Top Ten Of The Week:Gist Of The Gemini

So first day of winter and another major winter storm and the 7th snowstorm as said month and it's a fucking bitch.   Great name for a winter storm Gemini don't ya think?  Split personality bitch, tornado in one sector, heavy rain, the other, snow and ice as well. Guess which one we got?



The surpluses that we have of winter storms this year has really soured on even a lack of Christmas spirit this year.  Mostly consumerism for the latest in Made In China crap and the onslaught of the overplayed Christmas crap songs from this camp has even made Scrooge look like Norman Vincent Peale in his most bah humbug way.  The extreme weather of this winter has more than made up for the easy two winters that we enjoyed and begged for more but naysayers who wanted snow and ice got their wish in droves and I fucking slid across an icy Dairy Queen parking lot for a Fruit Smoothie cussing out the elements and Mother Nature's wild side.  I really don't give two fucks about The Weather Channel's naming winter storms as if they're puppies, cats or idiot bastard sons (or daughters).  But every storm has a personality, just like Spring Storm Fuckoff and Gemini the Bitch Winter Storm was a big bitch covering just about the half of the country. Not sure if global warming or a fucking jet stream highway of storms going one after another but this fucking winter is a return to the cold and shit that plagued us before the reprieve of 2011 and 2012 which weather stayed nice and warm and still had grass growing in December.  In other words, back to a typical winter time in this state.



It's hard to keep up with the antics of the hardest working blues woman out there Samantha Fish, but her last minute stops in Keokuk took everybody by surprise and Saturday's House Of Bricks show in Des Moines was called off by snow and ice and rain.  Gotta give me at least a week's notice if you're be in the neighborhood Sam.   And it would really help if you came out in a month when  it does not snow.

Again, Death takes no holiday and have taken away David Richards, producer for Queen and David Bowie and my third grade teacher Mrs. Huey when I went to Emerson after moving from Cedar Rapids in 1970. And thus the roots of staying stuck here in Eastern Iowa begins.


This week songs of note.



1.   My Shoes Keep Walking Back To You-Ray Price 1977  Losing last of the original country and western superstars of the 50s and a direct link to Hank Williams has been the major story of the week here.  The folks at Willie's Roadhouse, the classic country channel on XM radio has been paying Ray a great tribute by broadcasting some of his radio appearances with Bill Anderson and Willie Nelson.  Amazing how Ray would just shrug off the tributes with an oh gosh, I'm just one of you folks comment, he made you feel he was just like you.  Unlike the halfwit Bro acts of country today.  Ray's late 50s hits were pioneering honky tonk and the man could sing the phone book and make it sound like a classic too.  Originally a 1957 hit, Ray revisits this song 30 years later on the forgotten Dot album Reunited with the Cherokee Cowboys LP which is only available on vinyl.  Ray, on his death bed mentioned about having a new CD coming out and he says it was his best in a long time. But of course will be released after his passing.  If it does come out.



2.  Gee-The Crows 1954
     The Monkey Time-Major Lance 1963

In my ten years of doing the top ten, I admit I have overlooked the doowop and R&B artists that I grew up listening to, not that it's anything like Phil Robertson says about gays or such, but I have neglected the omissions of great black music that somehow died when rap came the be the choice instead of soul music.  This week I managed to blow the dust off a couple of old compilation soul music, Epic's 1982 Okeh Soul which gives about 8 selections to the great Major Lance (with help from Curtis Mayfield) to which Monkey Time was went to number 8 on the charts.  Another of his hits, Um um um um um um was number 5 but I had a remake of that song from the obscure Thomas Henry on the cheapo Hit Records label which I liked a little better.   The Crows were a early doo wop band that made the ultra catchy Gee in the beginning of the rock and roll era which somehow somebody thought 54 was the beginning of rock and roll although it's been around early than that (credit Joe Turner and Louis Jordan for that).  When Rhino was serious about preserving the older rock and roll and R&B they put out the classic Best Of Doo Wop Uptempo to which Gee can be found on.   And BTW, it was 40 years that American Graffiti came out on movie, which was the start of the love of old time R&B and R&R.  Too bad we all can't go back to 1962, but if you did you would have to leave the cellphone and computer behind.

3.  Shout It Out Loud-KISS  2009  Yes I know it came out in 1976 on Destroyer but I decided to go with the 2009 version from the Wal Mart special Sonic Boom album to which Gene and Paul gave a bonus CD of KISS KLASSICS (their spelling)  and it's pretty good, of course it has to be. They been playing these songs for so long they can do them in their sleep. You know by now the fans voted them in the rock and roll HOF and there may be a chance that you might see Ace and Peter join Paul and Mr. Money worshiper on stage.



4.  Big Railroad Blues-The Grateful Dead 1971  This song escaped my mind till Deep Tracks off XM played this and it comes from the S/T album aka Skull and Roses if I'm correct (which rarely is judging from what I read  in the comments section).  Out of all the oodles of live albums and boot leg GD have put out, the S/T remained my live album of choice.  Strange how I never heard this on the Grateful Dead channel when I have it on (although I'm sure they have played it). The Grateful Dead's music is great to seal books with when I am at work, you can just drift away and let the music take you there........



