On The Subject Of: Comments & Follow Ups

 This just in....This month I have 865 views of my website which is a record, beating the old one set just last month.  Thanks everybody for reading.  Means a lot to the old Crabb. In the coming week I'll will do an update on lost and forgotten 45s in my collection, plus the continuing story of Music Of My Years, to which I take a certain part of a decade and fill in the gaps of what happens then and the music that mattered most.  They seem to pull in decent ratings for people love nostalgia.  Plus it keeps my mind going.

I noticed by the spam mail left in The Beeker Street Notes that I may have come into my own and that the Crabb site is not a fly by night blogspot after all.

Real Records closed up shop Thursday Night and no I didn't get down there due to slick roads and not feeling well.  One less record store to go to now.

My friend from the classic rock/yardbird's roost/the roost site Starman wrote a pretty long comment so I thought I give out a shout out and as always a pleasure to hear from the man himself.  We have gone back over 10 years now and even though I don't do the chat very much anymore we do keep in touch via blogspot or Multiply.  We spent many a night closing down the chat when the sun was shining but as the Sidewinders said in a 1990 song we don't do that anymore.  Times changed, people move on or get married or pass on or never get out of that classic rock era mindframe to talk a conversation or keep an interest in music after 1980 or before 1962.   I can't speak for the classic rock hardcore, and my radical musical tastes were always over the top for Patty who oversaw the Classic Rock chat at the Mining Company/About. com and even throwing some obscure 70s song threw a bit of fits in Grayby or Vinylville, both great people with a love of their classic rock music but I always seek out the obscure and the forgotten and even jumping into different genre's.  I never tried to limit myself on one band or the other.  And basically it got me into trouble at times and usually what I posted at About.com got bounced out since nobody knew what band I was talking about.  Which gave me the chance to do something different Steve provided me with my own little blogsite in 2003 so I could talk about the music that excited me and do a top ten of music that was playing in my CD player.   Each and every one of us who participated in the weekend chats got to see to hear the music that mattered most.  Steve providing each and everyone of us a copy of Jack Bonus.  The majority of folk were classic rock fans most of all,  but Laine The Tea Lady loved big band music, and Harvey was into late 50's early 60s oldies.  Imagine our surprise when both he and me was playing Pretty Girls Everywhere by Eugene Church one night at the same time.  And of course Starman finding a obscure late 60s album by Pussy and sending a copy of me to listen to.  It does sound a bit like prog rock and I have actually played it a lot since getting it.  Even in this late age of myself, there's always something from the past I have yet to discover and hear.   And yes I do miss the chats but the last year it was simply a chore to sit and listen to people go from discussing music to politics and it went downhill.  And yes, a few chatters did move on because of that.  Basically my views are a little more left than right, basically I'm a progressive liberal but there's a bit of Conservative in me but not to the point of gospel according to Rush or Hannity.  Granted I did rant and rave about the last president in my time over at MSN Groups,  and it may have been cheap entertainment or shock and awe but I have refrained from doing that over here at Blogspot simply of the fact there's too many shock bloggers out there that do that, so I only talk music and try to keep a positive vibe here.  It keeps me from having a heart attack.

With the death of the music chats and not much input over at Multiply  I decided to take my biz over here because Blogspot was easier to manage and blog than Multiply or My Space.  The latter the biggest pain in the ass to blog and they went downhill once Rupert Murdoch threw his conservative bucks into that site.  Over 400 friends and followers and all I got in the inbox was shitty bands emailing me to listen to their shitty music.  In hindsight it wasn't all bad,  the select few who made classic rock chat fun, did look me up and did hang around.  Some dropped out but then they found me via Google or Facebook and we reconnected once again.  The ones who became good friends are the ones still around.  Or have returned.  One of the most welcome return was Brooksie, out of all the classic rock chat folk, she had the knowledge to seek and comment and talk about new music and there was a time back around the mid 2000s that her top tens and news just about topped some of my blogs.  She certainly did her homework to the point that when she couldn't do the top ten on a regular basis, I then took over commenting on the top ten songs of the week.  It's  one thing just to do a top ten with songs only and no comments, it's another to comment on songs. And it takes a good hour and half to come up with songs and comments and hoping that the reader goes and check the songs out via You Tube or the record store.  Or Amazon although a 30 second snippet never does a song justice I don't think.

