Since I couldn't do Madison this month, I
decided to head up to Dubuque instead. Hard to figure that town smaller
than CR would still have two working record stores in Cds 4 Change and
Moondog Records. And still have a Little Ceasers Pizza too. If I lived
up in Dubuque I would hang around the west side of town since most of
the happenings are around JF Kennedy Blvd. It's also amazing that
Moondog Music would have both Tommy Keene and Steve Earle's albums and
not Best Buy here. With no independent music stores here in town a CR
person would have either drive or buy online. I will hit Madison when
the weather starts cooperating but in this time of year it's a bitch
since we get storm systems up the ass. I seldom sleep anymore when we
get a damn storm. I never know if I'm going to get swept down the damn
drainage although this storm we had the past couple days spared us from
major rains.
They say that water will be like oil in the future
and if that's the case we are all water sheiks. Too bad we can't send
this liquid gold in the basement to those that need it. Looks like this
area will be in a surplus of moisture in the ground again for the third
straight year. And it is a given that when I go hit Madison town, gas
prices will be over two bucks a gallon again. Just another fact of
life. Makes me wish for the 70s again but then again the old 67
Fairlaine 500 got about 10 blocks a gallon gas. Pick your poison.
The
Great Depression 2 has bargain hunters out and about and I met a few at
the local Goodwill in town. The dude brought out some new CDs for the
world to buy at Goodwill and this woman came out just in time to scour
and take a Herb Alpert Greatest Hits CD before I knew anything about
it. Oh, they had The Best Of Traffic-Feeling Alright but since I had
the 2 cd Smiling Phases and everything else I passed on it. You got to
be careful in terms of Goodwill CDs, I took a look at a 2 CD best of
Chicago and it only had one CD in there but Ms. Bargain Lady snatched it
out of my hand when I put it back and put it in her cart. Didn't
bother to tell her that there's only one CD but I'm sure she will figure
it out eventually.
The Top Ten Of The Week follows.
1.
Something About You-LeBlanc & Carr 1977 A forgotten light rock
number from Lenny LeBlanc and Pete Carr, the latter one of the best
guitar players to come out of Muscle Shoals and played alongside Duane
Allman in the Hour Glass a super group before it's time. This tune
managed to scrape the top 40, which is a cover of the Four Tops 1966
number. Their biggest hit is the haunting Falling, one of the ten best
all time soft rock numbers. LeBlanc has moved on to gospel music.
2.
Wake Up-The Muckrakers 2005 I don't know if Rob Carpenter follows the
top ten here or not, but he blogs a lot in their My Space site as much
as blog over here. The Muckrakers are kinda like Kentucky's answer to
Sister Hazel or the Gin Blossoms in the way they make their music, good
for driving around town and they managed to make a big enough buzz for
Canada's answer to Pickwick/K Tel Madacy Records to pick up their Front
Of The Parade album. Gutsy move and didn't pan out and the only copies
of this record I ever seen they had three copys at Moondog Records. The
hack at All Music Guide calls The Muckies a poor mans cross of
Barenaked Ladies and Dave Matthews. I don't see the connection but I do
know this is pretty good pop rock of this decade but radio does not
play it. Should I rename this top ten to impress The Muckrakers to read
this? Sometimes I do read the latest happenings from Rob and his daily
blogs and once in a while I'll post a comment but I'm sure being a new
dad he's got better things to do than seeing one of his songs posted on a
top ten that hardly anybody notices. Keeping good music alive, it's
such a solitary job at times.
3. Summertime Blues-Levon Helm
1978 When I do a lost classic, I make sure they are lost classics.
Helm is the legendary drummer and vocalist for The Band and was the
voice of The Band. Yep, Robbie Robertson can write them but he couldn't
sing them with a shit (See Robbie's Geffen albums for proof). After
the band Levon made three albums for ABC/MCA and did a one off with Capitol/Muscle Shoals Sound Records in 1982 to which I knew nothing
about till I seen this on a reissue CD that came out for a month. Bonus
track is this number which Levon did sing on a SCTV episode but I think
Levon may have the changed some of the words. Could have swore on the
final verse he goes "I kinda like to help you son but you're too dumb to
vote" May have been wrong but that might give me a different insight
to sing that song when I play it live myself. Helm is still around and
made a critically acclaimed album of last year Dirt Farmer to which I
might check out later.
