DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS

Rich Buckland and Bill Mesnik
  • 4.8 (18)
  • MUSIC
  • UPDATED SEMIWEEKLY

My Fellow Americans, Life is actually just a microscopic, deluded moment in time, so let's cut to the freakin' chase. One look at our impending election debacle can solidify my case. It has been my contention since birth, that the answer to every difficulty we encounter on this sacred yet demented Stone, can be revealed with ultimate clarity through the ultra neurotic engagements of Music, Art, Literature, Film, Poetry and a good Pastrami sandwich. Why would any sane human spend so must time on a film set (Do you know how long you gotta wait until your 8 second deliverance of an edited beyond repair line gets a chance to become a professional embarrassment etched in time forever? ) or expend so much energy in a recording studio, piecing together another ode to a man or woman who could not care less how much love existed within your digestive tract? It's all about hymns and prayers and a quest for mercy and forgiveness and silence and faith. We were blessed with Charles Bukowski,  Gene Chandler, Lenny Bruce, Mitch Ryder and a legion of creative explorers whose influences provided the air we breathe.  So Let's Dance! This site shall explore the reaper, find a way to disarm the stench of injustice, discover some true loves and talk it all over before it's all over. So what's the worst that our desires could produce? Failure? So sue me. I'm going to require your assistance in making as much trouble for the grown-ups as possible. Let the record show that my childish heart yearns to disrupt the madness. Join me Ladies and Germs! With Gratitude For Gena Rowlands, Nancy Sinatra, Jerry Quarry, Leo Gorcey, Arthur Alexander and Joey Heatherton, Your Splendid Bohemian, Rich Buckland.

  1. THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT "DOUBLE TROUBLE" - GETTING LOST IN A MYSTICAL MIST WITH ERROLL GARNER AND BIX BEIDERBECKE - TWO TITANS OF JAZZ TRANSPORT US TO REALMS OF MYSTERY. DOUBLE DOWN!!

    1D AGO

    THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT "DOUBLE TROUBLE" - GETTING LOST IN A MYSTICAL MIST WITH ERROLL GARNER AND BIX BEIDERBECKE - TWO TITANS OF JAZZ TRANSPORT US TO REALMS OF MYSTERY. DOUBLE DOWN!!

    Today we present two piano instrumentals that explore the mysteries of Mist.  Strictly speaking, a “mist” can be defined by some water vapor that obscures your vision, but how many more evocative instances can you think of where a mist appears in a story or film, usually preceding an arrival of some spiritual manifestation? There was a video game called “Myst” (spelled with a Y) which featured a series of puzzles saturated with a heady whiff of the arcane. Your sight is always obscured; your emotional restlessness is never assuaged.   Erroll Garner and Bix Beiderbecke were two jazz titans writing compositions separated by 30 years that hint at this other-worldly quality inherent in the idea of the Mist. Their music excites the senses and tugs at the heart simultaneously; it’s music that lifts off and keeps insinuating an urge to maintain altitude in an unresolved quest for landing, but never deciding on a perch. ERROLL GARNER Most of you probably know Johnny Mathis’s version of Misty, with lyrics by Johnny Burke, that was a monster hit of 1959, but Erroll Garner wrote the song as an instrumental 5 years earlier, on a plane flight to Chicago’s OHare airport, after seeing a rainbow through the airplane window. That’s a fitting image for the complicated feelings invoked here: a glimpse of hope through tears.  Influenced by Earl Hines, Garner played with spontaneous timing changes, liquidy octaval melodies, and improvised chordal voicings, and his contribution to jazz evolution was to reconcile the gap between BeBop spontaneity and Orchestral formalism. His style was so free that he was dubbed “the happy man” because this joy he exuded was so palpable. Misty was concocted from the eternal music of the spheres - maybe because his feet were not on the ground when he composed it. BIX BEIDERBECKE The comet of Bix Beiderbecke’s talent was a mystery in itself: dead from alcohol in 1931 at the age of 28, his cornet style and compositional originality continues to fascinate almost 100 years later. A self taught musician, Bix appeared from podunk Iowa and immediately became a ragtime sensation at the height of the Jazz era with The Wolverines, then with Paul Whiteman’s orchestra (along with Bing Crosby). He was a white man playing a traditionally black form of music, which was a novelty, and that made him easier to market to middle America - but such genius is color blind. Although renowned for his horn playing, he composed In a Mist on piano in 1927 (he was 24), and it’s here that you see the influence of the impressionist composer Claude Debussy, the creator of such sensuous works as Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and La Mer. Is this Jazz? How did he do it? Clearly, Bix was in touch with mystical forces beyond human understanding, or maybe, like Robert Johnson, he just made a deal with the devil. Either way, the spiritual quest suggested by these chord changes transports us into a misty continent of emotional confusion.

