Passings: Jimmie Greenspoon, keyboardist for Three Dog Night. Really his piano and organ work made songs like Try A Little Tenderness, Eli's Coming, Let Me Serenade You were classic rock gold. Certainly the vocal talents of Cory Wells, Danny Hutton and Chuck Negron made them special but without Jimmie Greenspoon's musical work, they'd be nothing. Jimmie died from cancer at age 67.
Daevid Allen, the leader of prog band Gong also succumbed to cancer at age 77. Never got into their music but I did listen to a couple of Gong's albums, best one was You. I may have to take another listen just for old time's sake. Best way to describe their music was something like Hawkwind with more chords and more hippie dippy.
Eugene Patton aka Gene Gene The Dancing Machine, a part of the Gong Show is dancing beyond the stars. He was 82 and lost his legs and dancing ability to diabetes. The Gong Show had bad singers and actors, and would be responsible for copy cat shows like American Idol and The Voice in later years. Patton was always the highlight of the Gong Show.
Update of the death of Wayne Static, was from a overdose of Oxycondon, Xanax and alcohol poisoning. Although Static gave up illicit drugs in 2009 he did use Oxycondon and Xanax from relief of his panic attacks. Perhaps the use of some kind of alcohol gave a adverse reaction and Static passed away in his sleep.
It's that time again when independent bands head to Austin for the annual mess we call SXSW festival. Sponsored by Budweiser, Four Loco and many other booze companies, after all it's not music without booze. And more booze in the conferences about music. Good luck finding a motel room down there.
The continuing lack of good music coming out this year has prompted me to say that this year's new releases will be the least in history. Only 3 new albums reviewed and Best Buy can't get the new James McMurtry in. While thinking of things to look for in the next Mad City trip I come up with a blank and might just say the hell with it and stick to the thrift stores and dollar sections at the record stores. The Record Store Day listings aren't much better and by the time I do get up there, the good stuff get picked up and listed on EBAY for black market prices. There are some things of note, Trip Shakespeare early albums before A&M picked them up are now reissued but I never thought much of either of the early albums, eccentric and good but I didn't quite get them. Bill Kopp did score an interview with John Munson about those albums. http://blog.musoscribe.com/?p=7426
While RSD was a good idea back in 2008 or 2009 when originally started, it has since then become more of a rip off of overpriced albums. However, I have seen more of people hanging into record stores and buying records the past year and that is a good thing. It even has brought back the cassette, what's next the 8 track? Might happen. The downside of the vinyl revival is that there's more crate diggers going to Goodwill and Salvation Army and getting lucky as well. But a good bargain hunter like myself can always find the more obscure and be happier with it, then the ones who hoard Pink Floyd or Beatles albums. I'm not that hardcore to spend ridiculous prices on hot wax vintage vinyl the folks at Better Records put out, I tend to favor the lesser known. Regardless Pink Floyd will always be around in some music way but we're still trying to get Universal to reissue The Brains albums. And somebody needs to remind the world about Chuck Murphy and his music too.
I haven't given much thought to the latest Bob Lefsetz recycled blogs, the endless repeating of how much he hates vinyl, Spotify is the bomb and if you're not into Luke Bryan you just don't get it. Sometimes when you have nothing left to say it's better to take time off and get away from it all. Yes once upon a time, music mattered and it was ran by record label presidents that were into music and not into the bean counting business fud duds we are stuck today. Or the cookie cutter top forty and country stuff that makes the 1910 Fruitgum Company sound like The Beatles and Ohio Express Led Zeppelin. Oh it would be nice to get back to the garden as Joni Mitchell wrote about Woodstock and have meaningful songs once again. But the garden can't be found, it got bulldozed down and a Wal Mart lies on top of it.
I haven't been in a very good mood lately. Perhaps it's a need to go somewhere, or take time off from work but I can't complain about the weather. It's been above normal and sunny, the rains have stayed to the south of here and most of the snow has melted. Perhaps it's also watching the poor excuse of a basketball team called the Iowa Hawkeyes both men and women made a one and done in the Big Ten Tournaments. At least the women played both quarters, the Men played a lousy first half and then called it a day as Penn State came from 12 behind to beat them 67-58 in the first round. One and done once again. Lousy 7-32 shooting in the second half didn't help nor did Coach Fran McCaffery blowing his wad and getting a technical. Perhaps Iowa doesn't do very well in Chicago, Northwestern beat them in, but then Iowa ran off six straight victories and bullshitted us into thinking that they were for real. Let's look at the bright side, perhaps they can win six straight in the NCAA's (Fat chance since Kentucky is picked to win it all). Win all you can but one loss and it's wait till November. And I rather not, I want to enjoy springtime and baseball, not worry about our subpar Football team, which Jake Rudock is thinking of leaving for another team and basketball which loses Aaron White and Gabe Oslanti and Josh Oglesby, who lost his three point shooting touch this season. Getting back to basketball, if it wasn't for Aaron White and Jarret Ultoff, Penn State would have blown them out of the United Center. Afterwards, the Big ten announcers got in line to kiss the Penn State's coach's ass of a great victory, which isn't saying much when they only shot 18 percent in the first half and Iowa a lousy 28 percent. However Iowa decided to stay in the 27 percent shooting range whereas Penn State managed to start scoring a bit more often. Penn State is better than their record indicated, 8 losses were by seven points or less. Or maybe Iowa wasn't as good as I thought they would be. Still the Hawkeyes are a NCAA shoo in, although I'm betting their seeding will be no higher than 10th or 11th due to their poor showing Thursday. They better hope they don't get lumped in where Wisconsin or Kentucky or Villanova is at. Then they'll be one and done and good luck Aaron White in your future job.
I haven't been too pleased at the outdoor cat Callie either. The little bitch was being your typical cat, playful one minute, biting and scratching the next and I'm not putting up with it. I don't do biting and scratching cats very well, it's noted that I'm not a cat fan, they tend to be more prickly and unpredictable than this crabby record collector. While trying to clean up the yard, and taking five on the chair, Miss Cat Attitude jumped on my lap for a bit of attention, don't mind that, but for some reason she got to be a bit more riled up. She likes getting her belly rubbed and ears, but next thing I know she's nipping me in my arm and that is cause for off the lap. Then she growled at me and started to bite again. By then, she woke the inner hulk inside of me, and I hissed right back and grab her by the neck and made a point of who is boss here. Callie was not harmed by the way. And I told the ungrateful pussycat that she don't have a choice in this matter; that further outbursts will get her dropped off to the local animal shelter without a second thought. In China and third world countries, Cats are delicacies on the menu so consider yourself lucky Callie Marie Rustbucket Pussycat that you don't live there. So she sulked away for about a half hour before going back to her makeshift home in the back of my brother's junk pickup truck and me going to work. She didn't do herself any favors when I came home and seeing her gray butt on the gray car. I made it known, she's on thin ice but she did get fed before bed. And left it at that.
In every man, there's a killer inside, that if the wrong nerve gets stepped on or something snaps , the killer notion does take over. I've been on the warpath since my dental provider sent me a collection notice over a lost check in the mail, and they're next on the list to go fuck themselves and get a new dentist. They know the phone number, they call it when they remind me two months in advance, but when bills are due and the payment is lost, they draw up a sarcastically intoned collection notice. That don't set well with me. We deal with frustration and stress every day, no wonder my BP is over 180 most days; I have a outdated computer that freezes up everytime somebody farts on the net, you're dealing with red lights and assholes on the highway to work and the corporation you work for is readying up for more layoffs, despite too much work and not enough folks to get it finished right. It's easy to see why people snap, the wife or girlfriend gets mad over a slight thing you did or something you forgot, if you have babies, they're crying or pooping and need attention or you have kids who listen to rap and won't pull their pants up or strung out on drugs or fighting you over rules. A no win situation, not all kids are bad, but sometimes they'll get into trouble, or worse if you came home and having your 16 year old daughter announcing she's knocked up after a one nighter. Or the one you love is seeing another on the side. Most of the time, I root for crappy teams that don't do shit which adds more stress and it's much ado about nothing. The world doesn't end if the Hawkeyes don't win the Championship or the Cubs but I get sick of the same lame results.
Life is life, the good and the bad and the horrid, and sadly things go wrong. Sometimes there's a breaking point that if the offender cross that, there's no turning back. Kinda like the Ferguson Missouri fiasco where the black population don't trust the Police, or Israel building new settlements on the West Bank and having the idiot Netanyahu address congress about the same Iran speech he gave 25 fucking years ago. And then having 47 Republican with some radical rightie named Tom Cotton writing a note to Iran and talking war. That don't sit well with me. Congress and politics for that matter have split the country up more so now than ever, and of course in the end, we ended up with this Iowa C word Joni Ernst trying to say what we want when in no fucking way this bitch is speaking for me. I disown anything she says or do and the other idiot Charles Grassley is a career politician whose been bought out by Big Pharma, Big Oil and anything associated with Koch Industries. Just like Joni baby. But I shouldn't worry about her, she much ado about nothing.
I don't do well with stress and adversity very well, nor split personality stray cats. And it takes great restraint not to choke 8 lives out of the gray hairball or do other inhumane things to it. It's their natural instinct to act that way...but I don't agree with it and she's still about a step ahead of the Linn County Animal Shelter as of this writing. To those who want a free cat, that has its shots and is fixed and is friendly about 47 percent of the time can contact me and pick Callie up at your convenience. But the window of opportunity is a small one, she may not be here much longer, especially when she escapes indoors and starts walking on the stereo and the 45s on the shelf. They were here longer before she came around , and will be long after she's gone.
Just how soon remains up to the owner of the house.
But deep inside I don't like the killer that does inside this body, and somehow remains subdued by the good that's inside of me. I do have angels working overtime to shield me away from the killer that would do more harm than good. And so it goes.
And Jonathan Richman makes his way back to Gabes in Iowa City on Sunday the 15th for a show. Tickets are fairly cheap, 15 dollars and Richman always puts on a good show.
Reviews:
Miles Davis-Sketches Of Spain (Columbia 1960)
Miles can be a genius but sometimes he can be overrated as they come. I can take small doses of Davis on certain albums, the John Coltrane/Miles Davis Canadian best of that I found for 40 cents in Arizona made a perfect drive into deep old Route 66 music. I don't think he could ever top Kind Of Blue or for fusion rock The Jack Johnson album. While critics raved about Sketches Of Spain, I find it somewhat of a chore to listen through, especially on the side long Concierto De Aranjuez which is more Gil Evans than Davis, who pretty much makes fart noises on the trumpet. The liner notes suggested Davis was very difficult to work with and the performances show it. Actually the alternative version (added as bonus tracks) is better, at least Davis shows some interest in that ill fated November 15, 1959 sessions. A March 10, 1960 session includes the other side and the rest of the songs and I do hear bits on John Phillip Sousa on Saeta, anything with a drum roll does work wonders (thanks Jimmy Cobb on drums and Elvin Jones on percussion). The best song from this is Solea to which Miles adds his trademark trumpet solos throughout the song. I hear elements of avant garde and some of it reminds me of The Mothers Of Invention Uncle Meat album years later although if Frank Zappa listened to Miles Davis I wouldn't know. Sketches Of Spain can be a difficult listen, it's not something I'd play on a regular basis. But I do commend Gil Evans for this classical approach to Spanish Themes for this is record is much as his as it is Miles, maybe even more. But if you're not hardcore Miles, you're better off with Kind Of Blue...or A Tribute To Jack Johnson.
Grade B+
1910 Fruitgum Company-Indian Giver (Buddah 1969)
Really the Ohio Express was a much better band. The 1910 Fruitgum Company made the annoying Simon Says and 123 Red Light and probably are more brainless than Chewy Chewy or Yummy Yummy Yummy. This very brief album (only 25 minutes long, side 2 barely makes it over 10 minutes) sounds more like Tommy James I Think We're Alone Now era. In fact the best songs here (Indian Giver and Special Delivery) are co produced by Bo Gentry and Richie Cordell who did produce Tommy James; the other producer was Bobby Bloom I'm thinking of Montego Bay Fame. The rest is basically Kasenetz/Katz bubblegum filler, not much thought or effort was made, certainly not on the selections on side 2. Vocals in one speaker, backing music on the other. No different than the throwaway Tommy James tracks from I Think We're Alone Now or Getting Together. But for some reason some of the lyrics remind me of early KISS. You can draw your own conclusion over that.
Grade C+
Super Soul Blues Volume 1 (Paula 1991)
From the archives of the great Stan Lewis' Louisiana labels of soul blues Jewel/Paula/Ronn come 15 tracks of varying degree. John Lee Hooker starts out with a boogie Roll and Tumble and Tina Turner does Shake A Hand which sounds a bit like the Staple Singers. Some local favorites like Frank Frost's My Back Scratcher which gives visions of Slim Harpo, Little Johnnie Taylor's disco funky Goin To Get It On, and Bobby Rush' Bowlegged Woman, Knock Kneed Man which the best of the bunch. Later Phil Walden reached an agreement with Stan Lewis is issued three decent and better compilations the Paula/Jewel Story which gives deeper insight to this forgotten label as well as The Fire/Enjoy Label and the one for your collection of the Cobra Records Story, to which Lewis managed to score those masters as Eli Torasco was having a fire sale at that time. But Stan Lewis for a time in the 1990s put out a lot of this stuff on his own and on his own label and most is worth getting. Super Soul Blues Volume 1 is a nice sampler. And Stan Lewis is still going strong to this day at age 87. That accounts for something.
Grade B
Combonation (Warner Brothers 1984)
For some reason I continue to get this band's name mixed up with Combination which is not the same thing at all. And for another reason we can't get Universal to reissue Tom Gray's former band The Brains on CD but we can get a minor band's unheard album issued via Wounded Bird. Too bad The Brains didn't record for Warners, maybe then we would have their albums reissued. Long time ago I did buy the Combo Nation album on LP for a dollar and it was quite chewed up, so when the CD was selling for three bucks new I thought a upgrade would be in the works. Combonation is a new wave band, with elements of The Cars, some XTC, Bob Marley and power pop and Girls Like You got some airplay on MTV although I never saw the 45 but It's All Over Sue I did have as a Promo 45. It does sound a bit like them sounding like the UK Records of Hearts In Her Eyes fame but again the XTC sound comes into play with Hazardous Conditions and No More Information, and give them credit they managed to pull the white boy reggae of the silly lyrical We's Gwyne Hollywood. Adventures In Modern Living is very Cars sounding, Girls Like You somewhat in The Knack territory. Not a lot is known about them, Mark Hart is considered the main songwriter (although Steve Dudas, Rick Moors and Billy Thomas helped) Randy Foote was the main vocalist who played latin drums as heard on Babble On, Ted Templeman, Warner Brother's ace staff producer produced this, the guess is that Donn Landee recorded it but due to the shoddy Wounded Bird layout, we don't know. For a one and done album, it's an 80s album all the way and early 80s too, a product of the times and really not bad; I enjoy No More Information and It's All Over Sue the most. Lost in the shuffle of the majors the band broke up after Warner's dropped them after poor sales of this record. Mark Hart went on to play in Supertramp and Crowded House.
