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David Johansen, aka Buster Poindexter, is in trouble and needs our help.
Known as one of the New York Dolls — the original, seminal punk band — Johansen’s wife, Mara Hennessy has revealed he has stage 4 cancer and must raise funds quickly.
The Dolls were part of the bedrock of NY punk along with the Ramones and other groups in the early 70s. By 1977, there were revered.
In the early 80s, Johansen created the personality of Buster Poindexter. His hit, “Hot Hot Hot” was a blockbuster. But he didn’t write it. So when it’s played on the radio or in commercials, he’s not getting a dime.
His daughter, Leah, writes on SweetRelief.org: “David has been bedridden and incapacitated. Due to the trauma, David’s illness has progressed exponentially and my mother is caring for him around the clock… he is physically debilitated and his care exceeds what we are capable of providing without specialized professional help…for the past five years, David has been unable to work as a performer.”
Just as she “won” the Grammy Awards, now Lady Gaga taken the Super Bowl.
Gaga’s performance of “Hold Your Hand” from “Top Gun Maverick” has sent the 2022 single up the charts to number 2.
That gives Gaga three singles in the top 10 including “Abracadabra” and “Die with a Smile.” The latter two are on her new album, “Mayhem,” coming March 7th.
There are reports that “Mayhem” already has advance sales of 200,000. Amazon has it at number 14.
The new number 1 album this week is The Weeknd’s “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” with 450K in sales including 320,000 in actual albums.
But “Hurry Up Tomorrow” has no singles. The result is that it’s been toppled at number 1 by Kendrick Lamar. It’s already fallen to number 10. The Weeknd’s people should have gotten him on the Super Bowl. Big mistake.
But go go Gaga! She’s going to be the story for all of March at least. Nicely played!
Lest anyone worry about who’s on this Sunday’s “SNL 50” live show on NBC…
Lorne Michaels just announced a ton of A list former cast members.
They include Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, and Garrett Morris from the original Not for Prime Time Players.
Also Eddie Murphy and more recent stars like Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Molly Shannon and on and on…
Curiously, Dan Aykroyd’s name isn’t in the announcement. Aykroyd recently posted two notes to social media:
“Cracking a Head for some Clean-Tinis as we hotly anticipate the SNL 50th milestone in our culture and an unparalleled comedy extravaganza to come. Hopefully this year’s outstanding cast gets to fuse with veterans. I’m so proud of being associated with my comedy alma mater and its Dean Lorne Michaels.’
also
“Cracking a Head for one solo cold shot to even my exuberance for the SNL 50TH when we will see one of the greatest nights in television and indeed American culture. The cameos and guest appearances from 50 years of SNL will have us agog. Forte? Ferrell? Martin? Martin Short?”
The only product you can buy on Yeezy.com is a t shirt emblazoned with a swastika. It costs $20.
Otherwise, all the other items on Kanye West’s website are gone, including a Sean John t shirt meant to support Sean Diddy Combs.
Also gone is all of West’s social media posts on Twitter and Instagram. This follows more than a week and hundreds of disgusting antisemitic tweets.
It’s unclear if West or someone on his team erased the posts, or if Twitter X contacted him.
This column DM’d Twitter executive Linda Yaccarino asking her to take them down.
“Friends” star David Schimmer also posted a strong message to X owner Elon Musk to remove the account. He wrote:
“We can’t stop a deranged bigot from spewing hate-filled, ignorant bile…but we CAN stop giving him a megaphone, Mr. Musk…
“I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that he identifies as a Nazi (which implies he wants to exterminate ALL marginalized communities including his own) or the fact that there is not sufficient OUTRAGE to remove and ban him from all social media at this point. Silence is complicity”
In any case, all that remains now is the Yeezy site Nazi t shirt — and that’s despite his wife’s last name being “Censori.” She didn’t censor him, and neither did anyone else. Whenever this episodes occur, the attitude is that “Kanye is off his meds.” It doesn’t matter anymore. He’s a sick man, and he needs to be removed from the public stage.
We write about rock stars selling their catalogs but we don’t talk about what that means.
Tonight, we heard Bruce Springsteen’s signature song, “Born to Run,” in a song for Dove soap. It was sung and played by Gabi Wilson, aka HER Music.
It’s the first time “Born to Run” has ever been in a commercial. But it was bound to happen once Springsteen sold his music catalog for around $500 million. The money has to be made back somehow.
Bruce did a commercial himself in 2021 for Jeep, but it didn’t contain songs. It was just him, talking.
So the mighty have fallen. Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love” has been turning up all over the place lately. Sam & Dave’s “Hold On I’m Coming” is very popular. Steve Winwood’s “Gimme Some Lovin” is currently being used for an ice cream commercial.
Every now and then we hear a Beatles song, but it’s always done tastefully and the licenses seem to have short runs.
For people of a certain age, it’s jolting to hear great rock songs of the classic era in this context. But the writers and performers get paid, and it could be worse. The ad agencies could be using hip hop or rap.
There’s a downside, though: I played Carly Simon’s “Anticipation” for a young person recently, and they said, “Oh, the ketchup song.” Yikes!
On Twitter, someone asked E Street Band impresario if he’d ever heard “Born to Run” in a commercial. He answered in the ngative, and said it surprised him.
The Super Bowl is over, and so is football season. The year in music has ended, too.
Our homecoming couple, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift, are going home empty handed.
Kansas City Chiefs football star Travis Kelce played no part in his team’s loss tonight to the Philadelphia Eagles. He looked shocked on the bench for most of the game.
Taylor picked up no Grammy Awards last week even though her album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” was the best selling collection of the year.
To make matters worse, Swift was booed at tonight’s game.
But you can’t always win. Every streak must be broken. So we wave goodbye to America’s Sweethearts.
Donald Trump backed losers tonight. He was the first sitting president to attend a Super Bowl game. He backed the Kansas City Chiefs. And they lost.
The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Chiefs 40 – 22. The Chiefs didn’t even score in the first half of the game.
Trump spent about $20 million in travel and security to go to New Orleans. He brought adults children Ivanka and Eric. There was no sign of Trump’s wife, Melania, or their 18 year old son, Barron.
Now what happens? In 2018, when Trump was president, he uninvited the Eagles from coming to the White House after they won that Super Bowl. The players didn’t want to go there.
Will the Eagles be different now? Trump is a proven racist, and has started to implement odious laws. It seems unlikely the Eagles will be swinging by 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
She dropped a an emotional performance video singing “Hold My Hand,” her Top Gun Maverick song, shot on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
Dressed in white, Gaga gave a killer moment to launch the Super Bowl despite the corny surroundings with Tom Brady and the ubiquitous Michael Strahan.
Go Gaga! Choice of song was excellent. Maybe “Hold My Hand” will be on her “Mayhem” album. Very smart! This will send a third single into the top 10 tonight!
