The NBA's Most Fake "Superstars". The 3 Stars That Won't Ever Lead Your Team To A Title (Updated May 3rd, 2014)

Hello,

Update: Add Dwight Howard's Rockets to the Bulls and Knicks to the teams that didn't make the playoffs or were eliminated in the first round. Howard missed 4 of his last 5 free throws, all of which came in crunch time. That would be shameful for a good high school player, but pretty much par for the course for Howard. I love how the announcers have been praising his 64% free throw shooting in the playoffs. Just because that's better than his regular season numbers, doesn't mean it's acceptable. Just imagine the kind of player Howard would be if he was a 80% free throw shooter? I guarantee the Rockets aren't going to win a NBA title with Howard as one of their two key players.

Just a quick blog today, all three of these players are in the news today. Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer and Dwight Howard. (I would like to thank ESPN.com for all the stats used in this blog.)

First up the worse of these three players, the player that has been living purely on reputation the last few years, Mr. Carlos Boozer. (Or as some Jazz fans started calling him Loozer.) The Bulls were eliminated from the playoffs on Tuesday when they lost to the Wizards 75-69. Yes, that's the final score and not a halftime score. Boozer, who was paid (not earned) $15.3 million this year averaged 24.2 minutes, 42% shooting, 89% free throw shooting, 7.8 rebounds and 9.6 points in the 5 game series. That means he only played over slightly half of the time he could.

Not only that but Taj Gibson played most of the 4th quarter, well duh he should as he's a better player. He cares a lot more than Boozer does, which doesn't take much. Boozer rarely, if ever, plays 100%. His number 1 concern is himself, not his team. I thought this was a bad deal when the Bulls signed him in free agency. I had to laugh before Boozer even started his Bulls career, he injured himself at home.

I watched him play in Salt Lake for the Jazz.  He missed a lot of games due to "injury" (one might say lack of heart) and didn't give full effort then either. I was so glad when he signed with Chicago, let someone else take the dead weight.  Now the Bulls are stuck owing him $17 million for next season. Can you imagine paying $17 million for that scrub? Well the Bulls can't either, they are thinking about using the amnesty clause on him. I wish someone would pay me $17 million dollars to go away.  There's a reason the Jazz didn't fight to keep him and he's only become worse since then.

The Bulls lead me to the NBA's next most fake superstar, Carmelo Anthony. There are rumors that the Bulls may make a run at Carmelo in free agency. Didn't they learn from signing fake superstar Carlos Boozer already?

Would the Bulls really sign a player that doesn't play defense, even though they have a very defensive oriented coach in Tom Thibodeau? As Rick Majerus use to say about some of his players, the next time he plays defense will be the first time. I just don't see the Tibs/ Brickmelo tandem working. Anthony will probably have more say about happens with the Bulls than Tibs does. So where does that leave Thibodeau, it seems like they'll be the 2013-2014 version of this past season's Knicks.

I have no idea where Carmelo Anthony gets his reputation as a great scorer. He simply isn't. NBA experts like to call him a "volume shooter" which is a nice way to say he takes a lot of shots. He doesn't trust his teammates and so rarely passes, he's the true definition of the term "black hole". Not only does he take too many shots, he doesn't even hit half of them. Of course his shooting percentage would be better if he didn't take so many bad shots.

Will someone remind me how the Knicks are doing in the playoffs? Oh yeah, that's right the Knicks didn't even make the playoffs. Even in the pathetic Eastern Conference, which apparantally only has one good team, the Knicks didn't make the playoffs. And to think James Dolan thought this was going to be the year the Knicks would win a title. That thought is as funny now as when he first said it. Of course so much of the Knicks dysfunction has to be placed on Dolan. He and Jerry Jones are the two worst owners in all of professional sports.

A lot of the blame for the Knicks missing the playoffs has been placed on Mike Woodson, but I argue he was in a no win situation. James Dolan wanted Carmelo Anthony so guess how much leverage that left for Woodson in dealing with the fake superstar? Not much, so that hindered Woodson in his game plan. He knew he had to build the offense around Anthony, leaving the Knicks to run a bunch of isolations for Carmelo. With his propensity to not pass and shoot a lot, that left his teammates not much to do. Most NBA players play harder when they get touches and shots. Then when the complete non-team player went to the other end of the court and played matador defense, what are his teammates to think? Why would anyone want that sort of player on their team? Not to mention his best move is the drive to the basket, push off and go to the foul line. He gets way too much love from the officials.

Also how much does a player that has been in the league for 10 years have left? He says he's sick of rebuilding and wants to play for a winner. But he's been his team's best player for the last several years and the farthest his team has got in the playoffs is the second round. I think having Anthony on your team is a near guarantee that your team will be rebuilding.

Anthony shot below average 45% from the field, making about 9 of every 20 shots. an excellent 40% from the 3 point line and 85% from the foul line. He also had a solid 8 rebounds a game. The Knicks paid $21.4 million for that level of performance?

Lastly but not least is Dwight Howard, his Rockets look to be eliminated from the playoffs tonight. Now I have to admit that Howard is playing better than I expected he would this playoffs, but I never get the sense that he's playing 100%. His shooting range is literally a foot and less in. The announcers talk up how good he's doing from the free throw line in the playoffs, he's shooting about 64%. in a very small sample size. If his regular season free throw percentage is a true indication, he's due for a couple of brutal foul shooting games soon. He's making $20.5 million for that? And the Rockets have the misfortune of overpaying him for 3 more years.

In Howard's first season in the NBA he made 67% of his free throws, this past season he made 55% of his free throws. That followed the previous two seasons when he didn't even make half of his free throws. First of all, how is he getting worse from the free throw line? And why doesn't he put in the work to become at least an average foul shooter? It's clear he doesn't because he would be a lot better if he did. I'm guessing if there were bonuses in his contract for shooting 70% from the line, he'd be hitting a much better percentage.

One trait all 3 of these players share is when they are disinterested that's how they play. But no one is worse at this than Howard. Near the end of his run in Orlando, there were games where clearly he didn't care about showing effort. Then in his one season in LA he clearly didn't want to be there. Like so many all about me players he throws tantrums until he gets his way. He's more interested in gaining more baby mamas than winning titles. He gave up $30 million so he didn't have to play in the bright spotlight of LA. Let's not even talk about the meltdown he had in the 2013 playoffs when he got himself ejected. I think that was purposeful as he was done. Essentially I think he took his ball and went home.

