Here at Crabb Radio and Top Ten's Are Us there is no shortage of music to speak of. We have ten slots to fill and somedays it's hard to compile ten and somedaze we have more suggestions than we can fill in ten slots. But with the Davenport bargain hunts plus Half Priced Books 20 percent off and Bruce having tons of CDs at the pawnshop we may have overdone the buying. Oh well such is life and it keeps me running. And occupied. I'm sure I'll be leaving a few off once again and if I do, they may have to wait till next week till we do it all over again.
And again.
And again.
And....
1. Everything The Same (Ain't Nothing Changed)-Billy Swan 1975 There was more to Billy Swan than I Can Help, the one hit that keeps him in people's memory. He wrote Lover Please, the last big hit for Clyde McPlatter, The King covered I Can Help and Swan was a highly sought after session player. He recorded for Monument, had Chip Young produced his hits and had a great Memphis/Nashville collection of players backing him up. The followup single to I Can Help, I'm Her Fool flopped but my dad loved that single enough to wear two copies of that record out but it still didn't make any best of collection. Everything The Same, Swan repeated the song format that made I Can Help a hit and although it charted okay on the country chart (#17) but it didn't make out of the top 90, stalling at a puzzlingly 91 on the Billboard rock chart. No accounting for people's taste but back in the mid 70s a lotta good songs didn't make high on the chart. Bizarre fact: I'm Her Fool failed to make the country chart but peaked at number 53 on the rock chart. And still didn't make Billy Swan's Best.
2. Chicago Line-John Mayall's Bluebreakers 1988 The big news of the weekend was me finally finding a copy of this album that has been out of print for many years for reasons beyond me. I bought the CD when it came out since 99 plus played it one night and it was the comeback album for Mayall. Tony Carey produced it, the guy that gave us Fine Fine Day and once played in Rainbow but perhaps Mayall wasn't too crazy of the production or recording and just jettisoned the album into out of print history. Making a trip to Ragged Records I finally found the CD but at 25 dollars which still is a bargain if you think about it (for more reference see last blog). The CD version is bit more boogie than blues and it was on You Tube but here's a more jazzier and blues version taken from a recent show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzMUNIi0wwM&feature=related
3. Down With The Bass-fIREHOSE 1991 They were The Minutemen till a fatal van accident claimed the life of D.Boon until a fan Ed Crawford convinced Mike Watt to give it another try. They recorded two albums for Columbia before disbanding in 1994 and recently Sony Music reissued both Columbia albums and other assorted tracks for a 2 CD set. A bit more mainstream and tailor ready for the alternative stations that were alternative and not Metallica Alternative like Alt radio is now. One of a few promo cd's that was found in the HP Books bin during the 20 percent off sale. Not bragging since my wallet took a big hit of all these bargains that were found, wasn't the HP Books or Pawnshop stuff, but rather paying 6 dollars for The Who Call Me Lightning and Six dollars for The Sports 1980 And Suddenly album. But I still had a great time sorting through the goodies to find what I wanted.
4. Sausalito Is The Place To Go-The Ohio Express 1969 Not the same band that gave us Yummy Yummy Yummy but rather Graham Gouldman and Hotlegs playing as The Ohio Express. Another interesting 45 that I came across at HP Books that didn't cost me two cheeseburgers and a Coke to get. Gouldman and company would later have a hit with Neanderthal Man the next year for Capitol and somewhere down the line the band renamed themselves 10cc.
5. I Am A Predator-Ted Nugent 1981 Ted being Mr. Funnyman again and actually I enjoy this song quite a bit. It does beat Girl Scout Cookies in terms of being silly without being insulting. From the Epic final Intensities In Ten Cities to which Ted debuts 10 new songs for concert approval. I don't even think the recorded charted that high (Number 51, his poorest Epic showing) but for a throwaway album, he's done much worse. Charlie Huhn, who had a eerie soundalike for Derek St Holmes would leave to join Humble Pie for a few and now resides in Foghat. Side note: Ted's Epic bandmates of Derek St Holmes and Rob Grange are now playing in his band once again (but without Cliff Davies who committed suicide in 2008) and is slated to play at Tama/Toledo Casino next month. Might be worth going to but bring earplugs or you'll be deaf like Wackmaster Teddy is. Still plays a mean guitar, just don't talk politics with him.
6. What I'd Say (1 + 2)-Jerry Lee Lewis 1964 From what might be the first real punk album and probably the best overall live album ever recorded. Of course you have heard of the legend of Jerry Lee, who had two giant hits for Sun and then married his 13 year old cousin which really sent his career down the loo. But he kept plugging away, still making great music to which the public refused to hear. And moved over to Smash Records for a country career that gave him a second chance. But this album Jerry Lee Lewis with The Nashville Teens Live At The Star Club in Hamburg was history in the making. And it scared everybody off who heard this, I'm sure Shelby Singleton Jr gave a big HELL NO on this. This was intense, Jerry Lee was on fire and the Nashville Teens were pissed off that they played most of the Star Club dates without Mr. Lewis' help. In my time of buying music and 45 years of it, this live document remains the most intense and brutal live performance ever recorded and does give a good argument from Gibby Hayes that Jerry Lee is the devil on Jesus Built My Hot Rod. It would take almost 30 years for any US label to release this stateside and of course that came from Rhino Records in 1992 although Bear Family would issue it via import and with a bonus track. Play that thing right Boy, he yells at a Nashville Teen and it's hard to tell who he was barking at, guitarist, drummer, maybe all of them. At times the playing is so over the top that the drummer can't keep up so he bashes away at the cymbals while Jerry Lee yells at the audience YOU BETTER GET ON YOUR KNEES AND SHAKE THAT THING as if this was his final stab at being the king of rock and roll and for one night, Jerry Lee was The King. Elvis never even came close to outdo Jerry Lee on this live outing and it even makes The Stooges and The Who look polished and disciplined. This is the kind of music that your parents warned you about and it's not pretty. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGHz9-S0j-w
It's what they call rock and roll.
7. Sweet Leaf-Widespread Panic 2004 A cover of Black Sabbath's lead off from Master Of Reality it shows the versatile ways of this jam band who made a few live albums on Sanctuary back in the early 00's. I think I like their metal reworkings rather than the James Brown cover off Jackassolantern which a live covers album. Cold Sweat goes on too long and 16 minutes of Ball Of Confusion with Dirty Dozen Brass Band is jamnombics gone haywire but on the other side, their 5 minute tribute to BOC's Godzilla is actually too short.
8. Don Henley Must Die-Mojo Nixon 1989 He was a MTV icon with Skid Roper but on this effort and the album Otis, Nixon put together a hell of a lineup: Country Dick Montana on drums, Dash Rip Rock's Bill Davis and Eric Ambel on guitar and X's John Doe on bass, got the late Jim Dickerson to produce it and named the album after Otis Redding so to speak. This got some airplay and though it was tongue in cheek, Don Henley wasn't impressed. With Bill and Roscoe trading Hotel California licks, Mojo tells them to quit playing that crap, you're outta the band gives me a chuckle when I hear it. Against Mojo's wishes The Eagles did reunite for a tour and album and so did the Police come to think of it. IRS records reissued Otis for a time in the 90s but now has fallen out of print. For the rest of them Roscoe Ambel has been a sought after producer and plays in The Yayhoos and sometimes Steve Earle's band, John Doe went back to X, Country Dick Montana died around 1996 playing for the Beat Farmers and Bill Davis still leads Dash Rip Rock.
9. Walking By Myself-Jimmy Rogers 1956 He wasn't that well known as a artist for Chess Records but he was more famous for being sideman to Muddy Waters but I think this was his best known Chess song. Back in the old daze of cd collecting I made a habit to seek out Chess reissues on CD (at first they appeared on albums in the 1980s for Sugar Hill and later MCA when they purchased the Chess masters from Sugar Hill, not the Sugar Hill Records of bluegrass fame but the Sugar Hill Records ran by Sylvia Robinson) and never did pick up Chicago Bound till I found it at the pawnshop. Chess Blues of the 50s actually were considered more rock at times and while the American kids preferred something more sweeter and pop, the UK kids started picking up on the Chess Blues and forming their own bands. Rogers would continue to record for another 40 years before passing away, his last album was on Atlantic and one song featuring Robert Plant and Jimmy Page.
