In my 50 years of listening to music, I have listened to just about everything that tickled my fancy, beginning with scratchy records then onward to albums, 8 Tracks, cassettes and CDs, I don't think I've heard it all before but then again I'm sure I'm missing a few things that sneaked passed me.
There have been things that I enjoyed that some of my friends and folks never did. The MC5 Starship pissed my dad off to the point that he almost threw that in the garbage and Mom banned Guns And Roses from the residence too, basically meant nothing since I didn't like their first album anyway. Throughout the course of life there always been the avant garde that tends to try people's patience or the crapfest autotuner garbage that is Florida Georgia State Line and whatever KDAT is playing. I never want to hear Sheryl Crow's crap again either or continued to get overplayed Train Hey Soul Sister which the distinctive mark of being played five straight times when I went to Cost Cutters and got my hair cut. When I hear Bon Jovi Slippery When Wet at selective record stores it was time for me to hit the bricks. Any Cumulus Radio Station playing at local businesses means a very short stay and makes me want to spring for a Smart Phone and listen to net radio. Let's face it, FM radio is a root canal without novacaine and Train makes me want to take a shotgun and paint the walls with my brains (what's left of them).
But, say if you're having a party and want to call it a evening and your guests are not co operating. Well time to pull out ten versions of "closing time, you don't have to go home but you can't stay here". Play these 10 songs and I guarantee you, that will get the point across that the party is over.
Unless they're freaks.
LOU REED-Metal Machine Music (Buddha/RCA 1975) A two record set of guitar feedback in different variations but the record is much more fun including an infinite groove that ends side 4. Actually had this on vinyl years ago (used to be part of the KUNI or KCOE record library at one time but I traded it in along with a 100 more LPs to get the seldom played Led Zeppelin box set). But even I didn't play it much and it was worth a few dollars anyway.
CROMAGNON-Cave Rock (ESP Disk 1969) The album that gives Tad nightmares but I find it somewhat entertaining in its ugly way and there really wasn't much out there you can compare it with either, perhaps the first true industrial rock album in its own wake, the primitiveness of the first track and the rest featuring odd snippets, kiddies screaming freedom and other weird vibes, this is not one album you listen to while dropping acid. This will give you nightmares, even on too much caffeine you'll see the real weird scenes inside the gold mine as you fall deeper into the abyss.
THE STOOGES-L A Blues (from Fun House) 1970 A Stooges fan is somebody that has to shift through the violent punk imagery of the first side and Mr. McKay's screechy saxophone on side two but the final track is 4 and half minutes of drum bashing, guitar feedback, sax screeching and Iggy screams and grunts. Basically by the time you get to the third example of this list most of your guest should be gone for good but if not, we still got a few more examples.
ASH-Sick Party (the bonus track to 1977) 1996 When I hear crap like this final excursion into bad bowel movements and puking up to the point you think the dude is going to die or have his inners turned inside out, it defeats the sense of purpose of me even keeping the rest of the album to which would have been the album to get till you come to this buried about 5 minutes after the final song. I never did buy another Ash album again. It's bad.
Alternative Press Presents Industrial Strength Machine Music (the framework of industrial rock 1978-1995) Rhino 1999 Everything you want to know about Industrial Music is summed up in 16 slabs of abrasive steel and keyboard beginning with the unlistenable but influential Throbbing Gristle to which I had their TG Greatest Hits for about a week before unloading it on EBAY. Not suitable for work is this comp either to which on a fateful Friday, I broke my headphones trying to fix a cutter problem and ended up having the damn cabinet stuff being stuck on a tool box before it came open and everything went flying including my headphones off my head which cracked in two, which happening on a KMFDM song here. A who's who of Industrial Metal (Ministry, Meat Beat Manifesto, Revolting Cocks, Skinny Puppy, Front 242 you get the picture) this is not to be played at work and not around machinery either.
VELVET UNDERGROUND-White Light/White Heat (the album) 1968 I love the Velvet Underground and most of the banana album and the more quieter third album but number 2 is a noisefest that will guarantee to piss off the over 40 crowd. What stands out in my mind while 3rd shift one night at NCS processing Pell Grants was we were listening to KRUI, the Iowa City college station and they played the full 17 minute version of Sister Ray and watching the reaction of the old ladies to this song was priceless. I think they would have prefer Metal Machine Music instead.
JOHN COLTRANE-Om 1965 Let's face it, John could try many a people's patience when he started noodling into that avant garde noise that started around Ascension and continued till his death, like Albert Ayler or Ornette Coleman and others, if you're looking for melody and don't like chaos, this is not for you. In fact it could be considered the first grunge album ever since it was recorded in Seattle. Starts out with and odd poem to which J.C and company start moaning Om over and over before Pharaoh Sanders starts screaming out of nowhere like a deranged duck. Many critics consider this the be the least of Coltrane's output although him dueling Rasheed Ali on Interstellar Space can be trying as well. Tests have shown that houses that did have this album and Albert Ayler's albums didn't have cochroaches in a two block radius. It's that powerful and better than Raid.
MC5-Starship (From Kick Out The Jams 1968) Sun Ra probably fits into the last entry but The MC5 was radically different from your noise bands, they knew their John Lee Hooker, somebody knew Ramblin Rose and Wild Thing and turn it into a bunch of noise and they loved Sun Ra to include something called Starship and gave him credit too. You had to be there to see it in its glory and most who did ended up with ringing of the ears for life but I will forever name this song to the number one most hated song from my dad. I'm still surprised he didn't take a shot gun out and turned the long player into a cracked 45.
SIN-ATRA 2011 A metal various artists trying to pay tribute to the Great Frank and making a poo platter of craptastic metal farts that even makes me what the fuck I bought this piece of shit in the first place. Only Geoff Tate could make any sense out of Summer Wind and metal hack Bob Kulick got raked over the coals for even putting this together in the first place. One of those rare albums so bad, that there are more one star ratings than any other one in Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Sin-Atra-Various-Artists/dp/B004LSJCPQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1365226615&sr=1-1&keywords=sin+atra
KING OF KINGS 1992 Crappy Prog rock that came out on Geffen in 1992, so fucking bad you can't find it listed on Amazon and I wrote a bad review about that one. I think by now on this list I'd be gone. To quote Steve McDonald who had to listen to this rubbish crap.
This album was produced by Roy Thomas Baker
-- and certainly sounds like it, from a recording standpoint. The drums
sound terrific, the guitars sound massive, the mix is crystal.
Unfortunately it's utter rubbish, despite some interesting side trips.
I'm not sure what Desmond Horn (guitar, vocals, songs) was attempting to
do here but the directionless writing and poor performances, along with
Horn's untrained and toneless voice, indicate that somebody lacked a
few ideas -- even if Baker's production is big shiny stuff.
So by now everybody you wanted to be gone should be gone by now and after the 9th suggestion it's obvious that I would have been long gone from your party as well. The Tenth and final suggestion
BONZO DOG BAND-Slush (from let's make up and be friendly) 1971 Their stuff influenced Myton Python but by the time they did the failed comeback album, the dryly titled Let's Make Up And Be Friendly nobody cared and judging by the songs here they didn't either. Odd ball ending to this record of a laughing loop over and over, this too ended the History Of The Bonzo's best of when United Aritists put that out in 1974. Fucking weirdness that somehow influenced Pink Floyd's conceptional Dark Side Of The Moon (Dick Parry the sax player plays on this album as well).
If all else fails, put on KDAT!
you're welcome ;)
Sunday, April 7, 2013
Friday, April 5, 2013
Crabb Bits: Dubuque/SMSY, Roger Ebert RIP
I hate this year. It has sucked from the word go and tonight was no exception.
Crap printer, crappier cutter, fucking screws that won't stay in the holes, jam. Went to fix it, take something out of the toolbox, toobox gets stuck in the cabinet door, then it opens up, tool box and contents go all over the workplace, knocking off my headphones and breaking them in two and turning me into the Incredible Hulk again. Took the night off, considered getting shit faced drunk. Tired of this life, job and everything else about it. Should have traded places with Roger Ebert.
To which Robert Ebert passed away Thursday at age 70 from cancer complications. Up till the end, Ebert continued to blog about the movies and even wrote a final piece two days before he died. He will be missed although he will be joining Gene Siskel in the great movie theater in the skies. http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2013/04/a_leave_of_presense.html
First Dubuque trip this year and probably the last way things are going, seen a lot of fucking morons and idiots on the river walk. Nothing like some bitch and dude rollerblading where they not supposed to. Went down to the Mississippi and hung there till some dumb fuck kid from a dumb fuck family was throwing rocks above and one came a few feet from me, I was ready to throttle the Stupid family. For the most part usual crap, red lights, slow poke drivers in front, tail gators and the back, some asshole ran a stop sign, I'm getting carpel tunnel just from flipping them all off. And then to have some dumbfuck kid and GF pulling the emergency 911 call button and watching them run away, should have reported the cocksuckers in the first place. Seen two cop cars coming to the scene and questioning some family of five if they did it but Jr. Saggy Bottom Pants and Dumbhilda was hiding in the their car in the parking lot.
One good thing about Diamond Jo Casino, you get free pop when you go in and play the slots, or in my car needing a drink, so took advantage of that before returning back to the Riverwalk of stupids. There was a expensive burger place inside Star Brewery when I was up there last, it's not there anymore, only the winery and hardly any cars in the parking lot but it was open. I like to go in there and check their beer can collection in the entry and the history of the Dubuque Star Brewery but it really felt like I was the only person in there. I kinda enjoyed the peace and quiet myself.
CD's bought:
Elton John-Good Morning To The Night
Patti Smith-Banga
The Shake-Trippin The Whole Colorful World
George Jones-Heartaches And Hangovers
Ashley Monroe-Like A Rose
Mighty Baby-A Jug Of Love
LPs bought at Books A Million:
The Soft Machine
Dictators-Blood Brothers
Updates: Bob Lefsetz continues to rail against new music, albums and the like and most of the time you just want to smack him upside the head. He still to continue to insist for peanuts on his flights to ski country and his Southwest Airlines blog is the stuff of legends to make fun of which Pop Dose has done in their latest Bob Bashing. But before dismissing him as a senile old poop, he is right about the cable bundling, to get high speed, cable and all those channels nobody watches. They cost too much and basically I don't give a flying fuck about World Series Of Poker or Hot Dog Eating Contest, more reasons why the TV stays off most of the time. I agree with him on that, but he will not tell you what new music to listen to because his niche is in the past with 30 40 year old songs and the classic stuff and doesn't have time for any newbies and their crappy music, Lord knows how he managed to listen to Adele's last record. Want to piss him off? Send him your new rap song or country song and call it the next big thing. I bet ya he will write a blog telling y'all TO STOP SENDING HIM YOU DAMNED NEW MUSIC. Basically Variety signed him up to write there as well. For more contradiction, you can go over to his site and read his butt love for Southwest Airlines. In other words what kind of fucked up country do we live in where we can't get free peanuts.......
Today's question answered by Diggy Kat
Q) What the hell is a Vufcup?
