Bobby Vee (1943-2016): Midwestern Idol

Cropped image of a photo I had taken of myself and singer Bobby Vee in July 2001 following a concert in Red Wing, Minnesota. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bobby Vee was the typical post-Elvis, pre-Beatles teen idol of the early 1960s, singing pop tunes about teenage love and loss.  He was also proof that a kid from the Upper Midwest really could hit the big time with guitar in hand, just as Bob Dylan and Prince would do later on.

Born Robert Velline in Fargo, North Dakota, he got his big break as a 15-year old on a February night in 1959.  Unfortunately, that also happened to be the night when Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were supposed to be playing at a ballroom in nearby Moorhead, Minnesota.  They never got there.  The plane that they went on crashed in a cornfield in northern Iowa following a show there, leaving no survivors.

Vee and his band, The Shadows, were the emergency replacements, having heeded the call from a local radio station asking for volunteers.  It must have been a heck of a show.  Soon afterwards, Vee was signed to Liberty Records.

From 1959-1970, Vee's songs were on the Billboard Hot 100 charts 38 times.  His biggest hit was "Take Good Care of My Baby", which was co-written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King.  It ran four weeks at Number One in the fall of 1961.  His other hits?  "Devil or Angel", "Suzie Baby", "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes", "Rubber Ball", "Run to Him", and "Come back When You Grow Up".

Vee's influence spread to The Beatles, who recorded two of his songs in their early years.  He also helped launch Dylan's career, having briefly employed him as a piano player for his band.  Dylan has also been credited for coming up with the name "Bobby Vee".

After his hitmaking days were over, Vee and his family resided in the town of St. Joseph, Minnesota, where he set up his own recording studio.  He continued to tour and record until he was diagnosed with Alzheimers in 2011, followed by his retirement.  Vee died Monday at age 73.

Bobby Vee's career began on what Don McLean's "American Pie" would memorialize as "the day the music died", which is inaccurate.  As long as there is music, Buddy Holly will always be remembered.  And so will Bobby Vee, one of Holly's biggest fans.

The Debate, Part 3: Stranded In The Desert

Trump Tower Las Vegas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It seems only appropriate that the final presidential debate between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump took place in Las Vegas.  Not just for all the gambling references one associates with Sin City (and where Trump just happens to own a hotel with his name on it), but for its proximity to the Nevada desert.

The debate at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas Wednesday night began as a sober discussion on the issues of the Supreme Court's future, the Second Amendment and immigration reform, for which there were stark differences between the candidates.  It was an oasis compared to the scorching hot rhetoric from the first two debates, with Trump and Clinton sounding and acting like mature adults.  You could even let Grandma and the kids watch it.

It was all a mirage (and we don't mean the hotel).  We were yanked back into the desert by moderator Chris Wallace of Fox News when he started asking questions about the candidates' fitness to lead.  (Bedtime, kids!)  Trump repeated his claim that the election was rigged in Clinton's favor by her campaign and the news media, and refused to say whether he would abide by the results.  He also dismissed the statements of women (in numbers rivaling Bill Cosby's) who say that they were groped by Trump in the past, even though he said he has the "utmost respect" for women.

Clinton had to answer more questions about her handling of e-mails when she was Secretary of State:  What happened to them and her reaction to the hacked messages (courtesy of Wikileaks) of campaign staffer John Podesta.  She also asserted that the Clinton Foundation was more about charitable works than politics, which Trump didn't believe.  Clinton made her arguments in a more mature manner than Trump, who resorted to interruptions, talking over her and muttering what a "nasty woman" she was.

The debates are over, another new low for American politics.  But the election is not.  With more than two weeks to go, there is much fear and loathing on the campaign trail (to paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson) yet to come.  And maybe after the election, if Trump follows through with his threat to challenge the results.

For now, the American voter is left on the outskirts of Las Vegas with nothing on but a barrel, looking for someone to lead them out of the desert.  Or maybe just a ride out of town will do.

Double Down in St. Louis

English: This photo depicts Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The self-destruction of Donald Trump's presidential campaign continued Sunday night in St. Louis at the town hall-formatted debate, where the Republican nominee went low so many times against his Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton that you'd think he was scraping the bottom of the barrel.  Until you consider that in this campaign, it's more like a bottomless pit.

