Hard to believe it's been half a year since I been to Davenport to bargain hunt. I figured since I haven't been there, the turnover of used cds and records would continue. This trip did yield a lot of off the wall CDs and (gasp) 45s. Stuff Etc had a bunch of them, but sad to say they had to stick their Goddamn price labels on the record labels. Only thing I could do is put regular tape over the sticky area. I'll post the findings later in the month as a Singles Going Steady segment. It's been a while since I have compiled a singles find.
For the first time, they gave me a senior discount at the Veterans Thrift Store. Which meant I got the best of Blue Oyster Cult for 38 cents. Under dollar deals were Joni Mitchell's Hits, finding six Cds and DVDs at the Coralville Stuff Etc for under five dollars and and Motown Rarities Cd from Davenport Stuff Etc for 99 cents. All of the Goodwill stores had some CDs that I did buy and a DVD of World War 1, 5 DVD's for 1.99. I think we made out okay. Only Books A Million had nothing of note. And The Salvation Army Junk Store was closed. I found enough stuff to not worry about that, and at the same time put the Madison trip on hold for a couple more weeks.
While Iowa had the restaurants open for dining in, Illinois still has take out only. Masks are required for going into stores. I found Pub 1848, home of the Monday Night Jam hosted by Sean Ryan. The special guest was Jef Spradley, tho Michael Moncada was there. Spradley didn't impressed me with a version of the much hated Hey Soul Sister. It appeared that a lot of the gang played original stuff. I did made a new friend in a four legged rescue German Shepard Pointer and entertained thoughts of taking her home with me. Moncada was the leader of the now defunct Whiskey High and I don't recall any of his songs or set. Maybe the next time I'll get my guitar and entertain the masses and expand my musical horizons.
Of course, the usual nonsense of bad drivers, fucked up red lights and competing with the merging cocksuckers on the interstate put me in a rotten mood most of the time I was in Davenport. Since Illinois was take out only, I jumped back over to find a open Rudi's Tacos, had supper there and across the river again to Moline. To which I helped myself to a couple pizza squares as well. Perhaps next time I'll get to play there. Sean Ryan did offer a guitar in case I forgot mine.
Five star mud bowl game 12-5-1965
Green Bay 24 Minnesota 19
The Vikings got screwed by two bad referee calls, one which Tom Hall was called for a questionable PI call in the end zone (which Herb Adderley reminded him while Hall was screaming at the refs). Fran Tarkenton came back to throw yet another pass that Red Phillips made a diving catch in the end zone but the refs said no, he was out of bounds or he was juggling the catch. Even with the Ref's help, Green Bay benefited from a partially blocked FG attempt by Jeff Jordan that bounced right off the the post. Basically the Vikings were the better team that day, but the breaks were not on their side. While Minnesota would rebound and beat the hapless Detroit Lions 29-7 on a gooey Tigers Stadium slop field. Green Bay would win the champtionship by overpowering Cleveland in Mud Bowl Championship a few weeks later.
Reviews:
Tracy Chapman-New Beginning (Elektra 1994)
Gimme One Good Reason has become a soft rock staple, somehow blues, somehow rock. Problem with this overlong 62 minute 12 song gauntlet is that Chapman prolongs all of the songs past their usefulness. While I enjoyed the title track and Cold Feet, the shortest song was Gimme One Good Reason at 4 and half minutes long. The rest wander. The Rape Of The World at 7 minutes long, feels twice as long.
B-
The Best Of Blue Oyster Cult (Columbia 1999)
BOC was ill served by Sony music for many years on a decent best of. Career Of Evil, the 1989 contractual obligation album, sucked from the word go, to which the budget priced On Flame With Rock And Roll was the better choice since it ignored Club Ninja. While Workshop Of The Telescopes was a 2 CD overview that touched all of the bases of the good years and bad, people kinda balked at buying that one, tho it's better known as the Essential BOC. For the most part The Best Of aka Don't Fear The Reaper economizes the highlights and if you want a decent overview, this is the one to get. Of course it has to lead off with Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll and follow it up with The Red And The Black. As with most of the BOC comps, it short changes on Albert Bouchard's contributions to the band. The Cities On Flame cheapie CD, gives us Dominance and Submission and Death Valley Nights, both Albert singing them. He and brother Joe did give BOC that menace hard rock sound that would disappear after Bouchard's leaving of the band in 82. What BOC brought to rock, was that everybody in the band could sing and play and write their own songs, Buck Dharma remains their guitar hero, Eric Bloom, the good time rock and roller getting fans all worked up in live settings. I find it odd that Going Through The Motions did get issued as a single whereas I Love The Night might have been a better choice but that is nitpicking when it comes to best of packages. In usual style Bruce Dickerson cherry picks the best known and ends with Take Me Away from the 1983 Revolution By Night and ignores Club Ninja and Imaginos; Dancing In The Ruins might have been a better album closer. However, Burning For You and Don't Fear The Reaper will have a forever home in Corporation Rock Radio, as well the Cowbell skit on Saturday Night Live. To which I continue to wonder why they didn't bother to use Hair Of The Dog from Nazareth instead. That seems to have more cowbell.