    11 min
  2. THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT "DOUBLE TROUBLE" - CAR CULTURE: AMERICA'S OBSESSION WITH THE BIG AUTOMOBILE, WITH THE BEACH BOYS AND SHANIA TWAIN. DOUBLE DOWN!!

    3D AGO

    THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT "DOUBLE TROUBLE" - CAR CULTURE: AMERICA'S OBSESSION WITH THE BIG AUTOMOBILE, WITH THE BEACH BOYS AND SHANIA TWAIN. DOUBLE DOWN!!

    Given that we lost Brian Wilson recently, and there’s been a lot of talk about the elimination of the affordable subcompact, I thought we could reflect a bit upon America’s obsession with the automobile. The BIG auto; the POWERFUL auto.  Especially here in Los Angeles - you gotta have wheels - and you’ll be judged by what you drive. Once, while stopped at an intersection in my little Saturn, I was heckled mercilessly by some tweens on skateboards. On the other side of the argument sits the Goddess Shania Twain - that Canadian Everywoman who raised her siblings single handedly, then went on to conquer Country  Pop music with songs like That Don’t Impress Me Much - where she declares that you may have a hot car, Hoss, but, that don’t make you a man in her book. She puts it all in perspective. LITTLE DEUCE COUPE / THE BEACH BOYS Nowadays, I drive a Prius, but occasionally I’ll admire the sleek lines of a Dodge Challenger, and fantasize that I could be that muscle car guy. The Prius is wimpy - ya gotta go for The BIG auto; the POWERFUL auto. I can trace this fascination back to ’63, when at the age of 10, I heard Little Deuce Coupe for the first time. I didn’t know what Deuce Coupe meant, but that was ok because Brian Wilson sang “You don’t know what I got!” I now know that the title refers to a 1932 Ford Coupe, and the whole California culture of the drag race was popularized around the country with the invocation of this souped up Franken-car. There were other mechanical beasts in the Wilson canon: There was the T Bird of Fun, Fun, Fun; the “duel in the sun” opponents - the corvette Stingray vs the Mopar described in Shut Down, Granny from Pasadena’s brand new shiny red super stock Dodge, and their anthemic ode to the Chevy 409, but The Deuce Coupe was purportedly Brian’s favorite. You can thank Brian’s lyricist Roger Christian for these automotive articulations, but Brian knew how to implant them into our hearts and minds with his rhythms, melodies, and harmonies. THAT DON’T IMPRESS ME MUCH / SHANIA TWAIN This is where the macho mechanical mythos gets deflated: Shania lets us know in no uncertain terms what makes a man desirable - it’s not your looks, brains, and especially not your car. It’s your courage to commit, your ability to listen, your kindness and tenderness. These are the qualities that win you a place at her table and in her bed. Because she doesn’t need you.  Next to Taylor Swift, Shania is the most successful female Country recording artist. whose albums have spent 97 weeks as the Top Country Albums chart leader. Former husband/producer Mutt Lange may have helped to craft those catchy Pop hits around an image of an accessible Wonder Woman, but even if she hadn’t become a mogul, I have a feeling that Shania’s integrity and sense of who she is would never have faltered.