5.  She Satisfies-Shoes 1981  Perhaps the best basement band ever formed.  The things they could do with just a reel to reel player and a couple microphones.  So how come they're not in the Rock And Roll HOF? (I know, Jan Wanner hates power pop music).

6.  As Kind As Summer-The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band  1968  Starman made me this album along with the classic Pussy Plays album (which I still cannot find GD IT!) and I kinda forgotten it till this week when I was playing some of the Hippie Dippy albums of the week (David Peel, The Hello People) and I managed to come across A Child's Guide To Good And Evil in a stack of CDs and took it to work.  For being a label that Frank Sinatra formed so he could play his own music, Reprise has been very instrumental in bringing out some of the bizarre music of the late 60s and The West Coast Etc Band is as oddball as The Fugs or for that matter Frank Zappa could be.  Even Jimmy Bowen  produced a couple tracks for this band, Bowen of Kenny Rogers and of course Frank S fame. Those were the most daring of times and even for a obscure band like West Coast Pop Art Exp Band managed to get their albums reissued via Sundazed for a time being.  For fun and games, The Millennium or The Association did it better but this track featuring a crazy Alvin Chipmunk soundalike has be heard to be believed.  Gives me memories of Funky Tonk from Moby Grape.

 


7.   Don't Deserve You-Randy Rogers Band 2013   Perhaps the single of the year in my voting but you have never heard it on the radio.  I know I included this a while ago and while it comes from a country band, this has more rock pop going for it than actual country although the fiddles hidden deep in the mix considers this country anyway.  Not that KHAK will play it nor KISS 96, this is not Bro country.  It has more melody and I love it enough to keep their album Trouble on regular rotation on my player.



8.  Future Shock-Hello People 1974  My last review blog had their Fusion album but for myself I liked The Handsome Devils LP more despite the ugly picture of Larry Tasse in front, looking so mid 1970s.  There's a reason why you don't see mime bands anymore, they probably get punched out in the dark alley after the show.  Or worse being heckled on Tosh 2.0, we live in new and dangerous times.  Anyway, ND Smart looks very uncomfortable on the back picture and the two other original members of said band (or played on Fusion are on there as well).  Out of all the albums that they did, The Handsome Devils made it to 145 on the Billboard top 200 and Future Shock limped up to number 71 although KLWW played it a few times on their station, KCRG did not.   I think Gordon Anderson should place a call to Universal to issue this album, and while he's at it, tell them to issue that lost new wave masterpiece The Brains as well.  If you're going to reissue the DiFranco Family for Fuck's sakes.........http://www.thecoolgroove.com/hello.html



9.  A Night In Tunisia-Art Blakey, Elvin Jones & Charlie Persip 1961  An interesting find in the jazz section led me to Gretsch Drum Night At Birdland which Roulette Jazz put out in the early 60s (Blue Note reissued it in 1991) and a very interesting drums only rendition of the Dizzy Gillespie classic (the liner notes suggested that the horns and piano and bass parts were edited out due to time restraints) but Blakey/Jones/Persip arranged this so perfect that you didn't need the other guys.  A lotta jungle beats, and some voodoo thrown in for good measure it's perhaps the highlight of this album.  Unless you're not a fan of drums,  Then you'd be bored.



10.  The Gospel-Wilderness Road 1973  And in four parts: Which Key Does The Good Lord Sing In/Sunday Sunday/Mouth Jive/Heavily Into Jesus, this is what we call one of most underground songs of the 1970s, Very much a parody of gospel radio back then but with an eye that foretold the future as well.  This song is damn perfect for the times that it scares me. I still stand by my remarks that Wilderness Road sounded like Poco after getting a sugar buzz or too much energy drinks.  Too good for their own cause, even their so called radical record label couldn't bother promoting it, writing it off as a tax loss and saying adios.  But if you haven't heard it, it's new to you.  As well to me.


Stolen from Mark Prindle, his best of the year (in no particular order)

Motorhead - Aftershock
Melvins - Tres Cabrones
Obits - Bed & Bugs
Paul McCartney - New
Flaming Lips - The Terror
Sebadoh - Defend Yourself
Pasadena Napalm Division - S/T
Bad Religion - True North
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away
The Fall - Re-Mit 


Once in a while, I'll put up a song or comment on a forgotten album of long ago, in this case the Iowa Comp 3 that I previewed once again and gave thumbs up to Turn by Moveable Feast.  Gotta note from Dave Hansen from said band on what he's doing nowadays.  A new band No Good Turn. Thought I'll share it with you.  And BTW congrats on being a Grandpa to twins. Rock On!



Hey, thanks for the mention of the Poptastic song I wrote "Turn" by Movable Feast. We always seemed to lurk in the shadows of HOLS, Dangtrippers, and FFF. Since my kids are grown up, I'm back at it with a new band No Good Deed, now that I turned 50 I can't seem to pogo as high as I used to!

Thanks!!

Doug Hansen

https://www.facebook.com/pages/No-Good-Deed/194426377285985

http://www.reverbnation.com/nogooddeedband

Archives:Viber Baby, Old Relics Promo Spot,Dubuque

 http://viber.com/

Originally a blog from August of 2012, but the new link comes from dealing with hate from the Bobber.  Perhaps the biggest headscratcher came from the exchange from No Clue Crabby about a free app and Bob's everchanging into the future.  Still strikes me odd about Bob responding when I made the comment undirectly to him.  Yeah, Bob should have just let this one go, especially after me without a clue on free apps on cellphones that I don't even own.  R.S.

