Top Ten Of The Week-Eye To Ear Candy Tunes

Coming to the end of the month and the lack going anywhere has enabled me to really dig into my vast collection to find something to listen to and I have plenty of that around here.
 
Hey remember me?  Gretchen Wilson returns with not one, not two but three albums in the making this year. One will be a complete rock covers albums and I'll be interested to hear that one.  Gretchen always have done Ann Wilson justice when she covered Heart songs.  And now, Miss Ivy Doomkitty!.....Ivy?????  Helloooooo...well the picture disappeared.  If you want to see more Ivy, keep searching cuz she's not here in this blog anymore....




We got rid all of that snow over the weekend, Tuesday we set a record temp at 58 degrees before the rains hit, and now the it's a blizzard outside as I type this up.  Thursday's high will be ten above just in case you like to know.  One good thing though, it will be the end of January.  We already gotten back about half hour's worth of daylight. Now if it would stay warm.  Well, I guess we'll warm things up with what I've been listening to, here and at work.


Btw did I mention that winter sucks?

And just for you Tad, the lovely London Andrews will assist us in the presentation of  this week's top ten.


1.  No Exit-The Angels 1979  January usually is the month that since there's not much for new music out there I return to some of the faves of the past, faves that don't get anymore airplay due to Cumulus' rigid and slight playlists that plagued every radio station in town.  If anybody's been around me I been playing plenty of The Angels From Angel City, that made a few albums for Albert Productions (The label that bought you AC/DC) that Epic picked up but they continue to play in the land down under.  No Exit the album never was issued in the US, CBS cherry picked the best songs (arguably)  for Face To Face (1980), and strange to think that even KFMH never played them all that much.  Looking at the London Andrews picture above I figured this would be the perfect song to lead off this top ten.  I know you won't leave me with no exit indeed.  Here's hoping Doc Neeson can win his battle with cancer, as well as Chris Bailey, the bass player who has cancer of the jaw.

2.  I Rather Not Cry-The Townedgers 2001  Above drawing is the Olivia De Beradinis art of Devil's Food, a drawing that captivate the inner beauty of erotic sketches that Olivia is famous for.  Actually I knew nothing of this artist till Lisa told me all about her. Fact of the matter was The Townedgers considered using this as cover art but decided not to, they didn't think the songs matched up to the artwork so instead of calling the album Olivia, they went with There's Nothing Left and a different photo.  Nevertheless Courtney Love was impressed with Olivia's artwork that she commissioned Olivia to do a cover for America's Sweetheart.  And did a fine job in the process.

3.  Linda Lu-Ray Sharpe 1959  Back in 1987 KXIC went with a oldies format that actually had a wide range of songs that rarely got played.  I don't recall ever hearing this prior to 1987 but it was a hit in 59.  KXIC is nowadays yet another faceless talk radio station with the crapfest RWNJ Sean Hannity Show, which is why I don't listen to KXIC anymore. Garbage in, garbage out.

4.  Foolin Around-Patsy Cline 1961  Perhaps the best female vocalist to ever walk the planet, Patsy had a way to capture the heart and mind and make you feel her pain but she can be just as flirty and playful as well.  But like Buddy Holly, Jim Reeves and a few others,  a plane crash took her away from us.  Patsy, very one of a kind and has never been replaced by anybody in country although a few came close.

5.  Something Better-Velvet Elvis 1988  Why there's a Clarence bin, I'd never would have discover this band that made one sole album for Enigma and then disappeared.  They had a female drummer, Sherrie McGee who still plays around Lexington with her sister Lil Miss Tammy Smith from time to time. Below is lil Miss Tammy Smith.


6.  Lover Come Back To Me-Charlie Parker 1949  At work, it seems that playing a jazz cd from time to time relieves stress which begs the question why don't I play more jazz more often?  Last week I serenaded the masses with some Kind Of Blue, a Coleman Hawkins jam session from 1960 and now this from the fabled JATP at Carnegie Hall show in 1949 featuring Mr. Parker jamming away with the likes of Fats Navarro, Sonny Criss, Flip Phillips, Tommy Turk on wild trombone with Ray Brown, Hank Jones and Shelly Manne adding beats and bottom to the mix.  Starts out nice and slow before Parker brings the house down with a wild solo around the 10 minute mark.

7.  Summer Sunrise-The Pulltops 2004  Another band that nobody knows about unless you're living in Racine Wisconsin where they are based at.  They made a few independent CD releases to which I found one of them in the dollar bins at HP Books.  You can call them power pop although their heart is more into the hard rock of the 70s.  This cd As Seen On TV, they based it on the old cheap budget Pickwick Label down to the purple P on the CD.  A bit more polished than the rowdy goodness of The Randy Cliffs.

8.  The Fastest Girl In Town-Miranda Lambert 2011  Been a while since we showed some top ten lovin to Miranda so here tis.  Got some airplay on KHAcK from time to time.  I still love her when she rocks out and becomes that bad girl that you would love to have, but never get.  Cuz you're not Blake Shelton.

9.  Like You Do-The 88  2008  Another band that had a hard time of it being on a major label, The 88 never broke through and never did see their album at all at Best Buy.  At times they sounded like The Killers other times Maroon 5 without Adam Levine's (may as well call them Kara's Flowers then, the Maroon 5 before Adam joined up), or a Ben Folds five with a guitar player in it.  Most of this album that they had out for Island is throw away, but this is one of the better songs of it.

10.  I Won't Say Anything-Bad Religion 2010  Expect these guys to return to the top ten next week.  They have a new album True North and it's a return to the slash and burn of their punk rock days.  Hard to believe they have been around for over 30 years eh?  I'm surprised I'm still doing the top ten for 10 years myself heh heh.  But I thought I would include their last number from the Dissent Of Man, an album that still showed Greg Graffin and company still trying to cater to the pop crowd and for all intent, I still like this album but never thought much about it till Mark Prindle was talking about how the new one rocked and this album was so so.  It basically all sounds the same, like Motorhead or Ac/Dc you know a Bad Religion song when you hear it.  And hey, they still know how to play that straight ahead rock n roll as they tear into their 50s.  Which is why we still care about our rock and roll, unlike certain old fart critics that bitch about CDs and how long they are.  I'm not naming names.

Five On High

Free To Roam-Sliverjet 1997 
A Walk-Bad Religion 1996
Guitar Voodoo-The Darkside 1990
Shake Off The Demon-Brewer & Shipley 1972
Trouble No More-Jimmy Rogers with Mick & Keith 1997

In memory of Maggie May, up till the final week of her life she always wanted to play, even at age 12 she wanted to play frisbee. All dogs go to heaven.

End Of The Month Thoughts-January

This winter is going to go down as the least amount of snow that we have had all year although Ice Storm Luna came and iced all the roads up.  Hell, even the loader couldn't get up the hill on my street but for the most part the roads were good enough for me to make a trip into Anamosa for lunch.

Ya know I love to check the ratings and we should be over 2500 this month, steep decline from 3349 but still my second best overall month ever.  I also didn't intend to focus my attention of the Voluptuous women of the internet last time but really thought that they would be worth mentioning although Maxey Greene remains a lot more reserved than the anything goes style of London Andrews.  Alas, I'll never meet them, I'm way too old for them, but they both reminded me that the best of times that I had were with the plus sized girls in this life.  Yes I still remember.

