Top Ten Of The Week-Consider The Source

Some news first.

The Blue Man Group who was supposed to play tonight up at Gallagher-Bluedorn on the UNI campus is canceled due to busted water pipes that flooded the stage. Hopefully they will try to make up the dates sometime this year.

KDAT sucks. This awful POS station is played everywhere I go in the greater C.R area. The worst GD playlist although I managed to go to Dollar General and was spared of hearing Hey Soul Sister by Train, the most annoying song recorded by a band that I once followed. When my other half called the other night the first thing she mentioned was "now I know how you feel about a certain song on the radio and in commercials". Train made a very good debut and some so so albums but their album was crap inside and out and I'm sure Dan Monahan can retire from those royalty checks from Hey Soul Sister. But anything that is crap and overplayed is always on KDAT 104.5. Maybe KDAT is paying Dollar General or my dentist to have their crappy radio station on so we can hear Footloose for the 57th time this year or I Need You Now, a song that I didn't mind much but there's much more out there that Lady Antebellum has out. I know my other half likes that but I tend to draw the line when I hear a song more than ten times a day or hour. Never have I seen or lived in a era that we have so much music out there and the playlist remains the same 100 songs per day. KDAT represents of what's wrong with radio today. And they have John Tesh too. Enough said.

And I suppose it is a big deal turning 50 once again. Thanks to all for the birthday wishes.

Songs of the week:

1. Shakin All Over-Wanda Jackson 2011 One of the most hears of the year, to the point that I ignored my own warning of not buying digipacks and had to hear this. Jack White as a producer did wonderful things with Loretta Lynn about 7 years ago but this time out, he takes on the original Queen of Rock and Roll and collides head on. At age 72, Wanda can belt them out bigger and better than guys her age and then some. This actually ties Johnny Kidd and The Pirates and The Who all together down to the widespread tremolo of the chorus line. This is not your lady Cougar's Auto tuner, this is Big Mama Bad showing y'all how they rocked and rolled before MTV and Autotuner. In a streetfight Jackson would kick Lady Gaga's ass all over the place. Dig it.

2. Boys-The Beatles 1962 Why is it that 50 years ago The Beatles still sound like they recorded it yesterday? I mean they defy history everytime I play anything from them including their first album Please Please Me. Long time ago, EMI looked at them as a loss leader and just let the independents release it themselves. It originally came out on Vee-Jay, the old Chicago blues label that was only second to Chess in terms of great Chi town blues. Even with old Ringo singing away, ole Paul is having much fun doing that backing vocal. The difference between corporate rock and fun rock, this is fun rock.

3. Extra-Climax Blues Band 1977 They were on Sire for many years, they sold a bit here and a bit there but they never "couldn't get it right" till they came out with Gold Plated, an album that was their biggest seller (before Flying The Flag which featured I Love You-might be wrong but too tired to look it up) but had more of an eye for the radio then previous releases. If you had the LP (like I did) it left off the Freddie Mercury/Queen like beginning of the song but then again I don't we were missing much on the record till I heard the whole version on the reissued CD. I think this is their most straight line boogie song of that album. Nevertheless the CBB got put in the back seat while Mr. Stein got on board the Punk rock train and gave the world the wonderful Ramones, Talking Heads and a few others while the next CBB album Shine On bombed. They moved to Warner Brothers for a couple more and the wedding classic I Love You. Reissued via Plum/K Tel, later Fuel 2000.

4. Every Dog Has Its Day-Let's Active 1988 Ah yes, Mitch Easler. The guy best known for co producing REM's classic albums of the early 1980s (Reckoning & Murmur) but also had his own band that recorded three albums and an EP for IRS Records (probably a reward for putting REM on the map) but this the title track to his last Let's Active album. Easler has been an acquired taste, he can play the hell out of his guitars but the guy's vocals really couldn't cut it. At least to my ears. However this is a good song. One of a few dollars cds that I found on my 50th BDay Bargain Bash. Later reissued via Collector's Choice Music but now out of print again.

5. The Highway Is For Dreamers-The Townedgers 2000 Throughout the month I've been listening once again to the output that was the TEs and although this may have been TE overkill this month, I think this song pretty much speaks volumes of the way Rod Smith looks at being 50, even though this song was written over 10 years ago. I have outlived all my idols, and I've seen the good die young goes one part of the song and it's true that when live to a certain age, you do tend to look back and see whose still around. Not too many people make it to fifty, some burn out before their time, some fade away and some decide they had enough. And as time speeds ever so fastly, our youth slips so far far away, another true statement of life today. Not saying it one of the better songs the TE has ever done but it fits into the mood that is life today and the special day of hitting the big Five Zero. And never knowing how we got here when we don't know where we been indeed. The meaning of life.

