The real star of yesterday’s strip finally gets top billing in today’s strip!
Like certain parts of the comics page we are too polite to mention here at Son of Stuck Funky, the old pool sits sadly: unused, unloved, overgrown, and falling apart. Unlike certain parts of the comics page we are too polite to mention here at Son of Stuck Funky, the old pool has actually been replaced.
Les is one to talk about “Summers* slipping away”…. At least Funky is willing to admit his memory lapses.
*It has been 43 days (and counting) since Summer’s most recent appearance in this strip. The three gaps prior to that were 145, 408, and 107 days.
Son of Stuck Funky 
Gee, something that was once enjoyable and fun but is now dried up, empty, and useless. What a perfect metaphor for Act III Funky and Les.
I can’t believe he took the time to explain the decrepit, abandoned pool. See? It really CAN be done! The word balloons really CAN be used for something other than rehashing already-established plot points, wry banter, unnecessarily maudlin, downbeat “reflections” and complaining about physical ailments. I didn’t think he had it in him.
Les is supposedly a writer and an English teacher and that word salad comes out of his mouth in panel 2?
You called it yesterday–Batiuk’s explanation of what happened to the pool isn’t interesting.
Yeah, what he appears to be saying here is that memories are looking over his shoulder, from behind, at summers that have slipped away. Which of course makes no sense at all, but I guess BatYam thought Les sounded more profound that way. Then again, given how this guy writes, who the hell really knows?
I’m starting to think that Les and Funky aren’t so much sad because Lisa died, as much as they’re jealous that she got to feel Death’s sweet embrace before they did.
Maybe it’s me. I am 68. But I checked the link back to Cory’s? wedding, and came back to today’s strip. I had to reload it. I already forgot what I read 5 minutes ago. (By the way on that old post, if you pull up the comments, BJr6000 and I discuss conflict in FW. I was of the Pollyanna opinion. BJ was far more realistic and accurate.) As far as old pools and Funky’s memories, I got nothing, but some of you will find the diamonds. Thanks ahead of time!
A couple of days ago, BJ recommended “Todd in the Shadows”. Watched ‘Play that Funky Music’. Todd is great. Thank you.
Unrelated question: listened to George Harrison playing, ‘While my Guitar Gently Weeps’. To me that is the greatest guitar solo. (I am often wrong) What would you all suggest as a worthy competitor? This is just a mild attempt on my part to get introduced to music I haven’t heard. I might put them in a folder titled: A Pool’s Lost Memories.
“While my guitar gently weeps” does have a great guitar solo… played by (an uncredited) Eric Clapton. The Beatles were already experiencing discord at this time and George brought in his friend Eric. He thought that John and Paul would be on their best behavior if someone they respected was in the studio.
Well, I always have a soft spot for 17 year-old Dave Davies’ solo on YRGM; manic and all over the place but it was a sound that nobody had heard at the time. From a technical standard, I would have to say Peter Green’s solo on “Oh Well” has to be at the top of the class. I can’t remember who said it but the quote was something like “you can’t really say you can play the guitar until you can play “Oh Well”. Whe you hear the song, you understand why the band was called “Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac” at the time.
Not what most people think of when they think “ace guitar solo”, but I love the 30 second guitar solo in “King In A Catholic Style” by China Crisis. (The solo itself is by session player Tim Renwick, one of the tops in the biz). Not show-offy, but enormously fluid and melodic while being compact and to the point.
I’ll have to revisit the Peter Green era (Fleetwood Mac has a lot of eras!) and check that out, as well as the original “Black Magic Woman.”
In the late 1970s, I read a review of a Steve Gibbons Band album. One of the songs on it was Chuck Berry’s “Tulane,” and the group apparently did an outstanding version of it; however, the critic had his reservations about praising it too highly, because, as he wrote, “saying a rock band can play Chuck Berry is like saying a cook can boil water.”
Chuck Berry is the lord of learning! Listen to “Anthony Boy,” in which he informs his hero that “with a good education you may become a multi-millionaire.”
Now that you know, she knows I know
You know that all is well…
I wouldn’t call myself a Fleetwood Mac fan, but I absolutely want to read a book about them. That band had so many ace songwriters, so much relationship drama, and did enough cocaine to kill Motley Crue. And they made some amazing albums and persisted for decades despite all that.
Richard Thompson has too many great songs and epic guitar performances to count, but here’s Richard at his finger pickin’ best with the amazing “1952 Vincent Black Lightning”:
And for Thompson in full-on jaw-dropping electric soloing mode, check out the epic live version of “Can’t Win”:
Thanks for sharing the Richard Thompson! I hadn’t heard those particular songs before. And “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is also beautiful and amazing, a favorite of mine.
But, THIS is the best guitar solo of all time.
Richard Thompson is not only a guitarist’s guitarist, he’s a songwriter’s songwriter.
Highly recommended: two tribute albums of his compositions, *Beat the Retreat* and *The World Is a Wonderful Place.”
And as a compiler of songs, check out the soundtrack to “Hard Cash,” a British TV series about the workplace.
I’d better book that ticket for his all-requests show in December soon. Fingers crossed that he’ll play “The Great Valerio.”
Lots of great recommendations here. I would recommend nearly any solo by Robbie Robertson of The Band for this list.
I’d go with David Gilmor’s solos in Comfortably Numb as a personal favorite
As a side note if you haven’t seen Prince’s Solo in While My Guitar Gently Weeps you’re missing something amazing.
Outside of rock there is B B King and Gypsy jazz great Django Reinhardt (who was a real Gypsy and played the astonishing guitar with only two fingers on his fretting hand the other two where damaged in a fire. Do check him out.