Back to the weather, it's 43 degrees and clouds are racing by obscuring the moon and then it appears out of nowhere like a one of those old B movie horror flicks long ago.  I don't really watch TV that much, I turn on TCM on Sunday Nights at 11 and put a couple CDs on and let them dictate the silent movie that plays.  And trying to get back into playing music on a live basis rather than making countless bargain hunting trips that seem to take precedence over music making but this year I'm on the clock to get a new album done and fire it off to the 3 fans that still like original music.  I'm trying to find a social outlet for the Townedgers' band site, I've been experimenting with pointless blabber and quoting lyrics off songs on the Tumblr site but I'm not exactly sold on that site.  Diggy Kat talks about Skyrock dot com or Wordpress or maybe I'll add another new blog here at Blogspot.  Is there a market for another faceless band that I love on the internet and want to preserve the legacy in some way?  Be interesting to come back 100 or 200 years from now and still see old Townedgers music along the likes of The Randy Cliffs or Train Meets Truck or The Brains tribute page.

It's strange, we have survived another month of Crabb rants and raves and top tens when I thought about ending it, we ended up getting the best views ever to continue this madness. I think blogging the things that matter has been my island of peacefulness in a sea and world of madness. And of course the usual bullshit continues in life, gas prices have gone another GD ten cents from the last time I blog.  Hell, we might be four bucks before April.  I donno, I have not had the bargain hunting bug all year and only time I did a bargain hunt was the infamous Davenport breakdown  three weeks ago.  And I still have all of my 75 dollar HP Books gift certificates at hand too, now if only they had something for me to check out.

February doesn't promise to be a month of road trips either.  Maybe Iowa City since it's close by.  But I'm sure I'll be very busy somewhere in blog land or maybe find a few more scratchy records to scan for your entertainment.  Maybe do something for Black History Month since that's coming up. Or perhaps another Music Of My Years since I haven't done that in a while.  Any suggestions that you might have, I'm all ears.

A Low Key 52

Another circling around the sun for 51 years and it was low key.  Not much to talk about, I went to work, Sonya made her famous onion cheese dip that everybody pretty much scarfed down. Linda bought donuts, I bought tunes to listen to while fighting the junky printers.

Normally I would take the day off but it was cloudy, cold and since I did my shopping yesterday, figured may as well save my day off for something more constructive.  Went out and got the new Bad Religion CD True North as well as the boring Bob Dylan Times They Are A Changin and a Mothers Of Invention that basically was a free CD.  Went to the freaky China Man for Chinese for supper since I didn't care of the menu at work, can't eat the pulled pork Bar B Q, makes me belch all night.  Sad to say couldn't find a place that sold pepsi, Fucking Canteen at work don't stock enough Pepsi's and the Kum n Go Pepsi from the fountain was flat.

Thought about doing a buffet this afternoon but got involved with the Blake Shelton foot in mouth blog earlier in the day so I tended to that.  Since then Shelton kinda apologized to Ray Price about the Grandpa's Music quote but still the classic country folks are still up and arms over that. Good thing Patsy Cline isn't alive today, she would personally pay him a visit and clean his clock.

We managed to clear 114 views the other day, first time since the 12th but think we're in line to have about 2400 views, a sharp decline from last month.  Interesting race for most searched people here, Samantha Fish continues to lead but Pat Travers has jumped over the competition and is about 20 points away from catching her.  And has done it without the promotion that I have been giving to Samantha.

Gas prices has jumped 20 cents over the past week, imagine that and probably continue to make the climb upwards again.  Even with that, I didn't forsee any major bargain hunts in the future.  But I'll spend the rest of this month and most of next trying to get the next Townedgers album going.  Got plenty of reissues that will be forthcoming but may put that in its own blog somewhere in net land.

As always thanks for your support of independent music by frequenting my humble little home.

RADIO WARS:

 KOKZ/105.7 (Waterloo) has lost its "Cool." The Classic Hits station has dropped the "Cool" slogan it had used for more than a decade, originally as an Oldies outlet, and is now simply "KOKZ." KOKZ was sold to Woodward Communications earlier this year.


KMCS/93.1 (Muscatine) dropped its "MaC FM" Variety Hits format for a broad Classic-based Rock format as "Vintage Sound 93.1" on Monday (1/14). The Quad City Times reports personalities include two alums of Contemporary Hits-formatted "B100" (KBEA/99.7 Muscatine-Quad Cities): Anthony "Tony Tone" Loconsole in the mornings and "Pippa" in the afternoons. The "MaC FM" format will continue on sister station KMCN/94.7 (Clinton), which launched it simultaneously with KMCS in 2005 ("MaC" standing for "Muscatine and Clinton). Both stations have fringe signals to the Quad Cities and sometimes Iowa City although in Cedar Rapids KMRY has the 93.1 dial.

And So It goes:Blake Shelton

Another cold day to my beginning of the 52nd time around the planet.  I'll post more about my wonderful day afterwards but first the music news that you crave.

Blake Shelton, Country's self made man, reality music judge and husband to everybody's favorite country girl Miranda Lambert (she has yet to made a bad album and maybe some day he'll make a album somewhat as good as her' least) continues to rattle the classic country's folk with his talk that nobody wants to hear Grandpa's music anymore.  Take it away big mouth.

If I am “Male Vocalist of the Year” that must mean that I’m one of those people now that gets to decide if it moves forward and if it moves on. Country music has to evolve in order to survive. Nobody wants to listen to their grandpa’s music. And I don’t care how many of these old farts around Nashville going, “My God, that ain’t country!” Well that’s because you don’t buy records anymore, jackass. The kids do, and they don’t want to buy the music you were buying.

To which 86 year old and last of the classic country singers Ray Price took deep exception to that.

 It's a shame that I have spend 63 years in this business trying to introduce music to a larger audience and to make it easier for the younger artists who are coming behind me. Every now and then some young artist will record a rock and roll type song , have a hit first time out with kids only. This is why you see stars come with a few hits only and then just fade away believing they are God's answer to the world. This guy sounds like in his own mind that his head is so large no hat ever made will fit him. Stupidity Reigns Supreme!!!!!!! Ray Price (CHIEF "OLD FART" & JACKASS") " P.S. YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY AS US OLD-TIMERS. CHECK BACK IN 63 YEARS (THE YEAR 2075) AND LET US KNOW HOW YOUR NAME AND YOUR MUSIC WILL BE REMEMBERED. 

Well Ray, at least Blake didn't end that by saying he shit his pants again like he usually does on his Twitter account.  But in all fairness, BS didn't single Ray out, he just made an observation that was guaranteed to rile up the trad country people out there who still enjoy a classic country song now and then.  Let's face it, today's new country is no where near the sound of when Bob Wills was around (I'm sure Blake doesn't even listen to that dinosaur music) or when Ray came around in the 50s and then the golden age of country came with Johnny Cash, Buck Owens and George Jones  ruled the charts which begat Waylon, Willie, the outlaw movement which begat the next generation of stars like Dwight Yoakam, Steve Earle, Randy Travis and then on to the 90s when George Strait,  Garth Brooks, Clint Black and Alan Jackson took over.  