10. In A Dream-Norah Jones 2012 She's been around for 10 years now, Don't Know Why continues to get airplay on soft rock but there's more to Norah than just that jazz lite number. The past year she played piano on Ryan Adams' comeback album Ashes And Fire and her new album shows her working with Brian Burton aka Danger Mouse on a new album that left me cold when I first heard it but now really warmed up to it Little Broken Hearts to which she reinvents herself in making a sound somewhat like Portishead. So far the album hasn't sold very well but in my opinion this may be her best record to date. And if she sells ten more copies of Little Broken Hearts then I'll take credit for suggesting this may be one of the best records of 2012. But at this point, anything is better than Don't Know Why since that song has been killed by the radio. And while nobody was paying attention she did release a new album by her side project The Little Willies too. She's been a busy little girl.
Bubbling under:
Where Have All The Good Times Gone-Van Halen 1981
I Wanna Stay Home-Jellyfish 1992
Here For The Party-Gretchen Wilson 2004
Over You-Miranda Lambert 2011
Angel Eyes-Johnny Mathis 1956
PS: Doesn't seem like people are that interested in reading about the Bargain Hunts since the Ann Arbor one only had like 7 views and the Ragged Records blog only 6. But then again that may be a typo on Blogspot and that more people read them.
RIP Doc Watson, who passed away at age 89.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
Leftovers From The Month Of May
This month the last two weekends found me buying out record stores in Ann Arbor and Davenport and not to be forgotten the pawnshop and Half Priced Books' 20 percent off sale this weekend has given me no shortage of music to dive into. Still hoping that we can make it to the Iowa City Arts Festival next weekend although I have a bad feeling we may have to work it and miss out on Los Lobos.
While the CD collection grew big with forgotten stuff, the new music of this year has been very slight. In fact I don't think I reviewed more than 20 new cds of this year. Mostly reissues and unreleased live albums of Omniverse and somehow scored The Live Jellyfish which is supposed to be released next week and I'm sure Best Buy won't have it. So far in my new file I still have 9 CDs from last year in regular play. Hell the new music is is animeic that I might not even submit a best of 2012. Not that it matters, nobody bothered to read the best of 2011.
With finding Chicago Line at Ragged Records, this completes my want list of Cd's traded away that I wished I never did and even at 25 dollars it was still a bargain compared to Amazon.com cheapest of 50 dollars. Common logic says that if you can find it, if you figure in time and gas expenses that it's better to pick things up when you see them. But then it's a tough job trying to keep a record store going in business but Ragged Records along with Record Collector and Moondog and CD's 4 Change have managed to stay afloat in a biz that's more downloading tracks rather than having records or CD. Ragged may be the best of what they do, after seeing their huge 45 selection I'm convinced that I have yet to really see it all judging by of the obscure stuff that they have. I may have err in judgement of paying 6 bucks for Call Me Lightning, especially on the scratch on the B side but that falls upon me. The slight thing about Ragged is that they keep the CDs up front and not in the jewel case (for security reasons) which sometimes you get plastic sleeve blemishes that diminish the quality of the CD should you want to resell it back. HP Books does that on some Cd's as well. I know in past blogs I was bitching about the lack of quality music stores in Davenport but with this weekend has indicated, I overlooked two major stores of note and both Ragged Records and The Source Book Store make going to the Quad Cities a whole day event in search of the forgotten record.
More Michigan Madness: Jackson. It was over 35 years ago that I was there and driving by that city last weekend I thought about stopping there and seeing what was there for entertainment. Had a old friend that lived in Vandercook area and lived close by to Ted Nugent's hideaway out in the country but I think their Grandpa passed away in the 80s and lost contact soon after. Jackson has an Old Country Buffet unlike Coralville anymore but then again I've been pissed at Old Country for closing the Coral Ridge Mall one and pretty much boycotted them on my exodus to Madison. Next time when I'm up there I may stop in Jackson and see if I can remember the places that I used to go way back then back in 1975 when I'd go beer can hunting and finding a whole bunch of oldies but moldies potential spider homes in a 12 oz can.
Ratings should be stable here. I took the the More Crabb Pitchers blog off simply of no value and that Mexican hat pic was not one of my better poses. I did like the long hair on the other pic so maybe I'll repost that at another time and place. The Boone Novy tribute got the most views but I'm kinda intrigued by the 13 views of The Randy Cliffs' classic album Trixie Trailer Sales. I found the balloon spike on that blog to be the most interesting and maybe that might generate some interest in that band. One day 11 views went to the Brian Howe Bad Company Blog and maybe people still enjoy that forgotten era. After all they picked up where Foreigner left off in the late 80s and both Dangerous Age and Holy Water still sound good, Here Comes Trouble I'm not so sure about.
Gordon Anderson has been doing great things at Real Gone Music even though I haven't purchased anything from Real Gone but he has quietly been reissuing the ABKCO stuff from Collector's Choice Music which still functions as a place to buy CDs and DVD's But he has let known that The New Christy Minstrels 2 CD will be reissued once again. Or maybe the Paul Revere And The Raider's Singles Collection. Whatever the case he has put out Mark Lindsay's best of to which was more pop and less interesting than the rock outs of The Raiders. Still I wished that somebody would issue Tom Gray's old band The Brains albums on CD since Universal sees no need of doing so (But they will rehash every GD greatest hits and rename it ICON) so basically we resorting to old LPs and Cassettes to hear it. Even Tom Gray gave up on seeing it reissued too. But there's a new Delta Moon to review and hear. Real Gone Music picks up where Collector's Choice leaves off and I'm sure their catalog will rival that of CCM. After all most anything that came out on CCM was worth hearing once (including the Mitch Miller protest album that Atlantic quietly put out in 1970 thereabouts SD 8177).
With Ann Arbor and the Davenport Record tour behind, next month promises a return to Iowa City, Mad City again in July and Dubuque somewhere in between. And whatever Segal's Pawnshop has for tunes. Or you can find me at my second home Half Priced Books at any given moment. I'm surprised nobody has called me by my name there yet.
http://blog.billkopp.com/
Link of the day: Bill Kopp's music blog. Another music blog worth reading.
BTW, Big Lots had that Old Crab Lives here with both eyes in tact at the Davenport place. This is not the actual one but rather something close to that. If I find the right one I post that one. Enjoy.
While the CD collection grew big with forgotten stuff, the new music of this year has been very slight. In fact I don't think I reviewed more than 20 new cds of this year. Mostly reissues and unreleased live albums of Omniverse and somehow scored The Live Jellyfish which is supposed to be released next week and I'm sure Best Buy won't have it. So far in my new file I still have 9 CDs from last year in regular play. Hell the new music is is animeic that I might not even submit a best of 2012. Not that it matters, nobody bothered to read the best of 2011.
With finding Chicago Line at Ragged Records, this completes my want list of Cd's traded away that I wished I never did and even at 25 dollars it was still a bargain compared to Amazon.com cheapest of 50 dollars. Common logic says that if you can find it, if you figure in time and gas expenses that it's better to pick things up when you see them. But then it's a tough job trying to keep a record store going in business but Ragged Records along with Record Collector and Moondog and CD's 4 Change have managed to stay afloat in a biz that's more downloading tracks rather than having records or CD. Ragged may be the best of what they do, after seeing their huge 45 selection I'm convinced that I have yet to really see it all judging by of the obscure stuff that they have. I may have err in judgement of paying 6 bucks for Call Me Lightning, especially on the scratch on the B side but that falls upon me. The slight thing about Ragged is that they keep the CDs up front and not in the jewel case (for security reasons) which sometimes you get plastic sleeve blemishes that diminish the quality of the CD should you want to resell it back. HP Books does that on some Cd's as well. I know in past blogs I was bitching about the lack of quality music stores in Davenport but with this weekend has indicated, I overlooked two major stores of note and both Ragged Records and The Source Book Store make going to the Quad Cities a whole day event in search of the forgotten record.
