Observations From The Forefront:
Mel McDaniel was part of the 80s country movement and had hits with Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On and Stand Up and a few others. It has been reported that McDaniel passed away from complications of cancer and was 68. I remember a country covers band I was playing in played about three of Mel's songs including Stand On It and Stand Up. Don't know if we did the songs justice, after all I more interested in trying to Keith Moon the songs with plenty of drum rolls and cymbal hits but later I found his Mel's Greatest Hits in the budget bin at Borders and picked it up and actually liked the majority of songs on it. Nevertheless, we lost another musician to the great gig in the sky. More to follow I'm sure.
Collector's Choice Music:
If you're into mail order catalog, this was the place to get your musical fix on cd's that Best Buy didn't have. And throughout the past 15 years, Gordon Anderson would reissue certain albums from bands and artists that the majors wouldn't bother. Without him, The Rascals later period would be out of print vinyl. Gordon managed to reissue a lot from the Warner Music Group, Sony Music and sometimes EMI and Universal and managed to reissue complete hit single box sets from the likes of Gary Lewis and The Playboys, Jay & The Americans and Paul Revere & The Raiders (more about them later in blog). Sometime around November of last year, Collector's Choice along with Critic's Choice, Heartland Music, Serenade Music and Deep Discount DVDs was sold to some outfit called Super D, a California Media Wholesaler to which I never heard of. In the time of that, Gordon Anderson decided that it was time to move on and that the new guy would take his place. Since Anderson's departure, Collector's Choice Music has pulled new releases off the shelf and the sad thinking is that whatever is in catalog will be a thing of the past. You can probably bet on that.
Although I have never had any problems ordering cd's from Collector's Choice, the new guy Joe Van Horn doesn't seem to be too interested in returning emails from people since some of the CD R Tartare Series got canceled and people complained to him about it. If this is the case of the future holds for CCM then it's been a good ride and perhaps we're better off ordering from Amazon or Import CDs. Nevertheless, they still send me out the monthly catalog, and I pore over them to see what I need or want and eventually fire off a check and usually get something back within two weeks, they were pretty good about that under the old guard. But now I seem to get a bit leery about placing an order. There's a matter of a new Sam The Sham singles collection out on Sundazed that they have or the Dennis Coffey best of. As we all know, mergers and acquisitions never seem to help nobody except ones who have money or stockholders. If that's the case, then we'll plan accordingly.
Paul Revere & The Raiders:
With the new Essential Paul Revere & The Raiders 2 CD now out, we're once again stuck with yet another compilation that comes up a disappointment rather than definitive. I grew up being a big fan of theirs and although they were lumped in with The Monkees in terms of their pop music, I found them to be a bit more harder rocking than the TV Fab Four. Can't say if their Louie Louie was better than The Kingsmen, but I'm Not Your Stepping Stone was more punk rock than The Monkees and that one got left off the new Essential CD. The way Sony Music continues to halfassed their treatment of the PR & Raiders catalog is beyond belief so here we are again. Perhaps I was spoiled rotten by The All Time Greatest Hits 2 record set that had the album version of Cinderella Sunshine (better than the single 2 minute version IMO) and Do Unto Others which had a vocal fadeout unlike the single version. But at least technology improved so we got an extra 15 seconds to Him Or Me and longer versions of the hits Kicks or Hungry. But then again, with improved technology we ended up losing the echo and tape hiss of the singles that made the songs stand out better.
Paul Revere would tell you that the early R and B stuff is his favorite and he's half right. Revere remained one of the best piano players of the early years although Louie Louie and Over You tend to be more goofy than entertaining. I never heard the Sundazed 2 CD Mojo Workout which showcased some of their outrageous live performances back then so I'll just take Revere at his word that they could outrock anybody from the West Coast. But you had to be there in person rather than listen to the results. When Columbia signed them, they had no clue on how to promote them, remember at that time Mitch Miller was A and R head and he hated their type of music which was why The Kingsmen won out over PR & The Raiders on Louie Louie. Even Here They Come, they couldn't decide where to go or what to do, be a R and B cover band or a pop band till finally Terry Melcher took them to the latter and gave them a hit with Steppin Out.
There was a band democracy on song writer on the next two Just Like Us and especially Midnight Ride, where the former was them still dicking around with Motown and R and B, the latter showed more pop and rock with Stepping Stone or Kicks. And Spirit Of 67, the last featuring the band of Smitty, Fang and Jim Valley did not disappoint with Great Airplane Strike and Good Thing, but at that point, Mark Lindsay begin to take over the songwriting (along with Melcher) which may have led to the other guys leaving. Hard to tell but even with session players on Revolution! The Raiders never sounded heavier than on that masterpiece. When I listen to that album, I somewhat question why the imbalance of some songs going from stereo to plain old mono, Make It With Me is the example of why the fuck did they went with a mono mix when the previous ones were in stereo? In fact, Lindsay's vocals are so buried in the mix and the backing vocals more up in front that one wonders if they were on some kind of drugs when they mix the song. With that it ended up being a throwaway song. And I thought for years that Bob Irwin, who did the CD mastering decided to go with a mono mix, that the stereo mix got ruined, till I found the vinyl album and it was the same mix that Melcher committed to record.
After that, Mark Lindsay took over production and they went more Pop on each album. While Lindsay complained that Don't Take It So Hard would benefited from Terry Melcher production work, I still come to find it to be the best song after Melcher left. If anything Lindsay may have polished it too well. By then, The new Raiders were a lot better accomplished than the previous, Joe Corjero Jr was the best drummer they ever had and Freddy Weller and Keith Allison were better songwriters if Lindsay would let them write and not dominate so much. Something Happening and Hard And Heavy (With Marshmellow) were lot more teen pop and bored me when I had the albums and Goin To Memphis, was basically a Mark Lindsay solo album. Alias Pink Puzz, is their underrated classic, with Freeborn Man, one of the more country rock songs Lindsay wrote, with help from Keith Allison. In fact, when it was released without the PR & Raiders moniker FM radio actually gave it a chance, till the brass found out it was Paul Revere and Raiders and they threw it in the garbage can. Still holds up very well, and to a lesser extent, Collage, although I have to say I have not heard the album except for the fun We Gotta All Get Together (written by Freddy Weller), the lackluster Just Seventeen and a remake of Gone Movin On. But after hearing Collage it's not that great.
Then after that, they took a break, Mark Lindsay made two forgettable MOR albums Arizona and Silverbird before convincing the guys to shorten their name and make more of a effort for FM airplay. And then scored a number 1 hit with Indian Reservation a remake of the Don Fardon song for GNP Crescendo. That turned out to be the highlight of the album of the same name, though they did get Birds Of A Feather into the top 20 here on KCRG in 1971. But the album was too poppy for FM radio and I'll give them credit for covering The Easybeats' Come In You'll Get Phenomena, the album was just as bland as Hard And Heavy. The last gasp was Country Wine, a catchy song in a way but not as memorable. Their last charted song here was Love Music (written by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter of Rhinestone Cowboy fame) and would have been the perfect way to end the new Essential Paul Revere Collection. But Sony Music stopped after Song Seller and if you think about it, you're not missing much.
So what is the Essential Paul Revere And The Raiders Collection? The new one? Not really, it's too scatter-shot to be considered the one to get. The world really doesn't need Shake It Up on this when they could have used Stepping Stone instead. The Louie Louie era songs tend be overindulgent and Lindsay screaming he's going to kill his love interest on Over You is creepy. The unreleased My Wife Can't Cook is actually funny and entertaining although it doesn't belong on a greatest hits package, probably better suited for bonus tracks for the Sundazed reissues. The Legend Of Paul Revere, the 1990 2 CD set is way too much for the casual fan to sit through although Beatnik Sticks was actually used for the theme of a children's cartoon show here but done by locals. The other problem is that some of the songs got remixed to 1990s standards which pissed a lot of the purists off. The only time Sony Music got it somewhat right was 1995's Essential Ride 63-67 to which it focuses on Louie Louie up to the last of the Terry Melcher recordings (Him or Me). In the final process, All Time Greatest Hits remains the first and only album that I can identify of what made Paul Revere And The Raiders great and Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame worthy. Even though Mark Lindsay left Paul around 1975 thereabouts, Revere has managed to get replacements that been there longer than the actual members who recorded for Columbia and even at age 73 the man still puts on a great show although you don't need the remakes (nor Mark Lindsay's for that matter). If Paul Revere and his hired hands ever get up to a casino near me, I'll make the effort to go see them. But till then, if I want to hear an complete overview of the hits, The Legend is on the shelf, if I want just the hits, I'll pull out The Essenial Ride Mix CD that I threw together before selling off the lesser of the cd's that I wouldn't play again. The Essential Paul Revere & The Raiders falls somewhere in the middle of the two, it gives a new perspective on a band that was much more than just pop stars with Mark Lindsay 17 pictures for the teen girls back then. But it also doesn't do justice of some of the songs left off and still doesn't deliver on what could have been the definite Paul Revere & The Raiders.
And it's kind of a shame.
Grades:
Here They Come (Columbia 1964) B+
Just Like Us (Sundazed Reissue) B
Midnight Ride (Columbia 1966) B+
Spirit Of 67 (Columbia 1967) A-
Revolution! (Columbia 1967) A-
Gone To Memphis (Columbia 1968) C+
Something Happening (Columbia 1968) C+
Hard And Heavy (With Marshmellow-Columbia 1968) C+
Alias Pink Puzz (Columbia 1969) B+
Collage (Columbia 1970) B-
Indian Reservation (Columbia 1971) C+
Country Wine Plus (Raven 2011) C+
All Time Greatest Hits (Columbia 1972) A-
A Christmas Past...And Present (Koch Reissue 2007) B
The Legend Of Paul Revere (Columbia 1990) B
The Essential Ride 63-67) (Columbia 1996) A-
Mojo Workout (Sundazed 2000) B
The Essential Paul Revere & The Raiders (Columbia 2011) B+
Mark Lindsay-Arizona/Sliverbird (Collectibles 2 on 1-1971) C
The Complete Columbia Singles of Mark Lindsay (Real Gone 2012) B
Friday, April 1, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Top 10 Of The Week-The $1.99 Special
While hanging up around the St. Vincent De Paul Thrift Store on Williamson Street in Madison yesterday a strange thought came my way. If this was a second hand store, how are they paying for the satellite radio?
It also answered a question of what ever happened to the original MTV VJ's Nina, Alan, Mark, Martha? Don't ask about JJ, he's been dead for a few years but the still living are now living in their own 80's world on a XM/Sirius channel about the 80s. But they don't turn away from the tried and tired. Any fucking radio station this side of KDAT plays Broken Wings or Footloose or Take On Me anytime of day just like classic rock plays Sweet Child O Mine from Ethel Merman and Guns. I was about ready to buy copies of Broken Wings by Mr Mister and throw them up in the air or fling them off Monona Terrace to the rocks below Lake Monona.
