was playing 1 song from all 10 albums, including their 1979 live album Unleashed In the East. I have something else to say about the show later on, but that’s further down.

I am glad I had learned about the band and had been following them ever since 1982, through Rob leaving in 1992, Tim “Ripper” Owens joining in 1996 and Rob’s return in 2003 present. I even followed Rob’s solo and band career outside Judas Priest. Rob’s first post-Priest band Fight had put out 2 albums: War Of Words and A Small Deadly Space, which the latter didn’t do as well as the first. One of the members was Russ Parrish, now known as Satchel from comedy metal band Steel Panther, who had toured with Judas Priest in 2014. Another known name from Rob’s time outside of Priest is guitar virtuoso John Lowry (AKA) John five, who would play with Rob on his industrial metal project 2wo and after that, David Lee Roth and Marilyn Manson. Then, John would be selected to play with Rob Zombie from 2005 to 2022. Now John has replaced Mick Mars in Motley Crue, as Mick has retired from touring.

Yet another guitarist who would end up in another band started with Rob, with his solo band Halford is Patrick Lachman and after 2 albums with Rob, Patric would join Damageplan as the singer with Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul, after Pantera had broken up. Unfortunately, Patric was also present when Dime was killed on December 8 2004. I believe Rob, when he says in Confess that he had kept in touch with both Patric and Dime over the years. After all, Rob met Dime and the rest of Pantera in 1990, when they were in Toronto and Rob saw them on Much Music, Canada’s counterpart to MTV. Either way, Rob has helped to give us 3 guitarists and 1 new band, thanks to accidentally leaving Judas Priest.

Rob is back and everything is all good, except for any health issues over the years. The biggest one was Rob having prostate cancer and getting the cancer removed. He also had to fart for his supper, before being allowed to go home and I can’t imagine, having to wait for the backside to naturally let out the wind, rather than pushing it out.

By the way, you may have read about a bit of a back and forth between Queen singer Freddie Mercury and Rob Halford about the leather jacket Freddie wares in the video for Crazy Little Thing Called Love and it did bother Rob at the time, but I don’t believe that there was anything to it other than comments made by Rob and Freddie in the press. I had wondered if this may have been the work of publicist Tony Brainsby, who had represented both Queen and Priest at various times throughout their careers. Maybe not, but in Confess Rob tells the story of a story in The News of the World about Rob making a porno film, which was not true. Yup, Tony Brainsby was the brains behind the story and when Rob called his parents on the following Sunday (as usual) his father was none too pleased about what he and his wife had read about their eldest son. The penny dropped, when Rob’s father had mentioned the pornographic film. Rob told his dad that there was no such movie and it was all made up and Mr. Halford may have believed his son. Because of the story, Rob’s parents would never read News of the World again, after many years of loyal readership. Oh yes, I should also mention that any tiff Freddie and Rob may have had was all water under the bridge, when Rob spotted Freddie in a bar in Mykonos and the Queen frontman gave Rob Halford a wave and a wink. Rob also noticed Freddie on a yacht with a bunch of guys, but sadly they weren’t able to meet and talk about things during either occasion. Also, Rob has said in both of his books Confess and Biblical, that Freddie was his hero and Queen is his favourite band, besides The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and any heavy metal band out there who has been and is currently active.

As for Invincible Shield, I took a listen to the entire album on Friday morning, including the 3 bonus tracks and I did a mini review as a comment on a recent video from the Metal Pilgrim Youtube channel. I will have it below. https://youtu.be/Uh3JC_rAUxc?si=JdwM3mlXRn_WHCrc

I took a listen to the entire album, including the 3 bonus tracks and I love it. Even The Lodger is okay with me, even if it sounds more like David Bowie than Priest, as I love both. I am happy that not every song uses the same guitar tuning and I think that one or two songs even goes back to E standard tuning. Sons of Thunder and Vicious Circle come to mind as they are both in the key of E natural. This brings me to the previous track Sons of Thunder, with Escape from Reality starting in D and modulating to E, leading right into the next song nicely. With Fight of Your Life, the word bluesy guitar riff came to mind, something like Jimi Hendrix or something from the 70s and again, I don’t mind that because I like all things rock and metal. However, I believe I may have heard a very similar riff before, not unlike Revolution and Mountain Song by Jane’s Addiction, which bothered me at first, but I have let it go a long time ago. No matter, I love it and this is probably among the best of the 2005 and onward albums. By the way, the Hendrix type riff I was thinking of from Fight of Your Life reminded me of an album track on Extreme’s 3rd album III Sides to Every Story called Peacemaker Die, with a sample of Martin Luther King and his “I Have A Dream” speech near the end.

Something Judas Priest and Bart Simpson have in common is a proclivity to playing practical jokes. Rather than prank calling Moe’s or some other bar asking for a fake name, they would prank each other and their manager, in the early days. For example: their first manager David Cork was a master practical joker and he enjoyed doing such things as scaring people on bicycles, delivering items to blameless people and scaring Rob with a pixie costume. Dave was also afraid of flying (like Marge) and so, Judas Priest and other bands on a Bill with them had an idea to get back at Corky. They had a flight attendant make announcements about the plane possibly having trouble with fuel, having to make an emergency landing in the sea and other things. All of which, made Dave rather nervous and naturally, scared. It was obviously a joke and he didn’t like that and I guess you could say that he could dish it out, but he couldn’t take it all that much. However, he loved the band and did a lot for them during the first two albums, but even they realized that they had to let him go, when they had signed with CBS Records and I hope that Dave is still around, either to confirm, or deny the stories rob told, in both of his books.

Rob also had a thing for pranks and especially fire extinguishers for a time, with their next manager and unfortunately, that backfired in Japan when the wrong person was targeted and the cops were called. Fortunately, Rob was not arrested or didn’t get into trouble, so he got off free that time. What most of us don’t understand that the reason for such pranks and other things like throwing TV sets out of hotels is because on tour, there’s not much to do. You’re going from gig to gig on a bus, or a plane and it’s boring and you may not be able to sleep all that much either. So, what else can you do besides let off steam that way? Better that than simply breaking stuff for the sake of breaking stuff. Right? Besides, someone will have to clean it up and it may cost the band dearly in finances which could go towards other things that the band needs like new guitars, new guitar strings, other musical instruments and even gas money. Then again, some of the damage caused may have been fuelled by alcohol or drugs.