Grade B+
Eric Andersen-Sweet Surprise (Arista 1976)
Granted I wasn't impressed with the folk singer songwriter explosion of the 70s and most of the time didn't care until in later years and bad new music I decided to revisit whoever I came across in the cutouts or what the crate diggers overlooked at the thrift store. Dan Fogelberg never gets any love, nor does Livingston Taylor. Eric Andersen had a cult hit with Blue River for Columbia back in the 70s and never followed a proper album and came on board to the fledgling Arista Records roster with a bunch of folkie castoffs (Batdorf And Rodney, London Wainwright the third, Don McLean). Blue River remains his best studio although I enjoy The Best Songs, a nice overview of Andersen's work which doesn't have anything off Sweet Surprise, his underachieving 1976 effort and basically Tom Sellers didn't do Eric any favors with a bland recording (also Mark Harman who recorded this gets the blame equally). It's not all bad, How It Goes shows Andersen taking a page or two out of Bob Dylan's book in longform songwriting and he covers a Tom Waits song (San Diego Serenade). But side 2 songs don't stand out, they actually sound unfinished except for the title track. Had Andersen gotten a producer who knew what the hell he was doing (Norbert Putman would have been the answer) Sweet Surprise would have been a 'sweet surprise'. Instead, he got Sellers.
Grade B-
45's found in Iowa City
Two-Bit Manchild/Broad Old Woman Neil Diamond (Uni 55075)
The laughable pricing of 45s at the Iowa City Goodwill Store continues, with some of them being 1.88 or 2.88 (don't understand the logic of Alan O'Day's Skinny Girls being 1.88 and I could have gotten it for 88 cents due to an indifferent and bored lady clerk) but I managed to find a decent copy of Manchild B/W the infamous Broad Old Woman (6 AM Insanity) which seems to be a work in progress song. Tad mentioned this a few times in his blog and in some conversations and I always wanted to hear it on 45 format, the only way to get it since it has only been on the Complete UNI Sessions that has now gone out of print. For a B side, it does capture the weirdness that Neil Diamond was doing after leaving Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich and Bang Records for the upstart UNI Records and freaky Tom Catalano co producing. The guess is that Artie Butler is involved. While Two Bit Manchild would have sounded at home on Bang Records, the song only reached number 66 on the charts a lackluster showing but hearing it today it remains a very good song. It's more of the more rocking numbers on Velvet Gloves And Spit, Neil's first UNI album, but the record is all over the place weird. He should have considered putting Broad Old Woman on this as perhaps a bonus track?
The Flight Of Chicken Rabbit by The Two Man Symphony (Big Tree BT 15003) 1974
A novelty number, kinda of a selection mix of country/classical and ELO to boot. Jim Cretecos and Ted Cooper were the guys who wrote and produced this. Further research doesn't come up much on Cooper, but Cretecos was the better known, he wrote hits for the Partridge Family and Robin McNamara (Lay A Little Lovin On Me) and was instrumental in taking on a newcomer to produce his first album (or co produce) namely Bruce Springsteen's Greetings From Asbury Park and the followup The Wild/Willing/E Street Shuffle. He certainly got farther with Bruce then he did on Chicken Rabbit, now a curio promo 45 that so unknown, that you tube doesn't have a clip for said song. And so it goes.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
Bad Company-The Paul Rodgers Era
A few years back, I wrote a piece about Bad Company when they reformed with Brian Howe as the vocalist. I didn't think it would have been such a hit, it's in the top ten all time best of Record World blogs. With the announcement that Rhino is reissuing the Bad Company albums in expanded 2 CD form, I decided perhaps it's time to take a look at the original band. I don't have a high opinion of expanded 2 CD sets, I'm not hardcore enough to buy alt mixes and alt takes of songs that didn't make the final album cut or regulated to simply B sides. In the case of the first Bad Company album, itself a staple of classic rock radio and one of the must owns albums of the 70s I tend to think that Little Miss Fortune and Easy On My Soul, B sides to Can't Get Enough and Movin On would have enhanced the album a little better and both cuts were better than the hardly played The Way I Choose, the weakest track from their first album. Simply trotting out a 2 CD expanded edition just does not seem cost effective. Unless you're a hard core fan that has to have it all. To which Rhino Records salutes you, now fork over your money.
That said Bad Company is a supergroup from in 1973 when Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke of Free joined forces with Mick Ralphs (Mott The Hoople) and the late Boz Burrell, who was the lead singer on the King Crimson album Islands but did not sing in Bad Company. Free was falling apart, Ralphs was getting frustrated in Mott for writing up Can't Get Enough and didn't have the vocal to make it a hit. Enter Paul Rodgers, which we call "the voice" of rock and roll. Rodgers could sing just about anything and even in his early 20s he can do R and B and the blues as well as rock and roll. They were also the first band to sign up with Swan Song, Led Zeppelin's label which established them in the cool category. The first album remains their best although it's not as perfect as they want you to think. Side 1, most of the songs get regular play on Corporate Rock, the count em off and Kirke's drum hit at the beginning of Can't Get Enough, to the funk and roll of Rock Steady and a remake of Mott's Ready For Love to which Paul's vocals do give the song better justice than when Mick sang it for Mott from All The Young Dudes. My favorite remains side closer the moody Don't Let Me Down, which did get more FM airplay back then than now. Side 2 starts with their namesake song Bad Company a crowd favorite even if Brian Howe sang it during his tenure in the band and Robert Hart which I'll probably add something down the road from him. After the snoozefest that is The Way I Choose, they get back to top forty land with Movin On which is boogie rock without much thought, just go with the melody and rock out. And concludes with the Paul Rodgers showcase Seagull which is just Paul and his guitar. Bad Company still remains required listening after all these years and despite some of the songs being overplayed. They were never quite live up to the hype ever again.
Straight Shooter is a slightly weaker version of the first album, with rocking hits (Good Lovin Gone Bad, which the word Yeah repeated in record numbers, Bad Company songs never really meant much outside of rock and roll and getting laid) and the hard rocking overplayed Feel Like Makin Love (Let's Get It On for the rock and rollers out there). Another rocking FM classic is Deal With The Preacher (Mick Ralphs knows how to use a hook when needed) and to a lesser extent Wild Fire Woman. Somehow Simon Kirke managed to get two songs he wrote onto the album (Anna and Call On Me) and they are the two weakest. B side Whiskey Bottle (B side to Good Lovin Gone Bad) probably would have made the album stronger but overall, it does pale in comparison to the debut.
Run With The Pack, the formula begins to tire and the buyers were not so much willing to buy but in my ears it is a better album than Straight Shooter although more inconsistent songs are beginning to show up. Starts out according to plan with a rocker Live For The Music before Rodgers leads us into Simple Man and then failed rocking single Honey Child, (it's recycled Can't Get Enough sped up but I like it myself). Plaintive ballad Love Me Somebody puts me to sleep before waking me back up with the pompous title track. For some, the sad Silver Blue And Gold was the perfect love is gone ballad that played great when you broke up with your high school sweetheart and she broke your heart, but for myself I think I rather much prefer Love Me Somebody. A remake of Young Blood was fun but it didn't sell as a forty five either and between the last two ballads, we get Sweet Lil Sister, another boogie rocker about a groupie I betcha. Overall, a good record though not a classic.
Burnin Sky, led by the title track is not bad but the rest of album is halfassed, as if Paul Rodgers was trying to come up with ideas that will stick. At time some inspiration comes around in songs like Too Bad and Man Needs Woman but Master Of Ceremonies is awful. I have no idea what Rodgers was trying to do but the absence of Mick Ralphs writing songs didn't help things either. This was their worst album before Rough Diamonds came out five years later, that still is their worst, but Burnin Sky is runner up.
It would be a couple years before Bad Company reconvene and Desolation Angels was worth the wait. Led off by the overplayed Rock And Roll Fantasy, the production and sound was a much smoother sound than what Chris Kimsey (and Ron Nevison on the earlier albums) gave them. The acoustic numbers (Take The Time, Crazy Circles) were a bit more inspired, Gone Gone Gone and Lonely For Your Love has Mick Ralphs playing inspired rock again and even throwing a bit of soul music into Oh Atlanta and Evil Wind despite the disco drum boasts on the latter. She Gives Me Love is a rewrite of Don't Let Me Down. Desolation Angels while not perfect was a improvement over the bloated Burnin Sky and at least feels more like a band effort rather than a Paul Rodgers solo album.
The final effort Rough Diamonds, recorded a few years later remains the worst of the Paul Rodgers era led band. Outside of Electricland, this version of Bad Company was trying to come up with something Corporate rock sounding and ended up being too corporate for its own good. With the poor sales and poor reviews Bad Company called it a day, Atlantic cherry picking songs for the 10 from 6 Best of. However a few years later the band minus Rodgers and with Brian Howe, begin the second phase of their career.
After Brian Howe left, Robert Hart was lead singer. Atlantic not ready to give up yet, stuck them on the East West label for two good but not great albums. Hart, who made a album for Atlantic in the late 80s had a more suited vocal in the style of Paul Rodgers. By then Rick Wills (Foreigner) replaced Burrell on bass. Company Of Strangers (1995) upon a second listening actually is not bad considering if you put this up alongside the subpar Rough Diamonds and Burnin Sky. Robert Hart does sound like a decent Paul Rodgers sound-alike although a few songs get dangerously close to Brian Howe's showboating. I suppose a B grade is a bit too generous and there might be a bit too many songs but I like it fine and not bad for a Rodgers tribute kind of album. Stories Told And Untold (1996) sees the band moving out to Nashville to try their luck and revisit some of Rodgers era led songs, Vince Gill and Alison Krauss helped out. The failure of that album pretty much was the end of Hart era Bad Company, Hart would go on to the Jones Band for one album.
Paul Rodgers stayed busy through these times, making a solo album (Cut Loose) and then joining up with Jimmy Page in The Firm for two albums and then with Kenny Jones of Small Faces/Who fame with The Law. But after the demise of that band and back into solo work, he did decide to rejoin with the original Bad Company for a 2 CD overview of selected Bad Company hits and misses for Anthology (Elektra 1999) It's a throwaway as you would think, but it's not a greatest hits package, Electricland is missing and so is Gone Gone Gone but the B sides not on the original two albums are here, plus four new songs of varying degree. Rock And Roll Fantasy-The Very Best Of, might be the best overview, since it does include most, if not all of the singles that Bad Company issued in the Paul Rodgers era. And does have Electricland and Gone Gone Gone on this best of. It's not a perfect overview, Weep No More still remains a filler song, perhaps adding Little Miss Fortune instead would been a better choice. It does include the best songs from Rough Diamonds and Burning Sky, perhaps the only ones you need. A little late to the game but compared to the rest Rock And Roll Fantasy shapes up to be their best overview.
Since then, Bad Company has issued two live albums, Merchants Of Cool in 2002 (with 2 new Paul Rodgers songs of varying degree) and Sony Music put out highlights of 2011 concert on their Extended Versions Live Series (it may have been the Wembley show that Eagle Rock issued earlier). Despite it being sold as bargain bin special, it did managed a surprising 82 chart position on the Billboard Charts. Rhino did managed to issue 2 live dates from 1977 and 1979 and shows that the original Bad Company could boogie with the best of them, alas the 1977 show features way too many songs from Burning Sky. The 1979 live document is better. While Rodgers doesn't think much of the Brian Howe or Robert Hart years (he doesn't do any of the songs from that time) he has managed to get back into the band if Mick Ralphs feels up to it although Simon Kirke remains the only member of Bad Company to play on all albums from various lineups. Boz Burrell passed away in 2006.
Despite the shoddiness of their catalog, when Bad Company wrote the right song, they could do no wrong. Even though their stuff is overplayed, there's still a magical charm to Shooting Star or Feel Like Making Love if Paul sang it or even Brian Howe and everybody knows the words to Can't Get Enough. If you played in a bar band at any time you were get requests for this song or Feel Like Making Love. And Paul Rodgers still remains one of my favorite all time vocalists ever. That accounts for something. But when I want to hear my favorites of Bad Company, I'm more in line to play Honey Child or Deal With The Preacher and while my classmates wanted to hear Silver Blue And Gold for that earnest ballad, I'm more happier to play Seagull, which speaks for me more. Your favorite might be a tad bit different.
Grades:
Bad Company (Swan Song 1974) A-
Straight Shooter (Swan Song 1975) B
Run With The Pack (Swan Song 1976) B+
Burnin' Sky (Swan Song 1977) C+
Desolation Angels (Swan Song 1979) B+
Rough Diamonds (Swan Song 1982) C
10 From 6 (Atlantic 1985) B+
Anthology (Elektra 1999) B
Merchants Of Cool (Sanctuary 2002) B
Extended Versions (Sony Music 2011) B
Rock And Roll Fantasy-The Very Best Of Bad Company (Rhino 2015) B+
Bad Company Live 1977 and 1979 (Swan Song/Rhino 2016) B
The Robert Hart Albums:
Company Of Strangers (East West 1995) B
Stories Told And Untold (East West 1996) B
Selected Paul Rodgers Albums:
Cut Loose (Atlantic 1983) C+
The Firm (Atlantic 1985) B
The Firm Mean Business (Atlantic 1987) B+
The Law (with Kenny Jones) (Atlantic 1991) C
Muddy Waters Blues (Victory 1993) B-
Now (1997) B
Electric (CMC 2000) B
The Cosmos Rocks (with Queen)(Hollywood 2008) B
The Royal Sessions (429 2014) B+
That said Bad Company is a supergroup from in 1973 when Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke of Free joined forces with Mick Ralphs (Mott The Hoople) and the late Boz Burrell, who was the lead singer on the King Crimson album Islands but did not sing in Bad Company. Free was falling apart, Ralphs was getting frustrated in Mott for writing up Can't Get Enough and didn't have the vocal to make it a hit. Enter Paul Rodgers, which we call "the voice" of rock and roll. Rodgers could sing just about anything and even in his early 20s he can do R and B and the blues as well as rock and roll. They were also the first band to sign up with Swan Song, Led Zeppelin's label which established them in the cool category. The first album remains their best although it's not as perfect as they want you to think. Side 1, most of the songs get regular play on Corporate Rock, the count em off and Kirke's drum hit at the beginning of Can't Get Enough, to the funk and roll of Rock Steady and a remake of Mott's Ready For Love to which Paul's vocals do give the song better justice than when Mick sang it for Mott from All The Young Dudes. My favorite remains side closer the moody Don't Let Me Down, which did get more FM airplay back then than now. Side 2 starts with their namesake song Bad Company a crowd favorite even if Brian Howe sang it during his tenure in the band and Robert Hart which I'll probably add something down the road from him. After the snoozefest that is The Way I Choose, they get back to top forty land with Movin On which is boogie rock without much thought, just go with the melody and rock out. And concludes with the Paul Rodgers showcase Seagull which is just Paul and his guitar. Bad Company still remains required listening after all these years and despite some of the songs being overplayed. They were never quite live up to the hype ever again.
Straight Shooter is a slightly weaker version of the first album, with rocking hits (Good Lovin Gone Bad, which the word Yeah repeated in record numbers, Bad Company songs never really meant much outside of rock and roll and getting laid) and the hard rocking overplayed Feel Like Makin Love (Let's Get It On for the rock and rollers out there). Another rocking FM classic is Deal With The Preacher (Mick Ralphs knows how to use a hook when needed) and to a lesser extent Wild Fire Woman. Somehow Simon Kirke managed to get two songs he wrote onto the album (Anna and Call On Me) and they are the two weakest. B side Whiskey Bottle (B side to Good Lovin Gone Bad) probably would have made the album stronger but overall, it does pale in comparison to the debut.