But getting back to the 80s station at hand. Like any other person who grew up in that era, MTV was the place to go to see the lesser known and other forgotten before the Madonnas, Billy Idols and Michael Jacksons gave it a identity. Everybody had a crush on Martha Quinn or Nina Blackwood before she stocked up on the bon bons and not getting off the couch. And of course, age. Since then, even though MTV eventually replaced the five originals VJs, you really don't remember anybody else. Hell, I had to look it up myself. So, here they are in this canned format at some XM radio that gets played at the thrift store and annoying the public with Mr. Mister again and Mr. Footloose. I'm sure Richard Page is still getting good royalties from that shitty Foreigner lite song. Now if XM would have bought back 120 Minutes and played the lesser known 80s song I might pony up a subscription for that.
The big news outside of the ones that Steven Adler, full time druggie and part time drummer from Axl's Guns before being booted, is that Chinese Democracy is now being sold for 1.99 at Best Buy, which includes the vinyl album if you can find it. What was supposed to be a ground shaking event two years ago is now gone to Best Buy writing this off as a tax loss and decided to cut inventory and sell it quick. They would have better luck leaving it out in the open as Free and still have problems getting rid of it all. I thought about two or three just for the jewel cases myself, unless they are the cheap assed ones that we have been getting for years. You know the ones, the ones that the tray is always loose and doesn't stay secure to the jewel case, those MF's. Seems like Best Buy has had problems of trying to unload Chinese Democracy, at one time they had them for 4.99 before thinking they sold enough to return them back to 11.99 then 9.99 and then finally admitting defeat and having their own budget version of said album.
The problem is that Axl is in charge with hired hands so he can go out out into the world, show up two hours late and then play. Seems like Anti Music always seem to think that this is newsworthy, or having Steven Adler getting more than his 15 minutes of fame and it's making rock music looking more laughable than it should be. Kind of like the new Velvet Revolver singer or Van Halen album or even A Kinks reunion which might be more certain than the Slash returning to the same stage as Axl. I'm sure it's not a question of when but where for Dave Davies to put up with Ray one more time for the dollars. But with Best Buy finally giving up on recouping what they put in when they became sole place to buy this so called masterpiece, they cut their losses and run. And the day is coming very soon that they may just donate the whole Cd and vinyl to the local thrift store. And then you can be double tortured by a overrated and bloated album while hearing the strains of Mr. Mister in the background.
Your very own version of Hell on Earth.
The Top Ten Of The Week.
1. You Better Think Twice-Poco 1969 For a band that started out in the early thrones of country rock music you don't hear much about Poco as much as you do as Eagles (they're called Eagles, not The Eagles as Glenn Frey would tell you but this is not about him or that group) and as I have gotten late to the Poco Appreciation Society I had to pick and choose which albums to get and turns out I gotten a few of them and most had mixed results. Yes the ABC/MCA years were prickly at best, in fact I like their Atlantic album Ghost Town better than anything from ABC Years (although Head Over Heels noses out Legend for best album from that label). Even the Very Best Of Poco that CBS/Sony Music was erratic at best, the Hip O had a nice overview of all labels but any Best of must have this little rave up rocker from the mind of Jim Messina to which got played on KRNA back in the 70s. I'm sure I'm not done with reviewing more Poco albums but their S/T 1969 effort might be their overall best. Deliverin comes in a close second.
2. Angel Dance-Robert Plant 2010 If you really want to know how far down the CD prices have been for used stuff, Band Of Joy, Plant's latest was bought for 5 bucks at Frugal Muse and I think it's better overall than Raising Sand, his 2007 get together with Alison Krauss which got Percy into the spotlight once again. (Has it been 2007 since Raising Sand got released?). I guess if there was a thing as singles, this would have made the playlist but since AOR rock is dead, it's all made up. Anyway, a radical reworking of the Los Lobos song to which I predict that band will have something in the top ten before I'm all said and done.
3. Blue Train-John Coltrane 1957 In my jazz listening, I tend to overlook J.C. more often since I'm more into the sounds of Dave Brubeck with Paul Desmond but there was a time that I did listen to the sheets of sound era of J.C and Kind Of Blue Miles. Best Buy had been selling Blue Train for 5.99, (the Rudy Van Gelder Remasters with two bonus tracks and better liner notes) and is essential if you want to get the classic jazz of the 50s. I don't play it too often myself but when I do, I consider this to be the best of the J.C 50's stuff. You really don't need me to tell you more, but he kept pushing himself to the other limits in the 60s with his best lineup (Elvin Jones, best jazz drummer ever) and A Love Supreme, and each ensuring album taking him further out to space than Heaven's Gate cult trying to hitch a ride to Hale Bopp in 97. Marshall Applewhite would have better luck with Interstellar Space.
4. Heartline-Robin George 1985 Interesting 45 found at Mad City Music X yesterday. It was a DJ promo copy from Bronze Records, Gerry Bron's label which was home to Uriah Heep and Motorhead but this song is better with the hair metal craze of the mid 80s. Don't recall hearing this on radio although it peaked at number 40 on the mainstream rock charts whereas on top 100 barely making it to 92 before falling off. Kinda sounds more like metalized John Parr. Inspirational verse: It much too late to change the tune, I don't like this song. Actually I do, right up to the Queen like ending. Can be found on You Tube.
5. Don't Take It So Hard-Paul Revere & The Raiders 1968 Underrated song from Mark Lindsay and company. I remember buying this on 45 but the record skipped so we had to take it back and since they didn't have any other copies of this, ended up getting The Turtles Story Of Rock & Roll. You'll be happy to know that Sony Music has issued The Essential Paul Revere & The Raiders to replaced the other 2 cd set and here's hoping they don't tack on that goofy ending that plagued that CD and my own mix copy of song.
6. Charge Card Medley: In The Evening When The Sun Goes Down/Stormy Monday/In The Evening/Bye Bye Blackbird-Lou Rawls 1978 When you say Lou you said it all, the man could even make me drink Budweiser when he said, Yeah, this bud's for you. It's a far cry from today when you have some halfwit barely strumming chords to sell bad beer whereas in the past they had Ed McMahon and Lou promoting Budweiser. Lou could also sing the hell out of a song. In fact the trip up to Madison consisted of the 2 CD Best Of Lou Rawls and I was in the Mad City city limits after leaving my house. Lou recorded for a variety of labels and technically his best was when he hooked up with Kenny Gamble/Leon Huff for five years on Philadelphia International. I did come across a dollar copy of Lou Rawls Live and even though this is a medley what makes it go is Lou's rapping and talking before going into songs. Too bad Lou departed to the Big Budweiser in the sky five years ago.
7. Kiko And The Lavender Moon-Los Lobos 1992 Can't decide if this is classic or just overrated. 16 Songs wrapping up 52 minutes to which I came home from Dubuque from Madison and didn't have the change the CD player. Mitchell Froom can be blamed for the production to which for the next few years they would do their most experimental but not really getting my attention back till Tin Can Trust from last year. Appently, David Hidalgo and Louie Perez were so taken by Froom's work on Kiko that with him and Tchad Blake, there would be the side project Latin Playboys. And if you thought Kiko was weird, the Latin Playboys stuff is even more out there.
8. The Entertainer-Martin Hamlisch 1974 AM radio was still odd enough to include this segment from The Sting, the movie that won best picture and inspired me to go get the book and 45 of this song. Most of the music was inspired by Scott Joplin's turn of the century piano and people bought it judging from what I have seen at Goodwill and Salvation Army but could never find a decent copy of it. But you can get a download of this for 8.41 at Amazon. No thank you, downloads are so not cost effective, think I'll take my chances on memories and a scratchy 45.
9. The Billboard Song-Homer & Jethro 1952 To which I'm sure Roger Miller must have been listening to and gave us Burma Shave. My GF will happy to know that in my Mad City trip, I found two more Homer & Jethro albums to further try her patience. But she informs me that she is still laughing over their version of Sink The Bismarck.
10. You Set The Scene-Love 1967 If there's one album that really brings to mind the greatness of the 60s, it would be Forever Changes, the third album from Arthur Lee and the band he called Love (originally The Grass Roots but some other band had that name and bigger hits). Yes it borrows a bit from Pet Sounds but it has a sound all its own to a point that Forever Changes has been reissued about five times in the CD era. CD remastering king Steve Hoffman took his own shot of remixing the album and if you ever get the collector's edition of this, you will note slight variations such as Lee and band chatting up a storm in the finale. The Hoffman remixes are fun to listen to a couple times but in the end, I still prefer the original mix and intentions of Bruce Botnick and Arthur Lee. As they say, everybody should own at least one variation of Forever Changes and that means you if you haven't already.
It also answered a question of what ever happened to the original MTV VJ's Nina, Alan, Mark, Martha? Don't ask about JJ, he's been dead for a few years but the still living are now living in their own 80's world on a XM/Sirius channel about the 80s. But they don't turn away from the tried and tired. Any fucking radio station this side of KDAT plays Broken Wings or Footloose or Take On Me anytime of day just like classic rock plays Sweet Child O Mine from Ethel Merman and Guns. I was about ready to buy copies of Broken Wings by Mr Mister and throw them up in the air or fling them off Monona Terrace to the rocks below Lake Monona.
But getting back to the 80s station at hand. Like any other person who grew up in that era, MTV was the place to go to see the lesser known and other forgotten before the Madonnas, Billy Idols and Michael Jacksons gave it a identity. Everybody had a crush on Martha Quinn or Nina Blackwood before she stocked up on the bon bons and not getting off the couch. And of course, age. Since then, even though MTV eventually replaced the five originals VJs, you really don't remember anybody else. Hell, I had to look it up myself. So, here they are in this canned format at some XM radio that gets played at the thrift store and annoying the public with Mr. Mister again and Mr. Footloose. I'm sure Richard Page is still getting good royalties from that shitty Foreigner lite song. Now if XM would have bought back 120 Minutes and played the lesser known 80s song I might pony up a subscription for that.
The big news outside of the ones that Steven Adler, full time druggie and part time drummer from Axl's Guns before being booted, is that Chinese Democracy is now being sold for 1.99 at Best Buy, which includes the vinyl album if you can find it. What was supposed to be a ground shaking event two years ago is now gone to Best Buy writing this off as a tax loss and decided to cut inventory and sell it quick. They would have better luck leaving it out in the open as Free and still have problems getting rid of it all. I thought about two or three just for the jewel cases myself, unless they are the cheap assed ones that we have been getting for years. You know the ones, the ones that the tray is always loose and doesn't stay secure to the jewel case, those MF's. Seems like Best Buy has had problems of trying to unload Chinese Democracy, at one time they had them for 4.99 before thinking they sold enough to return them back to 11.99 then 9.99 and then finally admitting defeat and having their own budget version of said album.
The problem is that Axl is in charge with hired hands so he can go out out into the world, show up two hours late and then play. Seems like Anti Music always seem to think that this is newsworthy, or having Steven Adler getting more than his 15 minutes of fame and it's making rock music looking more laughable than it should be. Kind of like the new Velvet Revolver singer or Van Halen album or even A Kinks reunion which might be more certain than the Slash returning to the same stage as Axl. I'm sure it's not a question of when but where for Dave Davies to put up with Ray one more time for the dollars. But with Best Buy finally giving up on recouping what they put in when they became sole place to buy this so called masterpiece, they cut their losses and run. And the day is coming very soon that they may just donate the whole Cd and vinyl to the local thrift store. And then you can be double tortured by a overrated and bloated album while hearing the strains of Mr. Mister in the background.
Your very own version of Hell on Earth.
The Top Ten Of The Week.