A) it's a vibe/frequency that translates into emotions of living creatures/humans. a positive identification
Now you know.
And now the new leader in most searched keywords in the R S Crabb Site. Pat Travers!
NUMBER ONE DAMMIT!
Crap printer, crappier cutter, fucking screws that won't stay in the holes, jam. Went to fix it, take something out of the toolbox, toobox gets stuck in the cabinet door, then it opens up, tool box and contents go all over the workplace, knocking off my headphones and breaking them in two and turning me into the Incredible Hulk again. Took the night off, considered getting shit faced drunk. Tired of this life, job and everything else about it. Should have traded places with Roger Ebert.
To which Robert Ebert passed away Thursday at age 70 from cancer complications. Up till the end, Ebert continued to blog about the movies and even wrote a final piece two days before he died. He will be missed although he will be joining Gene Siskel in the great movie theater in the skies. http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2013/04/a_leave_of_presense.html
First Dubuque trip this year and probably the last way things are going, seen a lot of fucking morons and idiots on the river walk. Nothing like some bitch and dude rollerblading where they not supposed to. Went down to the Mississippi and hung there till some dumb fuck kid from a dumb fuck family was throwing rocks above and one came a few feet from me, I was ready to throttle the Stupid family. For the most part usual crap, red lights, slow poke drivers in front, tail gators and the back, some asshole ran a stop sign, I'm getting carpel tunnel just from flipping them all off. And then to have some dumbfuck kid and GF pulling the emergency 911 call button and watching them run away, should have reported the cocksuckers in the first place. Seen two cop cars coming to the scene and questioning some family of five if they did it but Jr. Saggy Bottom Pants and Dumbhilda was hiding in the their car in the parking lot.
One good thing about Diamond Jo Casino, you get free pop when you go in and play the slots, or in my car needing a drink, so took advantage of that before returning back to the Riverwalk of stupids. There was a expensive burger place inside Star Brewery when I was up there last, it's not there anymore, only the winery and hardly any cars in the parking lot but it was open. I like to go in there and check their beer can collection in the entry and the history of the Dubuque Star Brewery but it really felt like I was the only person in there. I kinda enjoyed the peace and quiet myself.
CD's bought:
Elton John-Good Morning To The Night
Patti Smith-Banga
The Shake-Trippin The Whole Colorful World
George Jones-Heartaches And Hangovers
Ashley Monroe-Like A Rose
Mighty Baby-A Jug Of Love
LPs bought at Books A Million:
The Soft Machine
Dictators-Blood Brothers
Updates: Bob Lefsetz continues to rail against new music, albums and the like and most of the time you just want to smack him upside the head. He still to continue to insist for peanuts on his flights to ski country and his Southwest Airlines blog is the stuff of legends to make fun of which Pop Dose has done in their latest Bob Bashing. But before dismissing him as a senile old poop, he is right about the cable bundling, to get high speed, cable and all those channels nobody watches. They cost too much and basically I don't give a flying fuck about World Series Of Poker or Hot Dog Eating Contest, more reasons why the TV stays off most of the time. I agree with him on that, but he will not tell you what new music to listen to because his niche is in the past with 30 40 year old songs and the classic stuff and doesn't have time for any newbies and their crappy music, Lord knows how he managed to listen to Adele's last record. Want to piss him off? Send him your new rap song or country song and call it the next big thing. I bet ya he will write a blog telling y'all TO STOP SENDING HIM YOU DAMNED NEW MUSIC. Basically Variety signed him up to write there as well. For more contradiction, you can go over to his site and read his butt love for Southwest Airlines. In other words what kind of fucked up country do we live in where we can't get free peanuts.......
Today's question answered by Diggy Kat
Q) What the hell is a Vufcup?
A) it's a vibe/frequency that translates into emotions of living creatures/humans. a positive identification
Now you know.
And now the new leader in most searched keywords in the R S Crabb Site. Pat Travers!
NUMBER ONE DAMMIT!
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Top Ten Of The Week: He Has Risen! Yes I Have
Easter weekend came and went and of course it was madhouse fun at the Smith family residence once again. Trying to watch the finale of The Walking Dead only to have my mom make commentary throughout the show. And of course the old man passed in front of the TV set downstairs watching Louisville upset Baylor in women's basketball. For the most part I think we missed the Ten Commandments, which usually shows on Easter weekend, mostly Saturday Night but I think I was out and about.
A lotta people think The Passion Of The Christ is a powerful movie but for me it's the 1927 silent film King Of Kings to which whoever played Jesus did a very convincing job to the point that when I am dead and gone from this world, the first person I want to meet would be Jesus. TCM shows King Of Kings on Easter Sunday Nights and although I have seen it about 10 times, I always shed tears of the cross scene and death and resurrection of Christ. Guess I have some good in me after all.
One of my earliest followers and friends Genie sent me a email for the first time in just about five years I think and their newest song is Resurrection Rhapsody which is a parody of Queen's version. Thought I would share it for you since Genie and her husband have been supportive of my musical endeavors. http://geniemusic.com/?s=1671
Apparently, The First And Last Crabb Fashion Show has been a hit with viewers to the point that it has now popped unto the All Time 10 Best Blogs. No matter how good it has done the past month, I have no intentions of doing a followup although Natalie Monet is tied for 4th place all time for most searched names here. Meanwhile Pat Travers has caught Samantha Fish for the top spot and probably will overtake her since a lot of you out there are tired of hearing about Sam Fish. In that case don't buy the new Townedger's record then. ;-)
If I was to kill The Rock N Roll And The Brains Blog, we would return to the days of 1,000 or less. I can't believe the world continues to read that or hit the clicker to generate more views.
Last year at this time I was mowing the yard. This year, we can't seem to get temps up past fifty degrees. Global warming my ass, it's the ice age all over again. Funny how one year ago we were ready to put the AC up in the window. This year we still got the humidifier going. And it's still chilly here. Still have snow in the shady areas.
I want to share this touching eulogy to Phil Ramone from Billy Joel. It was Ramone who managed to get the best of B.J. beginning with the Stranger and through a lot of his classic albums of the 70s and 80s up to An Innocent Man. I was not much of a Joel fan till later (Piano Man still sucks) but his albums really have gotten better over time. Paying tribute to the man who got the most out of Billy. RIP http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/billy-joel-pays-tribute-to-phil-ramone-he-was-the-king-20130403
The Top Ten Of The Week IS:
1. Motel Broken Hearts-Walter Egan 1979 From The Last Stroll, an album that I have never heard nor seen till finding it in Iowa City last month. Egan better known for Magnet And Steel featuring help from Fleetwood Mac really did carve out a pretty good pop rock career although sales after Not Shy dwindled into nothing. This time out, he goes with Earle Mankey on a more modern pop sound that isn't anything like Fleetwood Mac and if you have seen the cover of this album it probably would have creep you out. Very underrated singer who would return to the top forty charts with Full Moon Fire for Backstreet MCA in 1983.
2. All The Same To You-Laura Cantrell 2002 One of the greatest mysteries to me is how come Laura Cantrell never got to be more than just a cult artist, John Peel the late great DJ loved her to bits and called Not The Trembling Kind the best album of his life or something to that effect. I've heard it and thought it was pretty good but I liked the 2002 followup When The Roses Bloom Again better, probably of the fact that Laura covered a Amy Rigby song as well. I also add Cheri Knight into this fold of country rocking women with sarcastical wit to boot although Amy has kinda mellowed since marrying Wreckless Eric. This song is too country for country radio today and even back then 11 years ago it was iffy but Laura Cantrell needs to be rediscovered and quickly soon. Maybe I should pass this CD on to Steve Ramussen at work since he likes female country singers with a bit of twang to them.
3. Drop Down And Get Me-Del Shannon 1981 To me, one of the best heartbreak songwriters that ever lived was Del Shannon and although radio pretty much ignored him after Runaway, Shannon had a legion of fans and musicians that would support and help him along the way, most notably Tom Petty who produced his 1981 Elektra/Network album of the same name. Basically forgotten in the US, most if not all of his albums are still available on import, Drop Down And Get Me highly recommended for you Tom Petty and power pop fans.
4. With A Little Help From My Friends-Joe Cocker 1969 Ain't it amazing to see that Joe continues to deliver records and put on shows and really his vocals have never changed all that much, even 44 years after the fact that Joe would gather some of England's finest to play on his albums? Jimmy Page plays mad guitar and drums are by the late great BJ Wilson on this track that still gets plenty of airplay on classic rock radio (and oldies too). Another two dollar buy at the pawnshop since nobody thought it would sell.
5. Tennessee Birdwalk-Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan 1970 Ain't the internet wonderful? They are still around and they are still making music and they are still married after all these years and having the only number 1 country hit of their lifetime. The original take was they were a stoner Sonny And Cher but to these ears, they had more in common with Nancy And Lee although Blanchard sounded more stoned than Lee Hazlewood ever did. This song got covered a few others (I've seen an album which the late Buck Owens and Susan Raye covered TBW but haven't worked up the nerve to hear it). Found a decent copy of Birds Of A Feather for two bits at Goodwill and it's a fun listen. For more and games you can hear more and some of Jack's insights at their website: http://www.jackandmisty.com/
Jack and Misty recorded a few singles and albums for the likes of Mega, Epic and United Aritsts although I have to admit I have never seen any other singles outside of Tennessee Birdwalk and Humphrey The Camel
Fun fact: Bethlehem Steel, came on Those Darn Records label and has A Martin Daniels Production tag to it. The Martin Daniels I know and talk to from time to time swears he had nothing to do with that, he wasn't even born at that time hehehehe.
6. Earth Blues-Jimi Hendrix 2013 Recorded 1969 and featuring The Band Of Gypsy's (Billy Cox and Buddy Miles RIP) and came out on the new cash grab People, Hell And Angels album. They keep telling you that if Hendrix had lived this would have been the general direction his music would have taken. As a Hendrix fan, I pretty much have bought what I have seen and People, Hell etc etc is a better listen than the jamtastic Valleys Of Neptune. Granted, dead Hendrix releases do sound better than alive Bowie albums from my experiences. Your opinion will be different.
7. Desperadoes Waiting For A Train-Guy Clark 1976 Here's the one thing I don't get when I see things from Amazon. Old No. 1 which Sugarhill reissued in the 1990s (now deleted) sells for 40 dollars whereas the Essential Guy Clark to which RCA reissued both that and Texas Cookin (the only 2 albums he did for RCA) and you can buy for 4 dollars new. The power of Amazon sellers fucking people up the ass in terms of profit. Had the Sugarhill album and sold it for 8 bucks at one time and then doing research on Guy Clark found the Essential for 2.50 at Goodwill. Clark reminds me a lot like Kris Kristofferson although Clark sings much better although Kris beats him for better songwriting but Clark is in the school of Kris and the late Harlan Howard, great songwriters that couldn't sing well. Problem number 2 is that most of the songs that Clark does is slow tempo and tends to put me to sleep if I'm not careful but this is one of his better songs, to which The Highwaymen (including KK, Johnny Cash, Waylon and Willie) had a minor hit with this song.
