Free Republic

The "Musicians Who Turn 50", "Musicians Who Turn 60", "Favorite Drummer" and "Favorite Guitarist" were such hit threads on FR, I've decided to do this one. Who is your favorite SONGWRITING DUO? We all know that Lennon-McCartney were amazing together and possibly the best songwriting duo ever. They might be mentioned several times on this thread. If you choose John & Paul, be specific about which song and lyric(s).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Vinny Appice, Anita Baker, Jello Biafra, Andrea Bocelli, Simon LeBon, Kate Bush, Belinda Carlisle, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Shaun Cassidy, Darby Crash, Randy DeBarge, Bruce Dickinson, Thomas Dolby, Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, Siobhan Fahey, Neil Finn, Bela Fleck, Martin Fry, Lisa Germano, Grandmaster Flash, Jools Holland, Ice-T, Alan Jackson, Michael Jackson, Tony James, Joan Jett, Al Jourgensen, Nik Kershaw, Sammy Kershaw, Limahl, Madonna, Bird McIntyre, Mike Mills, Thurston Moore, Alannah Miles, Gary Numan, Michael Penn, Vicki Peterson, Prince, Stacey Q, Will Sergeant, Nikki Sixx, David Sylvian, Toyah, Tanya Tucker, Paul Weller, Jane Wiedlin, Jah Wobble.

And The Winners Are....

Well, actually, maybe it would’ve been an “important” endorsement 25 years ago? This is video of James Duke Mason, son of 1980’s pop sensation Belinda Carlisle and former Reagan administration official Morgan Mason (who is the son of legendary actor James Mason) — telling the world that his Mom Belinda is endorsing Hillary Clinton! Heaven IS a Place on Earth, Hillary!

It was supposed to be a harmless advertisement for a telecommunications company, but all it ended up demonstrating was an advertiser's negligence and extremely poor taste. The Solo Mobile ad, which Thursday hung high above the crowds inside Downsview Station, depicts a tearful woman wearing a series of buttons, one of which reads "Belsen was a gas," a reference to Bergen-Belsen, a Nazi concentration camp used during the Second World War. CityNews was notified of the offensive ad by an angry viewer, who like many we spoke to, had little to say in favour of the tasteless display. "I was...

AMERICAN rocker and writer Henry Rollins was reported to the National Security hotline during his recent Australian tour because of a book he was reading on a flight to Brisbane. A furious Rollins was informed he was "nominated as a possible threat" for reading Jihad: The Rise Of Militant Islam In Central Asia, writes Kathy McCabe. The incident happened on a flight from Auckland on the recent Big Day Out tour. Rollins told Australian fans during his tour that he received a letter from a "nice woman" who worked "in one of those government areas that deals with anti-terrorism matters."...

Steven Van Zandt, Tommy Ramone, Debbie Harry, Ted Leo, Jesse Malin, and more band together to save the beleaguered NY landmark. Debbie Harry performs Blondie classics at CBGB, hopefully not for the last time. / Photo by Lane Brown If the graffiti-splattered, poster-covered walls of CBGB could talk, aside from asking for a good scrubbing, they might wax nostalgic about an era when they watched the Ramones grow up and fantasized as Debbie Harry sauntered across the stage. With those legendary walls facing possible demolition in a month, the venue's owner kicked off a month-long campaign on Monday to save...

LP about Warsaw Uprising by Lao Che rock group will gets to music shops today. - These were young people like us. We decided to make a record about the time of moral test - say the musicians. They come from Plock. Age average in this band is twenty something. They played heavy metal and hip-hop. Under the name Lao Che they've been working since 1999. They do not resemble a typical rock band. Before they start writing a song they discuss the vision of new album very long, research the subject thoroughly they intend to speak of. Their first...

LOS ANGELES - Johnny Ramone, guitarist and co-founder of the seminal punk band "The Ramones" that influenced a generation of rockers, has died. He was 55. AP Photo AP Photo Slideshow: Musician Johnny Ramone Dies at 55 Johnny Ramone of 'The Ramones' Dies at 55 (AP Video) Ramone, who had been fighting a five-year battle with prostate cancer, died in his sleep Wednesday afternoon at his Los Angeles home surrounded by friends and family, said the band's longtime artistic director Arturo Vega. "He was the guy with a strategy. He was the guy who not only looked after the band's...

Hi, I am the Dad of "Attila and the Huns", a rock/punk band that has had numerous songs debut here on Free Republic (for instance, the Michael Moore skewering Hateful Lies and the post-election "nyah nyah" The Better Man Won. The band is one of 28 in the Orlando region picked to compete in a competition sponsored by Zippo Lighters... first prize includes an actual tour. Friends, if you have enjoyed these kids' work in the past, please go to their site (www.aath.net) and click on the banner for the Zippo Hot Tour. You'll have to register, but once you...

