Top Ten Of The Week-A Cup Of Mug

It's June, it's the beginning of the summer season which begins with a week with my other half in Michigan and ends in the desert in September. Many things are going on and once the calender turned to June we have been getting the fucking monsoon rains that pretty much flood things. Of course last night we had more than our share of rain once again, I'm guessing 1.6 inches of the wet shit and more promises of rain off and on up to getting the hell out of here. So do I build my ark now or later?

Some musical things of note: Now that Dio is dead does this mean Ozzy will return back to Black Sabbath once again? Been hearing it for the past 20 years and all we got was a live album and two songs of so so quality. We learn to never say never when it comes to Ozzy and the Sabs but we also learn not to hold our breath on these things.

Here something to wet your pants over: Desmond Child is writing with Alice Cooper for songs to be called Welcome To My Nighmare 2 with Bob Ezrin producing again. Note to Desmond, your no Wagner or Hunter. Hackwriters are in ample supply in the music industry and tend to make an album suck even more. Sure Desmond figured in the comeback of Aerosmith but he also made Aerosmith suck with a lot of his hack songs. Geez Alice, at least get Corey Taylor or even Bernie Tarpin to write this.

And speaking of which, Aerosmith is touring once again, which means you'll be paying $$$$ up the arse. However the Fenway Park Concert features J. Geils Band which would be worthy I think, that is if Peter Wolf is still singing with them.....

And now what's playing in the player this week here on Crabb Radio.

1. Green Green-New Christy Minstrels 1962 Half Priced Books had their annual 20 percent off sale this weekend and every day they had something that I overlooked when I went to pay them a visit. The 2 CD Definite NCM for 3 bucks? Does somebody actually take a look of what they get in? Or did they think they couldn't sell this for 10? Anywhichway, The Christy Minstrels was this big folk group that made a bunch of songs for Columbia that sold and most have made their way to the Goodwill bins of dated period pieces but they had a few noted members. Namely Barry McGuire, whose rough and tumble voice gave the NCM their charm. Of course this was their big number 1 hit in 62 and for folk classics Ramblin ranks up there with The Kingston Trio and Chad Mitchell Trio. Kids today have no idea this music exists since anything their parents (or grandparents) listen to sucks. I tell ya boys when I was growing up, we didn't use autotuner in our songs, we actually sang them the way we sang them. I think they call it having its own distinct sound.......

2. My Brave Face-Paul McCartney 1989 This earworm song has been stuck in my head ever since i played it on Saturday and I tell you it sucks having the same song stuck in my head playing over and over. This did get plenty of airplay in the late 80s and Elvis Costello co wrote this and a few others on Flowers In the Dirt. I like the song despite its earwormness but the rest of the album is crap. Back to the donation lane at Goodwill.

3. Fire-Robert Gordon 1978 The Pointer Sisters had a massive hit with this and it reinvented the Pointers from funky soulsters to mainstream pop thanks be to Richard Perry but the original was done by ex Tuff Darts Gordon with guitar work by Link Wray. Fact was Bruce Springsteen actually wrote the song for the Gordon and although it did a bit of airplay it came nowhere near the promised land charts like the Pointers' version. Gordon wasn't that original but he had a genuine love of 50s rock and roll and he did his best promoting this rediscovery of the oldies. Came out on Private Stock Records but the label went belly up but somehow RCA reissued his album when Gordon signed on. Reissued on a 2 on 1 CD from American Beat and found in the 3 dollar bins at HP Books.

4. Blue Days, Black Nights-Buddy Holly 1955 Kinda explains the weather here in Iowa in June eh? One of Buddy's early sides for Decca this is Buddy's rewrite of You're Right, I'm Left, She's Gone which was done by Elvis Presley for Sun. More rockabilly country than rock and roll but even back then Buddy had a eye for detail and a ear for sound. Off the Rev-Ola Gotta Roll Compliation of early Buddy Holly songs that was found in the bargain bins. Remember kids, I just have given you three reasons to scan the bargain bins of your local thrift store or if you still have them, record stores. Good music still can be found.

