Some people are giving Mark Prindle flack for appearing on the Redeye
show, namely Steve Albini who blasted him big time in a blog..... I try
to be objective in a way to support people who I enjoy reading music
reviews. Mark remains one of the few people that I continue to read
reviews and sometimes he comes across over the top, I find Mark to be
dead on and very entertaining. I can't stand Greg Gutfield but he was
objective enough to add Mark to the Redeye program and even if Mark is
regulated to a single five minite segment, I'll make every effort to
watch Mark and hope that some music magazine will pick up Mark for
perhaps bigger and better things. Perhaps Steve Albini was way off in
terms of calling Mark a turncoat since he appears on a FOX news
program. Give the man the break Steve. He's trying to add some color
to a black and while Conservative world that's coming more socialist each
day. BTW Mr Albini, your mix on the Robert Plant/Jimmy Page album
isn't exactly no cuppa tea either, in fact it sucks.
Levi Stubbs, the voice of the Four Tops passed away, he was 72 and had
been in frail health. Levi was probaly the best vocalist of the Motown
era and had many many hits for them and ABC Dunhill later on. Also Levi
played Audrey 2, the man eating plant in 1988's Little Shop Of
Horrors. Basically Levi's passing brings the original Four Tops down to
One Top.
Waylon Jennings-Wayon Forever (Vagrant)
More of a Shooter Jennings project, these are some of Waylon's final
demos put to the music of Shooter's band The 357s. Certainly I like the
way that Shooter incoporates images of AC DC Long Way To The Top riff
on the remake of Ain't Living Long Like This and Are You Ready For The
Country will be as close to Crazy Horse as Shooter will get. But the
problem is that although the album is only 38 minites long, Shooter and
bandmates drag some of the songs on forever. And Outlaw Shit sounds too
nice and a bit cliched with the strings in the background. But the
nadir of this album is a cover of White Room which reminds me how dumb
the original lyrics were by Jack Brown and Pete Brown and I Found The
Body, is a grand statement in pompousness that is forever ruined by a
some screaming gospel chick who must have gotten her inspriation from
Great gig in the Sky or American Idol.
In answer to the question, no I don't think Waylon wanted it that way
and probaly does think the outlaw shit got way out of hand too. Like
on this album.
Grade C plus
Picks: Ain't Living Long Like This, Are You Ready For The Country.
Chet Flippo thinks otherwise: Counterpoint.
Waylon Forever by Waylon Jennings
is the project the late country legend began recording with his son
Shooter years ago. It's now been finished by Shooter with the assistance
of his band, the .357's, with added vocals from Lee Ann Womack and
Waylon's widow (and Shooter's mother) Jessi Colter. And it's a
mind-blower. In a very good way. We'll print more about it in days to
come here. Here's a questionnaire: Are you ready for a Waylon
quasi-psychedelic-outlaw version of Cream's "White Room"? Do you know
what Cream's "White Room" is? Do you know who Cream was? Do you know
what psychedelic is? Do you care? Answers will be forthcoming.
Crabb's answers: Nope, yep,yep,yup, not really. But I'll listen to it again if need be.
Did I pass the test?
I'm not surprised. :-(
To those in Cedar Rapids, yes that was me at Half Priced Books last
night around seven. I keep promising myself that I won't go overboard
in terms of buying bargain cds but had to get the Jivin With Louis
Jordan box set for 18 bucks since it goes deeper into Jordan's Decca
years to which MCA or Geffen only gave us two bests of and a collection
of number ones. Seems like the British cares more about the forgotten
artists before rock and roll and Louis Jordan was as close to rock as
they came in the 40s. I'm sure I would have discovered him eventually
but Joe Jackson put together a tribute album to Louis in 1981 called
Jumpin' Jive that gave us a glimpse into the pre war music of Jordan and
Fats Waller and Cab Calloway. Since most new music sucks anyway, the
cd listener can always go into HP Books in their neighborhood and seek
out some of the box sets from Proper UK. So far the mastering has been
better than expected from a budget label and perhaps my next buy will be
a Bullmoose Jackson retrospective. The guy that did the original Big
Ten Inch Record that Aerosmith covered, you know that guy? Later Proper
comps are digipackized but at least they gave Jordan royality buy
giving him jewel cases. Another foreign label JSP also have been
putting out 4 cd box sets of forgotten artists at around 30 bucks and
maybe I might check that out if i find something that I like.
Hard a nice chat with Mark Prindle, the man behind Prindle's Record
Review which he somehow managed to get a segment on FOX's ridiculous
Redeye show. In fact Mark Prindle remains the only reason why I turned
into that show. Greg Gutfield has to be twice annoying than Billy Mays.
Sarah Palin must have gotten her ideas from Rachel, the dumb bimbo who
makes so absolute sense whatsoever. So I had to mute the sound before
the segment came on with Mark talking about the new Guns And Roses and
AC DC albums that were coming out in the fall. Compared to the bimbo
and Greg, it was finally a relief to have Mark come on. Which is why
we love You Tube for that there are some out there that did put on
Mark's first report on for the world to see. But Mark did tell me that
the link that was seen on You Tube was from the first report and not
this week. Which means, now I gotta sit through the the whole Redeye
show once again to see Mark's segment. Gawd, I need to look into TiVo.
I promise to keep watching you Mark if you're back on Redeye.
Looks like Sav A Lot food will be reopening four and half months
after the flood. But the old neighborhood around that area still
remains dark. But I do see alot of Winnebagos and sleepers outside
people's residence. Life is a bit different in the flood area four
months later. But winter's coming folks I'm sure going to be pretty
cold in the sleepers.
BTW, what do Tampa Bay, The Colorado Rockies and the Florida Marlins have that the Cubs don't have?
A) They made the world series in my lifetime unlike the Chicago Chokers.
Finally, Gene Hickerson was one of the greatest blockers in the history of the
NFL. He played for the Cleveland Browns and opened up holes for the
likes of Jim Brown, Bobby Mitchell, Leroy Kelly and if memory serves me
well, Greg Pruitt. A hard working player, Gene usually had the most
muddiest uniform back in the days of when stadiums were grass and hardly
maintained. Always seemed like Cleveland Stadium was always a mudbowl
back in the 60s and 70s. Two years ago, the NFL finally inducted Gene
into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He wore number 66. He was 73.
AC/DC-Black Ice (Columbia)
More three chord rock and roll from the boys down under and although
the album goes on a bit too long, this is actually their most inspired
album since Flick Of The Switch. Brian Johnson sounds a bit more in
tune than he did on Stiff Upper Lip but perhaps Brendan OBrien put the
Young boys's guitars out more in front. Heck they even add a power pop
song (Anything Goes) in a different chord. But certainly OBrien doesn't
add much to the production like Rick Rubin did with Ballbreaker or
Bruce Fairbairn on The Razor's Edge, with AC DC what you hear is what
you get. This would be a much stronger album had they edited the songs
down to a workable ten or eleven but for the most part they do rock as
hard as ever.
Grade B plus
Faves: Black Ice, Skies On Fire, Big Jack
