Top Ten Of The Week-Everyday Could Be National Record Store Day

....if we had one in town.

With record stores going as fast as drive ins into the past of our used to be, I was once again pretty much at home in the surroundings of either CD's 4 Change or Moondog Music last Saturday.  And the next big plan is the next Record Store Day next year but with four dollar a gallon gas right around the corner and the situations of the world getting worse and worse we may have to find a different way of means to get there.  Certainly I would love to move to Dubuque to be close to the hangouts, I'd love to open up my own store in town but then again I would have to contend with the rules coming from the major labels bout getting Record Store Day Exclusives.  I didn't wake up early enough to get the Foo Fighters Medium Rare LP and I guess Moondog Music never did get anymore into the stores so basically I'll just write it off, till Sony Music does reissue it on CD and you know they will....just like they did with Bob Dylan Live at Brandeis University 1963.  Wait a while folks, if the majors can get a buck out of it, they'll issue it.

The frustration that is My Space is really gotten to the point that I may as well just delete my site over there since the jackoffs have taken away the blog search and it puts you back into start, which is why I haven't been able to put much from the archives over there.  I have not posted over there don't intend to and basically thinking the hell with it, and cancel and lose three years of blogs and observations.  Basically Rupert Murdoch didn't do anybody any favors when he acquired My Space, only person that made off like a bandit was Tom Anderson.  I was going to save a few more blogs from Brooksie but she canceled her account so unless I can find that April 2004 report about the DC trip, that will remain in the archives of deletion in cyberland.  Such a shame cuz I have forgotten most of what we did and the places we seen.

In the last 8 years of Blogging Top Ten, 2003-2007 were deleted when MSN decided to end the Groups, which leaves the majority over at My Space.  There's a year a half worth of top tens at Multiply and the rest are over here.  Which leaves a new one for the week.

1.  Nobody Knows-The Feelies 2011  They're back after a 20 year hiatus and sounding like they never missed a beat.  Will they do it again 20 years from now?  Hard to say, but if I'm still around I'll take a listen.

2.  Jeremiah Peabody's Pills-Ray Stevens 1962  He's been around for over 50 years and Ray Stevens remains one of those artists that straddles the funny with the serious.  I share the same birthday as he does but for music, what I do have is on 45s.  And he's been pretty much label hopping from here to there and I'm sure all four labels does have some kind of Ray Stevens music in their archives too.  He had a way to cover the classics, bluegrass remake of You Are So Beautiful, country version of Misty and then the classic silly stuff with canned laughter and applause to boot  (The Streak, Guitarzan, Along Came Jones Ahab The Arab).  I didn't pay much attention  most of anything after I Need Your Help Barry Manilow and his stops at RCA, MCA, Capitol and Curb. Maybe it was the beard that through me off I dunno (bad attempt of a joke) , but I did remember watching his TV show in the mid 70s and still have fond memories of that and some of his serious stuff (Mr. Business Man, America Communicate With Me, Funny Man).  Perhaps the best Ray Stevens was the Rhino CD of his Mercury/Monument/Barnaby years. I would liked to see Warner Brothers just straight reissued Just For The Record instead of chopping it up in the 3 comps that they issued in the mid 90s.  For me the one Ray Stevens to get would be the Mercury best of Ray Stevens (or 1,837 Seconds of Ray Stevens).  In any case I did the 45 of this up in Mad City Music X which has Mr. Stevens in a R and B, Doo Wop vain, sounds like a cross between Alley Oop and Western Movies.  But you may know this song as the longest titled 45 in record history: Jeremiah Peabody's Poly Unsaturated Quick Dissolving Fast Acting Pleasant Tasting Green And Purple Pills....until Fiona Apple gave us the longest titled album in record history, When The Pawn.....(hell with it I'm not typing that one out folks).

