Author Archives: Jon Sidel

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

Too many people are there / It’s noisy and bright, no one cares / But I’m happy in my rose colored corner / No hurry to go anywhere

People they stop and they stare / Disgusted what really isn’t there / But I’m happy in my rose colored corner / No hurry to go anywhere

The people they keep all their secrets / Awaiting each new break of dawn / I’m daunted by days coming gone

For the first time since I’ve been putting together The Idelic Hour, I missed a Valentine’s Day. My routine for many years is to spend Thursday nights listening to records, surfing online, and compiling and building the show to post on Friday.

Being not the most computer savvy rocker, I’ve figured out how to create and send off the show to TVD in DC, but in all honesty the “bones” of The Idelic Hour have been hacked together weekly by a battle hardened 2010 MacBook.

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

Snow started falling, / I could hear the angel calling / We rolled on the ground, he stretched out his wings. / The boy flew away and he started to sing. / He sang, “Break it up, oh, I don’t understand. / Break it up, I can’t comprehend. / Break it up, oh, I want to feel you. / Break it up, don’t look at me.

The sky was raging, the boy disappeared, / I fell on my knee / Atmosphere broke up, the boy reappeared. / I cried, “Take me please!”

Good Friday—yep, that’s where we’re at. Being what I call a “Schmohawk” (a smart mix of Jewish and spiritual Native American Indian) what the fuck do I know?” So, today is good. OK…I will try and make that happen. Why not? It’s spring break for the kids in Canyon, so I’ll give myself a break too.

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

Aim for the country fair, you read it in the paper / The worst happens any week a scandal on the front page / See the happy pair smiling close like they are monkeys / They wouldn’t think so but they’re holding themselves down / (Hold themselves down) / I found that essence rare, it’s what I looked for / I knew I’d get what I asked for

Keeping this week simple is likely the easiest way to keep my head straight. Flipping through the car radio channels, I stumble onto tune from Rubber Soul. Even the name of the album is brilliant comfort food.

So I’m saying “the word.” Well, for The Beatles it was “LOVE.” For this week’s Idelic playlist, it’s “NEW.” Because there really isn’t anything like hearing a great new song for the first time. Think about the process—your brain connects listening with thoughts and the magic of “taste.” Oh, new is yummy when it’s yummy.

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

If this world were mine, I’d place at your feet / All that I own; you’ve been so good to me / If this world were mine / I’d give you the flowers, the birds and the bees / For with your love inside me, that would be all I need / If this world were mine / I’d give you anything

24

It’s been a sad week in our “City of Angels.” The Kobe crash is weird and sad karma, and many are now asking why this is effecting us Los Angelenos so deeply. Of course I spent much of the early days of the week listening to sad songs. Today’s playlist muse, “Sadsong Street,” was penned by Richard Swift, another brilliant soul who met his end way too early. I used to tease Richard about his sad songs. Adored by many, somber tunes don’t often lead to fame and fortune in the record biz. Yet for my Idelic heart, I reach for these tunes in times of healing.

This week I couldn’t be help but think about basketball. I’ve long since stopped trying to explain the game’s significance to my upbringing in New York City. At a young age (ironically about the same age as my son Jonah) I wandered out to Central Park to play hoop. What I found was a world, community, a group of friends, heroes and villains, apart from my family and school.

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

Let’s drink to the hard working people / Let’s drink to the lowly of birth / Raise your glass to the good and the evil / Let’s drink to the salt of the earth

Say a prayer for the common foot soldier / Spare a thought for his back breaking work / Say a prayer for his wife and his children / Who burn the fires and who still till the earth

Anyone catch the first episode of the new Larry David?

It’s Grammy weekend in LA, Impeachment week in DC, and there are a shitload of koala bears and kangaroos who need our help.

I hear there are people who actually wear those red “Donald” baseball caps, but they’re as rare as “roos” around this canyon. I say let’s make planet Earth great—call it “Earth justice.”

On a LA Grammy week note, we do have pop music here. It’s kind of a “corruption” in the universe of music. Many call them artists? I guess there is an art to claiming your star on Hollywood Boulevard. In my old neighborhood in NYC, you would just get your ass kicked for listening to Peter Lemongello.