Run With The Pack, the formula begins to tire and the buyers were not so much willing to buy but in my ears it is a better album than Straight Shooter although more inconsistent songs are beginning to show up. Starts out according to plan with a rocker Live For The Music before Rodgers leads us into Simple Man and then failed rocking single Honey Child, (it's recycled Can't Get Enough sped up but I like it myself). Plaintive ballad Love Me Somebody puts me to sleep before waking me back up with the pompous title track. For some, the sad Silver Blue And Gold was the perfect love is gone ballad that played great when you broke up with your high school sweetheart and she broke your heart, but for myself I think I rather much prefer Love Me Somebody. A remake of Young Blood was fun but it didn't sell as a forty five either and between the last two ballads, we get Sweet Lil Sister, another boogie rocker about a groupie I betcha. Overall, a good record though not a classic.
Burnin Sky, led by the title track is not bad but the rest of album is halfassed, as if Paul Rodgers was trying to come up with ideas that will stick. At time some inspiration comes around in songs like Too Bad and Man Needs Woman but Master Of Ceremonies is awful. I have no idea what Rodgers was trying to do but the absence of Mick Ralphs writing songs didn't help things either. This was their worst album before Rough Diamonds came out five years later, that still is their worst, but Burnin Sky is runner up.
It would be a couple years before Bad Company reconvene and Desolation Angels was worth the wait. Led off by the overplayed Rock And Roll Fantasy, the production and sound was a much smoother sound than what Chris Kimsey (and Ron Nevison on the earlier albums) gave them. The acoustic numbers (Take The Time, Crazy Circles) were a bit more inspired, Gone Gone Gone and Lonely For Your Love has Mick Ralphs playing inspired rock again and even throwing a bit of soul music into Oh Atlanta and Evil Wind despite the disco drum boasts on the latter. She Gives Me Love is a rewrite of Don't Let Me Down. Desolation Angels while not perfect was a improvement over the bloated Burnin Sky and at least feels more like a band effort rather than a Paul Rodgers solo album.
The final effort Rough Diamonds, recorded a few years later remains the worst of the Paul Rodgers era led band. Outside of Electricland, this version of Bad Company was trying to come up with something Corporate rock sounding and ended up being too corporate for its own good. With the poor sales and poor reviews Bad Company called it a day, Atlantic cherry picking songs for the 10 from 6 Best of. However a few years later the band minus Rodgers and with Brian Howe, begin the second phase of their career.
After Brian Howe left, Robert Hart was lead singer. Atlantic not ready to give up yet, stuck them on the East West label for two good but not great albums. Hart, who made a album for Atlantic in the late 80s had a more suited vocal in the style of Paul Rodgers. By then Rick Wills (Foreigner) replaced Burrell on bass. Company Of Strangers (1995) upon a second listening actually is not bad considering if you put this up alongside the subpar Rough Diamonds and Burnin Sky. Robert Hart does sound like a decent Paul Rodgers sound-alike although a few songs get dangerously close to Brian Howe's showboating. I suppose a B grade is a bit too generous and there might be a bit too many songs but I like it fine and not bad for a Rodgers tribute kind of album. Stories Told And Untold (1996) sees the band moving out to Nashville to try their luck and revisit some of Rodgers era led songs, Vince Gill and Alison Krauss helped out. The failure of that album pretty much was the end of Hart era Bad Company, Hart would go on to the Jones Band for one album.
Paul Rodgers stayed busy through these times, making a solo album (Cut Loose) and then joining up with Jimmy Page in The Firm for two albums and then with Kenny Jones of Small Faces/Who fame with The Law. But after the demise of that band and back into solo work, he did decide to rejoin with the original Bad Company for a 2 CD overview of selected Bad Company hits and misses for Anthology (Elektra 1999) It's a throwaway as you would think, but it's not a greatest hits package, Electricland is missing and so is Gone Gone Gone but the B sides not on the original two albums are here, plus four new songs of varying degree. Rock And Roll Fantasy-The Very Best Of, might be the best overview, since it does include most, if not all of the singles that Bad Company issued in the Paul Rodgers era. And does have Electricland and Gone Gone Gone on this best of. It's not a perfect overview, Weep No More still remains a filler song, perhaps adding Little Miss Fortune instead would been a better choice. It does include the best songs from Rough Diamonds and Burning Sky, perhaps the only ones you need. A little late to the game but compared to the rest Rock And Roll Fantasy shapes up to be their best overview.
Since then, Bad Company has issued two live albums, Merchants Of Cool in 2002 (with 2 new Paul Rodgers songs of varying degree) and Sony Music put out highlights of 2011 concert on their Extended Versions Live Series (it may have been the Wembley show that Eagle Rock issued earlier). Despite it being sold as bargain bin special, it did managed a surprising 82 chart position on the Billboard Charts. Rhino did managed to issue 2 live dates from 1977 and 1979 and shows that the original Bad Company could boogie with the best of them, alas the 1977 show features way too many songs from Burning Sky. The 1979 live document is better. While Rodgers doesn't think much of the Brian Howe or Robert Hart years (he doesn't do any of the songs from that time) he has managed to get back into the band if Mick Ralphs feels up to it although Simon Kirke remains the only member of Bad Company to play on all albums from various lineups. Boz Burrell passed away in 2006.
Despite the shoddiness of their catalog, when Bad Company wrote the right song, they could do no wrong. Even though their stuff is overplayed, there's still a magical charm to Shooting Star or Feel Like Making Love if Paul sang it or even Brian Howe and everybody knows the words to Can't Get Enough. If you played in a bar band at any time you were get requests for this song or Feel Like Making Love. And Paul Rodgers still remains one of my favorite all time vocalists ever. That accounts for something. But when I want to hear my favorites of Bad Company, I'm more in line to play Honey Child or Deal With The Preacher and while my classmates wanted to hear Silver Blue And Gold for that earnest ballad, I'm more happier to play Seagull, which speaks for me more. Your favorite might be a tad bit different.
Grades:
Bad Company (Swan Song 1974) A-
Straight Shooter (Swan Song 1975) B
Run With The Pack (Swan Song 1976) B+
Burnin' Sky (Swan Song 1977) C+
Desolation Angels (Swan Song 1979) B+
Rough Diamonds (Swan Song 1982) C
10 From 6 (Atlantic 1985) B+
Anthology (Elektra 1999) B
Merchants Of Cool (Sanctuary 2002) B
Extended Versions (Sony Music 2011) B
Rock And Roll Fantasy-The Very Best Of Bad Company (Rhino 2015) B+
Bad Company Live 1977 and 1979 (Swan Song/Rhino 2016) B
The Robert Hart Albums:
Company Of Strangers (East West 1995) B
Stories Told And Untold (East West 1996) B
Selected Paul Rodgers Albums:
Cut Loose (Atlantic 1983) C+
The Firm (Atlantic 1985) B
The Firm Mean Business (Atlantic 1987) B+
The Law (with Kenny Jones) (Atlantic 1991) C
Muddy Waters Blues (Victory 1993) B-
Now (1997) B
Electric (CMC 2000) B
The Cosmos Rocks (with Queen)(Hollywood 2008) B
The Royal Sessions (429 2014) B+
Monday, March 9, 2015
The Last Bargain Hunt: Marion
Spring forward they say. It must be springtime, Wally World raised their soup prices back up to 1.88 again.
David Ray asked me to forward the link to the My City Was Gone, and so I archived it and republished it out in the open so that folks can see it again. It has never gone away, it's been tacked somewhere in the back catalog of Record World, which ratings have once again dipped under 100 and in danger of going under 2,000 views for the whole month. Not that it really matters much, I usually cram the whole news in the Week In Review and then add to it as we go along. The usual passings still come and go, Lew Soloff one of the horns in Blood Sweat And Tears passed away, he also always had a high pitched sound to his solo, most notably on Spinning Wheel or the trademark end to Hi De Ho. But he also worked into jazz with his own band too.
In our ongoing series called The Last Bargain Hunt I write another blog that gets 20 views per say if I'm lucky about the places I go to in search of bargains and adding more to the hoarder house. Originally a concept that I thought about writing a Kindle book and get as much sales as I do as my band's CDs, has been demoted to a when I feel like it saga about the trying to find music in an age that record stores are dying, Best Buy's continual shrinkage of their CD selection (they have shorten it again as we speak) and trying to find the ultimate single or album or CD. But at this stage of the game the vinyl revival has come back even making it even more difficult to find anything worth noting. Despite the odds, I still find them. So let's cue up some of that Nelson Riddle nifty early 1960s background happy music to start this off.
To compare Marion today from yesterday, feel free to cue up the My City Is Gone Archives but today's Marion is a far cry from the town I used to know. Read the My City Is Gone first, basically the thoughts are no different than they are and I rather not repeat myself......
The cold winter skies have given away to a more seasonal but still below normal temps as Daylight Savings Time takes hold and we get an extra hour of daylight while losing a hour of tossing and turning. Marion today is a town full of antique malls, thrift stores and usual franchise food places located on a crowded seventh avenue to which the stop lights are not in sync, and when they finally change you have a traffic jam at rush hour. They have big plans for downtown Marion to turn it more into a art type of town, and bringing the old Memorial Hall out of mothballs for hipster bands to jam there when summer comes around. If you're into pizza, there's about 10 of them in a mile radius, the locals like Zoey's Pizza, I enjoy Naso's more and if you want Corporate, Papa Johns, Pizza Hut and Dominoes are there too, so is Tomaso's, which lies on the burial ground of old town Marion now long gone, just like the trains that used to rumble through thirty years ago.
I'm basically biding time before deciding to return to Madison, but that town seems to be in a uproar just like going to St Louis and the Ferguson fiasco. Another story of a police officer killing of a unarmed black 19 year old who was bopping into traffic and being a nuisance, to which the police followed him back to his apartment and it became a he said they said thing. I may have ran into this dude a few years ago, as I came across a skateboard black dude weaving in and out of traffic and he fell off the skateboard right in front of me. And lived to tell about it. Usually this is the time of year that I haven't been up to Madison (last time there: July 2014) and wasn't impressed with the findings. With Presidential hopeful Scott Walker turning the great state into yet another Right To Work For Less State I been thinking to go there less and less anymore and just been hanging close to home. Which is basically Marion Iowa. Marion like Cedar Rapids doesn't have a record store to call their own anymore, 20 years before we had at least 8 to go to. However Marion does have about 10 antique stores and malls to chose from and it seems like a trendy thing but records are being found up in these places as well. Considering that I decided to see what I could find.
Antique Malls are basically a hoarder house with things for sale and at inflated prices. You can basically find just about anything associated with your past childhood there. I usually like the one up where the old Balster's Furniture Store is at, it's like revisiting your past but in a different setting. The old gas station crap that was around the places I used to work at, Marion 76 or The Costal mart (Derby) or Apco, are there. An old price sign that you can get gas for 18 cents a gallon is there, even vintage oil cans full of motor oil can be brought for 10 dollars a can. Old beer cans, beer bottles, unrusted cone tops are there for a price. But I'm there for the records.
And most of the records are overpriced. Located in a part of a two doors down store lies a box full of sleeveless 45s for 4 dollars a single. The problem is that a lot of these records have been played to death, got scratches deeper than the pot holes outside 7th Avenue, some need to be cleaned up. I have no problems paying 4 dollars for a 45 if it looks to be in great shape, I do have problems with they don't have a sleeve. The nadir of bargain hunting is that 45s are not always found, there are collectors out there that will snap them up without question, buying in bulk, taking the pick of the litter and donating the rest away. Back when they were still making 45s there was this anticipating of finding DJ promo copies of great songs that wouldn't get played along with the vintage stuff as well. Even a good jukebox copy would spur interest. But not in this day and age. We have 3 major labels and the stuff they put out is garbage. So I hope for the best and find something unique. And so, the crate digger digs deep for something of value.
There were some 45s that I took note but not enough to invest 4 dollars into, so I moved on to the five dollar albums. A lotta junk, a lotta mold, most of the records were scratched up, I saw a Tom and Jerry Surf guitar album I would have picked up, but had too many scratches, and I don't need references copies taking up space at home. One place, had a couple boxes of interesting stuff, I could have completed most of Chad And Jeremy LPs but the majority have seen better days. Located in a five dollar box was Tin Huey's 1978 Warner Brothers album still sealed. I had a warped DJ promo of I'm A Believer and the CD a while ago but sold both of them, but thought the record was worth picking up again. At least that would buy a pack a cigarettes for the kind woman up there.
The Antique Mall where the Boston Store used to be, had the better selection of music including the mentioned five dollar mold and scratch albums but there was another section that had better albums and some comedy albums from Sam Kinison and Andrew Dice Clay, although thinking paying 15 dollars for them wasn't cost effective. Somebody had some old Sport Cars In Stereo LPs for 18 dollars, they do command high prices when in better shape but again if I'm going to get something for 18 dollars it better be in pristine shape. I can do only so much Nostalgia. Some of the interesting things they had was The Archies's Greatest Hits and a band called Snafu (featuring Micky Moody later of Whitesnake fame) that made an album for Capitol in the 70s and others. But I can also tell who ever had the albums marked different prices on these. And for all intent purposes, they had some knowledge of how to price them. Which perhaps made me think that maybe I should have kept most of my collection before I traded some of that for that Led Zeppelin box set that came out in the early 90s that I haven't played much from. I got caught in that new fad called CD collecting too.
Growing up in the 60s and 70s, that the big albums from The Beatles, Zeppelin, Stones etc command even more money from the consumer but I draw the line of seeing a chewed up Apple Lp of the Beatles White Album selling for 50 dollars or G shaped albums for 18 dollars or more. If they threw in a new needle to replace yours after playing the scratched up album I might consider but I tend to be more picky than picking up every mold encrusted copy of Sgt. Pepper's and getting sick all over again. It's fun digging the crates and forming opinions about the life span of a record and forgotten group, but the sad fact is that at these Malls, the record inventory hardly changes. The same old overpriced record are still there, the mold and dusty ones are still there and you don't get a lot a new arrivals. And your are stuck listening to THE FOX or KDAT or god forbid, KISS Country and I can't handle Corporate Radio so I don't stay too long. So I'm looking at going to Marion as a once every three months thing. I have better luck seeing what Goodwill or Salvation Army has for new stuff.
The upstairs at the old Balster's has a cheap consignment record store, their name escapes me but it seems they have a slightly better newer selection of music, mostly jazz and soul. Their albums are 2 dollars, with the exception of a few others, and I ended up finding Joe Tex's Rub Down (his 1978 Epic album) and the 1969 Peanut Butter Conspiracy LP on Challenge that had a cover that the lady cashier took one look and laughed like crazy. That one sold for 4 dollars although the original price had I found it at the local Venture in the late 60s I could have gotten and one more album for 77 cents. The price of inflation. In the downstairs area they had some premium priced albums selling for me, and still up there is a Epic cut out of The Yardbirds Little Games album. Nice if I really needed it but I still have the import at home, with more and better songs rather than the anemic choice that Epic used for song selection. I think they wanted 15 or 18 for that.
While it was nice doing the antique mall tour of Marion, I don't forsee it to be a major happening. Not enough turnover to warrant more than once every three months. The self serve record store upstairs the old Balster's will probably be the only place I return to. The success ratio from Antiques stores to thrift is about the same, buyer beware of course. But I do get feel a bit nostalgic when i go up there, be it to see old scratchy 45s, rusty beer cans, former keepsakes turned into dust collectors and even old vintage motor oil cans or old gas station signs. But not enough for me to pony up big bucks for mold encrusted albums or vintage oil or beer cans. I'm sure you wouldn't want to drink old beer cans or put old oil in your car. The memories are good enough for me.