8. Good Morning Little School Girl-Ten Years After 1973 The live version to which Alvin Lee and Leo Lyons has a shoot em out jam between guitar and bass guitar. Alvin Lee, excellent guitar player in the tradition of Jim Hall gone rock and maybe he should have considered doing a instrumental only album in his lifetime. Lee's lyrics at times could be embarrassing just like Dave Peverett could be embarrassing too (Second verse: I'm gonna ball you, like you never been balled before, can't get away with that anymore creepy old dude-Side Note: John Lee (the original Sonny Boy) Williamson wrote this song back in 1937 and don't think he ever uttered those words in said song). Our good friend Bob Dorr has played this song a couple times in past history on Backtracks. Or somebody did when KFMW was hosting the underground rock show back in the mid 70s. On the subject of Bob Dorr, Backtracks is now a Saturday Afternoon show before Garrison Kellor's show at 5. I hardly noticed anymore since I don't listen to KUNI on Saturday Nights and only time I did they were playing that new rock garbage that clears a room out in seconds. Next.
9. Can I Sit Next To You Girl-Ac/Dc 1976 You really don't get much variety from AC/DC outside of the meat and potatoes rock and roll that they have been doing for all these years but even in the early years they seem to do a bit more variations on three chords and the truth, in fact this is probably their most poppish song ever done and the only one not written by Bon Scott during that era. KRNA sure plays TNT and It's A Long Way To The Top quite a bit but they won't touch this one, doesn't fit the Cumulus Criteria. To which we all say Fuck Cumulus and their Corporate Crap Radio. Going off subject here: I went to get my twice yearly haircut and for the 5th straight time of going to Cost Cutters, they had KDAT in the background and guess what song was playing? Hey Soul Sister from Train! One of the reasons why I hate Cumulus Radio. And Train for that matter. Getting back to AC/DC High Voltage didn't sell much back in 76, saw Long Way To The Top as a single at Sears one day and never picked it up, mistook that for a disco song. Hey it was 5 minutes long.
10. After Forever-Black Sabbath 1971 Mark Prindle finally relented and gave Masters Of Reality a ten and downgraded Volume 4 to a 9 or 8 and for my money, Masters Of Reality was the best Sabbath album of the Ozzy era with the S/T and Volume 4 and Paranoid coming into that order. If you had Sabbath in your collection back then, you were considered cool and a freak all in the same sentence. Reading the liner notes, Ozzy didn't write this one, Tony Iommi did. Unconventional but still classic Sabbath.
Past my bedtime but oh well, five more
Wasting My Time-Jimmy Page 1988
Coolhead-Kelly Osborne 2002
Here Come Those Tears Again-Jackson Browne 1976
Good Morning Little School Girl-Sonny Boy Williamson 1937
Laugh At Me-Mott The Hoople 1970
Passings: Bob Clarke, one of the original MAD magazine artists who drew Spy Vs Spy and countless other things. He was 87.
The end of the week I should know of my fate of where we will be at once printing has moved up north to Minnesota, of course they would make the decision on the day I penciled in a bargain hunting trip but I may postpone that or do a weekend thing. I an not exactly pleased of the ways of Minnesota management or the way they treated people that were interested of coming up, Dave Hansen never did return any phone calls or emails which probably makes the fact that if he didn't cared now, he probably be the first to show you out the door once you're not needed up there. All in the name of money and the bottom line. Oh yeah and Minnesota is a great place to live, if you like an extra month of snow and cold and two months of rain, heat and tornadoes. I'm sure Owatonna is a nice town to be in, if you knew anybody but it's not my home nor my livelihood. Only thing I be missing is an hour's away from Minneapolis. At least we're spared of Hoshin, some new aged mind control thought up by them. It sure helped our department, NOT.
The music festivals are early around here but Iowa City this week has the Mission Creek Festival running through the 7th with a lineup featuring Iris Dement, Deerhoof, Tig Nutaro with Jeanne Garfolo (I love her to death in Truth About Cats And Dogs and most of her stuff back then although I'm sure she'd never give me the time of day) and plenty of hours (sad to say The Townedgers won't be there) but they'll be playing at different venues around Iowa City with Deerhoof concluding things on Sunday at The Mill. http://www.missionfreak.com/
As always thank you for your support. Especially Tad!
A lotta people think The Passion Of The Christ is a powerful movie but for me it's the 1927 silent film King Of Kings to which whoever played Jesus did a very convincing job to the point that when I am dead and gone from this world, the first person I want to meet would be Jesus. TCM shows King Of Kings on Easter Sunday Nights and although I have seen it about 10 times, I always shed tears of the cross scene and death and resurrection of Christ. Guess I have some good in me after all.
One of my earliest followers and friends Genie sent me a email for the first time in just about five years I think and their newest song is Resurrection Rhapsody which is a parody of Queen's version. Thought I would share it for you since Genie and her husband have been supportive of my musical endeavors. http://geniemusic.com/?s=1671
Apparently, The First And Last Crabb Fashion Show has been a hit with viewers to the point that it has now popped unto the All Time 10 Best Blogs. No matter how good it has done the past month, I have no intentions of doing a followup although Natalie Monet is tied for 4th place all time for most searched names here. Meanwhile Pat Travers has caught Samantha Fish for the top spot and probably will overtake her since a lot of you out there are tired of hearing about Sam Fish. In that case don't buy the new Townedger's record then. ;-)
If I was to kill The Rock N Roll And The Brains Blog, we would return to the days of 1,000 or less. I can't believe the world continues to read that or hit the clicker to generate more views.
Last year at this time I was mowing the yard. This year, we can't seem to get temps up past fifty degrees. Global warming my ass, it's the ice age all over again. Funny how one year ago we were ready to put the AC up in the window. This year we still got the humidifier going. And it's still chilly here. Still have snow in the shady areas.
I want to share this touching eulogy to Phil Ramone from Billy Joel. It was Ramone who managed to get the best of B.J. beginning with the Stranger and through a lot of his classic albums of the 70s and 80s up to An Innocent Man. I was not much of a Joel fan till later (Piano Man still sucks) but his albums really have gotten better over time. Paying tribute to the man who got the most out of Billy. RIP http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/billy-joel-pays-tribute-to-phil-ramone-he-was-the-king-20130403
The Top Ten Of The Week IS:
1. Motel Broken Hearts-Walter Egan 1979 From The Last Stroll, an album that I have never heard nor seen till finding it in Iowa City last month. Egan better known for Magnet And Steel featuring help from Fleetwood Mac really did carve out a pretty good pop rock career although sales after Not Shy dwindled into nothing. This time out, he goes with Earle Mankey on a more modern pop sound that isn't anything like Fleetwood Mac and if you have seen the cover of this album it probably would have creep you out. Very underrated singer who would return to the top forty charts with Full Moon Fire for Backstreet MCA in 1983.
2. All The Same To You-Laura Cantrell 2002 One of the greatest mysteries to me is how come Laura Cantrell never got to be more than just a cult artist, John Peel the late great DJ loved her to bits and called Not The Trembling Kind the best album of his life or something to that effect. I've heard it and thought it was pretty good but I liked the 2002 followup When The Roses Bloom Again better, probably of the fact that Laura covered a Amy Rigby song as well. I also add Cheri Knight into this fold of country rocking women with sarcastical wit to boot although Amy has kinda mellowed since marrying Wreckless Eric. This song is too country for country radio today and even back then 11 years ago it was iffy but Laura Cantrell needs to be rediscovered and quickly soon. Maybe I should pass this CD on to Steve Ramussen at work since he likes female country singers with a bit of twang to them.
3. Drop Down And Get Me-Del Shannon 1981 To me, one of the best heartbreak songwriters that ever lived was Del Shannon and although radio pretty much ignored him after Runaway, Shannon had a legion of fans and musicians that would support and help him along the way, most notably Tom Petty who produced his 1981 Elektra/Network album of the same name. Basically forgotten in the US, most if not all of his albums are still available on import, Drop Down And Get Me highly recommended for you Tom Petty and power pop fans.
4. With A Little Help From My Friends-Joe Cocker 1969 Ain't it amazing to see that Joe continues to deliver records and put on shows and really his vocals have never changed all that much, even 44 years after the fact that Joe would gather some of England's finest to play on his albums? Jimmy Page plays mad guitar and drums are by the late great BJ Wilson on this track that still gets plenty of airplay on classic rock radio (and oldies too). Another two dollar buy at the pawnshop since nobody thought it would sell.
5. Tennessee Birdwalk-Jack Blanchard & Misty Morgan 1970 Ain't the internet wonderful? They are still around and they are still making music and they are still married after all these years and having the only number 1 country hit of their lifetime. The original take was they were a stoner Sonny And Cher but to these ears, they had more in common with Nancy And Lee although Blanchard sounded more stoned than Lee Hazlewood ever did. This song got covered a few others (I've seen an album which the late Buck Owens and Susan Raye covered TBW but haven't worked up the nerve to hear it). Found a decent copy of Birds Of A Feather for two bits at Goodwill and it's a fun listen. For more and games you can hear more and some of Jack's insights at their website: http://www.jackandmisty.com/
Jack and Misty recorded a few singles and albums for the likes of Mega, Epic and United Aritsts although I have to admit I have never seen any other singles outside of Tennessee Birdwalk and Humphrey The Camel
Fun fact: Bethlehem Steel, came on Those Darn Records label and has A Martin Daniels Production tag to it. The Martin Daniels I know and talk to from time to time swears he had nothing to do with that, he wasn't even born at that time hehehehe.
6. Earth Blues-Jimi Hendrix 2013 Recorded 1969 and featuring The Band Of Gypsy's (Billy Cox and Buddy Miles RIP) and came out on the new cash grab People, Hell And Angels album. They keep telling you that if Hendrix had lived this would have been the general direction his music would have taken. As a Hendrix fan, I pretty much have bought what I have seen and People, Hell etc etc is a better listen than the jamtastic Valleys Of Neptune. Granted, dead Hendrix releases do sound better than alive Bowie albums from my experiences. Your opinion will be different.
7. Desperadoes Waiting For A Train-Guy Clark 1976 Here's the one thing I don't get when I see things from Amazon. Old No. 1 which Sugarhill reissued in the 1990s (now deleted) sells for 40 dollars whereas the Essential Guy Clark to which RCA reissued both that and Texas Cookin (the only 2 albums he did for RCA) and you can buy for 4 dollars new. The power of Amazon sellers fucking people up the ass in terms of profit. Had the Sugarhill album and sold it for 8 bucks at one time and then doing research on Guy Clark found the Essential for 2.50 at Goodwill. Clark reminds me a lot like Kris Kristofferson although Clark sings much better although Kris beats him for better songwriting but Clark is in the school of Kris and the late Harlan Howard, great songwriters that couldn't sing well. Problem number 2 is that most of the songs that Clark does is slow tempo and tends to put me to sleep if I'm not careful but this is one of his better songs, to which The Highwaymen (including KK, Johnny Cash, Waylon and Willie) had a minor hit with this song.
