Top Ten Of The Week-Happy 65th Birthday Keith Moon

Must be time for the Crabb Ten again.  Guess the majority of y'all out there didn't like my title of the last top ten of the week since it didn't clear 10 views but Rock N Roll And The Brains Blog has a 1,000 view lead over the second highest rated Crabb blog.   Kind of like watching a balloon rise above the horizon and going far far away. But like that wayward balloon means nothing since Universal will not reissue The Brains albums but will give you instead the complete Debarge Recordings on Hip O Select.  It's true, major labels never listen to you but will puke up and redesign the Time Life music collection all over again.

Tad make an interesting observation on the Hit Dan Back website and didn't think much of it till I was reading about Nick Ashford's passing on his site and it's true.  He's got plenty of gay site ads to help pay his bills.  Since I pretty much read him via Facebook, I pick and choose myself, read about the vixens and vamps with camel toes rather than the gay folk myself.  I could pull the site's address if I get more people uncomfortable with it but then again my viewership isn't as big as Hit Dan Back or Groove Sandwich.  Nevertheless Nick Ashford passed away from throat cancer at age 70.  He was one half of the famed songwriting team of Valerie Simpson who gave us hits like I Don't Need No Doctor and Let's Go Get Stoned for Ray Charles, Remember Me for Diana Ross and their own hit Solid for Capitol.

Jerry Leiber, the other half of the Leiber/Stroller songwriting team also died this week. He was 78.  Yakety Yak, Hound Dog, On Broadway, need I say more. They wrote the songs.  They made rock and roll what it is back then and nobody this day and age have came close of writing memorable stuff.  Just saying.

Had Keith Moon lived he would be 65 today.  Problem is he's been dead over half his time on the planet.  Best drummer that ever influenced me, I did my damnest to sound like him on stage when I was playing.  None of the guys enjoyed that much.  Especially the country folk ha ha.

The Top Ten Of The Week:

1.  Wedding Song-these days 1993  Dedicated to Starman and his lovely wife getting him to walk down the aisle last month.  I had a choice between this or Paul Stookey's Wedding Song (There Is Love) but chose to go with the former Iowa City rockers on The Iowa Compilation Volume 4 CD of 1993 which was the best idea of how Iowa rock and roll was before Slipknot who I think did appear on a later Iowa Comp CD.  these days (that's how they spelled it) was somewhat a U2/REM alt rock band who made a couple albums before splitting up.  If they lived in Athens or L.A they would have made an impact on the charts. http://www.freewebs.com/thesedaysband/

2.  Dogs Part Two-The Who 1968  You knew I had to include a Keith Moon Who song on the top ten since it is his 65th birthday and what better way of doing that is to include his drum solo song which was the B side to Pinball Wizard.  His self destruction drum playing ensured him he wouldn't last too long and in 10 years he would be dead but the dude had such a great time bashing away on the drums.  Bought the 45 for Pinball Wizard, flipped it over and couldn't believe my ears.  Inspiration lyric: Woof Woof.  Side note: Pete Townsend did write a song called Dogs about dog racing which was a UK only release.  It would take just about 2 decades for MCA to put both songs on Two's Missing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U9uGSGUliM

3.  When Push Comes To Shove-Shoes 1984  They were from Zion Illinois, and may be just about the most influential band you never heard of.  In fact I'm sure Mitch Easter and Chris Stamey named their band Sneakers after the fact they were taken away by the sound that Shoes made.  Very much power pop in the way of 20/20 or Paul Collins Beat although by this time somebody in that band must have been listening to either Asia or The Buggles since this sound owes a bit more to them rather than power pop.

4.  If I Can't Change Your Mind-Sugar 1992  He was once was the angry young punk in Husker Du but before he became the angry old gay guy as a solo artist he put together a new trio called Sugar which made a couple albums and a few EPs for Rykodisc to which all can be found in the dollar bins or your local Salvation Army.

5.  I'll Fly Away-Kossoy Sisters 1956  If you are having a hard time believing Nirvana's Nevermind is 20 years old, think of O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack is now 10 years old and of course Universal celebrates it by adding a second disc and jacking the price up on the soundtrack to 22 bucks.  Gotta love the major label's way of thinking, fuck the public into buying the whole album once again and double the price.  No wonder the major labels are dying off, they will not support new artists and the only way they can think of is expensive deluxe editions.  If you find this used for 8 bucks or less then I suggest buying it.  However, this version didn't make it to the original soundtrack despite being it in the movie. The Gillian Welch version wasn't too bad really.  Rykodisc reissued the Traditional album which I'll Fly Away and Bowling Green was featured and the rest was banjo music.  Still, the 2 cd O Brother is a luxury, but the original S/T was instrumental of reviving the bluegrass music once again and BMG/RCA actually issued some nice compilations before Sony Music bought them out. Props to T Bone Burnett who produced the S/T and made it sound authentic.