More Michigan Madness: Jackson. It was over 35 years ago that I was there and driving by that city last weekend I thought about stopping there and seeing what was there for entertainment. Had a old friend that lived in Vandercook area and lived close by to Ted Nugent's hideaway out in the country but I think their Grandpa passed away in the 80s and lost contact soon after. Jackson has an Old Country Buffet unlike Coralville anymore but then again I've been pissed at Old Country for closing the Coral Ridge Mall one and pretty much boycotted them on my exodus to Madison. Next time when I'm up there I may stop in Jackson and see if I can remember the places that I used to go way back then back in 1975 when I'd go beer can hunting and finding a whole bunch of oldies but moldies potential spider homes in a 12 oz can.
Ratings should be stable here. I took the the More Crabb Pitchers blog off simply of no value and that Mexican hat pic was not one of my better poses. I did like the long hair on the other pic so maybe I'll repost that at another time and place. The Boone Novy tribute got the most views but I'm kinda intrigued by the 13 views of The Randy Cliffs' classic album Trixie Trailer Sales. I found the balloon spike on that blog to be the most interesting and maybe that might generate some interest in that band. One day 11 views went to the Brian Howe Bad Company Blog and maybe people still enjoy that forgotten era. After all they picked up where Foreigner left off in the late 80s and both Dangerous Age and Holy Water still sound good, Here Comes Trouble I'm not so sure about.
Gordon Anderson has been doing great things at Real Gone Music even though I haven't purchased anything from Real Gone but he has quietly been reissuing the ABKCO stuff from Collector's Choice Music which still functions as a place to buy CDs and DVD's But he has let known that The New Christy Minstrels 2 CD will be reissued once again. Or maybe the Paul Revere And The Raider's Singles Collection. Whatever the case he has put out Mark Lindsay's best of to which was more pop and less interesting than the rock outs of The Raiders. Still I wished that somebody would issue Tom Gray's old band The Brains albums on CD since Universal sees no need of doing so (But they will rehash every GD greatest hits and rename it ICON) so basically we resorting to old LPs and Cassettes to hear it. Even Tom Gray gave up on seeing it reissued too. But there's a new Delta Moon to review and hear. Real Gone Music picks up where Collector's Choice leaves off and I'm sure their catalog will rival that of CCM. After all most anything that came out on CCM was worth hearing once (including the Mitch Miller protest album that Atlantic quietly put out in 1970 thereabouts SD 8177).
With Ann Arbor and the Davenport Record tour behind, next month promises a return to Iowa City, Mad City again in July and Dubuque somewhere in between. And whatever Segal's Pawnshop has for tunes. Or you can find me at my second home Half Priced Books at any given moment. I'm surprised nobody has called me by my name there yet.
http://blog.billkopp.com/
Link of the day: Bill Kopp's music blog. Another music blog worth reading.
BTW, Big Lots had that Old Crab Lives here with both eyes in tact at the Davenport place. This is not the actual one but rather something close to that. If I find the right one I post that one. Enjoy.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Ragged Records And The Source Bookstore-Davenport
A week after Ann Arbor, the bargain hunting mobile took a trip down to Davenport for the first time in almost a year. I was informed that there were two record stores that were in downtown, Tom told me about the Source Book Store and Jenna told me about Ragged Records, both within walking distance of each other and about a block away from the Mississippi River.
I didn't have time to stop at Stuff Etc, which is next door to Big Lots and Goodwill was closed at 6 but I spent about 2 hours at both Source Book Store and then at Ragged Records.
Source Book Store has been around for years but this is my first time of actually knowing it existed and I did managed to find a couple albums of note: Who Live At Leeds at 3 dollars and Detective It Takes One To Know One for 2, which replaced a warped copy that I got at Arizona and couldn't play. However The Sports 1980 And Suddenly cost 6 bucks, probably should have put that one back. The cheap LPs were up front and the back but the pricey albums were in the basement and there was lots of albums to sort and seek through.
Ragged Records has the most 45s that I have ever seen in this day and age. Call my crazy but had to get a replacement copy of Call Me Lightning by The Who for six bucks but Ragged also had a promo copy of that album and about 10 copies of Emmit Rhodes 1970 hit Fresh As A Daisy. They pretty let me sort through the ones not categorized to which I found Ted Casady's The Lurch for Capitol. Perhaps the find of the day was John Mayall's 1988 CD Chicago Line to which I had once and gave it away to somebody and could never locate a copy till Ragged Records had one for 25 bucks. I usually don't go all out on out of print stuff but this Cd has become so rare that I figured I better just pay it now and not waste gas making a second trip later. I think it was Bob that waited on me on the 45s and he's a expert in pricing them. The building is located before the bridge across the Mississippi to the Arsenal and it's so unassuming that you'd never know it is a record store although there's a small sign out in front. http://qctimes.com/business/article_b73ec14a-206a-11e0-9866-001cc4c03286.html
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ragged-Records/116230848442228
This is Bob Herington. Owner of Ragged Records, he got to meet me in 45 bins. Great guy.
Moline still has the FYE store in the mall but I found nothing and got bored with them in a hurry. Same thing with the Books A Minute store on 53rd which takes over for Borders in the same spot. I don't think their selection is any more better than the Dubuque store. But after going to Source Book Store and Ragged Records, I really didn't see the need to go anywhere else. Ragged Records is for the hardcore music collector. To which I'm sure they'll be seeing me once again before the year is out.
http://www.sourcebookstore.net/
And there's Co Op Records in Moline. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Co-Op-Records-of-Moline/135926373139069
I figured the last time I went to Davenport I was complaining there wasn't any good music stores when I didn't pay much attention to what was downtown. Looks like Davenport has inched ahead of Dubuque and Iowa City in terms of music stores to speak of. I'm sure I'm due for a IC trip soon. Bargain hunters never sleep.
From Ragged Records
CD:
John Mayall/Bluesbreakers-Chicago Line (Island 1988)
The Silencers-Dance To The Holy Man (RCA 1989)
45's
The Who-Call Me Lightning (Decca 32288)
Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity-This Wheels On Fire (Atco 6593)
The Detergents-Double-O-Seven (Roulette 4603)
Ted Cassidy-The Lurch (Capitol 5503)
Earl Knight/George Kelley-Let It Roll Part 1 and 2 (ABC Paramount 10023)
Wadsworth Mansion-Sweet Mary (Long Version) Sussex SUX 209
The Dictators-Sleeping With The TV On (Asylum 45470)
Fats Domino-Red Sails In The Sunset (ABC Paramount 10484)
Don Gibson-I Let Her Get Lonely (RCA 47-8017)
45 not brought due to a crack:
The Wildweeds-No Good To Cry (Cadet 5561) (Features Al Anderson later of NRBQ fame)
http://www.wildweeds.net/index.php
Too scratchy to get from the Salvation Army
Jo Jo Gunne-Rock Around The Symbol (Asylum AS 11012)
Cd from Salvation Army
Johnny Mathis (Columbia 1956, 1996 Reissue)
I didn't have time to stop at Stuff Etc, which is next door to Big Lots and Goodwill was closed at 6 but I spent about 2 hours at both Source Book Store and then at Ragged Records.
Source Book Store has been around for years but this is my first time of actually knowing it existed and I did managed to find a couple albums of note: Who Live At Leeds at 3 dollars and Detective It Takes One To Know One for 2, which replaced a warped copy that I got at Arizona and couldn't play. However The Sports 1980 And Suddenly cost 6 bucks, probably should have put that one back. The cheap LPs were up front and the back but the pricey albums were in the basement and there was lots of albums to sort and seek through.
