That was the provocative title to an album by erstwhile, John Lennon championed, New York singer David Peel back in the 70's.

If this article is to be believed (and there is a link to the Vatican newspaper but only to the latest issue) that album title could be true.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/15/pope-top-10-a...

The big surprise to me is that David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name is at number two. The solo debut of the man who wrote Triad, celebrating his menage a trois; a man who has consumed more cocaine and crack in his lifetime than almost anyone on the planet.

Does the Pope really chill after an extra long conclave to Tamalpais High (At About 3) or relax after taking an audience to Song With No Words (Tree With No Leaves).

With Revolver at No 1, I'd be interested on his take on Tomorrow Never Knows as well

As someone who remains tattoo free I've always struggled to understand the compulsion to mark your body permanently with something that, as you grow older, grows uglier as the sharp edges dissipate.
However I'm becoming even more perplexed by this fashion to have long strings of text permanently marked.
I've just seen the young prince of Goodison Jack Rodwell rip his shirt off after scoring against Man U thus revealing a long tattoo just below his neck. I noticed on the news the other night as Lady Gaga raised her Brit award she has a lot of script on the inside of her arm. These are just a couple of the more prominent examples. What happened to Mum or your partner's name? What happens should these philosophical manifestos become something you become ideologically opposed to in years to come?
Also does anybody know what Rodwell and Gaga's tattoos say? Perhaps I shouldn't ask as the banality will only perplex me even more.

Who would have thought it? Those counter-cultural, don't have nothing to do with the man, guitar jamming hippies were in fact pioneers of a business model. They created and delivered superior customer value and their value soared.

You can read how in this article from Atlantic Monthly:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201003/grateful-dead-archives

Spoiler alert: If you haven't seen the Best & Worst lists in the new issue and you worry about knowing them in advance, come back later.

The Sopranos - the twist surely is that we, the viewers have been assassinated. We suddenly find everything black. All the references and hints - the man who went to the toilet; the orange juice earlier; the "communion" of eating the onion rings, Tony and Pussy's discussion way back about when you get whacked, it all goes black.

yet I just received news of this gig:

http://www.livenation.co.uk/artist/lou-reed-s-metal-machine-trio-mm3-tic...

Would he be doing it if that classical group (Zeitkrater?) hadn't done it?
I'd advise anyone going to wear earplugs, but on the other hand if you're crazy enough to buy a ticket I don't suppose you'd bother as you'd want to hear the unadorned glory.
I'm perversely looking forward to reading My Night Out With Lou Reed.

I know there's a few other Patty Griffin fans out there among the Massive besides myself.

She has just recorded a gospel album titled "Downtown Church" and there is a stream of the album available here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122500765

I'm not a religious man, so don't buy into the Christianity, but it does sound rather good.

It will be available until January 26th.

New West records, famous for it's stable of country based artists has made a 12 track sampler of their best of 2009 available by free download.
It features among others Steve Earle, Gary Louris and Marc Olson, Drive-by Truckers, Delbert McClinton (the man who gave John Lennon the harmonica riff on Love Me Do and a great rocker too), Kris Kristofferson, Buddy & Julie Miller and England's own Ian Hunter among others.
To get it, all you have to do is register for their newsletter, which you can do here:
http://www.newwestrecords.com/our-best-2009
What more could you want at the start of this snowbound year?

The ever excellent Marina Hyde informs us in today's Guardian that BBC3 have commissioned Lindsay Lohan to produce a documentary investigating the trafficking of women and children in India.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2009/dec/11/india-l...

Lindsay Twitters "Over 40 children saved so far, within one day's work,", "this is what life is about . . . Doing THIS is a life worth living!!! Oh, and I'm talking about being in India."

Tom Lehrer gave up satire after Henry Kissinger was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. This might not be such a big deal but it does beggar belief, especially as cuts at the BBC loom elsewhere for some of the useful bits.

To say nothing about Licence Payer's money...

