Sunday, October 5, 2014

PLAYLIST: Paul Revere Master Of Bad Jokes and Good Music

I basically took last week off.  The waterproofers came out last Monday and tore up the basement.  We're finally got the basement situation taken care of, after five years and 20 times of moving things out of the way from runaway water.  Funny how the original owners, knowing full well that they would get water in the problem spots would not even put a sump pump down here and one of the beams out in the garage was rusted away due to the flood rains.  They say we'll never have anymore water in the basement and if we do to call them back.  It better be dry next spring, we spent nine thousand dollars not to have water in the basement.  And moving tons of heavy albums and cds out of the way.



There hasn't been much in the music world to talk about prior to Paul Revere's passing on the 4th.  Last of the good guy rockers, Revere went against doctor's orders and continued to play live till his body couldn't take it anymore and finally retired to his Idaho home and quietly passed on.  In the music world, the old guard continues to praise Paul and The Raiders whereas in the I phone world and Millennial born kids have no clue who they were.  Old time oldies radio and 60's and garage based radio stations do play the better known hits (Just Like Me, Kicks, Hungry) but of course yours truly digs even deeper for his faves, which will my ten best favorites will be the basis of this week's playlist.  Like the majority of folks, I think their early albums starting with Midnight Run up to the last Terry Melcher produced album Revolution!, when Paul was more involved with the songs are their best, the Mark Lindsay produced late 60s stuff onward is too pop and not enough rock but they still have their moments.  Sundazed reissued their albums up to Alias Pink Puzz, the only good Lindsay produced album but some have now fallen out of print.  The import Raven label continues to have the classic albums out in box sets and they're more bargain priced than the overpriced out of print Sundazed or CBS Cds.  Perhaps their best overview album was All Time Greatest Hits double LP that had the majority of hits and the studio version of Cinderella Sunshine (the slower version) that was more fun than the single version.   The Raiders' albums of the 70s were spotty and got worse with each album. Indian Reservation and Country Wine badly needed some Paul Revere interjecting some R and B and good times rather than the downer that was side 2 of the latter album.  And they became an  nostalgic act but a much more fun band when Lindsay left.   There were a couple of albums that did come out, but most a rehashing of the hits.  But Revere knew the money was in performing and having fun and with a new Raider lineup that had three of the five replacements lasting 30 years together continued to wow the public until Paul's body finally gave out.  A shame that Jann Wanner doesn't know the importance of Paul Revere And The Raiders and knowing that  they SHOULD BE in that POS joke they call the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame (TM-FU).  But I doubt by the end of October, they won't be on the list but perhaps some MTV inspired fluff band or crappy rapper will be.

Court Is Back In Session

Being a week away from the computer, I became a couch potato and spent most of my waking hours on my brother's couch and watching what's new for shows this year.  Plenty of courtroom drama to speak of.  Judge Alex was canceled after 8 seasons and was  replaced by The Hot Seat, which two women and a guy hear the usual arguments.  Joe Brown's old bailiff Sonja is now the bailiff on that show.  Judge Judy after years being on the 4 PM slot time moves over to 2 PM and replaced on that timeslot by Ellen De Generes.  She returns to KGAN after a few years on KCRG and KCRG replaces her with Steve Harvey.  Even the CW has gone Judge crazy, replacing Jerry Springer (which is now banished into the 3 AM slot if he's still on) with a couple of lady judges show including the 1:30 AM slot of Judge Mablean, who was once part of Divorce Court.  Lynn Toler replaced Judge Mablean Ephriam  in 2006 and continues to hold court there.  Justice with Judge Mablean is part of shows created by Byron Allen, best known show is the one with Kevin Ross in it.



Being off the computer, I didn't play much music. The stereo was tore down and was put back together over the weekend but I'm thinking the receiver is at wits end.  Too much snap crackle pop of the speaker and they cut out, only to have me cuss and turn the volume up to get the fucking thing sounding in both speakers. I did submit the first show of Townedger Radio last week and the songs that I did put on CD ended up being malicious earworms the whole week.  Five straight days of Your Genocide by Unwritten Law, Bring In The Morning Light by The Motors and MXPX made me almost stick pins in my ears just to get the fucking songs out.   I don't like hearing things over and over, 100,000 songs I been subjected to in my life and have the same four going over and over makes one lose its mind in a flash.  A much loved classic song can turn into a much despised song in a matter of minutes or hours hearing it over and over while trying to sleep. Thankfully, you the reader probably don't know the songs at hand so therefore they won't affect you.   But while trying to put back my collection of music, I have come to the conclusion that I need to rid of much more product or CDs that I won't play again and things have gotten restricted big time.