    10 min
  3. THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT A CLASSIC CAPTAIN BILLY'S MAGIC 8 BALL REWIND: NEIL DIAMOND SOARS WITH HIS SPIRIT ANIMAL, JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL.

    JAN 4

    THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT A CLASSIC CAPTAIN BILLY'S MAGIC 8 BALL REWIND: NEIL DIAMOND SOARS WITH HIS SPIRIT ANIMAL, JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL.

    SPIRIT ANIMAL JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL by Neil Diamond (Columbia, 1973) There were alot of self-help manuals popularized in the 70’s; I remember gifting my mother the book “Your Eronneous Zones” (but that’s another story)…. My acting teacher in college based her syllabus on Eric Berne’s “I’m Ok, You’re Ok”. But one of the biggest New Age parables making the rounds was Ex-Aviator Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull, the story of an anthropomorphized Christ-like Seagull, who has to fly off from the pack to find his true self. It was a zeitgeist sensation, and spawned a movie with this soundtrack by the immortal Neil Diamond. Maestro Diamond is currently in the middle of a career renaissance - his biographical musical A BEAUTIFUL NOISE  is playing on The Great White Way, and although he struggles with Parkinson’s he continues to work on new music. No one was bigger in the 70s, and although the 1960s Neil Diamond that I loved, the Brill Building song plugger who wrote and recorded Cherry Cherry, You Got to Me, and Solitary Man had seemingly transformed himself into a borscht belt crooner, there was no denying his powers of voice and composition, no matter how cheesy the venue (The Jazz Singer?) I chuckled ironically when I pulled this tape from the pile, anticipating mounds of Velveeta. But now, listening for the first time, I am moved to tears. (This is probably because all my youthful cynicism has given up the ghost). It’s a beautiful musical meditation produced by Tom Catalano, and arranged by Lee Holdridge, and Neil’s voice soars, aloft on chords of longing.  Indeed, the album out-grossed the movie by 10 million dollars, and garnered the 1974 Grammy for Best Original Score, demonstrating that although the radio-controlled gliders representing the flying birds in the film might have been fake, Neil’s inspiration was not.

    46 min
  4. THE SPLENDID BOHO GOES TO: TRAIN DREAMS! BILL AND RICH NOMINATE THIS METAPHYSICAL MASTERPIECE FOR FILM OF THE YEAR, WITH BACKING BY NICK CAVE, JACKSON BROWNE, TOM RUSH, GREGG ALLMAN, AND TOM WAITS. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

    12/31/2025

    THE SPLENDID BOHO GOES TO: TRAIN DREAMS! BILL AND RICH NOMINATE THIS METAPHYSICAL MASTERPIECE FOR FILM OF THE YEAR, WITH BACKING BY NICK CAVE, JACKSON BROWNE, TOM RUSH, GREGG ALLMAN, AND TOM WAITS. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

    There have been a lot of good to great films released this year - serious films, films with urgent political underpinnings, films that mix satire, pathos, and artistic ambition with such style that it salves my damaged psyche with a hope that there will be a light at the end of this dark tunnel in which we currently find ourselves. While there is a mordant undertone to many of these transmissions, there is also an implicit message from these artists that life will go on, and there is always love, joy, and gratitude to celebrate at the end of the year. TRAIN DREAMS is such a declaration. Based on a novel by Denis Johnson, the film is a metaphysical meditation on ragged survival through unimaginable grief, and it encompasses all of life and death throughout its dreamscape of primeval imagery. Following the trail of tears of a misbegotten railroad logger, Joel Edgerton delivers the performance of a lifetime, and in the cameo of a wizened old timer-philosopher in the camp, William H Macy transforms to such a degree that he caps his distinguished resume with an Oscar worthy supporting performance.   The Splendid Bohemians nominate this darkhorse masterpiece for film of the year, and would like to honor it today by playing Nick Cave’s Train Dreams theme, along with 2 versions of Jackson Browne’s Shadow Dream Song  (by Gregg Allman and Tom Rush), and Tom Wait’s Innocent When You Dream.

