A collection of odds and ends.
Saturday I decided to trek up on to Dubuque to do my tri yearly visiting the old hippie at Moondog Music and the Smoking Dude at CD's 4 Change which is the better vinyl record store although the only things I bought was 2 45s for fifty cents each. One was a replacement copy of Tommy James Say I Am (What I Am)B/W Lots Of Pretty Girls, even though it was without a sleeve it looked in VG plus shape. The other was Badfinger 1973 lost hit Apple Of My Eye to which was in a box of scratchy old Beatles and Apple 45s. Sad that Apple never bothered to promote this song nor the album Ass which got reissued on CD for the first time in the US last year. Even though I only found a couple 45s, I enjoyed opening up box after box of discarted 45s just to see what was in there. True there was plenty of Beatles 45s but most were in poor shape. Perhaps I should have picked up the Vee Jay version of Please Please Me just for a copy at hand.
The old hippie at Moondog Music didn't have much either for stuff but I did pick up the new Yuck cd. In fact I asked the hippie chick up there "got Yuck?" to which she replied yes they did. Unlike Best Buy. Thought about picking up the 3 LP Jamey Johnson Guitar Sound record for 25 bucks but decided on Malcolm McLaren 1984 album for Island called Fans. The former Sex Pistol Svengali had a interesting recording career of his own, getting a top 50 song with Buffalo Girls but Fans was McLaren's vision of doing a opera album with beats instead. Which should have guaranteed failure but actually it's a not bad listen although the casual rock fan or Sex Pistol fan will have nothing to do with Madam Butterfly or Carmen. Boys Chorus is about as close as punk rock as it gets.
Borders is still in business and the only thing they had of interest is some selected EMI and Roxy Music albums for 6.99 but since I have most of the Roxy Music albums, I didn't see the need to upgrade. Basically I seen a lotta new music on vinyl but just didn't see the need to spend 30 bucks on Greg Allman's latest album.. In fact I could have bought all three Godfathers albums on Epic from both CDs 4 Change and Moondog Music if I wanted to, but since I already have the cds that would be penny foolish.
I was surprised Old Purple made it up to Dubuque with radiator running low on anti freeze and the damn pressure gauge playing Give Crabby A Heart Attack while watching it close to H and me hoping I can get the GD cap off and put more anti freeze in there. After 282,000 miles it needs to be retired and a new car to get but hopefully my brother said that the gray car is just about done after two months of trying to get it fixed. I'd would love to gone up to Madison to bargain hunt and go to the State Capitol and sit along the protesters against the dictating Governor up there but knowing my luck I would have gotten into a fight and thrown in jail. Nevertheless, it's still winter and it still snows more up there than here. Maybe sometime next month.
No shortage of music at Half Priced Books, they added the 3 CD Time Life Best Of Jerry Lee Lewis and the 3 CD complete Sun Recordings of Johnny Cash for 14.98. And so far nobody has bought the Merle Haggard 4 cd best of, they still got 4 copies of that box set. which tells a more complete picture than anything else out there. And Gordon Lightfoot's 1977 Endless Wire is still in the 2 dollar bins. Go figure but since I already have a copy I'm sure some lucky buyer will pick it up. What I found for two bucks this time out.
Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack-When I was in high school, everybody had this album. And when it came out on cd everybody had it too but most copies I have seen in the bargain bins were the BMG Record Club version. This one wasn't a Club CD so I picked it up and listened to it on the way to Dubuque but I had headphones on since the GD POS radio quit working. Barry Gibb's high falsetto gets a bit annoying at times but the songs are pretty much top rate. I'd say it's one side of Bee Gees, one side of Bee Gees helping out other arists, one side of David Shire's disco incidental music and one side of Philadelphia Disco, namely Disco Inferno by The Trammps and K-Jee by MFSB, the band behind the Philadelphia International Records hits. 30 years after the fact, Saturday Night Fever remains the quintessential soundtrack to 1977 and the disco era although I do not consider the Bee Gees songs that much disco. It's only disco when it goes over 5 minutes.
Shenandoah-The Road Not Taken (Columbia 1989) Like their counterpart Restless Heart, this country band were more known for their ballads and on this album 8 of them are ballads. But I think these guys had a eye toward the ladies with such sappy stuff as Sunday In The South or Two Dozen Roses or Mama Knows. The only two songs that are uptempo are their number one hit Church On Cumberland Road which they really don't break a sweat and the last track the deceptive Hard Country, which isn't hard country but rather pop country with a nod toward to the usual suspects (Poco, Eagles). Marty Rayborn sounds a bit like Hal Ketchem which is good but since Shenandoah got their material from Nashville Songwriters Pipeline (Rick Boyles, Robert Byrne who co produced) instead of themselves they were expendable and would move on to BNA/RCA and Capitol for more of the same. Judging from what I have seen in the dollar bins, they seem to have more Greatest Hits compilations than actual albums. Not exactly a good thing. Fun fact: Church On Cumberland Road was co written by Dennis Robbins, who used to be in the hard rocking Rockets before leaving to a somewhat checkered solo career and made two so so albums for Giant Records.
Larry Knechtel-Urban Gypsy (Capitol 1990) He played in Bread during their hit making years and hung around David Gates after the breakup but he was basically a top flight session player for the pop rock elite of the 70s (James Taylor, Carole King come to mind). Basically his own albums tend to be a lot like Larry Carlton, moreorless pop jazzy to which you probably heard on the Weather Channel when they did the local on the 8s. Covers David Gates Aubrey and Laura Lee, beats Larry Carlton on Takin It To The Streets and if theres a thing as new age reggae, it's this version of I Can See Clearly Now. But his own compositions are more jazz influenced to which is why KCCK played this at one time. Good background music to do you taxes by.
Grades
Malcolm McLaren-Fans (Island 1984) B
Shenandoah-The Road Not Taken (Columbia 1989) C
Larry Knechtel-Urban Gypsy (Capitol 1990) B-
Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack (Reprise 1977) A-
2 comments:
Hey Crabby: Yeah, "Apple of My Eye" was really pretty good, BF's kiss-off 2 Apple Records, but BF had already gone 2 Warner Bros by then, so Apple saw no need 2 promote ASS, which there were TONS of copies of in the cutout bins back in my record store daze -- another album I missed. Crap, back then I coulda had a copy of BF's NO DICE 4 $3.99, but that was back when $3.99 was actually worth $3.99, not like now when it's worth about $1....
& did you know Larry Knechtel played keyboards on "Bridge Over Troubled Water" too....
You're pretty brave 2 B making such a road trip with the ugly snowstorms that're out there -- & I see they're ALREADY predicting possible big floods for you guys in the Spring.... Hang in there!
I only do bargain hunts when the weather is decent, if we have a dry spell that's usually when I venture out. The heavy snow stayed north around Minneapolis with 18 inches but we just got rain. Every spring it floods somewhere around here but with the snowmelt here gone it will come from North when it all melts next month.
Badfinger seemed to have bad luck and worse when they went to WB. Never seen Apple Of My Eye as a single till now. When Apple died off, I never did see any of the BF albums in cutout section. And your right on Larry Knetchel winning a Grammy TM on Bridge Over Troubled Water for Simon & Garfunkel. Then went on to Bread to help them out.
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