David Ray asked me to forward the link to the My City Was Gone, and so I archived it and republished it out in the open so that folks can see it again. It has never gone away, it's been tacked somewhere in the back catalog of Record World, which ratings have once again dipped under 100 and in danger of going under 2,000 views for the whole month. Not that it really matters much, I usually cram the whole news in the Week In Review and then add to it as we go along. The usual passings still come and go, Lew Soloff one of the horns in Blood Sweat And Tears passed away, he also always had a high pitched sound to his solo, most notably on Spinning Wheel or the trademark end to Hi De Ho. But he also worked into jazz with his own band too.
In our ongoing series called The Last Bargain Hunt I write another blog that gets 20 views per say if I'm lucky about the places I go to in search of bargains and adding more to the hoarder house. Originally a concept that I thought about writing a Kindle book and get as much sales as I do as my band's CDs, has been demoted to a when I feel like it saga about the trying to find music in an age that record stores are dying, Best Buy's continual shrinkage of their CD selection (they have shorten it again as we speak) and trying to find the ultimate single or album or CD. But at this stage of the game the vinyl revival has come back even making it even more difficult to find anything worth noting. Despite the odds, I still find them. So let's cue up some of that Nelson Riddle nifty early 1960s background happy music to start this off.
To compare Marion today from yesterday, feel free to cue up the My City Is Gone Archives but today's Marion is a far cry from the town I used to know. Read the My City Is Gone first, basically the thoughts are no different than they are and I rather not repeat myself......
The cold winter skies have given away to a more seasonal but still below normal temps as Daylight Savings Time takes hold and we get an extra hour of daylight while losing a hour of tossing and turning. Marion today is a town full of antique malls, thrift stores and usual franchise food places located on a crowded seventh avenue to which the stop lights are not in sync, and when they finally change you have a traffic jam at rush hour. They have big plans for downtown Marion to turn it more into a art type of town, and bringing the old Memorial Hall out of mothballs for hipster bands to jam there when summer comes around. If you're into pizza, there's about 10 of them in a mile radius, the locals like Zoey's Pizza, I enjoy Naso's more and if you want Corporate, Papa Johns, Pizza Hut and Dominoes are there too, so is Tomaso's, which lies on the burial ground of old town Marion now long gone, just like the trains that used to rumble through thirty years ago.
I'm basically biding time before deciding to return to Madison, but that town seems to be in a uproar just like going to St Louis and the Ferguson fiasco. Another story of a police officer killing of a unarmed black 19 year old who was bopping into traffic and being a nuisance, to which the police followed him back to his apartment and it became a he said they said thing. I may have ran into this dude a few years ago, as I came across a skateboard black dude weaving in and out of traffic and he fell off the skateboard right in front of me. And lived to tell about it. Usually this is the time of year that I haven't been up to Madison (last time there: July 2014) and wasn't impressed with the findings. With Presidential hopeful Scott Walker turning the great state into yet another Right To Work For Less State I been thinking to go there less and less anymore and just been hanging close to home. Which is basically Marion Iowa. Marion like Cedar Rapids doesn't have a record store to call their own anymore, 20 years before we had at least 8 to go to. However Marion does have about 10 antique stores and malls to chose from and it seems like a trendy thing but records are being found up in these places as well. Considering that I decided to see what I could find.
Antique Malls are basically a hoarder house with things for sale and at inflated prices. You can basically find just about anything associated with your past childhood there. I usually like the one up where the old Balster's Furniture Store is at, it's like revisiting your past but in a different setting. The old gas station crap that was around the places I used to work at, Marion 76 or The Costal mart (Derby) or Apco, are there. An old price sign that you can get gas for 18 cents a gallon is there, even vintage oil cans full of motor oil can be brought for 10 dollars a can. Old beer cans, beer bottles, unrusted cone tops are there for a price. But I'm there for the records.
And most of the records are overpriced. Located in a part of a two doors down store lies a box full of sleeveless 45s for 4 dollars a single. The problem is that a lot of these records have been played to death, got scratches deeper than the pot holes outside 7th Avenue, some need to be cleaned up. I have no problems paying 4 dollars for a 45 if it looks to be in great shape, I do have problems with they don't have a sleeve. The nadir of bargain hunting is that 45s are not always found, there are collectors out there that will snap them up without question, buying in bulk, taking the pick of the litter and donating the rest away. Back when they were still making 45s there was this anticipating of finding DJ promo copies of great songs that wouldn't get played along with the vintage stuff as well. Even a good jukebox copy would spur interest. But not in this day and age. We have 3 major labels and the stuff they put out is garbage. So I hope for the best and find something unique. And so, the crate digger digs deep for something of value.
There were some 45s that I took note but not enough to invest 4 dollars into, so I moved on to the five dollar albums. A lotta junk, a lotta mold, most of the records were scratched up, I saw a Tom and Jerry Surf guitar album I would have picked up, but had too many scratches, and I don't need references copies taking up space at home. One place, had a couple boxes of interesting stuff, I could have completed most of Chad And Jeremy LPs but the majority have seen better days. Located in a five dollar box was Tin Huey's 1978 Warner Brothers album still sealed. I had a warped DJ promo of I'm A Believer and the CD a while ago but sold both of them, but thought the record was worth picking up again. At least that would buy a pack a cigarettes for the kind woman up there.
The Antique Mall where the Boston Store used to be, had the better selection of music including the mentioned five dollar mold and scratch albums but there was another section that had better albums and some comedy albums from Sam Kinison and Andrew Dice Clay, although thinking paying 15 dollars for them wasn't cost effective. Somebody had some old Sport Cars In Stereo LPs for 18 dollars, they do command high prices when in better shape but again if I'm going to get something for 18 dollars it better be in pristine shape. I can do only so much Nostalgia. Some of the interesting things they had was The Archies's Greatest Hits and a band called Snafu (featuring Micky Moody later of Whitesnake fame) that made an album for Capitol in the 70s and others. But I can also tell who ever had the albums marked different prices on these. And for all intent purposes, they had some knowledge of how to price them. Which perhaps made me think that maybe I should have kept most of my collection before I traded some of that for that Led Zeppelin box set that came out in the early 90s that I haven't played much from. I got caught in that new fad called CD collecting too.
Growing up in the 60s and 70s, that the big albums from The Beatles, Zeppelin, Stones etc command even more money from the consumer but I draw the line of seeing a chewed up Apple Lp of the Beatles White Album selling for 50 dollars or G shaped albums for 18 dollars or more. If they threw in a new needle to replace yours after playing the scratched up album I might consider but I tend to be more picky than picking up every mold encrusted copy of Sgt. Pepper's and getting sick all over again. It's fun digging the crates and forming opinions about the life span of a record and forgotten group, but the sad fact is that at these Malls, the record inventory hardly changes. The same old overpriced record are still there, the mold and dusty ones are still there and you don't get a lot a new arrivals. And your are stuck listening to THE FOX or KDAT or god forbid, KISS Country and I can't handle Corporate Radio so I don't stay too long. So I'm looking at going to Marion as a once every three months thing. I have better luck seeing what Goodwill or Salvation Army has for new stuff.
The upstairs at the old Balster's has a cheap consignment record store, their name escapes me but it seems they have a slightly better newer selection of music, mostly jazz and soul. Their albums are 2 dollars, with the exception of a few others, and I ended up finding Joe Tex's Rub Down (his 1978 Epic album) and the 1969 Peanut Butter Conspiracy LP on Challenge that had a cover that the lady cashier took one look and laughed like crazy. That one sold for 4 dollars although the original price had I found it at the local Venture in the late 60s I could have gotten and one more album for 77 cents. The price of inflation. In the downstairs area they had some premium priced albums selling for me, and still up there is a Epic cut out of The Yardbirds Little Games album. Nice if I really needed it but I still have the import at home, with more and better songs rather than the anemic choice that Epic used for song selection. I think they wanted 15 or 18 for that.
While it was nice doing the antique mall tour of Marion, I don't forsee it to be a major happening. Not enough turnover to warrant more than once every three months. The self serve record store upstairs the old Balster's will probably be the only place I return to. The success ratio from Antiques stores to thrift is about the same, buyer beware of course. But I do get feel a bit nostalgic when i go up there, be it to see old scratchy 45s, rusty beer cans, former keepsakes turned into dust collectors and even old vintage motor oil cans or old gas station signs. But not enough for me to pony up big bucks for mold encrusted albums or vintage oil or beer cans. I'm sure you wouldn't want to drink old beer cans or put old oil in your car. The memories are good enough for me.
Saturday, March 7, 2015
Archives: My City Is Gone-Marion Iowa Revisited Again
UPDATE 3-9-15 I have for the 3rd time put the pictures back into place, hopefully they will not disappear this time. Darren Ferreter get photo credit since they're from his FB site. The pictures can be found here as well. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.318051344964875&type=3
Update: 9-25-15 The Town And Country Bowl was located in the basement of Town And Country Shopping Center and for part of the 70s it was unique for being a underground bowling alley. While I haven't found pictures of it in its heyday, somebody snapped this while they were tearing that bowling alley down for the new Fareway Store. Perhaps we'll come up with another My City Is Gone Series sometime in the future that will focus more around the Cedar Rapids area.
Update 1/22/19 Early 50's My Guess is NW corner of 7th and 12th St. Marion Radio (later Marion TV and Records) sits at the corner, Irwin's is next door, and the Electric Light and Power Co, probably where you pay your bills at. From what I remembered, The Boston Store was next door to the Power Co. Fun Fact: Notice the IA 64 sign above 151. By 1969, IA 64 was no longer a part of Marion; it was relocated to the east side of Anamosa and best known as the road to Wyoming (or Maquoketa)
Now after 58 years and then some Irwin's in Downtown Marion is closing up shop forever (they closed December 30th of 2014). And that store was the link between the now and the past. With that, Irwins will join The Boston Store, Orphan Variety, Marion TV and Records, Sorg's Pharmacy, Box Kar Hobbies and so many stores into the past of Marion. The Good Old Days gone forever.The Antique Mall and stores across from the strip mall continues to be busy on the weekends and I've been known to go up to the one where Balster's used to be. A hoarder house full of old things long ago forgotten now takes up two floors. Another Antique showcase is where Boston Store used to be. Always a thrill of sorting through moldy old forty fives and albums I can be found up there once in a great while. The former Irwin will probably be a new Antique store in the making.
Used to be Marion was a great place to be growing up. Not so much anymore but Darren from My Space added some pictures that jogged the memories of downtown Marion. Before progress took it's personality away. In order to follow along, I advise you to follow from the website listed above.
The first pic is from 1968 thereabouts and this what Marion used to be. Main thoroughfare is to the left. Marion Shoe Shop, Bill's Tap, The Side Pocket bar-later on it would be the head shop Folks And Uncle Leonard, Town Square Book Store (a place where I spent many a time there), a appliance repair place, then Ole's Ham And Egger before you got to the train depot.
picture 11 Marion Shoe Shop, Bill's Tap, Salvation Army took over when the hippie shop folded, the empty lot is where Town's Square Bookstore caught on fire and it remained an open space. A appliance repair shop is next to the empty space that was Town's Square Books and Ole's further down. I'd say this picture is probably 1985 thereabouts.
Ole's Ham And Egger, where I used to spend many a time playing pinball, playing the jukebox and pissing off the old waitresses when they wouldn't give back my quarters when the pinball machine ate them. Some good memories here although I had some creepy old dude in a 68 green Chevy following me home one day in the mid 70s. Next to Ole's the old train station in the process of being torn down.
pictures 23, 24 Milwaukee Road Train Bridge over Indian Creek. A recent picture from Darren Ferreter, this area is behind the former Todd's Indian House (now a used car lot) and back in my wild youth, I used to hunt for beer cans back in this area to which I still have some rusty old Meister Brau and Falstaff cans in my collection. Used to be a big dam back here but the city tore that down. There's a walking trail in the area above the bridge but they have closed that off since you see it's not safe to cross, but perhaps in the future they may refurnish it so that we can use it someday.
The Milwaukee Road Bridge, and wooden damn over Indian Creek. Bridge in the background is the 8th Ave Bridge, long ago torn down. 1917.
Picture 17: 7th and 9th again, early 60s at least 1963 or 1964. Note the big Caddy and 59 Chevy Impala in background. They don't make them like that anymore.
7th avenue early 60s. Royal Inn, original location of Queen N Teen, Marion TV and Records (my second home), the Ben Franklin store and the uptown restaurant. Around 1971, Iowa banned beer signs outside on display, note the Falstaff sign far left side. The Ben Franklin name was changed to Orphan Variety, which still boasted one of the biggest candy sections in town. Plenty of sugar buzzes would come from this place. The apartments over the stores was something to behold. I seem to recall them being leaning over toward one side and the fear that someday those upstairs apartments would collapse. I think they went for like 200 a month back in the early 70s. Cockroaches included.
Between 7th and 10th, Dickie's Dry Cleaners, Dr Cameron J Hill, Podiatrist place (thanks for the info Cathy) , Mr. Bills Pizza Place, Stickney's Scoreboard and a Coast To Coast Hardware Store. Across the alley was the infamous Marion Theater that in 1971 turned into a XXX movie joint. Me and Scott Waters used to go by the back door and kick on it a few times before running away. We never did caught. This picture probably late 60s, before Coast To Coast moved further down 7th avenue and the Scoreboard expanded into the former hardware store area. And before Iowa banned having beer signs outside establishments around 1971 thereabouts.
Marion in the 1970s had plenty of trains going through town and sometimes the trains would have to stop in place for another to pass on through. Train 519 was one of two in town trains that would come through the switching yard from time to time. I think I spent most of my time at the junior high looking at the window to see passing trains go through town. Train 521 also was part of the Marion scene and I could tell what they were by the sound of the whistle. The fun of walking to school was hopefully have a stopped train in place so we can be late and get away with it. Which meant a few games of pinball at Ole's. Across the street from the UP caboose is the OK Lounge to where my band finally made it on stage on December 7, 1984. The old Marion Post Office was across the street from the OK. OK Lounge was torn down to make way for the Nancy Miller Public Library.
Ginther's on 10th. Don't recall seeing this building although it's more down from where Box Car Hobbies used to be at but they bulldozed this place down to put up a drug store in the mid 70s. They later moved over to the strip mall area on East Post Road. The Marion Theater was across the street.
Missing Picture: Box Kar Hobbies: used to be the place to go when you were a kid. They had a big track up in the back room so you can play race cars, and had a huge selection of Train collectibles that I used to have but gave most of them to my best friend Steve Willard. Next door was the Danish Maid Store, a Barbershop, after that I'm guessing there was a women's store, a jewelery store and I think a Goodwill store or perhaps a record store that started up but didn't last too long there. Next to the barbershop which has closed down, was the new location of Bill's Tap since the great city of Marion booted everybody out of the original location to put up that hideous strip mall which took away the heart and soul of Marion and basically my childhood years. Box Kar has moved from place to place around the Cedar Rapids/Marion area and is now based out of Town And Country. Final thought: Box Kar also sold beer cans in the 70s (with no beer of course). Bought a few of them out there.
