Legendary punker's tribute to Bakersfield

I've been listening to a preview copy of Social Distortion's "Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes" and am growing to like the bluesy ballad, "Bakersfield," among about a half-dozen other songs.

I first heard "Bakersfield" in the 2009 live version above when the tale of a lovelorn trucker stuck "a million miles away" from his girl was a work in progress. The studio version of "Bakersfield" is polished and focused but Social D leader Mike Ness has trimmed some of the lyrics that were in the live version, including the reference to Buck Owens:

So I asked myself
What do you suppose ol' Buck Owens would have done in this situation?
And it came to me clear as a bell
He would have gone in house and grabbed that old guitar
And he would have wrote another love song
But not just another love song, people
I'm talking about the love song
The love song of all times
The kind of song that makes a grown man want to break down and cry like a little baby

"Hard Times and Nursery Rhymes," which hits stores Tuesday, visits common Social D themes: loneliness, elusive women, outlaw lifestyles.

Things open with the fiery rockabilly instrumental "Road Zombie," then dive into "California (Hustle and Flow)," a swinging rocker that sounds like an "Exile on Mainstreet" outtake. Gospel-style female backing singers mashed with Social D is an odd mix here -- Ness just seems to be trying too hard to add a bit of flash to his core sound.

The female backing vocals click, however, deeper into the album on the driving rocker "Can't Take It With You."  Other highlights include "Gimme the Sweet and Lowdown," which is classic Social Distortion; and "Diamond in the Rough," a slow-paced rocker featuring some nice guitar breaks. David Hidalgo Jr., son of the legendary Los Lobos star, plays drums, but adds nothing memorable.  

There are a few clunkers, including "Far Side of Nowhere" and the nondescript bluesy rocker "Machine Gun Blues."

"Hard Times and Nursery Crimes" falls short of Social D's best, but given the band's seven-year break between studio recordings this better-than-average punk-tinged rock is like catching up with an old friend. 

"Where Good Ideas Come From"

I'm always amazed at the pace Steven Johnson keeps. He runs his own start-up web company, writes best-selling books, Tweets great insight on social media and other topics, and who knows what else. He is one of our great modern thinkers. 

Having said that I've been holding off on reading his book "Where Good Ideas Come From" even though the title sounds great. I read a few related newspaper and magazine stories/reviews and figured I was good.

But after viewing this promotional video, I'm having second thoughts on diving into the whole book itself. Berlin's video narration is enticing enough, but the animation explaining the thought process is extraordinary (How do they map out that storyline, let alone do the time-lapse video? That alone is a great idea).

The key takeaway for me from Berlin's video message is that great ideas incubate over time, evolving as give-and-take with others occurs. I have all kinds of ideas kicking around in my head, but many are loose ends that seem frayed. Perhaps there is hope after all that the chaos in my mind will coalesce and spit out some brilliance. Hopefully some time reasonably soon. 

Questioning conventional wisdom in sports

You knew that with the success of Malcolm Gladwell and the "Freakonomics" series,  someone smart would apply the same concept of debunking conventional thinking to sports. 

That "someone smart" is the team of Tobias Moskowitz and L. Jon Wertheim, who have written "Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports are Played and Games are Won."

"Scorecasting" won't be released until Jan. 25, but Sports Illustrated has published at least two excerpts. One, apparently published only in the print version of the magazine, exhaustively determines home-field advantage can be traced to only one thing: referee bias. A second excerpt, "The Curse of the No. 1 Draft Pick," is posted at SI.com and confirms what some of us assumed: the top draft pack often comes with more misery than success. 

Both excerpts are great reads. As I noted, it's common knowledge No. 1 picks are often busts, but Moskowitz and Wertheim get into the real factors driving that reality. 

I have thoroughly enjoyed the Gladwell and Freakonomics books and can't wait to get my hands on "Scorecasting."