And then you have the kid's generation of stars which is a far cry from the honky tonks now replaced by trailer courts, boom boom speakers and tattooed stars with wallet chains and half baked southern rock and songs about trucks and shaking girls.  Blake Shelton is considered the stars of country music today although at age 36 the sun is beginning to set on him and I'm sure he'll be replaced by another up and coming star.  It's like that in music anymore.  Every decade has it's stars of the hour and given another decade or two I'm sure B.S. will be featured in some Classic Country format.  Again, the fact of the matter remains that good music is timeless be it any decade although in this Cumulus Corporate owned age, you don't hear Ray Price on the local country channel unless it's 99.3 in Dyersville or on Willie Nelson's Sirius Station.  But look over your shoulder Blake, and you can see the new generation taking over  (Hunter Hayes anybody?).  You may not like them but what goes around comes around and hits twice as hard later in life.

I have little use for new country anymore, most of it sucks with the exception of Miranda Lambert's albums and she continues to be that rare person that can write them and sing them, whereas Blake needs a bit more outsider songwriter help to get him through his albums.  Maybe Miranda could help him, but her songs tend to be a bit more sarcastically and darker than his tongue in cheek songs like Some Beach.  He remains controversial and funny on Twitter but this time he's in the wrong.  Grandpa's music Blake?  Um, don't know about that, George Strait and Alan Jackson has actually been doing the same type of music Ray Price continues to do and they're making a decent living over that.  

And so it goes.

Update: Blake responds.

Whoa!!! I heard I offended one of my all time favorite artists Ray Price by my statement “Nobody wants to listen to their grandpas music”..And probably some other things from that same interview on GAC Backstory.. I hate that I upset him.. The truth is my statement was and STILL Is about how we as the new generation of country artists have to keep re-inventing country music to keep it popular. Just EXACTLY…The way Mr. Price did along hid journey as a main stream country artist.. Pushing the boundaries with his records. “For The Goodtimes” is a Perfect example with the introduction of a bigger orchestrated sound in country music.. It was new and awesome!!! I absolutely have no doubt I could have worded it better(as always ha!) and I apologize to Mr. Price and any other heroes of mine that it may offended..I meant every word I said. Country music is my life and it’s future AND past is important to me. I’ll put my Lo e and respect and knowledge About it up against anybody out there… ANYBODY…


From Ray Stevens (Happy Birthday Ray!)


“I just heard Blake Shelton’s remarks about ‘old farts and jackasses’ and all I want to know is how he found out the title to my next single because it’s been a closely guarded secret here at the ‘Home.’ It will be available on vinyl or 8-Track at your nearest Tower Records store.”

Last word from Blake himself

 No.. Actually it's an apology for the wording. Nice try though.. (responding to Outlaw Magazine claim that his apology wasn't so much an apology)

And this:

What an interesting day. Turns out I have a lot of friends in this industry that refuse to jump on any band wagon and turn their back on me.   And a handful that have no problem doing it...Publicity can make people do and say anything I guess... Oh well. Good news for me is... I don't forget and won't forget.  Coolest thing about it all...? 100% of my fans have my back. And THAT makes me proud of, not me, but country music...


And finally.

  @blakeshelton Please tweet me happy birthday!?” Happy birthday!!!

Thanks Blake, you rock!  Say hello to Miranda for me please?  ;-)

PS: Farce The Music sums things up:

 "There's not a more compassionate fan of the industry" -An associate of Blake Shelton defending him. In those very words lies the problem.

FINAL THOUGHT (for real) from Ray Price

Hi Folks, I had no idea how far this would go when I made my comment about BLAKE SHELTON'S statement regarding CLASSIC COUNTRY MUSIC and that it had no place in the evolution of Country Music. It has made it's way to the site of the 2013 GRAMMY AWARDS TV SHOW. I am giving you the link to read yourself. I HAVE ACCEPTED BLAKE SHELTON'S APOLOGY TO ME PERSONALLY. I think Blake is a fine young man with a big future in Country Music. I AGREE that he should be given a chance to restore his credibility with the MILLIONS OF FANS who were deeply offended by those HURTFUL WORDS AND RENAMING US ALL AS.....well, you know what he said. I would regret it if the words I have spoken would in any way harm Blake personally or his career and his chances for the future. BEST OF LUCK TO YOU, BLAKE. Thanks All. RAY PRICE

Blake responds:

 
Still sad that Ray thought I was talking about artists. I was only referring to people who don't like the new direction country is going.  I'm so proud of where country music is today... I'll always stand up for it. It's my world.

 

TO BE CONTINUED..... ?

Top Ten Of The Week-Crabb's Favorites

For the past 10 years I've been doing this loving hobby of posting 10 songs from my player in hopes of educating the masses that there's much more out there than the usual overplayed Cumulus Corporation Crap or Clear Channel, but it has called upon my attention that the total of songs I have posted over the years have exceeded the total approved songs for both Corporate guerrillas.


I'm not exactly sure if I can post a total top ten songs that I would want with me on a deserted island.  I hate repetition even on my favorite songs or favorite bands.  We only have so much time left to deal with the things we like anyway.  I know for a fact that even when I turn in this all time 10 faves that I will leave one or two off just because I didn't think of them at the time of compiling this list.  But then again, your taste may vary.  To pick 10 from 7 decades of rock and roll?  Hard to do, but I hope for the most part whatever makes this list comes from varying bands and albums that made an impression on me.  I certainly don't expect this to make the all time top ten most viewed, the viewer tastes won't allow that although The Mexican Jumping Beans blog has blown up the charts and now the all time best top ten for views.  To which The Loud Jets aka MJB thank you for your support.

But even the novelty of us getting 3300 views last month is done, hell I haven't even cleared 100 views on any day since the 12th.  So I guess it's back to the usual 2000 views once again. But anyway, time for this week's 10 songs of favorites plus a volume 2 and a volume 3. And that's it!

I'm sure the majority of these ten songs have appeared on various top tens over the years and so be it. But in the great event that if anybody cares what my all time faves are, this is as close to my soul that you'll ever get.

1.  Bo Diddley-Bo Diddley  1955  Certainly Chuck Berry figures in great rock and roll but Bo always had a distinctive sound that made you associate with the artist himself.  If there wasn't Bo, there would be no Townedgers or rock and roll for that matter, I'd be probably a Conservative Racist Pro gun CEO owning a few Congressmen in my wake but thank your lucky stars I was more into the spinning of 45s and the hippie dippy way.  If Elvis is the king of rock and roll, Bo Diddley is Jesus, walking on the water saving people's souls in favor of rock and roll.  Even Bob Dorr would have to agree on that one.

2.  My Girl Josephine-Jerry Jaye 1966  Growing up listening to AM radio in the 1970s still enabled us to hear once in a while songs that Cumulus would never consider playing on their precious 400 tunes which means you youngsters would have to seek out You Tube to hear some of the fun stuff that was presented to me.  My life was always music related to the point that if I heard a cool song on the radio, I would drag my little rocking chair and rock out to the songs.  Eventually I had to get a bigger rocking chair since I broke the damn thing after 15 years and too many pizzas to boot.  This is Memphis rock from a unknown rockabilly later country star that had a few singles on Hi and then Mega, but for pre Ramones three chords and the truth, Jerry made me a rabid fan of this song to which record I wanted so bad that I traded a CD of Kingdom Come to the guy at Rock N Bach for this scratchy 45.  Yes my influences still remain The Who, Buddy Holly and Bo Diddley but Jerry Jaye is another of my cult faves that nobody ever heard about. Rockabilly coolness.