5. Outskirts-Blue Rodeo 1988 If anybody pays attention to music out there, you'll note that this band from Canada has been around making albums left and right for 25 plus years but this was the first time the US got to hear them. One of very many artists signed to Atlantic and even getting the producer from Rush to produce them (Terry Brown), Outskirts was an interesting album but didn't sell very well. Sounded like a cross between The Band if John Cale played mad keyboards instead of Richard Manuel or Garth Hudson. The oddball was Bob Wiseman who did all these piano interludes on their first three albums before he left and the band settled on becoming a more kinder and gentler Crazy Horse sound. And Blue Rodeo has made a new album this year although I have yet to hear it. And whatever happened to Bob Wiseman? The answer is www.bobwiseman.com got it from the man himself who appears in the comment section. PS: perhaps instead of saying oddball, call him a mad genius. Fact of the matter is I thought his contributions to Diamond Mine were the highlights myself. I always enjoy the oddball stuff myself.

6. In My World-The Moody Blues 1981 Credit TAD for reintroducing me to the pre Octave Moodies. I had Long Distance Voyager on vinyl years ago but traded it in after not being impressed with it at first. Perhaps I was turned off by the fade out and into the next song that was missing on Octave or Long Distance Voyager but after almost 30 years of not listening to it, I found a Cd at the pawnshop and gave it another go and found out that I did miss a few songs that were actually pretty good. I won't get into great details about Octave, I liked most of the first side, but the second side hasn't held up very well and Mike Pender may have been dead weight at that point, not that Pat Moraz is much better but his keyboard work did more to LDV than Pender did to Octave. Long Distance Voyager is the only Moody Blues album recorded at their own studio Thereshold and this record may have been their best selling album in years. Sold three times more than Octave ever did.

7. Teaser-Tommy Bolin 1975 The best known guitarist that ever came out of Sioux City Iowa, Bolin was part of the reformed James Gang and Deep Purple to which Purple fans never accepted him since he replaced Richie Blackmore for Come Taste The Band, an album that got malinged when it came out but time has treated that album much better nowadays. Unfortunly, Bolin OD'ed in 1976 which was a shame. He recorded two albums of note in the mid 70s, the uneven Teaser and the much better Private Eyes which they say almost got Bolin into his own spotlight till the drugs won out. For some reason Teaser has been out of print for years whereas Private Eyes remains in print. The guitar effects may be dated but Bolin was ahead of his time. His brother would redo this song for his own band DVC in 1981, which made a forgotten album for the Alfa label.

8. Heartbreaker-Led Zeppelin 1969 Heavy Metal Goodness. Forty years after the fact it still sounds very heavy.

9. You'll Always Have A Home-Eddie Taylor 1956 Taylor was the main guitar player in Jimmy Reed's Vee Jay years and while Reed is better known and had bigger hits, Taylor also recorded a few Chicago styled blues sides which got some airplay on the South Side. As far as I know the only compliation of Taylor's sides came from two labels, the pirate Charly label's Bad Boy and Muse's Street Talkin to which this track was taken from. I also think it's an alternative take since the Bad Boy's version sounds different. Kudos to Earl Phillips who plays drums and bashes cymbals along the way. Phillips also played on some of Howlin Wolf's mid 50s sides for Chess.

10. Mars, The Bringer Of War-Emerson, Lake & Powell 1986 And finally, from a vinyl copy that i found for a dollar this is Emerson and Lake without Carl Palmer but with Cozy Powell which makes a strange case sincero. Powell was more hard rock and metal than Palmer was and the ELPowell album got negative reviews but in actually it sounds more like ELP then ELP did on the waste of plastic Love Beach. Leave it to Keith Emerson to drum up this classical number and ELPize it and make it over the top at the end. Nevertheless, this didn't last too long, Powell would leave to join up Gary Moore and Emerson and Lake had a falling out. The next year Emerson would reunite with Palmer and Robert Berry in the Prog Pop 3 and made a flop album for Geffen. And then a couple years later everybody kissed and made up and Emerson Lake And Palmer returned for a couple of things for Victory. Carl Palmer as of this writing is back with Asia and promoting their latest Omega.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Wiseman



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