8. Good Morning Little School Girl-Ten Years After 1973 The live version to which Alvin Lee and Leo Lyons has a shoot em out jam between guitar and bass guitar. Alvin Lee, excellent guitar player in the tradition of Jim Hall gone rock and maybe he should have considered doing a instrumental only album in his lifetime. Lee's lyrics at times could be embarrassing just like Dave Peverett could be embarrassing too (Second verse: I'm gonna ball you, like you never been balled before, can't get away with that anymore creepy old dude-Side Note: John Lee (the original Sonny Boy) Williamson wrote this song back in 1937 and don't think he ever uttered those words in said song). Our good friend Bob Dorr has played this song a couple times in past history on Backtracks. Or somebody did when KFMW was hosting the underground rock show back in the mid 70s. On the subject of Bob Dorr, Backtracks is now a Saturday Afternoon show before Garrison Kellor's show at 5. I hardly noticed anymore since I don't listen to KUNI on Saturday Nights and only time I did they were playing that new rock garbage that clears a room out in seconds. Next.
9. Can I Sit Next To You Girl-Ac/Dc 1976 You really don't get much variety from AC/DC outside of the meat and potatoes rock and roll that they have been doing for all these years but even in the early years they seem to do a bit more variations on three chords and the truth, in fact this is probably their most poppish song ever done and the only one not written by Bon Scott during that era. KRNA sure plays TNT and It's A Long Way To The Top quite a bit but they won't touch this one, doesn't fit the Cumulus Criteria. To which we all say Fuck Cumulus and their Corporate Crap Radio. Going off subject here: I went to get my twice yearly haircut and for the 5th straight time of going to Cost Cutters, they had KDAT in the background and guess what song was playing? Hey Soul Sister from Train! One of the reasons why I hate Cumulus Radio. And Train for that matter. Getting back to AC/DC High Voltage didn't sell much back in 76, saw Long Way To The Top as a single at Sears one day and never picked it up, mistook that for a disco song. Hey it was 5 minutes long.
10. After Forever-Black Sabbath 1971 Mark Prindle finally relented and gave Masters Of Reality a ten and downgraded Volume 4 to a 9 or 8 and for my money, Masters Of Reality was the best Sabbath album of the Ozzy era with the S/T and Volume 4 and Paranoid coming into that order. If you had Sabbath in your collection back then, you were considered cool and a freak all in the same sentence. Reading the liner notes, Ozzy didn't write this one, Tony Iommi did. Unconventional but still classic Sabbath.
Past my bedtime but oh well, five more
Wasting My Time-Jimmy Page 1988
Coolhead-Kelly Osborne 2002
Here Come Those Tears Again-Jackson Browne 1976
Good Morning Little School Girl-Sonny Boy Williamson 1937
Laugh At Me-Mott The Hoople 1970
Passings: Bob Clarke, one of the original MAD magazine artists who drew Spy Vs Spy and countless other things. He was 87.
The end of the week I should know of my fate of where we will be at once printing has moved up north to Minnesota, of course they would make the decision on the day I penciled in a bargain hunting trip but I may postpone that or do a weekend thing. I an not exactly pleased of the ways of Minnesota management or the way they treated people that were interested of coming up, Dave Hansen never did return any phone calls or emails which probably makes the fact that if he didn't cared now, he probably be the first to show you out the door once you're not needed up there. All in the name of money and the bottom line. Oh yeah and Minnesota is a great place to live, if you like an extra month of snow and cold and two months of rain, heat and tornadoes. I'm sure Owatonna is a nice town to be in, if you knew anybody but it's not my home nor my livelihood. Only thing I be missing is an hour's away from Minneapolis. At least we're spared of Hoshin, some new aged mind control thought up by them. It sure helped our department, NOT.
The music festivals are early around here but Iowa City this week has the Mission Creek Festival running through the 7th with a lineup featuring Iris Dement, Deerhoof, Tig Nutaro with Jeanne Garfolo (I love her to death in Truth About Cats And Dogs and most of her stuff back then although I'm sure she'd never give me the time of day) and plenty of hours (sad to say The Townedgers won't be there) but they'll be playing at different venues around Iowa City with Deerhoof concluding things on Sunday at The Mill. http://www.missionfreak.com/
As always thank you for your support. Especially Tad!
Friday, March 29, 2013
End Of The Month Wrap Up
I haven't been around all that much, doesn't seem like I'm posting anything but this is our 12th blog for this month and basically a time to sit and reflect and plot the next course of action.
More passings: Hugh McCracken session guitar wizard died according to Elliot Randall on Friday. You can hear his playing on The Ram album from Paul McCartney and that oddball guitar lick at the beginning of Hey Nineteen by Steely Dan, that's Hugh. Could have been a member of Wings but he wouldn't move from New York.
Robert Zildjian, once part of the great Zildjian Cymbals family, got into a big tiff with his brother and moved over to form Sabian Cymbals in 1981 passed away from cancer at age 89. Sabian was actually the old K Zildjian cymbals that were made in Canada but it didn't take long for Sabian to take away a good share of Zildjian and to some extent the Paiste folks as well. Phil Collins, Mike Portnoy, Terry Bozzio and Neil Peart was Sabian users.
Graham Stoker, the leader behind The Jordaniares, the best Nashville backing vocals groups ever formed passed away at age 88. Elvis Presley loved them so much that he wanted them on his recordings but you can also hear them backing the likes of Patsy Cline, Ricky Nelson and The Blasters. Lotta great musicians leaving for the Great Beyond, which leaves you and me. For now.
Thanks everybody for making March the second best ever in terms of viewership although I don't get many replies to stories anymore. The 1999 blog got the second most views and still can't figure that one out. As always the runaway winner of the month as it has been ever since the beginning of tracking views is the Brains blog way out in front by 11,000 plus views over the second most, way back in the pack the Brian Howe Bad Company look at. The First And Last Crabb Fashion Show in forth place behind the Mavericks review to which I don't think I'd played that CD since reviewing it. The Top Tens of the month not all that outstanding, Waterlogged with 26 views the best and Shock And Awe Jive at 18 views the least but it seems to satisfy the hardcore, all the 15 of them. Really no difference if I add pictures or not. 949 views for The Brains Blog this month is still great although Universal has yet to even reissue their albums. A wasted effort don't ya think?
The big news of the month was the Printing Operations moving to Minnesota with or without us, which is the latter. Which means we'll be joining the ranks of the packaging folk unless they don't think we're cut out for that to which I'll sit on my ass for a year and let them pay me for it. Heath wise I continue to get allergic reactions to hand sanitizers or Anti Bacterial soaps which gives me a bad case of jock itch and rashes. And still paying for it a week later. Weather wise it's been chilly, it's been cold and Friday was the first time we made it over 50 degrees which keeps us out of the years of 1915 and 1965 for the coldest March on record. And 7 snowstorms this month. Which explains why there hasn't been any bargain hunts. Never trust a fucking groundhog from Bumfuk Pennsylvania to predict an early spring. Better let that rodent sleep through the winter and not wake him up.
This year I only bought 9 new releases and Eric Burdon's Till Your River Runs Dry and Bad Religion True North gets my vote for best of the year. David Bowie's The Next Day the worst of the year and anything else is in the middle. I didn't buy the new Strokes (digipack) and nobody still has Richard Thompson's latest anywhere. Next month promises a bargain hunt in Mad City and later in the month St. Louis before the bugs and storms hit. Nothing set in stone yet. I continue to focus my other energies on the new Townedgers projects, which means I'll be working the blogs over there trying to restore some sense of order. Next month has the Pistol Annie's latest and even though Blake Shelton has a new CD out, he continues to work with hack songwriters for his hits (The Peach Pickers, bleh) instead of trying of something new with Miranda Lambert his wife. His duet with her on For The Record remains the best thing he's ever done. Plus he got into it with Farce The Music the other day. Pistol Annie Ashley Monroe has a new cd out and maybe I'll take a listen to that, provided if Best Buy has it, and most of the time Best Buy don't have shit. Somehow all the Frank Zappa albums that they had out are now gone. Update: Farce The Music still going after Blake it seems, somehow I don't feel that this is over yet. http://www.farcethemusic.com/2013/03/blake-shelton-twitter-war-memes.html?spref=fb
And for the most part, CiCi's Pizza has closed their doors on the SW side of CR which meant problems with the franchise owner but there's promise of them coming back. Just like Sonic right? For the most part, all food places here changed their menus, jacked up the prices and give out smaller portions. The key is to when going out, just asking for water and tell them to hold the high fructose corn poisons we call Pepsi.
Willie Nelson will be up here in Iowa in April and will be here a day before he turns 80, he plays the Paramount the day before his birthday. Carnival Of Thieves return to CSPS in April as well. They put on a great free show last year.
It must be spring the Red Wing Flying Shitbags are back. When the Killdear return it will be summer. W00T!
Link of the day: http://www.vinylcollective.com/
For all things vinyl. So to speak.
Since nobody cares about new music anymore, most are talking about anniversaries of past classic albums and this month Dark Side Of The Moon came out and changed stoner rock for all time. While Dylan Tracy sings high praises of this, I have never really gotten into this record and Dark Side shares with Frampton Comes Alive as the 2 albums of the 70s that everybody had that I never bought myself. It's a headphones classic I'm sure and Alan Parsons did great strives into making it a headphones classic but I have never gotten into Dark Side although I did get Money as a 45 years ago. Still cannot stand Clare Torry's screaming on The Great Gig In The Sky how original it may be for the rest of the world but for the most part that and a few other choice cuts made it to Echoes, the 2 CD overview of Pink Floyd and basically if I want to hear Dark Side, I go with that. I actually passed on dollar copies of Dark Side the CD. It's just something I can live without but there's some out there that think it's the best record ever made. To which you can read one of those at this link: http://ourvinyl.com/the-40th-anniversary-of-dark-side-of-the-moon-a-look-back/
Final Ratings Talk: we should clear 2800 views but if we get over 3,000 I'll buy pizza.
RIP Phil Ramone, producer to Billy Joel's best known albums and Chicago's 1978 classic Hot Streets and cult favorite Chicago 13. The most least punk of all Ramones, he'll be missed.
More passings: Hugh McCracken session guitar wizard died according to Elliot Randall on Friday. You can hear his playing on The Ram album from Paul McCartney and that oddball guitar lick at the beginning of Hey Nineteen by Steely Dan, that's Hugh. Could have been a member of Wings but he wouldn't move from New York.
Robert Zildjian, once part of the great Zildjian Cymbals family, got into a big tiff with his brother and moved over to form Sabian Cymbals in 1981 passed away from cancer at age 89. Sabian was actually the old K Zildjian cymbals that were made in Canada but it didn't take long for Sabian to take away a good share of Zildjian and to some extent the Paiste folks as well. Phil Collins, Mike Portnoy, Terry Bozzio and Neil Peart was Sabian users.
