Thank God for the car discman. So I can listen to music out in the car.
With all this modern media changing everyday it seems to me that CDs are now like 8 Tracks and Cassettes, outdated media storage for dinosaur who isn't interested in getting an IPOD although that would be more portable than bulky old Discmans. But it's hard to change a music collector looking for actual product than virtual.
While compiling last blog, I managed to seek deeper into my collector to pull out forgotten bands that made one album and faded from view. Gordon was one of them and they made a pretty catchy S/T album for Brendan O'Brien's 57 Label in 1999 and had a minor hit with Fortified Grapes but when the album was released, the band fell apart. Fact Devin Kamin left the band before the album got released so the band picked up the lead singer from Barstool Prophets to do the tour. Nothing was ever heard from Gordon, the band and all one has is this 12 song document of sing along tunes. I still like this album and I'm sure you can find it in dollar bins all across this fair country.
Jimmy Webb is one of the greatest songwriters that's still around today and although he still has a solo career, most of his albums never really sold all that much. I came across a copy of El Mirage (Atlantic 1977 reissued on CD by Collector's Choice Music) which is famous for The Highwayman, which Johnny, Willie, Waylon and Kris would turn into a top ten hit in the 1980s. Webb's version doesn't really vary from theirs and it annoys me that there's a skip in the damn song. George Martin (The Beatles) produced it and Webb managed to get Dee Murray and Nigel Olsson from Elton John's classic band and Lowell George (Little Feat) to play on it and Kenny Loggins helps out on backing vocals. This record also contains PF Sloan, Webb's homage to the Dylan wannabe lyricist and sometimes singer, to which The Association did on their ignored Stop Your Motor album. Christaan No sounds like Webb's answer to Caroline No and there's some witty lyrics in Where The Universes Are (and off to find another bar). So I can forgive him for the disco sounding Mixed Up Guy and the over the top to nowhereness of The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. But perhaps I should find a cheap CD of this, or a record that doesn't have a skip in The Highwayman. That's just plain rude.
The folks at Eric Records have done a very good job of putting out the Hard To Find 45s Series, and with very good sound quality on their cds. Sweet Soul Sounds (Eric 2004) is no exception, in fact they actually clean up most of the hiss that is present on the Atlantic recordings and we get a long version of Expressway To Your Heart but this cd is worthy of The Parliments I wanna Testify and Little Sister's Somebody's Watching You and You're The One (Part 1 and 2). Little Sister was Val Stewart who is the sister of one Sly Stone and he pretty much did lots of production on her songs. Side note, you will be interested to know that one female singer of Little Sister was Mary McCreary , who if memory serves me well went on to marry Leon Russell and made a handful of forgettible albums on his Paradise label in the late 70s. As with most Eric albums, there are a few turds among the triumphs but Tom Daly & Mark Mathews, we salute you with excellent remastering of this album. Steve Hoffman would be proud.
I used to be heavily into Living Colour when they were on Epic Records and then they broke up and made a forgettible comeback on Sanctuary called Collidescope. Haven't heard their latest but MVD audio put out a live effort at CBGB's called Live August 19,2005 and it seems to be a soundboard copy. Vernon Reid's guitar is UPFRONT and LOUD and Will Calhoun's drums way in the back but this 12 song live double (Total Time 78:43) kinda gets bogged down by the loud guitar and the lesser interesting songs from Collidescope (12 minites of Sacred Ground is about 8 minites too long) and of course Reid and company didn't care much for George Bush or Tony Blair (Terrorists) and even Cory Glover forgets the lyrics in Glamour Boys to remark of how you expect me to remember a song from 200 years ago which gets a few laughs from the audience. But after a while, Reid's guitar effects gets a little tiring. I guess there's a another live CBGB's version back from 1989 and perhaps that one might be the better one to get. But Living Colour remains a very original band since they are one of the last great black rock and roll bands still out there.
Finally, Half Priced Books managed to get some imported CDs of classic reagge albums out there for 8 bucks or less. Some include the classic Burning Spear Marcus Garvey/Garvey's Ghost 2 on 1, Bob Marley's Talking Blues, Another Burning Spear-Man In The Hills and I Jah Man's 1979 Are We A Warrior. This album is hardcore reagge done pretty good by a unknown and I Jah Man seems to have a lot of soul in his voice, especially on the 8 minite slowdown Two Sides Of Love, which is the lesser known on this track. Sounds a bit like 1979, espeically with the disco drums on Moulding and Miss Beverly but if you wanna smoke da herb , this does fit that mood, that is if you're into smoking the herb.
Grades
Gordon (57/Epic 1999) A-
Jimmy Webb-El Mirage (Atlantic 1977) B
Living Colour-Live At CBGB's 8/19/2005) (MVD Audio 2009) C+
IJahMan-Are We A Warrior (Mango 1979) B