Even though I do dominate the top ten for most of the year I do enjoy comments and submissions from other folks, Starman has contributed a few, my GF has done that as well, and of course TAD made a appearance with his very own.  And of course whenever Brooksie gets done with one, I'll post it but I have notice that some of the songs that she did put on her site are varied just like before.  Moving to Blogspot started out slow and I didn't get much traffic the first couple years but with the addition of TAD's site and Drew's Odd And Sods giving me a link from their sites, traffic has increased big time.  If it wasn't for these guys, I would be playing to an audience of 3.  With Brooksie and Starman making a return, it's special because we all go way back to the classic rock chat of the early 00's.  For the new music SassyPassey is into the newer and more country stuff, for anything Kid Rock or Uncle Kracker, that's her faves. But she's is open minded to the point that I'll send her some oldies music of the past her way or to further try her patience play some Captain Beefheart or Velvet Underground's Sister Ray.  So far, the only song she wasn't too impressed was Gogi Grant's Wayward Wind.  But she's more tolerant of that than I am with Auto Tuned crap on top forty radio.

I did the top tens on both here and Multiply but after the first of the year decided to hang here and leave a link for those at Multiply to follow the latest adventures.  I do miss chatting with Harvey and Hoop and Laine and Tom from time to time but it's not to the point that I disappeared altogether. Google R.S.Crabb at Blogspot and you'll find me easy.  For 4 years I was on My Space but My Space sucks and hard to navigate and trying to find old blogs that are worth saving a pain in the ass.   Over here, the archives are much easier to find stuff and too bad i didn't start doing Blogspot more so than I did My Space the first couple years.   The simple fact is that I don't toot my horn all that much, and I'm not that outrageous as Mark Prindle, nor wordy as Robert Christgau is though I idolized the man and read his monthly consumer guide reviews whenever I could. 

But I think the reason most of all blogging here is that I get more surprises from other folks. Hearing from a fan who likes the Lovehammers or Long-View.  Or even hearing from Bob Wiseman from Blue Rodeo on a question of what ever happened to.  Or being acknowledged from The Brains themselves when I wrote a blog about them.  I don't expect to hear from the musicians or bands that I grew up listening to, nor do I bother them on their sites or Twitter.  But when they do comment about something I wrote then it does makes my day.    Although I kinda wished that Rhett Miller would have mentioned something since I had four copies of his 1989 Mythologies CD.  Only have one now but it's number 110 of 1000.  But he has other things to do then hearing me talk about that.

Reply to Starman:   Yeah I would love to come up your way once again since it's been 10 years since I've been up around Spokane.  Would love to go to Unified Groove. The music stores kinda have changed since I've been and in Seattle too, I know the Wherehouse Music chains are gone the way of Tower and Virgin Music Mart.  The Ames Hastings store closed in 2009 but when I went to Arizona last year, I went to the ones around Northern AZ and found some Sony Music CDs of note for 3.99 (ELO, Motorhead, Willie and Waylon).  Hastings was a joke half the time but I did enjoy seeing what they had in the cheap bins.  If I can win the big lottery I'll be sure to come up there and hang for a week or so.

I was going to do a Motley Crue blog on the Can't Review Them All segment but I'll go with this, I never cared much for them either, went to see them with Whitesnake here in 1987 and big mouth Vince Neil blew my damn eardrum out with his bellowing.  Think I lost half my hearing that night.  They were second rate KISS at best,  I don't mind Dr. Feelgood if had to have one Crue.  Which I don't.  Guy up at CD4 Change played a Crue bootleg when I was up there from 1987.  Brought back the old memories of the five and headaches.....Lemmy doesn't come across your arrogant rocker at all, he's pretty much down to earth and lives a quiet life, none of the rock star excesses and stays out of trouble.  Kinda interested to see that movie although reviews have been so so.  I got a lot of Motorhead albums, most from the classic Fast Eddie Clarke era, but also the albums with Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee whose been the longest lasting lineup.  Seek out 1993's Bastards for classic over the top rock and roll & 2006's Kiss Of Death.  The new one The World Is Yours is kinda of lacking but it does beat anything Motley Crue ever did.

As always Starman, it was fun in the classic rock chats while it lasted and as long as it lasted.  But I'm always here should ya want to talk tunes.  I live for the music, just ask my GF.