Top Ten Of The Week-Trying to play catch up

Got too far behind on my record reviews so here I'm going to incorporate them into what I have been listening to this week.

1. Trainwrecks-Weezer 2010 My interest in Weezer comes and goes but I had to get this album simply of the fact that they named it after Jorge Garcia's character in Lost. Rivers Cromo vocals still tend to grate on my nerves but musically this is just as good as the last Weezer album and maybe better.

2. Rock Bottom-Dickey Betts Band 1988 Little did anybody know that when Mr. Betts would sign with Epic for a solo deal that he would indirectly would figure into the reunited Allman Brothers Band and later Gov't Mule. First time I came across the musical talents of an up and coming talent named Warren Haynes. And the future of southern rock would get brighter once again.

3. Double Trouble-Lynyrd Skynyrd 1976 RIP Leonard Skinner, the by the book gym teacher who would banish Ronnie Van Zant and couple others to the Principal Office for having long hair and in the process became the unwilling participant of a certain band that would become mighty big.

4. One More Rainy Day-Deep Purple 1968

. I was searching about the whatever happened to the original lead vocalist Rod Evans and unfortunately he's one of the biggest causalities of rock and roll. Which is why I don't like Richie Blackmore all that much. Dude is a great guitar player but his ego goes way out in the universe and was the mastermind of getting rid of Evans and Nick Simpler. But it bought brighter days when Ian Gillan and Roger Glover came onboard and Evans went on to Captain Beyond for two albums and retirement before getting conned by evil businessmen to reform a bogus Deep Purple. The DP1980 band played to hostile crowds and bad reviews before the DP dudes led by Richie Blackmore and Bruce Payne sued successfully and Evans ended up sacrificing his royalties from the first 3 DP albums and disappeared altogether. It's a shame really, Evans was a pretty good vocalist and the first Captain Beyond was the hardest rocking album then the first 3 DP albums. But then again Blackmore never got along with Gillan or David Coverdale either and his ego finally showed him out the door and DP replaced him with Steve Morse. Blackmore now hangs with his wife in Blackmore's Night, probably the only person that can put up with him in any band. I heard a Blackmore's Night album and once was enough for me.

5. Mr. Universe-Episode Six 1969 While Deep Purple was going on, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover was in this vocal band called Episode Six, which sounded a bit like the Moody Blues but they also covered The Tokens and even The Lettermen. Supposedly their biggest seller was Love Hate Revenge (reissued in the states on Elektra). Gillan was a great vocalist that could cover anything but this is the only song that would suggest the sound that would be featured on future Deep Purple albums after Blackmore and company booted the original vocalist out the band. Gillan would later redo this song for his own band Gillan after Deep Purple took one of many sabbaticals off.

6. Whistle Bait-Lorrie and Larry Collins 1958 I'm surprised Sony Music still has this compilation CD in print. Larry I think was 12 years old when he did this rave up rock number back in the late 50's and it's hard to believe that the late Mitch Miller even put this out on Columbia Records knowing him. Before puberty Larry sounded a bit like Brenda Lee. But he outgrew that in time.

7. Ladies Of The Road-King Crimson 1972 This short lived lineup featured Mel Collins on Sax and Flute, the late Ian Wallace played drums and the late Boz Burrell sang and played bass. The album Islands was a snoozer and this track was the closest thing Robert Fripp ever got to play boogie blues based rock but of course having Collins doing Ornette Coleman free jazz sax turned it back into prog rock. After this album Fripp sacked everybody and started over but before then, turned out a hard to find live album called Earthbound. The only time they ever sounded blues boogie.

8. Sitting At The Wheel-Moody Blues 1983 The Present is where most Moody Blues fans got off the bus and a whole new generation got on board for their trip to MOR land with The Other Side Of Life. I wouldn't have cared but two people told me this album was pretty good, my good TAD who sometimes pays a visit and comments and the other Mark Prindle whose now spending more time in the karaoke bars and taking self portraits of himself at Facebook. My first impression of The Present was boring back in 83 and it really hasn't changed all that much nowadays except when I put on their failed hit single. Long Distance Voyager remains the better of the two or three if you include the half and half Octave. Side one of that album is great whereas the second side sucks.

9. Shot Of Love-Robert Randolph & The Family Band 2010 Interesting cover of the Bob Dylan number by Randolph whose new album is one of the ten best of this year. And of course it was produced by John Henry T Bone Burnett. BTW I didn't buy the new Robert Plant Band Of Joy album. Not because it's bad, it's very good, I didn't buy it due the crappy digipak it came with. If the import is in a jewel case or if I can find the vinyl album then I'll buy it, till then, I'm drawing the line on digipaks. Just don't like them.

10. Jesus Is A Soul Man-Lawrence Reynolds 1969 And finally a one hit wonder from a country artist that managed to hit top forty and the gospel charts with this tune. He sounded a cross between Joe South and George Hamilton IV but the followup bombed and Reynolds disappeared from the charts, just like Rod Evans in 1980. But it's always interesting to find these lost albums to hear what we missed, and then redonate them back to the Goodwill. A passing interest.