    18 min
  5. THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS OFFER A TRIPLE-PLAY DEVOTIONAL PROGRAM DELIVERED BY JAN AND DEAN, TOM JONES, AND EVIL WIENER.

    12/16/2025

    THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS OFFER A TRIPLE-PLAY DEVOTIONAL PROGRAM DELIVERED BY JAN AND DEAN, TOM JONES, AND EVIL WIENER.

    “You gotta have faith,” George Michael sang a long time ago. Given the unfortunate fate that befell that conflicted artist, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect upon how hard it is to find inner peace, and make a commitment to whatever faith you still possess during this Christmas season. Life is very complicated right now and holding on to love, practicing gratitude, and radiating good intentions will help to get us through these dark days.  We here at The Hotel Bohemia want to gift you a holiday sampler chock full of savory contradictions and sweet mysteries, delivered by Jan and Dean, Tom Jones, and Evil Wiener. Since Xmas celebrates the birth of the redeemer, and the gift Christ offered to the world, the three songs lined up today trace the arc of his sacrifice and our crisis of faith: The Annunciation (Jan & Dean); the Crucifixion (Tom Jones); and, finally, the Resurrection (Evil Wiener) The Annunciation (T.A.M.I Show Theme: Jan and Dean) Jan and Dean, like two sun-kissed Angels, announce to the world that a youthful era of optimism has begun. Rock and Roll will save the world, they proclaim, and, we, the youth believed it. In the T.A.M.I. show theme song you can feel the exuberance of their faith. Two years later, Jan Berry almost dies from a car crash, and today the Boomers are rapidly going down in shameful flames, but in this time capsule from 1964 none of that is on the horizon- it’s all smooth sailing ahead. The Crucifixion (Charlie Darwin: Tom Jones) Here the smooth sailing is over, and the all encompassing ocean is overwhelming a ship’s crew - they are drowning. From out of the God given pipes of Sir Tom Jones, a prayer goes out - but to whom? There is a deep crisis of faith portrayed here in mysterious utterances. Does Charlie Darwin represent an irreconcilable conflict between natural selection and charity? Did he try to tell us something that we weren’t ready to hear? That Survival of the Fittest must doom us? Just as Jesus cried out on the cross, “why have you forsaken me?” The crew here is also expressing a crisis of faith. Or, is there a conflict at all? In the end faith is all they have. They are crying out to God as the water consumes them. The Resurrection (All Over the World: Evil Wiener) Bill McCormick, aka Billy Sugarfix, aka Evil Weiner may have had some doubts about the existence of Santa Claus, (and by extension, the Savior), but he’s returned to the fold of the faithful. From the special edition EP from 1993 on the Flavor-Contra label, here is Evil Wiener’s goofy recommitment to his faith - and a joy filled Birthday Greeting to Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas everybody!

    14 min
  6. THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT A "DOUBLE TROUBLE" CHRISTMAS CRACKER! TWO HOLIDAY DELICACIES TO GET THE FESTIVITIES STARTED - WITH HARVEY KEITEL AND THE TURTLES. DOUBLE DOWN!!

    12/10/2025

    THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT A "DOUBLE TROUBLE" CHRISTMAS CRACKER! TWO HOLIDAY DELICACIES TO GET THE FESTIVITIES STARTED - WITH HARVEY KEITEL AND THE TURTLES. DOUBLE DOWN!!