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2013/12/21/dealing-with-hate/


ORIGINAL POSTING:

On Twitter tonight I was making my usual comments about the Bears/Giants game and how Dan Dierdorf sucks as being Mr Jabblejaws when I came across a tweet by Bob Lefsetz about something called Viber and basically I making a out of blue comment but somehow he musta been keywording that term and I got into a pleasant little conversation with him.

BOB: Anyone using Viber?

No we R not using Viber Bob Lefsetz, we don't have the finances to keep up with the latest flavor of the week for technology.

BOB: Don't be a fucking asshole, Viber is FREE! Why is it a badge of honor to plead poverty?

Oh please Bob, we can't always keep up on the latest free stuff. Don't have the time for it. Besides it will be outdated the next day anyway.

BOB: It's completely reasonable to plead time poverty,it's one of the modern era's main issues,but I see no badge of honor in being poor

Who sez I'm poor Bob?  I listen to lots of records and cds and still read your column and although I may not agree with what you write sometimes I do.

End Of Transmission.

Pity the poor LA fools who think if you don't have the latest and that you listen to CDs and records that you're the problem rather than the solution. And if you don't have the latest smart phone you're living in poverty.  But when Lefsetz calls ya a fucking asshole you must have shaken the right branch of tree to knock him off top position.  Anyway, there's a website about Viber and it's free and if you have a smart phone, check it out.  as Bob sez IT'S FREE!  Can't argue with that and I thank Bob for the pleasure of talking to him on the subject.  Feel free to come over and we can play some 45s and talk about life before the internet. May have time poverty as he calls it, being over 50 does that although he's about 10 years older than me but I'm rich into lots of tunes old dude.

And thank you not blocking me on twitter too.

Sometimes I don't think things out as Bob pointed out in this DM that I didn't read till an hour later.   Wow, you tweeted that "you didn't have the finances..." BOB

Ya got me there Bob!   Next time I'll do better research.  DUH. Now off to comb my mullet and put on that new Colt Ford CD.....

By the way Bob, check out this little commercial for Relics Records in 1990.  It will kill ya!  By the way look for a cameo by me before the thing starts ;)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8Ykt8As0bc

Other things, Jerry Nelson, AKA Count Von Count of Sesame Street died at age 78. http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/08/24/20120824puppeteer-behind-count-sesame-street-dies.html

Went to Dubuque yesterday and picked up the new Los Lobos Kiko Live album, the new Red Kross, Leonard Cohen Death Of A Ladies Man, Joe Cocker and Long John Baldry It Ain't Easy. But ended up getting a scratched up copy of Otis Rush/Albert King Door To Door and it wouldn't play.  And then hit a curb that broke a couple of tierods in my car so naturally I was too pissed off to go enjoy the sunset and went home knowing I had to spend 400 bucks on car repairs.  The guy at CDs for Change was closing up shop early to go see The Wailers at the Mississippi Moon Bar with his GF and hope they had a good time.  I would have gone but unfortunly the sun was in my eyes, a couple walkers were coming down the side and there's this fucking corner that I hit.  Jump in a rose bush and still end up smelling like SH----.

KDAT sucks but you already know that.  Seems like everytime I go some place to get my hair cut, either Cost Cutters or the other place has that GD cumulus crap station on and they have to play a fucking Sheryl Crow song every fucking time.  Two of the last three times they played First Cut Is The Deepest or Soak Up The Sun.  When you have a CCC owned station you can't escape this C word.

Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time......From Arun MA via twitter.

Post Script:

See it as a badge of honor. If someone is hating you, you’ve made it.

Thanks to you  Bob! I made the big time!

On The Subject Of Larry LuJack,Ratings and End Of World

Another radio legend has departed the airwaves.  Larry Lujack, perhaps the most famous of all people born in Quasqueton Iowa and became one of the finest DJs ever in the Chicago area passed away from cancer, age 73.  I remember him in the days of WLS in the early 70s being the best DJ in a team that had Tommy Edwards (Larry's sidekick), John Landecker and many others. But for the former Larry Blankenburg, he became the Superjock, and his dry sense of humor paved the way for the likes of Howard Stern.  Larry was a avid golfer, even playing 18 holes in 27 below zero weather. To which he collapsed soon afterward. In 1998 he moved to New Mexico but did managed to return to the airwaves at a couple Chicago stations before retiring in 2006.

On the subject of: Ratings again!

This month just might be the best ever for people visiting this website, although I'm sure the numbers are a bit inflated by Blogspot themselves.  I've been to the top of the mountain with 927 one day and back down to the familiar valley below with 38 views 4 days later.  If it seems that I been posting more this month, I have.  Nothing much to do when you're stuck indoors and many people that you knew dead or dying.  With less than two weeks left in this crappy year (and yes it has been more crappy than last year)  there's still the end of year report, a couple more top tens and a hooray we're finally free message to pen, I'm sure there will be more deaths to report, more bitchings about the weather to report and perhaps a few more rant and raves to do before this is all over.  And more of the roller coaster ride of ratings to which 243 of you stopped to visit me yesterday.   And rest assured that we'll be over 38 views at least for today.  But there's always tomorrow.