New Pic: David Ray found an old picture of the 8th Avenue Bridge over Indian Creek in the early 1900s. Marion would have been a beautiful place to live back then it seems. (Photo credit: David Ray)
Source: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.318051344964875&type=3
A fond lookback.....
A short history of my growing up years and after careful thinking and planning, I decided to leave the last names of former high school sweethearts out for the sake of common courtesy and basically they're part of a long and forgotten past. A past that sometimes reminded me that things were not all bad and sometimes I did managed to walk home a good looking classmate.
Now since this gets viewed a lot: Marion continues to go into the toilet with plans for two roundabouts as Mayor Snooks continues to turn the town I used to know into a town that I don't want to know anymore. The sad fact of places that I used to work at, The old Marion Apco on 584 7th Avenue and the old Derby at 501 7th Avenue plus the old Marion 76 down the road are ancient memories. The sound of King's Concrete is now gone as well as the trains that used to go through town. I suppose it all for the best, not that my childhood meant that much but I remember a lot of things and old girlfriends that I used to walk home from school. Hard to fathom that I used to walk Cheryl home, a block and half from Longfellow but it was true for a while at least in grade school that we were together (to what they call Puppy Love) I didn't like junior high all that much nor High School for that matter, too many asshole bullies and stuck up girls that wouldn't give you the time of day unless they were trying to make their boyfriends jealous. I'll never know the reason why Janice decided to chase me around American Studies class along with co conspirator Sue in my Sophmore year, having her to jump on my lap one day in class on a dare. Perhaps I should have taken her on right there and then, we both had our moments of what could have been. Or had I asked her out or vice versa, but in the end, the only time I did take somebody out was Penny and that got messed up, since I had to work at Applegate's on Homecoming night and they wouldn't let me have that off. Somebody had to do the dishwashing I guess even though that job sucked from day one. But then again, I never seem to pick the right steady at any time during those formative years. But then again my sanctuary was the record store, girlfriends just got in the way, unless they were the cook at Applegate's taking glee as they dropped off their dirty dishes in the tub and snickering all the way as I try to clean the damn things. Maybe the good old days weren't so great after all.
But the streets are decaying despite the roundabout on 29th looking fine considering its out there in nowhere's land. The wide open spaces out by what used to be the four way stop at 151 and 13 is now a Wal Mart, a Casey's two trailer courts of varying degree, an Audi's and plenty of stop lights along the way. I long for the days of going to DX to pick up those NFL trading stamps that they had in 1972 and bothering the dudes up at DX for more stamps. Oh I tried out for Football but couldn't handle the practices and finding myself being demoted to the D squad and even further had I stuck it out. I wasn't good at sports, Barker ran circles around me when we played basketball and in baseball, the only year I tried out, I ended up with a zero batting average. It didn't help when my grandparents both died that year either. But basically i sucked at sports.
The only thing that I was good at was buy records and 45s and that got me through the years of growing up in Marion, although downtown Marion had everything I needed. A used book store, Marion TV and Records and Ole's Ham And Egger that had the greatest selection of music in the jukeboxes, some of the 45s I still have today. And the Boston Store, all like Irwins' which closed December of 2014 and the Marion Bowling Alley that closed earlier that year are history. All gone but not forgotten in pictures.
So I remember the pictures and the good times and the bad times as well. The skinny dreamer who peddled Penny Saver's for a lousy penny a paper but it paid me enough to buy music. And to go bike riding with my best friends, without a care in the world before discovering girls and having things change before our very eyes. But between grades 4 through 6 were the best of times, and it a shame it didn't last forever.
Truly, my city is gone.
Update: 9-25-15 The Town And Country Bowl was located in the basement of Town And Country Shopping Center and for part of the 70s it was unique for being a underground bowling alley. While I haven't found pictures of it in its heyday, somebody snapped this while they were tearing that bowling alley down for the new Fareway Store. Perhaps we'll come up with another My City Is Gone Series sometime in the future that will focus more around the Cedar Rapids area.
Update 1/22/19 Early 50's My Guess is NW corner of 7th and 12th St. Marion Radio (later Marion TV and Records) sits at the corner, Irwin's is next door, and the Electric Light and Power Co, probably where you pay your bills at. From what I remembered, The Boston Store was next door to the Power Co. Fun Fact: Notice the IA 64 sign above 151. By 1969, IA 64 was no longer a part of Marion; it was relocated to the east side of Anamosa and best known as the road to Wyoming (or Maquoketa)
Now after 58 years and then some Irwin's in Downtown Marion is closing up shop forever (they closed December 30th of 2014). And that store was the link between the now and the past. With that, Irwins will join The Boston Store, Orphan Variety, Marion TV and Records, Sorg's Pharmacy, Box Kar Hobbies and so many stores into the past of Marion. The Good Old Days gone forever.The Antique Mall and stores across from the strip mall continues to be busy on the weekends and I've been known to go up to the one where Balster's used to be. A hoarder house full of old things long ago forgotten now takes up two floors. Another Antique showcase is where Boston Store used to be. Always a thrill of sorting through moldy old forty fives and albums I can be found up there once in a great while. The former Irwin will probably be a new Antique store in the making.
Used to be Marion was a great place to be growing up. Not so much anymore but Darren from My Space added some pictures that jogged the memories of downtown Marion. Before progress took it's personality away. In order to follow along, I advise you to follow from the website listed above.
The first pic is from 1968 thereabouts and this what Marion used to be. Main thoroughfare is to the left. Marion Shoe Shop, Bill's Tap, The Side Pocket bar-later on it would be the head shop Folks And Uncle Leonard, Town Square Book Store (a place where I spent many a time there), a appliance repair place, then Ole's Ham And Egger before you got to the train depot.
picture 11 Marion Shoe Shop, Bill's Tap, Salvation Army took over when the hippie shop folded, the empty lot is where Town's Square Bookstore caught on fire and it remained an open space. A appliance repair shop is next to the empty space that was Town's Square Books and Ole's further down. I'd say this picture is probably 1985 thereabouts.
Ole's Ham And Egger, where I used to spend many a time playing pinball, playing the jukebox and pissing off the old waitresses when they wouldn't give back my quarters when the pinball machine ate them. Some good memories here although I had some creepy old dude in a 68 green Chevy following me home one day in the mid 70s. Next to Ole's the old train station in the process of being torn down.
pictures 23, 24 Milwaukee Road Train Bridge over Indian Creek. A recent picture from Darren Ferreter, this area is behind the former Todd's Indian House (now a used car lot) and back in my wild youth, I used to hunt for beer cans back in this area to which I still have some rusty old Meister Brau and Falstaff cans in my collection. Used to be a big dam back here but the city tore that down. There's a walking trail in the area above the bridge but they have closed that off since you see it's not safe to cross, but perhaps in the future they may refurnish it so that we can use it someday.
The Milwaukee Road Bridge, and wooden damn over Indian Creek. Bridge in the background is the 8th Ave Bridge, long ago torn down. 1917.
Picture 17: 7th and 9th again, early 60s at least 1963 or 1964. Note the big Caddy and 59 Chevy Impala in background. They don't make them like that anymore.
7th avenue early 60s. Royal Inn, original location of Queen N Teen, Marion TV and Records (my second home), the Ben Franklin store and the uptown restaurant. Around 1971, Iowa banned beer signs outside on display, note the Falstaff sign far left side. The Ben Franklin name was changed to Orphan Variety, which still boasted one of the biggest candy sections in town. Plenty of sugar buzzes would come from this place. The apartments over the stores was something to behold. I seem to recall them being leaning over toward one side and the fear that someday those upstairs apartments would collapse. I think they went for like 200 a month back in the early 70s. Cockroaches included.
Between 7th and 10th, Dickie's Dry Cleaners, Dr Cameron J Hill, Podiatrist place (thanks for the info Cathy) , Mr. Bills Pizza Place, Stickney's Scoreboard and a Coast To Coast Hardware Store. Across the alley was the infamous Marion Theater that in 1971 turned into a XXX movie joint. Me and Scott Waters used to go by the back door and kick on it a few times before running away. We never did caught. This picture probably late 60s, before Coast To Coast moved further down 7th avenue and the Scoreboard expanded into the former hardware store area. And before Iowa banned having beer signs outside establishments around 1971 thereabouts.
Marion in the 1970s had plenty of trains going through town and sometimes the trains would have to stop in place for another to pass on through. Train 519 was one of two in town trains that would come through the switching yard from time to time. I think I spent most of my time at the junior high looking at the window to see passing trains go through town. Train 521 also was part of the Marion scene and I could tell what they were by the sound of the whistle. The fun of walking to school was hopefully have a stopped train in place so we can be late and get away with it. Which meant a few games of pinball at Ole's. Across the street from the UP caboose is the OK Lounge to where my band finally made it on stage on December 7, 1984. The old Marion Post Office was across the street from the OK. OK Lounge was torn down to make way for the Nancy Miller Public Library.
Ginther's on 10th. Don't recall seeing this building although it's more down from where Box Car Hobbies used to be at but they bulldozed this place down to put up a drug store in the mid 70s. They later moved over to the strip mall area on East Post Road. The Marion Theater was across the street.
Missing Picture: Box Kar Hobbies: used to be the place to go when you were a kid. They had a big track up in the back room so you can play race cars, and had a huge selection of Train collectibles that I used to have but gave most of them to my best friend Steve Willard. Next door was the Danish Maid Store, a Barbershop, after that I'm guessing there was a women's store, a jewelery store and I think a Goodwill store or perhaps a record store that started up but didn't last too long there. Next to the barbershop which has closed down, was the new location of Bill's Tap since the great city of Marion booted everybody out of the original location to put up that hideous strip mall which took away the heart and soul of Marion and basically my childhood years. Box Kar has moved from place to place around the Cedar Rapids/Marion area and is now based out of Town And Country. Final thought: Box Kar also sold beer cans in the 70s (with no beer of course). Bought a few of them out there.
New Pic: David Ray found an old picture of the 8th Avenue Bridge over Indian Creek in the early 1900s. Marion would have been a beautiful place to live back then it seems. (Photo credit: David Ray)
Source: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.318051344964875&type=3
A fond lookback.....
A short history of my growing up years and after careful thinking and planning, I decided to leave the last names of former high school sweethearts out for the sake of common courtesy and basically they're part of a long and forgotten past. A past that sometimes reminded me that things were not all bad and sometimes I did managed to walk home a good looking classmate.
Now since this gets viewed a lot: Marion continues to go into the toilet with plans for two roundabouts as Mayor Snooks continues to turn the town I used to know into a town that I don't want to know anymore. The sad fact of places that I used to work at, The old Marion Apco on 584 7th Avenue and the old Derby at 501 7th Avenue plus the old Marion 76 down the road are ancient memories. The sound of King's Concrete is now gone as well as the trains that used to go through town. I suppose it all for the best, not that my childhood meant that much but I remember a lot of things and old girlfriends that I used to walk home from school. Hard to fathom that I used to walk Cheryl home, a block and half from Longfellow but it was true for a while at least in grade school that we were together (to what they call Puppy Love) I didn't like junior high all that much nor High School for that matter, too many asshole bullies and stuck up girls that wouldn't give you the time of day unless they were trying to make their boyfriends jealous. I'll never know the reason why Janice decided to chase me around American Studies class along with co conspirator Sue in my Sophmore year, having her to jump on my lap one day in class on a dare. Perhaps I should have taken her on right there and then, we both had our moments of what could have been. Or had I asked her out or vice versa, but in the end, the only time I did take somebody out was Penny and that got messed up, since I had to work at Applegate's on Homecoming night and they wouldn't let me have that off. Somebody had to do the dishwashing I guess even though that job sucked from day one. But then again, I never seem to pick the right steady at any time during those formative years. But then again my sanctuary was the record store, girlfriends just got in the way, unless they were the cook at Applegate's taking glee as they dropped off their dirty dishes in the tub and snickering all the way as I try to clean the damn things. Maybe the good old days weren't so great after all.
But the streets are decaying despite the roundabout on 29th looking fine considering its out there in nowhere's land. The wide open spaces out by what used to be the four way stop at 151 and 13 is now a Wal Mart, a Casey's two trailer courts of varying degree, an Audi's and plenty of stop lights along the way. I long for the days of going to DX to pick up those NFL trading stamps that they had in 1972 and bothering the dudes up at DX for more stamps. Oh I tried out for Football but couldn't handle the practices and finding myself being demoted to the D squad and even further had I stuck it out. I wasn't good at sports, Barker ran circles around me when we played basketball and in baseball, the only year I tried out, I ended up with a zero batting average. It didn't help when my grandparents both died that year either. But basically i sucked at sports.
The only thing that I was good at was buy records and 45s and that got me through the years of growing up in Marion, although downtown Marion had everything I needed. A used book store, Marion TV and Records and Ole's Ham And Egger that had the greatest selection of music in the jukeboxes, some of the 45s I still have today. And the Boston Store, all like Irwins' which closed December of 2014 and the Marion Bowling Alley that closed earlier that year are history. All gone but not forgotten in pictures.
So I remember the pictures and the good times and the bad times as well. The skinny dreamer who peddled Penny Saver's for a lousy penny a paper but it paid me enough to buy music. And to go bike riding with my best friends, without a care in the world before discovering girls and having things change before our very eyes. But between grades 4 through 6 were the best of times, and it a shame it didn't last forever.
Truly, my city is gone.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Forgotten Bands Of The 60s-The Blues Project
As far as I know, The Blues Project only made one proper album in their career Projections and I tend to agree with Al Kooper that the mix sucks. Upon hearing the Verve reissue of the CD way back in 1995 it sounded like it was mastered from an old scratchy acetate, which overlook that and you can tell that the album is quite good.
The Blues Project was a idea based upon a jamming group of dudes, Al Kooper the better known but had Steve Katz, Danny Kalb, Andy Kulberg and Roy Blumenfeld (and don't forget Tommy Flanders) as a band collective. Kooper worked with Bob Dylan during the Blonde on Blonde album and classic recording of Like A Rolling Stone, one of the first 6 plus minute song to make it on 45. Upon gigging at the Cafe Au Go Go, Verve decided to issue that via their fledgling Verve/Folkways later Verve/Forecast offshoot label and although the live album is hit and miss it does have a few staples that they would revisit from time to time Going To Louisiana, Catch The Wind and a lot more of the Willie Dixon catalog that most bands were covering at that time. I tend to think Spoonful and Who Do You Love go on a bit too long but overall, The Blues Project were good purveyors of the blues.
Tom Wilson seemed to be the idea producer to work with. At that time, Wilson was working with The Animals, Bob Dylan and Mothers Of Invention to name a few and what better way to get noticed is with a hip producer but again what stands out in Projections is who screechy and tinny the sound is on their classic I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes which basically recopies Howlin' Wolf's Little Baby or Blind Willie Johnson. Or blame Val Valentin's for the lousy sound since he was head engineer of most of the MGM Verve roster recordings. Still Projections is the Blues Project at their best and versatile, they could retell Chuck Berry and make it rock (You Can't Catch Me) or take a stab at pop (Wake Me, Shake Me) and even jazz comes into play (Flute Thing) or country (Fly Away) but overall, it's a blues effort although I tend to think that the whole 11 and half minutes of Two Trains Running comes close to make one fall asleep while Caress Me Baby is somewhat like the Jefferson Airplane was doing when they cover Rock Me Baby. It's been known that Kooper calls Two Trains Running vintage Danny Kalb on the liner notes to the Rhino Best Of The Blues Project but perhaps it's best to see them perform this in concert rather than under headphones.
