Top Ten Of The Week-Cannabis Sativa Or What Was That Noise?

Wish I had a voice like Arnel Pineda of Journey. So I could sing Journey songs-comment from the last entry added on for shock value.

Further proof that the 70's are long gone: Don Kirshner passed away from heart failure at age 76. Best known for his Rock Concert series of the 70's which got us through that decade (and still amazes me that with 3 channels and PBS we had better programming than the 300 plus digital cable channels out there today. Started as part of the Brill Building song publisher, he later became known for putting together such packaged acts as The Archies, The Monkees and even signed Kansas to his own imprint back in the 70s (again). The man could do it all it seems.

With the passing of Kirshner we can finally bury the past and all of the people that made rock and roll available to the masses via TV. I really don't think rock music in particular today has much lasting value, nor has the movers and shakers getting the music out. There's still a few folk still living from those glorious times of discovering and giving us new music and still playing the forgotten but nowadays is just automated and programmed to certain overplayed songs.

Mexico seems to be the big place to avoid at all costs. Case in point: I was reading a story on two Mexican musicians who got murdered because they refused to play more songs at a bar down there. To Jon Martinez and Gustavo Alejandro of La Excelencia, they gave their life to music, only to get cut down by drug dealing gang bangers. Such a sad state of affairs when you play in the drug battlefield of Mexico making people feel good and have no brained cokefiends offing you even after when it was time to shut down. Perhaps they should have played Closing Time and maybe that would give an indication. But then again, the fucking fools had grenades in their possession too.

They say this is the most depressing time of year. It's cold and when it's not cold it's snowing and when it's not snowing, it's 10 below zero. I didn't think we had that much snow till I looked outside and had to wade knee deep in the GD snowdrift to get the mail. Forecast calls for more snow and more 10 below this week. Sure hope it's warmer where y'all at folks. It could be worse I guess, it could be raining everyday and flooding everything out. Oh wait, that'll be here come springtime. Lucky us.

The Top Ten Of The Week:

1. When Time Runs Out-The Dangtrippers 1988 The more I think about it, the more it seems that Iowa City best time of music was the late 80s. Full Fathom Five was making loud and noisy albums for Link, Tripmaster Monkey was a few years away for making two records with Sire and Slipknot was still learning how to play their instruments. And The Townedgers were known as Route 66, making some low fi classics on their own. Perhaps the best of the bunch was The Dangtrippers who came from Iowa City and made a nice power pop record on a label that was overseen by REM. Back then they had Devin Hill doing the lead vocals and they went to the recording metropolis known as Cedar Falls to make Days Between Stations. Hard to find nowadays but I remember when Dog Gone Records went out of biz, most copies went to the 3 dollar Clarence bins at Camelot Music. Was never the same when Hill left to a solo career and made two so so efforts for Big Deal. Dangtrippers would go make one more album and would go through a few more personel to become Head Candy, later Bent Scepters and now Diplomats Of Solid Sound.

2. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts1-7) 1975 Pink Floyd I had a copy of Wish You Were Here but can't seem to find it in my vast collection of CD artifacts and I have a feeling that perhaps it got put in the donation bin at Goodwill back in November by mistake. However I still have Echoes, that massive 2 CD best of that has this 17 minute version which is longer than edited 16 minute Echoes. Next time when I donate I need to double check.

3. The Only One I Know-The Charlatans UK 1991 I still can't over the fact that this song is now 20 years old which goes to show when you spend 15 plus hours on the net that time has a way of slipping away and the next decade was the last decade. You can call them a one hit wonder although they are still around today and still making music.

4. Alright-Electric Light Orchestra 2001 It isn't any different than Armchair Theater, Jeff Lynne's 1991 Reprise recording and the only other ELO member still playing is Richard Tandy. This owes more to Traveling Wilburys than Roll Over Beethoven or Evil Woman. Got slammed in reviews but really it's not that bad.

5. Baby It's Cold Outside-Homer & Jethro with June Carter 1949 My other half has been on a Homer & Jethro kick ever since I played her We Didn't Sink The Bismarck to which she got a kick out of but didn't cared much for the Spike Jones cover of Tennessee Waltz. Unfortunately that song didn't make the best of that Razor & Tie issued but this a hilarious retooled of that winter classic featuring a young and sassy June Carter. This song pretty sums up most of this month and winter. Cold.

 


6. Troubled By These Days And Times-Savoy Brown 1971 Seems like we are at the end days with all the happenings out there (Floods, rains, Sarah "Screech" Palin) and the forecast of 2012 to be the end all. I'm sure the world will survive it all, not so sure about us but that's a bit more down the road. This song can be heard from time to time on Beaker Street, the long running show that I have been talking about the last couple months. I'm sure you wouldn't hear it on corporate rock The Point (taking a jab at those Yayhoos) after they pulled the plug on Beaker Street and told most of the listeners to take a hike.

7. Country Road-James Taylor 1970 Basically the followup to Fire & Rain and got a bit of airplay on the AM station in the early 70s. Heck I hear Mexico more often than Country Road and Mexico wasn't that big of a hit back in 75. Yes I admit, I do play James Taylor's Greatest Hits from time to time, it's one of the essential soft folk rock album of the 70's.

8. Peace Of Mind-The Ocean Blue 1993 The darlings of Hersey Pennsylvania, this comes from their third and final and to my ears their best for Sire Records. But then again they never did make a bad record. And on their web site they hopefully thinking of recording a new album for this year. We shall see.

9. Teenage Depression-Eddie & The Hot Rods 1977 One of those odd bands I had to check out after hearing this on the Rock And Roll High School S/T of 1979 featuring the Ramones. They were more Pub than punk but I became a fan and bought their albums soon afterwards. Produced by the late, great Vic Maile.

10. Black Metallic-Catherine Wheel 1991 Alt rock had their share of great moments and none were much better than this 7 minute anthem. Fitted in with the so called shoegazer moment but Catherine Wheel would go more towards a alt metal sound with each album and with me being less interested. In reality Alt rock in the early 90s was the last frontier of exciting music, eventually losing out to grunge and then whatever mutated into music soon afterward. If you have been following the Top Ten thru history, this song has made it in about four or five times.


Bonus track: Cannabis Sativa-Head 1970 thereabouts Those who follow Beaker Street know about the background noise that Clyde Clifford would use between songs. I don't know much about this outfit but the album was released on the Buddah label around 1970 and sounds a bit like the Krautrock of later band such as Neu! or Kraftwerk or Tangerine Dream. It's probably New Age before New Age. But that's the beauty of Google or the internet, it finally solves a long time question of what Clyde plays. (Buddah Records BDS-5062). To hear a 10 minute edit from You Tube, copy and paste and you too can have your very own version of Beaker Street.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIMcOag9_uY