Archive for May 8th, 2004

I was initially planning to try to put the last show of Friends into some sort of sitcom context. I don’t think Friends was all that great of a show; it had its moments. More than anything, I think it was sort of a Paris Hilton of a show—it was famous for being famous. I can’t front, there were some episodes that I thought were pretty funny, but aside from that, it was solid. If Friends were a player on Madden, I would put it somewhere in the 80-85 range. Frasier, I think, is a much better show. Neither of them can fade Cheers, which is the original Thursday night, 9 o’clock, no-Black characters show on NBC.

While I was writing that piece, “Assembly Line” by the Commodores came on. The song itself is interesting. Its basic premise is that we are “manufactured” to be the way we are; that society has roles for us and we fit into them without much evaluation of the validity of those roles. There’s something for me to talk about in there, but this is not the time for that. What got me about “Assembly Line” yesterday, and every time I’ve ever heard it, was the drum break at 4:10. (It’s the drum sample used by NWA’s “Straight Outta Compton.”) That piece is ferocious. The drum beat is sickening. Boom Boom BAP bap (bap) Boom BAP, onomatopoetically speaking. But then, throughout the second half of the song, the band is in the background yelling Hut – 2-3-4. During the drum solo, they only say HUT! (on the one, of course.) That joint is hot.

So, while I’m thinking about it, here are some of the hottest drum solos I know…or that I have on my laptop, at least. Maybe when I get back from visiting my mom, I’ll have a chance to sit down at the desktop and see if there are some records I missed. But anyway…

Hot Drum Solos (In the order I think of them) -(with the time that the drum solo appears in parentheses) [Prominent sampling song in brackets.]

I guess I should note, while many of these breaks have been sampled, at least one of them has not. The sampling of a beat has no impact on whether I think it’s hot or not. Sometimes a beat is good for the song it’s in, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s funky all by itself. On the other hand, some solos, even though they’re not particularly suitable for sampling, are just funkified.

• Assembly Line – The Commodores (4:09) Just talked about this one. [Straight Outta Compton, NWA]
• Funky Drummer – James Brown (5:22) – This is the one. There were drum breaks on records before this, but to my mind, if you can’t feel this one, you just ain’t got no soul. Clyde Stubblefield killed it. And the craziest part about it is that it’s not a wild show-me-everything-you-got solo. In fact, right before the break, James goes, “You don’t hafta do no soloin’ brother, just keep wha’chu got. Don’t turn it loose, cuz it’s a mutha.” And it is. It’s THE Mother. (By the way, one of these days, I will get to part 2 of that James Brown joint.) [Too many songs to mention]
• James Brown – Cold Sweat (4:21) - Most notable because the phrase “Give the drummer some” originated here.
• James Brown – Cold Sweat (live in Dallas) (5:57) Two drummers killing it, mixing the drums from “Cold Sweat” and “Tighten It Up,” with one of the most sickening dismounts ever. Un-believable. In-credible. Mag-nificent.
• Kool & The Gang – Give It Up (1:37) Brutal. [Check the Technique- Gangstarr]
• Ohio Players – Never Had a Dream Come True (4:36) [some other record]
• Bill Withers – When I’m Kissing My Love (0:01) [Hola Hovito]

The prescription drug industry is a racket. I thought that was the case before, but now that I actually need prescription medicine, I know it for sure.

I’m diabetic. I take insulin. On my way up to Philly to see my mom, I guess I dropped my insulin pen, maybe on the Metro, maybe on Amtrak. I don’t know. What I do know is that when I got here, I didn’t have it. So to use the junkie term, I’m ass out. Fortunately, I had a prescription in my pocket. Only thing is, my doctor in MD wrote the ’scrip for vials of insulin, instead of the form I take, which is the pen. Well fool me, I figured I might be able to just tell the people in the pharmacy I wanted it in the pen and that would be cool. No go. So I tried calling the doctor. Closed on Fridays. (what?!) “If this is a medical emergency—call 911.” What?! Okay, so I went to a hospital, thinking that one of the doctors in the endocrinology department might be able to take my vial prescription and switch me out for the pen. No haps. They’re like, since none of the doctors sees me, they couldn’t document a reason for writing me a prescription. Now I’m at my old doctor, hoping I can get some help from here.

Now, of course it’s on me that I didn’t keep up with my pen like I should have, but somehow it seems to me that certain medications are overregulated. Insulin is not addictive, it doesn’t have any euphoric effects, nothing. What’s more, it’s not an optional medication. I need that stuff, as does anybody else who takes it.

My beef with the insurance companies is on two levels: first, when the medication is life-sustaining, why do people have to get new prescriptions? Diabetes doesn’t just go away, and if a person needs less, they’ll let their doctor know. I’ve heard that some people may abuse it, but I don’t see how. I don’t know what benefit a non-diabetic can get from it.

But second, I don’t think there’s really any incentive for the insurance companies to develop a cure to diabetes. This type of thinking is atypically cynical for me, but I’m fairly convinced. There’s much more money to be made by having people continuously on insulin than by creating something that would get the pancreas working again.