Former Sex Pistols performer Glen Matlock calls for less profanity in Music and TV now that he has children.HEY GLEN! could it be 30 years too late??I love how these aging Punk rockers have suddenly found themselves now that they have kids.The Sex Pistols were very popular when I was in High School. I never understood the attraction myself. I was into the Beatles, the Stones, the B52s, DevoNeil Young... etc. I never cared for the groups that used profanity at the drop of a hat. Call me an old fogey!

Mon 28 Feb 2005 4:26pm (UK) Swearing Is Just Pathetic, Says Sex Pistol Star By Anita Singh, PA Showbusiness Editor They outraged the nation with their four-letter outburst on teatime television – but former Sex Pistol Glen Matlock now says he disapproves of swearing. The band’s bassist claims repeated use of the f-word is “pathetic”. Now a respectable family man, Matlock does not like his children, aged 11 and seven, hearing obscenities on the radio or TV. “It’s pathetic when people just swear for the sake of it,” the 48-year-old tells a Channel 4 show this Sunday. “Something ought to...

Linda Cummings arrived at Hollywood Forever Cemetery in a white, backless, nearly see-through mini-halter dress, white fur jacket and white high-heeled go-go boots. Not exactly site-specific attire, but then again, she is Johnny Ramone’s widow. Various celebs milled about, including Anthony Kiedis, who showed up wearing a Johnny Ramone–style hairdo to go with the anorexic-model type on his arm. The crowd included everyone from mohawked gutter punks in leather jackets and bondage pants to businessmen in three-piece suits. They had all come for last Friday’s unveiling of the Johnny Ramone memorial statue. Ramone (born John Cummings) died in September from...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Late punk guitarist Johnny Ramone is being immortalized with a bronze statue at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Ramone, co-founder and guitarist of The Ramones, was 55 when he died of prostate cancer on Sept. 15, 2004, at his Los Angeles home. The statue is near the grave of bandmate Dee Dee Ramone, who died of a drug overdose in 2002. The Johnny Ramone monument, created by artist Wayne Toth, shows Ramone playing his Mosrite guitar and it features the words, "If a man can judge success by how many great friends he has, then I have...

In 1997, Michale Graves, then lead singer for the horror punk rock group the Misfits, found himself on tour in Germany at the site where the Berlin Wall once stood. He took home with him a piece of that wall and with a few years' time, a bold commitment to fighting the mindset that built it. Punk rock is all about resisting the establishment. But punk rock itself has an establishment that is driven by Left wing, anti-war, anti-life, anti-faith politics. To scream, as Green Day does in its new CD "American Idiot," "I'm not a part of a redneck...

A BITTER battle over Johnny Ramone's estate has pit Stella Cummings, the 79-year-old mother of the legendary guitarist, against his wife, Linda Cummings. Stella Cummings claims that Johnny, who died in September of prostate cancer, had promised her $2,500 a month, but she suspects Linda somehow convinced the punk rock pioneer to leave her out of his will.

The irony of “conservative punk,” or ConPunk as it’s uncommonly known, is not lost on yours truly. According to my thesaurus, “conformist” is a synonym of “conservative.” We’ve heard enough about Punkvoter.com and Rock against Bush in the past year to be swayed into thinking that punk rock – the few remaining bones of punk rock’s corpse not already sold to television commercials – is decidedly liberal. But punk rock’s history is steeped in conservative politics; it should come as no surprise that there’s been a rise in conservative punk in recent years. To those who choose not to take...

To hear Steven Van Zandt tell it, he had no choice. He had simply wanted to do a two-hour radio show, no big deal, on which he could play some of the garage rock he loves and have some fun. But when he pitched the idea to syndicators, what they told him forced him to turn his hobby into a crusade. "They said, 'Stevie, baby, we love you,' " he said, his eyes wide in mock disbelief, "but we cannot get rock 'n' roll on the radio anymore.' " Big pause. "And it was like, aaarrrggghh," he said, his voice...

“God bless President Bush, and God bless America!” shouted Johnny Ramone, center, flanked by Dee Dee Ramone, left, and Marky Ramone at the Ramones’ induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2002. Johnny Ramone's statement pointed to the growing impact of conservatism on younger voters.

Punk Rock Hates America? by Michale Graves 21 July 2004 Groups like Punkvoter.com are the spearhead of young liberal-minded activist organizations backed by and aligned with big money corporations and groups like moveon.org, PETA and NARAL. The counter culture of the 1960’s has clearly infused itself within the system and has spawned a new generation of young activists and revolutionary minded leaders with a new sense of fury. They are entrenched in their idealistic views and relativist thinking.  They are the blame America first groups. Whatever has happened to us we have done worse.  They are the present day counterculture...