I can't believe that all those teams lined up in the offseason to try and sign him. Houston won that battle, but will lose the war.

These are the three most fake superstars. None of these players will ever lead a team to a NBA title with any of them being that team's best player. Again Anthony's Knicks didn't even get to the playoffs, Boozer's Bulls lost to the Wizards in the first round and likely the Rockets will lose in the first round as well. If the Rockets can come back and Howard is responsible for a lot of that, I then will give him a lot more respect. Both Houston and Chicago had home court advantage as well.

None of these players are leaders in the positive sense of the word. Of course it's hard to lead when your team isn't your #1 priority. People can sense a person's true motivation. If that motivation isn't about winning a title, then players will lose respect for you. How many of ya'll follow someone you don't respect?

Fans of those teams and players will make up excuses for why their teams under performed. But other teams had similar challenges and they are still in the playoffs. In fact has there ever been a team to win a title without overcoming long odds? While one can never discount the team dynamics that go into winning, Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire on the same team for instance, I argue that these teams would have been better if they had better and harder working players as their team's best player.

themusicaddict

All These CDs Followed A Classic, What Happened?

Hello,

So what do these CDs have in common? All of these CDs directly follow a classic CD. For the most part, other than perhaps a couple of good songs, these CDs were mostly duds. For most of these musicians the classic CD mentioned is their peak. (All classic CDs certified by themusicaddict.)

Prince's "Around The World In A Day" followed perhaps the greatest soundtrack ever, "Purple Rain". "Around The World In A Day" isn't without it's charms. It's the CD that features "Raspberry Beret", "Pop Life" and "Paisley Park", all of which are good to great songs. However songs like the song with a long intro "Condition of The Heart", the lame "The Ladder" and disappointing "Temptation" have long been left in the past. "Temptation" seems to be Prince trying to create the next "Purple Rain" song, using the DNA of the actual "Purple Rain". Sadly it's a not a very good facsimile of the original.

However every song on "Purple Rain" is at least excellent. There's not a throwaway track to be found on this classic CD.

Def Leppard's "Adrenalize" follows the awe-inspiring "Hysteria", one of the greatest rock records ever. "Adrenalize" is probably best known for "Let's Get Rocked", which is a perfectly good, disposable rock song. However it's nowhere in the same league as most, if not all songs, on Hysteria. Just off the top of my head the next rock album as good as "Hysteria" probably was "Appetite For Destruction".

George Michael's "Listen Without Prejudice 1" follows chart topping and absolutely amazing "Faith". As with the first two CDs on this list, this artist was never able to hit the heights of it's predecessor. From "Faith" the songs "Faith", "I Want Your Sex", "Monkey", "Father Figure" and even "Hand To Mouth"all are good to very good. "Listen Without Prejudice 1" has "Freedom '90", "They Won't Go When I Go" and "Praying For Time", but nothing to the level of most songs on "Faith". Again those "LWP1" songs are all perfectly good songs, but "Listen Without Prejudice 1" is clearly a big step down from "Faith".

Ozzy Osbourne's "No Rest For The Wicked" follows "Ultimate Sin". Other than the recording debut of Zakk Wylde for Ozzy and a cool album cover, "No Rest For The Wicked" has little else to recommend it. Looking at the songs on this CD, I don't recognize any of these songs at all. I have a lot of CDs in my iTunes library, but this is one that's not there. I can see why and it's doubtful I'll ever add it.

INXS's "Kick" followed "X" and as any following a classic, the chances of the second CD hitting the same heights as the previous CD weren't great. Especially looking back at "Kick" now, what a great CD it is. It's easily one of the best CDs of the 80's and a CD that still sounds fresh about 30 years later. (Do ya think anyone will care about Miley or Britney 30 years from now?) "Kick" is full of great songs, such as "Devil Inside", "Need You Tonight", "Never Tear Us Apart" and "New Sensations". Even the second to last song on "Kick" is the perfectly chewy pop nugget "Tiny Daggers".

Out of these 10 following a classic CD, surprisingly for me "X" is perhaps the best. I suggest "X" is indeed a worthy follow up. It features such classic songs as "Suicide Blonde", "Disappear", "The Stairs", "By My Side" and "Bitter Tears". Obviously "X" is a very solid CD all on it's own.

Chalk up the next two CDs to it seems they only had one good CD in them. First is Neneh Cherry's "Homebrew" which followed the ahead of it's time "Raw Like Sushi". On "Homebrew", Cherry seems to be mostly recycling her own classic songs such as "Buffalo Stance", "Kisses On The Wind", "Heart" and "Inna City Mama". Nothing terrible about any song on "Homebrew", but no song that stands out either.

Aldo Nova's "Subject...Aldo Nova" follows Nova's self-titled debut CD. His second CD is much better than Cherry's second CD. "Subject...Aldo Nova" rightfully disappeared quickly, it does have a couple of great songs. I'm a big fan of "Monkey on Your Back" and "Hold Back The Night". However none of these songs will ever steal the title of best Aldo Nova song from "Fantasy". It has one of the best beginnings of any song ever:



Anyone over 25, that may have stumbled across this blog, might find it hard to believe that Meat Loaf has had two classic CDs in his career. "Bat Out of Hell 1" was followed by "Dead Ringer". "Bat Out of Hell 2" was followed by "Welcome To The Neighbourhood" Such classic songs as "Paradise By The Dashboard Light", "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad", "Bat Out Of Hell" and "Heaven Can Wait" and the title track are song of the songs on "Bat 1". On "Bat 2" there are such great songs as "I'd Do Anything For Love", "Wasted Youth" "Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through" and "Objects In the Rearview Mirror May Be Closer Than They Appear".

The Meat went to the well one too many times on "Bat Out of Hell" Cds, the third one is a disappointing mess.

What are some of the great songs on "Dead Ringer" and "Welcome To The Neighbourhood"? "Dead Ringer (For Love)" with Cher, "I'd Lie For You (And That's The Truth)" and very little else.

The Aquabats "The Aquabats vs. "The Floating Eye of Death" follows one of the most fun CDs of all-time "The Fury of The Aquabats". Such great songs as "Super Rad", "Martian Girl", "Captain Hampton and the Midget Pirates", "Red Sweater" and "Fight Song" make it an enjoyable listening experience.