 


3.  Blood-Big Back Forty 1997  In the perfect world, BB40 would be highly regarded like the the rest of the Americana music that was part of the magical 90s.  Even in this day and age, not everything that came out was manufactured by the numbers Corporate rock, a lotta great albums and bands fell by the wayside and can be found in the local cheap bins.  A classic album is anything that YOU want it to be and not what Rolling Stone or Spin touts, usually their tastes are like bubblegum, pleasant at first but the taste wears off and it's pretty bland.  Nevertheless, I bought Bested, BB40's only album for 7 bucks at Best Buy when it came out and it really took hold on me and managed to get to see them make their way here in 98 when they opened for The Honeydogs and even had the man himself Sean Beal next to me jamming out to the Honeydogs after they finished their set.  Hey he's one of us, a fan of music to the point that he would hang with the fans afterwards.  Sad to say, they never made it far, since Polydor got sold off in that infamous 1998 buyout which started the Universal giant label but every song off Bested is a classic to the point that I bought another copy just to have in the car for long driving trips.  Imagine my shock and surprise while down in Arizona and outside a steak place they were playing the radio and this song came on.  That made me stop and take a listen to it.

4. World's Looking Lonely-Volebeats 2005  What is the perfect sound of a pop song you ask? Beats, melody and a style that last through the ages I would say and even in this fairly new century we still have a good example of power pop, from a band that has members of Outrageous Cherry in it, they channel their inner Byrds/Flaming Groovies with this heartbreaking number that can give visions of Tom Petty to boot.  It takes a lot for me to remember bands in this day and age but once hearing this song I really wanted this record but could never figure out the band's name till I found a different record by the same group at another record store. But the power of Amazon.com enabled me to finally score the album Like Her to which I knew nothing about.

5.  Love's Made A Fool Out Of You-Bobby Fuller 4 1965  There were two of the most finest and influential musicians that ever came out of Texas, one was Buddy Holly and like Bo Diddley if it wasn't for Buddy I'd be doing something other.  The other was Bobby Fuller and he pretty much extended the Buddy groove to make his own, of course he covered I Fought The Law and got a big hit and almost does a straight to the version done by the Crickets without Buddy Holly.  Example number two of the perfect pop song.  Everybody should have an Bobby Fuller CD in their collection.

6. Don't Tell Me Your Troubles-Don Gibson 1963  If you're looking at the lack of hard rock bands here, don't despair too much on that, a lot of these lesser known songs have more influence on me in my favorite songs ever, but then again it's hard to dwell on only 10 and not take everything into consideration.  Don Gibson was the best dark songwriter that I ever came across in my youth, my folks had a chewed up copy of I Wrote A Song which had Don revisit some of his earlier stuff and I always liked this remake better than the original.  Of course Patsy Cline had a big hit with Sweet Dreams, your parent's Love Will Tear Us Apart. Too bad she didn't live long enough to do a complete album of Don's songs, I would have brought that one too.

7.  The Last Time-The Rolling Stones 1965  This is probably the most played song here on the top ten list but hey I like it fine.  The Stones at their most Garage Rock Best.  Keith Richards can make anything simple sound extreme.

8.  Rolling And Tumbling-Dr Feelgood 1976  Pub rock, there's so many great bands of that era to speak of, Ducks Deluxe, The Pirates, Eddie And The Hot Rods, later day Searchers of course Rockpile figures greatly into this too, it's hard to pick one, but I decided to go with this Wilko Johnson guitar led band that made some super cool albums in the mid 70s before Johnson left. Of course Pub Rock eventually mutated into punk rock but you really can't tell the difference.  It's all still in your face although I think that Pub Rock had more of a blues influence than the punk rock that The Clash or Sex Pistols would figured into and it would break out a year later.

9.  Shake-Otis Redding-1967  The live version that was the B side to You Don't Miss Your Water, this is soul music at its finest.  One of those 9 cent records that my mom brought home and knew nothing about till I put it on the player and then proceeded to wear the damn thing out. The complete version is on The Stax/Volt Revue Live In London album that Atlantic reissued in the 1990s to which I scored a copy at the old BJ's Records.  Was the 1960's the best time for music ever?  Seems that way to me.

10.  Tallahassee Lassie-Freddy Cannon  1959  And just like that we come to the 10th and final installment of Crabb's Favorites and yes I know I have left so many out that we haven't even scratched the surface.  I think out of all the songs listed, that this one demented me forever into thinking that rock and roll is the way to go and anything else should be left in the dust.  This is one of the songs that turns your head around and go WOW What the hell was that?  And where can I score a copy?  Alas, the version that our 45 was a two minute edit, I found a much better copy of same song with a extra verse thrown in to make it a complete 2 and half minute song instead of the 2:05 of the original Swan 45.  I'm guessing Freddy made have pioneered power pop with this song.  And we're all for the better of it.

Crabb's Favorites Volume 2:

11. Peggy Sue-Buddy Holly 1957
12. Don't You Worry My Little Pet-The Teddy Bears 1959
13. Pictures-Len Price 3-2011
14. Good Times Bad Times-Led Zeppelin 1969
15. Gas Girl-Bottle Rockets 1993
16. Gonna Send You Back To Walker-The Animals 1964
17. Cherry Cherry-Neil Diamond 1966
18. Let Your Love Flow-The Bellamy Brothers 1976
19. Keep A Walkin- Sam & Dave 1962
20. Slow Turnin-John Hiatt 1988

It still seems like I haven't even begun to tab all the faves that I know and love.    And so let's do a third and final installment of Crabb's Favorites and call it a day before the next top ten arrives.

21.  You're Gonna Miss Me-13th Floor Elevators 1966
22.  Rust Belt Town-The Randy Cliffs 2002
23.  Baby, Don't You Do It-The Who 1972
24.  Back Again-The Townedgers 2002
25.  Love's Closing In On Me-Tommy James & Shondells 1966
26.  You Better Check Yourself-Soul Brothers Six 1966
27.  I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better-The Byrds 1965
28.  Alison Road-Gin Blossoms 1992
29.  Peter Gunn-Duane Eddy 1960
30.  After You Came-The Moody Blues 1972

Robert Christgau gives us his best of 2012 here: http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Rock-Roll/The-Dean-s-List-2012/ba-p/9707

Observations: Earl Weaver, NLFM, Patsy Cline etc

Well I guess it had to happen sooner, the novelty has wore off and we'll lose that 3,000 views bubble.  Started on the 20th and lasted through Christmas we averaged a 150 views and then it dropped down.  Maybe we'll never top the 214 views that happened on the 23rd.  You can promo it as much as you can and it really doesn't matter.  You gotta make this a labor of love or otherwise this would be history.

Link of the day: http://433rpm.blogspot.com/

No Longer Forgotten Music goes even more further than I could ever do in searching for forgotten music over the years. Even I haven't heard half of what they posted for songs.

Even the with easing of the comments rule only Tad has figured out the captcha puzzle.  Thought about doing away the whole thing and let everybody make a comment but then again I'd end up with trolls or Nicki No Talent robots invading the inbox with empty headed nothingness.  She really sucks although she does rap competent.