Ragged Records has the most 45s that I have ever seen in this day and age. Call my crazy but had to get a replacement copy of Call Me Lightning by The Who for six bucks but Ragged also had a promo copy of that album and about 10 copies of Emmit Rhodes 1970 hit Fresh As A Daisy. They pretty let me sort through the ones not categorized to which I found Ted Casady's The Lurch for Capitol. Perhaps the find of the day was John Mayall's 1988 CD Chicago Line to which I had once and gave it away to somebody and could never locate a copy till Ragged Records had one for 25 bucks. I usually don't go all out on out of print stuff but this Cd has become so rare that I figured I better just pay it now and not waste gas making a second trip later. I think it was Bob that waited on me on the 45s and he's a expert in pricing them. The building is located before the bridge across the Mississippi to the Arsenal and it's so unassuming that you'd never know it is a record store although there's a small sign out in front. http://qctimes.com/business/article_b73ec14a-206a-11e0-9866-001cc4c03286.html
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ragged-Records/116230848442228
This is Bob Herington. Owner of Ragged Records, he got to meet me in 45 bins. Great guy.
Moline still has the FYE store in the mall but I found nothing and got bored with them in a hurry. Same thing with the Books A Minute store on 53rd which takes over for Borders in the same spot. I don't think their selection is any more better than the Dubuque store. But after going to Source Book Store and Ragged Records, I really didn't see the need to go anywhere else. Ragged Records is for the hardcore music collector. To which I'm sure they'll be seeing me once again before the year is out.
http://www.sourcebookstore.net/
And there's Co Op Records in Moline. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Co-Op-Records-of-Moline/135926373139069I figured the last time I went to Davenport I was complaining there wasn't any good music stores when I didn't pay much attention to what was downtown. Looks like Davenport has inched ahead of Dubuque and Iowa City in terms of music stores to speak of. I'm sure I'm due for a IC trip soon. Bargain hunters never sleep.
From Ragged Records
CD:
John Mayall/Bluesbreakers-Chicago Line (Island 1988)
The Silencers-Dance To The Holy Man (RCA 1989)
45's
The Who-Call Me Lightning (Decca 32288)
Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity-This Wheels On Fire (Atco 6593)
The Detergents-Double-O-Seven (Roulette 4603)
Ted Cassidy-The Lurch (Capitol 5503)
Earl Knight/George Kelley-Let It Roll Part 1 and 2 (ABC Paramount 10023)
Wadsworth Mansion-Sweet Mary (Long Version) Sussex SUX 209
The Dictators-Sleeping With The TV On (Asylum 45470)
Fats Domino-Red Sails In The Sunset (ABC Paramount 10484)
Don Gibson-I Let Her Get Lonely (RCA 47-8017)
45 not brought due to a crack:
The Wildweeds-No Good To Cry (Cadet 5561) (Features Al Anderson later of NRBQ fame)
http://www.wildweeds.net/index.php
Too scratchy to get from the Salvation Army
Jo Jo Gunne-Rock Around The Symbol (Asylum AS 11012)
Cd from Salvation Army
Johnny Mathis (Columbia 1956, 1996 Reissue)
Friday, May 25, 2012
Dammed By The Radio
After a week in Michigan, I still feel like I'm still on Michigan time. I get pretty tired during the 5 oclock hour. Still have a stack of CDs that I need to sort through, to listen to. Plenty of stuff to listen from the pawnshop, More Widespread Panic, Hound Dog Taylor, Jimmy Rogers. Half Priced Books had a Belle & Sebastian in the two dollar bins, ended up listening to Fivespeed, some emo screamo band that made a album for Virgin and it's your typical forgettible music of the Aughts.
If we don't work next weekend, Los Lobos plays at the Iowa City Art Festival. But I'm sure my work place will be busy enough on the weekends to miss this like we did miss Teddy Thompson last year.
Pain on the radio again, thanks to our CCC owned stations. Clear Channel/Cumulus have the worst stations ever. KZIA last night played the overbearing and annoying Hey Soul Sister by Train (Goddamn song has been out for almost two years and every GD station plays it, from top 40 to KDAT to Fart 100.3 to the damn alternative station. I'm surprised country stations don't play it, Fuck you Pat Monahan, you have given the world this decade's version of Broken Wings.
Nathan, our co worker in Packaging was playing his MP3 collection and it was a big relief from Soul Sister. He was some interesting taste that range from Gerry Mulligan/Chet Baker to Velvet Underground to a lot of the real alternative stuff of the 90s to which I think he was a big part of. Pavement, Breeders, Kate Bush and a few missteps (Radiohead yuk yuk) but for the most part he impressed the hell out of me with his playlist. Made the night go by fairly fast till the Packaging boss came down and said no radios on the shipping line. Which spared us the misery of KZIA and fucking Train or Pink.
A lotta complaining has been going on at our friends at Farce The Music about the state of country music and Luke Bryan Country Girl (Shake It For Me) single which raised the ire of him the faithful. But then again the state of country music hasn't been helped with the rise of the Average Joe's Record roster and the three Stooges songwriter Conglomerate known as the Peach Pickers to which I really have no clue who they are till it was pointed out that Dallas Davison was co writer of Country Girl Shake It All Night. This is how far down the state of country is today. Gene Simmons wrote better lyrics and Harlan Howard is turning over in his grave on this. But with the state of Brantley Gilbert or Colt Ford, we may as well include The Georgia Satellites into country music since Country Girl is no different than Keep Your Hands To Yourself. But with today's country songwriters branding backward baseball caps, tattoos and mohawk haircuts the country trads are just throwing their hands up in the air and moving over to Christian Music or the dreaded softrock to which Soul Sister is played every hour on the hour somewhere in the CCC controlled land. Peach Pickers? More like Peach Pits dude.
The music of my generation is fast becoming a memory as musicians and artists get old and die or commit suicide as in the case of CC Banana, the funny interviewer at Metal Sludge. We are resigned to the fact that none of the major labels care about establishing the next Beatles or Bob Dylan, that takes too long to do so, it's hits now. Get the Peach Pits to cowrite you a silly dilly and you might get it on radio more than you can on your very own songs. Autotune the hell out of your voice so it fits in the fake shit on top forty. Or whine and scream and you just might get on rock radio although it didn't help Fivespeed. The problem with new music, nothing stands out and if it does it can only be heard on a blog or net radio station that 10 people know about. The CCC owned radio station will not help you. Hell, it didn't helped Train's new album which bombed but they'll play the hell out of Soul Sister that you want to bitch slap Pat Monahan. No wonder Johnny Colt up and left and joined Lynyrd Skynyrd when he left, he took what's left of the rock and roll that was Train.
When we grew up back in the dark ages, we lived on the new 45 of the week and albums were a celebration of something new and exciting and we spend hours listening to the new Kiss or Rush and talk about how great it was. Nowadays it's Red Solo Cup and Country Girl Shake It For Me and Boom Boom Speakers. Growing up, radio broke in new music from the artists we brought records from, nowadays radio pukes up the same old same old and renames the radio station to make you think it's all new. There's no classic albums anymore because the labels are interested in the single of the day. Which will date the next week. I don't think Garth Brooks would touch most of the Peach Pits' songs, not of mindless fun but most of their stuff is mindless period. And to which they're making Bob Diperio or Rivers Rutherford the Harlen Howard/Bill Anderson songwriters of the decade.
It's tough times in country music and top forty radio. And it's not about to get any better.
There's not much in terms of new music to review. Delta Moon's latest will get reviewed if I get a copy. Mike Eldred Trio has a new Elvis Unplugged album coming out as well. But for now we'll settle on.
The Knack-Having A Rave Up Live In Los Angeles 1978 (Zen/Omnivore)
Back in 1979 everybody had a copy of Get The Knack and basically it was a pretty good new wave album. Problem was it got bigger than originally thought and critics nuked The Knack from every other album onward. Yeah, I have all of the Capitol Knack albums, even Round Trip to which you have to read the liner notes about Jack Douglas' production techniques. But this 1978 low fi live recording is where it all begins and was the reason why Capitol ended up signing The Knack soon after.
