Happy Memorial Day

I don't need an organized moment of silence to honor the lives lost in war on Memorial Day.

I simply thank those who made that ultimate sacrifice.

And so, that's all I have tonight: thank you.

To those veterans who are still with us, I hope your Memorial Day has been meaningful.

We'll thank you and honor you more formally on Veteran's Day and every day.

*****
Day 24: A song by a band you wish were still together

Well, there's a simple answer here.

The Beatles. I mean, come on.

But, I'm me. So I'm going to try something else.

The tough part is that there are acts like Fleetwood Mac, who solider on but are missing key members (Buckingham, Lindsey) and Genesis, who were going to reunite for a tour (and snobs like me feel that's great...but no Steve Hackett and, more importantly, no Peter Gabriel).

Then there's Queen and we've covered that one. Great -- there's a band calling themselves Queen that plays their music, featuring ... oh, forget it. I've had too many arguments on that one. Freddie Mercury is dead. This is not Queen, darling.

The Police would qualify, and that was one of the last truly great concerts I saw but there's still the Sting factor and, my God, him solo was arguably one of the worst concerts I saw.

The Doors and The Beatles and Nirvana and others with key members who have died all qualify, of course. But there's also no hope of them reuniting under their brand name (nor should they). Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin also fall under this category.

The Smiths? Nah, Morrissey is too much of an ass to make me care. I think similar things can be said about Oasis. Talking Heads left things sort of in the right spot but I suppose anything can happen, if only to see Tina Weymouth punch David Byrne in the face on stage.

So after some consideration, I went with R.E.M.

They continued on after drummer Bill Berry left the band in 1997 before ending things completely in 2011. Michael Stipe -- ever the enigma -- felt it was just time and that they had done enough. Mike Mills and Peter Buck have each done their own things (as well as Stipe) ever since. Stipe, of course, has also said he's not nostalgic so, unless someone needs money, the odds aren't great.

But that's probably my call, since John, Paul, George and Ringo won't be together anytime soon.

The other obvious answer is Huey Lewis and the News, of course, since Huey's Ménière's disease has probably ended the band's career. But, as of now, they're not officially over. So I'll stick with REM.

Here's the original Hib-Tone version of "Radio Free Europe."