Janis Joplin would have been 70 today.   I have to admit I have never been a big Janis fan, I do have Cheap Thrills but never play it all that much, there was another later cd of her live performances that had better songs but for the most part they're dust collectors.  She could sing, too bad the booze and the drugs and the heartbreaks finally took her down.

But take this in consideration, Patsy Cline would have turned 81 a couple months ago.  Listening to her overview The Patsy Cline Story, I have to conclude that Patsy is the greatest singer of heartbreak ever.  She makes Ian Curtis sound like a choir boy, the desperation that she sings of Sweet Dreams the song that Don Gibson wrote but makes it her own with the way she sings 'you don't love me anymore' sent a strange shiver up my spine while listening to it at work the other day.  I don't believe the brat cared much for The Wayward Wind and she may have a point, Gogi Grant still owns that.  I still like Patsy's more uptempo numbers and Tra La La Triangle song brings a smile to this face.  But tell you one thing, when she sings the songs of heartbreak or She's Got You, it sure tears my heart out hearing that.  You hear the pain in her voice.  More so than Ian.

Bob Lefsetz does a fine job on his podcast of The Harder They Come soundtrack featuring Jimmy Cliff, which remains the first definitive Reggae album that ever came out and yes I have the movie too.  What Bob may not told you but I will that Jimmy's latest album Rebirth is almost as good as that soundtrack.  The 70s was a great time for Reggae music with ground breaking stuff from the likes of Cliff, The Wailers, Toots And The Maytals, Burning Spear and Johnny Nash who at one time was a up and coming teen idol.  His Hold Me Tight album (JAD) was really the first overall reggae album that I ever known, brought for 44 cents at Kresges' years ago.  Peter Tosh wrote a couple cool number on that record.

Earl Weaver, the iconic manager of the Baltimore Orioles passed away at age 82. As a long time fan of the Orioles (goes all the way back to 66 when they upset and swept the Dodgers in the world series) he managed to take the O's to a few World Series, the infamous fuck you Mets of 1969, the two series with the Pirates to which both Pittsburgh won, including the dammed We Are Family craze of 1979 and the 1970 they won it all by beating Cincinnati 4 games to 1 on the strength of Brooks Robinson unbelievable plays at 3rd base.  Even when they didn't win the division, Weaver always had them playing past their potential even though the players would love to kill him, as well the umpires, Weaver got thrown out of 98 ball games in his career.  A sore loser?  Naw, a winner and  my favorite all time manager.  You can't replace him.


Record review:
The Cruisin' Story 1960  (One Day)

One thing about compilations from the golden age of rock and roll is that there's plenty of them out there and most of them repeats the same songs over and over and sometimes throws an obscure classic in there.  Now I grew up with 45s of that era courtesy of my mom and her dead sister and their eccentric tastes are the basis of what I listen to, it's a blurred line and if it sounds good to me then that's what it is.   Back then the local Woolworth's had the 3 for a dollar special or whatever Mom would bring home.  Before the Rolling Stone review guide, this what prepared us for our endeavor of music. Even back then, the bizarre findings of Oscar Peterson Singers to Ben E King or Ray Charles to compare with Bobby Rydell, Elvis and The Hollywood Argyles.

Time Life in their defense continues to do a good job with their big box sets which has been reissued and manipulated on late night TV so many times they have become a parody upon themselves but in reality based upon the original American Graffiti soundtrack, capturing the sights and sounds of an era long ago and far away that we cannot return to that garden of Eden anytime soon.  Time Life does have it right, but I have come to find that the labels across the pond tend to their rock and roll a bit more seriously, such as the case of One Day Records and their Cruisin' Story Series.

One Day has done a superb job of reissuing 2 CD sets of The Cruisin Years which is a variation of the Crusin' series that Increase Records does, only the latter label adds radio airchecks and commercials to the songs although their albums never seem to go past the half hour mark.  Rykodisc issued a Cruisin comp, that kinda reminds me of late night radio, but they go from the late 50s and end around 1968 thereabouts.  It's definitive and worth a listen even though the songs they choose have been played to death on the radio. But One Day sticks to the songs of a particular year and even though the 1960 Story has the usual suspects (Elvis gets three songs, Sam Cooke gets two) and tend to overdo the pop side of things (Paul Anka, Kathy Young) it does give a peek into the developing Motown era with The Miracles' Shop Around, gives a nod to Atlantic soul with Ben E King's Spanish Harlem and I Count The Tears by The Drifters, and of course Ray Charles Georgia On My Mind To boot.  Then the novelty of Alley Oop, Volare, You Talk Too Much and even Johnny Bond's Hot Rod Lincoln.

The second cd is where the fun begins which is when One Day begins to tap the British side of music, Johnny Kidd's Shakin All Over which even sounds dangerous in this 1960 version, Cliff Richard and Billy Fury add their hits here. To the guitar rock of Fendermen's Mule Skinner Blues, The Ventures Walk Don't Run and the original I Fought The Law by The Crickets and Sonny Curtis making Buddy proud although Bobby Fuller would take it one step further. And the reason why I bought this comp, I figured it's cheaper than trying to locate the original 45 of said song.  For the most part we get the original versions, although I find it odd to see Hank Ballard's Finger Poppin Time on one cd and the other The Twist, a song he wrote, is done by Chubby Checker.  Not sure if the Brook Benton/Diana Washington's Rocking Good Way is the original but what I can tell you is that Baby, You Got What It Takes, isn't original, it's Benton only and sounds way past 1960.

But even in the good vibes of the songs of this album, it does end on a bittersweet note with Buddy Holly's True Love Ways ending the whole thing, like the party's over.  Another quibble is the absolute shoddyness of the annotation or songs, no mentioning of the labels or where they came from and the credits to the songs are all wrong, which is getting into Charly Records territory.  Remember them?  They put out some great albums of blues artists and rockers and put up a front for where they got their masters to which Universal went and shut them down, or they simply vanished to some remote place to continue to put out product.  But One Day (A division of Not Now Music) has really done their homework and have issued some fine fine music from forgotten labels (their rockabilly series are worth seeking out) and on this album, added a few missing links from the music of the AM rock era.  Their American London series to which London UK licensed some US records for the UK audience are worth seeking out although there's a few duplications from that as well.  Basically buyer beware but for a decent overview of your parents rock and roll, you could do worse.

Grade B+

The lateness of the hour caused me to forgot about Stan Musial deciding to check into the big ball park in the sky.  He was 92.  Stan the Man lives!

If you're still interested, Bob Dorr's Backtracks is now on Saturday Afternoon from 3 from 5.  Seems like Public Radio has cut his hours down two from three hours he used to have on Saturday Nights.  He always have  a good sense of music.......

Crabb Bits: HMV, Audio Preservation Fund

The biggest news coming out of the corridor has been that the British giant music store HMV is now what they call In Administration or over here bankruptcy.   Virgin France went belly up as well.  In essence perhaps the death knell in sales of physical product.    Martin Elbourne mentioning that anybody making a 70 minute CD in this day and age is a moron.  Those days of overlong CDs are thankfully long gone, sez he.

I suppose that means that if The Townedgers make an cd that nobody is going care but only for themselves.  So be it then.