As I get older, it seems that it's getting mighty tougher to talk tunes anymore, even for myself while blogging or talking that the words just don't flow out like they used to, or I'm repeating myself on the top tens and seeing the conversation going nowhere.  It's a bitch trying to even type out words while the brain and fingers are not on the same page.  And while it's nice to have bloated ratings, not one of the 927 viewers left any comments which makes me wonder if I actually had that many read The Goodbye Charlie Top Ten that somehow shot all the way to the second most view blog ever.  Unless the readers aren't smart enough to figure out the Captcha words and numbers to post things.  And even for me that's a bitch trying to figure out the words and numbers too.  It's a bitch trying to continue to blog and think up of a top ten that will get people motivated enough to seek out the tunes on the charts. Even Luke Films haven't given us This Song Sucks like he used to.  The internet world awaits for the next one but like Luke I don't get much in terms of comments outside of Tad unless it's either trolls or bots leaving illegal drug sites as comments.

And so the world continues. Gas prices goes up on bad news and good news. And we never know how much behind the scenes big oil and corporations do their best to fuck over the consumer.  We have never pumped so much more oil out of the ground and gas prices continue to still go up. If it goes under 3 dollars a gallon, something happens and it goes back over 3 dollars once again.  The second term of Obama has meant nothing, Congress does even less.  I don't think change back into the good old days will return.  The only hope you can have is to win the lottery and somebody in Georgia and California won the big one.  Which leaves the rest of the world cussing abut it all and going back to work. 

Well, with less than a week left for Christmas and still trying to figure out what to get for my dad for a present,  winter has return big time this year, blanketing this area with snow the first weekend of December and then if it ain't cold one day, it's snowing the next and then another ice storm.  We gotten by with two of the best Decembers last couple years of no snow but this year it seems it's make up time again.  I get an appointment to get the car's oil change next Monday, only to find that Mother Natures plans to have another fucking snowstorm on the weekend to add 8 more fucking white shit to make get around a bitch and adding more salt to a new car that I got this year.   Welcome to winter, another fucking snowstorm.

So as I continue to struggle to retype the fucking words to this blog (add to respell continue 10 times) and try not to leave out keywords, thank God (type "that" for the third straight time, now you see how much I hate life, too many demons) we have enough music variety on CD and on record to keep my sanity up. But I'm fighting a losing battle.  It's been that way since 10:50 PM on a fucking snowy January night almost 53 years ago next month.   And someday it will end.

Don't know when but it's closer than we think.

On the subject of Duck Dynasty and Phil Robertson...I don't watch Duck Dynasty so I don't really care about what Phil Robertson says about gay people.  But living in a mainstream world to which the slightest of things are blown out of proposition, anything said a oncoming train-wreck.   His beliefs are his own but I do think GQ did blow the comment out of whack.  Just like of the dufus on Sisters Wives that he can have as many women he wants as long as the certificate says he's married to one.  I don't get that one but then again I don't believe in what the Dufus on Sister Wives does anyway.  The channel stays off.  Just like Honey Boo Boo and most of the reality crap that's on all of the cable channels.  I believe that TV had more to offer 20 or 30 years ago and even the 4 major networks, PBS and a independent station before cable.  I have gay friends and they live their lives very well.  Doesn't affect me and neither shall it you.

My final reviews of new reissues come from Real Gone and the results of their 5 dollar sale on some CDs that I bought.

SHOES-35 Years
David Peel-Have A Marijuana
The Hello People-Fusion
Wilderness Road-Sold For The Prevention Of Disease Only

Gordon Anderson continues to dig deep into the vaults of the major labels to put out forgotten classics and put together best ofs from bands that deserved better.  Thus Shoes, Zion Illinois power pop kings has always have a much airy and poppier sound than of their Illinois brothers Cheap Trick and certainly the best thing that Shoes ever did was to hang on to their masters after Elektra finished with them and didn't think they were reissuing, which I find that hard to believe if Wounded Bird would have issued their Elektra albums, Present Tense the best of the bunch.  The first Shoes Best Of CD, captured prime moments of their album up to 1987, 35 Years, for better or worse, refines and weeds out the lesser known for different songs although I don't agree dropping Boys Don't Lie in favor of Okay on 35 Years.  This will not provoke me into giving up Shoes Best but sitting side by side with that 35 Years gives us the fact that Shoes were a very good power pop band that was too pop for rock radio.  I'm more in favor of having them in the RnRHOF more than Cat Stevens or even Hall And Oates for that matter but it does have their best Elektra singles (Too Late and Tomorrow Night) along with She Satisfies.  In fact, 11 of the 21 tracks do come from the 3 Elektra albums that Shoes had on with 5 songs from Present Tense.  Shoes still hang on more to their past by adding 7 new replacements from Shoes Best and only new track from their last album in 2012.  Unlike their counterparts 20/20  Shoes never really left the power pop field, they still sound like 1979 and forever happy that way.  But it's a toss up between this and Shoes Best, the former wins out with a slightly better song selection but 35 years gives you key tracks to the forgotten Stolen Wishes album, a record that just as good, if just a little more slight than Present Tense.

