Singles Going Steady 12-Last Bargain Hunt In AZ 45s

Despite me not picking up any of the cheap 10 cent records at the Zia's in Tucson, I still managed to find a bunch of them at various Half Priced Bookstores location in Phoenix.  And a lot of them remained in great shape despite 120 degree temps and 50 years of them stored carefully.



1. A White Sport Coat-Marty Robbins (Columbia 4-40864)  Marty Robbins was  an Arizonian that managed to get on Columbia Records in the mid 50s and like Bobby Darin was hard to figure if he wanted to be a rockabilly star or a country star or pop star in the Mitch Miller tradition. And for years tried to get Mitch Miller to produce some of his music but Miller pawned Marty off to Ray Conniff for this 1957 chart topper. Mitch Miller was the king of cheese pop but you can't deny his state of the art echo sound that was a part of the late 50s sound for Columbia. Miller did eventually produce a couple of Marty's music but thankfully Robbins came to his senses and hooked up with Frank Law and Don Jones as he went back to a more country sound.  Except for a three year liason with Decca/MCA, Robbins was on Columbia's roster up to his passing in 1982.  This 45 still had the original Columbia sleeve with it.



2.  My Secret-The Platters (Mercury 71538)  1959  It seems like the last couple visits to junkshops that I managed to find some obscure Platters 45 and looking at the chart position it didn't chart.  Tony Williams still was the main lead singer and somehow this sounds a lot like My Prayer although it's more uptempo and call and response.  Odd fact: Randall's originally sold this 45 for the big price of 19 cents 50 years ago.  Still has the original Mercury sleeve as well.  Doesn't even look like it wasn't even played till I did.

 

3.  Names, Tags, Numbers & Labels-The Association (Mums 6016) 1973  Their last gasp for a single and the most unlike sounding of all things that is The Association this was written and produced by Albert Hammond (It Never Rains In Southern California) and if you're heard Albert's version of this song The Association plays it just like Albert's song.  They made one album for Columbia after leaving Warner Brothers and Waterbeds In Trinidad! didn't do a lot and either CBS dropped them or banished them to the small satellite Mums label (later absorbed by Epic) to which this single was released and limped up to number 91 on the billboard chart, their last charted single till 1981 when the unheard of Dreamer did a remarkable showing of 66 on Elektra.  If you can find the Rhino Just The Right Sound Anthology without taking out a second mortage on your home, it's worth hearing (Names, Tags etc that is).  It's actually pretty good.

 

4.  Don't Let Love Hang You Up-Jerry Butler (Mercury 72991)  1969  With Gamble Huff producing, Jerry Butler made some of the best soul single of the late 60s which was a brilliant combination of Chicago soul meeting with Philadelphia groove and this was the early indication of the Philadelphia Sound that Gamble Huff would prefect later on with Philadelphia International in the 1970s. One of the most gospel sounding numbers and I've never seen this on 45 and when I did it was on the Red label rather than the Candy Stripe that Mercury was sticking their records on in the late 60s.  Thought it was a Canadian version but it's not. Made it to number 44 on the charts.

 

5.  Healing Hands Of Time-Willie Nelson (RCA 47-8594) 1965  Amazing in his 80 years of being a performer that I actually seem to find a lot of his RCA music as enjoyable, more so than his CBS years and although the 1994 SBK/Liberty remakes this song as a lush pop standard, his failed 1965 RCA single is better, striped down to a basic guitar that doesn't have the trademark RCA polished sound that Chet Atkins favored.  Still when I hear Willie's 60's stuff, he seems to come across a male version of Patsy Cline in terms of phasing a song.   Avoid the 1994 pop bombast and go with the simpler song.  On the All Time Greatest Hits Volume 1 CD (RCA 8556 2R) as well as One Day At A Time, the B side which leads that album off.

 

6.  The Power Of Love-10cc (Warner Bros. 7-29973) 1982  Never heard this song on the radio either. 10cc by then was paired down to Eric Stewart, Graham Gouldman and Andrew Gold helped out writing this song and produced it as well. Of course 10cc ruled the charts with I'm Not In Love and The Things We Do For Love but they were just about over since this didn't chart on the radio.  However, this four-told the future as Gouldman and Gold would take this sound of Power Of Love and and get a sound a like version called Right Between The Eyes as Wax and recorded it for RCA in 1986.  This is the fun of bargain hunting and coming up with the oddity.