In essence, music is going be distributed by the great big jukebox in the internet then.  For me, I'm still going to be listening through outdated storage media and a discman that for 12 years has taken me on and has survived.  Despite what the Martin Elbournes and the naysayers, I'm not about to give up things that have been useful for me, when I'm dead and gone, either give my stuff away to the museums and record collectors out there or turn my CD collection into a giant casket and throw me in there when it's done.

I don't foresee 2013 to be a very productive year for me in terms of new music, as for bargain hunting, I'm sure whatever turns up at the local Half Priced Bookstore will keep me amused for the time being but honestly I don't have much use for new music and radio sucks in any format.  I'm sure if and when maybe I'll buy up a Smart phone and listen to a podcast from the comforts of ear buds and a few hours before the battery needs a recharge.  If there's something I really need, I have about 100 dollars worth of HP Books gift cards at my disposal and a 50 dollar Best Buy gift card as well.  I have no bargain hunts planned for Madison nor any other place for now, the Davenport only took place since Samantha Fish came to play there and I was killing time although I'm sure the folks at FYE didn't mind my presence.  But I'm sure as the year goes by and record sales continue to tank, there'll be more stores closing down.  Sign of the times I guess.

But in my case, there is still bargains to be found, and music to be made.  We'll survive, just like you.

http://audiopreservationfund.org/index.php

Link Of The Day: The Audio Preservation Fund, a place where you can donate your collection after you're gone.  Or a suggestion.

Pawn shop classic CDs reviewed.

With being at work letting me listen to what tunes I bring to work, it keeps me sane most of the time.   Paul McCartney's Give My Regards To Broad Street (Columbia/MPL 1984)  was a bizarre movie to say the very least and can be a chore getting through, but the soundtrack is a better alternative.  Paul always seemed to get the best musicians and he puts a heavyweight with Chris Spedding, Dave Edmunds, John Paul Jones and Ringo Starr on a couple tracks and parts of Toto on the odious Silly Love Songs although this version will be the only one that I approve of.  Mac also revisits some of the Beatles songs as well and I would have gone with Eleanor Rigby as this definite version till the 8 minite Eleanor's  Dream drags this forevermore.  But I still believe that No More Lonely Nights featuring David Gilmour's blistering guitar solo is a deserved hit.  The S/T has been out of print for years but I finally found a copy the other day but don't recall the vinyl album going as long as the CD does.....Country music is a joke upon itself with redneck, boom boom speakers and half assed crapola that The Peach Pickers tends to give to the jeans and walletchain wearing goofs of this era, no wonder nobody listens to the radio anymore.  The Bottle Rockets (ESD 1993)  actually did this a helluva lot better than Brantley or Luke does today with a vivid more imagination and thought.  Always enjoyed the Mellencamp rip of Gas Girl or Wave That Flag which would piss off many a Southerner about that "flag". Perhaps the best song is about a trailer fire in Kerosene.  Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy adds some backing vocals as well, even though Brian Hennaman continues to keep the Bottle Rockets going, I always loved their first album right from the start.....Coleman Hawkins was getting up in his years when Swingville paired him with some up and comers with the Coleman Hawkins All Stars (Swingville/Concord 1960 reissued 1996) an jazz session which was part boogie with More Bounce To The Vonce and all out jam on Some Stretching.  Hawkins showed the boys that the old man can still bring it and even though his shorter numbers is what he do best, this album really is damn good jazz.  Of course it helps when you borrow some of Duke Ellington's numbers too....Brewer & Shipley's Tarkio (Buddah Reissue 1995) is considered their best album and does have that hippie dippy vibe that we all loved and remembered so fondly back then.  One toke over the line and the followup Tarkio Road which I got on single, the Best Of Brewer & Shipley borrows 6 tracks off that album but they left off the beautiful Song From Platte River and Seems Like A Long Time to which Rod Stewart covered on Every Picture Tells A Story.  Bonus track features a very good Mighty Quinn. 

Paul McCartney-Give My Regards To Broad Street B+
The Bottle Rockets A
Coleman Hawkins All Stars Featuring Joe Thomas/Vic Dickerson A-
Brewer & Shipley-Tarkio A-

Top Ten Of The Week-The Hobbyist

Allow me to invade your inbox once again all three of you followers out there.

It's been a much more busier month here in Crabby Top Ten Mania Land since I'm back to padding the archives with happenings in 2009 and now 2008 and they're there for reminding me what was going on back then and who passed on and so on.  I noticed I did a lot more bitching in the My Space blogs so a majority of that stuff have been thrown to the trash.  Still do that to this day.  Halfway through the month I only made one major label purchase, a forgotten album for 5 bucks and no new music to speak of.  Only interesting things so far was the Bowie album for March and the Black Sabbath 13 CD for the springtime but I think I'm done with the new music exploration but don't despair;  we still have plenty of undiscovered stuff in the used bins waiting to be heard.

I guess after all these years, of playing Townedgers Music and making top tens and buying music has made me a hobbyist instead of a music informer.  Let's face it, we'll never be rich and famous for either one but at least the internet has kept me from being bored to the TV on my days off.  There's plenty of other music blog sites as well and we're nowhere near to the top, the king crank remains Bob Lefsetz and you'd think he be ushering in a new kind of internet sensation of the wave of the future, like the guy and some of the things he say but really he's not one of us, we don't hubnub with the stars and we don't ski at Aspen. I'm just hanging in the Clarence bins at Half Priced Books and once in a while get a moment when Samantha Fish comes off the stage to play guitar in front of me.  Or meeting Doug Phelps of the Kentucky Headhunters and shaking his hand when he came off the stage at Shell Rock last summer.  Or having a good laugh with Bugs Gonzalez of Los Lobos.  The things that make you become a bigger fan of their music.

Sometimes the reverse can happen, when a musician or radio personality decides that you're not good for them.  The slightest thing can make you forever change opinion of them. Which is why I don't listen to Backtracks anymore or play The Blue Band.  But what do they care, they'll just nominate themselves for another place on the Iowa Rock n Roll HOF to make them think they're the real rock Messiahs of this great state or All Time Radio Personality.  I donno, Richie Valens did more for rock n roll in his short time on earth than Elvis In Paraguay ever did for music here. Or Buddy Holly, or even JP Richardson.  No Bob Dorr not even the greatest sacrifice that you can do will earn trip to Cleveland to the Rolling Stones RnR HOF, so enjoy your three time noms here locally.  They're not even mentioning you in the real RnR HOF.

So basically if you haven't made it locally and you have been doing this kind of garage rock for 30 years, it's considered a hobby and basically do it for yourself and the fan base that you have.  Or for the fun of it.  Cuz if you don't even like what you're doing....may as well dig a hole and jump in.

Or continue to do what people come back here for, see what 10 songs made the list this week.  Here ya go.



1.  Road Song-Charlie Rich 1976  Of course this didn't make the Single Going Steady 10 blog nor last week but eventually I would pick this forgotten top 40 hit for Charlie back in 1976, or forgotten hit anyway.  I have never seen this on any greatest hits package which is a shame really, it's more darker than Behind Closed Doors which gave Charlie instant country stardom but he was more R and B than country and of course his award winning reaction to John Denver winning a country award remains more rock rebellion than country conservative.  B side was Grass Is Always Greener which is more blues than country.  Great lyrics provided by Margaret Rich, Charlie's wife.