As for David Peel, Have A Marijuana is his 1968 Elektra anti classic, with odes to the noble weed, cops are jerks and lets all get stoned and smoke more weed.  Critics never liked him, Robert Christgau gave him the all time worst grade with 1972 Apple album The Pope Smokes Dope and didn't care for H.A.M either.  But he takes his cues from The Fugs in protest music and it's hippy dippie folk music at best, but you had to be there to enjoy it.  The CD came out earlier in the year with David Peel signing his name to a few inlay cards and even for Real Gone Music it didn't sell very well.  In fact they threw in a autographed copy for me.  Now, if Real Gone releases forgotten singer David Lannan's 1970 album for San Francisco label, that will make headwaves. And would sell even less copies.

(David Lannan passed away around 2011 with little fanfare, he did record an CD in 2006 titled No War For Oil that you can get from CD Baby, but this the best eulogy anybody can give him here) http://www.doubleintenders.com/david-lannan

The Hello People an interesting band of musicians when they played live dressed up as mines' and would not talk to the audience when they were playing their music and they recorded a few albums for Phillips, the second album Fusion that got enough interest for RGM to reissue it for the first time. Bill Stymsyk recorded the album, he'd later found fame and fortune producing the J. Geils Band and The Eagles.  In some ways, this kinda reminds me of what The Association would sounded like if they were listening to jazz and had a flute player in the band, or The Millennium.  Or a dry sense of humor Lovin Spoonful on Pray For Rain although side two falls flat on the 6 and half minute Come And See Me.  But on a positive, their Jelly Jam is pretty good jazz rock, something that Mick Abrahams would take to heart on Blodwyn Pig.  Worth points in the cult status field but my favorite album The Handsome Devils, had Todd Rundgren producing and their sole top 50 song with Future Shock in 1975 which by then, only Larry Tasse and Bobby Sedita remained from the Fusion album, with ex Remains drummer N D Smart on board.

But perhaps the best of the bunch was Wilderness Road's 1973 Reprise album Sold For The Prevention Of Disease Only.  They sounded like Poco after drinking too much Redbull and having way too much radical in their songs to make them not radio friendly.  Not so much on the highlight The Gospel which is basically a snapsnot of gospel radio today, full of commercials of Sunday racing, giving your money to the Rev and has to be heard to really be believed.  Hell, it calls out FOX news a good two years before that propaganda network was born.  Technically, this is a satire album played with country rock goodness, even to the final track The Authentic British Blues to which lead singer sings in the way of the Isley Brothers' Shout Now Wait A Minute and after singing that, it comes to the end.  An actual minute of silence to end the record on a strange note but reading the liner notes it all makes sense.  The main songwriters would actually go on to be part of All Things Considered on Public Radio.  SFTPODO is that lost classic to which it's fun to rediscover what was missed on the underground radio.  By even by 1973 standards, Wilderness Roads was even too underground for FM radio.  The way it goes.

Grades:
Shoes-35 Years A-
David Peel-Have A Marijuana B
The Hello People-Fusion B+
Wilderness Road-Sold For The Prevention Of Disease Only A-

Oh, PSA...When Neil Young plays you do not text, otherwise this will happen: http://neilyoungnews.thrasherswheat.org/2012/12/if-you-text-during-neil-young-concert.html#.UT5GiLfaPnw.blogger

Crabb Bits:Rock N Roll HOF Joe Bihari

Let me say this about this year's rock inductees....They sure don't rock. Or most of them.

Let's start this out in order of importance (for me).

KISS
The fans vote seem to be that they know more about rock and roll than Jann Wanner does. Deep Purple, which fell short, fared worse in the voting and basically Wanner drooling from the mouth said sorry guys, no Hall for you. Even though Gene Simmons would tell you it's been his and Paul Stanley's band from the get go, it was Ace Frehley's guitar work that made their best albums stand out.  Of course back then everybody in high school had a copy of KISS Alive or Destroyer and would dress up in KISS gear to lip synch to Rock And Roll All Nite in the high school's local talent show.  My faves remain 1974's Hotter Than Hell and to a lesser extent Rock And Roll Over.  The wheels fell off on the Vini Poncia's produced Dynasty and Unmasked and The Elder was a jumbled mess and Creatures Of The Night, Ace's finale not much better. Lick It Up was somewhat of a comeback but once they got rid of Vinnie Vincent the rest of the 80s and 90s stuff was crap, including the supposed reunion album Psycho Circus, a waste of time for everybody.  Tom Thayer and Eric Singer really have been the best replacements for the early KISS type of sound (not to take anything away from the late great Eric Carr) and the last two recent KISS albums were a return to the good old days.  But no matter what Gene Simmons thinks or does, he'll never top Ace Frehley's 1978 album as the best solo KISS album ever made.  He'll have to live that down.

Nirvana
You know you're getting old when they make it into the Hall.  They effectively killed hair metal with Nevermind's head exploding popularity. But on the downside ushered in the "grunge" movement  and may have inspired Limp Bizkit.  The mud splattered Bleach, the corrosive but polished Nevermind, the B side and odds and ends Insecticide, and Kurt's suicide note In Utero and the unsafe at any speed Steve Albini mix to boot, Nirvana's time was very brief.  Kurt would have been happier being obscure but make no mistake, Nevermind was a snapsnot of the early 90s and you had to be there.