Graham Stoker, the leader behind The Jordaniares, the best Nashville backing vocals groups ever formed passed away at age 88. Elvis Presley loved them so much that he wanted them on his recordings but you can also hear them backing the likes of Patsy Cline, Ricky Nelson and The Blasters. Lotta great musicians leaving for the Great Beyond, which leaves you and me. For now.
Thanks everybody for making March the second best ever in terms of viewership although I don't get many replies to stories anymore. The 1999 blog got the second most views and still can't figure that one out. As always the runaway winner of the month as it has been ever since the beginning of tracking views is the Brains blog way out in front by 11,000 plus views over the second most, way back in the pack the Brian Howe Bad Company look at. The First And Last Crabb Fashion Show in forth place behind the Mavericks review to which I don't think I'd played that CD since reviewing it. The Top Tens of the month not all that outstanding, Waterlogged with 26 views the best and Shock And Awe Jive at 18 views the least but it seems to satisfy the hardcore, all the 15 of them. Really no difference if I add pictures or not. 949 views for The Brains Blog this month is still great although Universal has yet to even reissue their albums. A wasted effort don't ya think?
The big news of the month was the Printing Operations moving to Minnesota with or without us, which is the latter. Which means we'll be joining the ranks of the packaging folk unless they don't think we're cut out for that to which I'll sit on my ass for a year and let them pay me for it. Heath wise I continue to get allergic reactions to hand sanitizers or Anti Bacterial soaps which gives me a bad case of jock itch and rashes. And still paying for it a week later. Weather wise it's been chilly, it's been cold and Friday was the first time we made it over 50 degrees which keeps us out of the years of 1915 and 1965 for the coldest March on record. And 7 snowstorms this month. Which explains why there hasn't been any bargain hunts. Never trust a fucking groundhog from Bumfuk Pennsylvania to predict an early spring. Better let that rodent sleep through the winter and not wake him up.
This year I only bought 9 new releases and Eric Burdon's Till Your River Runs Dry and Bad Religion True North gets my vote for best of the year. David Bowie's The Next Day the worst of the year and anything else is in the middle. I didn't buy the new Strokes (digipack) and nobody still has Richard Thompson's latest anywhere. Next month promises a bargain hunt in Mad City and later in the month St. Louis before the bugs and storms hit. Nothing set in stone yet. I continue to focus my other energies on the new Townedgers projects, which means I'll be working the blogs over there trying to restore some sense of order. Next month has the Pistol Annie's latest and even though Blake Shelton has a new CD out, he continues to work with hack songwriters for his hits (The Peach Pickers, bleh) instead of trying of something new with Miranda Lambert his wife. His duet with her on For The Record remains the best thing he's ever done. Plus he got into it with Farce The Music the other day. Pistol Annie Ashley Monroe has a new cd out and maybe I'll take a listen to that, provided if Best Buy has it, and most of the time Best Buy don't have shit. Somehow all the Frank Zappa albums that they had out are now gone. Update: Farce The Music still going after Blake it seems, somehow I don't feel that this is over yet. http://www.farcethemusic.com/2013/03/blake-shelton-twitter-war-memes.html?spref=fb
And for the most part, CiCi's Pizza has closed their doors on the SW side of CR which meant problems with the franchise owner but there's promise of them coming back. Just like Sonic right? For the most part, all food places here changed their menus, jacked up the prices and give out smaller portions. The key is to when going out, just asking for water and tell them to hold the high fructose corn poisons we call Pepsi.
Willie Nelson will be up here in Iowa in April and will be here a day before he turns 80, he plays the Paramount the day before his birthday. Carnival Of Thieves return to CSPS in April as well. They put on a great free show last year.
It must be spring the Red Wing Flying Shitbags are back. When the Killdear return it will be summer. W00T!
Link of the day: http://www.vinylcollective.com/
For all things vinyl. So to speak.
Since nobody cares about new music anymore, most are talking about anniversaries of past classic albums and this month Dark Side Of The Moon came out and changed stoner rock for all time. While Dylan Tracy sings high praises of this, I have never really gotten into this record and Dark Side shares with Frampton Comes Alive as the 2 albums of the 70s that everybody had that I never bought myself. It's a headphones classic I'm sure and Alan Parsons did great strives into making it a headphones classic but I have never gotten into Dark Side although I did get Money as a 45 years ago. Still cannot stand Clare Torry's screaming on The Great Gig In The Sky how original it may be for the rest of the world but for the most part that and a few other choice cuts made it to Echoes, the 2 CD overview of Pink Floyd and basically if I want to hear Dark Side, I go with that. I actually passed on dollar copies of Dark Side the CD. It's just something I can live without but there's some out there that think it's the best record ever made. To which you can read one of those at this link: http://ourvinyl.com/the-40th-anniversary-of-dark-side-of-the-moon-a-look-back/
Final Ratings Talk: we should clear 2800 views but if we get over 3,000 I'll buy pizza.
RIP Phil Ramone, producer to Billy Joel's best known albums and Chicago's 1978 classic Hot Streets and cult favorite Chicago 13. The most least punk of all Ramones, he'll be missed.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Top Ten Of The Week: That Classic Rock Feel
Motown loses another producer/songwriter: Deke Richards who wrote hit songs for The Jackson 5 under the banner of The CorporationTM and later went on to produce Duke And The Drivers died of cancer. He was 68
Mark Evans, former bass player for AC/DC and heart of gold gold sold his gold record of High Voltage to pay for raise funds for a girl's soccer team for 4200 dollars. http://www.vintagevinylnews.com/2013/03/former-acdc-bassist-mark-evans-sells.html
KFMH, the infamous 99 plus is back up and running again on Net Radio. Really wished they had something out there for me to listen to this while working but you can catch them at this link: http://www.99pluskfmh.com/
You may stripped me of my rights photo here got blacked out from a email from one of you that told me about it. So basically the picture got censored here but you can see it all from this website. Let me know who this girl is, the one with the glasses behind her. I would like to marry her, betcha she'd be a lotta fun ;-) http://joyreactor.com/post/467029
Since the ground hog lied about an early spring and we been socked with 6 snowstorms this month, there was no bargain hunts anywhere else but in town. While checking cheap flights to Arizona, Allegiant which promised 83 dollar fares to Mesa, ends up padding the bill with a outrageous 50 dollar baggage fee, a seat fee charging from 12 to 20 dollars and more fees for boarding first. Turns out figuring out the summer AZ trip would run about 688 dollars which was 150 dollars more than last year. A plan B may be in the offering but this fee crap is really sucking us dry.
And the world still miss Keith Moon.
The Top Ten:
1. When The Time Comes-The Sand Rubies 1989 Tucson's beloved native sons, known as The Sidewinders and made two albums for Mammoth/RCA before dropped and being sued by a GD top forty cover band to which they changed over to Sand Rubies. Bruce at the pawnshop loves them to death and so do I to a certain extent. They have reunited from time to time but the albums they have made have been a bit less and less enjoyable Return Of The Living Dead a very good album but the much harder to find covers album Release The Hounds and mas' cuacha spotty. I like to smack David Shutes' butchering of Neil Young's Rocking In The Free World but they do a good cover of this Tom Petty classic, to which you can find on You're Gonna Get It.
2. Roll Over Lay Down-Status Quo 1974 Tournament time in the NCAA's mean great basketball but it also gives us more pain in the ass commercials and they're getting more and more dumber. If insurance companies would give such care and dedication for their commercials as they did to people wouldn't that be great. And I wish a deranged bus driver would take out the Subway eating dufus riding a bike on those Italian Beef plug (5 Dollar Footlong this Mutherfucker). Doesn't mean I noticed certain songs and on a Blackberry spot I heard a song that kinda reminded me of this hard rocking classic from the Quo, whose original fearsome foursome lineup gotten back together to play some one off gigs. Never quite figure out why the US never gave the Quo that much love although the UK folks came out in droves to see them play.
3. Loving Cup-The Rolling Stones 1972 Exile On Main Street is the Stone's all time classic but when they took their masters over to Universal, the mix was pumped up to ten and although I noticed a few more differences on the songs there's a brightness and loudness that damn near makes this unlistenable at times. It also means I won't be giving up my CBS CD anytime soon but may put this UMe version for sale. This was the Stones last great classic before they became predictable but in their coke and drug induced glory they did reinvent themselves for a record that may have played a role in Americana too.
4. Everything I Own-The Remingtons 1993 One thing about Bread is that even though they get lambasted and poo pooed by the hip young zitheads at Pitchfork that David Gates' songs have aged a lot better than My Chemical Romance or Smash Mouth or whoever is hogging the autotuner. Not a big Bread fan but I do have The Best Of Bread and On The Waters, which I think is their best studio album but can't find a decent cd of that album for the life of me. David Gates would become a country star although his records didn't sell a tenth of Bread sales and James Griffin, who was probably the more rocker of the band would follow suit into the country band field by hooking up with two other dudes to form The Remingtons who made two decent albums for BNA. And this cover of a big Bread hit, which pales to the original (they all do) but it's still good.
5. T B Sheets-Van Morrison 1967 No way avoiding Brown Eyed Girl if you want to hear this although that big hit, still catchy has been annoying on the radio since radio is playing it somewhere in the airwaves. Van had his eye on other things when he came up with this moody little number which hints at the next big thing, Astral Weeks an album that Rolling Stone considers one of the top ten albums ever. It's good but it's never been my favorite Van Morrison, (my vote: Moondance). Even though Van had one eye on the radio, his other eye was on improvisation and he could do both quite well.
6. The Mule-Deep Purple 1971 Upon playing Song Pop in Facebook, I got this wrong simply of the fact that the idiots there put down the wrong song Fools whereas the sound bit was The Mule. It's a very noisy track even with Deep Purple standards although the Made In Japan version was that 20 minute Ian Paice drum solo (seems like it) that Ian Gillan must have needed to go take a dump for it to be that long. Sushi can do that to ya. BTW, new Deep Purple next month, called Now What?! Maybe somebody will have it.
7. Magnum Opus-Kansas 1976 Leftoverture is one of those albums that defined a band, where else can you hear Carry On My Wayward Son for an album opener, still a killer cut, still overplayed on classic rock radio, hated by many, loved by few but I always thought What's On My Mind was a better song on the radio although that one bombed. Plenty of FM cuts like Miracles Out Of Nowhere and this final selection which defines Kansas for who they are, prog rockers and perhaps the only song, with a couple selections dedicated to gnats, the state bug of Kansas although I believe Iowa is a close second. Ain't seen no gnats yet, we still have snow on the ground.
8. Civilisation-Richard & Linda Thompson 1979 The best husband and wife combination in rock history before it all crashed down a few years later Linda always seem to got the best out of Richard's songwriting although Sunnyvista sold squat and came after they split with Island Records. The most pop sounding album, it was even hard to find when it came out on CD. Seems to be a concept album of sorts.