1. You Better Think Twice-Poco 1969 For a band that started out in the early thrones of country rock music you don't hear much about Poco as much as you do as Eagles (they're called Eagles, not The Eagles as Glenn Frey would tell you but this is not about him or that group) and as I have gotten late to the Poco Appreciation Society I had to pick and choose which albums to get and turns out I gotten a few of them and most had mixed results. Yes the ABC/MCA years were prickly at best, in fact I like their Atlantic album Ghost Town better than anything from ABC Years (although Head Over Heels noses out Legend for best album from that label). Even the Very Best Of Poco that CBS/Sony Music was erratic at best, the Hip O had a nice overview of all labels but any Best of must have this little rave up rocker from the mind of Jim Messina to which got played on KRNA back in the 70s. I'm sure I'm not done with reviewing more Poco albums but their S/T 1969 effort might be their overall best. Deliverin comes in a close second.
2. Angel Dance-Robert Plant 2010 If you really want to know how far down the CD prices have been for used stuff, Band Of Joy, Plant's latest was bought for 5 bucks at Frugal Muse and I think it's better overall than Raising Sand, his 2007 get together with Alison Krauss which got Percy into the spotlight once again. (Has it been 2007 since Raising Sand got released?). I guess if there was a thing as singles, this would have made the playlist but since AOR rock is dead, it's all made up. Anyway, a radical reworking of the Los Lobos song to which I predict that band will have something in the top ten before I'm all said and done.
3. Blue Train-John Coltrane 1957 In my jazz listening, I tend to overlook J.C. more often since I'm more into the sounds of Dave Brubeck with Paul Desmond but there was a time that I did listen to the sheets of sound era of J.C and Kind Of Blue Miles. Best Buy had been selling Blue Train for 5.99, (the Rudy Van Gelder Remasters with two bonus tracks and better liner notes) and is essential if you want to get the classic jazz of the 50s. I don't play it too often myself but when I do, I consider this to be the best of the J.C 50's stuff. You really don't need me to tell you more, but he kept pushing himself to the other limits in the 60s with his best lineup (Elvin Jones, best jazz drummer ever) and A Love Supreme, and each ensuring album taking him further out to space than Heaven's Gate cult trying to hitch a ride to Hale Bopp in 97. Marshall Applewhite would have better luck with Interstellar Space.
4. Heartline-Robin George 1985 Interesting 45 found at Mad City Music X yesterday. It was a DJ promo copy from Bronze Records, Gerry Bron's label which was home to Uriah Heep and Motorhead but this song is better with the hair metal craze of the mid 80s. Don't recall hearing this on radio although it peaked at number 40 on the mainstream rock charts whereas on top 100 barely making it to 92 before falling off. Kinda sounds more like metalized John Parr. Inspirational verse: It much too late to change the tune, I don't like this song. Actually I do, right up to the Queen like ending. Can be found on You Tube.
5. Don't Take It So Hard-Paul Revere & The Raiders 1968 Underrated song from Mark Lindsay and company. I remember buying this on 45 but the record skipped so we had to take it back and since they didn't have any other copies of this, ended up getting The Turtles Story Of Rock & Roll. You'll be happy to know that Sony Music has issued The Essential Paul Revere & The Raiders to replaced the other 2 cd set and here's hoping they don't tack on that goofy ending that plagued that CD and my own mix copy of song.
6. Charge Card Medley: In The Evening When The Sun Goes Down/Stormy Monday/In The Evening/Bye Bye Blackbird-Lou Rawls 1978 When you say Lou you said it all, the man could even make me drink Budweiser when he said, Yeah, this bud's for you. It's a far cry from today when you have some halfwit barely strumming chords to sell bad beer whereas in the past they had Ed McMahon and Lou promoting Budweiser. Lou could also sing the hell out of a song. In fact the trip up to Madison consisted of the 2 CD Best Of Lou Rawls and I was in the Mad City city limits after leaving my house. Lou recorded for a variety of labels and technically his best was when he hooked up with Kenny Gamble/Leon Huff for five years on Philadelphia International. I did come across a dollar copy of Lou Rawls Live and even though this is a medley what makes it go is Lou's rapping and talking before going into songs. Too bad Lou departed to the Big Budweiser in the sky five years ago.
7. Kiko And The Lavender Moon-Los Lobos 1992 Can't decide if this is classic or just overrated. 16 Songs wrapping up 52 minutes to which I came home from Dubuque from Madison and didn't have the change the CD player. Mitchell Froom can be blamed for the production to which for the next few years they would do their most experimental but not really getting my attention back till Tin Can Trust from last year. Appently, David Hidalgo and Louie Perez were so taken by Froom's work on Kiko that with him and Tchad Blake, there would be the side project Latin Playboys. And if you thought Kiko was weird, the Latin Playboys stuff is even more out there.
8. The Entertainer-Martin Hamlisch 1974 AM radio was still odd enough to include this segment from The Sting, the movie that won best picture and inspired me to go get the book and 45 of this song. Most of the music was inspired by Scott Joplin's turn of the century piano and people bought it judging from what I have seen at Goodwill and Salvation Army but could never find a decent copy of it. But you can get a download of this for 8.41 at Amazon. No thank you, downloads are so not cost effective, think I'll take my chances on memories and a scratchy 45.
9. The Billboard Song-Homer & Jethro 1952 To which I'm sure Roger Miller must have been listening to and gave us Burma Shave. My GF will happy to know that in my Mad City trip, I found two more Homer & Jethro albums to further try her patience. But she informs me that she is still laughing over their version of Sink The Bismarck.
10. You Set The Scene-Love 1967 If there's one album that really brings to mind the greatness of the 60s, it would be Forever Changes, the third album from Arthur Lee and the band he called Love (originally The Grass Roots but some other band had that name and bigger hits). Yes it borrows a bit from Pet Sounds but it has a sound all its own to a point that Forever Changes has been reissued about five times in the CD era. CD remastering king Steve Hoffman took his own shot of remixing the album and if you ever get the collector's edition of this, you will note slight variations such as Lee and band chatting up a storm in the finale. The Hoffman remixes are fun to listen to a couple times but in the end, I still prefer the original mix and intentions of Bruce Botnick and Arthur Lee. As they say, everybody should own at least one variation of Forever Changes and that means you if you haven't already.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The Madison Bargain Hunts: Hunting In A Hostile Republican World
Madison. Interesting place to hang out. Lotta demonstrations going on from what I have seen on the news so when I planned to go up to Mad City it was to see what and how things work down there. And of course to find music that I didn't have. And came up with a few interesting things.
The weather was somewhat cool but I found myself pretty much having no trouble getting around the city. By now when I go into town, I start on the west side and move across 151 to the other side and the next day, hit the Capitol and Mad City Music Exchange. I also find that I have better luck at the Whitney Way Half Priced Bookstore than I do with the one on the other side of town. Monday was pretty much going thru HP Books and then hitting PawnAmerica for their dollar CD sale. To which I spent two hours sorting through a lotta crappy CDs and a lotta scratched up but managed to find three of them. PrePlayed had nothing to speak of, they keep shrinking their CD inventory to the point that basically it's not much to find in there. Come to think of it I forgot to stop at the Frugal Muse Bookstore on Washington. No big deal, although I did stop at the west side store.
I spent Monday Night at the Microtel as always, and pretty much took it easy. I figured this was going to be a two day event at best, so I got about four hours of sleep and ended up getting back spams just in time for Tuesday Morning. Nevertheless, that didn't stop me from finally walking down to The Capitol to see what goes on. And basically despite what you hear, there wasn't much protesting in the thousands, but I've seen about 20 to 25 folks walking around with picket signs and shouts of "Recall Walker", one being Scott Walker, the Governor who took away the collective bargaining that riled up the state workers. I took some pictures but sadly, the battery died before I got into The Capitol. I got there about 12:30, and made past the check areas and inside the rotunda, is a beautiful sights of sculptures and paintings. Inside, there were about 100 folks singing protest music and carrying signs and there were some schoolkids on a tour of the place. Nothing radical, but I was amazed how orderly the protesters were. Even the security guards were very nice. So basically I stayed a while and then moved down State Street to find Ian's Pizza, the pizza place who fed the protesters last month. 2.50 for a slice of Cheese or Pepperoni but I think the cashier messed up since I only paid 3.50, but gave them a tip and told them to keep fighting the good fight.
Got tired of feeding the meter so I drove back around where Mad City Music X was at and parked the car there and spent about three hours sorting through 45s and vinyl and finding a 45 that I used to have as a child, Tommy Roe's Carol for 50 cents and a few others. Then walked back to State Street for a final walk through of the Capitol area before finding some cool stuff at The Exclusive Company (Say it with me!).
The night run at the Capitol showcased a group of folks still singing protest songs and holding candles but I think the overall feeling perhaps this has ran its course. Things seem to have a back to normal feeling although there would be one protester on the block, ranting and raving. But I think the majority of folks just went home since it was a bit chilly outside. Or perhaps they're waiting to return for the weekend. I'm sure they will but I have to say that I've never been inside of any Capitol or any place. But with the events I may have been as close as I will ever get to the vibes of the 60's.
So I return back to car via a short cut at Monona Terrace and then it's off to a Borders that was closing. Madison has two of them, the one over by the motel is not the list of being closed but the one on Midvale is. This one had two floors but by the time I got there, it was picked clean and whatever was there, Borders jacked the price up to the point that anything new was 20 bucks and even 40 percent off didn't vary all that much from Best Buy. But you can tell when a place is closing, is when there's a down feeling when you walked through the doors and seeing the cashier with a sad look in her face. Nothing we can do really, so I hung around for about 20 minutes and then went across the street to the new Target and see what was the fuss there. Indoor parking, take an elevator to go up to the store, kinda nice but just time wasting to hit the road and return home.
In the end I saw the protesters, and heard them sing We Shall Overcome and This Land Is Your Land and it was emotional in a way. But I felt like the old man out, still, I came, I saw and then went and found some more cool music. And made all green lights out of town.
I'm sure I'll return again, but I have a friend in Des Moines that has told me of a new record store opening up. Maybe I'll convince myself to go there sometime in the near future. Afterthought: Monday, Jeff Tweedy played there as well as 7 Walkers, but they must be following each other since they were playing in Iowa City last week I think. The Old 97's and Teddy Thompson play Friday, but tomorrow James McMurtry and The Bottlerockets play at the High Noon Saloon. 15 dollars gets you in. Would have loved to seen that.
The weather was somewhat cool but I found myself pretty much having no trouble getting around the city. By now when I go into town, I start on the west side and move across 151 to the other side and the next day, hit the Capitol and Mad City Music Exchange. I also find that I have better luck at the Whitney Way Half Priced Bookstore than I do with the one on the other side of town. Monday was pretty much going thru HP Books and then hitting PawnAmerica for their dollar CD sale. To which I spent two hours sorting through a lotta crappy CDs and a lotta scratched up but managed to find three of them. PrePlayed had nothing to speak of, they keep shrinking their CD inventory to the point that basically it's not much to find in there. Come to think of it I forgot to stop at the Frugal Muse Bookstore on Washington. No big deal, although I did stop at the west side store.