In the era of bargain hunting, 2 dollar Cds are to me like getting a bottle of pop or candy bar and after finishing, donating them back to charity.  It's something that I have been doing since the June tornado/flood in the basement.  It's nice to hear what I missed but have to admit the last 10 or 20 cds brought cheap were donated back to Goodwill.  Bob at work told me about Tim Finn's Try Whistling This (Work 1998) and I found a cheap copy to hear it once.  Once was enough.  Too many songs, it goes on too long and it eventually bored me.  I also chanced on Needtobreathe (yes it's all one word, ah these rock bands of the Millennium) The Bridge (Atlantic 2007) and they know their influences, Matchbox 20 here, Kings Of Leon there and that wonderful start and stop before the bridge and some Christian rock thrown in.  What I don't hear is an original sound.  I liked their second album better.  Guess which one gets put back in the donation bin.   In the future or next trip to Madison, I will continue to buy the cheap stuff to hear it, I still love discovering new music the old fashioned way.  But I do agree with Lefsetz that downloading and streaming are better; they take up much less space than than the actual product in hand.  That said, I still prefer having product in hand reading the liner notes, even though I need my coke glasses to read them.  Anyway, I give Finn's album an B minus and Need To Breathe a C plus.  Like a candy bar and coke, these albums are junk food albums, good enough to hear once but after that you simply forget them and move on to other things.

But then again most of the music I have heard this past century have been junk food albums. Not much value and they take up space.

Despite being quiet for the last part of September, The Record World made it to 3,340 views, our third straight positive month of readership, of course buoyed by the Russian folks and that wonderful referring site Xolodremont dot ru. Most read was The Kinks/Bob Crewe blog but nothing as big as the Swinging Steaks blog which caught the attention of the band themselves on their site.  Most of last month's blog did very well, with the exception of the Gene Cotton Blog with only 14 folks taking a look at that.  Guess nobody really cares about Gene Cotton as much as I did.  The folks at Xolodremont continue to pad the views with a wide variety of surnames, the latest one that appears is master_po_remontu_holodinkov.hmtl  or something other like that. Let's just call it Master_po_beater for short.  They'll replace that one eventually.

 



For college football this week, it was one of the most wildest I have seen this year and Iowa didn't even play.  Arizona State, a team that I root for since I used to live down in Tempe, came from 8 behind to defeat USC 38-34 on a last play Hail Mary.  ASU since losing their starter quarterback a couple weeks ago put in Mike Bercovici or Berco for short, and he threw for 512 yards and five touchdowns, including game winner to Jaelen Strong.  To be honest I gave up on them when USC went up by 9 with five left to play on a 47 yard TD run by their running back.  With no time outs left I didn't figure they had a chance but Berco and company came back in a big way.  In other words: fear the fork.

 

Playlist:  Paul Revere And The Raiders

Legend Of Paul Revere
Louie Louie
Don't Take It So Hard
Country Wine
I'm Not Your Steppin Stone
Him Or Me-What's It Gonna Be?
If I Had To Do It All Over Again I'd Do It All Over You
Do Unto Others
Tighter
Gone Movin' On


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2 comments:

TAD said...

Paul Revere DIED? What the fuck is the media FOR? Once again, you scooped everybody.
The weird thing is, Paul just had an interview on the radio here a couple months ago when the current Raiders were playing some casino north of Seattle.
I met Paul once when I was about 19. He dropped into the store where I worked, my boss knew him. Nice guy. I was in awe -- I'd seen Paul and the Raiders at the Western Idaho Fair when I was about 15. The jokes were terrible, but the music sounded great.
Shit, their ESSENTIAL 2-CD set I bought awhile back has some great stuff on it!
I'm bummed, but thanks for the news. What's an Idaho kid to do....

R S Crabb said...

Hey TAD

I envy you meeting Paul Revere in person, he was known for very bad jokes but a nice personality. I was hoping he would be close by, but the nearest casino was over by the IA/Neb/SD area so that was too far to drive. I was familiarizing myself with the bloated 2 CD Legend Of Paul Revere set and it has a lot of pre Columbia material, most of it so so covers but Beatnik Sticks put a smile on my face.

I'm sure the music world of today only gave him a sentence marking his passing but thanks to the net and Paul Revere fans I got the news late Saturday Night and posted it right away. At least the Russian fanbase and you got the news first.

The Essential could have been better but it does have most of the Paul Revere hits that we all grew up with. Heck of a nice guy and too bad Jack White didn't take the challenge of taking on a old time rocker. Jack would have left screaming.... ;-)