Although as a follow up CD to a classic goes, "Floating Eye" isn't terrible. It has such goofy, but good, songs as "Giant robot-head" and "Lovers of Loving Love". But again so many of these songs are disposable. Perhaps the Aquabats should focus on quality over quantity?

I may be writing similar themed blogs going forward. I would like to take one of the above CDs, or another CD that followed a classic, and maybe see what went wrong.

themusicaddict

What Do These 10 CDs Have In Common?, Check Back Tomorrow

Hello,

I had an idea for a new kind of blog this morning, it has to do with the following CDs.

What do the following CDs have in common: "Around The World In A Day", "Adrenalize", "Listen Without Prejudice 1", "No Rest For The Wicked", "X", "Homebrew", "Subject...Aldo Nova", "Dead Ringer", "Welcome To The Neighbourhood" and "Aquabats vs. "The Floating Eye of Death".

Check back tomorrow to see what these CDs have in common.

themusicaddict

The Musical Timeline of Major Tom: Is This The End of the Story?

Hello,

The musical timeline of Major Tom, he makes his debut in David Bowie's song "Space Oddity":



Major Tom resurfaces in Peter Schilling's "Major Tom":



Shiny Toy Gun's "Major Tom":



Is this a continuation or finale of Major Tom's story in Louis IV's "Air Traffic Control":



All three songs are moody and this song has the same tone that it's two predecessors have. All three of these songs are great songs.

themusicaddict

Is Dwight Howard The NBA's Most Overrated Player? (He'll Never Be Half the Player Hakeem Olajuwon Is.)

Hello,

The ongoing attempt to coronate Dwight Howard as a great NBA player continues to struggle to gain footing. After shooting 9 of 21 from the field and 9 of 17 from the free throw line in Game 1, Howard whined about how the Rockets need to get him the ball. That always makes me laugh as he finished at 72% on the Meads Metric, which is brutal. Also he's not noted for his ball handling abilities and his range is 3 feet and in. Howard suggested how the Rockets needed to play in Game 2. "Coach" Howard suggested the Rockets play "inside out", which is what he had said while in LA as well. (Yes, I realize James Harden has been abysmal so far. But this blog is about all the weaknesses of Howard's game.)

Well the Rockets started the game playing inside out and Howard was dominant in the first quarter. He was 8 for 9 from the field and 3 for 3 from the free throw line. He also had 5 rebounds, 19 points and the Rockets +/- was 5 when he was on the floor. Howard also added 2 turnovers. At the end of the first quarter the Rockets led 31-23 and the Toyota Center was rocking. 

However over the next 3 quarters Howard returned to the player that he really is. In those 3 quarters Howard played 25 of 36 minutes and was clearly gassed. In the 3rd quarter he committed his 4th foul while the Rockets were on offense. That screen foul was a stupid foul. The reason I think he committed the foul was to get a break. Of course with his low basketball IQ, he cost the Rockets a possession. In the last 3 quarters he was 5 for 13, including one point when he missed 7 straight shots. He was 3 for 4 from the free throw. He added 9 more rebounds (besides shot blocking that's the only basketball skill he's elite at) and added 4 more turnovers. At the end of the game his +/- went back to 0. Obviously his first quarter was much adieu about nothing. More importantly over the final 3 quarters of the game the Trailblazers out scored the Rockets 89-74. Although Houston had homecourt advantage the Blazers lead the series 2-0, looking to go back to the Rose Garden to sweep the Rockets.

Other lowlights, on one possession it appeared that a Traiblazer pushed Howard out of bounds. Of course the whiny Howard yelled/cried "he pushed me". Why would a man that big and athletic whine about that, shouldn't he be embarrassed he was pushed out of bounds? Also he and his running mate James Harden have to be the leagues biggest whiners. Additionally I loved the shots of Harden talking with Howard, it appeared as if Harden was offering him guidance and encouragement. 

A dejected Howard left the court after the game probably to go find his next baby mama, six or seven just isn't enough. Don't feel bad for Howard he could care less if the Rockets win or not. That's clear in his body language, basketball isn't what motivates him. He only plays the game because the Rockets are foolish enough to pay him a lot of money to do so. At this point I expect Howard to check out for the rest of the series, as he did for the Lakers last season. Look for the Trailblazers to sweep the Rockets and the disinterested Howard. He'll say in the offseason how he's working on his game, but it's clear that he doesn't. Shouldn't he a lot better now after being in the league so long? Shouldn't a man that has played basketball as long as him be better from the free throw line? He would be one of the worst free throw shooters on most high school teams. What does that tell you about how little he works on his game in the offseason. 

No disrespect to the great Oscar Robertson, but his suggestion of Carmelo Anthony joining the Rockets is so misguided it's hilarious. Who would play defense on that team? That team would only be fun to watch for the soon to come implosion.

Ultimately at the end of the day Howard is a great athlete, a good basketball player but terrible at taking a team anywhere near a title. After stabbing Stan Van Gundy and Mike D'Antoni in the back, look for him to do the same to Kevin McHale in the next few days. In his view there's no way that Howard is the problem. And with his low basketball IQ I'm so glad he didn't sign with a team I cheer for.

themusicaddict

Congrats to Albert Pujols For Hitting Homers # 499 and # 500, Goodbye Ty (Corbin) & Other NBA Thoughts

Hello,

I would like to congratulate one of the classiest players in MLB, Albert Pujols, for hitting his 499th and 500th career homers last night. He has joined the very elite group of players who have hit 500 homers, he's only the 26th player to hit 500 homers.

I'll admit when Pujols signed that 10 year, $240 million dollar contract with the Angels, I thought it was a bad deal. Read more about that contract here:

http://espn.go.com/losangeles/mlb/story/_/id/7428226/albert-pujols-deal-completed-los-angeles-angels-worth-240m-10-years.

I still think it's a bad deal, but I'm glad to see that Pujols seems to be returning near the level he played at for most of his career in St. Louis. His veteran status and leadership abilities make the deal a bit more palatable for the Angels. If the Angels can pay him that much money, imagine how much money they are making! (Don't get me started on the ridiculous contract for the oft injured Josh Hamilton.)

I'm glad to see that he's having a resurgent year and I hope he has many healthy, productive seasons going forward. Along with his two homers last night, he also drove in 5 RBIs. Although his batting average is only. 274 he does have 8 homers and 19 RBIs. He leads the league in homers and is tied for third in RBIs with Mark Trumbo and Jose Abreau. Also the Los Angeles Angels are 10-10 and third place in the AL West. That's better than I expected, although I don't expect them to challenge the A's or the Rangers for the AL West title.

