Sometimes I wonder if people realize what they missed. Well, I suppose I'm sure people wonder the same thing about me, thinking quietly to themselves "boy, I sure feel bad Erik never heard the second Sepultura album" or "wow, Erik is missing out on this whole Michael Buble thing." This is the same as me wondering, out loud sometimes, "gee, what would it be like it everyone in the States had heard the Stone Roses?"

Sure, sometimes they sound just like the Smiths if the Smiths stumbled across dance beats, but man, the Stone Roses were great for, you know, a whole album there, which, in itself amuses me that pretty much the entirety of the Stone Roses legacy is based on a single album. OK, it is a downright brilliant album, but still, imagine that kind of weight being placed on a single piece of work you've done?

No wonder it was almost physically impossible for anything the band ever put out after The Stone Roses to be even a tiny fraction as important to so many people as their debut. That, of course, leads me back to thinking, how much would it cost some music-conscious billionaire to give every youthful American a copy of The Stone Roses? Is that the type of philanthropy we need or am I just being a pretentious anglophile yet again. I'm guessing the latter right now…