Both The Simpsons and Judas Priest had issues with back masking, with The Simpsons including a recipe for lentil soup, played backwards at the end of the episode Lisa the Vegetarian, which was silly and I guess more of a non-issue than anything else. Unfortunately, Judas Priest had a more serious case to deal with, when those 2 boys 20-year-old James Vance and 18-year-old Raymond Belknap shot themselves in 1985, as part of a suicide pact. Apparently, something told them to do it, but do what? Why did it have to mean kill yourself? This was because of a cover of a 1969 Spooky Tooth track Better By You, Better Than Me from their 1978 album Stained Class, which apparently had something in it which sounding like “do it”. This was stupid and I feel bad for the parents, but not for the two boys as much. After all, they had chemical help before shooting themselves, with one dying instantly on the other passing away three years later, also due to chemical help. Again, why does do it mean kill yourself? Why doesn’t it mean mow the lawn, walk the dog, take out the trash, eat your food, do your homework or something more constructive then taking your own life? Anyway, thankfully Judas Priest ended up on the right end of this trial, as they were found innocent, but to my mind and Rob’s mind too, not completely cleared of wrongdoing. Basically, it sounded as if the prosecution couldn’t prove the case well enough, to find the band guilty and if they were, this could be bad for everyone.

The Simpsons has Waylon Smithers as its resident queer and in real life, Rob Halford came out in 1998. Smithers came out to Mr. Burns in The Burns Cage. However, the funniest episode spotlighting gay culture is Homer’s Phobia, because of Homer not wanting Bart to be gay. These days there couldn’t be an episode like that and anyway, it was hilarious, even to myself as a heterosexual. Sure, I experimented and thankfully, I know what I am and nothing is going to change that for me. With Rob Halford coming out as gay, I was surprised as it didn’t dawn on me that he could be homosexual. Well, he obviously is and he has a partner and is quite happy and you know what, I’m happy for them too. I hope to find a woman for me some day.

Back to Metalshop for a moment in that there would be guest hosts from time to time, as regular host Charlie Kendall would go on vacation every so often and a musician would fill in. One week in April 1986, Rob Halford was guest host and the format went something like this as I remember it: the third most valuable metal, ask the stars, fresh metal with a new song from a new or newish band, master classic, second most valuable metal, feature interview and finally, the most valuable metal and the show would end for the week. Rob hosted an episode with James Hetfield of Metallica as the feature interview, as they had released the third album Master Of Puppets and Rob was great. I am talking about this because you have Metallica and Rob Halford, as two future Simpsons guest stars, on a metal show, out of New York in the 80s.

I think what had attracted me to Judas Priest was not just the music, but their record label. They were on CBS and in another post I did in another blog on Queen, I had gone on a bit about how in Canada, cassettes in the 80s and 90s would start off side one and end side two, with either a series of beeps or an electronic noise, going up. This was along with how the tapes were designed with either a circle, half circle or square surrounding the reels and the rest of the tape being variations of either smooth, or rough from front to back on the outer case of the tape itself. I liked the sound that I heard, when someone at school had an album by a CBS artist as it was cool to me. Not that I didn’t like other record labels and their marker sounds in Canada, but I thought what CBS was doing sounded neat. This was my 10, -11 and 12-year-old self back then and I often wonder, how that idea of putting an electronic sound at the beginning and end of a cassette in Canada, came to be. Was it in fact a Dolby calibration tone in Canada? If it was, cool! This is something like what I am talking about! https://youtu.be/ijErD7eJlgQ?si=lnCY_po01aYkHsNS

Anyway, I am glad that Judas Priest are still active and making new music in this day and age of streaming. If you are interested in hearing music from Judas Priest, I suggest looking for the compilations: Metal Works ’73-’93, The Essential Judas Priest, Living After Midnight and Single Cuts to get you started. Then, you can go from there to any of the available live albums or studio albums as you wish. I believe that any Simpsons fan who is also a rock fan, should check out Priest, if they haven’t already. Also, check out both of Rob Halford’s books Confess in 2020 and Biblical in 2022. I suggest getting the audiobook as Rob narrates them both, as you get to hear him speak in his actual speaking voice, as opposed to talk singing, or what he sounds like on stage. With stage banter. Also, a little bird told me that there could be a new book in the works, as rob has written both books with co-author Ian Gittins and the same width the new book. I hear it’s fiction and of course, I am intrigued.

The Empty Nest

Hi and welcome to another Simpsons on Sundays post. In guest star news, we have a new Judas Priest album coming out in March called Invincible Shield and so far, there is no other News on how it will sound, or anything, except that the first single is the opening track and it was released on Friday. https://youtu.be/FQh2xNa_Bv4?si=PIu53MwZlr6s1kk1

However, we can assume that it is produced by the same two people who produced the last album Firepower, namely Tom Allom and Andy Sneap. No, you may not know these names unless you were into rock and metal, or had taken an interest in album liner notes for production and engineering credits. Actually, in Tom’s case he worked with Genesis and Black Sabbath before helping out Judas Priest on their first live album Unleashed in the East and for the next seven albums, including one more live album. I also heard that the new album may have progressive elements so, let’s see what happens and what it sounds like from any new music we get in the coming months. In the meantime, here is the news about the album from a YouTube channel I subscribe to, dedicated to all things metal and mostly, traditional heavy metal. https://youtu.be/KJ3vIUnPufc?si=aaq9d3vmHW_qoeBX

On the birthday front, Sammy Hagar turned 75 years old on Thursday. He is still touring and sounds the same as he did, 40 years ago or more. The latest album he has out is another Van Halen boxed set called The Collection II, which has all5 Van Halen studio albums from 1986 to 1995, along with bonus tracks and a B-side or two. I first found out about this from Eddie Trunk and Sammy had also did a guest spot on Eddie’s newish Youtube show once a week called That Rocks. Sammy told a story about opening for Kiss and being booed and having had enough, he trashed his equipment walked off stage. If you want the whole story, here you go along with other stories and crazy shit from Eddie, Don Jamieson and Jim Florentine. https://youtu.be/KzKJO2L9aRs?si=_IEpUNk0aTa-1FMw

This week, what did you think of A Mid-Childhood Night’s Dream? For any parents out there, it is certainly a reminder that the empty nest Time is coming and so, cherish all the time with your kids that you have before they leave and grow up. I’m going to talk about the empty nest, as my parents had become empty nesters in the 90s. Many years ago, I was talking with somebody and I realize that as the youngest I was the one who would be kept around the most, as I was the last and the last one to grow up to be an adult. I have four sisters and the eldest is in her 70s, so you can imagine how old both my parents would be, if both were alive. My dad would be the same age as Bob Newhart and my mom is 90 so, from my eldest sister to me my parents had 45 years worth of parenting under their belt. I am not going to make jokes about parenting skills even though I agree with some comedians who do make jokes about them being less strict as they get older. I am also not going to talk about my time as a child, because that is not the point of this post.