I spent Monday Night at the Microtel as always, and pretty much took it easy. I figured this was going to be a two day event at best, so I got about four hours of sleep and ended up getting back spams just in time for Tuesday Morning. Nevertheless, that didn't stop me from finally walking down to The Capitol to see what goes on. And basically despite what you hear, there wasn't much protesting in the thousands, but I've seen about 20 to 25 folks walking around with picket signs and shouts of "Recall Walker", one being Scott Walker, the Governor who took away the collective bargaining that riled up the state workers. I took some pictures but sadly, the battery died before I got into The Capitol. I got there about 12:30, and made past the check areas and inside the rotunda, is a beautiful sights of sculptures and paintings. Inside, there were about 100 folks singing protest music and carrying signs and there were some schoolkids on a tour of the place. Nothing radical, but I was amazed how orderly the protesters were. Even the security guards were very nice. So basically I stayed a while and then moved down State Street to find Ian's Pizza, the pizza place who fed the protesters last month. 2.50 for a slice of Cheese or Pepperoni but I think the cashier messed up since I only paid 3.50, but gave them a tip and told them to keep fighting the good fight.
Got tired of feeding the meter so I drove back around where Mad City Music X was at and parked the car there and spent about three hours sorting through 45s and vinyl and finding a 45 that I used to have as a child, Tommy Roe's Carol for 50 cents and a few others. Then walked back to State Street for a final walk through of the Capitol area before finding some cool stuff at The Exclusive Company (Say it with me!).
The night run at the Capitol showcased a group of folks still singing protest songs and holding candles but I think the overall feeling perhaps this has ran its course. Things seem to have a back to normal feeling although there would be one protester on the block, ranting and raving. But I think the majority of folks just went home since it was a bit chilly outside. Or perhaps they're waiting to return for the weekend. I'm sure they will but I have to say that I've never been inside of any Capitol or any place. But with the events I may have been as close as I will ever get to the vibes of the 60's.
So I return back to car via a short cut at Monona Terrace and then it's off to a Borders that was closing. Madison has two of them, the one over by the motel is not the list of being closed but the one on Midvale is. This one had two floors but by the time I got there, it was picked clean and whatever was there, Borders jacked the price up to the point that anything new was 20 bucks and even 40 percent off didn't vary all that much from Best Buy. But you can tell when a place is closing, is when there's a down feeling when you walked through the doors and seeing the cashier with a sad look in her face. Nothing we can do really, so I hung around for about 20 minutes and then went across the street to the new Target and see what was the fuss there. Indoor parking, take an elevator to go up to the store, kinda nice but just time wasting to hit the road and return home.
In the end I saw the protesters, and heard them sing We Shall Overcome and This Land Is Your Land and it was emotional in a way. But I felt like the old man out, still, I came, I saw and then went and found some more cool music. And made all green lights out of town.
I'm sure I'll return again, but I have a friend in Des Moines that has told me of a new record store opening up. Maybe I'll convince myself to go there sometime in the near future. Afterthought: Monday, Jeff Tweedy played there as well as 7 Walkers, but they must be following each other since they were playing in Iowa City last week I think. The Old 97's and Teddy Thompson play Friday, but tomorrow James McMurtry and The Bottlerockets play at the High Noon Saloon. 15 dollars gets you in. Would have loved to seen that.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
The Day When The Music Buying Stops
As I prepare for my next bargain hunting trip up to the right wing republic of Wisconsin this week I was reading this.http://musicindustryreport.org/?p=31377&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
And it got me to thinking about the plight of the music bargain hunter that goes to the music stores to find things. I don't take into account of the downloaders out there who download music, I don't do that myself, I have many options to choose from but it got me to thinking that ever since Rootkit copy protected CD fiasco which eroded sales since then that the CD is on borrowed time and judging from what I seen at the Wally World and Best Buy section will never return to what it used to be.
The internet has been wonderful in terms of chatting with like minded folk that love music and the obscure and you can find just about anything on You Tube in terms of old forgotten music of my years and yes if it wasn't for the net, I'd be a dateless old person. The internet also has killed off most of the bricks and mortar Mom n Dad record stores that I used to know and used to go to. But the major labels never did us any favors either, with overpriced and over recorded LOUD cds (and still are today, the new Saliva has got to be the worst recorded album ever, songs were pretty good though). Killing the original Napster may had something to do with poor sales but the big slit in their throat remains the copy protect Rootkit CD to which consumers had enough and stop buying and started their illegal downloads in droves. Leaving the majors to drown in their own bile. So be it.
Vinyl has always been around, although the majors gave that format just about up in the height of the CD era (Early 90s) and although they are making a hairline comeback, the problem remains that the LP is much more higher cost than the cd itself and paying 50 bucks for a 2 LP Best Of Neil Young is not cost effective unless your a audiophile with a pile of cash an a record player to boot. The only reason why I bought the 36 dollar Le Noise was that I didn't want the digipak set to which i would find that on jewel case at Target for 14 bucks earlier this year. Although the independent labels has their LPs around 12 or 15 bucks, back in my days you could have gotten Physical Graffiti for 11.98. And even if the new stuff is on 180 gram Virgin Vinyl, I have enough complaints about Tom Waits' reissues to buypass them, or least go seek out the original 2 record Nighthawks At The Diner, a record I once had but ended up traded that and about 40 others to get that 4 cd Led Zeppelin boxset that I don't play too often. It's not that we can't buy vinyl in town, but problem is our town doesn't have no more the record store that has the new vinyl, we have to fucking drive 45 miles to Iowa City or Dubuque or save up extra money or time to head to Madison to which they still have 10 decent stores for music.
And if there's no decent music stores in town anymore, then we have to go to the net. The advantage to this is saves wear and tear on the car and you don't use gas. The flipside is that you don't get the thrill of anticipating what your going to find when you walk into a store and see what they have for music. But then again things do come into an end anyways.
When I turned fifty this year, I basically made it a point that I wasn't go and seek out each and every record store like I did. The Arizona trip was it, there's no more coming up. Vegas has been discussed from time to time but in a era of high gas prices returning and the lack of enthusiasm of flying I don't see that happening either. My GF talked about maybe St. Louis and there's a remote chance of going, the only definitive bargain hunts is Madison, 2 and half hours away from here. Minneapolis while sounding good is not a place I'm familiar with and at my age I'm more inclined to go where I at least know where things are at. Perhaps the next time I'm up in Michigan with my GF, she'll take me to the local FYE (if they're still open) or to further shut me up return me to Encore Recordings in Ann Arbor and leave me there for about 4 hours.
Habits are hard to break and even though I said I would retire from bargain hunting for the lost recordings that's easier said than done but I have been cutting back a lot more than last year. But I do a lot more hanging around Half Priced Books in town.
I don't forsee any shortage of used cds and albums. I'm still surprised of what has been turning up but for new music and the way nobody knows how to record it, the newer cd's still sound like overloud bullshit. And the majors have no intention of breaking new acts rather than the single of the day. I'm still surprised in this day and age Saliva remains on the Island roster even though the last two albums didn't sell a whole lot. Which is why going to Madison is fun, they still have enough music and enough turnaround in the bins at the Pawn America store to keep it interesting. I never know what I'm going to find, that's the fun of it.
But the day when the music buying stops is the day I won't be around. That's what I think.
And it got me to thinking about the plight of the music bargain hunter that goes to the music stores to find things. I don't take into account of the downloaders out there who download music, I don't do that myself, I have many options to choose from but it got me to thinking that ever since Rootkit copy protected CD fiasco which eroded sales since then that the CD is on borrowed time and judging from what I seen at the Wally World and Best Buy section will never return to what it used to be.
The internet has been wonderful in terms of chatting with like minded folk that love music and the obscure and you can find just about anything on You Tube in terms of old forgotten music of my years and yes if it wasn't for the net, I'd be a dateless old person. The internet also has killed off most of the bricks and mortar Mom n Dad record stores that I used to know and used to go to. But the major labels never did us any favors either, with overpriced and over recorded LOUD cds (and still are today, the new Saliva has got to be the worst recorded album ever, songs were pretty good though). Killing the original Napster may had something to do with poor sales but the big slit in their throat remains the copy protect Rootkit CD to which consumers had enough and stop buying and started their illegal downloads in droves. Leaving the majors to drown in their own bile. So be it.
Vinyl has always been around, although the majors gave that format just about up in the height of the CD era (Early 90s) and although they are making a hairline comeback, the problem remains that the LP is much more higher cost than the cd itself and paying 50 bucks for a 2 LP Best Of Neil Young is not cost effective unless your a audiophile with a pile of cash an a record player to boot. The only reason why I bought the 36 dollar Le Noise was that I didn't want the digipak set to which i would find that on jewel case at Target for 14 bucks earlier this year. Although the independent labels has their LPs around 12 or 15 bucks, back in my days you could have gotten Physical Graffiti for 11.98. And even if the new stuff is on 180 gram Virgin Vinyl, I have enough complaints about Tom Waits' reissues to buypass them, or least go seek out the original 2 record Nighthawks At The Diner, a record I once had but ended up traded that and about 40 others to get that 4 cd Led Zeppelin boxset that I don't play too often. It's not that we can't buy vinyl in town, but problem is our town doesn't have no more the record store that has the new vinyl, we have to fucking drive 45 miles to Iowa City or Dubuque or save up extra money or time to head to Madison to which they still have 10 decent stores for music.
And if there's no decent music stores in town anymore, then we have to go to the net. The advantage to this is saves wear and tear on the car and you don't use gas. The flipside is that you don't get the thrill of anticipating what your going to find when you walk into a store and see what they have for music. But then again things do come into an end anyways.
When I turned fifty this year, I basically made it a point that I wasn't go and seek out each and every record store like I did. The Arizona trip was it, there's no more coming up. Vegas has been discussed from time to time but in a era of high gas prices returning and the lack of enthusiasm of flying I don't see that happening either. My GF talked about maybe St. Louis and there's a remote chance of going, the only definitive bargain hunts is Madison, 2 and half hours away from here. Minneapolis while sounding good is not a place I'm familiar with and at my age I'm more inclined to go where I at least know where things are at. Perhaps the next time I'm up in Michigan with my GF, she'll take me to the local FYE (if they're still open) or to further shut me up return me to Encore Recordings in Ann Arbor and leave me there for about 4 hours.
Habits are hard to break and even though I said I would retire from bargain hunting for the lost recordings that's easier said than done but I have been cutting back a lot more than last year. But I do a lot more hanging around Half Priced Books in town.
I don't forsee any shortage of used cds and albums. I'm still surprised of what has been turning up but for new music and the way nobody knows how to record it, the newer cd's still sound like overloud bullshit. And the majors have no intention of breaking new acts rather than the single of the day. I'm still surprised in this day and age Saliva remains on the Island roster even though the last two albums didn't sell a whole lot. Which is why going to Madison is fun, they still have enough music and enough turnaround in the bins at the Pawn America store to keep it interesting. I never know what I'm going to find, that's the fun of it.
But the day when the music buying stops is the day I won't be around. That's what I think.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Jorma Kaukonen Barbuque King Reviewed By Denny DeGorio
Denny DeGorio played bass on this 1980 album that I found at Record Collector yesterday. While some people consider this to be Jorma's fortay into New Wave, I found it more pop rock boogie. David Kahne Produced this, He would go on to produce Rank & File and later Sugar Ray and the latest Teddy Thompson album. Denny takes up the story from here.
JORMA'S PUNK ALBUM?