4. Everybody Dies-Dramarama 2006 Earlier
in this decade VH1 did a remarkable thing and it was called Bands
Reunited to which they tried to get some of the more influential 80s
band to reunite and for the most part a lot of them did get back
together again. Extreme did reunite but not at time, Romeo Void did for a
time as well and even the dreaded Kajagoogoo. And as well as Dramarama
although they never broke big here in the Midwest but I did become a fan
of theirs. And they did make this comeback album three years ago and
it shows their record influences since they were record collectors.
This one is kinda Nirvanaish and yes everybody dies but it does make you
want to sing along with the chorus.
5. Where Do You
Stand?-Willie Nelson 1970 From the new Naked Willie album but it comes
from his Laying My Burdens Down album. On this effort, Willie's
harmonica player Mickey Rapheal wanted to strip away the annoying
strings and the Nashville Sound that plagued Nelson's RCA albums of
yesteryear and I think Waylon Jennings and Richie Alright tried to do
that on the Before His Time album of 1977. Willie's RCA period showed
that he was even a one of a kind star but couldn't get arrested on the
charts and Chet Atkins and various producers tried to update and
sweetened up the sound but some of the arrangements are questionable at
best. For example this song it starts out people booing to which I
found strange to even hear on the slicked up album and the rest of the
song sounds like Willie doing a Elvis Presley album. The new version
takes away the crap and so all you hear is Willie and a sparse backing
band. I'm sure Chet and Felton Jarvis had good intentions but it made
the song sound so dated now. Remember Ted Turner and his colorized
classic movies? This is Mickey's Black And White version of the Willie colored albums.
6. The Right Time To Fly-Tommy Keene 2009
Tommy has been around twenty plus years and has made some incredible
albums that nobody ever heard but he has his fans out there. He's a
much harder power pop than the Gin Blossoms his new album is just like
the others although it's a bit more consistent than Crashing The Ether
of three years ago. Not a classic mind you but still fans will dig it.
I like getting cds from Moondog Music in Dubuque, they have that
incense smell that makes you feel like you're in that store all over
again. Groovy man.
7. Something's Burning-Kenny Rogers And The
First Edition 1970 Long time ago, our TV station had a variety show
from Kenny Rogers that aired in the afternoon, long before infomercials. The good old days. Before he became Mr Country Music
of the late 70, Rogers had a few hits with Reprise and this was one of
them. Written by Mac (It's Hard To Be Humble) Davis I remember this
being number 100 of KCRG's Top 100 songs of 1970. Or it may have been
number 50 hard to tell, I lost the chart years ago. Fun Fact: Mikey
Jones, who played drums on these recordings played in the infamous 1966
Dylan Goes Electric Tour of England and later would go into acting and
can been seen in Home Improvement.
8. Ether-Gang Of Four 1980
Highly Marxist art/punk rockers made their mark with Entertainment! and
would influence REM, Nirvana, The Fall and about 1000 other bands since
then. Never got into them myself although when I did pick up this album
this weekend I found that I may have missed history in the making. But
I was still into classic rock back then.
9. Someday-Steve Earle
1986 Steve may have been ahead of his time when he put out Guitar Town
and he was one of those artists who was either too rock for country or
too country for rock and better than Dwight Yoakam although back then I
was more into Dwight than Steve. But Earle was more the rebel than
Dwight and anybody else that was riding the new country of 1986 to which
Randy Travis figured somewhere into this equation. But Earle being the
rebel, lost a lotta momentum when he got busted for drugs and had to
spend some time in jail to which he was reborn and has enjoyed a good
music career since then. MCA has released Live At The BBC this week
which showcase Earle during his Copperhead Road Tour. Sound quality
varies but if you're a Steve Earle fan you won't care.
10. A Day In The Life-The Beatles 1967
...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-mellencamp/on-my-mind-the-state-of-t_b_177836.html
Feel ya, Mr. Mellencamp, but don't mess with Monster Mash. That was my first 45..........
RIP
Blender Magazine which will ceast publication. Blender was alright in
terms of reading reviews and looking at near nude chick singers. But
just as reliable as Rolling Stone or Spin in terms of reviews.