In the coach firing that no one heard about, coming the same day as the Knicks firing Mike Woodson, the Utah Jazz have fired Tyrone Corbin. First of all let me say I'm happy for Woodson. He seems like a decent guy working in an impossible situation. Up to the hiring of Phil Jackson, the Knicks continued to be the NBA's version of the Dallas Cowboys. Anytime when your best player is Carmelo Anthony, I think you have some serious issues. Anthony and Dwight Howard are the two fakest "superstars" in the NBA. One couldn't even lead his team to the playoffs, even in the weak Eastern Conference. The other one can't even help his team protect home court in the first round of the playoffs.

I predict that the Trailblazers will win their first round series against the Rockets, I'll be cheering them on tonight when they play Heartless Howard and the other Rockets. I'll also be cheering on the Red Sox, the last place Red Sox, as they take on Evil Empire at Fenway. The Red Sox won the World Series last season powered by leading the league in scoring. The Red Sox are only 21st in the MLB in runs scored through 21 games.

Anyway back to Corbin, like Pujols he's an extremely classy person. It's always sad to see a person like that fired, but ultimately I think it was the right decision. I just don't think he's head coach material and I would be extremely surprised if he was ever a head coach again. (In fact his situation reminds me a lot of the Cowboys alleged head coach, except for Corbin isn't a robotic puppet.) I do wish Corbin the best  in the future. If he somehow ends up back with the Jazz in another capacity so much the better for the Jazz.

But let's be honest here. In a league with teams located in cities such as Miami, New York and LA, the Jazz head coaching position isn't one already proven head coaches will be fighting for. Of course some young and upcoming coach might jump at the Jazz head coach position, only to use it as a springboard for something better. Sort of what Urban Mayer did to the Utes football team. However I would like to see the Jazz go after a coach that will be here for several years and can build this young Jazz team from the ground up and stick with them throughout the process. Which is why the name I'm most intrigued by is Lionel Hollins. Hollins had a fair amount of success when he coached the Grizzlies and Memphis is small for a NBA city. Of course Hollins isn't the youngest coach in the NBA, but it seems like he would be a good fit for the Jazz.

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Greatest CD's Of All-Time: Prince's "Purple Rain" Soundtrack

Hello,

I've wanted to write a blog about one of the greatest CDs of all-time, Prince's "Purple Rain", for at least the last couple of years. However when I write a blog, I like to include videos, live clips and full concerts when available. For some reason Prince doesn't allow his amazing music to be on Youtube. Obviously my guess is it has to do with greed. Like Prince, or anyone else that financially benefits from his music, needs more money? With that background, here's the best blog I can write without the music for "Purple Rain's" 9 incredible songs. Perhaps some day Prince will allow his music to be available on Youtube. With Prince signing a new contract with Warner Brothers, maybe this will be the time that he'll allow his music on Youtube.

This is the best you'll find on Youtube for "When Doves Cry", it's the actual video but not the music:



Prince allows his music on Spotify, nearly all of his music is available there. I'm not sure why his music isn't available on Youtube. Spotify's royalties payment can't be that much more than that of Youtube. I strongly suggest all music lovers discover or rediscover "Purple Rain" on Spotify. (Don't worry it's free.) After you listen to "Purple Rain", I suggest you listen to his soundtrack to the late 80's "Batman" movie. That's probably my second favorite Prince CD. "1999", "Sign O' the Times", "Graffiti Bridge", "Diamonds and Pearls" and "Musicology" are also worth a spin or two.

The "Purple Rain" trailer:



"Purple Rain" was released on June 25th, 1984. One sign of a true classic CD is that still 30 years later it sounds as fresh as it did when it was released. Of course when it was released "Purple Rain" didn't sound fresh so much as it sounded like it was years ahead of it's time. Honestly "Purple Rain" still felt years ahead of it's time for most of the time it has been released. Even listening to it again today, I might love it more than I did when it was first released. I have a lot more life experience now than I did then. The lyrics mean so much more to me now than they did. For instance: as a divorced person "When Doves Cry" really resonates with me.

The "Purple Rain" soundtrack is:

1) "Let's Go Crazy" From "Dearly beloved", this CD grabs you by the collar and refuses to let go.
2) "Take Me With U" A great funk track and an exuberant invitation.
3) "The Beautiful Ones" A mellow love song.
4) "Computer Blue" Featuring Wendy and Lisa, another great song.
5) "Darling Nikki" Even by Prince's standards, this is a skanky song. But it's also a funk masterpiece.
6) "When Doves Cry" One of the 100 greatest songs ever.
7) "I Would Die For U" Yet another amazing song.
8) "Baby I'm A Star" And yet again, another amazing song.
9) "Purple Rain" Prince's most epic and beautiful ballad.

Prince Rogers Nelson was born June 7th, 1958. He loved music from a young age and was working on his music most of his life. Prince went on to be one of the 80's biggest stars, but he had to do a lot of work to get to superstardom. It's hard to believe that "Purple Rain" is Prince's 6th album. I'm not saying this CD came completely out of the blue, because "1999" certainly had some great songs. Any CD that has the songs "1999", "Delirious" and the funktastic "Little Red Corvette" is a solid CD. But a lot of musicians have had an album with a few great songs and you think they will blow up on their next CD. But for many of those musicians that stepping stone CD is actually their peak. For Prince "1999" was to that time his highlight, but it was just a hill to the Mt. Everest that was "Purple Rain".

Now let's discuss the actual movie "Purple Rain", I saw it back in the day. I'm not going to lie I absolutely loved it. I took a girl that I was into and she wore a purple dress. That was just one of the many great things of that night.

However I saw "Purple Rain" a few years ago, it hasn't aged well at all. And honestly Prince isn't a very good actor, the story is boring and I think the only reason Appolonia is in it so that they can show her naked as much as possible. But we will always have that amazing soundtrack.

I mentioned above how many years after it's release "Purple Rain" still sounds amazing. I keep on thinking someone will come along that would be as funktastic as Prince, over 30 years later I'm still waiting. Michael Jackson is also amazing, but he was a star before Prince was. Bruno Mars is decent, although he'll never be the artist that Prince is. Mars music is way too poppy. Why hasn't there been someone that can at least present a challenge to Prince?

I hope to someday update this blog with a lot of the music I've written about above.