So, what was Marge afraid of? Well, the kids would be away from home and she would no longer be their mother, or at least as she was by the time Bart, Lisa and Maggie leave the nest. Our parents will always be our parents from our birth, but they deal with us as equals, rather than as just our mom and dad, after we leave home. I understand that, even though I am not a parent and I do because I am the youngest of five and fortunately, all five of us are still around and we live in different parts of Canada. There is also the loneliness factor , in that it’s just her and her husband, as well as her twin sisters and we know how toxic they are. Meanwhile, her offspring would be out doing other things on their own and may not always have a chance to come and visit, call, email, text, or post things on Facebook to her as much as she would like, because they are busy. In my case, my mother is tech illiterate and knows nothing about how social media works, an iPhone, or even the newer methods of paying for things, by way of a smart phone or a debit card. She has a bank book, which some people refer to as a pocketbook and I and the rest of us have smart phones, debit cards and we have email, social media or one or the other of the two. I do all of the above, except for Zoom and Instagram, so I will never get on either of those platforms willingly, even for family gatherings or chats.

So, Marge should enjoy the years that she has with her kids and her husband who is also a big child while they are around to keep her company and learn things from her and the world around them. As for the husband, he will just carry on as he is, until the day he drops and nothing will change… … presumably. As for the episode, I wonder where the frame ends and reality begins, or where reality end and the dream begins? You have to pay attention to it if you can’t see what is on the screen. Anyway, that is all I have for this week.

The Simpsons Goes GaGa

Hi all and welcome to another Simpsons on Sundays post. To start things off, Vin Scully has passed away at the age of 93, as the longest serving Play by play announcer for the Los Angeles Dodgers. In fact, he had started with them in 1950, when the team was based in Brooklyn New York. There was an uproar about the team moving to Los Angeles, including a novelty song, which I had heard some time in my teens. https://youtu.be/EQ8XpKwc3A0

We know the name Vin Scully through Harry Shearer, doing his voice at times during the series. For example: this song we all know from Season 4. Right? https://youtu.be/U6HFCjI6REY

Anyway, RIP and thanks to Harry Shearer for making this man’s name better known, even to those of us who cheer for baseball teams in our hometowns. In my case, the Toronto Blue Jays, who have their own song which I will also put in this blog just for fun. https://youtu.be/dTGDF0dc5T0

On the birthday front, Metallica singer and guitarist James Hetfield turned 59 on Wednesday. Him and the rest of The current lineup of Metallica were guest stars on the Season 18 premier episode The Mook, The Chef, The Wife And Her Homer. James writes most of the lyrics and music, along with drummer Lars Ulrich and occasionally lead guitarist Kirk Hammett inserting ideas and sometimes, they are classic. For example: Enter Sandman has his fingerprints all over the song, along with James and Lars. Sometimes the guys on the bottom end contribute to some songs. For example: Robert Trujillo has been credited with a song or two, from the latest Metallica album Hardwired…To Self-Destruct as well as former bass players Jason Newsted and Cliff Burton making classic contributions to songs, during their stints in the band, both as writers and instrumentalists.

Also, Tony Bennett is still with us and had turned another year older on Wednesday. I did a post on him last year, if you are interested and it’s in the archives for August 2021.

This week, I am going to finally address the Season 23 finale Lisa Goes Gaga, as I feel that we need to go over the episode, as some fans really dislike it. I can’t disagree all that much, but I can’t agree either and I will explain later on.

A train called “The Lady Gaga Express” passes through Springfield (with the music of Poker Face playing) and Lady Gaga decides to stop and visit the town after she learns that Springfield has the lowest self-esteem of any place on the planet. Meanwhile, at Springfield Elementary , the Student Choice Awards are taking place. Lisa wins the award for Least Popular Student and falls into a state of depression. At dinner that evening, Milhouse shows Lisa the school’s online message board, where there are several posts written about her by a user named “Truth Teller”. The posts are all positive, to Lisa’s surprise. The next day, Lisa is excited to learn that her fellow classmates now wish to befriend her after reading the message board…until Bart uncovers a notepad from Lisa’s backpack full of Truth Teller’s messages. Connecting the dots, Bart figures out that Lisa is Truth Teller and was ghostwriting the messages herself, in an attempt to reverse her status as the school’s least popular student. Of course, would you expect anything less? Lisa’s classmates overhear Bart and begin chanting “Lie Smeller” and she runs off in tears. On the Lady Gaga Express, a psychic force (in the shape of Lady GaGa’s singing voice) alerts Gaga to Lisa’s situation and she makes it her mission to try and help.
Lady Gaga tries helping Lisa overcome her depression.
Lady Gaga arrives in Springfield and is greeted by its inhabitants. At the Simpson home, Homer and Marge are trying their best to cheer Lisa up, with little success. Homer spots a news report on the TV about Gaga’s arrival and makes plans to go and see her and invites Lisa along. Lisa reluctantly agrees and the family (including Lisa) go to watch Gaga perform. During the concert, Gaga receives another psychic alert, spotting Lisa in the crowd. Gaga disappears from the stage and appears next to Lisa “incognito” and subsequently the two agree to head back to the Simpson home to talk. In Lisa’s bedroom, Gaga reads the school’s message board and all the negative comments that have been written since, as Lisa cries on her bed. Gaga tries to teach Lisa that being your own #1 fan is the best way to live and that being yourself is better than being like anyone else. Lisa remains upset and Gaga vows not to leave until she has restored Lisa’s sense of hope. Homer decides to have a snack, but he finds out that it’s Lady GaGa’s meat dress he is trying to eat.
Later that evening, Gaga is conversing at the kitchen table over milk and cookies with Marge about what to do with Lisa. Marge admits that she has no idea how to help her daughter and breaks down into tears. Gaga attempts to comfort her by holding her hand but Marge pulls away. Marge explains that hand-holding won’t cheer her up, just as Gaga grabs her and the two make-out. Marge calls out for Homer and the two have sex, with Homer adding, “Wow, this is like the night Hilary won the New Hampshire primary!” The next morning, Marge and Gaga discover that Lisa snuck out the previous night and hasn’t returned home. Lisa goes to school, where she continues to be made fun of by her peers. Gaga makes an appearance and tells Lisa that “this pity party is being shut down by the smile police!” Lisa erupts into a fit of anger and tells Gaga that she doesn’t want her help, resulting in Gaga running away, leaving only a trail of tiny diamond tears behind, which hurts like hell when GaGa cries.
Lisa is hiding up in Bart’s treehouse and Homer calls for her to come down to talk. After Homer’s unrelated ramblings about dieting and sudden death, Lisa comes around and realizes how ungrateful she has been. She kisses her father on the cheek and runs off, adding “I’ve got a train to catch.” At the Springfield train-station , Gaga is bidding farewell to her fans, just as the Gaga Express is about to pull away. The train begins to move and Lisa emerges from the crowd and quickly jumps on board. Lisa thanks Gaga and explains that she helped her by allowing her to inappropriately focus 8 years of rage and rejection on her. Lisa then begins reciting all the things she feels good about herself to Gaga, who then tells her that there’s only one more thing she needs to do in order to become a “Little Monster” – sing. Gaga and Lisa perform a self-acceptance song to a crowd of Springfieldians . Suddenly, Moe appears and asks if Gaga will help him with his self-esteem issues. “I’m not that good,” Gaga replies, and she waves goodbye as the train leaves Springfield.