7.  On The Rebound-Russ Ballard (Epic 9-50883)  1980  A number 58 chartbuster, Ballard is better known as the other songwriting half of Argent and wrote a few hits for other people, Liar for 3 Dog Night, Fire Still Burns for Roger Daultry and Winning Santana took to the charts in 1980 but for the most part Russ's albums sold so so, but just enough to keep recording.  His classic album remains Barnet Dogs which is his heaviest sounding album and of course it helps when you have Bob Henrit (Argent) playing drums too.  Best song off that album was Beware to which I have no idea why Epic never bothered to issue that on 45.  It would have been a classic rock staple and of course KUNI played that song which got me to buy the LP.  The single not much so although not bad, not exactly cut out for the radio.



8.  World's Famous-Malcolm McLaren (Island 7-99790)  1983  The big shot behind the Sex Pistols was actually a pioneer in the hip hop field.  In fact, Duck Rock featuring the catchy Buffalo Girls was an alternative hit smash back then, the video got airplay on the infamous Night Flight TV show on USA, back when USA network was cutting edge.  McLaren got into hot water by not crediting some of the South African musicians who helped shaped Duck Rock into what many call the Sgt Pepper of Hip Hop Music. Released on Island on LP, CD was issued via Charisma/EMI elsewhere later on.  This single featured the famed NY DJ's known as The World Famous Supreme Team.



9.  Canned Ham-Norman Greenbaum (Reprise 919) 1970  Number 46 charted single, I do remember hearing this on the forgotten Sneak Preview show and KCRG played this a few times in 1970. Very silly song from the hippie that gave the world Spirit In The Sky.  KCRG also played the B Side Junior Cadillac by mistake one memorable night.



10.   The Valley Road-Bruce Hornsby & The Range (RCA 7645-7-R) 1988   Huey Lewis covered Jacob's Letter and got Bruce a big break and he scored a big hit with The Way It Is but I tend to find that The Valley Road is my favorite of Bruce's song and at that time Peter Harris who is the son of Percy Harris an excellent CR doctor now retired played guitar.  It's a nice road song for the road although the lyrics suggest otherwise.

To be continued.......

4th Of July 2013

I haven't been in a very good mood since getting back from the desert and coming home to once again another basement wetage for the forth time this spring and summer and even the mention of rain gets me into a four letter tirade.  So far I haven't put the AC into the window just yet, it's been very cool for me to run fans. The 4th is considered the halfway point of summer vacation for the kiddies but I really haven't noticed how far into this year we are.

It's been two years since Dennis Pusateri passed away and that void has not been filled.  I'm sure if he was here he would be saying don't worry about me I'm doing fine but the circumstances from our last meeting will forever haunt me that I should have least said Howdy to him while grabbing a crappy Chinese dinner from Hy Vee and end up getting food poisoning soon afterwards.

Work has been hell, the fucking printers and cutters of running duplex had made me burst into a 4 lettered tirade that made me just about jump back on that place back to Mesa and earn a living shaking people for change just like half the population down there does.  I would like to tell you that I would miss printing but the events of the past two days makes me glad I will never have to deal with this after September.

With the Last Bargain Hunt In Arizona now over and done, I don't have any more hunts planned for the rest of the summer.  I have reached the max number of CD storage here at my house and there's no more places to store them, even out in the open if I did, the fucking basement would get flooded again from another GD monsoon.  Summer Storm Jackoff as we call this has taken its act and have been bothering the East Coast for close to a week now.  9 inches of rain in two hours in Florida?  Been there done that last week, only that I missed it but saw the end result and now trying to reorganize for the fourth fucking time this year.  I love music and I love finding the obscure CD but even CD s tend to accumulate and don't I know that.  Even in Arizona, it's not like it used to be.  I didn't even go to any  pawnshops out there, I just didn't think it was worth looking if Super Pawn had any CDs of note and if they did, it wouldn't be very many.  I also didn't see any bands out there, I picked the wrong time and only thing going on was the Vans Warped Tour but I'm too old and the crowd too young for me and most of the bands are not what I would be listening to.  So I was left to fend for myself and spent time where I was felt more at home: the music stores and taking notes while at the same time fending off overzealous Zia's staffers trying for a new career in Health care.  You alright? You okay? Everything good?  Maybe I should have sticked around long enough for them to ask me that for a record breaking 10th time.  Then I could finally tell them that if they're really really bored they could look up to see if Jack Bonus has something out on CD. Or have they heard about a new band called Leave Me And The Fucks Alone.

