I’m not disputing that the song is great. It is. However, in my opinion, it could be superb if it didn’t have a fatal flaw. That flaw is that there is not a third chorus for, “Welcome to the Hotel California.” This has always irked me.

Since there is no third chorus, I hardly ever listen to this song all the way to the end. After the final line, “You can check out any time you like but you can never leave,” there is still 2:08 left in the song. It annoys me that it just trails off into guitar for over two minutes while never hearing the chorus of the song again.

Perhaps I am alone in thinking this way. I realize that the last line, “You can never leave,” doesn’t really warrant anything else to follow that. Still, I don’t see a reason to add two more minutes of music after the vocals are over.

Music content is something I do want to own. I listen to my music over and over again, and cherish my collection. I don’t want to pay $15 a month to listen to unlimited music. No way. I don’t mind paying for tracks and albums. I prefer it. They are mine and I own them. Seeing the public calling for a subscription model for music irks me. That is just what the record companies want you to do, provide a steady revenue stream from subscribers. I say no! I’ll keep my music that is rightfully mine.

Too many business today are thinking of instituting a monthly or annual subscription fee to use their products. Word has it that Windows and Office may adopt that business model in the future. Yuck! Subscriptions are a way to suck more and more money from consumers. If digital content in the future will be comprised of a slew of subscriptions, then the hell with it.

You can add artwork to any song that is currently playing by dragging a picture of the album cover over to the “Now Playing” window within iTunes. The problem with this is that the individual song must be currently playing. The problem is that I want to add a album art to all of the songs on a particular album! You cannot simply highlight all of those tracks in iTunes and use the “Now Playing” window. You have to select a group of songs and then choose “Get Info” and then drag the new artwork from your computer or web browser into the “artwork” window within the Get Info dialog box. For more information, see Apple’s support topic on this issue: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1409.

Below is the cleverly made literal version of that video. It’s hysterical! You’re sure to get a good laugh out of this one. Enjoy!

If you want a laugh and a scare at the same time, watch this video.

Someone has finally posted the Charlotte setlist online. Included with the setlist was a positive show review. Read that here. I am posting the setlist myself, seen below.

1. Your Song
2. Honesty
3. Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me
4. My Life
5. Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
6. Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting
7. Burn Down the Mission
8. Madman Across the Water
9. Tiny Dancer
10. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
11. Daniel
12. Rocket Man
13. Levon
14. I’m Still Standing
15. Crocodile Rock
16. Angry Young Man
17. Moving Out
18. Allentown
19. Zanzibar
20. Don’t Ask Me Why
21. She’s Always a Woman
22. Scenes From an Italian Restaurant
23. River of Dreams
24. We Didn’t Start the Fire
25. Still Rock ‘n’ Roll to Me
26. Only the Good Die Young
27. Bitch Is Back
28. You May Be Right
29. Bennie and the Jets
30. Birthday
31. Back in the USSR
32. Candle in the Wind
33. Piano Man

“I am,” I said to no one there
And no one heard it all
Not even the chair
“I am,” I cried
“I am,” said I
And I am lost and can’t even say why
Leaving me lonely still

On Raise the Dead, tracks 2 (Dropped), 3 (Leader), and 4 (Do the Panic) are absolutely incredible songs. Those tracks alone are hands down worth the price of the CD. I’m hooked. This CD is totally worth the money! I’m thrilled to have discovered this band. I recommend that you give this album a listen.

It was absolutely fantastic. I loved every minute of it. If you like the Stones, it is nothing short of a must-see. It is a stunning production. The picture and sound were simply incredible. We sat directly in the middle of the theater, and the sound was nothing short of out of this world. Amazing quality and clarity.

I have been to five Stones concerts, and I have several DVDs from their past tours. Even considering that fact, the setlist played for Shine a Light was incredible. They played a lot of rarities in this movie. Several of them I have never heard them play live. Not anywhere. “She Was Hot” from the early eighties was a fun choice, which they’d never done before on stage, to my knowledge. “Some Girls” and “Far Away Eyes” were both extreme rarities, too. “Loving Cup” was so great to hear them play live, which I think they have rarely ever done. That one was a duet with Jack White, which sounded quite interesting. But the magic moment for me was when they played “As Tears Go By”. Superb!

Still, I wish they played one or two new songs. At one point, I heard them rehearsing the chords for “She Saw Me Coming” from their last album. I was hoping they’d play it, since it is one of the best from that album. They didn’t include it in the set, though. Bummer. Also, I wish they hadn’t played “Satisfaction” or “Tumbling Dice”. They were both unnecessary, considering they are so played out, and this concert was performed at the Beacon Theater, not a stadium. They should have replaced those with something a lot less played. Still, they were solid performances.

The band puts on a great show for this movie. Their age is no secret, and the shots in this movie leave nothing hidden about their wrinkles. In my eyes, their wear and tear are a testament to how long they survived. Even in their 60s, the Stones put on a show that you’d expect to see of someone half their age.

A tip of the hat to Martin Scorsese for directing this masterpiece. I’ll surely buy the DVD when it comes out. If you plan to see it, you must see it in IMAX! Accept no substitute. Trust me.

I know Apple is scrambling to provide DRM-free, high-quality tracks for all of the songs available through iTunes. The record lables are obviously dragging their feet. However, Amazon seems to have struck a good note with the industry, and are currently leading the pack in this arena. Until iTunes is able to match Amazon’s volume of unrestricted tracks, I’m going to continue buying tracks from Amazon.com.

I don’t have to tell you that iTunes is far and away the best online music store. Buying tracks and burning CDs could not be any easier. The selection is huge. Nearly everything I have searched for has turned up on iTunes. I have never used the podcast or video offerings, but I am extremely satisfied with their music selection. The Barenaked Ladies, one of my favorite bands, have dozens of full length live concerts available through iTunes. I was stunned to find the endless songs available. Most important, all music files are high quality and produce very crisp sound. Files are in an encrypted AAC format, and all have a .m4p file extension.

iTunes even got me to organize my music using the library. I keep organized file folders of all my music files, but I never before played songs using a library. I always shied away from using the library in the Windows Media Player. Using iTunes as a library and music player is easy and fun to use. Making playlists and searching for tracks are so simple and intuitive that a caveman could do it.

Granted, if you have an iPod, you’ll get a lot more out of iTunes. The way it syncs with my iPod is literally plug it in and go. The software even automatically updated the firmware of my iPod hardware all on its own. I can’t imagine other services having anything that matches the close knit functionality of the iPod+iTunes combo. But even without an iPod, you can still make great sounding CDs. Most albums are $9.95 as a whole, much cheaper than buying the physical CD. All songs are 99 cents, otherwise. you save a little if you buy the whole album.

The bottom line: If you regularly shop at a different music store, then I pity you.

A very long time ago (the late 90s), I made a small website for Stones fans and called it Undercover, a name borrowed from their not-so-great album released in 1983. I still have the site online today, though it has very varied web addresses over the years. I have added and subtracted a lot of stuff since it was made, and I finally updated it back when I found out they were having a 2005 tour. The site isn’t much, but I made it myself and once spent a lot of time on it, so I keep it online. It can be found at blitzcraig.com/rollingstones. It has random tour news, band history, my ticket stubs, links to other fan pages, guitar tab links, and more. Check it out, but don’t expect the site to be updated very often, if at all.