6. Pilgrimage-REM 1982 If they had never made another album they still would be highly regarded and half the fun back then was trying to figure out what the hell Mike Stripe was saying. Thank God for the internet eh? Your luck....two headed cow.....

7. The Painter-Neil Young 2005 I guess Prairie Wind was more in kin with Harvest with Harvest Moon ever was and that might be true. Like Harvest, Prairie Wind didn't click with me till years later till I found a dollar CD of it at Stuff Etc on the Great 50th Birthday Bargain Hunt Bash. Six years after the fact Prairie Wind still seems a bit prickly to me and too many songs have a toss out feel but this is one of the better songs off that album. And we all miss Ben Keith's steel guitar playing too.

8. Jive Turkey-Ohio Players 1974 Remember the days to which you could hear great soul music alongside of rock and roll on the FM dial? Of course that was before my GF was even born so she missed out some interesting tunes. The Ohio Players made the strange Funky Worm in 1973 for Westbound Records and then went to Mercury and this one of the top 30 hits for them on the soul chart. Always have a big complaint about their Gold record which had the 45 edits and not complete version till Universal rectify that and put out the 20th Century Collection which does have the 7 and half minute funk fest Jive Turkey. They have the complete Love Rollercoaster and not the cheap 3 minute you hear on Gold. Nevertheless their version trumps The Red Hot Chili Peppers.

9. Open The Gates (Out Of The Way Of The People)-Dave Brubeck 1972 I really didn't get into jazz till the late 90's, I had jazz albums via a big box that my dad bought home and kinda wished that I kept some of them (The original All The Cats Join In-A Buck Clayton Jam Session but Columbia reissued the outtakes instead in 1988) (Or Gerald Wilson's Brass Bag, an import on Fontana which includes the great title track and a cool version of Dizzy Gillespie's Ow! anybody knows of a copy I can get, get a hold of me). Dave Brubeck, the guy is genius and of course you all know about Time Out but by the time the 70's rolled around, he moved to Atlantic for a few albums. Yes I bought Time Out and then went off and bought them as I came across them but kinda held off on the Atlantic period till I found the We Are All Together For The First Time and decided to check out The Last Set At Newport to which this song comes from. Alas, the classic lineup wasn't here but from what I heard that Alan Dawson and Jack Six might have been better than Joe Mollero and Eugene Wright on the rhythm section. I also tend to think that Brubeck has never made a bad album either. On a side note: the folks at Collector's Choice Music has a 5 cd box set of Brubecks best known Columbia albums for the low low price of 27 dollars. But I'll hold out and get the ones that I don't have yet (Time In, Countdown: Time In Other Space and Time Changes to which I have a scratchy vinyl album of that).

10. Catherine Street-The Looking Glass 1972 Brandy, You're a fine girl yeah yeah yeah yeah. Eliot Lurie was the nice guy but my favorite songs were the ones done by Peter Sweval who sang lead vocal on Jenny Lynne and this track that came after Brandy. It's kind of a moody piece about living in a poor part of town and there's no relief from the GD heat. But Sweval changes the tempo as he yells Oh My Gawd on the jam ending of song. They were a lot more rock to the pop it seems but FM radio didn't play this very much. Lurie also had the followup hit Jimmy Loves Mary Anne and went on to movie scoring. The rest of guys would rechange and rethink their career and became Starz and made 4 albums of varying degree for Capitol. In fact they actually signed with Rock Steady Productions, the guys behind the world domination of KISS. Eliot Lurie did reform The Looking Glass and they play from time to time in the oldies tours. Their Epic albums have been reissued via Wounded Bird (the first Looking Glass album was on Collectibles with the best of the tracks from the 2nd album), but the liner notes are pretty spotty. No mentioning of Starz whatsoever. Fun fact: Starz did have a minor hit in 1977 with Cherry Baby.

Addendum: I had to google The Townedgers just to see what I came up with and I came to find that there's a lotta stuff out there for a band that's not much on the map. What really freaked me out was the Ilike site which has most if not all of the songs written. I'm thinking Diggy Kat is behind this since the songs missing are not from the cds given to him yet. However the Jamendo site does have the complete download of the 1991 comeback album Diamonds In The Skies for free download. Or you can listen for free although I have noticed that most of the curious got off the bus by the time Being There came around. The My Space site has a couple tracks from Pawnshops For Olivia CD plus a remix of Frosted Flakes. There's talk about a new album in the works but there might be a best of that will focus on the last decade. But I'm sure if the artist won't get around to it, I'm sure Diggy Kat will. The guy has a one track mind of his own.


PS. Brains drummer Charles Wolff died on Sept 10, 2010. RIP. I remember he stopped by my old My Space site to wish me a happy birthday. His My Space is still up. Absolutely loved his drumming on The Brains recordings.