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Greatest CDs of All-Time: Def Leppard's "Pyromania" (Finished April 22nd, 2014)

Hello,

I previously wrote about Def Leppard's "Hysteria" on November 22nd, 2013 as part of my Greatest CD's of All-Time series. "Pyromania" is the predecessor to "Hysteria", the older and less polished brother. But it was "Pyromania", Def Leppard's third CD, that alerted the world to Def Leppard. It was released near the beginning of MTV, Def Leppard was one of those bands that wisely made videos to support their records. Clearly their career was helped greatly by MTV. It's too bad MTV has given up it's cultural cachet to show a lot of crap. Young musicians, MTV itself and the music industry has lost a lot because of this decision.

One quick note: if you are fortunate enough to meet Def Leppard do not refer to them as a heavy medal band. Joe Elliot is violently opposed to his band being labeled that.

Def Leppard is an English rock band formed in 1977 in Sheffield. They released their first CD,  "On Through The Night", in 1980. It didn't make much of an impression on the American public. The next year Def Leppard released "High 'n' Dry" which attracted more notice. Although that CD has one of their best all-time songs, "Bringin' On The Heartbreak", it didn't turn them into stars. I still remember an employee of a local record store pimping up this release though. She was sold on "High 'n' Dry" and did her best to sell the tape. She clearly saw something in them that most people didn't see, including me. Def Leppard is one of the many bands that I came late to the party for.

"Pyromania" was released on January 20th, 1983. It has sold over 10 million copies in the USA, thus being certified diamond by the RIAA. Although this CD was a huge success, it only made it to #2 on the USA album charts. This CD was Def Leppard's entry into the big-time, setting the stage for when they were the biggest band in the world following the release of "Hysteria". Guided ably by producer Mutt Lange's genius the mighty Lep became big stars. (Lange did something even more impressive later, he married the gorgeous Shania Twain.) At the time the band included singer Joe Elliot, guitarist Steve Clark, Phil "Why would I ever wear a shirt on stage" Collen, bassist Rick Savage, and drummer Rick Allen. At the time Allen had both arms, later he lost one of his arms in a car accident. Also Pete Willis was featured on rhythm guitar, his guitar appears on all of the album's songs. Although he was later fired for alcohol abuse and replaced by Collen. How much of a lush does one have to be to be fired from a rock band for alcoholism?

For me it would take a few more years, and being exposed to their videos hundreds of times on MTV before I finally jumped on the bandwagon. I very rarely jump on a musicians's bandwagon right away, but once I'm on their bandwagon I'm usually pretty loyal. I've seen Def Leppard in concert 4 times. My two favorite shows were the Hysteria 1988ish tour at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake. They killed that night. Then it must have been in the early 2000s when I saw them at the Salt Lake Fairgrounds. Thanks to family connections I was able to get seats on the second row. Honestly Def Leppard could've mailed in that night and most of the audience would have been fine with that. However the mighty Lep played their hearts out and killed it again.

Def Leppard continues to tour, going on tour with Kiss in 2014. Sadly their best days have passed them by. The musicians are still great but Elliot is losing his voice a bit. And the band as a whole aren't able to hit the stratospheric heights of back in the day. That being said Def Leppard is still one of my top 10 bands of all-time. Thanks men for all the great musical memories and enjoyment still today.

Thanks to Wikipedia for biographical information for this blog. For more biographical information, here's Def Leppard's "Behind The Music":



Here's "Pyromania" in it's full glory. Thanks to jnevole for making the Youtube video, Youtube for allowing videos longer than 15 minutes and Def Leppard for not being tossers and allowing their music on Youtube for everyone to enjoy. (Prince this would be a good time to use the same approach, especially as you are set to release a new CD.)



How was Def Leppard live about this time, 1983? Again thanks to Youtube and Def Leppard for allowing these videos. This is Def Leppard live in Lyon, France and Dortmand, Germany (Video and audio).:



Here's Def Leppard in Seattle,  in August, 1983. (Audio only):



Here they are in 1988 in Denver live (I had that shirt that Joe is wearing at one time):



Def Leppard and Taylor Swift in about 2007:



And finally here they are in the last couple of years, Phil it's about time to put a shirt on dude:

Now here's "Pyromania" song by song. Enjoy! 1) "Rock Rock (Till You Drop): 2) "Photograph": 3) "Stagefright": "Stagefright" (live): 4) "Too Late For Love": 5) "Die Hard The Hunter": 6) "Foolin'": "Foolin'" (Live in 1983): 7) "Rock Of Ages": "Rock of Ages" (Live): 8) Comin' Under Fire": 9) "Action! Not Words": 10) "Billy's Got A Gun": "Billy's Got A Gun" (Live): themusicaddict

Kenny Loggins: The Best of His Rest: Non-Movies Edition

Hello,

My final reminder, remember tomorrow is Record Store Day.

Yesterday I wrote about all the great songs that Kenny Loggins has written/performed for movies. This blog is about the best of his non-movie songs. This is in no particular order. Enjoy!

"Celebrate Me Home":



"Return To Pooh Corner": (Yes, I realize this is an extremely sappy song, but it's still a great song.)



"Conviction of the Heart":



Singing as part of USA for Africa on "We Are The World": (Kenny's solo comes about 2:24)



Written by Kenny Loggins, performed perfectly by Anne Murray:



Loggins and Messina's version of "Danny's Song":



"Heart To Heart":



"Forever":



Kenny Loggins with the amazing Stevie Nicks on "Whenever I Call You Friend":



Written by Michael McDonald and Loggins and made famous by The Doobie Brothers. Without a doubt this is the definitive version:



Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins "What A Fool Believes":



Okay now let's rock, sort of, with "Vox Humana":



Now let's rock for real. Kenny Loggins and Steve Perry "Don't Fight It":



"This Is It" (From my research yesterday, this is a song eventually written to his father as he was close to dying.)



themusicaddict

Kenny Loggins Goes To The Movies

Hello,

Please remember Record Store Day on April 19th, 2014. Support your local independent record stores please. Don't know where a local, independent record store is located? Go to the following website and you can find out: http://recordstoreday.com/Venues. For those of you who live in Utah, I recommend Graywhale. I don't buy any of the Record Store Day vinyl, but I do love the double discounts the offer for those with Killer Whale cards.

