Top Ten Of The Week-Terms Of Familarity

So here we are.  Three days into spring.  And right off the bat the first day we had a gullywasher.  My brother built a bit a diversion off the driveway and made our very own waterfall from it into the ditch.  Spring is here, looks like rain rain rain once again.  Could be worse, could be ice.

With winter officially over, I can tell you that I didn't catch the cold nor flu all winter for the first time since 2006. I call it a miracle upon itself.    Can't tell you how I did it, a little luck and blessings from above.  Some weren't so lucky this year.   Wayne Robinson used to be head of the IT department when I was working in Iowa City at the old NCS place.  He retired sometime last decade but stayed on as a consultant.  He went out to Colorado for vacation last week and ended up getting a massive heart attack and died Saturday.  He was 63.  He was a tall guy, had long curly hair and had a scruffy unshaven look half the time.  I think I recall him from the scanner side of things when I first worked in IC around 1985.

Ralph Mooney, the best damn steel guitar player ever.  He used to play in Wynn Stewart's band of Wishful Thinking fame then co wrote Empty Arms, a 1956 hit for Ray Price, and then was part of Waylon Jennings' outlaw band of the 1970s.  He also had a hand in the Bakersfield Sound on recordings by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.  Later played on the latest Marty Stuart album.  Dead from complications from cancer at age 82.  They're all leaving us.  Only ones left behind are the autotuned faceless folks.

Pinetop Perkins.  Last of the original blues-men that goes back to the days of Muddy Waters.  Recently won a Grammy TM with Joined At The Hip with Willie Big Eyes Smith, who used to be Muddy Waters' drummer on Hard Again in 1977, switched over to harmonica later.  Pinetop was famous for Pinetop's Boogie Woogie in the early 50s.  Played with Sonny Boy Williamson on the King Biscuit Broadcasts.  Ike Turner called him one of the founding fathers of Rock and roll and taught him what he knew.  Oldest person to win a Grammy TM.  His heart gave out and he passed from a cardiac arrest at the age of 97.

Yesterday I was subjected to one of the worst all time albums ever with the Sin-arta Tribute Album (for release next week but if you want a cheap copy, contact me) but the second most disappointing album of the year has to be the New York Dolls-Dancing Backwards On High Heels (429/Savoy) to which I couldn't wait to review it and ended up getting a note from Mark Prindle telling me about it was going to be a disappointment since it sounds like a mediocre David Johansen nostalgia solo trip.  To which he was dead on.  Part of the big problem was that they lost Sami Jaffe and Steve Conte to Michael Monroe's Band (MM being former singer of Hanoi Rocks).  The other problem is Jason Hill's subpar production work.  And the songs themselves really sounded thrown together and nadir is Johnansen's I'm So Fabulous which supposely mocks the tourists who visited New York and give the impression that they so high and mighty but the way David sings it, he sounds bitter and dour.  The only decent song was a remake of Funky But Chic.  Before this, I have never had heard a bad David Johansen nor NY Dolls album.  But this sounds tired.  But at least the total time of album is 37 minutes long which still might be too long of a album to be entertained.  But at least it's not a total waste as the Sin-arta fiasco.

And finally, I hate Guns N Roses most particularly Sweet Child O Mine to which I heard on two radio stations at the same time last night and once again from the dumbfucks at The FOX at 11 oclock this morning while going to the dentist.  I do like Slash and his guitar playing, I bought and enjoyed Izzy Stratlin's two Geffen albums and even Duff McKegan had some quality moments.  Axl Rose remains the problem with that baying vocal of his, never liked it much before nor after.  I think ample times of hearing the intro to Welcome To The Jungle at every NFL game, or the opening notes of Sweet Child that makes me run out of the store or punch the button on the radio.  Like any overplayed song you have to hear to classic rock radio, it goes past the point of annoyance and if you didn't like the song in the first place, it's a Chinese water torture just like the Chinese Democracy bomb that Axl gave the world.  We live in a world that we have more music than ever before, but our Cumulus owned FM stations continues to slash the playlist to the same 50 songs to which Sweet Child O Mine is guaranteed to annoy me everytime I turn on The FOX.  In terms of my frame of mind I'd perfer Rebecca Black.  But that opinion might be different next week.

The Top Ten Of The Week:

1.  Funk #49-James Gang 1970  One of more familar guitar introductions.  Amazing how Joe Walsh can pull that off.  Taken from James Gang Rides Again, a album that I had originally on 8 track.  To which it repeated twice on 8 Track.  Fun fact: originally The Bomber had the Bolero medley on 8 track but not on the album nor 15 Greatest Hits that MCA stuck out on CD.  That used to be 16 Greatest Hits but Ya Dig got left off the CD version.  Confused?  You shouldn't be.  Ya Dig was the B side to Walk Away, their highest charting hit.  Never heard Funk #49 on radio before getting the 8 track at a garage sale.

2.  Here We Go Again-Ray Charles 1967  The man redefined country music with soul and this is when Brother Ray incorporates a bit of blues to go with that country sound.  You'll be happy to know that Willie Nelson along with Branford Marsalis and Norah Jones is doing a Ray Charles album called Here We Go Again The Songs Of Ray Charles which will be on Blue Note Records.