    Today, we feature a Christmas cracker that offers some new perspectives on one of our most treasured holiday traditions - The Xmas Song: First, The Turtles, singing “Christmas is My Time of Year,” then, the esteemed actor, Harvey Keitel, telling an off the wall Christmas story, from the film Smoke. Putting on a favorite holiday tape or CD as you wrap the presents or trim the tree was always a highly anticipated ritual - Frank, Dino, Elvis, or Bing never failed to make the season bright. In the 60’s Rock era, of course, Phil Spector’s album was a must. Every pop artist has made one, even Bob Dylan. It made Irving Berlin and Mel Torme millions.  It’s generally a can’t miss proposition. But, I’ll bet you never considered these selections. One isn’t even a song; and then there’s the Turtles number, which is seemingly on the money, but not universally known.  THE TURTLES "Christmas is My Time of Year" was written by the jewish Howard Kaylan and the Turtle’s bassist and veteran of the Modern Folk Quartet, Chip Douglas. Douglas also produced, populating the recording with such country rock luminaries as Gram Parsons and Linda Ronstadt. The track has a folksy flair with its twangy guitars and dobros. It’s military 4 on the floor marching beat gives it an overly perky, trying too hard feel, but it’s still a lot of fun - and that’s the mark of a good Turtles song. isn't it?: always promoting optimism and good feelings. Even when they’re singing dark material like PF Sloan’s “Let Me Be” the music counterpoints the dreariness with sunshine. HARVEY KEITEL in SMOKE Rich threw this curveball into the mix, and I LOVE IT! Mr. Keitel has always been a favorite of ours - and in this clip from Wayne Wang’s Smoke he knocks it out of the park with this shaggy holiday story negotiating the mixed up urges of conscience and larceny. At the end of the segment there is a black and white rendering of the story accompanied by Tom Waits, singing “Innocent when you Dream”. And, it’s here that the overall theme emerges: Christmas is that time when we aspire to live up to our best selves. But, there are so many contradictory images that interfere with this aspiration. We are exhorted to consume, going into debt for the good of the economy, and to our peril. All around us we might notice that the lonely and disenfranchised are suffering worse than ever during this time. So, we look away, trying not to face the disturbing prospect that it could be us next year. We’re only human, after all - but, to be better more than just one day out of the year shouldn’t be asking too much. But, how to begin?

    19 min
  7. THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS EXTEND AN INVITATION TO PARTAKE IN SOME INSTRUMENTAL INSPIRATIONS! ANOTHER TWO-FER OF CLASSIC "STACK OF 45s" EPISODES WITH THE VENTURES AND JOE MEEK'S TORNADOS. ENJOY!!

    12/05/2025

    THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS EXTEND AN INVITATION TO PARTAKE IN SOME INSTRUMENTAL INSPIRATIONS! ANOTHER TWO-FER OF CLASSIC "STACK OF 45s" EPISODES WITH THE VENTURES AND JOE MEEK'S TORNADOS. ENJOY!!

    Rich and I are having a ball, reliving our memorable episodes and sharing the cream with you. Today we feature two dynamic instrumental tracks that warranted some our closer scrutiny: Hawaii 5-0 by the Ventures, and Telstar by the Tornados (written and produced by the legendary Joe Meek.

    57 min
  8. THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT "DOUBLE TROUBLE" - IN PRAISE OF A PRODUCER: CELEBRATING THE ARTISTRY OF JEFF LYNNE. DOUBLE DOWN!!

    11/29/2025

    THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT "DOUBLE TROUBLE" - IN PRAISE OF A PRODUCER: CELEBRATING THE ARTISTRY OF JEFF LYNNE. DOUBLE DOWN!!

