Top 10 Of The Week-The $1.99 Special

While hanging up around the St. Vincent De Paul Thrift Store on Williamson Street in Madison yesterday a strange thought came my way.  If this was a second hand store, how are they paying for the satellite radio?
 
It also answered a question of what ever happened to the original MTV VJ's Nina, Alan, Mark, Martha?  Don't ask about JJ, he's been dead for a few years but the still living are now living in their own 80's world on a XM/Sirius channel about the 80s.  But they don't turn away from the tried and tired.  Any fucking radio station this side of KDAT plays Broken Wings or Footloose or Take On Me anytime of day just like classic rock plays Sweet Child O Mine from Ethel Merman and Guns.  I was about ready to buy copies of Broken Wings by Mr Mister and throw them up in the air or fling them off Monona Terrace to the rocks below Lake Monona.
 
 But getting back to the 80s station at hand.  Like any other person who grew up in that era, MTV was the place to go to see the lesser known and other forgotten before the Madonnas, Billy Idols and Michael Jacksons gave it a identity.  Everybody had a crush on Martha Quinn or Nina Blackwood before she stocked up on the bon bons and not getting off the couch.  And of course, age.  Since then, even though MTV eventually replaced the five originals VJs, you really don't remember anybody else.  Hell, I had to look it up myself.  So, here they are in this canned format at some XM radio that gets played at the thrift store and annoying the public with Mr. Mister again and Mr. Footloose.  I'm sure Richard Page is still getting good royalties from that shitty Foreigner lite song.  Now if XM would have bought back 120 Minutes and played the lesser known 80s song I might pony up a subscription for that.
 

The big news outside of the ones that Steven Adler, full time druggie and part time drummer from Axl's Guns before being booted, is that Chinese Democracy is now being sold for 1.99 at Best Buy, which includes the vinyl album if you can find it.  What was supposed to be a ground shaking event two years ago is now gone to Best Buy writing this off as a tax loss and decided to cut inventory and sell it quick.  They would have better luck leaving it out in the open as Free and still have problems getting rid of it all. I thought about two or three just for the jewel cases myself, unless they are the cheap assed ones that we have been getting for years.  You know the ones, the ones that the tray is always loose and doesn't stay secure to the jewel case, those MF's.  Seems like Best Buy has had problems of trying to unload Chinese Democracy, at one time they had them for 4.99 before thinking they sold enough to return them back to 11.99 then 9.99 and then finally admitting defeat and having their own budget version of said album.
 
 The problem is that Axl is in charge with hired hands so he can go out out into the world, show up two hours late and then play.  Seems like Anti Music always seem to think that this is newsworthy, or having Steven Adler getting more than his 15 minutes of fame and it's making rock music looking more laughable than it should be.  Kind of like the new Velvet Revolver singer or Van Halen album or even A Kinks reunion which might be more certain than the Slash returning to the same stage as Axl.   I'm sure it's not a question of when but where for Dave Davies to put up with Ray one more time for the dollars.  But with Best Buy finally giving up on recouping what they put in when they became sole place to buy this so called masterpiece, they cut their losses and run.  And the day is coming very soon that they may just donate the whole Cd and vinyl to the local thrift store.  And then you can be double tortured by a overrated and bloated album while hearing the strains of Mr. Mister in the background.

Your very own version of Hell on Earth.
 
The Top Ten Of The Week.

1.  You Better Think Twice-Poco 1969  For a band that started out in the early thrones of country rock music you don't hear much about Poco as much as you do as Eagles (they're called Eagles, not The Eagles as Glenn Frey would tell you but this is not about him or that group) and as I have gotten late to the Poco Appreciation Society I had to pick and choose which albums to get and turns out I gotten a few of them and most had mixed results.  Yes the ABC/MCA years were prickly at best, in fact I like their Atlantic album Ghost Town better than anything from ABC Years (although Head Over Heels noses out Legend for best album from that label).  Even the Very Best Of Poco that CBS/Sony Music was erratic at best, the Hip O had a nice overview of all labels but any Best of must have this little rave up rocker from the mind of Jim Messina to which got played on KRNA back in the 70s.  I'm sure I'm not done with reviewing more Poco albums but their S/T 1969 effort might be their overall best.  Deliverin comes in a close second.

2.  Angel Dance-Robert Plant 2010  If you really want to know how far down the CD prices have been for used stuff, Band Of Joy, Plant's latest was bought for 5 bucks at Frugal Muse and I think it's better overall than Raising Sand, his 2007 get together with Alison Krauss which got Percy into the spotlight once again. (Has it been 2007 since Raising Sand got released?). I guess if there was a thing as singles, this would have made the playlist but since AOR rock is dead, it's all made up.  Anyway, a radical reworking of the Los Lobos song to which I predict that band will have something in the top ten before I'm all said and done.