Having been caught on tape in a 2005 interview with the TV show "Access Hollywood" bantering with interviewer Billy Bush (who has since moved on to NBC's "Today", and who probably won't be back with the show until after the election--if at all) about women in a manner that might be considered sexual assault today, Trump began the debate by "apologizing" for his behavior before quickly changing the subject to how horrible the Islamic State is.

For good measure, Trump even brought in three of the women in Bill Clinton's life who allegedly had extramarital affairs with him to sit in the audience, which had the effect of neutralizing whatever wife Hillary had to say on The Donald's "locker room talk".

Later on, when moderators Anderson Cooper of CNN and Martha Raddatz of ABC News tried to get Clinton to explain why, in leaked e-mails concerning her paid speeches to Wall Street bankers, she flip-flopped on supporting trade deals, Trump kept interrupting and hovering over her like Frankenstein's monster.  He even acted the part of a real life monster when he claimed that, if elected President, he'd hire a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton's missing e-mails, then throw her in prison.

The actions of a desperate man, weeks away from certain defeat if the latest polls are correct (NBC News and the Wall Street Journal gave Clinton an 11-point lead):  Maximize the hurt caused by belittling everyone who isn't white, straight and male.  Threaten to throw your opponent in jail, as if this were a totalitarian society.  Interrupt and criticize members of the media, accusing them of being biased in favor of your opponent (of course, said members of the media are culpable for letting this happen).

Clinton won the debate, but that hardly matters.  Both candidates feigned interest in the "ordinary folks" used as props that made up the town hall meeting, who sometimes asked better questions than the moderators did.  Neither candidate distinguished themselves outside of mud slinging to win any new friends.

Trump has lost quite a few of his GOP supporters in the past few weeks.  Even more are bailing or at least distancing themselves after the sex tape was released.  And newspapers who have been endorsing Republican presidential candidates since forever are now switching to Clinton.  But Trump says he's in it to win it, ignoring pleas for him to get out of the race.

Hillary Clinton had better hope that Trump stays in the race too.  She leads in the polls, but there's still all those nagging questions about her trustworthiness.  If Trump did get out, the GOP might pick a candidate who's more competent by comparison.  That person might actually win.

Whatever happens to his campaign in the next few weeks, you can bet that both the Democratic and Republican parties will get together after the election to make sure that no one like Donald Trump ever runs for President again.

Running For Number Two

Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Usually, vice-presidential candidates like Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia and Republican Governor Mike Pence of Indiana are chosen for their ability to be as bland as possible, and to stand up for the presidential candidates they work for.  When those candidates are Hillary Clinton (Kaine) and Donald Trump (Pence), there's an awful lot of explaining to do.  Considering the awkward positions Clinton and Trump have left their running mates in, their jobs are made much harder.

When Kaine and Pence met in their only vice-presidential faceoff Tuesday at a college in Farmville, Virginia, there were no real fireworks between the two other than talking over each other (mostly Kaine) and ignoring some questions put to them by moderator Elaine Quijano of CBS News. 

Both played their roles as surrogates to the hilt, although Pence had a harder time defending Trump's leaked 1995 tax returns showing a nearly billion dollar loss in casino investments while not having to pay taxes, as well as those 3 a.m. messages to a former Miss Universe claiming there's a sex tape.  All Kaine had to do was to assert that the Clinton Foundation, accused of profiting from political donations, is really a charity.

And when they weren't standing by their candidates, Kaine and Pence made pitches for presidential runs of their own in 2020.  Both had their own ideas about how to handle Russian president Vladimir Putin, and both had sharply different views on the ongoing abortion issue.

When the debate was over, both sides claimed victory as they tend to do in situations like this.  Except in Trump's case, he claimed credit for Pence's success.  It won't affect the presidential race any, because not many people give a hoot about who's running for vice president.  but since both Trump and Clinton will be in their 70s during the next four years, at least we know a little of what Tim Kaine or Mike Pence might be like as President should the worst happen.  Or Vice President should he ever be needed for ribbon-cutting ceremonies.