The Knack has always been a hard rocking live act although My Sharona on this recording is still being worked out on stage and Bruce Gary trying to figure out where to speed it up on the lead guitar extension. Doug Fieger even then had a stoic attitude on girls, lust and love before they hit it big. There's a better version of Rave Up (B side to Can't Put A Price On Love) and My Sharona plods too much on this version but Good Girls Don't (with that line of when she's sitting on your face, priceless) and a intense End Of The Game (one of their better 2 minute metal workouts) shows that The Knack had plenty of potential to top the charts and a year after this live document they would have their number 1 hit with My Sharona, which was more realized and more rocking. The Knack has been unfairly berated throughout rock history but since their albums are now out of print have been commanding inflated prices on Amazon.com maybe they weren't so bad after all. This live recording is rough, taken from old cassettes from the late Doug Fieger's collection and Richard Bosworth does his best to at least make them sound decent but it's still low fi. But it does give credo to the argument that The Knack rocked. And the rest is history.
Grade B
If we don't work next weekend, Los Lobos plays at the Iowa City Art Festival. But I'm sure my work place will be busy enough on the weekends to miss this like we did miss Teddy Thompson last year.
Pain on the radio again, thanks to our CCC owned stations. Clear Channel/Cumulus have the worst stations ever. KZIA last night played the overbearing and annoying Hey Soul Sister by Train (Goddamn song has been out for almost two years and every GD station plays it, from top 40 to KDAT to Fart 100.3 to the damn alternative station. I'm surprised country stations don't play it, Fuck you Pat Monahan, you have given the world this decade's version of Broken Wings.
Nathan, our co worker in Packaging was playing his MP3 collection and it was a big relief from Soul Sister. He was some interesting taste that range from Gerry Mulligan/Chet Baker to Velvet Underground to a lot of the real alternative stuff of the 90s to which I think he was a big part of. Pavement, Breeders, Kate Bush and a few missteps (Radiohead yuk yuk) but for the most part he impressed the hell out of me with his playlist. Made the night go by fairly fast till the Packaging boss came down and said no radios on the shipping line. Which spared us the misery of KZIA and fucking Train or Pink.
A lotta complaining has been going on at our friends at Farce The Music about the state of country music and Luke Bryan Country Girl (Shake It For Me) single which raised the ire of him the faithful. But then again the state of country music hasn't been helped with the rise of the Average Joe's Record roster and the three Stooges songwriter Conglomerate known as the Peach Pickers to which I really have no clue who they are till it was pointed out that Dallas Davison was co writer of Country Girl Shake It All Night. This is how far down the state of country is today. Gene Simmons wrote better lyrics and Harlan Howard is turning over in his grave on this. But with the state of Brantley Gilbert or Colt Ford, we may as well include The Georgia Satellites into country music since Country Girl is no different than Keep Your Hands To Yourself. But with today's country songwriters branding backward baseball caps, tattoos and mohawk haircuts the country trads are just throwing their hands up in the air and moving over to Christian Music or the dreaded softrock to which Soul Sister is played every hour on the hour somewhere in the CCC controlled land. Peach Pickers? More like Peach Pits dude.
The music of my generation is fast becoming a memory as musicians and artists get old and die or commit suicide as in the case of CC Banana, the funny interviewer at Metal Sludge. We are resigned to the fact that none of the major labels care about establishing the next Beatles or Bob Dylan, that takes too long to do so, it's hits now. Get the Peach Pits to cowrite you a silly dilly and you might get it on radio more than you can on your very own songs. Autotune the hell out of your voice so it fits in the fake shit on top forty. Or whine and scream and you just might get on rock radio although it didn't help Fivespeed. The problem with new music, nothing stands out and if it does it can only be heard on a blog or net radio station that 10 people know about. The CCC owned radio station will not help you. Hell, it didn't helped Train's new album which bombed but they'll play the hell out of Soul Sister that you want to bitch slap Pat Monahan. No wonder Johnny Colt up and left and joined Lynyrd Skynyrd when he left, he took what's left of the rock and roll that was Train.
When we grew up back in the dark ages, we lived on the new 45 of the week and albums were a celebration of something new and exciting and we spend hours listening to the new Kiss or Rush and talk about how great it was. Nowadays it's Red Solo Cup and Country Girl Shake It For Me and Boom Boom Speakers. Growing up, radio broke in new music from the artists we brought records from, nowadays radio pukes up the same old same old and renames the radio station to make you think it's all new. There's no classic albums anymore because the labels are interested in the single of the day. Which will date the next week. I don't think Garth Brooks would touch most of the Peach Pits' songs, not of mindless fun but most of their stuff is mindless period. And to which they're making Bob Diperio or Rivers Rutherford the Harlen Howard/Bill Anderson songwriters of the decade.
It's tough times in country music and top forty radio. And it's not about to get any better.
There's not much in terms of new music to review. Delta Moon's latest will get reviewed if I get a copy. Mike Eldred Trio has a new Elvis Unplugged album coming out as well. But for now we'll settle on.
The Knack-Having A Rave Up Live In Los Angeles 1978 (Zen/Omnivore)
Back in 1979 everybody had a copy of Get The Knack and basically it was a pretty good new wave album. Problem was it got bigger than originally thought and critics nuked The Knack from every other album onward. Yeah, I have all of the Capitol Knack albums, even Round Trip to which you have to read the liner notes about Jack Douglas' production techniques. But this 1978 low fi live recording is where it all begins and was the reason why Capitol ended up signing The Knack soon after.
The Knack has always been a hard rocking live act although My Sharona on this recording is still being worked out on stage and Bruce Gary trying to figure out where to speed it up on the lead guitar extension. Doug Fieger even then had a stoic attitude on girls, lust and love before they hit it big. There's a better version of Rave Up (B side to Can't Put A Price On Love) and My Sharona plods too much on this version but Good Girls Don't (with that line of when she's sitting on your face, priceless) and a intense End Of The Game (one of their better 2 minute metal workouts) shows that The Knack had plenty of potential to top the charts and a year after this live document they would have their number 1 hit with My Sharona, which was more realized and more rocking. The Knack has been unfairly berated throughout rock history but since their albums are now out of print have been commanding inflated prices on Amazon.com maybe they weren't so bad after all. This live recording is rough, taken from old cassettes from the late Doug Fieger's collection and Richard Bosworth does his best to at least make them sound decent but it's still low fi. But it does give credo to the argument that The Knack rocked. And the rest is history.
Grade B
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Top Ten Of The Week-Gateway To Summer
Back into the routine once again. The rainy season hasn't really happened. Usually at this point we get monsoons and thunderstorms and floods and of course last year was Joplin getting almost wiped off the face of the earth and 4 years ago was Parkersburg almost getting wiped off by a monster tornado and of course the football coach getting murdered by a deranged dumbass with roid rage. The kids who had to deal with that are graduating from there and TV 9 had a nice report on them.
And people continue to die. Robin Gibb finally crossed over Sunday at age 62 from cancer complications. And it appears that Black Sabbath and Bill Ward will never play together again.
Mick Jagger actually did a great appearance on Saturday Night Live, the overblown warhorse dinosaur unfunny comedy show that Lorne Micheals will not retire and Kristian Wiig moving on to other things. But Mick did tear it up with The Arcade Fire on The Last Time and The Foo Fighters on a Stones Medley. And then doing a bash of Mittens Romney on Tea Party with Jeff Beck playing guitar. Jagger ended the SNL season on a high note, despite the usual unfunny sketches that tends to make Saturday Night Live a burden to sit through.