9. Shake The House Down-Molly Hatchet 1990 Danny Joe Brown was the spirit and voice of The Hatchet although I still have a soft spot for the soulful Jimmy Farrar when he took over for Beating The Odds and Take No Prisoners but The Danny Joe Brown band made a killer 1981 album for Epic and then Danny Joe return to the fold and brought with him John Gavin and the dreaded Bobby Ingram with him. Terry Manning turned them into ZZ Top wannabes with The Deed Is Done, an album that I still like a lot to this day and perhaps the loudest drum sound ever recorded but by then, nobody cared that much and a move to Capitol and the forgotten Lightning Strikes Twice didn't help things. Next year found them recording two new songs to Molly Hatchet Greatest Hits and really they do rock but it would be the last time we would ever hear from Molly Hatchet's lineup of the early 70s. In the end, Danny Joe Brown and Ingram started up sessions for Devil's Canyon, the last good MH album but Brown took ill and Ingram replaced him with Phil McCormick, a dead ringer soundalike to DJ Brown. Dave Hlubek remains the sole original member left while this band comes to a nearest casino near you. Above photo shows the 1983 version of band featuring Barry Borden (formerly of Mother's Finest, later of Marshall Tucker Band) on drums, and Riff West next to DJ Brown.
10. Keep A Knockin-Mott The Hoople 1971 I still like the dirty rock and roll sound of the Guy Stevens era over the glam Bowie All The Young Dudes period although that album is rock and roll classic, makes you wonder what happened had Stevens taken over. Their Island/Atlantic albums remains rock and roll spirit and you can consider them to be punks as well, you never knew where Ian Hunter was going to lead them. The only live song that survived (it was supposed to be a live album called Wildlife but was scrapped) Andy Johns recorded them with plenty of distortion and overdrive and this has concluded a few of my late nite rock and roll party in the streets. Found a bootleg 2 CD live Mott that had a different version then the Sept 1970 concert, but no liner notes where at. (Philadelphia maybe). http://ianhunter.com/main/news
What else have I been listening that you might care?
Baby Please Don't Go-AC/DC 1976
I'm An Adult Now-Pursuit Of Happiness 1988
Sit On My Face-Monty Python 1980
Sex Type Thing-Stone Temple Pilots 1992
Anyway The Wind Blows-J J Cale/Eric Clapton 2006
Bonus Track, Tom Dooley-Kingston Trio 1958 (from a Q and A with Jerry Osborne (Collecting Vinyl Records at Blogspot.com)
DEAR JERRY: One of the history channels ran a show about
famous lynchings, including a segment on Tom Dula, who the Kingston Trio
immortalized as "Tom Dooley."
Apparently there was insufficient evidence to convict Tom of killing his sweetheart, but he was neither the first nor the last whose innocence would not be determined until after the execution.
Seemed like a big story, so why did it take nearly 100 years for someone to make a record about it?
—Terry Lombard, York, Pa.
DEAR TERRY: A big story indeed, probably the O.J. trial of its day, minus Court TV.Apparently there was insufficient evidence to convict Tom of killing his sweetheart, but he was neither the first nor the last whose innocence would not be determined until after the execution.
Seemed like a big story, so why did it take nearly 100 years for someone to make a record about it?
—Terry Lombard, York, Pa.
What is known is Dula's pregnant fiancée, Laura Foster, was stabbed to death in Wilkes County, N.C., in May 1866. As to the killer's identity, the truth may never be known.
Reportedly, more evidence pointed to Ann Melton, Dula's "other woman," than to himself. Tom maintained his innocence without implicating Melton, right up to moments before he swung from the gallows (May 1, 1868).
The Kingston Trio's version suggests a lover's triangle existed between "a condemned man named Tom Dooley," "a beautiful woman" (Foster) and "a Mister Grayson."
Col. James Grayson did assist in the capture of Dula, but the third corner of that "eternal triangle" was Ann Melton, not Grayson.
Ironically, James Grayson's nephew, Gilliam B. Grayson, a singer and fiddler, wrote the first song about "Tom Dooley" (changed from Dula) in September 1929. He teamed with guitarist Henry Whitter, and, performing as Grayson and Whitter, they recorded G.B.'s tune (Victor V-40325).
From this original, the Kingston Trio retained the "hang your head, Tom Dooley, hang your head and cry, you know you're bound to die," refrain.
They also kept G.B.'s nod to his uncle James, so both versions include "hadn't a been for Grayson, I'd be in Tennessee."
Ninety years later, and allowing for a conviction loaded with reasonable doubt, the Trio omitted accusatory references such as "ya killed poor Laura Foster … you took her on the hillside and there you took her life."
To this day, an official marker stands near the execution site, placed by the United States Department of the Interior - National Park Service. It reads: "The song ["Tom Dooley"] did not reveal the other woman [Ann Melton], who may have done the deed."
What do you think of that 3D Billy?
Monday, March 25, 2013
Crabb Bits:Alford Choke Job Updated
Ah the NCAA's are here again and plenty of upsets are all around. Gonzaga was shown the door by Wichita State 76-70, Ole Miss took out Wisconsin and those of you who picked New Mexico to make it into the final four got the usual Steve Alford choke job when Harvard showed them the door which really riled certain New Mexico folks and sportswriters, to the point that one of them said he had enough and quit his job of following the Lobos for 33 years. This comes after New Mexico gave the high and mighty Alford a 10 year contract. And then he leaves to take the UCLA job on Saturday 3/30/13.
New Mexico had a very tough schedule rated number 2 in the nation. They did beat some quality teams and won their division and tournament, they were a very tough and defense minded team. Problem is you might win 29 games in a regular season, but you play one bad game in the NCAA's and you're done, simple as that. Iowa Hawkeye fans always never accepted Alford as their own, especially after the mess Bob Bowlsby did after getting rid of Tom Davis after Davis final season got the Hawks to the sweet 16 and making the former Indiana Hoosier superstar a Hawkeye coach. What turned me off on Alford was him taking the player's names off the Iowa Jerseys and making them a faceless team of sorts, even when they won 26 games one year, the Alford magic stuck again and the Hawkeyes were one and done in the last NCAA appearance and the next season Alford couldn't get out of Iowa City fast enough when Albuquerque came calling. Since then, he's had regular season success down in Lobos Land but continues to fail in the playoffs.
I didn't think New Mexico was a final four or even Sweet 16 but would have picked them over Harvard as well. But they didn't bring their A game and Harvard outplayed them. And Lobo Nation is pissed off. New Mexico has all of their starters coming back next season and maybe they'll be pissed off too about the big let down that they will avenge and go deep into the NCAA's but Alford's method of operation has been lacking in the post season and if they fail to get past the first round again, all hell will break loose and Alford may have to leave town in a hurry 10 year contract or a buy out. It's like the Hawkeyes, you have to finish the game and not take the other team lightly.
Look at it this way New Mexico fans, at least you made it to the NCAAs. The Hawkeyes are still stuck in NIT land trying to turn their fortunes around after three dismal years of Todd Lickliter and Fran McCaffery trying to clean up the mess that both Lickliter and Alford left behind. And for their effort have made their first trip ever to the Big Apple NIT final 4 next week. It may be the NIT but the Hawkeyes have gotten farther this year then the mighty Lobos did before Harvard took them out.
But the big heyhoo was Saturday's announcement that Steve Alford has now accepted the UCLA job replacing Ben Howland who got beat by Minnesota and when the Gophers lost, Tubby Smith got canned. Even after a 10 year extension did ya really think that Alford was going to hang around Albuquerque that long? The pretty boy wants exposure and no better place to get it is UCLA and why not? The Lobos team had 5 of them So Cal players on that squad and was ready to tear up the MWC once again before Alford took the money and run. But usually that's been the MO that Alford has shown most of his career, hang at a school for five or so seasons and move on elsewhere. Make no mistake he is a good coach, he just can't get the job done in the NCAAs or NIT's, one and done which means his two straight Iowa titles in the B1G tournaments the first two seasons he was at Iowa was a fluke. Your typical springtime basketball coach which means when spring rolls around, his teams pack it in no matter how good they are.
So now, it looks familiar all over again but this time New Mexico fans are up in arms while Hawkeyes fans just shake their heads and say we know how that went. Unlike the Iowa fiasco, New Mexico still has their team in tact and with a good coach they should be all right although nobody knows about the season after that. Alford will strip the names off the UCLA's players jersey's try to teach team morals and sportsmanship and try to get the Bruins back to the storied NCAAs final four but one thing needs to change, and that's Alford's one and done mentality that has sunk the Lobos this season and the Hawkeyes' 26 win season of long ago but even that team the fans never did embrace the former Hoosier Hot Shot or Bob Bowlsby's folly which began the Iowa Basketball downfall, I blame Bowlsby more than I do Alford but at least Fran McCaffery's team made a final four of sorts this year.
As for Alford, he has his work cut out for him. John Wooden's ghost is all over Bruinland and although fans will enjoy winning 25 games or more in a season, they will not tolerate one and done in the NCAAs and Alford will have his biggest challage in not failing on game 1. And this time if he fails, he may not be moving to a new job in five seasons, he might be out the door.
As for myself, UCLA can have Alford. http://www.latimes.com/sports/college/basketball/la-sp-0403-simers-ucla-alford-20130403,0,4790759,full.column
New Mexico had a very tough schedule rated number 2 in the nation. They did beat some quality teams and won their division and tournament, they were a very tough and defense minded team. Problem is you might win 29 games in a regular season, but you play one bad game in the NCAA's and you're done, simple as that. Iowa Hawkeye fans always never accepted Alford as their own, especially after the mess Bob Bowlsby did after getting rid of Tom Davis after Davis final season got the Hawks to the sweet 16 and making the former Indiana Hoosier superstar a Hawkeye coach. What turned me off on Alford was him taking the player's names off the Iowa Jerseys and making them a faceless team of sorts, even when they won 26 games one year, the Alford magic stuck again and the Hawkeyes were one and done in the last NCAA appearance and the next season Alford couldn't get out of Iowa City fast enough when Albuquerque came calling. Since then, he's had regular season success down in Lobos Land but continues to fail in the playoffs.
I didn't think New Mexico was a final four or even Sweet 16 but would have picked them over Harvard as well. But they didn't bring their A game and Harvard outplayed them. And Lobo Nation is pissed off. New Mexico has all of their starters coming back next season and maybe they'll be pissed off too about the big let down that they will avenge and go deep into the NCAA's but Alford's method of operation has been lacking in the post season and if they fail to get past the first round again, all hell will break loose and Alford may have to leave town in a hurry 10 year contract or a buy out. It's like the Hawkeyes, you have to finish the game and not take the other team lightly.
Look at it this way New Mexico fans, at least you made it to the NCAAs. The Hawkeyes are still stuck in NIT land trying to turn their fortunes around after three dismal years of Todd Lickliter and Fran McCaffery trying to clean up the mess that both Lickliter and Alford left behind. And for their effort have made their first trip ever to the Big Apple NIT final 4 next week. It may be the NIT but the Hawkeyes have gotten farther this year then the mighty Lobos did before Harvard took them out.
