Ed Pololak will return to the broadcasting booth for the Iowa Hawkeyes
football team this fall. Basically I'm not surprised he is a good
announcer but still don't have a high opinion on him simply of a
childhood meeting of him long time ago and he didn't sign any
autographs. Unless you gave him a Budweiser.
Looks like EMI
will finally get around to remaster the Beatles' catalog on September
9th so we can buy all The Beatles albums on CD all over again. I'm
thinking I should go get the second installment of the Capitol Albums
that EMI put out a few years ago. Seems to me that the American stereo
mix was a lot more livelier than the bland British UK albums that were
issued on CD twenty years ago. They do need a upgrade but I wouldn't
throw away my pawnshop copies of Beatles For Sale or Hard Day's Night.
You
know all the cds that I bought last week? All but the MXPX and
Queensryche CDs are still here, I sold the rest. Plus the Tommy Keene
latest, I donno I think I gave up on him after this especially if he
keeps issuing them on digipaks.
Anyway it must be Thursday cuz it's time for yet another top ten of the week.
1.
Here Comes Yet Another Day-The Kinks 1972 They were still making
decent music before Ray Davies' concept albums damn near ran him out of
town and out of my record collection. Another band on the road song,
this didn't get much airplay (it's no Lola) but damn this rocks. Had
the album long time ago, got as a cutout from BJ Records and BJ Records
was the best place to find bargain vinyl. Record Collector had the cd
and what are they going to do once I retire from bargain hunting?
2.
Dive-Nirvana 1992 Kurt Corbain saved us from hairspray metal although
he didn't save us from Bret Michaels Rock Of Love to which the finale of
this season is on Sunday night. BTW did anybody get to see the VH1
rock doc of Do It For The Band-The Girls of Sunset Strip and the hair
metal years? Hard to feel sorry for these skanks which includes Bobbi
Brown, the Cherry Pie chick in that Warrant video, whose still looking
for love and haven't found it yet. VH1 should consider her for the next
installment of Rock Of Love-The Female Version to which Bobbi Brown
could pick her choice of the tattoo covered guys out there. Or try E
Harmony.
3. Run Mountain-J. E. Mainer 1946 A hit on the King
label for this bluegrass pioneer. Later covered by Flathead on the
Straight Outta Boone County compilation for Bloodshot Records in 1997.
Then again, I'm sure none of our faithful readers knows anything about J
E Mainer or Flathead. Perhaps you can get Sheryl Crow to cover it,
then maybe you'll know.
4. I Wonder (What If)-The Townedgers
2008 From The Songs That Made An Impact comp that Diggy put together
and seems to be getting some airplay on Unuradio. Guess I will toot my
own horn for a change. We have links to get your own copy, so make one
for you and give on to Bob Lefsetz so he can bitch about that. And
Diggy Kat confirmed that DJ Scorpia did play I Wonder at the end of her
show too. Does this mean I can quit my job and play rock and roll all
over again? ;-)
5. Outlaw Man-The Eagles 1973 This single
bombed but did get some airplay on the underground FM stations at that
time. I guess the reason why The Eagles never played this live was that
they didn't write it and Don Henley can't play that fast on drums
anymore. It's a bitch getting old or having all that money weigh you
down. Right guys?
6. Johnny Magic-Neil Young 2009 New Neil
single from his Fork In The Road album, It rocks and comes in a crappy
assed digipak, with sharp edges that you can cut bread with. Do you get
the impression that I hate digipaks? Sure fucking do.
7.
Everything Falls Apart-Dog's Eye View 1995 One hit wonder from some
band that made an hour long cd and the only decent song was this. There
was a reason why they made 45s back in the past dudes. So we didn't
have to waste 18 bucks on a piece of shit cd with one decent song.
Found for a dollar. At least the jewel case is in good shape. Too bad
the cd sucks.
8. Who Listens To The Radio-The Sports 1979 This
band was from Australia and made one album for Arista that had this top
30 hit. But I did find a import cd of their album at the Marion
Pawnshop and this varies from the Arista album with four different
songs. This is why I continue to go to pawnshops. There's always a
chance that I might still find some out of print cd of a album I didn't
think existed. Who does listen to the radio nowadays? Sure ain't me.
9.
Life Is A Song Worth Singing-Teddy Pendergrass 1978 Teddy was the
voice of Harold Melvin's Blue Notes and then went solo and became one of
love men of soul music. Had a big hit with Close The Door but I think I
enjoy his uptempo soul numbers. Such as this number to which Johnny
Mathis had a hit in 1973. And Johnny's version was the most uptempo
soul number he ever did.
10. Dark As A Dungeon-Slobberbone 1997
To conclude this wonderful weekly top ten, I've chosen another cover
from the Boone County compliation from a band that was the closest thing
to Uncle Tueplo after that band splintered into Son Volt and Wilco. A
cover of the 1946 country classic by Merle Travis. I donno, people do
email me and ask me why I continue to put out top tens that nobody reads
anyway and I respond it's a force of habit. Because I still care about
good music and because it keeps me out of trouble.
But as I
look at new releases and seeing more and more go into crappy digipaks,
I'm beginning to think that after this year and after the last 2009
review of a new album that I might just quit buying digipak albums. I
don't play digipak albums like I do jewel cased albums. Digipaks are
cumbersome, the fucking cd falls out on the floor and gets more
scratched up than jewel cased CDs. Now I have seen that Bob Dylan's
reissues of Dylan N the Dead, The Basement Tapes, New Morning and Before
The Flood are now in Digipaks and it's a certain that the new Dylan
will be in a digipak too. Eventually I'm going to draw the line. I
didn't buy the Rush Retrospective 3 cuz of Digipak issues and Neil Young
got bought simply of the fact that I would review it regardless and not
waste a tank of gas to leave it up there. I am sure it's the wave of
the future but if that's the case...
Then I'll buy the damn vinyl. I don't need a gatefold digipak.
BTW The CR Kernels start baseball play tonight. Play Ball!
And now we leave you with a couple of comments from the old crank. Take it away Bob Lefsetz.
On Keith Urban-Defying Gravity.
This
album is a disappointment. The sound of the record can sometimes be
great, especially the guitars, but the material is so safe and
second-rate, it’s disheartening.
On The Yeah Yeah Yeah's
Never was so much press piled on such an inconsequential act.
I’m not convinced.
And finally, on Elvis Costello and his influence on Diana Krall.
Bottom
line, I’m blaming Costello. Loved him as an angry young man at the
Whisky back in the seventies, bought every album and went to every show,
but somewhere along the line he started to take himself too seriously.
Let
me just speak English. I HATE Elvis Costello. Leaving one woman for
another and then her for Krall. And maybe if I actually knew him I
might give him a pass, but the audience owns the act, if the act cares
about its career. But at least Elvis was confining his poop to his own
career. Then he got into his wife’s, and hers was negatively affected.
That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.
Thanks Bob.
Mea culpa.