Getting back to the weather, it's been a beautiful bunch of days of lots of rain and hardly any rain, which makes the rainy season a dry season here in Iowa. Not even a thunderstorm warning most of the month, very strange indeed. But then again it's been a very strange month indeed. Even to a point that I was helping somebody with planting flowers. Never did that before and doubt if I'll ever do that again. I'm not a green thumb, unless it's mowing the yard. The official start of summer begins with Memorial Day Weekend and maybe I'll go catch a movie or concert or hitting the walking trails since the ticks are out at Matsell's.
Final thoughts on Ann Arbor: although they had Encore Records due to time restrictions and getting back home I didn't check out P J's Records nor Wazoo Records. Otherwise I still be there. And I didn't get a chance to try any food joints outside grabbing a couple dollar pizza slices and a big gulp at the 7-11 and chatting with the friendly but hurried lady up at the counter. With temps in the high 80s I seem the be the big fool still wearing a jacket but for the most part the second go around at Ann Arbor, the people were a bit more friendly and not as oddball the last time I was there and this was on a Saturday. In terms of record stores, Madison remains the place to go but if I had more time to check Ann Arbor out, I may have stumbled upon a few pawnshops with cheaper music than Encore. Anyway, I came across an old article about Encore which is worth reading if you have the time. http://www.michigandaily.com/content/local-record-stores-lede
I had a special guest line up to do this week's top ten but at the last minute he dropped out and couldn't do it and the list that was given to me really didn't fit my needs unless you're into the Don't Yell At Me singers we now call the Carrie Underwoods, Jessie J, Fantasia and other screamers of the chorus. So you'll get some new things from me. After all this is what I do best, I find them and play them and then broadcast them to you. Brought to you by Faygo Pop.
Let go my Faygo!
1. Baby Don't You Do It-The Who 1972 I think I added The Band's version of this song earlier in the month and really don't see a need to check back if I did but since MCA or Geffen or whatever Universal puts this stuff out on CD won't issue it on CD, I had to locate a better 45 copy then the scratched up one that I had. With Keith Moon bashing cymbals left and right, this comes from aborted followup to Live At Leeds and I would have bought the album anyway. Humble Pie actually did a version similar to this on their On To Victory album in 1980.
2. What A Crying Shame-The Mavericks 1994 From a collection of CDs left behind from the Michigan move I was absolutely amazed on how great this album actually is. I am not a big Mavericks fan, thought they were overrated but this album and the title track showcase how good a vocalist Raul Malo really is. And produced to great effect by Don Cook who at that time was the go to producer. I like Malo better when he's doing Dwight more than the Roy Orbinson that he does later on but I can see why this album went gold back in 94. They never did top this album. Sometimes 99.3 will play What A Crying Shame, not sure about KHAK nor KISS 96.5 but then again I don't listen to neither one.
3. Tightrope-Chaser 1977 A strange little number from England. Came out on Harvest over there but over here Capitol stuck it on the soul division side of things. And I don't think these guys were black but they did come from the UK and got this song produced by Tony Clarke of the Moody Blues fame. As far as I know the only single Capitol issued for Chaser although Harvest put out a few more singles.
4. Knock Knock-The Humane Society 1966 Another free form freakout from the garages of long ago and far away and is on the Nuggets box set from Rhino. Kinda reminds me of Them with Van Morrison. Actually I didn't know I had this till somebody posted it as a lost hit of the 60s. Came out on Liberty years ago, the other side was a version of Tip Toe Through The Tulips (done by Tiny Tim) which flopped as a hit. Their next single for New World, called Lorna also flopped but the B side Eternal Prison was another slab of punk garage fun. As far I know, The Humane Society has the distinction of having both A sides ignored and the B sides being preserved on You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcoyH_iOMJo
5. Wild Ones-Waylon Jennings 1994 Waylon returned to RCA for a one off album produced with Don Was and filled with guest stars and superstar session players (Kenny Aronoff, Benmont Tench). Waymore Blues Part 2 it's called and it bombed and Waylon moved on to Justice, Ark 21 and Lucky Dog/Epic before dying in 2002. I think it's his best album of the 90s but by then country music passed him by.
6. El Diablo-Z Z Top 1976 Well ya know radio will play the hell out of La Grange, Tush and Gimme All Your Lovin but they will not touch anything off Tejas which may be the most underrated ZZ Top album of them all. Warner Brothers did them no favors on re recording the drums tracks in the 80s but if you hear the original 1976 London drum mix, you get this spooky dry drum sound that reminds one of the wild west and the hombres that used to roam them. If a classic rock station played more Tejas stuff I would be listening to them more often although I have to give The FOX credit of playing more obscure stuff on the weekends. I think they played It's Only Love one time which floored me.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbTEaboup60
7. Almost Cut My Hair-Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 1970 Fucking hippies anyway. Bob Dorr played this on Backtracks last weekend on the way home from Michigan.
8. Green Onions-Roy Buchanan 1976 In trying to come up with the perfect tribute to Donald Duck Dunn, I had plenty of songs to choose from and of course there's a hitting live version featuring the MG's Live in Europe in 1967 but I decided to go with this boogie jam featuring the late great Roy dueling it out with Steve Cropper on guitar, Roy being the more wilder soloist. David Galbardi, the former Tower Of Power drummer provides the beat. Actually got to meet Galbardi at a drum clinic back in 1988 and the guy was terrific to talk to about drum techniques. Alas, that same year Buchanan would get picked up for being drunk and put in a holding cell and ended up hanging himself. A sad ending to a underrated guitarist who could kick major buns with his playing.
9. Life Is A Highway-Chris LeDoux 1998 Nevermind Tom Cochrane or Rascal Flatts, LeDoux's version remains the best version out there. It actually rocks harder than both versions to which gets lots of airplay on the CCC radio airwaves (The CCC stands for Clear Channel/Cumulus Monopoly). Rest assured when you play this version somewhere out in the stars the old cowboy is grinning from ear to ear. I miss Chris LeDoux.
10. Don't Think Twice It's All Right-Bob Dylan 1963 With my mind and the top ten stuck between the 70s and the 90s I thought I would throw another chestnut folk classic from the 60s with the summary of the past week and all the things in life we go through. It's feels very surreal after coming home and driving down US 52 somewhere in Illinois and thinking where the road leads till I got to Savannah and crossed the Mississippi to which like an old friend greeted me. And the Wapsipinicon which I drive next to on a gravel road. I love Bob Dylan music more than y'all do, even Self portrait has some value to me (unlike you). This song is my thoughts.
And so it goes.
Bubbling under:
Please Call Home-Allman Brothers Band 1970
Spinning Wheel Blues-Status Quo-1969
You Won't Have Buck To Kick Around No More-Buck Owens 1972
Two Heads-Jefferson Airplane 1969
How Blue Can You Get-B B King 1961
And a final thought. You can't always get what you want, but if you try some time you just might find that you get what you need.
Right?
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/158827-the-top-10-overplayed-songs-you-hate-by-artists-you-love/
Blame your CCC owned radio station for this.
http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/now-tabloid-blames-rock-for-teen-sex-and-drugs-issues/
Parody, myth or truth? You Decide!
And people continue to die. Robin Gibb finally crossed over Sunday at age 62 from cancer complications. And it appears that Black Sabbath and Bill Ward will never play together again.
Mick Jagger actually did a great appearance on Saturday Night Live, the overblown warhorse dinosaur unfunny comedy show that Lorne Micheals will not retire and Kristian Wiig moving on to other things. But Mick did tear it up with The Arcade Fire on The Last Time and The Foo Fighters on a Stones Medley. And then doing a bash of Mittens Romney on Tea Party with Jeff Beck playing guitar. Jagger ended the SNL season on a high note, despite the usual unfunny sketches that tends to make Saturday Night Live a burden to sit through.
Getting back to the weather, it's been a beautiful bunch of days of lots of rain and hardly any rain, which makes the rainy season a dry season here in Iowa. Not even a thunderstorm warning most of the month, very strange indeed. But then again it's been a very strange month indeed. Even to a point that I was helping somebody with planting flowers. Never did that before and doubt if I'll ever do that again. I'm not a green thumb, unless it's mowing the yard. The official start of summer begins with Memorial Day Weekend and maybe I'll go catch a movie or concert or hitting the walking trails since the ticks are out at Matsell's.