But the big heyhoo was Saturday's announcement that Steve Alford has now accepted the UCLA job replacing Ben Howland who got beat by Minnesota and when the Gophers lost, Tubby Smith got canned. Even after a 10 year extension did ya really think that Alford was going to hang around Albuquerque that long? The pretty boy wants exposure and no better place to get it is UCLA and why not? The Lobos team had 5 of them So Cal players on that squad and was ready to tear up the MWC once again before Alford took the money and run. But usually that's been the MO that Alford has shown most of his career, hang at a school for five or so seasons and move on elsewhere. Make no mistake he is a good coach, he just can't get the job done in the NCAAs or NIT's, one and done which means his two straight Iowa titles in the B1G tournaments the first two seasons he was at Iowa was a fluke. Your typical springtime basketball coach which means when spring rolls around, his teams pack it in no matter how good they are.
So now, it looks familiar all over again but this time New Mexico fans are up in arms while Hawkeyes fans just shake their heads and say we know how that went. Unlike the Iowa fiasco, New Mexico still has their team in tact and with a good coach they should be all right although nobody knows about the season after that. Alford will strip the names off the UCLA's players jersey's try to teach team morals and sportsmanship and try to get the Bruins back to the storied NCAAs final four but one thing needs to change, and that's Alford's one and done mentality that has sunk the Lobos this season and the Hawkeyes' 26 win season of long ago but even that team the fans never did embrace the former Hoosier Hot Shot or Bob Bowlsby's folly which began the Iowa Basketball downfall, I blame Bowlsby more than I do Alford but at least Fran McCaffery's team made a final four of sorts this year.
As for Alford, he has his work cut out for him. John Wooden's ghost is all over Bruinland and although fans will enjoy winning 25 games or more in a season, they will not tolerate one and done in the NCAAs and Alford will have his biggest challage in not failing on game 1. And this time if he fails, he may not be moving to a new job in five seasons, he might be out the door.
As for myself, UCLA can have Alford. http://www.latimes.com/sports/college/basketball/la-sp-0403-simers-ucla-alford-20130403,0,4790759,full.column
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Allen Reed Talks About The Gunfight At OK Corral
TOMBSTONE -- Past Boothill Graveyard and
around the bend where Arizona 80 becomes Fremont Street, a
larger-than-life statue of a man rises from a low sandstone pedestal.
Clad in a duster and broad-brimmed hat, a sawed-off shotgun over one
shoulder, Wyatt Earp stands guard at the entrance to this dusty town
that calls itself "too tough to die."
Since the Oct. 26, 1881, "gunfight at the O.K. Corral," the famed frontier lawman has loomed large over this former boomtown. The silver deposits that gave birth to the city have long since been played out, but Tombstone has survived largely by mining the legend of the West's most infamous shootout.
And in popular culture, the Earps have always been the good guys; the McLaurys and Clantons, the bad guys.
But something peculiar has happened at the O.K. Corral: The white hats and the black hats have all gotten a bit grayer.
Hanging on the stucco wall surrounding the little amphitheater where the fusillade is re-enacted daily is a tiny bronze plaque. Unpretentious and easy to miss, it is dedicated, not to the badge-wearing Earps or their tubercular friend, John Henry "Doc" Holliday, but to the memory of brothers Frank and Tom McLaury -- two of the three men who died that day.
Beneath oval portraits of the two is a short, but enigmatic epitaph: "One owes respect to the living, but to the dead, one owes nothing but the truth."
To movie-goers who thought they knew the real story of the O.K. Corral, the McLaury clan's message is unmistakable.
"The stars of the gunfight were the winners," says Pam Potter of Mountain Center, Calif., the brothers' great-grand-niece.
Two new books seek to even the score a bit.
"In no way did the shootout represent a clearly defined duel to the death between Good and Evil," says former journalist Jeff Guinn, author of the just-released "The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral -- And How It Changed the American West." ''But the poor McLaurys have gotten short shrift all these years, and they don't deserve it."
Paul L. Johnson agrees.
"They weren't angels," says the New Yorker, whose childhood fascination with the gunfight has resulted in "The McLaury Brothers of Arizona: An O.K. Corral Obituary," currently being vetted by the University of North Texas Press. "Innocent's a hard word to apply, because they were complicit in the various illegal dealings going on. ... It's this nuance business."
The shootout lasted just 30 seconds. But its echoes continue to reverberate 130 years later.
The immediate cause of the gunfight was Police Chief Virgil Earp's attempt to enforce the local ordinance against carrying firearms. But Guinn's research reveals that tensions between the Earps and the cowboys had deep roots.
The McLaurys came to the San Pedro Valley from Iowa in 1877 for the promise of cheap and abundant grazing land. The Earps, particularly Wyatt, followed a couple of years later with dreams of cashing in on the silver boom.
In a series of movies -- starting in 1934 with "Frontier Marshal," based on Stuart N. Lake's flattering and deeply flawed biography of the same title, continuing with John Ford's "My Darling Clementine" in 1946 and Kevin Costner's "Wyatt Earp" in 1994 -- the Earps have come across as straight-shooting, law-and-order types. But Guinn says it wasn't that simple.
Never mentioned are Wyatt's own brushes with horse theft and misappropriation of funds, or his time working in the floating brothels in Peoria, Ill., Guinn says. Also omitted is the fact that Wyatt's and at least one of his brothers' "wives" were convicted prostitutes.
"He (Wyatt) broke jail on a charge of horse theft back in Indian territory as a young man," he says. "Technically, he was a fugitive from the law his entire life. Nobody out in the West was completely pristine."
Wyatt had a well-earned reputation for toughness from his days as a deputy in the Kansas boomtowns of Dodge City and Wichita, preferring to "buffalo" -- or pistol whip -- his adversaries rather than shooting them. But while those methods worked with the itinerant cow-town populations, they didn't sit well with the "much more permanent" residents of Tombstone, says Johnson.
Wyatt had recovered some stolen Army mules from the McLaury ranch. And it is widely believed that the brothers were fencing rustled Mexican cattle for the Clantons and others.
But Guinn and Johnson argue they were no worse than other local ranchers trying to feed the insatiable appetites of the U.S. Army and Tombstone's burgeoning population.
The Earps were Republicans, while Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan and members of the cowboy faction were members of Democratic Party, the one more closely aligned with former Confederates. Wyatt desperately wanted Behan's job -- and its lucrative tax-collecting duties -- and saw a crackdown on the lawless cowboys as a way to achieve that goal, Guinn says.
Most historians agree that Ike Clanton was the fight's chief instigator. He had been drinking the night before and into the morning, and was going around town threatening to kill the Earps the next time he saw them. Virgil Earp arrested Ike on Oct. 26, but he was quickly released after paying a fine.
Adding to the tension: The Earps had publicly pistol-whipped both Clanton and Tom McLaury in the hours before the gunfight.
The McLaurys were about to leave for Iowa to attend the wedding of their sister, Sarah Caroline -- Pam Potter's great-grandmother. They stuck around Tombstone just a little too long.
One common misconception is where the shootout took place. While the Clantons and McLaurys were hanging out at the corral, the confrontation actually began in a vacant lot several doors east of the back entrance on Fremont Street, beside C.S. Fly's photo studio and boarding house.
Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury had checked their pistols in town, but Frank McLaury and Ike's younger brother, Billy, were carrying six-shooters. When Chief Earp -- with brothers Wyatt and Morgan, and a shotgun-toting Holliday in tow -- ordered them to throw up their hands, all hell broke loose.
When the smoke and dust cleared, Billy Clanton and the McLaurys lay dead. The only men not injured were Wyatt and Ike Clanton, who fled as the shooting started.
It is unclear who fired first. Initially, public opinion sided with the Earps.
The Daily Epitaph, run by Republican mayor and Earp supporter John Clum, ran the story under the headline, "EARP BROTHERS JUSTIFIED."
"The feeling among the best class of our citizens is that the Marshal (the town fathers had recently changed the title to police chief, Guinn says, in an attempt to seem more cosmopolitan) was entirely justified in his efforts to disarm these men, and that being fired upon they had to defend themselves which they did most bravely," Clum wrote. "If the present lesson is not sufficient to teach the cow-boy element that they cannot come into the streets of Tombstone, in broad daylight, armed with six-shooters and Henry rifles to hunt down their victims, then the citizens will most assuredly take such steps to preserve the peace as will be forever a bard to further raids."
The Epitaph was an Associated Press client, and it was Clum's pro-Earp version of events that readers across the country got first.
Locally, reactions were more mixed. The day after the shootout, three open caskets sat in the funeral parlor window under a sign that read, "MURDERED IN THE STREETS OF TOMBSTONE." More than 300 mourners on foot, 22 carriages, and dozens of riders on horseback accompanied the bodies to Boothill, while another 2,000 citizens lined the route, says Guinn.
Ike Clanton succeeded in obtaining murder warrants, and there was a monthlong preliminary hearing in which Sheriff Behan testified for the prosecution. While Justice Wells Spicer agreed there was credible evidence that at least one of the dead -- Tom McLaury -- was unarmed, he concluded that the killings were "a necessary act, done in the discharge of an official duty."
The Earps and Holliday, Spicer ruled, "saw at once the dire necessity of giving the first shot to save themselves from certain death. They acted; their shots were effective, and this alone saved all the Earp party from being slain."
This was not the end of the saga of the Earps. When Virgil Earp was partially crippled in a December 1881 assassination attempt, Wyatt took his place as deputy U.S. marshal. After younger brother Morgan's murder in March 1882, Wyatt went on the notorious "vendetta ride" that resulted in the killings of cowboys Frank Stilwell, Florentino "Indian Charlie" Cruz, "Curly Bill" Brocious and, some believe, Johnny Ringo.
Wyatt lit out for Colorado. Behan filed murder charges against the former lawman, but the governor refused to extradite.
The Earps may have won the national public relations battle, but they were essentially finished in Tombstone.
Tombstone has survived, says Guinn, "by offering a very simplistic, black-and-white, almost cartoonish version of events."
Women in bustles and men sporting six-shooters stroll the plank sidewalks along Allen Street. Next door to the original O.K. Corral office, tourists can purchase T-shirts and fake marshal's badges, catch a Tombstone documentary at the Historama narrated by late horror actor Vincent Price, then head down to the Crystal Palace Saloon for "Buffalo Burgers Good Whiskey (and) Tolerable Water."
"It's like a B-movie set," says Guinn. "You can't blame the people there for doing it. ... If you go to Disneyland, you suspend disbelief that a large mouse is really your host and will have his picture taken with you."
A docent at the O.K. Corral offers a balanced account of the gunfight. But the overall focus is still very much on the Earps and Holliday.
"I mean, you go into Tombstone and you can find mugs and T-shirts with Wyatt and Doc," says Potter, who has represented the McLaurys for the History Channel and just about anyone else who'll listen. "And the only pictures you can find of Tom and Frank are the coffin photo."
Bob Love, whose family has owned the gunfight site since 1963, says the truth is more interesting. But, he concedes, "It's harder to market."
"If you've ever traveled, by the afternoon you're tired, you've seen a lot of stuff and you can only process some much information," says Love, who put up the plaque of the McLaury brothers several years ago at the behest of their descendants. "So, yes, I think people would like simple, straightforward kinds of history. And this is not simple, straightforward."