3.  Cigarette Dangles-The Pursuit Of Happiness 1993   They were from Canada and made a couple of listenable albums for Chrysalis before moving over to Mercury and hooking up with Ed Stasium and this did get some airplay on the radio, I remember seeing a video on 120 minutes too.  They were power pop at best but Stasium put a loud drum sound that sounds a lot like Living Colour's Vivid which turned out to be a clash of sound (blame Paul Hemingson for that while we're at it).  The Downroad Road had about five songs too many but I liked it fine but then again I found it for 50 cents during Record Store Day and I'm sure the guy at CD's 4 Change would have given it to me free if I would have picked up another four 50 cent cds.  Perhaps I should have just for the jewel cases.  Razor & Tie put together a pretty good best of called Sex & Food but it has been out of print for years.  Better to find the albums and put together your very own mix disc of TPOH.

4.  Black Slacks-Robert Gordon 1979  Pretty good remake of the Sparkletones classic. Found this on 45 at the aforementioned Cd's 4 Change last Saturday.  Before The Stray Cats came along, it was Gordon along with Link Wray (and Chris Spedding) trying to keep the rockabilly alive.

5.  Wasting My Time-Jimmy Page 1988  When Outrider came out, it was a big deal.  A return to the rock and roll roots or the sounds of Zeppelin screamed the critics.  Even one song featured 3/4 of the Zep lineup if you consider Jason Bonham (since dad was you know who) and Robert Plant but it was basically a throwaway track. Jason played on 6 of the 9 tracks (Barrimore Barlow from Jethro Tull played on two) and even The Firm's Tony Franklin figured into this song (vocals provided by John Miles who sounds a bit more Plantish than Plant himself).   MTV played the video to death in 1988 and the record sold a ton but there was a lotta return and many went to the used bins at the local store not too soon after.  Used to have the CD but now have the vinyl instead.

6.  Rock Away-Ric Ocasek 1991  Sandwiched in between Cars today and yesterday was that Ric did have a solo career to which he sold albums but they never seemed to be on par with The Cars albums and in some ways this does mirror Jimmy Page's album, hyped at first, bought and then returned to the cut out racks soon after.  Ric had it worse though.  In fact we were trying to find this album when it was released back twenty years ago in the Arizona getaway, back when there was a record store on every other corner.  Fireball Zone was the highly anticipated album.  Heck I thought this song beat the majority of Cars songs for rocking out but  the buying public didn't think so and Fireball Zone went into cutout land soon after.   Collector Choice Music supposedly reissued it via their failed Tartare label, to which they send out a CD R recorded version of it.  I'd say save your money or go buy the 3 dollar special at Amazon.  It's cheaper and guaranteed to play better.

7.  Gimme Gimme Good Lovin-Crazy Elephant 1969  So what if it's bubble gum?  So what if it sounds too much like Mony Mony at the beginning?  This has always been on my favorite 2 minute songs in the history of the AM radio era.

8.  Wasted-Def Leppard 1980  Sure Robert John Lange gave them the sonic polish and sound and made them what they are today but I prefer the Tom Allom produced debut when they were trying to go for that hard rock sound and did succeed.  Heck I think I bought it just for the cool cover.

9.  King Nothing-Metallica 1997  Gawd the purists out there were up in arms howling over Load missed the point.  I might be in the minority on how great this record is and can play it from end to end all 78:57 of it.  Now Reload, that one was a chore to sit through and listen to.  Maybe Load wasn't the big metal album but to me it was pure hard rock and they did it well I thought.

10.  Road Runner-Bo Diddley 1963  From the just reissued Bo Diddley's Beach Party album, an album so good that I had to play it again.  Yep, Bo kinda miss a lead or two or play it slightly out of tune and on the wrong fret but this how rock and roll was played.  No auto tuner to hinder things and playing off the frenzy of the audience although the liner notes detail how the South Carolina police had  shut one set down due to Jerome Thomas dancing with the white women (in the south in the 60's that's a no no, or where ever Haley Barbour is Governor at).  You had to be there I gather but in terms of live documents of the 60s, this rates up there with James Brown at the Apollo or BB King at the Regal.  Classic.