I don't know if the trip was illfated when the ill tempered TSA old fart bitched at me for my having sun glasses on going to the checkpoint so I can get a free catscan to see if I was packing weapons of mass destruction. To which I pretty much shout out "fuck you George Bush" for the 9/11 fiasco that has forever changed flying into something like what the Jews had to endure in Germany in the 30s. For the first time in about five years the TSA didn't rummage through my suitcase, and I did get to have nobody in my row of seats on the way down there but on the way back somebody had a bad case of gas and every 10 minutes they would stink up the area.  I was about ready to ask who had Mexican before getting on the plane. But the 10 year old girl who sat next to the aisle was well behaved.

The times they are a changing they say and as I walked into the still long crowds at Metro Center and ordering up a big batch of Chinese food that would damn near kill me later in the day I have never seen so many folks all tattooed up and in places unimaginable.   Some woman with tats on her face looking like a mutated leopard and tats around the neck and tats around the boobs and above the butt...tattoos never turned me onto anybody, not in plain view anyway and I'd would never date one with tats on her ta tas and lower back although the Hispanic next to me at Metro Center mentioned when they do that it means they like to take it in the face.  Problem with that is time and gravity usually stretches their tats to become gross looking when they hit fifty.  Not my problem, theirs.  Besides I'm not looking anyway.

So, I got back into my car and drove up to The North country, to old 66 to the places that I'm familiar with and the faces and places.  The eternal Angel Delgadillo and his shop in Seligman, he's getting up in years and last time I saw him I almost ran him over while he was out bike riding three years ago.  Spending an hour at Crookton Pass getting sunburned to a dry wind but not noticing and looking at the freaks that come into Hastings as they expected the help to babysit their damn brats running around.  And I thought Wal Mart had the worst of the bunch.  But while I did find some 45s and CDs, I didn't buy any LPs.  Nothing really stood out and if they did, Bookman's wanted too much for them.  I mean 50 dollars for Cherry Pie by Warrant on LP?!  And so I looked....and looked....and looked....and realized that I might have it all after all.   I still have a dream of retiring out there in Kingman and sitting on the bench watching the BNSF/UP trains pass through town living on a pension and maybe being happy one more time before death.

I know in the archives I always mention of previous bargain hunts and calling them the last one but this one felt different than the others, as if this was the final go around.  It wasn't like last year to which I took home over 50 CDs and 45s that we went out in style, it was more like a good riddance even after the record of being bothered by know nothing clerks  there was a feeling that I'm not doing this again.  Healthwise this trip took much out of me, be it bad food or Montezuma's Revenge or sneezing and getting back spams in the process. Or end up getting a dry nose that couldn't breathe at night at the motel room but I did slept better than usual.

I forgot to add that across the street from the La Quita Inn they're got a new building going up and the guy said that that's the new Mesa Police Building that should be ready to go if and when I return back there.  But anyway, as I type this from the comforts of home the fucking dumbass across the street is shooting off firecrackers past 11 and I'm sure I'll be seeing spent fireworks in our yard and wishing that one of those things jump on top of their roof of their house and catch fire.  But I do have the carpet back on the ground once again and everything is somewhat in place but they're talking another rain storm for next week.  And wonder why I even attempt to do a normalcy in this shithole of  a year.

Yep, I should have stayed in Arizona.
Happy 4th everybody.

Good to know I'm not the only one getting water in the basement, This blog would sound just like me as well. http://bottom-of-the-glass.blogspot.com/2013/07/flooded.html