Now I will say a few things about the episode and why people really can’t stand it. First, I will remind you that Lady GaGa’s real name at birth is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta and as to where she got her stage name, that’s coming up later on in the post. As for the episode, it’s all about Lady GaGa and it focuses a lot on her. After all, consider the title of the episode and if it didn’t click in that Miss GaGa would be a guest star, you need to wake the fuck up. If there was to be an episode with the word “maggot” in it, I would be thrilled that it could possibly feature a member, or members of Slipknot guest starring as themselves. Take note that I would be and not every Simpsons fan is a maggot and not every maggot is a fan of the yellow family from Springfield.

This continues my thought about this episode being nothing more than self-promotion for Lady GaGa, by those who are against this episode. I get it and it certainly seems that way, with Lady GaGa in a lot of the story and her music sprinkled throughout it. However, it can also be seen as a satire on celebrity and how when famous people pass through town, The whole world becomes a fairytale land and when said star leaves, things go back to the way they were. In fact, the whole idea of entertainment is to escape from all the bullshit in the world, whether it is going to a concert, listening to music, watching movies, watching TV, watching YouTube, playing video games, etc. Obviously, Magic doesn’t really happen when a celebrity comes to town, but it’s fun to wish that were true. Amongst the music there is a song Lady GaGa had written especially for this episode and I’m not sure if it is available on Youtube, as a standalone piece or not. I think it’s called Little Monsters, but I’m not quite sure. Anyway, it’s fine for what it is. One song which certainly makes its presence known is the 2009 hit single Poker Face and I had mentioned it earlier, when I had talked about the express train passing through Springfield. Even Homer tries singing it at the end of the episode. Sorry dude, only Lady GaGa can and should be allowed to utter the words to this song, vocally.

Speaking of the voice, did you notice the absents of Tress MacNeille? Lady GaGa worked because her voice sounds similar to Tress and GaGa could easily replace her, if she really wanted. They both have very facile voices and because of GaGa’s contralto range, she could do a boy, a girl or even a cranky old bag. However, I don’t see Tress MacNeille being removed in favour of a similar voice any time soon, unless the unthinkable happens and she suddenly and shockingly decides to leave, or something else.

There were hints that Lady GaGa’s guest starring appearance would be, or could be in the works from Just Dance appearing in the episode Moe Letter Blues, or with a cameo in the episode Angry Dad: The Movie, or being simply alluded to in Homer Scissorhands. Clearly, the Simpsons writers and even some cast members are fans. Right? I believe that to be true, as Yeardley Smith follows Lady GaGa on Twitter, or at least the last time I checked she does. I know she also followed Bon Jovi back in 2013 and my guess is probably both are still there, as people whom she follows. I can’t go through all of them because there are so many. Anyway, according to Wikipedia, Lady GaGa had done an interview with future guest star Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes and Al Jean was thus prompted to write a script with her in mind. Basically, she was approved as a guest star in the future. We first found out about this in August 2011, months after the album Born This Way was released and a couple of months after saxophonist and past guest star Clarence Clemons had passed away, as he was the one with that gritty sax on the hit single The Edge of Glory and as far as I know, that was the last musical appearance on an album he ever did, before he died. I’m not going to get into all of the details about how Lady GaGa had switched outfits every time she would appear, take a break and then switch to something else. If you like, just look up the episode Lisa Goes GaGA on Wikipedia, and then look up Lady Gaga herself. There is a lot to go through and the reason why she does this is her eccentricity and, to keep people talking. That’s why she has such outfits as the exploding bra, pyrotechnic underwear, the meat dress, the Kermit the frog dress, the list goes on and on and on and on.

One thing I noticed during the episode (when watching it yesterday morning) Lisa says “ooh La La”, which GaGa also sings in Bad Romance. You know? https://youtu.be/9WNYIA1N4NU

Clearly, Lady Gaga was influenced by Madonna, but she also is a huge fan of rock and metal bands such as: Judas Priest, iron maiden, Queen, Metallica, Led Zeppelin and even a jazz crooner like Tony Bennett. Obviously, her main genre is dance pop, but she can certainly sing and swing with Tony and I had talked about that last year, a little bit when discussing the man. One of her more surprising appearances was with Metallica at the 59th Grammy Awards, which was not bad, but it wasn’t great either. To be honest, I would rather her do an album with them than Lou Reed. Besides, I consider Lulu more of a comedy album than a metal album. In case you’re wondering, I believe the duet with Metallica to be sincere and not a joke. By the way, here is that song she did with the guys and as I had said, it’s not bad and not exactly stellar either. https://youtu.be/Dj18EYDN0u0

So, what do I think about the episode? Because I like Lady Gaga, I have no problem with it. However, I do understand The other side of the argument that it is more like self promotion for her, rather than a Simpsons episode. Well, what do you expect? It’s Lady Gaga and she’s larger than life and she is who she is. I’m not exactly the biggest fan of her, but I do respect her a lot and I like quite a few of her songs. However, I will not say anything bad about her. Besides, she got her stage name from the song Radio GaGa by Queen (one of my favourite bands) and, Queen guitarist Bryan may played on one of her songs to. Also, if someone like John Leiden says that he likes Lady GaGa, how can she be all that bad? Many rock and metal musicians respect her and why not? Rob Halford of Judas Priest is a fan, as he had stated in his autobiography in 2020. So, how could you not like Lady Gaga even if you’re not into dance Pop music? Oh yea, about that Queen song from where she gets her stage name, here it is and it was written by last week’s birthday boy, drummer Roger Taylor. https://youtu.be/azdwsXLmrHE