I was on a Bruce Cockburn related site and found a link to this site called etown, which is part of the National Public Radio set-up in the States. There's also an audio archive which you have to register for. I haven't tried that yet

http://etown.org/podcast/

For those of us who like (say it quietly) Americana this is a motherlode. There are dozens of downloadable podcasts of live performances in an archive stretching back to February 2006. A quick skim has revealed shows by Dave Alvin, Neko Case, Ricki Lee Jones, Shawn Colvin, Kathleen Edwards, James Taylor, Chris Smither, Ray LaMontagne, Josh Ritter, Del McCoury, Charlie Louvin, Sarah McLachlan and a load more artists, some I recognise others I don't.

Dive in and enjoy it. If you discover any particularly good shows let us know.

Over a year ago I had my compact Olympus digital camera nicked. I've decided it's time to get myself a new one.
I want to go for a digital SLR, mainly because, while I appreciated many of the attributes of the compact (not least its size), I think there were too many aspects of an SLR that I missed. But if you know of a compact that could knock an SLR into a cocked hat I'd like to hear about it.

My budget is around £350 / £375.

There are a load of websites and magazines that can be referred to, but as with others with other consumer products I thought I'd ask in the place where I know I can expect to get clear and considered answers.

Thanks, I await your wisdom.

On tonight's Front Row on Radio 4, Mark Lawson interviewed James Ellroy about the final part of his conspiracies trilogy, Blood's A Rover.
He doesn't sound like an easy interviewee, but Lawson does a decent job. There was disagreement about the wrting style. Lawson thought the style was reminiscent of The Cold Six Thousand; short and punchy. Ellroy contradicted this saying this time they are longer. I hope that is the case as I found that short sentence style very wearing. However I've waited 8 years for this to come out, so I'm looking forward to reading it.
It will be available on Listen Again on the BBC for the next week. The interview starts aroun 15 minutes in.

We've had a thread on incompatabilities between partners. One of the things spoken about last night was music your significant other has converted you.
I used to loathe Jackson Browne. I'd been exposed to him by earlier girlfriends, so it wasn't just an imagined dislike because of his associations with the likes of The Eagles.
I can still recall the moment as we drove along in her car. Driver's choice and Lives In The Balance is on the tape player. It comes to In The Shape Of A Heart and as it plays it struck me that he wasn't in fact at all bad. Some 20 years on I'm a big fan and we always go and see him. Mind you, she always goes out and buys the new CD's.
Is there anyone else who has had a Damascene conversion they'd like to share?

New Scientist reports on Playdar, another development to enhance your online listening pleasure:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18070-innovation-ultimate-jukebox-...

Not something to replace Spotify but something to give you access to a specific song when you want it, be it from there or from another library source.

Did any other members of the Massive receive an e-mail from The Guardian late on Saturday night?
Their Jobs website was hacked, breaching its security. The result is people like me now have CV's in the hands of some ne'er do wells who can go out and make all sorts of mischief with my identity.
I've been in contact with my bank, the Passport Agency, the DVLA and signed up with a credit reference agency.
However what has struck me is the apparent complacency of those I've contacted. They all seem to think their security systems are such that I've nothing to worry about. My bank tells me there is no chance of the contents of my account ending up in the Bank of St Petersburg. I appreciate that they aren't going to panic when I tell them what has happened, but it does beg the question that if everything is so secure, why would anyone go to the bother of hacking The Guardian?
Are there any IT security experts out there who can tell me what I should worry about or look out for?

Today Stephen Stills's Love The One You're With popped up on my MP3 player. I couldn't say how many times I've heard this song since it was first released, but today was the first time that it ever occurred to me that the "Do de do do do do de do do" part of the chorus is the same as that found in Suite:Judy Blue Eyes.
Now I've regarded LTOYW as a celebration of promiscuity; a legacy of the hippy free love ideal. But inserting a fragment of SJBE gives it a completely different meaning
SJBE paints a fractious love affair, but through recycling that scrap it appears to me that Stills is really sticking it to Judy Collins. I'd make a guess that she believed in monogamy and arguments over this was a big factor in their break up.
But on the other hand he may have just thought it was a catchy hook and if it worked once...