When Hot Tuna broke up, in 1978, it was a strange world indeed. This amazing guitar player, troubadour of tunes and craftsman of original music always gave a tip of his hat to tradition, while he dutifully carried the torch of the reigning free spirit of the Volunteers of America and the Woodstock generation. Jorma always had an open mind, encouraged creativity in everyone around him, and back then, just as now, he remains an amazingly humble and talented person.
Jorma was not a punk-rocker, nor did he ever try to be. What he did try to be, if anything, was true to himself. To be forced into anyone's preconceived notion or expectation of what he should be would contradict everything he believed in and in my opinion all he stood for. It must have seemed odd I imagine, that the very audience that enthusiastically embraced this ideology in the sixties, were the very ones who seemed to not want to let Jorma change, grow or experiment during this time. Jorma could have easily found a Jack Cassidy replacement; there were tons of fans that practically worshiped him, enthusiastic fans that knew every single song backward and forwards. There were plenty of fans that had access to him and any one of them would have jumped at the offer to play bass for him . There may not have been anyone who could truly replace Jack, for he was (and is) truly a great and unique bass player in his own right, but he could have found someone who knew the songs and someone who could at least emulate Jack's approach. To Jorma, I think, it was about more than that. It was about the spirit.
I was there, that's how I know. I heard people shout disappointedly, "Let your freak flag fly Jorma!!!" after he had cut his hair and died it PURPLE. His hair was short and PURPLE!!!! What more of a "freak flag" do you want???!!!...This reaction seemed about as open minded in '79/'80 as a redneck hollering "get a haircut hippie" a decade earlier. As someone who grew up wanting to believe in 60's ideology it only fueled my disappointment at what had become of that generation. They appeared closed minded and biased to me.
Would his audience of been happier if he put together a professional cover band performing his greatest hits? Did they want a Hot Tuna tribute band? It certainly would seem so. Would Jorma have been? Obviously not.
When Jorma first asked me to play with him it was after he saw Bob Steeler and I play a show in our band "The Offs" at an old Jewish Temple/punk venue next door to the closed Fillmore West. When I met him I didn't know a single one of his songs (unless it had been recorded by Jefferson Airplane). I had a couple of Jefferson Airplane albums as a kid (Bless It's Pointed Head and Surrealistic Pillow were two albums I eventually snagged from my brothers record collection), and the only album I was really familiar with as it had endured many spins on my portable stereo - Volunteers of America). I called him Jorma (With a "hard" J as in "Jump"). I remember asking him about Pentacles and evil spirits as my total knowledge of the Jefferson Airplane was derived from the reading (and re-reading) of the inside of the "Volunteers of America" album: which I also note was the very first new rock album I ever bought.
We met up a couple of days after that if I recall the three of us. We got together and just jammed for hours. The next time I saw him wasn't until a gig in New York. We hadn't even practiced, not in any disciplined sense. I think it was booked as a Hot Tuna show, if I recall - but it wasn't unusual during my tenure for us to be booked as one thing for us to provide quite another.
As we continued to play together, we got a little better. There were a lot of things lacking, and the band was never as good as a band with Jorma should have been. This was for a variety of reasons, including my relative inexperience. We also had our moments, if I can say so myself - but I always thought in retrospect we could have (and probably should have) been so much better, especially with practice and professionalism - but that was the last thing we considered in those days. For these reasons and perhaps others the audience was generally unreceptive to me as a musician and a performer and I generally gave it right back. For better or worse this album chronicles that time. I keep a copy like one might keep a yearbook or a picture album. It reminds me of a younger innocent time for me. It reminds me of fun, wild and free times. It also brings back some bad memories. You can say what you will about this album, but if you listen maybe you can sense a little bit of that spirit, I can even hear it through the over-production. I think I took away a lot of things from my time with Jorma, from that experience - things I am applying now as I return to music after so many years away. After this experience I went on to play with other fantastic and talented musicians. We had True Believers with Alejandro and Javier Escovedo and Jon Dee Graham; I've lived in Austin, Texas since returning from time spent in Munich Germany, it was because of Jorma that I ever travelled there in the first place. For me this Jorma album represents the beginning.
So I give this Album three stars, and each one of those stars go completely to Jorma. (I subtract two stars for my contribution).
His guitar playing is impeccable. I honestly think that although Quah is a must have, this album rounds out any true collection representative of the man. His audience hated this album, for the most part - it sold less than any of the Albums that preceded it. The radio stations barely played it. I must say that I felt as though I was their scapegoat at times and in retrospect I understand why - but at the time it was a tough pill to swallow. They seemed to view Jorma as being a traitor for joining the "punks" (I was the "token" punk rocker). Since my only experience thus far had been playing in punk rock bands I was quite used to people throwing stuff at me; in fact I loved it - and at times I provoked them more.
I guess you could say Jorma wasn't listening to his audience at the time, and he was soon dropped from the record company immediately following the release of this album (RCA).-We parted ways not long after that, though to this day we keep in touch. Although Jorma's audience might not have been all that open minded, they were eager to forgive him and take him back. It was soon forgotten, as if it was just a prank, and he continues to forge ahead to this day. I admire Jorma now, and think it took a lot of courage to do what he's done. He continues to inspire me today and I've grown to develop a lot of respect for him. He is a brave man, and he taught me the life long lesson that it takes true courage to be yourself, sometimes even when you are unsure of what that is. Like any true artist, he is a complicated man, and this album is part of a complete picture. If you are a Jorma fan, you should buy it. If you are one of the old fans that used to throw things at me, you should buy me a beer (a root beer will do!)- or buy my album (if I ever get the dang thing recorded and released ha-ha) - and though I guess I can't really blame you for hating on me back then - in case anyone ever wondered.... I really wasn't evil incarnate (drunk perhaps but not evil).....
Crabb notes: The album bombed since RCA didn't promote it and Vital Parts, the backing band that Jorma christened would disband. DeGorio would join with Alejandro Escovedo in The True Believers and played on their first album which is a classic if you can find it.
Barbuque King really doesn't vary much from Hot Tuna I think although Kahne adds plenty of 80's style echo to the mix but it does show more of a pop rock sound than what we don't usually get from Kaukonen. It fairly holds up although the cover of Love Is Strange seems a bit out of place. But I do enjoy most of side 1. The title track and Milkcow Blues Boogie nods toward Hot Tuna. Larry Wittman and Steve Huff of Paul Collins Beat add backing vocals on two cuts. Worth three stars.
JORMA'S PUNK ALBUM?
When Hot Tuna broke up, in 1978, it was a strange world indeed. This amazing guitar player, troubadour of tunes and craftsman of original music always gave a tip of his hat to tradition, while he dutifully carried the torch of the reigning free spirit of the Volunteers of America and the Woodstock generation. Jorma always had an open mind, encouraged creativity in everyone around him, and back then, just as now, he remains an amazingly humble and talented person.
Jorma was not a punk-rocker, nor did he ever try to be. What he did try to be, if anything, was true to himself. To be forced into anyone's preconceived notion or expectation of what he should be would contradict everything he believed in and in my opinion all he stood for. It must have seemed odd I imagine, that the very audience that enthusiastically embraced this ideology in the sixties, were the very ones who seemed to not want to let Jorma change, grow or experiment during this time. Jorma could have easily found a Jack Cassidy replacement; there were tons of fans that practically worshiped him, enthusiastic fans that knew every single song backward and forwards. There were plenty of fans that had access to him and any one of them would have jumped at the offer to play bass for him . There may not have been anyone who could truly replace Jack, for he was (and is) truly a great and unique bass player in his own right, but he could have found someone who knew the songs and someone who could at least emulate Jack's approach. To Jorma, I think, it was about more than that. It was about the spirit.
I was there, that's how I know. I heard people shout disappointedly, "Let your freak flag fly Jorma!!!" after he had cut his hair and died it PURPLE. His hair was short and PURPLE!!!! What more of a "freak flag" do you want???!!!...This reaction seemed about as open minded in '79/'80 as a redneck hollering "get a haircut hippie" a decade earlier. As someone who grew up wanting to believe in 60's ideology it only fueled my disappointment at what had become of that generation. They appeared closed minded and biased to me.
Would his audience of been happier if he put together a professional cover band performing his greatest hits? Did they want a Hot Tuna tribute band? It certainly would seem so. Would Jorma have been? Obviously not.
When Jorma first asked me to play with him it was after he saw Bob Steeler and I play a show in our band "The Offs" at an old Jewish Temple/punk venue next door to the closed Fillmore West. When I met him I didn't know a single one of his songs (unless it had been recorded by Jefferson Airplane). I had a couple of Jefferson Airplane albums as a kid (Bless It's Pointed Head and Surrealistic Pillow were two albums I eventually snagged from my brothers record collection), and the only album I was really familiar with as it had endured many spins on my portable stereo - Volunteers of America). I called him Jorma (With a "hard" J as in "Jump"). I remember asking him about Pentacles and evil spirits as my total knowledge of the Jefferson Airplane was derived from the reading (and re-reading) of the inside of the "Volunteers of America" album: which I also note was the very first new rock album I ever bought.
We met up a couple of days after that if I recall the three of us. We got together and just jammed for hours. The next time I saw him wasn't until a gig in New York. We hadn't even practiced, not in any disciplined sense. I think it was booked as a Hot Tuna show, if I recall - but it wasn't unusual during my tenure for us to be booked as one thing for us to provide quite another.
As we continued to play together, we got a little better. There were a lot of things lacking, and the band was never as good as a band with Jorma should have been. This was for a variety of reasons, including my relative inexperience. We also had our moments, if I can say so myself - but I always thought in retrospect we could have (and probably should have) been so much better, especially with practice and professionalism - but that was the last thing we considered in those days. For these reasons and perhaps others the audience was generally unreceptive to me as a musician and a performer and I generally gave it right back. For better or worse this album chronicles that time. I keep a copy like one might keep a yearbook or a picture album. It reminds me of a younger innocent time for me. It reminds me of fun, wild and free times. It also brings back some bad memories. You can say what you will about this album, but if you listen maybe you can sense a little bit of that spirit, I can even hear it through the over-production. I think I took away a lot of things from my time with Jorma, from that experience - things I am applying now as I return to music after so many years away. After this experience I went on to play with other fantastic and talented musicians. We had True Believers with Alejandro and Javier Escovedo and Jon Dee Graham; I've lived in Austin, Texas since returning from time spent in Munich Germany, it was because of Jorma that I ever travelled there in the first place. For me this Jorma album represents the beginning.
So I give this Album three stars, and each one of those stars go completely to Jorma. (I subtract two stars for my contribution).
His guitar playing is impeccable. I honestly think that although Quah is a must have, this album rounds out any true collection representative of the man. His audience hated this album, for the most part - it sold less than any of the Albums that preceded it. The radio stations barely played it. I must say that I felt as though I was their scapegoat at times and in retrospect I understand why - but at the time it was a tough pill to swallow. They seemed to view Jorma as being a traitor for joining the "punks" (I was the "token" punk rocker). Since my only experience thus far had been playing in punk rock bands I was quite used to people throwing stuff at me; in fact I loved it - and at times I provoked them more.
