WOODY GUTHRIE wrote "THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND" as an angry, politically pointed response to IRVING BERLIN's "GOD BLESS AMERICA." A line from Guthrie's original version: "There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me." If you're complaining this morning that LADY GAGA's SUPER BOWL halftime show was safe, conservative or "lacked any edge," I urge you to consider that she opened with snippets of those two songs, emphasizing that "this land was made for you and me," before diving off the roof of NRG STADIUM to play a deliciously glammy and poppy set that included an LGBT anthem featuring the phrase "transgendered life." If that's considered playing it safe in 2017, keep playing it safe, Gaga... I'm always amazed at how halftime crews can build and dismantle a stadium stage within a rigid 30-minute window—with a 12-minute performance in the middle. Championship-level preparation and execution... MARC SPITZ, who died unexpectedly at age 47 on Saturday, was a rock critic, playwright, novelist, raconteur and sunglasses-at-night throwback to a louche NEW YORK rock and roll spirit that has been repeatedly pronounced dead over the past 20 or 30 years but has never actually died because that's not how spirit works and because nothing is stronger than willpower plus imagination plus desire, which by all accounts Marc Spitz possessed in copious amounts. I never met him, but my social feeds were full this weekend of stories of all the obnoxious things he did that made people fall in love with him. And tears. Lots of tears. RIP... Here's his 2003 SPIN cover story on the STROKES... And his episode of WTF With MARC MARON... Speaking of louche rock critics, BARNEY HOSKYNS once invoiced NME for a quarter-gram of heroin, which he says he needed to secure an interview with JOHNNY THUNDERS. Hoskyns writes beautifully about overcoming his drug addiction and embracing his life... How do you know a band's last show is really its last show? "As far as I am concerned, this is the end," OZZY OSBOURNE said of the end of BLACK SABBATH's "The End" tour Saturday in their hometown BIRMINGHAM. It ended with an encore of "PARANOID" amid a sea of black and purple balloons. But as far as TONY IOMMI is concerned, "We're not saying goodbye as such, as in we're never going to do it again." Bottom line: Never say die... Meantime, here's our REDEF MusicSET on artists' Last Waltzes—Black Sabbath included, for now... BANDCAMP did over $1 million in sales on Friday, a day on which it donated all revenue to the ACLU... RIP DAVID AXELROD and WALTER HAUTZIG.