You Can Check Out Anytime You Like But You Can Never Leave

Today is 6/6/06. For most people, it's like Halloween in June, although some people really do think the world will end in the next few hours. I don't think it will, although Madison is under a tornado warning at the moment, so I can't be sure. However, I don't think that's how the apocalypse is supposed to begin. Some people think it will begin with the Rapture, when Christian believers are plucked off the planet, leaving the rest of us behind--and utterly screwed. I don't know about that either, but if you'd like to experience "Rapture" like you've never heard it before, visit this link and scroll down a bit.

Elsewhere around the music blogs tonight:

WFMU's Beware of the Blog has gone way overboard in honor of the day.

If you'd prefer a smaller and more manageable motherlode, Awesome Until Proven Guilty has a collection of appropriate tunes, from old school ("Sympathy for the Devil") to new (Bright Eyes and Beck).

If you've never heard Skip James' otherworldly "Devil Got My Woman," go to Un Violon, Un Jambon--and don't worry if you can't speak French.

The editorial staff at Allmusic.com, in their daily feature "The Whole Note" (guys--you need an RSS feed), has come up with a listing of the devil's playlist--Black Sabbath, Robert Johnson at the crossroads, Slayer, Iron Maiden, and Hotel California among them.

"Hotel California" is one of Satan's masterworks, because Old Scratch put a secret backward message into it. And also into "Stairway to Heaven." And also into Britney Spears' "Hit Me Baby One More Time." Jeff Milner is the only man among us with the courage to unmask the scandalous truth.

On a more serious note, if you've been anywhere else on the Internet tonight before coming here, you have probably learned that Billy Preston died today after a long illness. Various music bloggers have already posted tributes that are better than I could manage, so go visit them:

Lil' Mike's Last Known Thoughts and Random Recollections has the rundown of Preston's bio and posts a bunch of tracks, mostly with Preston as a sideman--but be sure to listen to Al Green's cover of "You Are So Beautiful," which Preston co-wrote. It's in the tradition of Green's great 70s covers of "For the Good Times" and "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart," but it's from his 2005 album Everything's OK.

Cable and Tweed has posted some of Preston's biggest hits including "Outa-Space," "Nothing From Nothing," and "Will it Go Round in Circles."

It's getting darker outside here. Maybe I shouldn't have been so flippant about the end of the world. I hope to be back here tomorrow--but time will tell.