I guess you could say Jorma wasn't listening to his audience at the time, and he was soon dropped from the record company immediately following the release of this album (RCA).-We parted ways not long after that, though to this day we keep in touch. Although Jorma's audience might not have been all that open minded, they were eager to forgive him and take him back. It was soon forgotten, as if it was just a prank, and he continues to forge ahead to this day. I admire Jorma now, and think it took a lot of courage to do what he's done. He continues to inspire me today and I've grown to develop a lot of respect for him. He is a brave man, and he taught me the life long lesson that it takes true courage to be yourself, sometimes even when you are unsure of what that is. Like any true artist, he is a complicated man, and this album is part of a complete picture. If you are a Jorma fan, you should buy it. If you are one of the old fans that used to throw things at me, you should buy me a beer (a root beer will do!)- or buy my album (if I ever get the dang thing recorded and released ha-ha) - and though I guess I can't really blame you for hating on me back then - in case anyone ever wondered.... I really wasn't evil incarnate (drunk perhaps but not evil).....
Crabb notes: The album bombed since RCA didn't promote it and Vital Parts, the backing band that Jorma christened would disband. DeGorio would join with Alejandro Escovedo in The True Believers and played on their first album which is a classic if you can find it.
Barbuque King really doesn't vary much from Hot Tuna I think although Kahne adds plenty of 80's style echo to the mix but it does show more of a pop rock sound than what we don't usually get from Kaukonen. It fairly holds up although the cover of Love Is Strange seems a bit out of place. But I do enjoy most of side 1. The title track and Milkcow Blues Boogie nods toward Hot Tuna. Larry Wittman and Steve Huff of Paul Collins Beat add backing vocals on two cuts. Worth three stars.
Music Of My Years-The CD Era 1987-1990
The CD was born around 1982 and I've seen previews about it on CNN Headline News telling us about this 6 inch data storage disk but I never seen any CDs till 1986 thereabouts when there was a very small area at Target and K Mart that had them and they sold for an ungodly 25 bucks. As a vinyl collector I took exception to this and vowed never to buy the damn things till they came down in price, or there would be a great CD that wasn't on album.
In my time at Arizona between 1986-1987, I discovered that the record stores had way so much out of print albums that I pretty much wasted my savings on trying to get out of print classics from the likes of Mott The Hoople (all Atlantic albums), Hawkwind (Space Ritual) or the latest on vinyl that Zia's or Rockaway sold used, but they also had a used CD bins that they sold for 10 bucks apiece. But I refused to get on board and when I moved back home from Arizona after not finding any job and getting the runaround from every GD place I applied, I still bought vinyl albums. But the turning of the tide came when at BJ Records there was this Motown CD of old Vee Jay Records Hits that sold for 15 bucks that I swore one day that I would end up buying. At my place of work some dude had a collection of over 100 CDs that he would listen to on a portable Discman. Had another friend that actually took in a CD player component and he had mostly had Stevie Ray Vaughn, or Rush or Ozzy for that matter but his CDs look like they been ran over a few 100 times.
On September 8th of 1987, I finally went to the old Target store on First Avenue and purchased a Sony Discman for 200 bucks and then over to the fledgling Best Buy across the street and bought Lynyrd Skynyrd Nuthin Fancy for 10 bucks and a cut out Pete Townsend Deep End Live cd. Then trekked over to BJ's To finally pick up Vee Jay's Greatest Hits and the CD buying era was born.
Best Buy at that time was in the strip mall that replaced the Twixt Town Drive In. At that point the city finally caught up to the fields of that part of town. What we didn't know back then that when we first saw the newspaper ads promoting a brand new electronic experience the world has never seen, little did we know that this little yellow tag of a new business would era in a new beginning but at the same time we didn't know that the great big decline would be coming since Best Buy was buying things in bulk and selling them cheaper than the music stores around here. At that time, K Mart and Target had good selection of albums and even Lindale Mall had Record Bar and The Record Store (later Musicland/Sam Goody). Across town Camelot Music was going strong and for independent record stores there was Omni and Rock n Bach. Rock N Bach, was Jim Henson's creation, a store that dedicated itself upon the music of the 50s and 60s and promo copies of unknown bands that I bought in bulk. They moved over from Ellis Blvd to behind the Handi Mart next to Lindale and I spent many times there. There was this long haired dude named Jerry Scott that I ended up being friends and chatting tunes but at around the late 80s, Rock N Bach had a big selection of CDs.
But with about 7 decent music stores to go to (and twice more in Iowa City) there wasn't a need to really to go hitting the road like I do now. But once I purchased a CD player, I didn't buy the new stuff but rather bought a lot of the compilations of the 50s and 60s and whatever came out on Chess/MCA so for the most part even back then the comps cost 8 or 9 dollars and the best of the bunch was Dunhill Classics, mastered by Steve Hoffman. Hoffman who mastered the Vintage Collections of the 50s and 60s for MCA cleaned up the sound to the point that they actually sounded better than the actual 45s, they're hard to find now but Universal did reissued them under the Special Markets banner and if you see any of the Vintage Collectibles, they're the actual Hoffman masters although they don't give him credit. If it's the full 3:38 of Born To Be Wild By Steppenwolf, that's Hoffman's work. But I also bought fun stuff like Beach Classics, Toga Party and the Ted Nugent & Amboy Dukes best of.
For new music, it varied. Yes, Big Generator was one of the first cd's I bought but also bought Anthrax Among The Living at the new Record Realm at Iowa City which used to be on first avenue in Cedar Rapids. Hard to figure out why they moved down south but they didn't stay too long in IC. I also started to listen to more alternative rock from the likes of Mighty Lemon Drops, The Stone Roses and Drivin n Cryin'. There was still good new rock coming Kings Of The Sun and Circus Of Power on RCA.
At this point, the Music Of My Years ends at 1990, at the time the opening of Relics Records in the old group of shops off First Avenue and I would make it my second home until it was closed down in 1997 and later Marcus Draves took over for Jerry Scott and moved it to Hiawatha. But the old place of shops would be torn down to make way for Best Buy to move from the old Twixt Town Strip Mall to take away more of our livelihood. The Relics Years will have to wait for another time.
The Music of that time:
Anthrax-Among The Living, I'm The Man EP, State Of Euphoria, Persistence Of Time
Elton John-Reg Strikes Back, Sleeping With The Past
The Mighty Lemon Drops-World Without End
The Dangtrippers-Days Between Stations
Full Fathom Five-4 AM
Kings Of The Sun, Full Frontal Attack
Circus Of Power, Vices
The Stone Roses
Drivin N Cryin'-Scarred But Smarter, Whisper Tames The Lion, Mystery Road
Nick Lowe-Basher (Best Of), Party Of One
Richard Thompson-Daring Adventures, Amnesia, Rumour & Sigh
James McMurtry-Too Long In The Wasteland
Steve Earle-Guitar Town, Exit O, Copperhead Road, The Hard Way
Dwight Yoakam-Guitar Cadallics etc etc, Hillbilly Deluxe, If There Was A Way
Lonnie Mack-Road Houses & Dance Halls
Stevie Ray Vaughan-Live Alive, In Step, The Sky Is Crying
Bob Dylan-Oh Mercy
Deep Purple-House Of Blue Light
Godfathers-Birth School Work Death, More Songs About Love And Hate
Living Colour-Vivid, Time's Up
Rolling Stones-Dirty Work, Steel Wheels
The Kinks-Think Visual, UK Jive
Robert Plant-Now & Zen, Manic Nirvana
Whitesnake
Jason & The Scorchers-Still Standing, Thunder & Fire
Status Quo
BoDeans-Outside Looking In, Home
Sidewinders-Witchdoctor, Auntie Ramos Pool Hall
Omar & The Howlers-Hard Times In The Land Of Plenty, Wall Of Pride, Monkeyland
Webb Wilder-Hybrid Vigor, Doo Dad
Stone
Metallica-Master Of Puppets, Garage Days Re Revisited
The Godz-Mongolians
REM-Document, Dead Letter Office, Green
Aerosmith-Done With Mirrors, Permanent Vacation, Pump
Georgia Satellites-Open All Night, Land Of Salvation & Sin
Rank & File (Rhino)
Rush-Presto
Smithereens-Especially For You, Green Thoughts, 11
The Feelies-Only Life
Tom Petty-Let Me Up (I've Had Enough), Full Moon Fever
Neil Young-Freedom, Ragged Glory
In my time at Arizona between 1986-1987, I discovered that the record stores had way so much out of print albums that I pretty much wasted my savings on trying to get out of print classics from the likes of Mott The Hoople (all Atlantic albums), Hawkwind (Space Ritual) or the latest on vinyl that Zia's or Rockaway sold used, but they also had a used CD bins that they sold for 10 bucks apiece. But I refused to get on board and when I moved back home from Arizona after not finding any job and getting the runaround from every GD place I applied, I still bought vinyl albums. But the turning of the tide came when at BJ Records there was this Motown CD of old Vee Jay Records Hits that sold for 15 bucks that I swore one day that I would end up buying. At my place of work some dude had a collection of over 100 CDs that he would listen to on a portable Discman. Had another friend that actually took in a CD player component and he had mostly had Stevie Ray Vaughn, or Rush or Ozzy for that matter but his CDs look like they been ran over a few 100 times.
On September 8th of 1987, I finally went to the old Target store on First Avenue and purchased a Sony Discman for 200 bucks and then over to the fledgling Best Buy across the street and bought Lynyrd Skynyrd Nuthin Fancy for 10 bucks and a cut out Pete Townsend Deep End Live cd. Then trekked over to BJ's To finally pick up Vee Jay's Greatest Hits and the CD buying era was born.
Best Buy at that time was in the strip mall that replaced the Twixt Town Drive In. At that point the city finally caught up to the fields of that part of town. What we didn't know back then that when we first saw the newspaper ads promoting a brand new electronic experience the world has never seen, little did we know that this little yellow tag of a new business would era in a new beginning but at the same time we didn't know that the great big decline would be coming since Best Buy was buying things in bulk and selling them cheaper than the music stores around here. At that time, K Mart and Target had good selection of albums and even Lindale Mall had Record Bar and The Record Store (later Musicland/Sam Goody). Across town Camelot Music was going strong and for independent record stores there was Omni and Rock n Bach. Rock N Bach, was Jim Henson's creation, a store that dedicated itself upon the music of the 50s and 60s and promo copies of unknown bands that I bought in bulk. They moved over from Ellis Blvd to behind the Handi Mart next to Lindale and I spent many times there. There was this long haired dude named Jerry Scott that I ended up being friends and chatting tunes but at around the late 80s, Rock N Bach had a big selection of CDs.
But with about 7 decent music stores to go to (and twice more in Iowa City) there wasn't a need to really to go hitting the road like I do now. But once I purchased a CD player, I didn't buy the new stuff but rather bought a lot of the compilations of the 50s and 60s and whatever came out on Chess/MCA so for the most part even back then the comps cost 8 or 9 dollars and the best of the bunch was Dunhill Classics, mastered by Steve Hoffman. Hoffman who mastered the Vintage Collections of the 50s and 60s for MCA cleaned up the sound to the point that they actually sounded better than the actual 45s, they're hard to find now but Universal did reissued them under the Special Markets banner and if you see any of the Vintage Collectibles, they're the actual Hoffman masters although they don't give him credit. If it's the full 3:38 of Born To Be Wild By Steppenwolf, that's Hoffman's work. But I also bought fun stuff like Beach Classics, Toga Party and the Ted Nugent & Amboy Dukes best of.