3.  Shotgun-Vanilla Fudge 1969  The jury is still out on The Fudge and their radical arrangements of cover songs.  Carmine Appice influenced John Bonham and you can hear trace amounts of Appice's drum solo at end on Moby Dick to compare notes.  However, this is a straight ahead heavy metal wrecking of the Jr. Walker classic to which Vince Martelli takes on a wah wah petal and gets strangled in the process.  Atco Records issued this a butchered 2 and half minute version on the 45 but the whole 6:14 glory is found on The Very Best Of Vanilla Fudge (Atco 1982) or Near The Beginning which Sundazed reissued a few years ago and is still in print.  The Butchered single version is on the Rhino Best of.

4.  Let There Be Music-Orleans 1975  They were on ABC for a few albums and didn't have hits so they jumped on board to Asylum and this was the first of a few hits for them.  John Hall would go on to a solo career and now is a Congressman from New York.  This managed to pop into the local top thirty but they would have a bigger hit with Dance With Me (which was my Aunt's theme song at her wedding).  In terms of this lite pop rock, I think I prefer them over Pablo Cruise.  At least I can listen to their Still The One comp over the Pablo Cruise's Need You Now, which didn't do much for me.

5.  Gallows Pole-Led Zeppelin 1970  I have a friend that had the first two LZ albums before ZOSO came out but he didn't have LZ 3 and couldn't figure out why.  He said it was too mellow for him but I found a scratched up copy for a buck and turned out that this would be my fave LZ album before Physical Graffiti.  Turns out that I actually liked side 2 more than I did side 1, from this song to (Hats Off) To Roy Harper which is weird for LZ standards.  Before that this song was on the bootleg An Hour With Led Zeppelin 8 Track, poorly recorded but did the trick before finding the actual album.

6.  Sake Of The Song-Blackmore's Night 2011  For years I resisted hearing anything from Richie Blackmore's Medieval Folk group till I found a new copy for 2 bucks at Half Priced Books.  They actually had two copies of this in the budget bins but of course somebody snagged that up too.  But to find out that this is very good.  Blessed with a beautiful woman with a great singing voice, Candice Night might be the best vocalist that Richie Blackmore ever had, so great that he ended up marrying her.  But the new album Autumn Sky proves that Blackmore is still very technically great at playing guitar or mandolin or whatever passes for a string instrument.   So give him a hand, he deserves it.  Side note: Yeah I know, Ian Gillan, Ronnie James Dio  were great vocalists that gave Blackmore's songs classic status but since he couldn't marry either one of them....


7.  Don't Do It-The Band 1972  As much as I'm trying to get Brooksie to do a top ten (eventually I'll win, I hope)  I tend to borrow tunes from her website of what she's listening to. I choose this outstanding track from Rock Of Ages.

8.  Lonely Winds-The Drifters 1960  Wasn't a big hit but my mom had it on a 45 years ago.  Showcases the late great Ben E King.  I tend to revisit the music I grew up with but I somehow tend to ignore the doo wop and R and B bands of long ago and far away,  I'll rectify that in the near future.

9.  Sometimes I feel So Uninspired-Traffic 1972  I have those days too.  And top tens to boot but I'll never tell which ones they are.  The album Shoot Out At The Fantasy Factory never got much good reviews but I always enjoy that record when I play it.  Although On The Road is a bit of a chore to sit through.  And John Barleycorn Must Die (especially Empty Pages).

10.  Wish You Were Here-Pink Floyd 1975  I guess I must have mistakenly put my copy in the donation bin at Goodwill for I have not found the CD and ended up getting a replacement vinyl album for four bucks at Half Priced Books.   Next up on my vinyl want list: Animals.

New releases this week include.
Steve Martin & Steep Canyon Rangers-Rare Bird Alert (Rounder)  Better put together album than The Crow but still that album was pretty good.  Still standard straight up bluegrass although Martin adds a bit more comedy to the songs (Women Like To Slow Dance-done to a fast bluegrass beat, Jubilation Day, King Tut). A-

Saliva-Under Your Skin (Island)  For modern rock, I can listen to them without much problem.  Radio ready ballads to go with their nu metal rap. Better than Chico Dibalo although when I feel the need to hear Saliva, I put on Blood Stained Love Letter.  B

John Popper & The Duskray Troubadours (Savoy/429)  A scrappier version of Blues Traveler he touts and he's right, with Jono Manson helping out, it's more poppier and less abstract than BT although he slops it up on Leave It To Faith.  B+

As this went to press, Elizabeth Taylor passed away at age 79.  I really wasn't that big of fan, but I think my faves were with Richard Burton on Who's Afraid Of Virgina Woolf and Cleopatra.  Something about their chemistry that brought out the best of both of them.  I do admire her charity work in the fight against AIDS and of course we all know about  her being best of friends with Michael Jackson. I'm sure something in her died when he O'D two years ago but she's always had some sort of health problems but overcame them.  But once again seems like we're losing ICONs from the past and Liz is one of them.  She'll be missed. RIP.