2.  Harold Knows (Better Than You)-Octopus 1969  Out of all the ESP Disk bands that was on that label, this band of unknowns was the most straight forward of them all although they did do their own freakout stuff on the second side of their only album Fruk Juice.  Despite the oddball cover this is not Caveman Rock, but rather garage blues with a bit of MC5 thrown in for radical measure.   It didn't take much to get on ESP Disk, just have a sense of noise sense and you may get mention in a blog somewhere years later.

3.  Hell On Wheels-Cinderella 1986  They got a bad rap in the beginning, Bon Jovi got Mercury to sign them up and they made a great first album but the way they looked they got limped in the hair metal craze. While Tom Keifer vocals made him sound like Brian Johnson of AC/DC, in theory he's more in line with Dan McCaffery of Nazareth which probably why critics never liked this band.  Cinderella owed more to hard rock of the 70s since Andy Johns (Free, Led Zeppelin) produced.  Not to be confused with Hell On Heels by Pistol Annies.

4.  Papa Was Too-Joe Tex 1966  One of the most overlooked and underrated soul singers of the 60s has got to be Joe Tex.  Even I have been guilty of overlooking some of his music, had plenty of his 45s growing up and we can't seem to get a decent overview of his hits (personal to Real Gone, how bout a reissue of Joe Tex's complete singles? I'd buy). Only decent cd of his best work came out on Oh Boy (a much cheaper and less worthwhile comp came out on David Allen Coe's label) to which Joe's answer to Lowell Folsom's Tramp got some top forty loving on the R and B charts.  Never heard this on our radio stations though.

5.  Outlaw Man-David Blue 1973  The Eagles had a FM hit with this, meaning you heard this on the FM stations in the 1970s but even in the classic rock age of the overplayed The Fox seldom does.  David Blue, the original songwriter did put this out as a single but it got zilch airplay.  Ragged Records had a copy of this song produced by Graham Nash and sounds like Stephen Stills plays guitar on this and Nash is doing backing vocals.  Don't have the album so this is a guess.  Thought about putting this on the top ten last week but somehow we got carried away by the blues.......

 


6.  Play The Breaks-The Plimsouls 1983   More of a critics' fave band, Peter Case and company made a couple decent albums, one for Planet which is hard to find and one for Geffen which got some airplay on the college stations in the early 80s to which Mr. Dorr would play on occasion back then, or Al Sherles of KUNI fame.  This was the B side to A Million Miles Away which never did went past the number 80 mark on the Billboard top 100.  A shame really, I think I liked this song better than Million Miles Away.  Back then I was still buying 45s new and Camelot at Westdale always had the more obscure stuff, likewise the old Musicland Sam Goody too, back when Westdale was a actual mall and not this dark and dingy place it is now. Of course there's no more music stores in either Westdale or Lindale or that for that matter Sycamore Mall and Coral Ridge Mall.  Really those were the best of times for me actually.  We survived the internet quite well since it was a top secret whatchamacallit and basically off limits, unless you had a computer. And only the brainiacs  had them.

7.  Turn It Loose-The Doobie Brothers 1976  Another fave B side of mine, this one was the flip of It Keeps You Runnin' another overplayed classic rock staple, this got airplay on Q103, the top forty station which we thought was going to be a hit but never was.  It was the only song that Tom Johnston did on Takin It To The Streets which ushered in the Michael McDonald Doobie era.  Ah, pre Corporate rock era radio, it was pretty good before Cumulus and Clear Channel took over the airwaves.

8.  I'll Make You Happy-Divinyls 1985  At times when they were good, The Divinyls could give AC/DC or Midnight Oil a run for best Australian band ever, and that's saying a lot.  They had a charismatic singer in Christina Amphlett who could also be the most dangerous woman in rock ever.  You never knew what to expect from her, she dabbed in total weirdness when she hit the stage.  They made three uneven Chrysalis albums but they tore through this old Easybeats number.  But Divinyls will be forever known for that 1991 ode to masturbation I Touch Myself, their first and only top ten hit for Virgin Records.  When that song hit number 1 here, EMI put together a Best Of Divinyls-The Chrysalis Years to which they cherry picked 12 random songs of varying degree.  Eventually, EMI would acquire Virgin Records and redo The Best Of Divinyls that includes their biggest hit.   

9.  The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia-Vic Chestnutt 1995  For the past three weeks I've been including sections from the Pravda Records tribute to K Tel Star Power and not that remains their best compilation overall, but there's more memorable songs on this than on the previous two attempts they did of various artists.  Vic Chestnutt has always been a very eccentric musician and this cover of the Vicky Lawrence hit reminds me of the way that John Cale took Heartbreak Hotel and turned it into a gloom and doom song.  Written by Bobby Russell of Saturday Morning Confusion fame and of course, the morbid Honey, voted one of the more puke inducing songs ever penned.

10.  The Outsiders-Needtobreathe 2009   I guess it's all one word.  To these ears it's probably considered alternative rock if there's such a thing but these guys are more in line with the contemporary Christian Music that you hear on Life 101.9 and for all intent purposes, Christian Music is just as boring and same sounding as Top Forty, just less autotuner.  This CD sat in the Clarence bins for a good couple of months before I sampled some song titles via Amazon and decided to check the rest out since this song was actually very good considering the rest of the album was moreorless same sounding with more praise songs toward the end of this CD.  Hard to believe these guys are still on Atlantic, which really doesn't have the time nor patience for bands for more than two albums, they have made three so far. For Contemporary Christian Music, not bad.


honorable mentions:

Slick-Herb Alpert 1968
Outsider-Ramones 1983
Hot And Nasty (Live Version)-Black Oak Arkansas 1973
Down In  The Swamp-Samantha Fish 2011
Woo Hoo-Rock A Teens 1958

Quote Of The Day: Tony Visconti on the Bob Lefsetz' rant on David Bowie: (Link Provided)

"Well, he used to be cutting-edge but he's an old jerk now. He is so out of touch with what people want. This album is already No. 1 in 20 countries and it hasn't even been released yet, so that's evidence that the album is the way to go. It might be not be for everybody because, honestly, people don't write enough good material to fill an album anymore. So Lefsetz is a complete asshole. At one time, a few years ago, he had his day in the sun, but now he is basically an old fart, and I am bored with what he says."

Read more: http://www.vintagevinylnews.com/search?updated-max=2013-01-11T22:03:00-08:00&max-results=5&start=5&by-date=false#ixzz2HxWRS25J

Steve Howe leaves Asia again to divide his time between Yes and his solo projects.  The reunited Asia managed to make three proper albums before Howe's leaving, Sam Coulson replaces him.

Elton John is writing new songs with Bernie Tarpin for a upcoming album this spring.  Black Sabbath's 13 is completed with Brad Wilk (Rage Against The Machine) playing drums instead of Bill Ward.  We really haven't had a proper Sabbath album with the original lineup since the two tracks that was part of the Live Black Sabbath that Epic put out years ago.  I'm somewhat interested to hear the new Eric Burdon album but since I'm cutting way back on new releases it's not high on my list of things to listen to.  Unless it's in the used bins at Half Priced Books or whatever record store has it.