Kenny Loggins has had many hits in his career. First in Loggins and Messina and then as a solo act. For a time in the 80s he seemed to be the go to person for amazing songs for movies and soundtracks. I wrote a similar blog to this on February 13th, 2013, but that was more about all the great songs that were in 80's movies. This blog is just about most of the great Kenny Loggins songs that have been in movies. Information for this blog came from Kenny Loggins Wikipedia page, thanks to them. I also would like to thank Catherine Glotz for her Kenny Loggins movie music list at amazon.com.

From 1980's "Caddyshack",  this is "I'm Alright":



From 1984's "Footloose":

"I'm Free (Heaven Helps The Man)":



And of course the incredibly catchy, dance worthy "Footloose":



From 1985's "Rocky 4", this is Kenny Loggins and Gladys Knight's "Double or Nothing":



From 1986's "Top Gun" comes one of the best openings of any movie ever. The combination of the opening scene paired with the aggressive rock music of "Danger Zone" makes for a great start of a movie.



And the almost as good "Playing With The Boys":



From 1987's "Over The Top" Wait a second you don't remember "Over The Top"? It's the Sylvester Stallone arm wrestling movie. If that doesn't jog your memory, then you are forgiven. It's probably one of the few 80's movie I haven't seen.

This isn't from the best movie ever, but "Meet Me Halfway" is a hell of a song:



From 1988's "Caddyshack 2" (another 80's movie I haven't seen) is "Nobody's Fool":



From 1996's "One Fine Day" this is "For The First Time":



themusicaddict

Lori Majewski and Jonathan Bernstein's "Mad World": A Soundtrack

Hello,

Don't forget Saturday, April 19th is Record Store Day! themusicaddict strongly encourages you to support your local, independent record retailer.

On April 15th, 2014 the book "Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980's" was released. It's written by Lori Majewski and Jonathan Bernstein. I haven't seen the book and only heard about it today. Anything from this blog is dependent on what I read at Rollingstone.com. Rolling Stone mentions 10 bands in their review. I'm going to provide a soundtrack to the book and post videos for the artists that Rolling Stone mention. I won't be spilling any of the secrets, I'm just posting songs. You can download the book to your Kindle now for $9.99 or get the paperback copy from amazon.com for $11.99. This is one of those books that I'd rather have the physical book in my collection. Without a doubt 80's music is the best and New Wave had some of that decades biggest highlights.

I'll add the video for a song if Rolling Stone mentioned it, if not I'll pick one or two songs for that artist.

1) Modern English "I Melt With You":



Although Modern English didn't go on to be a huge band, at least they gave us one of the greatest songs of all-time.

2) The Smiths are seriously one of the greatest bands of all-time! It's too bad their run was so short. Morrissey has continued making amazing music on his own though. Thank goodness.

 "Bigmouth Strikes Again":



"Panic":



3) Tears for Fears Rolling Stone mentions Graduate who had a song that was big in Spain apparently. The name of the song is "Elvis Should Play Ska". The band's name is Graduate and they're a precursor band for those who formed Tears for Fears. This shows that you can find anything on youtube. Graduate's "Elvis Should Play Ska":



"Shout":



Tears For Fears featuring Oleta Adams "Women In Chains". I'm featuring this video because Oleta sings the hell out of this song:



4) Kim Wilde "Kids In America":



5) A-ha "Take On Me": One of the most creative videos of all-time. It seems I'm not the only one that thinks that as this video has over 67 million views.



And because A-ha wasn't just a one-hit wonder, here's their theme song from "The Living Daylights", ""The Living Daylights" (Live):



6) A Flock Of Seagulls "I Ran":



"Wishing (If I Had A Photograph of You)":



7) The Thompson Twins "You Take Me Up":



And here's the extremely romantic "If You Were Here":



8) Kajagoogoo "Too Shy":



9) Devo "Whip It":



"Working In A Coal Mine":



10) Gary Numan "Cars":



themusicaddict

themusicaddict's "The Greatest CDs Of All-Time": Halestorm's "The Strange Case of..."

Hello,

Of all of the CDs that in my opinion are Greatest CDs Of All-Time, this is the one that's most recently released. "The Strange Case of..." just barely celebrated its second anniversary, it was released on April 10th, 2012. I only knew about this band because my brother was able to see them in concert and was a fan. For the longest time I thought they were from Europe, before realizing they are from Philadelphia. Slowly but surely I listened to more and more of their music and became a huge fan. I'm now a Halestorm fan especially of their second CD.

I usually don't say that a CD that has been released so recently is a classic. Classic usually implies something has been around for awhile and has stood the test of time. In that sense, this isn't a classic. But in the sense of it being so good that it's a classic, then this is definitely a classic.

Again thanks to Spotify for helping me expand my horizons and discovering Halestorm. As I've said many times before there's just as much great music being released now as there ever was. Also it's a lot easier to discover with Spotify and other music services. It's too bad you won't discover great music on MTV or the radio any more, especially in this time of all flash and no substance proudly exhibited by people like Miley Cyrus. (Note I was a big fan of Cyrus's "Can't Be Tamed", but her recent twerking and riding a wrecking ball naked shows how unimportant the music is. When I think of great music and wrecking ball, Bruce Springsteen is the person I'm thinking of.)

Halestorm introduced themselves to the world in 2009 with their self-titled debut CD. They continue the proud tradition of Led Zeppelin and other bands, great albums full of great songs but no hits. "Halestorm" includes such great, should be classic songs as: "It's Not You", "I Get Off", "Bet U Wish U Had Me Back", "I'm Not An Angel", "Better Safe Than Sorry" and "Nothing To Do With Love".

Following "Halestorm" the band released "Live in Philly" in 2010. This is basically a live version of their self-titled CD, with the new song "Tell Me Where It Hurts".

Here's Halestorm live at The Webster on July 14th, 2013. The sound starts out a bit rough, but does get better:

Halestorm is made up of Lizzy Hale on killer vocals. Joining her is drummer Arejaye Hale, guitarist Joe Hottinger and bassist Josh Smith. In 2012 they released the kraken known as "The Strange Case of...". (Thanks to wikipedia.org for biographical information, all opinions are mine. Feel free to disagree in comments.)

Listening to these songs again reminds me of how great this CD is, every song is absolutely great. A modern day classic. 

The times listed to the right of the songs below are when each song begins in the above video. Then I'm also adding the individual tracks for each song below the song's title. 

1) "Love Bites (So Do I)" (Lizzy sings "love bites, so do I", why don't I have a hard time in believing that?)