A split in the band came when Kooper wanted to add more horns to the songs whereas the band didn't, so Kooper and Steve Katz left to form Blood Sweat And Tears and made their pseudoclassic Child Is Father To The Man album (before Kooper left that band under mysterious circumstances) and Verve was trying to come up with new Blues Project music and settled upon adding crowd noise to a couple of singles and leftover live performances and called it Live At Town Hall. No Time Like The Right Time, a single only release, was peppered with applause as well as a couple other forgotten singles; for the live performances, the Electric Flute Thing is quite boring and we get an alternative version of Wake Me Shake Me and a lesser known Mean Old Southern. The record label was already scraping the bottom of the barrel. With Kooper gone, Andy Kulberg recruited new members for the drab Planned Obsolescence. If nothing else that album would be the beginning of a new project that eventually became Seatrain. Outside of If You Gotta Make A Fool Out Of Somebody which owes a lot to Blind Faith, the rest of the album bores me to death. Tommy Flanders came back to play on the two Capitol albums but I have not heard any of these. However, in 1973, The original boys (sans Flanders) did Reunion in Central Park for MCA and while reviews were lukewarm, I actually liked this album and thought that this version of Fly Away was superior to the one on Verve. And it did come out on CD for a short while in the 90s.
As for the best ofs, they provide a nice sampler although the only remote thing they had for a hit was No Time Like The Right Time (which can be found on the original Nuggets album via Elektra/Rhino/Sire). Although I give a slight nod to the Rhino best of for the obscure Flute Thing that didn't make the Reunion In Central Park listing over the Polygram 2 CD anthology but both best ofs omit anything from Obsolescence or the Capitol albums. They're both flawed for overviews buyer beware. In the end, if nothing else The Blues Project can be considered one of the early pioneers of jam band which is not a bad thing, The Grateful Dead is a jam band as well. But like some jam bands, the songs can be tedious (Electric) Flute Thing comes to mind or Two Trains Running. But when they do find a right jam be it I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes or Wake Me Shake Me, The Blues Project knows how to jam. Andy Kulburg died in 2002 but sometimes Steve Katz or Danny Kalb and Roy Blumenfeld have known to resurrect The Blues Project from time to time, last in 2013. Al Kooper continues to do his own thing and has his own column of writing about his favorite music called New Music For Old People you can find at The Morton Report.
Grades:
Live At A Cafe Au Go Go (Verve/Folkways 1966) B+
Projections (Verve Forecast 1967) A-
Live At Town Hall (Verve Forecast 1968) B-
Planned Obsolescence (Verve Forecast 1969) C-
Lazarus (Capitol 1971) NR
Blues Project (Capitol 1972) NR
Reunion At Central Park (Sounds Of The South/MCA 1973) B+
Best Of The Blues Project (Rhino 1989) B
The Blues Project was a idea based upon a jamming group of dudes, Al Kooper the better known but had Steve Katz, Danny Kalb, Andy Kulberg and Roy Blumenfeld (and don't forget Tommy Flanders) as a band collective. Kooper worked with Bob Dylan during the Blonde on Blonde album and classic recording of Like A Rolling Stone, one of the first 6 plus minute song to make it on 45. Upon gigging at the Cafe Au Go Go, Verve decided to issue that via their fledgling Verve/Folkways later Verve/Forecast offshoot label and although the live album is hit and miss it does have a few staples that they would revisit from time to time Going To Louisiana, Catch The Wind and a lot more of the Willie Dixon catalog that most bands were covering at that time. I tend to think Spoonful and Who Do You Love go on a bit too long but overall, The Blues Project were good purveyors of the blues.
Tom Wilson seemed to be the idea producer to work with. At that time, Wilson was working with The Animals, Bob Dylan and Mothers Of Invention to name a few and what better way to get noticed is with a hip producer but again what stands out in Projections is who screechy and tinny the sound is on their classic I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes which basically recopies Howlin' Wolf's Little Baby or Blind Willie Johnson. Or blame Val Valentin's for the lousy sound since he was head engineer of most of the MGM Verve roster recordings. Still Projections is the Blues Project at their best and versatile, they could retell Chuck Berry and make it rock (You Can't Catch Me) or take a stab at pop (Wake Me, Shake Me) and even jazz comes into play (Flute Thing) or country (Fly Away) but overall, it's a blues effort although I tend to think that the whole 11 and half minutes of Two Trains Running comes close to make one fall asleep while Caress Me Baby is somewhat like the Jefferson Airplane was doing when they cover Rock Me Baby. It's been known that Kooper calls Two Trains Running vintage Danny Kalb on the liner notes to the Rhino Best Of The Blues Project but perhaps it's best to see them perform this in concert rather than under headphones.
A split in the band came when Kooper wanted to add more horns to the songs whereas the band didn't, so Kooper and Steve Katz left to form Blood Sweat And Tears and made their pseudoclassic Child Is Father To The Man album (before Kooper left that band under mysterious circumstances) and Verve was trying to come up with new Blues Project music and settled upon adding crowd noise to a couple of singles and leftover live performances and called it Live At Town Hall. No Time Like The Right Time, a single only release, was peppered with applause as well as a couple other forgotten singles; for the live performances, the Electric Flute Thing is quite boring and we get an alternative version of Wake Me Shake Me and a lesser known Mean Old Southern. The record label was already scraping the bottom of the barrel. With Kooper gone, Andy Kulberg recruited new members for the drab Planned Obsolescence. If nothing else that album would be the beginning of a new project that eventually became Seatrain. Outside of If You Gotta Make A Fool Out Of Somebody which owes a lot to Blind Faith, the rest of the album bores me to death. Tommy Flanders came back to play on the two Capitol albums but I have not heard any of these. However, in 1973, The original boys (sans Flanders) did Reunion in Central Park for MCA and while reviews were lukewarm, I actually liked this album and thought that this version of Fly Away was superior to the one on Verve. And it did come out on CD for a short while in the 90s.
As for the best ofs, they provide a nice sampler although the only remote thing they had for a hit was No Time Like The Right Time (which can be found on the original Nuggets album via Elektra/Rhino/Sire). Although I give a slight nod to the Rhino best of for the obscure Flute Thing that didn't make the Reunion In Central Park listing over the Polygram 2 CD anthology but both best ofs omit anything from Obsolescence or the Capitol albums. They're both flawed for overviews buyer beware. In the end, if nothing else The Blues Project can be considered one of the early pioneers of jam band which is not a bad thing, The Grateful Dead is a jam band as well. But like some jam bands, the songs can be tedious (Electric) Flute Thing comes to mind or Two Trains Running. But when they do find a right jam be it I Can't Keep From Crying Sometimes or Wake Me Shake Me, The Blues Project knows how to jam. Andy Kulburg died in 2002 but sometimes Steve Katz or Danny Kalb and Roy Blumenfeld have known to resurrect The Blues Project from time to time, last in 2013. Al Kooper continues to do his own thing and has his own column of writing about his favorite music called New Music For Old People you can find at The Morton Report.
Grades:
Live At A Cafe Au Go Go (Verve/Folkways 1966) B+
Projections (Verve Forecast 1967) A-
Live At Town Hall (Verve Forecast 1968) B-
Planned Obsolescence (Verve Forecast 1969) C-
Lazarus (Capitol 1971) NR
Blues Project (Capitol 1972) NR
Reunion At Central Park (Sounds Of The South/MCA 1973) B+
Best Of The Blues Project (Rhino 1989) B
Monday, March 2, 2015
Week In Review: He's Dead Jim
It's March but looking outside you wouldn't know it. Except for parts of January, all of February was cold and snowy, and the last two days of that shitty month we had twenty below temps. And it feels more like January than March with single digits. Climate change sucks. Seems like every winter we're getting back to the ice ages. Not a good sign.
The continual disgust of the world, a ten cent gas tax hike and another ten cents and we're back at two fifty a gallon, with the majority of gas stations continuing to rape the consumer with dime raises here and there throughout of last month. On a brief run to Moondog Music a out of the way gas station in Hopkinton had it at 2.15 a gallon and one other at 2.09 and the pumps you can turn out without prepay. A real throw back to the good ole days. I got a kick out of having to count to ten and then turn it back on, since it was a slow pump and the poor guy come running out in 5 degree weather telling me how to do that. He also remarked it's cold outside. In terms of all of this, blame shouldn't be on the Emperor Terry Branstad, longest serving dictator of this great state, but rather on Tod Bowman, asshole from Maquoketa after voting for a pay raise since he thinks he's done a great job, said that we needed better roads, which happens to be another excuse of having a local option sales tax that was supposed to be doing this in the first place. The bi partisan vote for the hike also had a few GOP/Democrats saying no to the idea. The next road trip will be to McQ and seek out Bowman and nut punch him. Funny how these asshats say that they're speaking for us when I have yet to hear any of them actually speaking about what we want. Koch brothers robot Joni (wonderbags) Ernst sure in the hell don't speak of me when she opens her big mouth. Visions of the Michelle Bachman Jr from somebody who won on the ass vote, meaning how Iowans sat on their ass at home and didn't vote. Can't get rid of these Koch puppets just by bitching about it, voting them out should have been the answer. In the meantime, I'm once again stuck with another fucking cold that has not gone away at all since December when they were saying get a flu shot, I did and been sick ever since. I always know when I'm going to get sick, when it feels like I got a granola bar stuck in my throat and can't get it out. So far 2015 has been even more shitty than last year. And cold and snow and cough colds every other week do not help.
Death has been very busy this year and he once again made the rounds and picked two out. Minnie Minoso, the long time Chicago White Sox player who played five decades (he could have played six decades but MLB said no). Minoso was to the Sox as was Ernie Banks was for the Cubs and in this day and age of sports they were rare. He was 89. But the big story was Lenard Nimoy, the beloved actor who was Spock on Star Trek but also starred in Mission Impossible after Martin Landau left and was host of In Search Of, one of the best syndicated shows of the 70s that nobody remembers. Later on he appeared in Futurerama's show of the late 90s. An all around actor he also made a few records, his Proud Mary version is the stuff of legends. As they say, He's Dead Jim and now has been beamed up to the Enterprise to join Scotty and Bones McCoy.
Orrin Keepnews is synonymous with jazz music especially the classic albums that he overseen on his Riverside Label, classic recordings from Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins and most notably Monk, which the classic and hard to played Brilliant Corners album to which Orrin spliced together a couple takes since the original song was very hard to play. Challenge Neil Peart and Rush to try to play this. Riverside was famous for Cannonball Adderley and the two minute Jive Samba which the long version is 11 minutes long. Orrin would later found Milestone in the 60s and later became one of the best writers on jazz, he gives deep insight on the Bluebird reissues of the 1980s and Fantasy Concord would issue the Keepnews Collection, a batch of Riverside Recordings Reissued with Orrin's views on those albums. Even up to his passing he was continuing to write about jazz albums and music. He was 91 and died one day short of what would have been his 92nd birthday. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/02/arts/music/orrin-keepnews-jazz-producer-and-record-executive-is-dead-at-91.html?_r=1
Country radio today sucks. Here today gone tomorrow A and R nobody Gary Overton got his 5 minutes of fame by saying If you're not on country radio you don't exist and the Nashville country artists came storming back with comments of their own. One of the better new country artists is Aaron Watson as well as Sturgill Simpson but now old timer (hard to say that) Charlie Robison gave his two cents worth in a interview blasting out some I Heart DJ of Bobby Bones (whoever he is) after Watson called one of the receptionist (Let's use that word since i can't spell secretary, hell I actually did spell it right) a sweetheart and Bones popped a tampon. This shows you how out of touch that I am about new music today or country. Or who plays it. Corporations took out all the independent stations be it rock or country and replaced them with robots from a satellite or personalities from afar. I don't know Bobby Bones, nor care to since he also started up a flame war with Farce The Music (FTM posted a link to that last week but you can look it up on your own). I'm not that big of a fan of Charlie Robison either but I do admire his line of thinking of dealing with A and R beancounters like Gary Overton, who will be losing his job once the Bro country fad wears thin or Florida Georgia Line gets resigned to Average Joe's whichever comes first. Music continues to revolve all the time but it has been regressing since Luke Bryan gave us the infamous Dallas Davidson line of Conway and T Pain a few years ago. The folks at Lucky Dog may have given Charlie Robison a bad taste in his mouth during his time there but he's so dead on, that perhaps I might return to his back catalog to see what I missed. And on the same but different department Israel dictator Benjamin Netanyahu is a asshole too. http://www.savingcountrymusic.com/charlie-robison-pens-epic-response-to-gary-overtons-you-dont-exist-quote
Of course FGL continues to rub it in, throwing up a picture of them making faces in front of a sold out crowd. After all, a bit of manipulation of the charts gave them the all time number single. But perhaps the best parting shot which FGL was left searching for words came from Robison. “How do you lose respect for someone who doesn’t exist?”
And that no picture can ever compensate. Drink on Boys.
Blog of the week: Jim Wright He tells it like it is, especially when it comes to the Koch Brother party and a few others. Not music related but more common sense. http://www.stonekettle.com/
Late to press: The NTSB has decided to look into the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Richie Valens after 56 years. The conclusion was of pilot error and that Roger Peterson misjudged the clipper system that blew up the winds and snow that downed the plane and took him and the rest out of this world. The original findings can be found here: http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/CAB_2-3-1959.pdf
The basic take on this is that 56 years after the fact all involved are dead and basically it's a waste of taxpayer money to even open up such a case. Or have Roger Peterson being blamed for taking the lives of three up and coming rock pioneers. Nothing will bring any of them back. If there was any of today's technology they would have stayed on ground and waited till the clipper system moved out of their area. The winds and snow may have impaired Peterson's judgement but we'll never know his final moments before impact. Anybody who gets stuck out in blizzard conditions knows that the blinding snow and winds can impaired judgement or knowing your sense of direction. In Roger's case he paid dearly. Perhaps if there was a working heater on a bus music might be much more differently today, but in a world of speculation that's all it is. A sad way to end lives but perhaps it's too bad that they couldn't postpone a rock show a day just to get clear their minds. Basically the promoters in charge of the Dance Party of 59 could be considered murderers for this unheard of places to play and having Buddy and company hop around the midwest in the middle of winter. Even today, it would be a miracle to even complete such a grueling schedule as the promoters drew it out.
Record Review Time (A list of things found at Moondog Music)
Terry Reid-Bang Bang You're Terry Reid (Epic 1968)
If you really want to know what would have happened had Reid joined up with the New Yardbirds instead of unknown Robert Plant, this record really tells the story. Reid's vocals were higher up in range kinda like Plant although history has shown that Robert would be the better known. Jimmy Page really wanted Reid to join up and I can see why. A cult classic as they say, one track Without Expression (don't be the man) was later covered by REO Speedwagon of the early 70s. One of the longest albums of the the 60s (the timing actually goes over 50 minutes for a single record) Reid turns Season Of The Witch into a 10 minute freakout, that instead of building up to a climax, it slowly descends back into the grave at the ending and Bang Bang owes more to Vanilla Fudge than Sonny And Cher. And another 10 minute medley gives way to Summertime Blues, probably the least of the versions that I have heard but that's not a bad thing, it kinda leads nowhere. Perhaps Reid could have used a better producer, he ended up with the indifferent Mickie Most and there have been horror stories of bands trying to to work with Most and not liking the end results (See Little Games by The Yardbirds for example). Reid also borrows from the Yardbirds, Tinker Tailor and slows it to a blues like number. Rumor has it that Reid turned down Page's offer to join up the New Yardbirds since he was tied up with Most but he did suggest Robert Plant. And thus remained a cult artist at best and disappearing off the map for a time before coming back on a album for Warner Brothers in the 1990s. Oh, and that other band The New Yardbirds, They went on to become Led Zeppelin and the rest is history. For shits and giggles, find a copy of Bang Bang and play it along side Led Zeppelin's first album and compare. You'll be surprised at the results.
