With Pumpkinfest coming around the corner here in sunny Anamosa, I
thought I give a shout out to the homies of A town. I love this time of
year, beautiful clear blue skies, lots of sun, hardly any rain but the
downside of fall is that we keep losing daylight. Something like an
hour and forty five minites from the first of september. Still have two
weeks of vacation left and the question of where to go. Madison is
nice but they have UW football and with Ohio State coming in this week,
that will be out of the question. Anyway, the top ten is full of
eccentric stuff so what else is new?
1. Big Things In Life-Mental As Anything 1989 Aussie band that made
no impact in the US but I did enjoy Hand To Mouth enough to go seek out
the followup Cyclone Raymond. Is it any good you ask? Some of it yes,
some of it no. Kinda like Died Pretty or Cruel Sea, bands that made
good albums that you can find for a buck in the clarence bins.
2. Easier Said Than Done-The Essex 1963 A band of Marines making a
top ten smash while on leave. I found their 2 albums on a Collectibles
CD that combines the album and found that they really never could top
Easier Said Than Done. A interesting footnote in rock history, The
Essex couldn't get it together since they were committed to The Marine
Corp at that time and one by one left the group. Semper Fi.
3. Over And Over/Second Hand Store Joe Walsh 1978 One of my
favorite albums that got me through high school, yup this has Life's
Been Good but side one had these two songs that led off But Seriously
Folks. Had this on 8 track then bought the cassette then the album then
the cd. Talk about dedication.
4. Your Time Is Gonna Come/Black Mountain Side-Led Zeppelin 1968
Well it looks like Robert Plant put the kabash on any Led Zep reunion
plans but there is talk about him doing another album with Alison Krauss
once their tour comes to an end. I still have the first generation CD
of LZ's first album and it still sounds very good compared to the
remastered edition. Can't tell the difference why pay the difference
and this just in, Rhino is putting all of LZ's output in yet another box
set that unless you want six different cd artwork of In Through The Out
Door, it has your name written all over it. Otherwise save up before
the great depression hits again.
5. When It Comes To Your Love-The Beau Brummels 1965 Somebody up at
HP Books had the BB's 4 cd retrospective set Magic Hollow for the
unbelieveable price of 8 bucks and Rhino Handmade sold this album for 80
bucks new! I'd bitch too if I had to pony up that much to get a box
set of mono mixes but I have always love this band enough to invest
eight bucks in a four cd set. Which is why I love Half Priced Books,
you never know what you will find for bargains there. It's my second
home, plus there's two up in Madison. And BTW, this week marks three
years of Half Priced Books in Cedar Rapids.
6. Why Must Your Love Be So Dry-Nina Simone 1968 There's another
box set of Nina's best known songs plus a DVD to boot but I don't think
it's enough for me to reinvest into that when Anthology has done the
trick, plus I found her reissue Silk And Soul in Iowa City last week.
Hard to believe that she's been dead for over five years.
7. Head Over Heels-The Yo Yos 2000 Hard punk rock from a British
punk band that got their album issued on Sub Pop Records. Only way I
remembered this band was that Bruce at the pawnshop had this in his
collection. But I found a cheap copy of it when I was up in Seattle a
year later. Can't remember yesterday but I can remember getting certain
cds at certain places at certain times of the year. I guess the term
is Demetria for what I have.
8. The Downside Of Being A Fuck Up-Wreckless Eric/Amy Rigby 2008
Pretty much sums up my life but actually this is off a new album from
Eric and Amy, who are now married to each other. For all that pub rock
that Eric is famous for and for that Gurl folk rock that Amy is famous
for, they would end up sounding like..............................The
Raveonettes!
9. Lady Day-Lou Reed 1973 And still to this day Berlin by Lou Reed
remains a very depressing album to the point that it makes Joy Division
sound like Up With People. I didn't care much for Berlin the album when
I was in high school but found that it works best if it stayed in the
context of Berlin the album and not on any other Lou Reed retropective.
Nevertheless, Reed redid the song for the Rock and Roll Animal album.
and a couple others from Berlin would be on the Lou Reed Live album to
which at the fadeout somebody yells out Lou Reed Sucks. Guess they were
waiting for a encore of Sister Ray instead?!?
10. Mercy-Wire 1978 I was going to include this song last week but
due to running out of numbers on my top ten couldn't. Something about
punk rockers rocking out doesn't make sense but then again nothing ever
make sense. Not in this life anyway.