Final thoughts on Ann Arbor: although they had Encore Records due to time restrictions and getting back home I didn't check out P J's Records nor Wazoo Records. Otherwise I still be there. And I didn't get a chance to try any food joints outside grabbing a couple dollar pizza slices and a big gulp at the 7-11 and chatting with the friendly but hurried lady up at the counter. With temps in the high 80s I seem the be the big fool still wearing a jacket but for the most part the second go around at Ann Arbor, the people were a bit more friendly and not as oddball the last time I was there and this was on a Saturday. In terms of record stores, Madison remains the place to go but if I had more time to check Ann Arbor out, I may have stumbled upon a few pawnshops with cheaper music than Encore. Anyway, I came across an old article about Encore which is worth reading if you have the time. http://www.michigandaily.com/content/local-record-stores-lede
I had a special guest line up to do this week's top ten but at the last minute he dropped out and couldn't do it and the list that was given to me really didn't fit my needs unless you're into the Don't Yell At Me singers we now call the Carrie Underwoods, Jessie J, Fantasia and other screamers of the chorus. So you'll get some new things from me. After all this is what I do best, I find them and play them and then broadcast them to you. Brought to you by Faygo Pop.
Let go my Faygo!
1. Baby Don't You Do It-The Who 1972 I think I added The Band's version of this song earlier in the month and really don't see a need to check back if I did but since MCA or Geffen or whatever Universal puts this stuff out on CD won't issue it on CD, I had to locate a better 45 copy then the scratched up one that I had. With Keith Moon bashing cymbals left and right, this comes from aborted followup to Live At Leeds and I would have bought the album anyway. Humble Pie actually did a version similar to this on their On To Victory album in 1980.
2. What A Crying Shame-The Mavericks 1994 From a collection of CDs left behind from the Michigan move I was absolutely amazed on how great this album actually is. I am not a big Mavericks fan, thought they were overrated but this album and the title track showcase how good a vocalist Raul Malo really is. And produced to great effect by Don Cook who at that time was the go to producer. I like Malo better when he's doing Dwight more than the Roy Orbinson that he does later on but I can see why this album went gold back in 94. They never did top this album. Sometimes 99.3 will play What A Crying Shame, not sure about KHAK nor KISS 96.5 but then again I don't listen to neither one.
3. Tightrope-Chaser 1977 A strange little number from England. Came out on Harvest over there but over here Capitol stuck it on the soul division side of things. And I don't think these guys were black but they did come from the UK and got this song produced by Tony Clarke of the Moody Blues fame. As far as I know the only single Capitol issued for Chaser although Harvest put out a few more singles.
4. Knock Knock-The Humane Society 1966 Another free form freakout from the garages of long ago and far away and is on the Nuggets box set from Rhino. Kinda reminds me of Them with Van Morrison. Actually I didn't know I had this till somebody posted it as a lost hit of the 60s. Came out on Liberty years ago, the other side was a version of Tip Toe Through The Tulips (done by Tiny Tim) which flopped as a hit. Their next single for New World, called Lorna also flopped but the B side Eternal Prison was another slab of punk garage fun. As far I know, The Humane Society has the distinction of having both A sides ignored and the B sides being preserved on You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcoyH_iOMJo
5. Wild Ones-Waylon Jennings 1994 Waylon returned to RCA for a one off album produced with Don Was and filled with guest stars and superstar session players (Kenny Aronoff, Benmont Tench). Waymore Blues Part 2 it's called and it bombed and Waylon moved on to Justice, Ark 21 and Lucky Dog/Epic before dying in 2002. I think it's his best album of the 90s but by then country music passed him by.
6. El Diablo-Z Z Top 1976 Well ya know radio will play the hell out of La Grange, Tush and Gimme All Your Lovin but they will not touch anything off Tejas which may be the most underrated ZZ Top album of them all. Warner Brothers did them no favors on re recording the drums tracks in the 80s but if you hear the original 1976 London drum mix, you get this spooky dry drum sound that reminds one of the wild west and the hombres that used to roam them. If a classic rock station played more Tejas stuff I would be listening to them more often although I have to give The FOX credit of playing more obscure stuff on the weekends. I think they played It's Only Love one time which floored me.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbTEaboup60
7. Almost Cut My Hair-Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young 1970 Fucking hippies anyway. Bob Dorr played this on Backtracks last weekend on the way home from Michigan.
8. Green Onions-Roy Buchanan 1976 In trying to come up with the perfect tribute to Donald Duck Dunn, I had plenty of songs to choose from and of course there's a hitting live version featuring the MG's Live in Europe in 1967 but I decided to go with this boogie jam featuring the late great Roy dueling it out with Steve Cropper on guitar, Roy being the more wilder soloist. David Galbardi, the former Tower Of Power drummer provides the beat. Actually got to meet Galbardi at a drum clinic back in 1988 and the guy was terrific to talk to about drum techniques. Alas, that same year Buchanan would get picked up for being drunk and put in a holding cell and ended up hanging himself. A sad ending to a underrated guitarist who could kick major buns with his playing.
9. Life Is A Highway-Chris LeDoux 1998 Nevermind Tom Cochrane or Rascal Flatts, LeDoux's version remains the best version out there. It actually rocks harder than both versions to which gets lots of airplay on the CCC radio airwaves (The CCC stands for Clear Channel/Cumulus Monopoly). Rest assured when you play this version somewhere out in the stars the old cowboy is grinning from ear to ear. I miss Chris LeDoux.
10. Don't Think Twice It's All Right-Bob Dylan 1963 With my mind and the top ten stuck between the 70s and the 90s I thought I would throw another chestnut folk classic from the 60s with the summary of the past week and all the things in life we go through. It's feels very surreal after coming home and driving down US 52 somewhere in Illinois and thinking where the road leads till I got to Savannah and crossed the Mississippi to which like an old friend greeted me. And the Wapsipinicon which I drive next to on a gravel road. I love Bob Dylan music more than y'all do, even Self portrait has some value to me (unlike you). This song is my thoughts.
And so it goes.
Bubbling under:
Please Call Home-Allman Brothers Band 1970
Spinning Wheel Blues-Status Quo-1969
You Won't Have Buck To Kick Around No More-Buck Owens 1972
Two Heads-Jefferson Airplane 1969
How Blue Can You Get-B B King 1961
And a final thought. You can't always get what you want, but if you try some time you just might find that you get what you need.
Right?
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/158827-the-top-10-overplayed-songs-you-hate-by-artists-you-love/
Blame your CCC owned radio station for this.
http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/now-tabloid-blames-rock-for-teen-sex-and-drugs-issues/
Parody, myth or truth? You Decide!
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Catching Up On Things
I didn't have much time to write about Donald "Duck" Dunn, the influential bass player who played bass with Booker T and the MGs and with Al Jackson Jr formed in my opinion the best rhythm section ever, no offense to the Motown Earl Van Dyke Funk Brothers who are a hairline close second place, when Jackson and Duck were on top of their game, they couldn't be beat. Mostly famous for being part of the Blues Brothers when that came out, Dunn played just about everything for anybody.
While I was gone, Donna Summer passed away from lung cancer not related to smoking at age 63. She was the Queen of disco and in the 70s was heard on top forty radio but I never liked her Love To Love You Baby to which was the long 15 minute version of grunts and groans, kinda like the female answer to Barry White. Still don't like it today but my favorite Donna Summer song was the euro Kraftwerk like I Feel Love to which Giorgio Moroder the guy who gave us Son Of My Father shaped her up in a barrage of keyboards and actually made disco sound cool and kraut rock as well. 1979 Bad Girls, the album is her disco classic album which was her most rocking album. With Casablanca failing, she became one of the flagship artist signed to the newly formed Geffen Records with The Wanderer which was euro pop cool and 1983 hit number one with She Works Hard For The Money which still gets played regularly on radio. And 1988 her last top ten was the Stock/Aiken/Waterman produced This Time I Know It's For Real for Atlantic. But she really did go away, releasing albums up to Crayons a 2008 album for Epic. One of a kind it's been noted that I Feel Love may have been the pioneering single that started Electronica .