Grade B+
Mel "Pigue" Robbins-Hully Gully To The Hits (Smash 1964)
File this under Tom And Jerry (Tom Tolimson and Jerry Kennedy not Simon And Garfunkel). Back in the early 60s there was no shortage of instrumentals doing the latest hits to either the Twist or the lesser known Hully Gully. Hargis or Mel as he was known back then was a outstanding piano player that can be heard on many many country and rock singles of that time (He had two Jerry Lee Lewis type of piano pumping numbers that came out on Argo/Chess that collectors have been looking to find) but another fun fact that he was a blind piano player. At that time he was part of the Mercury/Smash records session group known as the The Merry Melody group and Singers who sang on recordings by Leroy Van Dyke and Ray Stevens and was lead by Jerry Kennedy, himself no stranger to music only albums (Golden Guitar Greats can be found easily at thrift stores if you look hard enough). Perfect for dance parties of 1964 thereabouts, Hully Gully To The Hits are just that, and Robbins and company go through the hits of the time although none will ever replace the vocals once such as I Know or Mother In Law. And basically this is a fun romp and listen, Robbins' White Sliver Sands grooves harder than Bill Black Combo's version without the cheesy organ. It's also fun to hear Robbins play around with Blueberry Hill by adding the melody of On Top Of Old Smokey. Of course the ever capable Boots Randolph is there to provide sax, as well as the Merrie Melody Singers shouting along to Baby Hully Gully, which was done by The Olympics. It may not be much to hear it fifty years later but I still get a kick out of LPs like this.
Grade B
Willie Nelson-Country Willie His Own Songs (RCA 1965, Buddha reissue 1999)
Out of all of the RCA recording stars of that era, Willie Nelson was the most stripped down, at least on his RCA debut and like he did when recording for Liberty he redid some of his famous songs, but even back then, Willie's oft kilter vocal phasing wasn't the stuff for country music, he was eccentric from the word go. Without the Anita Kerr Singers who smothered him on the Liberty album And Then I Wrote, it's Willie on guitar and a sympathetic group led by Chet Atkins (with the late Jerry Reed helping out as well). Perhaps the polished Atkins production might get in the way but I think they added some clarity on his single One Day At A Time and Healing Hands Of Time. Willie flirts with jazz blues on Night Life and adds Pete Drake's talking steel guitar novelty on Hello Walls. The other thing that stands out is how dark these songs are, Willie could write a nice love song if he wanted to but the grimness of Darkness On The Face Of The Earth or Mr. Record Man is telling. Later recordings with Atkins and then Felton Jarvis trying to add more strings and the Anita Kerr Singers returning and getting minimal results, one later best of Naked Willie has some of his better songs relived of the singers and strings that got in the way. But for all intent purposes Country Willie is in reality the first true Naked Willie and it would also would benefit him greatly 10 years later on his signature album Red Headed Stranger. For myself, I tend to look at his RCA years with a lot more appreciation than on his classic Columbia albums, it shows a struggling and hungry songwriter wanting to do his own thing. In a way his first album was like that, uncompromising and stripped down dark country. And it worked.
Grade B+
Dr. Feelgood-I'm A Man (Best Of The Wilko Johnson Era) (Parlophone 2015)
There isn't no Dr Feelgood albums in the US that is available anymore (unless Sony Music still has Malpractice in print) and the early years with Wilko Johnson is arguably their best years although Gypsie Mayo gave them a classic in the 1981 Case Of The Shakes album. It basically cherry picks Wilko's tunes from Down By The Jetty and Malpractice and curiously leaves off Paradise from Sneaking Suspicion. I still would recommend Jetty and Malpractice in a heartbeat but this has five cuts from the outrageous Stupidity, which shows them in fine form. I suspect this compilation would not exist had Wilko's Going Back Home recorded with Roger Daltrey became a surprise hit but I also thank our lucky stars and Rhino for at least had the guts to put out on CD. After all, America should have at least one Dr Feelgood record in print. (although in a perfect world they would all be available). A nice sampler of the early years and Lee Brilleaux is still missed.
Grade B+
Various: The Danceland Years (Pointblank Classic 1994)
20 years ago, Virgin via their blues outlet Pointblank issued a compilation of most of the sides that Morris Kaplan issued for his short lived Danceland label of the late 1948 through 1951 and perhaps best known for five hard to find John Lee Hooker numbers under the Baby Pork Chops alias he was using for that label. Basically hard bop blues is the subject here, both John and little known Tony "blues" Lewis have 9 cuts between them, which leaves Candy Johnson with the songs that sold the best for Danceland, Stampin' and Ebony Jump which echoes a bit of very primitive rock and swing. The final track, at that time a mystery unknown What's The Matter With The World turns out was done by The Goldtones upon further research, The Goldtones somewhat a smooth harmony doo wop which owed as much to the Mills Brothers and Ink Spots too, with a shimmering vibrato guitar providing melody. Apparently Sammy Kaplan, couldn't locate the other side to this song Lazy Daisy Blues since according to the liner notes, acetates of songs were lost or exchanged hands. The Danceland Years basically was compiled after an interest of finding lost John Lee Hooker songs and the five songs are trademark Hooker boogie/blues but with a very young voice, Tony Blues Lewis sounds more like Guitar Slim. For those with a liking of obscure blues, Danceland Years is a find addition to your collection and about the Artist Unknown, mystery solved, although little is known about the Goldtones (there's a doo wop band going around the area but I doubt if they're related), despite the internet and Google. Update: There's a 50th Anniversary Edition of The Danceland Years that you can get off Itunes, and does provide a few more missing pieces to this puzzle plus Rose Nelson, the missing Lazy Daisy Blues from The Goldtones and Tommy Jefferson's Rock With Jesus. But Candy Johnson's selections are MIA.
Grade B+ (this applies to the Virgin/Pointblank Comp).
Reference link below about Dance land Records.
http://www.lovelanemusic.com/#!__danceland-records
Foghat-Drivin' Wheels Best Of Foghat (Raven 2014)
I guess we'll never get a full decent compilation of Foghat's greatest moments but this comes very close. Unlike the Rhino best ofs, Raven goes further and adds the full length versions of their hits. Complaint number 1 is that only 2 selections are from the last five albums and only one is the B side to Slipped Tripped Fell In Love (MIA) as well as Live Now Pay Later (MIA too) and Wide Boy (Ditto number 3). Complaint number 2, we really don't need Take It Or Leave It or Couldn't Make Her Stay on a best of, (although the latter song is only 2 minutes long, it's still filler, and Take It Or Leave It isn't one of Dave Peverett's better songs. Overlook that, and the comp gives you the indication of just how damn good Foghat is in delivering the boogie and it takes three of the best four available numbers from Rock And Roll Outlaws as well, IMO their most underrated. There's more to them than just Slow Ride which will forever give Roger and company a nice living 40 years after the fact. Will the young un's buy this? You never know although I do hold out some hope for the future of the kids of today. After all I know a certain old bar band that did love this band enough to note for note cover the live version of I Just Want To Make Love To You. And it turned out to be their highlight as well.
Grade B+
Can't review them all: Cheap Trick, Herman's Hermits
While people are continuing to volley for them being into the Rock Hall Of Fame, it gave me some time to revisit what I remember from Cheap Trick in their catalog. Their classic years were on Epic and their classic albums remain the ones up to Dream Police although Budokan broke them big. The most successful power pop rock band ever but I had to admit that I'm not an major gotta have it all fan of theirs. The one thing that stands out is how they phased Bun E Carlos out of the band leaving him on the outside looking in. The other thing that stands out, is their first album, folks call it an instant classic, and I listened and didn't think it was and despite of a couple numbers, I gave it a B minus and sold the record off. They hit their mark with In Color and Heaven Tonight but Dream Police outside of the hit single was a drop off and Need Your Love sounded best on the live Budokan album. And then they polished a turd up and called it All Shook Up and that's where I quit listening. Then they got their biggest hit with hair metal pop ballad The Flame, which good for them gave them some pop credo but to these ears they sold out and got a gold ballad in return. Moving to Warner Brothers for Woke Up With A Monster that CD is famous for hitting the cut outs in record time and The Tricksters moved on to independent record land at times coming up with a listenable record (Rockford) once in a while. They tend to miss more often than hit but once they can come with something that's pretty damn good (Surrender, Stiff Competition) their songs are just as good as anyone else. What they were good at was being a great live show band, especially during the Budokan years and having 20 thousand screaming Japanese girls in the background? I'll always will fast forward over I Want You To Want Me, classic rock radio ran that into the ground but the pop rock charm of Bukodan will always remain despite radio overkill plays of I Want You etc. Fun fact: I have seen Cheap Trick twice in this area. One when they opened up for Blue Oyster Cult when BOC was touting The Revolution At Night and later in 1996 when they opened up for Styx, I would have forgotten the latter had I not come across an old ticket stub of the latter show. Like any bands still around from the 70s they're looking much older and not as sexy but Rick Neilsen as long as he still lives remains one of the better live guitar players in rock history. I'll never be sold on the first Cheap Trick album nor anything after Budokan but the first three albums are the reason why fans want them in the Rock hall. And prove to be a valid argument for consideration.
It's pledge month at PBS and they have dusted off the same old DVD of past bands of the 60s to which most of the members have retired or died. Hell, most of them are dead (Jim), and let's face it, the 60s were fifty years ago and it's a time we'll never return although the music will remain. Perhaps the most unlikely of bands or singer that really hasn't changed is Peter Noone, who continues to be heard on 60s on 6. That said, I haven't been much of a fan of Herman Hermits, blame that on I'm Henry The 8th I Am, which is silly as they come or Mrs Brown You Got A Lovely Daughter which brings memories of holding my nose while singing that in the shower. Better to leave that on the radio than in your collection. That also said, The Hermits had some nice songs of their own, Can't You Hear My Heartbeat actually does Buddy Holly proud, or No Milk Today which is nicely placed along the works of the Hollies, or East West another song that rarely gets mentioned or played anymore. Noone's career after Herman was spotty at best, there was a band that made two albums for CBS that I can't recall but he's played the role of an aging teen idol quite well. Noone makes the oldies' circuit at times (he was here with The Turtles with Flo And Eddie and Mitch Ryder last year) and they put on a good show. I consider Herman Hermits to be in the same league as Gerry And The Pacemakers or Freddy And The Dreamers, pop idol music that got them lucky with a couple of novelty numbers. ABKCO has updated the very best of Herman Hermits and has all the good and bad that one could ever need. A singles bands but not a very good album band, that's Peter and the Hermits.
Finally, record buying over the internet can be a tricky and sometimes challenging. Looking at EBAY pictures of records that appear to be VG or better can also reveal them to be more VG minus or F or G. Interesting read about how photoshop can reveal the scratches that you may not see on the photo. The rule of thumb is that if the label looks a bit chewed up, chances are the vinyl is too. Buyer beware. http://www.aux.tv/2015/03/this-photoshop-trick-shows-you-how-damaged-used-vinyl-is/
The continual disgust of the world, a ten cent gas tax hike and another ten cents and we're back at two fifty a gallon, with the majority of gas stations continuing to rape the consumer with dime raises here and there throughout of last month. On a brief run to Moondog Music a out of the way gas station in Hopkinton had it at 2.15 a gallon and one other at 2.09 and the pumps you can turn out without prepay. A real throw back to the good ole days. I got a kick out of having to count to ten and then turn it back on, since it was a slow pump and the poor guy come running out in 5 degree weather telling me how to do that. He also remarked it's cold outside. In terms of all of this, blame shouldn't be on the Emperor Terry Branstad, longest serving dictator of this great state, but rather on Tod Bowman, asshole from Maquoketa after voting for a pay raise since he thinks he's done a great job, said that we needed better roads, which happens to be another excuse of having a local option sales tax that was supposed to be doing this in the first place. The bi partisan vote for the hike also had a few GOP/Democrats saying no to the idea. The next road trip will be to McQ and seek out Bowman and nut punch him. Funny how these asshats say that they're speaking for us when I have yet to hear any of them actually speaking about what we want. Koch brothers robot Joni (wonderbags) Ernst sure in the hell don't speak of me when she opens her big mouth. Visions of the Michelle Bachman Jr from somebody who won on the ass vote, meaning how Iowans sat on their ass at home and didn't vote. Can't get rid of these Koch puppets just by bitching about it, voting them out should have been the answer. In the meantime, I'm once again stuck with another fucking cold that has not gone away at all since December when they were saying get a flu shot, I did and been sick ever since. I always know when I'm going to get sick, when it feels like I got a granola bar stuck in my throat and can't get it out. So far 2015 has been even more shitty than last year. And cold and snow and cough colds every other week do not help.
Death has been very busy this year and he once again made the rounds and picked two out. Minnie Minoso, the long time Chicago White Sox player who played five decades (he could have played six decades but MLB said no). Minoso was to the Sox as was Ernie Banks was for the Cubs and in this day and age of sports they were rare. He was 89. But the big story was Lenard Nimoy, the beloved actor who was Spock on Star Trek but also starred in Mission Impossible after Martin Landau left and was host of In Search Of, one of the best syndicated shows of the 70s that nobody remembers. Later on he appeared in Futurerama's show of the late 90s. An all around actor he also made a few records, his Proud Mary version is the stuff of legends. As they say, He's Dead Jim and now has been beamed up to the Enterprise to join Scotty and Bones McCoy.