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

We found a new kind of dance in a magazine / Tried it out, it’s like nothing you ever seen / You sweet talk like a cop and you know it / You bought a new bag of pot, said, “let’s make a new start” / And that’s the way to my heart / The way to my heart / That’s the way we get by / The way we get by

Not sure what to lead off the new year /new decade with. “Howdy y’all,” or “What the fuck am I gonna do?” So of course I’ve taken the question to the godz of rock ‘n’ roll and song and came up with an Idelic muse. Oh yeah, it’s this week’s Idelic Hour playlist muse: “Anything I can get, I’ll fucking take it!”

Over this past month of “holiday hibernation” two things came to mind while listening to music. First one, of course, my obsession with new bands, artists and songs. What sound will be next and who and where are the next rock stars?

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

And if you turn up the dream to cure yourself free from searching for a new afterlife / The purpose of life, you know there’s still time to tune into the right side / Well I assumed that we were lovers yesterday / The turning tide that that love us to pray / You know what I would do if I were you

As The Idelic Hour says hello to 2019, I’m blasting into the year like a rocket to Russia. ’18 is gone and I haven’t met a soul who’s missed those recent days.—although it’s fairly pathetic how much Mr. Donald is trying ruin everyone’s new year.

Fuck it, fuck him, and anyone with a sour word or note. If it’s cold, let’s turn the heat up, swing and shake it up until the punch is sweet.

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

What can I say on this Friday the 13th?

It’s the final Idelic Hour of the decade and my birthday! I’m so old—my number looks too weird to write. Another bookmark in my rock ‘n’ roll journey. It’s been weird and truly wonderful. Let’s carry on into this second decade of the this new millennium. What a trip it will be.

Thank god for all the musicians and songs that made “the teens” sometimes cool and sometimes bearable. Also thank to all who have checked in and listened. And of course Jon Meyers, props my friend rockkkk!

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

Goin’ back to the time when I didn’t need a thing / Just the tappin’ of my foot and a little song to sing / That’ll do just fine / Yeah that’ll do just fine / And maybe? / Tell me where I go, tell me where I come / Take me anytime you like hon’ / Take me as I am or as who I might become / Never ever ever goin’ back / Never ever ever goin’ back…

In a meeting this week, my music biz boss mentioned that “December is a weird month.” Tyler was referring to how the holidays effect the ebb and flow of the our business in the lead up to them.

In truth, everything I’m doing has been effected by the practical and emotional understanding that the year—and in fact the decade—is coming to a close. I often wake up feeling like a marathon runner coming to the end of a tough race. I seem to wage an internal struggle between hope and remorse. As 2019 draws the decade to a close, hope is winning—thanks to music. Its sounds literally inject my DNA with love and compassion.

These last few weeks I’ve been listening intensely to all the of the songs that have helped me make it through 2019. In fact, many of them are songs from the last ten years. And, in my 50s, I often ask my myself questions.

Where has it all gone?

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

I’m on, I’ve never burned brighter / How’s the wine where you live? / Bet it’s expensive / One day we’ll share a glass together and ride the dunes / I’m writing too / There’s a definite vibe / You can’t be pure and in love / In the corner in blue / Is my name (In the corner)

It’s a very cool morning in the canyon. Not to sound like a “Californian,” but now that Mercury has gone out of retrograde, it feels like the angels will allow winter to proceed. And my my, this week we had a lot of electronic devices go haywire around here.

All said, we head into turkey week. Let’s celebrate and be grateful with some of the best news of 2019: Part 2 of my annual countdown of favorite “Idelic Hits”—the songs and/or artistry that made life just… way better dude!

I won’t write too much about 2019 this morning, but I will tip my cap to the Idelic Artist of 2019.

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

(In good faith) Rocks are buried beneath tons of earth / To become diamond / (In good faith) With the gift of the sunlight / The kudzu vine goes climbing / (In good faith) Instruments play songs / Brought forth from the minds of their makers / (In good faith) These vibrations resound / Bringing union and joy to all takers

(In good faith) We open our eyes / To a parade of first morning’s breaking / (In good faith) We pray what we see and we hear / Might be ours for the taking / (In good faith) We rise every day / And we will ’till our golden star bursts / (In good faith) We open our hearts / And say, “Lord, do your best, do your worst”

Shortly after last week’s Idelic Hour posted, I started thinking about my year-end list. After all, this is the end of the second decade of the second millennium! Not only do we need a year-end list for this end of the decade, but we need an end of the decade list. Wow!

I guess I have a little time to gather my thoughts about 2019. This last decade…wow…IT’S A LOT TO CHEW ON! I better start now.