Every day -- twice daily most weekends -- players re-enact the shootout in a little open-air theater behind the livery and feed lot's office, not far from the actual site. Stephen Keith, who portrays Holliday as a drunken, swaggering dandy, says he structured the play as "a Greek tragedy with cowboy hats and six-guns."
"Basically, I wrote the play as a kind of counter to the normal thing," says Keith, who's been staging the play there for four years. The Clantons and, especially, the McLaurys "are always targets in the movie, you know. That's all they're there for. And so I say that they're real people. They had lives; they had girlfriends and issues and everything else."
Keith admits to having taken copious poetic license. The play spends a lot of time on an alleged dalliance between Wyatt's niece, Hattie Earp, and one of the McLaurys, giving the playwright his Wild West version of the Capulets and Montagues.
But the play at least acknowledges the historical ambiguity. At show's end, Doc, acting now as Greek chorus, picks up his dusty cloak and addresses the audience directly:
"A tombstone marks each fallen head,
And graven there to see,
The charge of murder, made with lead,
And murder it may be."
Since the Oct. 26, 1881, "gunfight at the O.K. Corral," the famed frontier lawman has loomed large over this former boomtown. The silver deposits that gave birth to the city have long since been played out, but Tombstone has survived largely by mining the legend of the West's most infamous shootout.
And in popular culture, the Earps have always been the good guys; the McLaurys and Clantons, the bad guys.
But something peculiar has happened at the O.K. Corral: The white hats and the black hats have all gotten a bit grayer.
Hanging on the stucco wall surrounding the little amphitheater where the fusillade is re-enacted daily is a tiny bronze plaque. Unpretentious and easy to miss, it is dedicated, not to the badge-wearing Earps or their tubercular friend, John Henry "Doc" Holliday, but to the memory of brothers Frank and Tom McLaury -- two of the three men who died that day.
Beneath oval portraits of the two is a short, but enigmatic epitaph: "One owes respect to the living, but to the dead, one owes nothing but the truth."
To movie-goers who thought they knew the real story of the O.K. Corral, the McLaury clan's message is unmistakable.
"The stars of the gunfight were the winners," says Pam Potter of Mountain Center, Calif., the brothers' great-grand-niece.
Two new books seek to even the score a bit.
"In no way did the shootout represent a clearly defined duel to the death between Good and Evil," says former journalist Jeff Guinn, author of the just-released "The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral -- And How It Changed the American West." ''But the poor McLaurys have gotten short shrift all these years, and they don't deserve it."
Paul L. Johnson agrees.
"They weren't angels," says the New Yorker, whose childhood fascination with the gunfight has resulted in "The McLaury Brothers of Arizona: An O.K. Corral Obituary," currently being vetted by the University of North Texas Press. "Innocent's a hard word to apply, because they were complicit in the various illegal dealings going on. ... It's this nuance business."
The shootout lasted just 30 seconds. But its echoes continue to reverberate 130 years later.
The immediate cause of the gunfight was Police Chief Virgil Earp's attempt to enforce the local ordinance against carrying firearms. But Guinn's research reveals that tensions between the Earps and the cowboys had deep roots.
The McLaurys came to the San Pedro Valley from Iowa in 1877 for the promise of cheap and abundant grazing land. The Earps, particularly Wyatt, followed a couple of years later with dreams of cashing in on the silver boom.
In a series of movies -- starting in 1934 with "Frontier Marshal," based on Stuart N. Lake's flattering and deeply flawed biography of the same title, continuing with John Ford's "My Darling Clementine" in 1946 and Kevin Costner's "Wyatt Earp" in 1994 -- the Earps have come across as straight-shooting, law-and-order types. But Guinn says it wasn't that simple.
Never mentioned are Wyatt's own brushes with horse theft and misappropriation of funds, or his time working in the floating brothels in Peoria, Ill., Guinn says. Also omitted is the fact that Wyatt's and at least one of his brothers' "wives" were convicted prostitutes.
"He (Wyatt) broke jail on a charge of horse theft back in Indian territory as a young man," he says. "Technically, he was a fugitive from the law his entire life. Nobody out in the West was completely pristine."
Wyatt had a well-earned reputation for toughness from his days as a deputy in the Kansas boomtowns of Dodge City and Wichita, preferring to "buffalo" -- or pistol whip -- his adversaries rather than shooting them. But while those methods worked with the itinerant cow-town populations, they didn't sit well with the "much more permanent" residents of Tombstone, says Johnson.
Wyatt had recovered some stolen Army mules from the McLaury ranch. And it is widely believed that the brothers were fencing rustled Mexican cattle for the Clantons and others.
But Guinn and Johnson argue they were no worse than other local ranchers trying to feed the insatiable appetites of the U.S. Army and Tombstone's burgeoning population.
The Earps were Republicans, while Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan and members of the cowboy faction were members of Democratic Party, the one more closely aligned with former Confederates. Wyatt desperately wanted Behan's job -- and its lucrative tax-collecting duties -- and saw a crackdown on the lawless cowboys as a way to achieve that goal, Guinn says.
Most historians agree that Ike Clanton was the fight's chief instigator. He had been drinking the night before and into the morning, and was going around town threatening to kill the Earps the next time he saw them. Virgil Earp arrested Ike on Oct. 26, but he was quickly released after paying a fine.
Adding to the tension: The Earps had publicly pistol-whipped both Clanton and Tom McLaury in the hours before the gunfight.
The McLaurys were about to leave for Iowa to attend the wedding of their sister, Sarah Caroline -- Pam Potter's great-grandmother. They stuck around Tombstone just a little too long.
One common misconception is where the shootout took place. While the Clantons and McLaurys were hanging out at the corral, the confrontation actually began in a vacant lot several doors east of the back entrance on Fremont Street, beside C.S. Fly's photo studio and boarding house.
Ike Clanton and Tom McLaury had checked their pistols in town, but Frank McLaury and Ike's younger brother, Billy, were carrying six-shooters. When Chief Earp -- with brothers Wyatt and Morgan, and a shotgun-toting Holliday in tow -- ordered them to throw up their hands, all hell broke loose.
When the smoke and dust cleared, Billy Clanton and the McLaurys lay dead. The only men not injured were Wyatt and Ike Clanton, who fled as the shooting started.
It is unclear who fired first. Initially, public opinion sided with the Earps.
The Daily Epitaph, run by Republican mayor and Earp supporter John Clum, ran the story under the headline, "EARP BROTHERS JUSTIFIED."
"The feeling among the best class of our citizens is that the Marshal (the town fathers had recently changed the title to police chief, Guinn says, in an attempt to seem more cosmopolitan) was entirely justified in his efforts to disarm these men, and that being fired upon they had to defend themselves which they did most bravely," Clum wrote. "If the present lesson is not sufficient to teach the cow-boy element that they cannot come into the streets of Tombstone, in broad daylight, armed with six-shooters and Henry rifles to hunt down their victims, then the citizens will most assuredly take such steps to preserve the peace as will be forever a bard to further raids."
The Epitaph was an Associated Press client, and it was Clum's pro-Earp version of events that readers across the country got first.
Locally, reactions were more mixed. The day after the shootout, three open caskets sat in the funeral parlor window under a sign that read, "MURDERED IN THE STREETS OF TOMBSTONE." More than 300 mourners on foot, 22 carriages, and dozens of riders on horseback accompanied the bodies to Boothill, while another 2,000 citizens lined the route, says Guinn.
Ike Clanton succeeded in obtaining murder warrants, and there was a monthlong preliminary hearing in which Sheriff Behan testified for the prosecution. While Justice Wells Spicer agreed there was credible evidence that at least one of the dead -- Tom McLaury -- was unarmed, he concluded that the killings were "a necessary act, done in the discharge of an official duty."
The Earps and Holliday, Spicer ruled, "saw at once the dire necessity of giving the first shot to save themselves from certain death. They acted; their shots were effective, and this alone saved all the Earp party from being slain."
This was not the end of the saga of the Earps. When Virgil Earp was partially crippled in a December 1881 assassination attempt, Wyatt took his place as deputy U.S. marshal. After younger brother Morgan's murder in March 1882, Wyatt went on the notorious "vendetta ride" that resulted in the killings of cowboys Frank Stilwell, Florentino "Indian Charlie" Cruz, "Curly Bill" Brocious and, some believe, Johnny Ringo.
Wyatt lit out for Colorado. Behan filed murder charges against the former lawman, but the governor refused to extradite.
The Earps may have won the national public relations battle, but they were essentially finished in Tombstone.
Tombstone has survived, says Guinn, "by offering a very simplistic, black-and-white, almost cartoonish version of events."
Women in bustles and men sporting six-shooters stroll the plank sidewalks along Allen Street. Next door to the original O.K. Corral office, tourists can purchase T-shirts and fake marshal's badges, catch a Tombstone documentary at the Historama narrated by late horror actor Vincent Price, then head down to the Crystal Palace Saloon for "Buffalo Burgers Good Whiskey (and) Tolerable Water."
"It's like a B-movie set," says Guinn. "You can't blame the people there for doing it. ... If you go to Disneyland, you suspend disbelief that a large mouse is really your host and will have his picture taken with you."
A docent at the O.K. Corral offers a balanced account of the gunfight. But the overall focus is still very much on the Earps and Holliday.
"I mean, you go into Tombstone and you can find mugs and T-shirts with Wyatt and Doc," says Potter, who has represented the McLaurys for the History Channel and just about anyone else who'll listen. "And the only pictures you can find of Tom and Frank are the coffin photo."
Bob Love, whose family has owned the gunfight site since 1963, says the truth is more interesting. But, he concedes, "It's harder to market."
"If you've ever traveled, by the afternoon you're tired, you've seen a lot of stuff and you can only process some much information," says Love, who put up the plaque of the McLaury brothers several years ago at the behest of their descendants. "So, yes, I think people would like simple, straightforward kinds of history. And this is not simple, straightforward."
Every day -- twice daily most weekends -- players re-enact the shootout in a little open-air theater behind the livery and feed lot's office, not far from the actual site. Stephen Keith, who portrays Holliday as a drunken, swaggering dandy, says he structured the play as "a Greek tragedy with cowboy hats and six-guns."
"Basically, I wrote the play as a kind of counter to the normal thing," says Keith, who's been staging the play there for four years. The Clantons and, especially, the McLaurys "are always targets in the movie, you know. That's all they're there for. And so I say that they're real people. They had lives; they had girlfriends and issues and everything else."
Keith admits to having taken copious poetic license. The play spends a lot of time on an alleged dalliance between Wyatt's niece, Hattie Earp, and one of the McLaurys, giving the playwright his Wild West version of the Capulets and Montagues.
But the play at least acknowledges the historical ambiguity. At show's end, Doc, acting now as Greek chorus, picks up his dusty cloak and addresses the audience directly:
"A tombstone marks each fallen head,
And graven there to see,
The charge of murder, made with lead,
And murder it may be."
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