It's odd that 10 years ago we were bitching about the radio and how it sucked back then. The Telecom Act of 1996 the blame on this same old same old dead air waves and even though Sirius/XM radio was supposed to a return to the good old day, whatever station Pete's Place was playing showed that that station was no different than Fart 100.3. er Fresh 100.3, Detroit's answer to KDAT. Best variety seems to the same old shit tunes but what really killed it was the continuation of Train Soul Sister and Pink's Fucking Awesome (Pretty Pretty Please) in regular rotation to the point that I ended up getting that as a earworm one night. As much as I would like to say The River was Detroit's best station although I ended up turning it once It's Been Awhile from Staind popped on. Or Matchbox 20. Guess there's no such thing as real variety anymore. The Clear Channel/Cumulus or the Triple C Mafia' playlist is lesser than the CD's that I have here. Ann Arbor had a station that I managed to listen to more than 10 minutes, they played Jack White's latest plus a couple from The White Stripes. Chicago's WLS FM had some choice oldies of note (The Last Time, Shotgun) but it would be a good two hours before the friendly sounds of home and KUNI and Bob Dorr's Backtracks become to come in when I got to the outskirts of Dixon Illinois. But in the estimation of myself, FM Radio is dead, stinking up the airwaves, like the dead animals and blown retreads all over I 94 in Michigan.
http://www.939theriverradio.com/
http://www.fresh100.com/main.html
And finally, Billy Ray Cyrus' Acky Breaky Heart was a big hit 20 years ago and still gets lots of ridicule over the years but in reality it's no different than Keep Yo Hands To Yourself by The Georgia Satellites. It's dumb but it's got the music hooks to get people out on the dancefloor and even though Billy Ray might be blamed more for Hanna Montana, there's much more dumber songs out the radio (Check out your local country station if you don't agree). Laugh all you want, but Acky Breaky Heart pays the bills for ole Billy Ray.
I'm sure in the future a trip to Iowa City will be in the works but for now, I need to clear space and try to get the house in order before the invasion of earwigs return. After all, it's almost June.
The Encore CD's of note:
Roxy
Waylon Jennings-Waymore's Blues (Part 2)
Don Gibson-Look Who's Blue
Status Quo-Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon
Jerry Lee Lewis-Live At The Star Club Hamburg
Jimmy Webb-El Mirage
Hugo Montengero-Music From The Good The Bad And The Ugly
45's
El Diablo-ZZ Top (London 252)
Superman-The Kinks (Arista AS-409)
The Who-Join Together/Baby Don't You Do It (Decca 32983)
How Blue Can You Get-B B King (ABC-Paramount 10527)
PS. You may have noticed a slight chance here as I have been adding pictures of note, trying to sweeten up the site and in an attempt to get more readership here. I don't think it will add much more or not but we never know. As always comments are welcome and considered. Just don't ask me to review anything from Sheryl Crow or Carrie (Quit yelling at me dammit) Underwood.
Oh and read this about zombie stars from the dead from Chet Flippo. You'll love it. http://www.cmt.com/news/nashville-skyline/1685344/nashville-skyline-how-elvis-presley-and-other-superstars-became-zombies.jhtml
More 4.99 specials from Wally World/Best Buy
Led Zeppelin-Coda
Allman Brothers-Idlewind South
Judas Priest-Stained Class
Van Halen-Diver Down.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
The Ann Arbor Bargain Hunt
Revised because we care.
Last weekend I was up in Ann Arbor to visit the famed Encore Recordings. It takes about 8 hours from here to get there.
Detroit Radio was Godawful and none of the radio stations stood out. Fresh 100.3 may as been called KDAT and what annoyed us both was the continuation of Train's Hey Soul Sister or Fantasia's piece of shit song or everybody's favorite whoremonger Sheryl Crow Soaking Up The Sun. Other times was the garbage considered new country or the upcoming fad of Comtempary Christian Music channels of Praise songs that sound all the same. And of course hearing, Staind's It's Been A While in a half hour basis on two modern rock channels. No fucking variety whatsoever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DDkmtygYGg&feature=relatedFYE closed the Ann Arbor Store so I basically just went to Encore Recordings on Saturday Afternoon on the way back home. Further viewing showed that I missed the one on Portage but then again FYE has been on the long decline for me to really care about then anymore. I'm sure Moline is still open next time I am in the vicinity.
I was away from the computer and there wasn't any TV hookup so I didn't get much chance to catch up on things. I did hear that Donna Summer passed away but that's about all the happenings going on.
Since I-80 was construction Hell, I decided to take US 30 back home but somehow lost out and ended up on US 52 most of the way, except a jaunt into Rochelle, where the Railroad Park is located. Trains.com has a webcam but the GD thing don't work on my computer so can't watch the trains go by. Only saw one anyway down the road. I'm sure I could have made it home by 9 but since I took the long way scenic view home, took me an extra hour and 10 minutes. The rental that I took I filled up one time and that was in Indiana and even my long way, was enough for me to make it home and not fill up again. Amazing car that Dodge Avenger.
Even on the way home, I had to stop here.
Encore remains a great place for the harder to find CDs and albums and 45s. It on the way home.
Finally, after punching buttons on the radio, and tired of hearing the Cubs lose, KUNI started coming through the static of shitty rap, Train's Suck Sister, bad lite rock and alternative music (Metallica alternative?!?). Thank you Bob Dorr and Backtracks for getting me through the Illinois wasteland on the way back home via Highway 64 through Maquoketa, Wyoming and Anamosa.
Home at last. My brother is the other guy hamming it up.
Last weekend I was up in Ann Arbor to visit the famed Encore Recordings. It takes about 8 hours from here to get there.
Detroit Radio was Godawful and none of the radio stations stood out. Fresh 100.3 may as been called KDAT and what annoyed us both was the continuation of Train's Hey Soul Sister or Fantasia's piece of shit song or everybody's favorite whoremonger Sheryl Crow Soaking Up The Sun. Other times was the garbage considered new country or the upcoming fad of Comtempary Christian Music channels of Praise songs that sound all the same. And of course hearing, Staind's It's Been A While in a half hour basis on two modern rock channels. No fucking variety whatsoever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DDkmtygYGg&feature=relatedFYE closed the Ann Arbor Store so I basically just went to Encore Recordings on Saturday Afternoon on the way back home. Further viewing showed that I missed the one on Portage but then again FYE has been on the long decline for me to really care about then anymore. I'm sure Moline is still open next time I am in the vicinity.
I was away from the computer and there wasn't any TV hookup so I didn't get much chance to catch up on things. I did hear that Donna Summer passed away but that's about all the happenings going on.
Since I-80 was construction Hell, I decided to take US 30 back home but somehow lost out and ended up on US 52 most of the way, except a jaunt into Rochelle, where the Railroad Park is located. Trains.com has a webcam but the GD thing don't work on my computer so can't watch the trains go by. Only saw one anyway down the road. I'm sure I could have made it home by 9 but since I took the long way scenic view home, took me an extra hour and 10 minutes. The rental that I took I filled up one time and that was in Indiana and even my long way, was enough for me to make it home and not fill up again. Amazing car that Dodge Avenger.
Even on the way home, I had to stop here.
Encore remains a great place for the harder to find CDs and albums and 45s. It on the way home.
Finally, after punching buttons on the radio, and tired of hearing the Cubs lose, KUNI started coming through the static of shitty rap, Train's Suck Sister, bad lite rock and alternative music (Metallica alternative?!?). Thank you Bob Dorr and Backtracks for getting me through the Illinois wasteland on the way back home via Highway 64 through Maquoketa, Wyoming and Anamosa.
Home at last. My brother is the other guy hamming it up.
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