Read of the week: Bottom Of The Glass, Douchey Bob's Best of 2012:  http://bottom-of-the-glass.blogspot.com/2012/12/douchey-bobs-best-cds-of-2012.html

FINALLY: There has been a shake up in the All Time Ten Most Read Blogs here: after being a mainstay on the chart for an amazing run, The Sick Of Summer Ready For Fun has dropped out as well as the Alternatives Blog in favor of The Mexican Jumping Beans Top Ten, which celebrates the legendary Mexican band and early garage rock classic Don't Leave Me Like This that nobody knows about till I discovered it by accident a couple months ago and The Strange Case Of Bobby Fuller also pops in the top ten as well.  Samantha Fish continues to be the most searched word here but moving up on the charts is Pat Travers which has really taken off the last week or so.  Can't figure that one out, I haven't been touting PT as much as I have SF.  No Depression recently put out another winning critique of her Runaway album and she recently completed her little Midwestern tour which included three stops in Iowa to which the above photo of her taken came from the Gas Light in Des Moines.

I think I have done a very good job getting the word out about S.F and perhaps if I was 30 years younger and working at some music mag, I'd be following her and spreading the news out.  Too bad that Stevie Ray Vaughan isn't around to hear her, I'm sure he'd be taking her places as opening act.  As long people continue to search her name out in Google land or Bing, she'll continue to get great promotion from myself when they click on the links to her Davenport show or whatever comes up.  Who knows maybe we'll cross paths again if Samantha comes back or if I find myself in a crowded Kansas City bar to hear her play.  But in the meantime I continue to seek what's out there in the Clarence bins and maybe might find something just as worthwhile.  It's on the next thing sitting close to my eyesight but rest assured, Runaway will be getting airplay on my stereo, and the next new album whenever that comes out.

As they say, play on.

History Lesson: Da Crabb Visits Washington DC 2004

In my attempt to clean up the archives of My Space, I found this trip summary of my trip to the East Coast in 2004 to which I got to meet Donna aka Brooksie from the MSN chats.  I'm sure it's another way to pad my viewership but reading this brings back some fond memories. Wouldn't mind to go back out there again to visit.

Original post follows:

 Thought you all would like to know that Da Crabb made it safely to Washington - I met him at National Airport (also known as Reagan National Airport) at a little after 5 pm local time.  He's already experienced his first DC rush-hour traffic jam while we were trying to make it out this way  and he's also experienced The Tortilla Factory restaurant, a local fave .  Now he's been safely deposited at his hotel, where I'm sure he's sawing logs this very minute and sleeping off the 1 hour time difference. 

Sunday, we did go to Washington Downtown to see the sights, then moved on to Manassas to one of the battlefields.  It was a very hot sunny day, got into the 90s, and we both got sunburned.  However, going on the battlefields gives you a different prospective on how things were back in the civil war.  Basically, I was awestruck on how many people died on these battlefields.  The next day, we trucked up to Gettysburg PA, which was more widespread than Manassas, with cannons all around the area.  On these hollowed grounds where both the confederates and the union soldiers lost their lives, I was so overwhelmed by the amount of bullets and shells and cannonballs that they have in the Gettysburg Museum.   

The CD store we visited on Friday is called Record And Tape Exchange, in Fairfax VA.  Here I got to see Da Crabb on a hardcore CD hunt, and yes I did buy more CDs than he did (The Housemartins, The Beautiful South, Bush).  It's quite the cool shop, and it's really close by where I work (dangerously so) and so I anticipate running up there frequently on my breaks from work    Note to the vinyl heads out there - they do have a ton of vinyl!  

Ocean City was great, and we were surprised to see how many people had flocked to the boardwalk on an early spring day.  It was very windy and chilly down there, but it was all good.  What Crabb actually said to me when he heard the bluesman singing was "He does a better Robert Johnson than Eric Clapton!"

 

Definitely check out WRNR (103.1 FM) if you're ever in the Annapolis area.  Their signal only goes so far, and right around Easton MD we started to lose it, but they play stuff you never hear on commercial radio.  Some examples are Freedy Johnston, Elastica, and Morphine.  We definitely enjoyed tuning in and turning on while we were driving back and forth to the ocean 

Crabb is right about the traffic around here    On the way to the shore we got stuck in traffic at an accident scene, and then coming back from Ocean City on Saturday evening we found ourselves stuck in a work zone on the Capital Beltway (I495) in Silver Spring MD.  Crabb also noticed how many cops were out there that evening.  The Maryland State Police were out in full force; I guess they do selective enforcement on the weekend nights.  In any event, there were more cops out there than either of us had ever seen in quite a while.

But hey - if you need to fill up your car, and you're tired of high gas prices in your area, head to Cambridge MD where the price for 87 octane is $1.61   That's about 25 cents cheaper than the DC area prices.

We did try to check out DC on Sunday, but that was a dumb move on my part - you cannot find a parking space in DC on a Sunday to save your neck    That's why we found ourselves at Arlington Cemetery - at least we could park there and see across the Memorial Bridge.

Manassas Battlefield was definitely cool, and believe it or not that's the first time I had ever been there - and I've lived in this area my whole life    It's very stark when compared to the Gettysburg Battlefield and all the memorials they have there, but no less moving.  Visiting the Civil War battlefields is quite an experience, and it really makes you think about all that happened only 140 years ago. 

Coming back from Gettysburg on Monday, I decided to drive us through West (by God) Virginia so Crabb could say that he had been in 4 states and the District Of Columbia during his stay here    We did try to get down to Harper's Ferry and check that all out, but apparently you can't park right in the town anymore - you have to park way far away and take a shuttle bus into town, so that didn't work out so well.  But we took the scenic route coming back here, on picturesque Route 9 all up and down the mountains back into Virginia.  Believe me, there are some hair-raising switchbacks on that road 

So that's my addendum.  Thanks very much to Crabb for hopping a plane out here and visiting our fair area    A great time was had by all!

 

The worst traffic jams I have seen in years, on that was on a saturday nite on Interstate 495.  Surprise number one, I only visited one CD store, and surprise number two Brooksie bought more CDs than I did!   (homemade CDs don't count there ).   Brooksie took me to all the finest food establishments in her area, and of course, my fave was Fuddruckers, as well hitting the Red Robin on the last nite I was there, The Red Robin Burger was so big, I couldn't finish it.  Prior before going to DC, I had to get my wisdom teeth pulled since one of them shattered and the doc gave me some Oxycontin which really screwed me up on the trip to Manassass.  Never take Oxycontin on a empty stomach kiddies.

This trip was not about bargainhunts, it was more of a history lesson, and the last two days and the afternoon spent at Ocean City were the highlights of a five day trip, which went over very quickly.

Saturday, we then hit to the Ocean, to Ocean City.  Ocean City is a cool place to spend the day, (unless its hurricane season which isn't).  The boardwalk is alive with musicians with their karaoke machines to which they play their instruments.  We had a Herb Alpert wannabe, with karaoke accomplishment, a violist with Karoke Backing, and a bluesman, whose version of Love In Vain is more believable than Eric Clapton's latest.  Hay look, Brooskie, he's better than EC, at least its the blues.  Later on, i went to go feed the seagulls and ended up getting a shoeful of ocean (ewwww), and believe it, the ocean is very salty.


PS: The Blog was written in pieces so I tried to attempt to recreate things as they happened via postings on the old My Space site.  The big spaces between paragraphs were like that in the original blog, pictures were added today from the archives. One missing picture was me feeding the seagulls by the ocean.  Kinda spooky to see them hovering around me for a moldy old piece of bread.  But it was still a good time.