First thought: So much has changed since the dawn of this decade when I started posting and doing this online radio show. I guess the greatest gift of the whole experience has been to share music. Sometimes I do give a fuck who is paying attention, and THANK YOU because so many of you have. The act of sharing music is part of who I am, and this is the week I’m on my annual journey, flipping through my music files (the record crates in my mind), compiling and organizing my favorite songs released this year. I’ve noticed in past years I’ve seemed to average about 60-80 artists and/or songs that have made the year…

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

Don’t get my sympathy, hanging out the fifteenth floor / You’ve changed the locks three times / He still comes reeling through the door / One day I’ll get to you / And teach you how to get to purest hell / You do it to yourself you do / And that’s what really hurts / Is you do it to yourself,  just you

When I think of health food I think of my dad. He was the first vegetarian I ever met. In truth it would be almost a decade before I came across another veggie. In the ’70s people thought you were crazy if you ate brown eggs, nuts, dried fruit, and raw milk.

For most New Yorkers, health food made its screen debut in Woody Allen’s Anne Hall. Woody lunching at The Source Cafe on Sunset seemed absurd, but for many Sunset strip, health food, and driving in convertibles made a lasting impression.

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

This is more than I wanted / Take me out of the dark, I roam there / Cold and black, you’re out of touch, yeah / Lightly falling through a whisper, you’re scared / It’s the weight of the world, I know, as I’m struggling to be / It’s the weight of the world, I know, as you were mine, and we will find…

I can’t seem to remember the last time Halloween fell on a Thursday. For most of my life Halloween has been my favorite holiday—maybe it’s the “nightclubber” in me? After all, it is the darkest of holidays. Now as I’ve moved into my post “nightlife” days, when I think of Halloween I think of past events—from trick or treat, to rock concerts, to partying with John Waters or Susanne Bartsch.

This Halloween I got a random text from my old friend Jimmy Gamillia. As I was thumbing back and forth, a light bulb went off about the night Jimmy dragged me to go see Frank Zappa at The Palladium (in NYC). I was a 16 year old punk rocker thinking I was too cool for Zappa’s annual Halloween bash (circa ’70s!). Jimmy was dressed as a jailbird with a rainbow afro! The crowd was outrageous and high as fuck. Zappa was jamming. It was a Halloween like many…like no other! Thank you for that Jimmy!

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

Thank you for the days, / Those endless days, those sacred days you gave me. / I’m thinking of the days, / I won’t forget a single day, believe me. / I bless the light, / I bless the light that shines on you believe me. / And though you’re gone, / You’re with me every single day, believe me. / Days.

A best friend. “BFF” as my daughter used to say.

Yeah, a best fucking friend is something to certainly have. Throughout my days of “rock ‘n’ rolling,” I’ve lived a charmed life with many friends. I’ve always had a truly diverse bunch of pals. Since my sandbox days of Central Park (NYC), I’ve identified my best friend as my childhood pal Bram Towbin. Bram is a flower farmer in Vermont. We try to stay in touch but it’s mostly via emails. Still, I am thrilled by our history, trustworthiness, sense of humor and lilacs, so we shall remain BFFs.

In reality my current best friend is a female cat I named Nori. (Yes, as in the seaweed you wrap sushi in.) She’s a constant with constant companionship and understanding.

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Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

I want to live at / The Holiday Inn / Where somebody else makes the bed / We’ll watch TV while / The lights on the street / Put all the stars to death / It’s been on my mind since Bowie died / Just checking out to hide from life / And all of our problems, I’m gonna solve ’em / With you riding shot-gun, speeding, ’cause fuck the cops

And you, you must have been looking for me / Sending smoke signals / Pelicans circling / Burning trash out on the beach

These days I rarely compile The Idelic Hour on a Tuesday. Monday I was feeling under the weather. Although we tried to stay out of last weekend’s “smokey conditions,” my body felt heavy and slow to start the week.

By Tuesday I was feeling back to par and spent most of the day in my cozy office, working away at the hustle of the 21st century music business, drinking coffee and eating delicious vegetables from my beloved Hollywood Farmers Market. The thought dawned on me that both “smoke” and “Tuesdays” have a fair share of tunes. I nonchalantly threw a few tunes on a playlist. My mind went from “Smoke on the Water” to a childhood favorite from The Platters. Then from “Ruby Tuesday” to Bowie’s Deram Records classic “Love You Til Tuesday.”

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