For new music, it varied. Yes, Big Generator was one of the first cd's I bought but also bought Anthrax Among The Living at the new Record Realm at Iowa City which used to be on first avenue in Cedar Rapids. Hard to figure out why they moved down south but they didn't stay too long in IC. I also started to listen to more alternative rock from the likes of Mighty Lemon Drops, The Stone Roses and Drivin n Cryin'. There was still good new rock coming Kings Of The Sun and Circus Of Power on RCA.
At this point, the Music Of My Years ends at 1990, at the time the opening of Relics Records in the old group of shops off First Avenue and I would make it my second home until it was closed down in 1997 and later Marcus Draves took over for Jerry Scott and moved it to Hiawatha. But the old place of shops would be torn down to make way for Best Buy to move from the old Twixt Town Strip Mall to take away more of our livelihood. The Relics Years will have to wait for another time.
The Music of that time:
Anthrax-Among The Living, I'm The Man EP, State Of Euphoria, Persistence Of Time
Elton John-Reg Strikes Back, Sleeping With The Past
The Mighty Lemon Drops-World Without End
The Dangtrippers-Days Between Stations
Full Fathom Five-4 AM
Kings Of The Sun, Full Frontal Attack
Circus Of Power, Vices
The Stone Roses
Drivin N Cryin'-Scarred But Smarter, Whisper Tames The Lion, Mystery Road
Nick Lowe-Basher (Best Of), Party Of One
Richard Thompson-Daring Adventures, Amnesia, Rumour & Sigh
James McMurtry-Too Long In The Wasteland
Steve Earle-Guitar Town, Exit O, Copperhead Road, The Hard Way
Dwight Yoakam-Guitar Cadallics etc etc, Hillbilly Deluxe, If There Was A Way
Lonnie Mack-Road Houses & Dance Halls
Stevie Ray Vaughan-Live Alive, In Step, The Sky Is Crying
Bob Dylan-Oh Mercy
Deep Purple-House Of Blue Light
Godfathers-Birth School Work Death, More Songs About Love And Hate
Living Colour-Vivid, Time's Up
Rolling Stones-Dirty Work, Steel Wheels
The Kinks-Think Visual, UK Jive
Robert Plant-Now & Zen, Manic Nirvana
Whitesnake
Jason & The Scorchers-Still Standing, Thunder & Fire
Status Quo
BoDeans-Outside Looking In, Home
Sidewinders-Witchdoctor, Auntie Ramos Pool Hall
Omar & The Howlers-Hard Times In The Land Of Plenty, Wall Of Pride, Monkeyland
Webb Wilder-Hybrid Vigor, Doo Dad
Stone
Metallica-Master Of Puppets, Garage Days Re Revisited
The Godz-Mongolians
REM-Document, Dead Letter Office, Green
Aerosmith-Done With Mirrors, Permanent Vacation, Pump
Georgia Satellites-Open All Night, Land Of Salvation & Sin
Rank & File (Rhino)
Rush-Presto
Smithereens-Especially For You, Green Thoughts, 11
The Feelies-Only Life
Tom Petty-Let Me Up (I've Had Enough), Full Moon Fever
Neil Young-Freedom, Ragged Glory
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Top Ten Of The Week-Terms Of Familarity
So here we are. Three days into spring. And right off the bat the first day we had a gullywasher. My brother built a bit a diversion off the driveway and made our very own waterfall from it into the ditch. Spring is here, looks like rain rain rain once again. Could be worse, could be ice.
With winter officially over, I can tell you that I didn't catch the cold nor flu all winter for the first time since 2006. I call it a miracle upon itself. Can't tell you how I did it, a little luck and blessings from above. Some weren't so lucky this year. Wayne Robinson used to be head of the IT department when I was working in Iowa City at the old NCS place. He retired sometime last decade but stayed on as a consultant. He went out to Colorado for vacation last week and ended up getting a massive heart attack and died Saturday. He was 63. He was a tall guy, had long curly hair and had a scruffy unshaven look half the time. I think I recall him from the scanner side of things when I first worked in IC around 1985.
Ralph Mooney, the best damn steel guitar player ever. He used to play in Wynn Stewart's band of Wishful Thinking fame then co wrote Empty Arms, a 1956 hit for Ray Price, and then was part of Waylon Jennings' outlaw band of the 1970s. He also had a hand in the Bakersfield Sound on recordings by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Later played on the latest Marty Stuart album. Dead from complications from cancer at age 82. They're all leaving us. Only ones left behind are the autotuned faceless folks.
Pinetop Perkins. Last of the original blues-men that goes back to the days of Muddy Waters. Recently won a Grammy TM with Joined At The Hip with Willie Big Eyes Smith, who used to be Muddy Waters' drummer on Hard Again in 1977, switched over to harmonica later. Pinetop was famous for Pinetop's Boogie Woogie in the early 50s. Played with Sonny Boy Williamson on the King Biscuit Broadcasts. Ike Turner called him one of the founding fathers of Rock and roll and taught him what he knew. Oldest person to win a Grammy TM. His heart gave out and he passed from a cardiac arrest at the age of 97.
Yesterday I was subjected to one of the worst all time albums ever with the Sin-arta Tribute Album (for release next week but if you want a cheap copy, contact me) but the second most disappointing album of the year has to be the New York Dolls-Dancing Backwards On High Heels (429/Savoy) to which I couldn't wait to review it and ended up getting a note from Mark Prindle telling me about it was going to be a disappointment since it sounds like a mediocre David Johansen nostalgia solo trip. To which he was dead on. Part of the big problem was that they lost Sami Jaffe and Steve Conte to Michael Monroe's Band (MM being former singer of Hanoi Rocks). The other problem is Jason Hill's subpar production work. And the songs themselves really sounded thrown together and nadir is Johnansen's I'm So Fabulous which supposely mocks the tourists who visited New York and give the impression that they so high and mighty but the way David sings it, he sounds bitter and dour. The only decent song was a remake of Funky But Chic. Before this, I have never had heard a bad David Johansen nor NY Dolls album. But this sounds tired. But at least the total time of album is 37 minutes long which still might be too long of a album to be entertained. But at least it's not a total waste as the Sin-arta fiasco.
And finally, I hate Guns N Roses most particularly Sweet Child O Mine to which I heard on two radio stations at the same time last night and once again from the dumbfucks at The FOX at 11 oclock this morning while going to the dentist. I do like Slash and his guitar playing, I bought and enjoyed Izzy Stratlin's two Geffen albums and even Duff McKegan had some quality moments. Axl Rose remains the problem with that baying vocal of his, never liked it much before nor after. I think ample times of hearing the intro to Welcome To The Jungle at every NFL game, or the opening notes of Sweet Child that makes me run out of the store or punch the button on the radio. Like any overplayed song you have to hear to classic rock radio, it goes past the point of annoyance and if you didn't like the song in the first place, it's a Chinese water torture just like the Chinese Democracy bomb that Axl gave the world. We live in a world that we have more music than ever before, but our Cumulus owned FM stations continues to slash the playlist to the same 50 songs to which Sweet Child O Mine is guaranteed to annoy me everytime I turn on The FOX. In terms of my frame of mind I'd perfer Rebecca Black. But that opinion might be different next week.
The Top Ten Of The Week:
1. Funk #49-James Gang 1970 One of more familar guitar introductions. Amazing how Joe Walsh can pull that off. Taken from James Gang Rides Again, a album that I had originally on 8 track. To which it repeated twice on 8 Track. Fun fact: originally The Bomber had the Bolero medley on 8 track but not on the album nor 15 Greatest Hits that MCA stuck out on CD. That used to be 16 Greatest Hits but Ya Dig got left off the CD version. Confused? You shouldn't be. Ya Dig was the B side to Walk Away, their highest charting hit. Never heard Funk #49 on radio before getting the 8 track at a garage sale.
2. Here We Go Again-Ray Charles 1967 The man redefined country music with soul and this is when Brother Ray incorporates a bit of blues to go with that country sound. You'll be happy to know that Willie Nelson along with Branford Marsalis and Norah Jones is doing a Ray Charles album called Here We Go Again The Songs Of Ray Charles which will be on Blue Note Records.
3. Shotgun-Vanilla Fudge 1969 The jury is still out on The Fudge and their radical arrangements of cover songs. Carmine Appice influenced John Bonham and you can hear trace amounts of Appice's drum solo at end on Moby Dick to compare notes. However, this is a straight ahead heavy metal wrecking of the Jr. Walker classic to which Vince Martelli takes on a wah wah petal and gets strangled in the process. Atco Records issued this a butchered 2 and half minute version on the 45 but the whole 6:14 glory is found on The Very Best Of Vanilla Fudge (Atco 1982) or Near The Beginning which Sundazed reissued a few years ago and is still in print. The Butchered single version is on the Rhino Best of.
4. Let There Be Music-Orleans 1975 They were on ABC for a few albums and didn't have hits so they jumped on board to Asylum and this was the first of a few hits for them. John Hall would go on to a solo career and now is a Congressman from New York. This managed to pop into the local top thirty but they would have a bigger hit with Dance With Me (which was my Aunt's theme song at her wedding). In terms of this lite pop rock, I think I prefer them over Pablo Cruise. At least I can listen to their Still The One comp over the Pablo Cruise's Need You Now, which didn't do much for me.
5. Gallows Pole-Led Zeppelin 1970 I have a friend that had the first two LZ albums before ZOSO came out but he didn't have LZ 3 and couldn't figure out why. He said it was too mellow for him but I found a scratched up copy for a buck and turned out that this would be my fave LZ album before Physical Graffiti. Turns out that I actually liked side 2 more than I did side 1, from this song to (Hats Off) To Roy Harper which is weird for LZ standards. Before that this song was on the bootleg An Hour With Led Zeppelin 8 Track, poorly recorded but did the trick before finding the actual album.
6. Sake Of The Song-Blackmore's Night 2011 For years I resisted hearing anything from Richie Blackmore's Medieval Folk group till I found a new copy for 2 bucks at Half Priced Books. They actually had two copies of this in the budget bins but of course somebody snagged that up too. But to find out that this is very good. Blessed with a beautiful woman with a great singing voice, Candice Night might be the best vocalist that Richie Blackmore ever had, so great that he ended up marrying her. But the new album Autumn Sky proves that Blackmore is still very technically great at playing guitar or mandolin or whatever passes for a string instrument. So give him a hand, he deserves it. Side note: Yeah I know, Ian Gillan, Ronnie James Dio were great vocalists that gave Blackmore's songs classic status but since he couldn't marry either one of them....
7. Don't Do It-The Band 1972 As much as I'm trying to get Brooksie to do a top ten (eventually I'll win, I hope) I tend to borrow tunes from her website of what she's listening to. I choose this outstanding track from Rock Of Ages.
8. Lonely Winds-The Drifters 1960 Wasn't a big hit but my mom had it on a 45 years ago. Showcases the late great Ben E King. I tend to revisit the music I grew up with but I somehow tend to ignore the doo wop and R and B bands of long ago and far away, I'll rectify that in the near future.