Orrin Keepnews is synonymous with jazz music especially the classic albums that he overseen on his Riverside Label, classic recordings from Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins and most notably Monk, which the classic and hard to played Brilliant Corners album to which Orrin spliced together a couple takes since the original song was very hard to play. Challenge Neil Peart and Rush to try to play this. Riverside was famous for Cannonball Adderley and the two minute Jive Samba which the long version is 11 minutes long. Orrin would later found Milestone in the 60s and later became one of the best writers on jazz, he gives deep insight on the Bluebird reissues of the 1980s and Fantasy Concord would issue the Keepnews Collection, a batch of Riverside Recordings Reissued with Orrin's views on those albums. Even up to his passing he was continuing to write about jazz albums and music. He was 91 and died one day short of what would have been his 92nd birthday. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/02/arts/music/orrin-keepnews-jazz-producer-and-record-executive-is-dead-at-91.html?_r=1
Country radio today sucks. Here today gone tomorrow A and R nobody Gary Overton got his 5 minutes of fame by saying If you're not on country radio you don't exist and the Nashville country artists came storming back with comments of their own. One of the better new country artists is Aaron Watson as well as Sturgill Simpson but now old timer (hard to say that) Charlie Robison gave his two cents worth in a interview blasting out some I Heart DJ of Bobby Bones (whoever he is) after Watson called one of the receptionist (Let's use that word since i can't spell secretary, hell I actually did spell it right) a sweetheart and Bones popped a tampon. This shows you how out of touch that I am about new music today or country. Or who plays it. Corporations took out all the independent stations be it rock or country and replaced them with robots from a satellite or personalities from afar. I don't know Bobby Bones, nor care to since he also started up a flame war with Farce The Music (FTM posted a link to that last week but you can look it up on your own). I'm not that big of a fan of Charlie Robison either but I do admire his line of thinking of dealing with A and R beancounters like Gary Overton, who will be losing his job once the Bro country fad wears thin or Florida Georgia Line gets resigned to Average Joe's whichever comes first. Music continues to revolve all the time but it has been regressing since Luke Bryan gave us the infamous Dallas Davidson line of Conway and T Pain a few years ago. The folks at Lucky Dog may have given Charlie Robison a bad taste in his mouth during his time there but he's so dead on, that perhaps I might return to his back catalog to see what I missed. And on the same but different department Israel dictator Benjamin Netanyahu is a asshole too. http://www.savingcountrymusic.com/charlie-robison-pens-epic-response-to-gary-overtons-you-dont-exist-quote
Of course FGL continues to rub it in, throwing up a picture of them making faces in front of a sold out crowd. After all, a bit of manipulation of the charts gave them the all time number single. But perhaps the best parting shot which FGL was left searching for words came from Robison. “How do you lose respect for someone who doesn’t exist?”
And that no picture can ever compensate. Drink on Boys.
Blog of the week: Jim Wright He tells it like it is, especially when it comes to the Koch Brother party and a few others. Not music related but more common sense. http://www.stonekettle.com/
Late to press: The NTSB has decided to look into the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Richie Valens after 56 years. The conclusion was of pilot error and that Roger Peterson misjudged the clipper system that blew up the winds and snow that downed the plane and took him and the rest out of this world. The original findings can be found here: http://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/CAB_2-3-1959.pdf
The basic take on this is that 56 years after the fact all involved are dead and basically it's a waste of taxpayer money to even open up such a case. Or have Roger Peterson being blamed for taking the lives of three up and coming rock pioneers. Nothing will bring any of them back. If there was any of today's technology they would have stayed on ground and waited till the clipper system moved out of their area. The winds and snow may have impaired Peterson's judgement but we'll never know his final moments before impact. Anybody who gets stuck out in blizzard conditions knows that the blinding snow and winds can impaired judgement or knowing your sense of direction. In Roger's case he paid dearly. Perhaps if there was a working heater on a bus music might be much more differently today, but in a world of speculation that's all it is. A sad way to end lives but perhaps it's too bad that they couldn't postpone a rock show a day just to get clear their minds. Basically the promoters in charge of the Dance Party of 59 could be considered murderers for this unheard of places to play and having Buddy and company hop around the midwest in the middle of winter. Even today, it would be a miracle to even complete such a grueling schedule as the promoters drew it out.
Record Review Time (A list of things found at Moondog Music)
Terry Reid-Bang Bang You're Terry Reid (Epic 1968)
If you really want to know what would have happened had Reid joined up with the New Yardbirds instead of unknown Robert Plant, this record really tells the story. Reid's vocals were higher up in range kinda like Plant although history has shown that Robert would be the better known. Jimmy Page really wanted Reid to join up and I can see why. A cult classic as they say, one track Without Expression (don't be the man) was later covered by REO Speedwagon of the early 70s. One of the longest albums of the the 60s (the timing actually goes over 50 minutes for a single record) Reid turns Season Of The Witch into a 10 minute freakout, that instead of building up to a climax, it slowly descends back into the grave at the ending and Bang Bang owes more to Vanilla Fudge than Sonny And Cher. And another 10 minute medley gives way to Summertime Blues, probably the least of the versions that I have heard but that's not a bad thing, it kinda leads nowhere. Perhaps Reid could have used a better producer, he ended up with the indifferent Mickie Most and there have been horror stories of bands trying to to work with Most and not liking the end results (See Little Games by The Yardbirds for example). Reid also borrows from the Yardbirds, Tinker Tailor and slows it to a blues like number. Rumor has it that Reid turned down Page's offer to join up the New Yardbirds since he was tied up with Most but he did suggest Robert Plant. And thus remained a cult artist at best and disappearing off the map for a time before coming back on a album for Warner Brothers in the 1990s. Oh, and that other band The New Yardbirds, They went on to become Led Zeppelin and the rest is history. For shits and giggles, find a copy of Bang Bang and play it along side Led Zeppelin's first album and compare. You'll be surprised at the results.
Grade B+
Mel "Pigue" Robbins-Hully Gully To The Hits (Smash 1964)
File this under Tom And Jerry (Tom Tolimson and Jerry Kennedy not Simon And Garfunkel). Back in the early 60s there was no shortage of instrumentals doing the latest hits to either the Twist or the lesser known Hully Gully. Hargis or Mel as he was known back then was a outstanding piano player that can be heard on many many country and rock singles of that time (He had two Jerry Lee Lewis type of piano pumping numbers that came out on Argo/Chess that collectors have been looking to find) but another fun fact that he was a blind piano player. At that time he was part of the Mercury/Smash records session group known as the The Merry Melody group and Singers who sang on recordings by Leroy Van Dyke and Ray Stevens and was lead by Jerry Kennedy, himself no stranger to music only albums (Golden Guitar Greats can be found easily at thrift stores if you look hard enough). Perfect for dance parties of 1964 thereabouts, Hully Gully To The Hits are just that, and Robbins and company go through the hits of the time although none will ever replace the vocals once such as I Know or Mother In Law. And basically this is a fun romp and listen, Robbins' White Sliver Sands grooves harder than Bill Black Combo's version without the cheesy organ. It's also fun to hear Robbins play around with Blueberry Hill by adding the melody of On Top Of Old Smokey. Of course the ever capable Boots Randolph is there to provide sax, as well as the Merrie Melody Singers shouting along to Baby Hully Gully, which was done by The Olympics. It may not be much to hear it fifty years later but I still get a kick out of LPs like this.
Grade B
Willie Nelson-Country Willie His Own Songs (RCA 1965, Buddha reissue 1999)
Out of all of the RCA recording stars of that era, Willie Nelson was the most stripped down, at least on his RCA debut and like he did when recording for Liberty he redid some of his famous songs, but even back then, Willie's oft kilter vocal phasing wasn't the stuff for country music, he was eccentric from the word go. Without the Anita Kerr Singers who smothered him on the Liberty album And Then I Wrote, it's Willie on guitar and a sympathetic group led by Chet Atkins (with the late Jerry Reed helping out as well). Perhaps the polished Atkins production might get in the way but I think they added some clarity on his single One Day At A Time and Healing Hands Of Time. Willie flirts with jazz blues on Night Life and adds Pete Drake's talking steel guitar novelty on Hello Walls. The other thing that stands out is how dark these songs are, Willie could write a nice love song if he wanted to but the grimness of Darkness On The Face Of The Earth or Mr. Record Man is telling. Later recordings with Atkins and then Felton Jarvis trying to add more strings and the Anita Kerr Singers returning and getting minimal results, one later best of Naked Willie has some of his better songs relived of the singers and strings that got in the way. But for all intent purposes Country Willie is in reality the first true Naked Willie and it would also would benefit him greatly 10 years later on his signature album Red Headed Stranger. For myself, I tend to look at his RCA years with a lot more appreciation than on his classic Columbia albums, it shows a struggling and hungry songwriter wanting to do his own thing. In a way his first album was like that, uncompromising and stripped down dark country. And it worked.
Grade B+
Dr. Feelgood-I'm A Man (Best Of The Wilko Johnson Era) (Parlophone 2015)
There isn't no Dr Feelgood albums in the US that is available anymore (unless Sony Music still has Malpractice in print) and the early years with Wilko Johnson is arguably their best years although Gypsie Mayo gave them a classic in the 1981 Case Of The Shakes album. It basically cherry picks Wilko's tunes from Down By The Jetty and Malpractice and curiously leaves off Paradise from Sneaking Suspicion. I still would recommend Jetty and Malpractice in a heartbeat but this has five cuts from the outrageous Stupidity, which shows them in fine form. I suspect this compilation would not exist had Wilko's Going Back Home recorded with Roger Daltrey became a surprise hit but I also thank our lucky stars and Rhino for at least had the guts to put out on CD. After all, America should have at least one Dr Feelgood record in print. (although in a perfect world they would all be available). A nice sampler of the early years and Lee Brilleaux is still missed.
Grade B+
Various: The Danceland Years (Pointblank Classic 1994)
20 years ago, Virgin via their blues outlet Pointblank issued a compilation of most of the sides that Morris Kaplan issued for his short lived Danceland label of the late 1948 through 1951 and perhaps best known for five hard to find John Lee Hooker numbers under the Baby Pork Chops alias he was using for that label. Basically hard bop blues is the subject here, both John and little known Tony "blues" Lewis have 9 cuts between them, which leaves Candy Johnson with the songs that sold the best for Danceland, Stampin' and Ebony Jump which echoes a bit of very primitive rock and swing. The final track, at that time a mystery unknown What's The Matter With The World turns out was done by The Goldtones upon further research, The Goldtones somewhat a smooth harmony doo wop which owed as much to the Mills Brothers and Ink Spots too, with a shimmering vibrato guitar providing melody. Apparently Sammy Kaplan, couldn't locate the other side to this song Lazy Daisy Blues since according to the liner notes, acetates of songs were lost or exchanged hands. The Danceland Years basically was compiled after an interest of finding lost John Lee Hooker songs and the five songs are trademark Hooker boogie/blues but with a very young voice, Tony Blues Lewis sounds more like Guitar Slim. For those with a liking of obscure blues, Danceland Years is a find addition to your collection and about the Artist Unknown, mystery solved, although little is known about the Goldtones (there's a doo wop band going around the area but I doubt if they're related), despite the internet and Google. Update: There's a 50th Anniversary Edition of The Danceland Years that you can get off Itunes, and does provide a few more missing pieces to this puzzle plus Rose Nelson, the missing Lazy Daisy Blues from The Goldtones and Tommy Jefferson's Rock With Jesus. But Candy Johnson's selections are MIA.
Grade B+ (this applies to the Virgin/Pointblank Comp).
Reference link below about Dance land Records.
http://www.lovelanemusic.com/#!__danceland-records
Foghat-Drivin' Wheels Best Of Foghat (Raven 2014)
I guess we'll never get a full decent compilation of Foghat's greatest moments but this comes very close. Unlike the Rhino best ofs, Raven goes further and adds the full length versions of their hits. Complaint number 1 is that only 2 selections are from the last five albums and only one is the B side to Slipped Tripped Fell In Love (MIA) as well as Live Now Pay Later (MIA too) and Wide Boy (Ditto number 3). Complaint number 2, we really don't need Take It Or Leave It or Couldn't Make Her Stay on a best of, (although the latter song is only 2 minutes long, it's still filler, and Take It Or Leave It isn't one of Dave Peverett's better songs. Overlook that, and the comp gives you the indication of just how damn good Foghat is in delivering the boogie and it takes three of the best four available numbers from Rock And Roll Outlaws as well, IMO their most underrated. There's more to them than just Slow Ride which will forever give Roger and company a nice living 40 years after the fact. Will the young un's buy this? You never know although I do hold out some hope for the future of the kids of today. After all I know a certain old bar band that did love this band enough to note for note cover the live version of I Just Want To Make Love To You. And it turned out to be their highlight as well.
Grade B+
Can't review them all: Cheap Trick, Herman's Hermits
While people are continuing to volley for them being into the Rock Hall Of Fame, it gave me some time to revisit what I remember from Cheap Trick in their catalog. Their classic years were on Epic and their classic albums remain the ones up to Dream Police although Budokan broke them big. The most successful power pop rock band ever but I had to admit that I'm not an major gotta have it all fan of theirs. The one thing that stands out is how they phased Bun E Carlos out of the band leaving him on the outside looking in. The other thing that stands out, is their first album, folks call it an instant classic, and I listened and didn't think it was and despite of a couple numbers, I gave it a B minus and sold the record off. They hit their mark with In Color and Heaven Tonight but Dream Police outside of the hit single was a drop off and Need Your Love sounded best on the live Budokan album. And then they polished a turd up and called it All Shook Up and that's where I quit listening. Then they got their biggest hit with hair metal pop ballad The Flame, which good for them gave them some pop credo but to these ears they sold out and got a gold ballad in return. Moving to Warner Brothers for Woke Up With A Monster that CD is famous for hitting the cut outs in record time and The Tricksters moved on to independent record land at times coming up with a listenable record (Rockford) once in a while. They tend to miss more often than hit but once they can come with something that's pretty damn good (Surrender, Stiff Competition) their songs are just as good as anyone else. What they were good at was being a great live show band, especially during the Budokan years and having 20 thousand screaming Japanese girls in the background? I'll always will fast forward over I Want You To Want Me, classic rock radio ran that into the ground but the pop rock charm of Bukodan will always remain despite radio overkill plays of I Want You etc. Fun fact: I have seen Cheap Trick twice in this area. One when they opened up for Blue Oyster Cult when BOC was touting The Revolution At Night and later in 1996 when they opened up for Styx, I would have forgotten the latter had I not come across an old ticket stub of the latter show. Like any bands still around from the 70s they're looking much older and not as sexy but Rick Neilsen as long as he still lives remains one of the better live guitar players in rock history. I'll never be sold on the first Cheap Trick album nor anything after Budokan but the first three albums are the reason why fans want them in the Rock hall. And prove to be a valid argument for consideration.
It's pledge month at PBS and they have dusted off the same old DVD of past bands of the 60s to which most of the members have retired or died. Hell, most of them are dead (Jim), and let's face it, the 60s were fifty years ago and it's a time we'll never return although the music will remain. Perhaps the most unlikely of bands or singer that really hasn't changed is Peter Noone, who continues to be heard on 60s on 6. That said, I haven't been much of a fan of Herman Hermits, blame that on I'm Henry The 8th I Am, which is silly as they come or Mrs Brown You Got A Lovely Daughter which brings memories of holding my nose while singing that in the shower. Better to leave that on the radio than in your collection. That also said, The Hermits had some nice songs of their own, Can't You Hear My Heartbeat actually does Buddy Holly proud, or No Milk Today which is nicely placed along the works of the Hollies, or East West another song that rarely gets mentioned or played anymore. Noone's career after Herman was spotty at best, there was a band that made two albums for CBS that I can't recall but he's played the role of an aging teen idol quite well. Noone makes the oldies' circuit at times (he was here with The Turtles with Flo And Eddie and Mitch Ryder last year) and they put on a good show. I consider Herman Hermits to be in the same league as Gerry And The Pacemakers or Freddy And The Dreamers, pop idol music that got them lucky with a couple of novelty numbers. ABKCO has updated the very best of Herman Hermits and has all the good and bad that one could ever need. A singles bands but not a very good album band, that's Peter and the Hermits.
Finally, record buying over the internet can be a tricky and sometimes challenging. Looking at EBAY pictures of records that appear to be VG or better can also reveal them to be more VG minus or F or G. Interesting read about how photoshop can reveal the scratches that you may not see on the photo. The rule of thumb is that if the label looks a bit chewed up, chances are the vinyl is too. Buyer beware. http://www.aux.tv/2015/03/this-photoshop-trick-shows-you-how-damaged-used-vinyl-is/
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