"Love Bites (So Do I)" (Live in Germany):

 2) "Mz. Hyde": (3:11)

"Mz. Hyde" (Live in Atlantic City)

3) "I Miss The Misery" (6:35) (Here's a song meant to be played at maximum volume and intensity):

"Mz. Hyde" & "I Miss The Misery" (Live):

4) "Freak Like Me": (9:37):

5) "Beautiful With You" (13:18) (Not only can they rock you out, but they also have a soft side.)

6) "In Your Room" (16:35)

"In Your Room" (Live):

7) "Break In"(19:22):



8) "Rock Show" (24:09):



"Rock Show" (Live):



9) "Daughters of Darkness" (27:27):



10) "You Call Me A Bitch Like It's A Bad Thing" (31:23)



11) "American Boys" (34:36)



12) "Here's To Us" (38:07) (The language in this song will offend most.)



13) "Don't Know How To Stop" (41:16)



14) "Private Parts" (featuring James Michael) (45:13)



15) "Hate It When You See Me Cry" (49:12)



"Hate It When You See Me Cry" (Live):

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Greatest CD's of All-Time: The Wallflowers "Bringing Down The Horse" (Updated and Finished 4/15/14)

Hello,

Released on May 21st, 1996 The Wallflowers "Burning Down The Horse" was a slow burning hit CD. Although it started out slowly, eventually it exploded. I was vaguely aware of The Wallflowers because of this CD's first two singles: "6th Avenue Heartache" and "One Headlight". And while I thought both songs were okay, I definitely wasn't a big Wallflowers fan. They were sort of just there.

I remember the tipping point for me though in becoming a huge Wallflowers fan. I was with my at the time wife and we were in Park City browsing at one of their discount retail stores. I'm fairly sure I'd heard "The Difference" before that day. But when I heard it that day I realized how great of a song it was. I was overwhelmed by how incredibly catchy the song is. Although the lyrics make no sense, I couldn't resist that incredibly catchy song any more. I wanted to find out more about The Wallflowers after that. That same day I went and bought "Bringing Down The Horse".

The Wallflowers self-titled CD released in 1992 was definitely a band finding it's sound. The group grew up considerably before making "Bringing Down The Horse". Although the Wallflowers have released some good CDs since "Bringing Down The Horse", that was their peak. I'm a big fan of "Breach" however and "Red Letter Days" is a perfectly fine CD.

The make up of the band for the recording of "Horse" was Mario Calire on drums, Rami Jaffee on keyboards, piano and vocals, Greg Richling on bass guitar and Michael Ward on lead guitar. Of course their lead singer is Bob's son, Jakob Dylan.

I was able to see The Wallflowers twice in concert. I saw them in the mid-90s when they had blown up and may have been bigger than Counting Crows, who they were opening for. That was a great concert, the Wallflowers were great that night. That was a concert that the only reason I went to it was to see The Wallflowers. But I stuck around to see Counting Crows and I'm really glad I did, because I hadn't appreciated how great of a band they were until that night.

The second time I saw The Wallflowers was near the end of the 90s, they were the headliner and had Everlast open for them. He was good and The Wallflowers were also good. Although at the time they probably weren't quite ready to be a headliner. I do remember their very energetic take of Blur's "Song 2", they rocked that song out. Too bad I can't find a video of it on Youtube. But because it's such a great song, here's Blur performing their hit live:



This is the video for the entire "Bringing Down The Horse":



I listen to the CD I'm writing about while writing these blogs. Most of the time I remember why I really love a CD, but sometimes that turns into complete admiration. This is such a great CD and Jakob Dylan's voice sounds so good here.

1. "One Headlight":



2. "6th Avenue Heartache":



"6th Avenue Heartache" (Live On Letterman):



3. "Bleeders":



4. "Three Marlenas":



"Three Marlenas" (Live):



5. "The Difference":



"The Difference" (Live)



6. "Invisible City":



7. "Laughing Out Loud":



8. "Josephine":



9. "God Don't Make Lonely Girls":



"God Don't Make Lonely Girls" (Live) (Jakob sounds a lot like his Dad here.)



10. "Angel on My Bike":



11. "I Wish I Felt Nothing:

themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Greatest CD's of All-Time: James Blunt's "Back To Bedlam"

Hello,

Today's blog is about James Blunt's debut CD, "Back To Bedlam". Blunt is yet another musician who peaked with his first CD. "Back To Bedlam" was released October 11th, 2004. From Wikipedia, Blunt recorded this CD while staying at Carrie Fisher's (Princess Leia!) house. He recorded "Goodbye My Lover" in her bathroom. He recorded most of the album at producer Tom Rothrock at Rothrock's home studio. Also Fisher was the one who suggested the album's title, which is a reference to an "infamous psychiatric institution"(quote from Wikipedia's "Back To Bedlam" article) in England.

After a slow start "Back To Bedlam" went on to be a big seller. It has sold over 3.2 million copies in England, which is the 16th best selling CD in England's history. The CD has sold over 2.5 million copies in the US and over 11 million copies worldwide.

As I always say, a true measure of a musician comes out when performing live. I was a fan of Blunt before seeing him in concert a few years ago, it was a couple years after "Bedlam" was released. However after seeing him in concert I became a big fan. He out performed the show's headliner Sheryl Crow, who wasn't bad at all. Blunt was a swirling burst of energy even going out in the crowed a couple of times. Blunt is a great singer, his voice sounds even better live, and his band was very good. They put on a great show.

Although "Back To Bedlam" is a classic, sadly Blunt's career has gone downhill since then. His second album "All The Lost Souls" is a solid CD. It's anchored by "1973", "Give Me Some Love" and "I Really Want You". However his third CD "Some Kind of Trouble" was a big drop in quality. And sadly the descent continued with 2013's disappointing "Moon Landing". (Thanks to Wikipedia for many details in this blog.)

Here's James Blunt in concert on May 9th, 2007 in London:



The full video for "Back To Bedlam". Enjoy:



Here are the individual songs for the band's 10 tracks:

1) "High" (James Blunt first single, which didn't do very well when released. However it's a very good song.):



2) "You're Beautiful" (The third single released from the CD and the song that finally got Blunt some attention, and of course went on to worldwide acclaim.)



