Top Ten Of The Week-Milestones

Last weekend, we had the 9-11 tributes going 24-7 and I read a few of the comments of what you were doing and where you were at when that happened.  I think I posted something about it a year ago and didn't want to repeat the whole thing again.  The one thing that stood out was that it was a clear blue day and it was strange when the sun went down and seen no planes flying in the skies.  But that week we had two releases from Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan that came out, The Rising and Love & Theft.  Somewhere in those two albums lies the real message.

To make you feel that much older, 20 years ago the world was subjected to Nevermind by Nirvana.  Which pretty much blew away the hair metal bands off major labels and such.  But even after when Kurt blew half his head off, the hair metal bands never really went away and still enjoy some kind of success today.  I have the cd and like it fine somedays but it never changed my life the way, oh say The Godz or BOC Spectres did.  And don't see the need to upgrade to the 2 CD 20th Anniversity Nevermind anytime soon.  I think I was more into the alternative music of Stone Roses, Charlatans UK, Dylans, Ride.

A milestone in itself.  George Jones celebrated his 80th birthday Tuesday.   That is a miracle upon itself.  Happy Birthday Possum.

Next week, it's Crabby back into the Arizona desert for a week of bargain hunting and some driving.  Nothing special.  But I'll be sure to write something up if and when I get a chance.  Looking to stay around Chandler and Tucson and places south but I hope to do a Bullhead City/Kingman run one of the days too.  Depends on how I feel, which hasn't been much of lately.  Here's hoping my rent a car will have satellite radio.

The Top Ten Songs from the player of note.

1.  Deep Six Saturday-Tommy Keene 2011  This guy has been around longer before Nirvana ever started up and even have  a couple of Geffen albums in the can before Kurt and company got there.  The guy has been heavy rock power pop for most of his years and has more to do with Gin Blossoms than Nirvana to which is why the GB's plucked Tommy's long time drummer to play in their band.  Nevertheless, he does a have new album to which Best Buy didn't have and I seen a DJ promo copy at HP Books so I picked it up.  Tommy has been coasting of late, the last two albums really didn't do much for me and Behind The Parade continues that streak although it's his most listenable since The Merry Go Round Broke Down.  If there was such a thing as real top forty music, you would be hearing this on the radio.  I know if there was still a alternative music station of 20 years ago you would be hearing this.

2.  Come And Get It-Whitesnake 1981  David Coverdale gets beat up over this band but if you go way back before the S/T album Whitesnake was pretty good.  Such a shame that Ready N Willing never got released on CD in the US and to me it was an extension of what DC did in Deep Purple but without Glenn Hughes weighing him down.  The classic album years are the ones to which Ian Paice joined the band (replacing David Dowle) and having Jon Lord playing keys.  But I'm sure DC didn't exactly like the DP sound so deciding to go into a more harder rock sound on Slide It In, which begins to pull away from the DP sound. Whammy bar mastermind John Sykes just about made them a laughingstock, and Steve Vai didn't help on the showoffy. Slip Of The Tongue.  There's always been a revolving door of musicians but lately Coverdale may have found a good partner in Doug Aldrich who has made the last two Whitesnake albums sound very good. Come And Get It is the lesser of the DP sound albums but it does have some moments.

3.  Things Can Only Get Better-Howard Jones 1985   I had a friend, Tim Ackley who quoted this song one day when we were up at Hamilton Business College (now Kaplin University, a shit hole academic school that does nothing but throw commercials down our throats here in the daytime) and after a bad day he told me to take the words of this song to heart.  To which I did but for him he had more darker demons to which would finally come to roost and he ended up hanging himself a year later to which the followup hit to this No One Is To Blame comes to mind.  Produced by Rupert Hine.

4.  It Don't Get Any Better Than This-George Jones 1998  It is a big deal to see George Jones make it to 80 years of life, everybody has written him off so many times, they didn't even think he'd make it to 40, but here he is, one of the best country singers in our time still singing away, although he hasn't really done all that much the past few years, he really doesn't have to.  So many songs to choose from, but I decided on the lead failed single of his 1998 MCA album and having a few friends help out.  Like Waylon, Willie, Merle, Bobby Bare and a Johnny Cash soundalike.

5.  Can't Think Twice-Starcastle 1977  The greatest Yes tribute band to ever come out of Campaign Illinois, they actually made three pretty good albums for Epic (four if you include Reel To Real their much malign 1979 effort) that could passed for Yes like prog rock.  Terry Luttrell probably does a better Jon Anderson than Benoit David himself although critics didn't care much for him nor Starcastle at that time.  Prog rock instead of punk how dare they?  And back then, I didn't care much for them either but on picking up their first album on CD (to which Sony Music actually reissued on CD and still has in print) and may have been wrong. Citadel is my choice of what to buy although I have heard complaints that if you get it from Renaissance Records you might end up with a crappy CD R, better to find the more expensive version from Rock Candy, that is if they have it in print.  Otherwise, you may have to settle for vinyl.  Lucky you.

6.  What's Your Hurry Darlin-Ironhorse 1980  Randy Bachman, tired of BTO, quits, goes solo for a album and then gets a new band going. Ironhorse was a lot more poppy and not as rocking as Bachman Turner and the majority of songs were sung by Frank Ludwig.  Randy co wrote this with Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys and it didn't chart I don't think but I have a promo 45 of it.  And the album Everything Is Black which has a better side 2 than 1, Ludwig tends to dominate too much.  Bass player was Ron Foos who would later figure into Rhino Records' wonderful anthologies of the bands of the 60s and 70s.  Foos would be replaced by Fred Turner of BTO and after a label change, they renamed themselves Union and put out On Strike.  Turner's returned helped alot although once again the album was uneven, great side 1, but side 2 was a poopfest.

7.  Live It Up-Crosby Stills & Nash 1990  Basically Graham Nash dominates on this album which picks up where Innocent Eyes left off.  The album was universally panned, this was a somewhat successful single.  I'm sure a lot of folk did also bought  American Dream which nobody plays anymore either.

8.  Cat Walk-Saga 2011  If anybody really gives a shit anymore, Saga did a live version of their 1983 classic Heads Or Tails in its entirety and Eagle Rock put it out on CD and DVD I gather.  Mike Sadler, the original vocalist is no longer in the band so they have a Geoff Tate soundalike doing the vocals.  Plus you get cheesy Casino Keyboards and that dated 80's whammy bar leads of Ian Crichton which grates on the nerves.  Basically stick to the original studio album.  Whammy bar guitar leads are so 1980's and that has been thirty years ago.

9.  Rosalie-Thin Lizzy 1978  Bob Seger wrote it but Thin Lizzy made it their own on the Live And Dangerous album.  Dedicated to Tim Hotz, my good friend from the Relics Store years and sometimes who I run into at Half Priced Books from time to time and Iowa City if you can believe that.  Tim bought that 4 CD import box set of Thin Lizzy that they had up there.  I'd say excellent choice.

10.  One And Only Man-Steve Winwood 1990  After the big success of Back In The High Life and Roll With It, it was a matter of time before the music masses got tired of Winwood and Refugees Of The Heart didn't do so great on the charts.  The album plodded on at times but really it wasn't that bad of a album, in fact I kinda preferred it over the more successful Roll With It simply that radio doesn't play it at all, nor this single to which I found on 45 a few weeks ago.  Winwood is one of those artists that took me a few years to appreciate better than during his hit making days.  Still not a big fan of When You See A Chance though.  But that's one crabb's opinion.  Your opinion may differ.