6.  Love The One Your With-Bob Seger 1972  With Capitol/EMI fucking around the release date of the revamped Live Bullet and Nine Tonight (They did release both with a bonus track) I decided to pull out his Smoking O.P's cd and relive the old days when Segar brought his A game of cover versions and showed the world he was a well kept secret before Live Bullet.  A Detroit legend even by 1972 he takes this Steve Stills covers to new heights and even if he doesn't like the old music (which is why most of his pre Beautiful Loser CDs are out of print) there was a sense of purpose to make it. Hell, he'll never reissue Back in 72 in my lifetime and probably not yours either and it took a major campaign just to get Smoking OPs back in print I gather.  No auto tuner needed on this version although David Teegarden messes up on the drums after the last break into the final chorus.  Rock n roll isn't pretty y'all, and it didn't have to be perfect, hell Teegarden's mess up Is rock and roll.  Side Note: Teegarden was part of the rock duo Teegarden and Van Winkle who had a 1970 regional hit with God, Love Rock And Roll, and a couple albums that Wounded Bird did reissued.

7.  Pussy Pussy Pussy-The Light Crust Dough Boys 1935  Well it had to happen.  My brother has a bunch of old junk cars in the acreage that I live at and a couple of old pick up trucks gathering rust and falling apart.  Well this year I noticed the influx of feral cats running around the neighborhood.  Well today, after dealing with some dumb fuck speeder on my can on the way to work and then got stuck by the Goddamned 2:40 Coal Train running through the damn crossing.  Pissed off, I returned home and told the boss I'd be in a hour late due to all the bullshit I had to endure and noticed some squirrels bopping around the damn truck, or thought it was.  Turned out to be two small kitty kats that managed to call that old POS truck their home for the time being.  And then we have another feral pussy in another abandoned truck bed to which a lotta junk was in there and the smell of cat crap in there.  Nevertheless that's my brother's problem.  I'd love to add some anti freeze to the Pussy diet out there but I'm not that cold hearted.  But still livid that we have to deal with more feral pussies in this neck of the woods.  And I bet you thought this song was about pussy did ya? Meow baby.

8.  Starman-John C. Reilly 2007 From Walk Hard, The Dewey Cox Story  The movie was stupid, kind of reminded me of a half assed This Is Spinal Tap or A Mighty Wind and basically told of a story of a guy that looked like Johnny Cash but sang like Roy Orbinson and went through the big changes and discovered folk and Dylan and bla bla blah.  Anyway, this is disco like version of the David Bowie song.  Found the CD for a buck at Half Priced Books along with the S/T to Good Night And Good Luck.  And yes sometimes I tend to buy strange stuff that I donate right back to charity.  The Walk Hard S/T has its moments and I prefer it over the movie.

9.  If It Was Left Up To Me-Sly & The Family Stone 1973  I have no idea why they left this off Anthology which was supposed to be the definite Sly and the Family Stone and The two cd Essential was too much too late anyway, but I did find Fresh for 4 bucks at Borders Farewell Sale.  In the process I think it's just as overrated as There's a Riot Goin On, but at least Riot was fagged out weird and good.  Fresh is just plain weird and unfunky although it's been considered one of the best funk albums that Sly ever did.  I must be deaf, I don't hear nothing outstanding.  Sly is stoned on this number right down to the cha cha cha ending.

10.  River Deep Mountain High-Ike & Tina Turner 1966  Phil Spector's greatest song ever and it bombed on the charts.  Can't figure that one out either, it's the only stereo cut on the new Wall Of Sound Best Of that Legacy/Sony issued this year.  The failure of River Deep, lured Phil Spector into a self imposed retirement till he got coaxed out to do some Beatles recordings or mix them and later John Lennon.  If Spector was perfect in the 60's he was fucking erratic in the 70s with aborted recordings from Dion, perhaps the worst album Leonard Cohen ever did and of course you know about The Ramones' End Of The Century.  Still Deep Purple must have liked this version enough to do their very own version which was just about note for note, except the over the top beginning and of course, Richie Blackmore's odd turning guitar lead.  Spector, a flawed and somewhat overrated genius.  Makes me wonder if a percentage of sales of his Legacy Recordings goes toward payment for Lana Clarkson's estate for his wreckless murder of her.

Bonus Track: Give Peace A Chance-Mitch Miller And The Gang 1970  From the odd Peace Sing Along, old gray beard grew out what he had left of his hair and got the old gang to sing some old protest music including this little ditty that John Lennon wrote but never dreamed that Mr. Anti Rock and Roll would cover it.  It came out on Atlantic (Catalog SD 8277).  Hard to figure ole Mitch would share the label with Led Zeppelin eh?  Fuck me running on that!  Reference Link http://bsnpubs.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=3365885