With Lady Gaga, there is so much to talk about with her activism, philanthropy, public image, eccentricity, articles of clothing which she wears for affect, on and on and on and on. Unfortunately, I can’t do it justice and really, who can besides Wikipedia? She is one artist you can either just get into the music, or if you wish to dive into the rest of what makes her tick, there is quite a lot which requires commitment and if you are a fan, you know that she is always keeping us interested. This brings me to my penultimate point, would other bands want to do an episode like this? Probably not, because they may not wish to be a part of the series, in order to avoid being accused of using a cartoon as self promotion. They also may not wish to be a main focus of the storyline, to avoid being castigated by critics and fans who may declare an episode they appear in as among the worst, because the focus may be on them and not the cast of characters in Springfield. Clearly, the story had walked the line between focusing on Lady GaGa and less on the citizens of Springfield and focusing on The Simpsons cast of characters more, but the fact that her music was sprinkled throughout the episode at times almost tipped the balance towards her. Fortunately, this is still a Simpsons episode and a satire on celebrities and how we worship them like gods. Apparently, Lady GaGa is a nice person and is kind to her fans. I’m not making this comment from how the character caries herself in the episode, but from what other people have said about her before 2012. I believe it and I’m sure that if I had met her, we could probably talk music and because I like rock and metal, I think we’d get along just fine. Besides, I bet she has a lot of stories that she could tell (if she was allowed to). Anyway, if you haven’t watch this episode, please do and if you enjoy it, great and if not that’s all right too. It’s not for everyone and for those who are little monsters and who haven’t watched the episode yet, why not?

Finally, on the subject of who had come before Lady GaGa, obviously Madonna was a big influence. However, there are a lot more strong women who should be named who inspire not just her, Adele and Taylor Swift such as: P!nk, Gwen Stefani, Shirley Manson of the band Garbage, Chrissie Hynde, Tori Amos, Courtney Love, Alanis Morissette and others from the 90s and earlier who came up through punk. In fact, consider the careers of Patty Smyth and Deborah Harry if you really wanna dive deep. In fact, I recommend doing a Google search on not just women in rock, but also punk and the whole idea behind it, where anyone can make music, no matter who you are and whether you could play an instrument or not. This would eventually give rise to the sub-genre of riot grrrl and I wouldn’t be surprised if anyone out of that scene of angry females had guests starred on The Simpsons in recent seasons. Anyway, if we didn’t have punk we wouldn’t have had Lady Gaga or Madonna, because they are not just musicians who are photogenic, but also smart people with business acumen and an eye for Fashion. Before the 1970s, I can almost guarantee that there would be no women doing as well as Madonna has done, or as well as Lady Gaga is doing right now. Obviously, I can’t do her enough justice without going on forever, so why not watch Lisa Goes GaGa for yourself, like I did yesterday morning, in order to help write this post.

The Simpsons & Pantera

Hi all and welcome to another Simpsons on Sundays post. This weeks post is quite different from what I’ve done before and yet, harkening back to a post I did in 2017 just after Chester Bennington had committed suicide, two months and two days after Chris Cornell had done the same and on Chris Cornell’s 53rd birthday of all days on July 20, 2017. Basically, it’s another Simpsons goes metal type of post and this week, I want to focus on Pantera. No, no members had guest starred on the Simpsons, but I did talk about the degree of separation through SpongeBob SquarePants and there is another, through Simpsons fandom which I would like to mention and I had found out a while ago.

One of the big stories in rock and metal this week is the highly improbable reunion of 90s metal band Pantera, whose two founding members: Drummer Vinnie Paul and guitarist Dimebag Darrell are no longer with us as Darrell was actually shot on stage, murdered 24 years to the day that John Lennon was killed. I will include the Behind The Music episode including details on the murder at the bottom of this post.

This week, it was announced that surviving members bassist Rex brown and vocalist Phil Anselmo are reuniting as Pantera, with Zakk Wylde and Charlie Benante taking the place of the Abbott brothers on guitar and drums respectively. Oh yeah, I should also mention that Vinny and Daryl are brothers and their real names are Vincent Paul Abbott and Darrell Lance Abbott. They grew up in Abilene Texas, bassist Rex Brown was from Graham, Texas, while Phil Anselmo came from New Orleans, with Pantera (the band) being from Arlington, Texas. The brothers had formed Pantera in 1981 and had released their first album Metal Magic, on their record label of the same name. It was also produced by their father Jerry Abbott, who will come up again later. The singer for this album and the next 2 was Terry Glaze and Pantera were a glam metal band for those years. After two more albums, Tarry was out and Phil was in, with his first album being Power Metal. The band began to change the sound, to a more thrash medal approach, with some groove and it further expanded with the album Cowboys from Hell and that album and song, basically started groove metal. Yes, there are thrash elements but groove also became an important characteristic of this sub genre of heavy metal.

After 1990, Pantera just got heavier and heavier and when the album Far Beyond Driven was released and had debuted at the top spot of the billboard charts, they had carved out their own sound using elements of Metallica and Slayer, but also incorporated other extreme metal bands and even hard-core punk into the song writing and musicianship. For example: Phil used a style similar to Rob Halford at first, but he then started to introduce screaming and growling into his vocals, along with occasionally singing. As for everybody else in Pantera, they just played faster and meaner and this made for a real potent cocktail of not just music and technique to burn, but copious amounts of alcohol. Apparently, in the contract you had to drink if you were going to go on tour with Pantera. One such drink is called “Black Tooth Grin” and if you know the song Sweating Bullets by Megadeth, you know that those three words are mentioned in the lyrics. If you haven’t heard it yet, I just happen to have found this video on YouTube. https://youtu.be/aOnKCcjP8Qs

While the partying and debauchery was going on, band tensions began to arise between Phil and the Abbott brothers, as they were having a great time and Phil was getting into heroin, in order to self medicate because of back pain he had suffered on a previous tour. His July 13, 1996 overdose was a clear wake up call that something was wrong, but not before the album The Great Southern Trendkill was recorded in challenging circumstances, with Phil at home in New Orleans and the rest of the band in Texas, at a studio which was a Barn Darrell had converted into a recording studio. In 2000, Reinventing The Steel was released and it proved to be the final album, with a tour was cut short by the September 11th attacks. Then, Phil and Rex focused on Down and Phil had other bands with albums coming out, while the abbott brothers were patiently waiting for the guys to return, so they could get to work on the next album. That was not to be and Pantera broke up in 2003 and the Abbott brothers formed Damageplan, with Patrick Lachman on vocals and Bob Zilla on bass. Bob would be a part of Vince’s next band Hellyeah, with Chad Gray of Mudvayne on vocals, Tom Maxwell of Nothingface on guitar, with Vince and Bob rounding out the rhythm section. During Damageplan’s tour, Darrell was shot and killed in 2004 in Columbus Ohio, while Vince had spent 2006, to 2018 in Hellyeah and he died on June 22, 2018. I know I’m missing a lot, but here is this to catch you up and feel free to use the hyperlinks to bend members and other people involved. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantera

As for who will be sitting in for the Abbott brothers, it will be Zakk Wylde on guitar and Charlie Benante of Anthrax on drums. Zakk was thought to be a perfect guy to sub in for Darrell, as they were friends and they had played together sometimes. As for Charlie, Pantera and Anthrax had toured together and more importantly, the guys in Anthrax are Simpsons fans. When they had appeared in an episode of Married… with Children, they actually expected to get a call to appear on The Simpsons, as the band at the time were huge fans. https://youtu.be/WpuXDGuTrJE

As for Jerry Abbott, he had produced a song for none other than orson Welles who released a music single in 1984, titled “I Know What It Is to Be Young (But You Don’t Know What It Is to Be Old)”, which he recorded under Italian label Compagnia Generale del Disco. This song was performed with the Nick Perito Orchestra and the Ray Charles Singers, with Jerry producing, while orson Wells does the spoken parts.

Going back to my 2017 post for a moment, here is something else tying Pantera and The Simpsons together, complete with the song in question. If there was no Judis Priest would there be a band like Pantera? Probably not because of the influence on their first major label album Cowboys From Hell. You can hear some Rob Halford type vocals in most of the songs with high screaming parts, including Cemetery Gates and here it is. https://youtu.be/RVMvART9kb8

You can also connect Pantera to The Simpsons through: singer Phil Anselmo. He has many projects which he is involved with, including Down as probably the most bluesy (if you will) although, they do take heavy influence from Black Sabbath and other stoner rock bands, along with the atmosphere of New Orleans. One of his other bands Superjoint Ritual, which features bass player Hank Williams III. On the episode The Last Temptation Of Krust, Hank’s Father Hank Williams, Jr. sings the song Canyonero. You know it. Right? https://youtu.be/dJZmEJxx2Xo

One more connection to The Simpsons through Pantera by degrees, is Patrick Lachman, who not only sang for Damageplan, but also played guitar in future guest star Rob Halford’s solo band Halford, before rejoining Judis Priest in 2003. Rob even mentions him in the book Confess and of course, he briefly talks about the murder of Darrell too, 14 years after they had met in Toronto in 1990. Yes, I got a warm tingly feeling when I just wrote that, because I’m from Toronto and that’s where I was born. Anyway, I digress.

Reaction to the news of the reunion has been quite mixed, with some people loving it while others are saying that this is not Pantera. I am unsure about this myself, as I believe that Zakk can fill guitar duties nicely, but I’m not sure about Charlie. I know that he is a great drummer, but he isn’t Vince. I guess we will have to wait and see how everyone is when the tour gets going and hopefully, Phil’s voice is strong or close to what it was back in the day, considering that he is in his 50s now.

Will any members of Pantera (surviving or touring) ever guest star on the Simpsons? The answer is probably no, but I did this post because I wanted to try and connect the dots between the band and the series. I started with SpongeBob SquarePants a few weeks ago and now we have this post. The other reason I did it is because Pantera is an iconic band who have helped to give birth to several sub genres of metal and yes, nu Metal is one of them and don’t forget, they also invented groove metal and for musicians, it’s a lot more fun to play around and take chances while jamming on new or developing songs where there is groove and not just rage for the sake of it. Even Slipknot have groove amongst the anger which also is an ingredient in their music. If you’re looking for Pantera songs to listen to, I suggest checking out the full albums: Cowboys from Hell, Vulgar Display Of Power, Far Beyond Driven, The Great Southern Trendkill, Reinventing the Steel and their live album Official Live: 101 Proof. After that, then you can take it easy (if you will) with the greatest hits package called The Best of Pantera: Far Beyond the Great Southern Cowboy’s Vulgar Hits. I also suggest checking out the deluxe versions of all of the Studio albums because there are lots of goodies on each one of them. For example: there are b-sides, outtakes, music videos, instrumental versions of songs and a whole lot more. Just trust me, because Pantera is not about bullshit and they are the real deal, much like The Simpsons is.

Confess

hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday poast. First of all, did you watch the premier episode of Season 32 yet? Undercover Burns is certainly interesting, in that he goes undercover as Fred, in order to infiltrate his employees. Fair enough but, why give the name Fred? Because it’s so bland? Because of Fred Flintstone? … … I don’t know, but okay.

Something else you may have noticed is that Carl Carlson is no longer voiced by Hank Azaria and now by Alex Désert, who is black. I’ve heard that because Mike Henry is no longer voicing Cleveland Brown on Family Guy, Hank has decided to stop doing characters who are black, or even a character like Apu. There is obviously a difference between the two voices and it will take time getting used to the new guy, but I think it will work.

This week, a new book has been released by a Simpsons guest star, in the shape of “a memoir, by the Metal God himself. “Confess” by Rob Halford had dropped on Tuesday and I have listened to the entire audiobook, which is read by him. It goes through his life, from his childhood to the present day, including his coming out in 1998. In case you don’t know, Rob Halford is gay and has known that for many years before making the announcement during an interview on MTV. Thankfully, nothing has changed except his singing style has developed more and more as years went on and his lower range is more powerful, along with his usual high end screams.

The one thing he missed in the book, or rather the audiobook was his guest starring appearance on The Simpsons. Well, it was so short and sweet that there really wasn’t that much to it, except for the erroneous mention that Judas Priest were death metal, which they aren’t. However, most (if not all death metal bands) love Priest and the same is true of Black metal and other forms of extreme metal. He may not of mentioned it in the book but, he did acknowledge the Guest starring appearance on the Simpsons in an interview shortly after Steal This Episode had aired. https://youtu.be/NUie42wiSDg

Okay, if you have watched the video you will hopefully remember the stupid brouhaha, about Judas Priest being called a death metal band in the episode. The Simpsons had gone to the Swedish embassy in Springfield, so Sweden is also a hub of death metal, along with Florida. I think they chose Sweden because there was opportunity for a dialect to give to a character, rather than go to Florida and their brand of death metal. Besides, there was no real opportunity for dialect if Florida was used and like I said earlier, a lot of death metal bands love Priest. Oh yeah, they parodied Breaking The Law, in reference to copyright law, as Homer was busted for stealing movies to show to his friends, at The Simpsons house. However, the song is about a guy down on his luck and full of anger and wants to just go and break the law, to let off steam.

I think Confess is a great book and whether you are a fan of Rob Halford or not, I think you will enjoy it and will learn about how a boy from Walsall England

, who wanted to become an actor, instead became a singer in one of the biggest and most influential metal bands in the world. It is an interesting story and I highly recommend the audiobook, as he reads it. It’s on iTunes and I’m sure you can probably find it elsewhere, in either Digital or physical form.