    I hear Jeff Lynne has recently been sidelined by a mysterious infection, and had to cancel some performances. We wish the revered music producer and founder of ELO good health and a quick recovery. Today, Bill and Rich, The Splendid Bohemians would like to celebrate this versatile Rock stylist by playing two cuts separated by decades, from two vastly different incarnations, but somehow identifiable as his, if only by the unique sensibility in which these cuts are marinated: Imposters of Life’s Magazine by The Idle Race, and Tweeter and the Monkey Man by The Traveling Wilburys. There are certain tropes that signify this creator’s hand: catchy musical themes, thick layers of horns and strings and witty Beatle-esque harmonies - (he even got to work with the resurrected voice of John Lennon when producing the Beatle’s ghostly “reunion”tracks Free As a Bird, and Real Love. Like so many of his generation, Jeff came up under the spell of the mop tops, and even this early recording by the Idle Race has that 1967 Psychedelic flavor, pre-dating by a year, but somehow reminiscent of his future Willburys bandmate, George Harrison’s song Savoy Truffle.  IMPOSTERS OF LIFE’S MAGAZINE The personnel changes of the several Birmingham beat groups in the mid-sixties are too numerous to recite here, but one group, The Nightriders are notable because they took on a teenaged Lynne as guitarist in ’66 - and changed their name to The Idle Race (a more timely handle). Roy Wood of the Move, Jeff’s friend and future partner in the formation of ELO, helped the IR get signed, and influential DJ John Peel was an early and strong promoter of the group. Jeff’s tenure with IR was short lived however, and in 1970 he founded (with Wood) the legendary Electric Light Orchestra. This early composition has all the hallmarks that would later define Jeff’s work: witty, yet Romantic lyrics; hard driving rhythms, but with plenty of surprisingly lush filigree. The ambition of the work, with its startlingly different movements, is impressive for such a young talent - but, at the core is Jeff’s unmistakable ear for the “hook” - marking him as one of the most reliable masters of Pop. TWEETER AND THE MONKEY MAN Tweeter and the Monkey Man, from 22 years later - demonstrates how far the musician had come professionally.  Here Jeff is, arguably the lowest man on the totem pole of The Traveling Wilburys, a Super Group’s Super Group (with a Beatle, George Harrison, future Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Roy - fucking - Orbison…., yet his mark is unmistakeable. This tune, supposedly written by Bob Dylan, who spittingly delivers it like a parody of Springsteen’s New Jersey, drenched in a Sopranos sauce - and it’s just plain fun. But, the chorus, penned by Jeff with George Harrison, lifts the track to the existential level of a rock opera, giving it “the hook,” the drama and the flair.  The layers on this musical cake are delicious - there’s George’s sly slide work; the Lady Madonna horns, the timpani booms counterpointed by a tinkling piano riff; the building of the strings and horns and oohing and aaahing harmonies… they suck me in every time. Good stuff!

    13 min
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4.8
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About

My Fellow Americans, Life is actually just a microscopic, deluded moment in time, so let's cut to the freakin' chase. One look at our impending election debacle can solidify my case. It has been my contention since birth, that the answer to every difficulty we encounter on this sacred yet demented Stone, can be revealed with ultimate clarity through the ultra neurotic engagements of Music, Art, Literature, Film, Poetry and a good Pastrami sandwich. Why would any sane human spend so must time on a film set (Do you know how long you gotta wait until your 8 second deliverance of an edited beyond repair line gets a chance to become a professional embarrassment etched in time forever? ) or expend so much energy in a recording studio, piecing together another ode to a man or woman who could not care less how much love existed within your digestive tract? It's all about hymns and prayers and a quest for mercy and forgiveness and silence and faith. We were blessed with Charles Bukowski,  Gene Chandler, Lenny Bruce, Mitch Ryder and a legion of creative explorers whose influences provided the air we breathe.  So Let's Dance! This site shall explore the reaper, find a way to disarm the stench of injustice, discover some true loves and talk it all over before it's all over. So what's the worst that our desires could produce? Failure? So sue me. I'm going to require your assistance in making as much trouble for the grown-ups as possible. Let the record show that my childish heart yearns to disrupt the madness. Join me Ladies and Germs! With Gratitude For Gena Rowlands, Nancy Sinatra, Jerry Quarry, Leo Gorcey, Arthur Alexander and Joey Heatherton, Your Splendid Bohemian, Rich Buckland.

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