B+
Art Pepper Meets The Rhythm Section (Comtempory OJC 1957)
One of the must hear jazz records of the 1950s is this January 19, 1957 recording date, when Pepper almost missing the sessions and never met the guys before came through with 9 improvised run throughs of standard faves along with a couple Pepper originals. This record is as much to the backing band (Red Garland, Paul Chambers and especially Philly Joe Jones) as it was to Pepper. These guys would figure into the classic albums that Miles Davis put together at that time. Even if Lester Koring's liner notes mentioned that Pepper had to hustle in and in the process taped up his well worn mouth cork and breezed through 9 songs (a bonus track was issued on the reissued version Concord put out later on). Excellent playing between everybody involved, you wouldn't know that Pepper never jammed with them beforehand. Philly Joe Jones, remains the most underrated jazz drummer in jazz history.
A
V/A-Music Power (K Tel 1996)
When K TEL came back into business in 1995, they have found the compilation years have passed them by. The original 1974 album had 22 tracks but the 1996 reissue only 10. The early K tel albums, were the inspiration of Rhino's Have A Nice Day series which did a better job putting the classics among with the cheese and shit. No real surprises here, tho Mammy Blue is the Stories version and not the Pop Tops 1972 cheese hit. The only rocker here is Raspberries' Tonight, the soul songs are fair to good to great, Keeper Of The Castle, the Four Tops first hit after leaving Motown and hooking with the Lambert/Potter production team, Dobie Gray's Drift Away (later popularized by Uncle Kracker), the soul country of Oh Girl (Chi Lites) and Gladys Knight's Where Peaceful Waters Flow. We can tolerate Jim Croce and Jim Stafford's goofy Spiders And Snakes. Tony Orlando n Dawn's cheese Sweet Gypsy Rose and Gordon Sinclair's Americans are the nadir, I was more familiar with Bryon McGregor's version which was more radical but wouldn't feel out of place on the One Nation Network. The K Tel experiment didn't last very long, in three years they would declare bankruptcy and give up the ghost. But if you like the old K TEL records, these do bring back memories. Even if in the CD era, K TEL didn't fill up the CD like they did on LP. And for more fun and games, there was a order list of the 7 other K TEL albums you could get.
B
Bob Dylan-Rough And Rowdy Ways (Columbia 2020)
Dylan's first album of new material since Tempest is a chore to sit through, even with good intentions. It kinda reminds me of the Edwin R Murrow albums I Can Hear It Now, where Dylan comments on the state of the world, all summed on 17 minute Murder Most Fowl, to which Dylan adds puns, phases and other assorted words to comment on that fateful day in Dallas, complete with mellow piano in the background. His band stays intact, Matt Chamberlain keeps time on drums. Outside of a couple shuffle blues and one uptempo number, the record is basically is background music to Dylan's ideals. Listen hard and you'll find memorable ones. Tempest, the last album got bogged down by the last two numbers, a rambling wreck of a Titanic song and a eight minute John Lennon eulogy. At least Murder Most Fowl gets its own CD, but I am never a fan of crappy digipacks, to which this gets lowered a half grade. Unlike the rest, Rough and Rowdy Ways takes a few listens to get its point across. To which, nobody gets alive in the end anyway.
B+
Jesse Colin Young-Dreamers (BMG 2019)
Being an old hippie, Jesse wrote the anthem of the 60s with Get Together, and while his solo career may have not been all that substantial he did managed to hang with Warner Music for a while. But to be honest, his hippie dippy good vibes tend to bore me and with this 62 minute 2019 album, this is in dire need of editing. Oh it starts out rocking right off the bat with Cast A Stone and Walk The Talk but in between those songs and Look Over Yonder, the record falls off the rails. Like David Crosby, J.C.Y will make the record the longer than it should. We certainly need more younger protest singers rather than the over 70 gang, which still cares bout this world. The key is to stay awake tho.
C+
The Strokes-The New Abnormal (RCA 2020)
To be honest, I never caught on with what they were putting down, beginning with Is This It? Probably the best suited titled to unremarkable music, Room On Fire had more balls to it but whatever compelled me to try The New Abnormal is to hear what they have been doing since the last time I was interested. Turns out this is their 80s tribute, starts out fine The Adults Are Talking, but what made Is This It better was that they kept the songs shorter back then. Rick Rubin may or may not figured much into this album outside of producer's credit, but I found myself like Weezer's black album better than the New Abnormal.
C+
