Incoherent thoughts

I'm a little distracted tonight, what what sporting events out the wazoo—MU at Oklahoma, Wizards at New York, beisbol playoffs, et al—so I'm not feeling terribly inspired to write tonight. I have a case of blogger's cramp, you might say, but here are a few tidbits, anyway....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DUMMY!
Actor Demond Wilson, better known as Lamont Sanford on "Sanford And Son", turned 61 today. S&S is my favorite TV show of all-time and Demond was an important part of it, playing the straight man opposite the late Redd Foxx's hysterical Fred G. Sanford character.  Evidently, Mr. Wilson had a fairly healthy cocaine habit back in the day, which partly explains why he wore those dark glasses during the last couple seasons of S&S, and why he practically phoned in his performances at times, all the while standing there with his thumb in his vest pocket.  Last I heard, DW got clean and sober and became a preacher and gained a shitload of weight.  A little trivia for you too:  Demond served in the armed forces in Vietnam in the late '60s.

A LITTLE POETRY
While I'm thinking of Mr. Foxx, a little poetic gem from Redd:


Paternal suits don't bother me
To the doctor, I owe my thanks
Because since my operation,
I'm only shooting blanks...

(True story, in my case!)


And one more:

I kissed her lips
And then just for meanness
She twisted her legs
And broke my glasses


HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN...
I got a kick out of listening to the Nebraska football announcers on the radio today crapping their drawers over the Cornhuskers' second straight trouncing in as many weeks.  Getting stomped last week at Missouri was one thing, but being spanked by Oklahoma State in their own house today was more than the NU broadcast team could take, and these guys were ready to lynch the entire team and coaching staff over this atrocity!  Gentlemen, from a long-suffering MU fan to you, I say the following:  now you know how the other half lives!  Nebraska was ranked in the Top 25 earlier this season.  Now, they're just rank...

SPEAKING OF RANK TEAMS...
My favorite whipping boy, Notorius Dame, lost again today, this time to the ever-dependable Boston College, who routinely beats the Flailing Irish for me.  Nice job, youse Golden Eagles for dropping ND to 1-6, thus virtually eliminating any chance of them playing a bowl game this year.  Next up for Notre Dame:  USC.  Oh, goody!!

HOP ABOARD THE WAY-BACK MACHINE...
...as I've stumbled across a few more gems from one of my favorite groups on earth in this hemisphere, Paul Revere & Da Raidas, thanks to the miracle that is YouseTube.  First off, we have PR&TR larking about with comic legend Jack Benny on "Him Or Me-What's It Gonna Be?".  Then we have Mark Lindsay acting like a white James Brown on an early Raider classic "Ooh Poo Pah Doo", during which the band gives the Pete Townshend treatment to Revere's upright piano.  Then we return to 1968 for their performance of one of my favorite (and very underrated Raider tunes), "Too Much Talk", featuring a killer bass line from whomever played on the track.  The Raiders used numerous session players on their records during this period, so it's anyone's guess who played the bass here, and if you really liked it, here's another video of the same song!  Here's an even more obscure video for the 1969 tune "Out On That Road", a track off my fave Raider LP Hard 'N' Heavy (With Marshmallow).  My apologies for the overly-loud volume here, as well as the suit Mark Lindsay sported here, which he appears to have borrowed from the Riddler on "Batman".  And from that same fine album, here's the hit single "Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon" (performed with live vocal, to boot!), and the other hit single from it, "Cinderella Sunshine".  Sadly, by this time, P. Revere was becoming a non-factor in the group, as the focus shifted more toward the music and further away from his comedic sensibilities, which is even more evident in this video that I had no clue ever existed, "Blue Powder Mercedes Queen" from the band's waning days in '72.  And here's one from Mark Lindsay's short-lived, but somewhat successful solo career, 1970's "Miss America" (not to be confused with the Styx song of the same name).  It's a "Good Thing" I came across all these videos tonight, or this post would've really sucked otherwise!