Hall And Oates

More white boy soul than rock and roll but they got in the HOF on the string of high charting RCA singles but the Atlantic years had their share of moments.  War Babies has Todd Rundgren producing and Utopia backing them up, and it's somewhat progressive rock in a way, but it has John Oates' finest song Can't Stop The Music (he played it much too long) and I have a fondness for the first RCA single, not Sarah Smile but rather Carmelia another forgotten Oates sung number.   Daryl Hall got Robert Fripp to produce Sacred Songs and wouldn't it been fun to see Robert produced H&O next album but instead they went with hack David Foster on Along The Red Line which had a fine but minor hit in It's A Laugh (which explains Jann Wanner's HOF anyway), a cover of You Lost That Lovin Feeling opened the doors for a 4 year dominance on the pop charts ending with Big Bam Boom their hardest rocking record ever.  But then they dropped out, and when they returned the hits were no longer there.

Peter Gabriel
Never enjoyed much of his Genesis stuff with the exception of And The Word Was...Genesis and as much as I tried to listen to Foxtrot or Selling England By The Pound and the first live album it bored the hell out of me. His solo career was much better and although his Atlantic stuff was still uneven, the Fripp produced album was the best.  Going to Mercury for the 1980 album with Biko Gabriel hit his stride with So and of course the major hit single Sledgehammer and the beautiful In Your Eyes before Cumulus radio overplayed it to death.  His last good album was Us. His best of can be found in the 2 dollar bins and you're better off to go there.  As for the Genesis stuff, you're on your own.

Linda Ronstadt
Everybody in high school loved her, she was so damn sexy back then in the late 70s and she knew great songs to cover. From Neil Young (Love Is A Rose), Warren Zevon (Poor Poor Pitiful Me) and early rock and roll (When Will I Be Loved, That'll Be The Day) she remains a part of classic rock radio but I have no use for her music since I never own any albums and the only single that I ever had was her 1982's Get Closer.  Her U turn into pop standards and Nelson Riddle everybody got off the bus.  Not exactly rock and roll. But did managed to produced David Lindley's 1988 Very Greasy for Elektra which was his most fun album in years.  Greatest Hits 1 and 2  are the best overview.

Cat Stevens
A Jan Wanner pick, I have found only a handful of Stevens numbers I can listen to: Matthew And Son and Wild World which remains my fave, but for Yusuf Islam's albums not much so.  This is where the supporters of Deep Purple, Yes and Paul Revere And The Raiders come in and complain about this selection.

E Street Band
Without them Bruce Springsteen doesn't rock

Brian Epstein:
Beatles manager

Andrew Loog Oldham
In some ways Andrew was a bit more important than Epstein as Stones manager, plus it helped that he formed a record label that gave us Humble Pie and The Small Faces and it could have been one of the most important label had bad distribution done it in.  An odd sort of fellow, Oldham can be heard on Little Steven's Underground Garage although he tends to be a bit longwinded on his stories.

So there ya go, the 2014 inductees and of course the more deserving folks are still not in. And never will be as long as Dipshit Wanner is still alive.

Counterpoint: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2013/12/17/rock-and-roll-hall-of-fame-inductees/

Joe Bihari, the last of the Bihari brothers who formed Modern Records has joined his brothers in the great beyond at the age of 88.  While it was true that the Bihari's would go find black bluesmen to record, they were also known to stick their names in for songwriting credit which made BB King mad to leave for ABC Paramount.  The Bihari's also discovered (and took some songwriting credit as well) Etta James, Ike Turner and Elmore James as part of the Modern/RPM/Meteor/Flair labels that they owned.

And Harold Camping, the doomsday minister who kept making predictions about when the world would end and ended up being wrong time and time again...The end of him came.  Age 92, fell and his his head after falling. The way it goes: http://news.msn.com/obits/us-doomsday-minister-harold-camping-dies?ocid=ansnews11


   

Ray Price Eulogy

Don't look so sad
I know it's over
But life goes on
And this old world
Will keep on turning

Let's just be glad
We had this time
To spend together
There is no need to watch the bridges
That we're burning 

Out of all the songs that Ray Price did, he has picked For The Good Times to be the one song to remember him by.  Written by Kris Kristofferson it actually went up to the number 11 chart position on the local radio station in 1970.

Ray had one of the most distinctive voices in music, not just country.  For myself, he was the king of the honky tonk or the Ray Price Shuffle as they called it as he had hit after hit in the 50s with City Lights, Heartaches By The Number and My Shoes Keep Walking Back To You.  In the 60s, Price begin to do more pop type of songs, Danny Boy has also been one of his most requested numbers although I came to find it hokey.  I had no use for his pop style of albums although For The Good Times is actually more of a farewell song than actual love song, I compare it to Gordon Lightfoot's If You Could Read My Mind in the dark side of music masquerading as a love song.  Price had a couple more crossover hits in She's Got To Be A Saint and I Won't Mention It Again.