9. Sometimes I feel So Uninspired-Traffic 1972 I have those days too. And top tens to boot but I'll never tell which ones they are. The album Shoot Out At The Fantasy Factory never got much good reviews but I always enjoy that record when I play it. Although On The Road is a bit of a chore to sit through. And John Barleycorn Must Die (especially Empty Pages).
10. Wish You Were Here-Pink Floyd 1975 I guess I must have mistakenly put my copy in the donation bin at Goodwill for I have not found the CD and ended up getting a replacement vinyl album for four bucks at Half Priced Books. Next up on my vinyl want list: Animals.
New releases this week include.
Steve Martin & Steep Canyon Rangers-Rare Bird Alert (Rounder) Better put together album than The Crow but still that album was pretty good. Still standard straight up bluegrass although Martin adds a bit more comedy to the songs (Women Like To Slow Dance-done to a fast bluegrass beat, Jubilation Day, King Tut). A-
Saliva-Under Your Skin (Island) For modern rock, I can listen to them without much problem. Radio ready ballads to go with their nu metal rap. Better than Chico Dibalo although when I feel the need to hear Saliva, I put on Blood Stained Love Letter. B
John Popper & The Duskray Troubadours (Savoy/429) A scrappier version of Blues Traveler he touts and he's right, with Jono Manson helping out, it's more poppier and less abstract than BT although he slops it up on Leave It To Faith. B+
As this went to press, Elizabeth Taylor passed away at age 79. I really wasn't that big of fan, but I think my faves were with Richard Burton on Who's Afraid Of Virgina Woolf and Cleopatra. Something about their chemistry that brought out the best of both of them. I do admire her charity work in the fight against AIDS and of course we all know about her being best of friends with Michael Jackson. I'm sure something in her died when he O'D two years ago but she's always had some sort of health problems but overcame them. But once again seems like we're losing ICONs from the past and Liz is one of them. She'll be missed. RIP.
With winter officially over, I can tell you that I didn't catch the cold nor flu all winter for the first time since 2006. I call it a miracle upon itself. Can't tell you how I did it, a little luck and blessings from above. Some weren't so lucky this year. Wayne Robinson used to be head of the IT department when I was working in Iowa City at the old NCS place. He retired sometime last decade but stayed on as a consultant. He went out to Colorado for vacation last week and ended up getting a massive heart attack and died Saturday. He was 63. He was a tall guy, had long curly hair and had a scruffy unshaven look half the time. I think I recall him from the scanner side of things when I first worked in IC around 1985.
Ralph Mooney, the best damn steel guitar player ever. He used to play in Wynn Stewart's band of Wishful Thinking fame then co wrote Empty Arms, a 1956 hit for Ray Price, and then was part of Waylon Jennings' outlaw band of the 1970s. He also had a hand in the Bakersfield Sound on recordings by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. Later played on the latest Marty Stuart album. Dead from complications from cancer at age 82. They're all leaving us. Only ones left behind are the autotuned faceless folks.
Pinetop Perkins. Last of the original blues-men that goes back to the days of Muddy Waters. Recently won a Grammy TM with Joined At The Hip with Willie Big Eyes Smith, who used to be Muddy Waters' drummer on Hard Again in 1977, switched over to harmonica later. Pinetop was famous for Pinetop's Boogie Woogie in the early 50s. Played with Sonny Boy Williamson on the King Biscuit Broadcasts. Ike Turner called him one of the founding fathers of Rock and roll and taught him what he knew. Oldest person to win a Grammy TM. His heart gave out and he passed from a cardiac arrest at the age of 97.
Yesterday I was subjected to one of the worst all time albums ever with the Sin-arta Tribute Album (for release next week but if you want a cheap copy, contact me) but the second most disappointing album of the year has to be the New York Dolls-Dancing Backwards On High Heels (429/Savoy) to which I couldn't wait to review it and ended up getting a note from Mark Prindle telling me about it was going to be a disappointment since it sounds like a mediocre David Johansen nostalgia solo trip. To which he was dead on. Part of the big problem was that they lost Sami Jaffe and Steve Conte to Michael Monroe's Band (MM being former singer of Hanoi Rocks). The other problem is Jason Hill's subpar production work. And the songs themselves really sounded thrown together and nadir is Johnansen's I'm So Fabulous which supposely mocks the tourists who visited New York and give the impression that they so high and mighty but the way David sings it, he sounds bitter and dour. The only decent song was a remake of Funky But Chic. Before this, I have never had heard a bad David Johansen nor NY Dolls album. But this sounds tired. But at least the total time of album is 37 minutes long which still might be too long of a album to be entertained. But at least it's not a total waste as the Sin-arta fiasco.
And finally, I hate Guns N Roses most particularly Sweet Child O Mine to which I heard on two radio stations at the same time last night and once again from the dumbfucks at The FOX at 11 oclock this morning while going to the dentist. I do like Slash and his guitar playing, I bought and enjoyed Izzy Stratlin's two Geffen albums and even Duff McKegan had some quality moments. Axl Rose remains the problem with that baying vocal of his, never liked it much before nor after. I think ample times of hearing the intro to Welcome To The Jungle at every NFL game, or the opening notes of Sweet Child that makes me run out of the store or punch the button on the radio. Like any overplayed song you have to hear to classic rock radio, it goes past the point of annoyance and if you didn't like the song in the first place, it's a Chinese water torture just like the Chinese Democracy bomb that Axl gave the world. We live in a world that we have more music than ever before, but our Cumulus owned FM stations continues to slash the playlist to the same 50 songs to which Sweet Child O Mine is guaranteed to annoy me everytime I turn on The FOX. In terms of my frame of mind I'd perfer Rebecca Black. But that opinion might be different next week.
The Top Ten Of The Week:
1. Funk #49-James Gang 1970 One of more familar guitar introductions. Amazing how Joe Walsh can pull that off. Taken from James Gang Rides Again, a album that I had originally on 8 track. To which it repeated twice on 8 Track. Fun fact: originally The Bomber had the Bolero medley on 8 track but not on the album nor 15 Greatest Hits that MCA stuck out on CD. That used to be 16 Greatest Hits but Ya Dig got left off the CD version. Confused? You shouldn't be. Ya Dig was the B side to Walk Away, their highest charting hit. Never heard Funk #49 on radio before getting the 8 track at a garage sale.
2. Here We Go Again-Ray Charles 1967 The man redefined country music with soul and this is when Brother Ray incorporates a bit of blues to go with that country sound. You'll be happy to know that Willie Nelson along with Branford Marsalis and Norah Jones is doing a Ray Charles album called Here We Go Again The Songs Of Ray Charles which will be on Blue Note Records.
3. Shotgun-Vanilla Fudge 1969 The jury is still out on The Fudge and their radical arrangements of cover songs. Carmine Appice influenced John Bonham and you can hear trace amounts of Appice's drum solo at end on Moby Dick to compare notes. However, this is a straight ahead heavy metal wrecking of the Jr. Walker classic to which Vince Martelli takes on a wah wah petal and gets strangled in the process. Atco Records issued this a butchered 2 and half minute version on the 45 but the whole 6:14 glory is found on The Very Best Of Vanilla Fudge (Atco 1982) or Near The Beginning which Sundazed reissued a few years ago and is still in print. The Butchered single version is on the Rhino Best of.
4. Let There Be Music-Orleans 1975 They were on ABC for a few albums and didn't have hits so they jumped on board to Asylum and this was the first of a few hits for them. John Hall would go on to a solo career and now is a Congressman from New York. This managed to pop into the local top thirty but they would have a bigger hit with Dance With Me (which was my Aunt's theme song at her wedding). In terms of this lite pop rock, I think I prefer them over Pablo Cruise. At least I can listen to their Still The One comp over the Pablo Cruise's Need You Now, which didn't do much for me.
5. Gallows Pole-Led Zeppelin 1970 I have a friend that had the first two LZ albums before ZOSO came out but he didn't have LZ 3 and couldn't figure out why. He said it was too mellow for him but I found a scratched up copy for a buck and turned out that this would be my fave LZ album before Physical Graffiti. Turns out that I actually liked side 2 more than I did side 1, from this song to (Hats Off) To Roy Harper which is weird for LZ standards. Before that this song was on the bootleg An Hour With Led Zeppelin 8 Track, poorly recorded but did the trick before finding the actual album.
6. Sake Of The Song-Blackmore's Night 2011 For years I resisted hearing anything from Richie Blackmore's Medieval Folk group till I found a new copy for 2 bucks at Half Priced Books. They actually had two copies of this in the budget bins but of course somebody snagged that up too. But to find out that this is very good. Blessed with a beautiful woman with a great singing voice, Candice Night might be the best vocalist that Richie Blackmore ever had, so great that he ended up marrying her. But the new album Autumn Sky proves that Blackmore is still very technically great at playing guitar or mandolin or whatever passes for a string instrument. So give him a hand, he deserves it. Side note: Yeah I know, Ian Gillan, Ronnie James Dio were great vocalists that gave Blackmore's songs classic status but since he couldn't marry either one of them....
7. Don't Do It-The Band 1972 As much as I'm trying to get Brooksie to do a top ten (eventually I'll win, I hope) I tend to borrow tunes from her website of what she's listening to. I choose this outstanding track from Rock Of Ages.
8. Lonely Winds-The Drifters 1960 Wasn't a big hit but my mom had it on a 45 years ago. Showcases the late great Ben E King. I tend to revisit the music I grew up with but I somehow tend to ignore the doo wop and R and B bands of long ago and far away, I'll rectify that in the near future.
9. Sometimes I feel So Uninspired-Traffic 1972 I have those days too. And top tens to boot but I'll never tell which ones they are. The album Shoot Out At The Fantasy Factory never got much good reviews but I always enjoy that record when I play it. Although On The Road is a bit of a chore to sit through. And John Barleycorn Must Die (especially Empty Pages).
10. Wish You Were Here-Pink Floyd 1975 I guess I must have mistakenly put my copy in the donation bin at Goodwill for I have not found the CD and ended up getting a replacement vinyl album for four bucks at Half Priced Books. Next up on my vinyl want list: Animals.
New releases this week include.
Steve Martin & Steep Canyon Rangers-Rare Bird Alert (Rounder) Better put together album than The Crow but still that album was pretty good. Still standard straight up bluegrass although Martin adds a bit more comedy to the songs (Women Like To Slow Dance-done to a fast bluegrass beat, Jubilation Day, King Tut). A-
Saliva-Under Your Skin (Island) For modern rock, I can listen to them without much problem. Radio ready ballads to go with their nu metal rap. Better than Chico Dibalo although when I feel the need to hear Saliva, I put on Blood Stained Love Letter. B
John Popper & The Duskray Troubadours (Savoy/429) A scrappier version of Blues Traveler he touts and he's right, with Jono Manson helping out, it's more poppier and less abstract than BT although he slops it up on Leave It To Faith. B+
As this went to press, Elizabeth Taylor passed away at age 79. I really wasn't that big of fan, but I think my faves were with Richard Burton on Who's Afraid Of Virgina Woolf and Cleopatra. Something about their chemistry that brought out the best of both of them. I do admire her charity work in the fight against AIDS and of course we all know about her being best of friends with Michael Jackson. I'm sure something in her died when he O'D two years ago but she's always had some sort of health problems but overcame them. But once again seems like we're losing ICONs from the past and Liz is one of them. She'll be missed. RIP.
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