"You're Beautiful" (Live):



3) "Wiseman":



4) "Goodbye My Lover" (Not only one of the best songs on "Bedlam", but one of Blunt's best songs. This song features one of my favorite Blunt lines: "I saw the end before we begun":



5) "Tears and Rain":



"Tears and Rain" (Live):



6) "Out Of My Mind":



7) "So Long Jimmy" (Is that a Doors homage near the end of this song?) This is my favorite James Blunt song, although it took me awhile to figure it out. I have the lyric video for those of you who might be a bit dense like me. Listen to the song and tell me what you think.



Well at least I thought I had figured the song out, I thought the song was sung from the perspective of a woman saying "so long Jimmy". But some people suggest this is a tribute to Jim Morrison, which would explain the "Riders On The Storm" tag.

"So Long Jimmy" (Live):



8) "Billy":



"Billy" (live):



9) "Cry":



10) "No Bravery" (A heart breaking song and video, I had no idea what this song was about before writing this blog.):



themusicaddict

themusicaddict's Greatest Hits of All-Time: Donna Summer's Bad Girls

Hello,

Honestly this is probably a bit of a stretch for a greatest CD of all-time. Although Disco music had many great songs, there were few, if any, great CDs. "Bad Girls" has to be considered one of the best all-time Disco CDs. Any CD that has "Hot Stuff", "Bad Girls", "Sunset People" and "Dim All The Lights" has to be a great CD.

"Bad Girls" was released April 25th, 1979, this CD might have been the last hurrah before Disco crashed. It was only 2 1/2 months later that the famous Disco Demolition happened following a MLB game. A promotion for the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park probably was the tipping point in the Disco craze coming to an end. From Wikipedia:

"At the climax of the event, a crate filled with disco records was blown up on the field between games of the twi-night doubleheader between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers. Many of those in attendance had come to see the explosion rather than the games and rushed onto the field after the detonation. The playing field was damaged both by the explosion and by the rowdy fans to the point where the White Sox were required to forfeit the second game of the doubleheader to the Tigers."

(Thanks to wikipedia.org for information for this blog.)

Although Donna Summer continued making music until her death on May 17th, 2012, "Bad Girls" was her personal peak. Although she released several more CDs after that, none of them had the impact that "Bad Girls" had. One sign your career is reaching a crossroads is that your record company starts releasing greatest hits CDs. Summer had greatest hits CDs released in 1978, 1979 and 1980. The most famous of these is "On The Radio Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2". This CD produced one of Summer's final classic songs. That's her duet with Barbara Striesand "No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)".

Her last three relatively significant songs are the underwhelming "She Works Hard For The Money", "The Wanderer" and the funktastic "Love Is In Control (Finger On The Trigger)".



For a bonus here's the Chromeo and O's remix of "Love Is In Control":



Her 2008 "Crayons" CD was released and quickly disappeared, for those who even knew about it. That's too bad because "Crayons" is a perfectly decent CD. This is the video for the full version of "Crayons":



Before CDs were made available, most people bought their music on what were called records, albums or record albums. See below for what these looked like. Each side would have 4 or 5 songs on it. After one side was done, you'd get up and listen to side 2. If a album had a lot of songs it would be released in a double album, such as "Bad Girls" was. Although many people prefer the sound that comes with albums, give me CDs and iTunes any day.

This is the best I could do for videos for most of this CD, here's side A of the first "Bad Girls" album:



First album, side B:



Album two, side A:



Album two, side B:



1) "Hot Stuff":



2) "Bad Girls":



"Bad Girls" (live): (Donna Summer wasn't known for being great live, but I never was able to see her in concert to have an opinion about that.)



Anastacia and Jamiroquai's cover of "Bad Girls": (I quite like this version.)



3) "Love Will Always Find You":



"Love Will Always Find You"(Patrice Extended Mix):



4) "Walk Away": (Another great song, one of Summer's lesser known songs.)



5) "Dim All The Lights":



"Dim All The Lights" (Live):



6) "Journey To The Center of Your Heart":



7) "One Night In A Lifetime":



8) "Can't Get To Sleep At Night":



9) "On My Honour": (Another of Summer's lesser known songs that I really like.)



10) "There Will Always Be A You":



11) "All Through The Night":



12) "My Baby Understands":



"My Baby Understands" (remix):



13) "Our Love":



14) "Lucky" (Giorgio Moroder remix):



15 "Sunset People" and "Bad Girls":



"Our Love", "Lucky" and "Sunset People" all in one video:



"Sunset People":



themusicaddict

The LA Dodgers, Your 2014 World Series Champs

Hello,

Last season I wrote a blog about nearly every Dodgers game, but sadly that took up too much time. I decided not to do that this season, but I still plan on checking in with the Dodgers occasionally on this blog.

After 4 games, here's the Dodgers good and bad:

Good:

1) The Dodgers are 3-1 and are first place in the NL West.

2) L.A. returns Yasiel Puig, who will play his first full season in MLB. Puig hit a two run homer Tuesday, that was the Dodgers big blow.

3) L.A. welcomes back Hanley Ramirez, playing in a contract year.

4) The Dodgers have that great pitching staff, even though they have 3 starters on the DL. However the Dodgers still have Zack Greinke, Hyun Jin-Ryu and maybe Dan Haren can give them something this year.

Bad:

1) Are we gonna do this again LA? Through 4 games the Dodgers have only scored 14 runs, that's only an average of 3.5 runs per game. That's not terrible, but they scored 7 of those runs in one game. I'm more concerned about the two games they only scored 3 runs and the 1 game they only scored 1 run. Having the same inept offense as last season will not be enough for the Dodgers to win the World Series, I don't care how good the pitching is. The same team that scored the most runs last season was also the same team that won the World Series, the Boston Red Sox. No, I don't think that was a coincidence.

2) Speaking of which, the Dodgers have over $60 million in injured players sitting on the disabled list. That includes Josh Beckett and Chad Billingsley, honestly if the Dodgers get anything significant out of either one of those pitchers, I'll consider that a small miracle. I cannot wait until the Dodgers can dump Beckett and his $17 million dollar contract.

Also Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers best pitcher, will be out 2 to 3 weeks more. Aargh!

3) I know it's only 4 games in the season, so I'm not panicking too much. These are some of the most important Dodgers and their current batting averages: Hanley Ramirez, .067, Adrian Gonzalez, .077, Andre Ethier 1.33, A.J. Ellis .167 and Carl Crawford .222. Also Matt Kemp hasn't played this season yet, but there's some talk that he may be able to play for the Dodgers home opener on Friday.

themusicaddict