By 1976, Price left Columbia for a stint on ABC/Dot and continued his country-pop with little chart action.  There's a couple favorites of mine, 1977's Reunited With The Cherokee Cowboys on Dot which is more of some of the finest Nashville session players that ever played (Grady Martin,  Bob Moore, Buddy Harman, Tommy Jackson to name a few) and even if the songs are done in one take, Ray can sing these in his sleep, be it his You Done Me Wrong to Bob Dylan's I'll Be Your Baby Tonight.  And of course the two duet albums with Willie Nelson, San Antonio Rose and 2003's Run That By Me One More Time.  I haven't heard the final outing with Willie and Merle Haggard, 2007's Last Of The Breed which went all the way to number 7 on the charts but even Merle Haggard was amazed on how Ray could sing those songs with one mike and plenty of vocal.

Ray was very busy the final years of his life, discovering Face Book and connecting with his fans which I was and kept in touch with the happenings.  He took exception to a comment of Blake Shelton about "old farts and jack asses" which also became a Face Book fan page as well and made a few pointed comments to the BS man.  Eventually they both got together and made up.  But by then Ray was ill with cancer and this year never toured.  In November, tired of the chemo that drained him, he retired once and for all back to his beloved Texas ranch to which he would live out the rest of his life, finally going into a coma Sunday Night to move into the promised land the next day.

There's only one Ray Price and he's gone.

I'll get along
You'll find another
And I'll be here
If you should ever find
You need me

Lay your head upon my pillow
Hold your warm and tender body
Close to mine
Hear the whisper of the raindrops
Blow softly against my window
Make believe you love me
One more time
For the good times

Top Ten Of The Week: House Of Records

Plenty of fucking missing pictures here.  Why bother changing them when they continue to Disappear?!





Among the things that I missed over the years was The Heidelberg Project, a Detroit idea of making good use of abandoned houses and add a art theme to them. One of which is called The House Of Soul, which grabbed my attention.  I'm guessing this is in one of the more rougher no man's area of Detroit, since arson has sense claimed the House Of Soul.  Guess I won't be making any trip to Detroit anytime soon. But with determination they continue to solder on, despite the arsonists burning down the houses. 




This month great things have happened here in the blog known as Crabb's Top Ten, I hit 923 views in one day over a blog that had nothing to do with 11 12 13 but the folks in India thought otherwise. At the halfway point, the ratings seem to indicate my best year since the breakout July record of 3727, but of course Bob Lefsetz gets that many views per hour.  But I do have regulars. But with two more top tens to go till the year is out (this is a short year since next week's is Christmas and still debating if I should go out in style and defy the holiday with a regular batch of songs or the overplayed Christmas crap that makes going to any store a chore upon itself.  Life is a very fleeting moment and you and I may not be around to see the next Holiday extravaganza or count how many times you hear Holly Jolly Christmas or Silver Bells or (insert another overplayed song here) before going bat crazy.   Used to be we could not wait for this part of the year to play Christmas songs, now we dread hearing the same song done by over the top arrangements from the latest DON'T YELL AT ME chick singers that make Marah Carey sound like Nick Drake.  I'm not a child anymore, nor any of my own, Christmas means nil to me.

 

Over the course of years, meeting starving musicians has always made me champion for them to be recognized in a era corrupted by overplayed classic rock and corporate radio but I always been a big fan of Liz Chaffe and her band Lizzy Williams. Thought I give her a shout out and some Crabb loving of her latest picture.  And still hounding her for a new CD as well. Liz, of the original My Space friends now over at Facebook. 

It made the local news here but Slipknot announced that Joey Jordison, freaky drummer of said band and helping out fellow bands such as Rob Zombie and Ministry has left the band to help his new band Scar The Martyr. Corey Taylor isn't saying too much about it at the moment but I'm sure more will come to light as the days progress on.  Slipknot, the best known Iowa band (best Iowa band another matter of opinion) has been pretty much dormant since the death of Paul Gray but Taylor has been quite busy with his projects and Stone Sour band too. With Joey's departure is this the end of Slipknot as we know them?  It won't be the same.



In the meantime, time for the latest top ten, if my finger will hit the right letters.  Good thing I don't handwrite this anymore, nobody would decipher what the hell I say.



1.  Good Rockin Tonight-Wynonie Harris  1947  Originally written by the late great Roy Brown, Harris turned it down but then did his own when Brown recorded it for himself.  For myself, this songs goes all the way to the Columbia 18 King Size Rhythm And Blues Hits which was played time and time again. One of the more early songs with a cymbal crash ride that foretell the future of future cymbal crashers like Keith Moon, this song was part of Rock Before Elvis comp that Stash Records issued when they were a mail order company out of New York (I ordered that while living at the old duplex in CR).  Rock and roll was coming but it would take another 7 years before Elvis strolled on down to Sun Records to make a record for his momma for a birthday present. And of course, did a cover of this song too.  The Man knew his music.