I read an article the other day ranking the most famous guitar solos of all time. David Gilmour’s solo in ‘Comfortably Numb’ was #1.
Another good one of Dave’s was the lap steel guitar work in ‘High Hopes’. So beautiful, it drives me to tears every time.
I always enjoyed Jay Graydon’s solo on Steely Dan’s “Peg”.
Also, if you liked Todd in the shadows, (Ha! Tried to type that as an acronym)! Check out Rick Beato on YT.
YaY! Another Rick Beato fan. We love his videos. His son is so talented!
A friend suggested Rick to us several months ago. Another YT series he recommended was Overkill Rewind but we’re not really into Metal.
Thank you all so much for posting great choices for guitar solos. Here’s the funny thing about music: you like what you like, and you know who you know. Other than Chuck Berry and the Kinks, I had never heard of most of these artists. But I have now! I have looked up, and played all of your submissions. As the day progresses, I will listen to them all. Usually I think my music tastes are eclectic. Today, I realized how narrow it was. Thank you.
I was never into RAP music, but my last year of working at the Psych Hospital, I had to do a 1:1 for a young black man with explosive tendencies. He couldn’t stay peaceful around people, so we went to his room and closed the door. Against the rules, I pulled out my phone and played him his favorite music, which was RAP. I heard more RAP music in those 2 weeks than my own music! But he always insisted on ‘God’s Plan’ by Drake. I fell in love with that song. It is not a guitar solo, (I do not even know if RAP has guitar solos, help me if you can!) The music helped him, and we got the chance to be therapeutic.
Last words: This post got started because of ‘While my Guitar Gently Weeps’. Professor Fate recommended Prince. I pulled up the 2004 Rock and Roll HOF. Glorious! The most fun was watching George’s son Dhani, and his reactions.
Again. Thank you all so much. You are a blessing.
Wow, sorialpromise, you really know how to start a conversation.👍
There’s a noticeable trend in this discussion lately.
“Today’s strip blows as usual. Do you guys want to talk about something else?” 😂
This has been fun, hasn’t it. My wife says Rick Beato is fantastic. But her choice is Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s ‘Freebird’.
YaY!
While Batiuk sucks in a variety of ways, he isn’t clever, ambitious or hard-working enough to suck in an infinite variety of ways. He sucks in about 40 to maybe 45 ways. So after we’ve all kind of recognized and acknowledged in which specific ways this week’s strips have sucked, are currently sucking, and will continue to suck? It’s kind of nice to chat about other things, and see what else we all have in common. And to discuss things that don’t suck.
Oh! Guitar solos: Mark Knopfler, Telegraph Road.
Yeah, this conversation has been a lot of fun to read, and learn everyone’s fawes. I was a 1980s kid, so I’m partial to heavy metal guitar solos like “Eruption” or (obscure alert) “Flight Of The Wounded Bumblebee” by Nuno Bettencourt of the band Extreme. I remember trying to learn how to play that when I was in college, from a tab book I bought at a music store. To put it mildly, I was not good at it.
Robert Fripp’s solo on Brian Eno’s “Baby’s on Fire.” Kind of the magnetic reverse of WMGGW.
The abandoned pool just sits there, pretty much open to the general public, protected by a waist-high fence? It seems to meet the legal definition of an attractive nuisance (which is not “the cast of ‘Friends'” but a structure which attracts children into dangerous situations). There’s probably stagnant water at its bottom, allowing mosquitoes to breed. In other words it’s a Westview landmark hitting its peak.
A Westview landmark hitting its peak:
Fantastic work!
Spot on!
Oh, three gaps? Because I was willing to believe 145,000 days.
Nobody uses the old pool much these days. A few years ago an out of state company came in and bought this land from the city, They ripped off the City of Westview big time. Us little people never get a break and now all of our summer memories are gone, soon to be replaced by a big, ugly chemical plant.
You counted up the gaps between Summers? That is some serious dedication and work to put in squint-o-vision at the bottom of your post.
Yeah, Funky, it’s sad to see the town’s second swimming pool going unused. Between that and the fancy tennis courts, your jerkwater Cancerburg has a more bloated sports facilities budget than Milford High School.
Sweet days of summer, moroseness in bloom …
You mean the town’s pickleball groupies haven’t already filled in the pool and put up pickleball courts? Westview really is behind the times…and I was about to mention that Les could run a pickleball tournament to raise money for cancer, just like on that TV commercial (only that one was “pickleball for parks”), but I forgot that he already organizes the Lisa’s Legacy run – so when does the Westview Pickleball Tournament For (some Army-related cause such as PTSD) Sponsored By Montoni’s Pizza, And Hold It In Late October So The Trophy Can Be Presented By The PIZZA MONSTER, happen?
Introducing, the Lisa’s Legacy Pickleball Tournament! The week after Lisa’s Legacy Baseball Classic, and the week before Lisa’s Legacy Run.
Now Funky’s mind is going.
Funky, it’s Les. Get away from him. Your proximity to him is killing you. He sucks all the happiness and good fortune away from everything around him.
Les is a positivity succubus/vampire and he has you under his spell.
Re: guitar solos: Muhammed Suiçmez on Necrophagist’s “Advanced Corpse Tumor”. Ace Frehley on Kiss’ “Strange Ways”. Kirk Hammett on Metallica’s “Ride The Lightning”. And Neil Young on “Cortez The Killer”. And pretty much every EVH solo on the first six Van Halen records. Not necessarily in that order.