Happy B-Day

Hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday post. Unfortunately, we have another death to talk about, in the form of drummer Dave Holland. He played drums in the bands trapeze and most notably, Judas Priest. His drums can be heard on the episode Steal This Episode, when Rob Halford sings a spoof of Breaking The Law, during the seen at the Swedish Embassy. You know, that whole alleged death metal controversy? I don’t believe that real fans actually didn’t like that Priest were refered to as a death metal band but instead, thought it was funny nlike I did. This is a comedy and sometimes you need to get a laugh by stretching the truth or stating something as true but which really isn’t completely correct, there by distorting it for a laugh. Anyway, RIP Dave.

This week is a rather thin post with only one thing to talk about. Today is the 60th birthday of Chris Ladesma, who is the Music Editor of The Simpsons and has been since day 1. We lost Alf Clausen because he was fired late last summer but Chris is still here and a part of the staff and doing a hell of a job. If you want to know more, check out his blog. https://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/

As a musician I am interested in what he does and how he does it. If he has perfect pitch like I do, then that is a real plus. I hope that he will be doing the same job for the rest of his professional life. Keep up the great work Chris and happy b-day.

Anyway, that’s it for this weeks post. Talk to you again next Sunday.

Return Trips To Springfield

hi folks and welcome to another Simpsons Sunday poast. Unfortunately we have another death to talk about, which relates to a guest star. comedian Jerry Lewis, who guest starred in the episode Treehouse Of Horror XIV, as Professor Frink’s dad, Jonathan Frink Senior. Of course, we all know him as the former commic sidekick to Dean Martin, as well as his annual Labour Day Jerry Lewis telethon. Thanks for everything you have done to make us laugh over the years and enspiring Hank Azaria, with the voices of Professor Frink and Gabbo.
On the birthday front, singer Rob Halford turned another year older on Friday. He of course, guest starred on the episode Steal this Episode singing a spoof version of a classic Judas Priest song Breaking The Law. Today is also the 27th anniversary of the death of blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan, who died in a helicopter crash in fog. Thank goodness Eric Clapton did not sit in his spot or he would’ve been the one to die in the crash. The worst thing about this is that a few months earlier Stevie Ray Vaughn and his band Double Trouble released their latest album In Step and he also cleaned up and had been sober for a while. Also he had just completed an album with his brother Jimmy, which came out not long after his death.
This week it’s all about some one time characters who could make a return and be successful. Most have done so and have had varying degrees of success,, with fans and critics. I have three of them, which may not be a success right off the bat but, are interesting choices for the writers to ponder, when selecting characters for an episode, whether they are created for it or could be useful later on.
Yesterday the first character that came to mind was Ben in the episode Dangers On a Train, who was voiced by Seth MacFarlane. What I was thinking was that Ben and Ramona could be left to babysit Bart, Lisa and Maggie. Could you imagine what chaos Bart would cause and how the husband and wife would have different styles of disciplineing him? If both Seth and Lisa Lampanelli (who voiced Ramona) had the time to voice the characters again, it could be very interesting and I think that a babysitting episode would be the one to go with, while Homer and Marge are away. Maybe a new character can be created with the voice similar to Stewie griffin. I don’t know; it’s just a thought!
Another character Who could be an interesting experiment if tried out again is Francine. Her voice was provided by Kathy Griffin and the character appeared on the episode Bye, Bye, Nerdie. She was a bully, who mostly hurt Lisa and Lisa found a way to stave her off, if only temporarily, using ranch dressing. What if she had returned and this time, had became Bart’s new girlfriend? The whole sibling rivalry could be amped up tenfold this time or, maybe Lisa and Francine would become friends in the end and the relationship with Bart would be for an episode only.
Another character which would be intersting if they had returned is Mr. Lassen. I know he had recently appeared in an episode but it would be another experiment to try out, with a character who is scary. He had a real hate-on for Bart and Bart’s feelings were mutual toward him. What would happen if he was to return? Would both him and Sideshow Bob team up this time to look for a kill Bart? Actually, I could see this one for a future Treehouse Of Horror episode and that is where both Jack and Bob would really shine as a villainess tandem.

Well, that’s about it for this weeks Post. In the mean time, I recommend checking out my other blog, which has older posts relating to The Simpsons, along with a lot more interesting stuff about my favourite bands and other things. http://blindgordieblog.wordpress.com
Also, check out Chris Ladesma’s blog. He is the Music Editor for The Simpsons and has been since day 1.

http://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/

Also, check out Yeardley Smith’s blog at http://gobbingoff.tumblr.com

Don’t forget about Marchez Vous, which is her women’s shoe designer company, which she started earlier in the decade. You can check out their website at

http://www.marchesvous.com

Additionally, for more news on The Simpsons, you can go to http://news.simpsonswiki.com/

You can also comment here or you can email me at blindgordie@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can to all messages I receive. If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook you can comment directly to me that way too.

You can follow Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean on Twitter and his Twitter handle is @AlJean.

He has ran the show since Season 13 and has ran it during Seasons 3 and 4.

Anyway,  I’ll talk to you again next Sunday.

The Simpsons Goes Metal

Hi friends and welcome to another Simpson Sunday post. Sadly, we have another death to talk about which relates to The Simpsons. Martin Landau passed away last week at the age of 89. He of course is best remembered for such films as: Ed Wood and The American TV series Mission: Impossible, which also had Simpsons guest star Leonard Nimoy as a part of the cast at one point. He also guest starred in the season 22 episode The Great Simpsina as the illusionist The Great Raymondo. RIP and thanks for being a part of the history of The Simpsons.
Yet another death this week in music has occurred, in the form of Chester Bennington of the bands Linkin Park, Stone Temple Pilots and Dead by Sunrise. Like Chris Cornell, he was also found to have died by suicide by hanging and also on Chris’s birthday. What the hell is going on? this is the second suicide by hanging death of a major rockstar in two months and two days, to be exact. Chester was 41 years old!

There is a connection to The Simpsons in that Linken Park worked with Hans Zimmer, on producing the score, for the movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. This also gave us the single New Divide in 2009 and thankfully, it is available either on the soundtrack, or as an EP on iTunes, with the song, an instrumental verson, an Acca Pella and live version of the song. Oh, let us not forget that he also worked on The Simpsons Movie in 2007, so there is the connection to both Chester and Linken Park.