2.  Mustang Man-7th And Beale  2008  About five years ago I came across this band while looking through was CD Baby had for sale but obscurity of this band even in their stomping ground of Kingman Arizona nobody really knows about either. There's nothing about them at Hastings, maybe the music store downtown. The major players are Gilbert Sanchez and Stanfield Major but their secret weapon was Katherine Stewart, the closest soundalike to Patsy Cline that we will ever get. Crossroads And Highways was an inspired but uneven album with the best songs sung by Stewart. Sanchez and Major have moved on to a Facebook site called Lucky Dog! Music.https://www.facebook.com/LuckyDogMusic



3.  I Like Marijuana-David Peel And The Lower East Side 1968  Yeah I miss the 60s too, radical music and people pushing the envelope.  Critics didn't care much for Peel, Robert Christgau gave his Pope Smokes Dope LP the infamous E grade and I doubt that this one would have fared much better either.  This has a vibe that you can find on the Fugs album but not as accessible.  Peel would redo this song with the hippie dippy shoegazer freaks The 360s on the hemplation album for Capricorn in the late 90s.  The folks at Real Gone thought so much of this album that they reissued it this year with Peel signing autographs on fifty copies.  That was six months ago; they had a Christmas sale, with five dollars on certain CDs (probably the least selling albums), which I scooped up unknown classics from Hello People, Wilderness Road and (Yes) even The Shoes best of.  And of course Have a Marijuana to which, guess what, I scored one of those autographed inserts from Mr. Peel himself. Score one for me.



4.  Hey Pocky Way-The Neville Brothers 1981  Longtime band of brothers doing some funky New Orleans grooves as the The Meters and of course the soul singers of Art and Cyril plus Charles along with the crooner Aaron has been making critic approved albums as the Neville Brothers over the years and I didn't pay much attention till I saw the cheapo 2 CD set for 65 cents and then caught up on the best moments. Fiyo on The Bayou seems to be their best album. Produced by Joel Dorn.



5.  Dead Man Walking-Brand New Sin 2005  Southern rock has never died but it has been altered over the years. Texas Hippie Coalition comes to mind but Brand New Sin has been around longer than THC. Echoes of Molly Hatchet and Skynyrd plus some Metallica here and an Pantera howl there. If KRNA had any balls they would be playing this as modern rock classic but they never will. They tend to ignore anything that comes out on Century Media. The new Southern Rock.



6. Oh Death-Camper Von Beethoven 1988  Somehow with all the passings of people that I known this year, I thought this would be a good song to put up.  And hoping we can get spared another day to look forward to another day.  The Kaleidoscope (thank God for spellchecker since I'd never get that GD word spelled right) did it on the Side Trips album they did for Epic back in the 60s.



7.  Laundromat-Rory Gallagher 1971  In the years of reviewing albums and bands, I never really gotten around listening to his discography outside of the Polydor Best Of Taste, Rory's band before going solo but I recall him doing a excellent live performance on the old In Concert series for ABC way back in the 70s.  Like Gary Moore, Rory played a mean slide and shared a love of booze that eventually doomed him.  His albums have been reissued a few times on CD but the only one I ever got was the Beat Club Sessions in the two dollar bins and Rory puts on a great performance on his three sessions for the German TV Beat Club.  Back then on Friday and Saturday Nights, we could see live music be it Rock Concert or Midnight Special here. Nowadays all they show is infocommercials of those forgotten shows.  For what it cost for cable, ya think they would show the shows instead. Fuck you Guthy Renker for the info-commercial.



8.  Rebel Beat-Goo Goo Dolls 2013  They have had a very good and long run on Warner Brothers, two decades if you can believe that but their albums have been underachieving as they try to keep a foot in the door of radio, to which this song bombed and KDAT passed on.  Four producers tried their hand including Greg Wattenberg but outside of the faithful fans (that would be me and about 120 others) Magnetic didn't sell.  It really is their best since Dizzy Up The Girl but at this point nobody else cares.  It's a bitch getting old. The 90s are truly gone, just like the 80s, 70's, 60's.  Light years away.

 

9.  Hard Love-Spirit 1988   Part of Miles Copeland's efforts to give classic rock bands a second chance at stardom in the late 80s, he didn't have much to work with. Black Sabbath was going through the Tony Martin era, John Kay and Steppenwolf made the silly and forgettable Rise And Shine and perhaps the best of the bunch the return of Spirit with John Locke rejoining Randy California and Ed Cassidy although too bad Jay Ferguson sat this one out.  Mark Andes (borrowed from Heart at the time) and Curly Smith (Jo Jo Gunne) helped on this song which was the best off Rapture In The Chambers.  Had this on CD years ago and traded it in but a trip to Hastings this year in Kingman found Rapture for 1.49.  It's okay but not one of their best.



10.  One Tin Soldier (The Legend Of Billy Jack)-Coven 1971  Dedicated to the memory of Tom Laughlin who died on Sunday at age 82. But perhaps the biggest paradox of music history, this song was written by the Lambert/Potter team, but Coven was one of the pioneering goth bands (though the term wasn't around back then) and made a hard rock album for Mercury that got recalled after it was revealed that Charles Manson listened to it (you can guess the rest).  This light hearted pop single charted three times and both MGM and Warner Brothers issued it as a single.  Nevertheless Jinx Dawson may have beat Ronnie James Dio as the first to use the devil horn sign (\nn/)  and continues to lead various lineups of Coven, although outside of One Tin Soldier, I have heard nothing else from Coven or Jinx for that matter. 

No shortage of crappy music especially the country side of radio  Which may be even more torturous than KDAT (although they're on their Christmas period with the overplayed Christmas crap of long ago and far away) and Z102.9 which is reserved for hair styling salons and Cost Cutters.  Saving Country Music's worst of 2013 although yours truly still believes My Kind Of Night is the new Soul Sister of this decade. http://www.savingcountrymusic.com/saving-country-musics-worst-songs-of-2013