3.  Blue Train-John Coltrane 1957  In my jazz listening, I tend to overlook J.C. more often since I'm more into the sounds of Dave Brubeck with Paul Desmond but there was a time that I did listen to the sheets of sound era of J.C and Kind Of Blue Miles.  Best Buy had been selling Blue Train for 5.99, (the Rudy Van Gelder Remasters with two bonus tracks and better liner notes) and is essential if you want to get the classic jazz of the 50s.  I don't play it too often myself but when I do, I consider this to be the best of the J.C 50's stuff.  You really don't need me to tell you more, but he kept pushing himself to the other limits in the 60s with his best lineup (Elvin Jones, best jazz drummer ever) and A Love Supreme, and each ensuring album taking him further out to space than Heaven's Gate cult trying to hitch a ride to Hale Bopp in 97.  Marshall Applewhite would have better luck with Interstellar Space.

4.  Heartline-Robin George 1985  Interesting 45 found at Mad City Music X yesterday.  It was a DJ promo copy from Bronze Records, Gerry Bron's label which was home to Uriah Heep and Motorhead but this song is better with the hair metal craze of the mid 80s.  Don't recall hearing this on radio although it peaked at number 40 on the mainstream rock charts whereas on top 100 barely making it to 92 before falling off.  Kinda sounds more like metalized John Parr.  Inspirational verse:  It much too late to change the tune, I don't like this song.  Actually I do, right up to the Queen like ending.  Can be found on You Tube.

5.  Don't Take It So Hard-Paul Revere & The Raiders 1968  Underrated song from Mark Lindsay and company.  I remember buying this on 45 but the record skipped so we had to take it back and since they didn't have any other copies of this, ended up getting The Turtles Story Of Rock & Roll.  You'll be happy to know that Sony Music has issued The Essential Paul Revere & The Raiders to replaced the other 2 cd set and here's hoping they don't tack on that goofy ending that plagued that CD and my own mix copy of song.

6.  Charge Card Medley: In The Evening When The Sun Goes Down/Stormy Monday/In The Evening/Bye Bye Blackbird-Lou Rawls 1978   When you say Lou you said it all, the man could even make me drink Budweiser when he said, Yeah, this bud's for you.  It's a far cry from today when you have some halfwit barely strumming chords to sell bad beer whereas in the past they had Ed McMahon and Lou promoting Budweiser. Lou could also sing the hell out of a song.  In fact the trip up to Madison consisted of the 2 CD Best Of Lou Rawls and I was in the Mad City city limits after leaving my house.  Lou recorded for a variety of labels and technically his best was when he hooked up with Kenny Gamble/Leon Huff for five years on Philadelphia International.  I did come across a dollar copy of Lou Rawls Live and even though this is a medley what makes it go is Lou's rapping and talking before going into songs.  Too bad Lou departed to the Big Budweiser in the sky five years ago.

7. Kiko And The Lavender Moon-Los Lobos 1992  Can't decide if this is classic or just overrated. 16 Songs wrapping up 52 minutes to which I came home from Dubuque from Madison and didn't have the change the CD player.  Mitchell Froom can be blamed for the production to which for the next few years they would do their most experimental but not really getting my attention back till Tin Can Trust from last year.  Appently, David Hidalgo and Louie Perez were so taken by Froom's work on Kiko that with him and Tchad Blake, there would be the side project Latin Playboys.  And if you thought Kiko was weird, the Latin Playboys stuff is even more out there.

8.  The Entertainer-Martin Hamlisch 1974  AM radio was still odd enough to include this segment from The Sting, the movie that won best picture and inspired me to go get the book and 45 of this song.  Most of the music was inspired by Scott Joplin's turn of the century piano and people bought it judging from what I have seen at Goodwill and Salvation Army but could never find a decent copy of it.  But you can get a download of this for 8.41 at Amazon.  No thank you, downloads are so not cost effective, think I'll take my chances on memories and a scratchy 45.

9.  The Billboard Song-Homer & Jethro 1952  To which I'm sure Roger Miller must have been listening to and gave us Burma Shave.  My GF will happy to know that in my Mad City trip, I found two more Homer & Jethro albums to further try her patience.  But she informs me that she is still laughing over their version of Sink The Bismarck.

10.  You Set The Scene-Love 1967  If there's one album that really brings to mind the greatness of the 60s, it would be Forever Changes, the third album from Arthur Lee and the band he called Love (originally The Grass Roots but some other band had that name and bigger hits).  Yes it borrows a bit from Pet Sounds but it has a sound all its own to a point that Forever Changes has been reissued about five times in the CD era.  CD remastering king Steve Hoffman took his own shot of remixing the album and if you ever get the collector's edition of this, you will note slight variations such as Lee and band chatting up a storm in the finale.  The Hoffman remixes are fun to listen to a couple times but in the end, I still prefer the original mix and intentions of Bruce Botnick and Arthur Lee.  As they say, everybody should own at least one variation of Forever Changes and that means you if you haven't already.