Anyway, RIP Chester and thanks for all the music and love you gave all of your fans around the world, as well as your Friends, bandmates and fellow celebrities.
This is yet another encore post which of course will have some more additional text added to it.
Earlier on when I had begun to compose blog entries on The Simpsons, I began to realize how much the shows scope extends to many many different areas of show business, time periods and life in general. If you look at all the people who have guest starred on The Simpsons you will know what I mean. From time to time I have devoted posts to bands and people who have been on the show and this week is no exception.

This week I’m going to talk about another of my favourite Heavy Metal bands, the very influential, Judas Priest. They have been around for over 40 years and have released 17 studio albums, with their latest album Redeemer Of Souls being released three years ago. They have shifted styles of metal over the years from time to time but have always stayed heavy. Of course, they wouldn’t be where they are today without singer Rob Halford and his high pitched operatic singing style. He guest starred on The Simpsons on the episode Steal This Episode, parodying the classic Priest song Breaking The Law, singing instead “Respecting The Law.” On the show they were called a death metal band and some fans didn’t like that. The Simpsons producers apologized for this but I had no problem with it.

The fact that they were mislabeled is not a slap in the face but a sign of being misinformed and well, I guess, ignorant. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think the producers of The Simpsons were even close to being misinformed or ignorant by any means. This is a comedy and sometimes you can get a laugh by stretching or distorting the truth.

Actually, Judas Priest does play some songs which are quite fast in the vain of Motörhead and early Metallica in the form of songs like: Exciter and Freewheel Burning. When you stop and think about it, speed metal is related to death metal and other extreme sub-genres of this form of music so it’s not that far from the truth. Also, the band we’re also liked by the punks in the 70s during the first wave. So, why are we surprised when The Simpsons calls them a death metal band? Also consider that the Simpsons family were at the Swedish Embassy and if you know your Swedish metal you know that country has an abundance of death metal bands. One band I recommend checking out is a band called Opeth, Who’s singer Mikael Åkerfeldt not only uses death growls but can sing with clean vocals as well. This shows that the bands music is not only rooted in death metal but also progressive metal. Anyway, I digress. Another example of a death metal or rather, a melodic death metal band is Arch Enemy, who had a female singer named Angela Gossow, Who is actually born in Germany. Their singer is now Canadian born Alissa White-Gluz, Who was born in Montreal Quebec. They are a supergroup made up of members of such bands as: Carcass, Carnage, and Spiritual Beggars and other extreme metal bands.

The fact that Judas Priest were called a death metal band is funny to me because of the whole Swedish Embassy seen and the a4mentioned glut of Swedish death metal bands. It exposes some people’s miss categorization of a specific genre, dew to geography. It’s hard not to associate Seattle with the grunge explosion in the 90s or Los Angeles with the Glam metal scene in the 80s, for example.
Something else that could factor into miss labeling of a genre is the generation gap. When you get to a certain age, you think anything that sounds a certain way is all the same or just noise. There are people who actually still think Van Halen is heavy metal. Well, maybe they are but they have stretched out their sound over the years and are much more tame than more current bands like: Pantera, Lamb Of God, Slipknot, Trivium, Avenged Sevenfold, Korn and many others from the mid 1990s to today.

If you want an example of a real death metal band, check out Cannibal Corpse. They are both musically and visually very very disturbing. Check out the movie Metal: A Headbangers Journey. There is some stuff in there that even scares me, and I am a fan of this kind of music. I’m not going to get into detail about burning churches and other things discussed because it would take up space and we are getting away from The Simpsons. So, I digress.

Of course, Judas Priest isn’t The Simpsons first metal band. Don’t forget that Metallica guest starred in Season 18 as themselves and they were naturally funny. When I heard that Rob Halford was going to guest star I was like “wow! now The Simpsons is the coolest show ever.” I wonder if anyone from Slipknot will be on the show. If they do choose to get on, they will be the only characters I have met in real life. I have detailed this in a very early post.

Oh, let’s not forget that Spinal Tap also were on the show during the Season 3 episode The Otto Show. If you know the band well, you know that Harry Shearer who is one of the principal voice actors on the show, also portrays Derek Smalls, the bass player for Spinal Tap. If you want to get technical, they were the first heavy metal band on the show, ever. But if you really want to get precise on the first hard rock band two guest star, it is of course Aerosmith in the season three episode Flaming Moe’s.

Before I get onto other stuff I will pose this question to you. If there was no Judis Priest would there be a band like Pantera? I don’t think so because of the influence on their first album Cowboys From Hell. You can hear some Rob Halford type vocals in most of the songs with high screaming parts. Oh, you can also connect Pantera to The Simpsons through: singer Phil Anselmo. One of his other bands Superjoint Ritual, which features bass player Hank Williams III. On the episode The Last Temptation Of Krust, his Father Hank Williams, Jr. sings the song Canyonero. Well, it’s true and i’m so glad that I was able to make the connection.
On the birthday front, Jon Lovitz turned another year older on Friday. He of course is best known for his work on Saturday Night Live and has guest starred on The Simpsons a number of times. I think his most important roll, despite being a nasty unlikable character and have an adversary a role in the relationship between Homer and Marge,is Artie Ziff. He has of course voice such characters as: Professor Lombardo in the episode Brush With Greatness, Aristotle Amadopolis in the episode Homer Defined, Llewellyn Sinclair and his sister Ms. Sinclair in the episode A Streetcar Named Marge and Mr. Seckofsky in the episode The Way We Was, among other one time voice characters. As I mentioned earlier, who is most important role in The Simpsons as a voice actor is his main character Artie Ziff, for his role in the lives of Homer and Marge Simpson. In fact this character helps explain how the two match and if you watch the episode The Way We Was you will know what I’m talking about and why he is so important.

Well, that’s about it for this weeks Post. In the mean time, I recommend checking out my other blog, which has older posts relating to The Simpsons, along with a lot more interesting stuff about my favourite bands and other things. http://blindgordieblog.wordpress.com
Also, check out Chris Ladesma’s blog. He is the Music Editor for The Simpsons and has been since day 1.

http://simpsonsmusic500.wordpress.com/author/simpsonsmusic500/

Also, check out Yeardley Smith’s blog at http://gobbingoff.tumblr.com

Don’t forget about Marchez Vous, which is her women’s shoe designer company, which she started earlier in the decade. You can check out their website at

http://www.marchesvous.com

Additionally, for more news on The Simpsons, you can go to http://news.simpsonswiki.com/

You can also comment here or you can email me at blindgordie@gmail.com and I will reply as soon as I can to all messages I receive. If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook you can comment directly to me that way too.

You can follow Simpsons Executive Producer Al Jean on Twitter and his Twitter handle is @AlJean.

He has ran the show since Season 13 and has ran it during Seasons 3 and 4.

Anyway,  I’ll talk to you again next Sunday.