The Missing Top Ten-The Sounds Of Arizona

Three weeks ago I made the trip down to start Arizona 25, which went with 25 years ago I moved down there to start a better life but somehow returned back home.  I did add a couple songs to my last top ten but the majority of songs come from the week I was down there.  Some worked, some were a waste of time and three CDs got redonated back to charity.  For the most part Arizona radio is like radio up here, it sucks and there's hardly any variety to boot outside of hearing Graham Parker and couple other bands that escape my mind.  Therefore this top ten comes from selected songs and take it for what's it worth I guess.

Top Ten From The Arizona Desert.

1.  Please Love Me-B B King 1952  Something found for four bucks at Hastings in Casa Grande a 2 on 1 CD of some of Mr. King's earliest recordings for Kent/Crown to which Flair/Virgin issued in the mid 90's.  B B does a spot on Elmore James riff and thankfully keeps the blues scream down to a minimum.  You know the blues scream don't ya?  It's when the singer sings the first line of the verse and then goes YeeeeSSSSSS on the next chorus, never liked it much when Freddie King did it nor when B B does it but these recordings were the basis of the live breakthrough Live At The Regal which B B gave the world a decade later.

2.  Don't Look Back-Fine Young Cannibals 1988  This trip I didn't buy a single album but I did buy three forty fives, mostly unknown stuff but this was a top ten hit for FYC to which you couldn't escape them on the radio in the late 80s and then just like that they faded from view.  I've seen their albums in the dollar bins all the time but rarely their 45s.  Which was why I picked this up at the Tucson's Zia's.

3.  Mad Elaine-Ian Gillan Band 1978  I do have the vinyl album but it's scratched in spots which made me go search for the CD version to which The Zia's on Thunderbird in Phoenix had a copy.  Long time ago Metal Blade actually reissued a whole bunch of Ian Gillan's solo albums to which I never picked up.  After leaving Deep Purple, Gillan went more toward a rock fusion sound which confronted and alienated the DP fans.  Martin Popoff didn't care much for them either but i do find the album Scarabus highly entertaining.

4.  All Over The Radio-Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers 2011
5.  Good Intentions-Rich Hopkins & Luminarios 2010

A tale of two bands that a part of Arizona rock history.  Roger Clyne was once part of The Refreshments, who made two albums for Mercury/Universal and then imploded and Roger took the drummer and formed The Peacemakers, a band that had a revolving door of whos who in the Arizona music biz, former Gin Blossoms, Dead Hot Workshop and Gloritone guys came and gone  Hopkins on the other hand had Tucson's Sidewinders who made a couple albums for Mammoth/RCA and had to change their name due to a lawsuit from some top 40 bar band in North Carolina and they became the Sand Rubies.  Between Sand Rubies reunions he's been in Luminarios which has been recording albums for about 20 years, some good, some uneven.  Great guitarist but his vocals are somewhat lacking.   The last Sand Rubies album was spotty at best but the recent Luminarios album he retains Bruce Halper on drums and comes up with perhaps his best album in years with  el otro lado/the other side, an album I didn't know existed till I've seen a copy at Zia's in Tucson.  Worth a listen if you come across a copy but you probably don't since Hopkins' stuff is pretty much found in Arizona stores only it seems.

Clyne seems to be holding his own although I haven't paid much attention to his last couple albums due to that GD digipak from the inside packaging which is a bitch to open while driving and his new album seems a bit lacking in spots but All Over The Radio would sound great on the radio if Cumulus would open up their GD playlist.  Unida Cantina features a new guitar player in Jim Dalton and Roger Clyne still sounding a bit like Elvis Costello leading The Gin Bunnies at times.  But then again I'm not much into Costello and Unida Cantina is okay at best.  But hey I did get Clyne's autograph on this CD.  That accounts for something.

6.  Throw The Chains Away-REO Speedwagon 1974  Perhaps the biggest find was the REO Speedwagon CD's found at Zia's Speedway in Tucson.  The 1977 REO album with Kevin Cronin was a start in the right direction but 1974's Lost In A Dream was showing the band was spinning their wheels and although Riding The Storm Out was good, the next two featuring Micheal Murphy (no relation to the guy who gave us Wildfire) were boring but Throw The Chains Away is actually quite hard rocking despite itself.  Time hasn't been too kind to Lost In A Dream but it still is a step up from the twice more boring This Time We Really Mean It, to which they never did mean it.

7.  Never Saw The Point-Cults 2011  Like I said, radio sucked down there and most of the music stores didn't play anything that grabbed my attention till I heard this album from Cults, one of those band with a influence by Jesus And Mary Chain but also they have a profound liking of 60's girl groups and Phil Spector production.  The Primitives figure as well.  They're kinda throwback to shoegazer music like Yuck was to My Bloody Valentine but I also think Cults owe a lot to The Ravonettes too.  Is it worth your time?  I'm guessing, buzz band now, dollar bins the next year.  That's the way the record industry is anymore.

8.  Ah Ha-Under The Influence Of Giants 2006  One of those 5 for 5 dollar cds that I needed but in order to pick this up, I had to pick up four others or play the full five, so I basically picked up four other pieces of crap (Peter Case-Six Pack Of Love, something from Garageland that sucked and BoDeans to which a BMG copy so I donated them all) in order to buy this record to which I got for a dollar a few years ago at Hastings but the CD was scratched to hell so that got returned.  Anyway, this band only made one album for Island but the lead singer does those Michael Jackson's hee hee noises and this song was pretty good.  Worth a dollar if you have a dollar to waste.

9.  Hobo Holiday  (Two Dollars)- Naked Trucker and T Bones 2006 Out of the five cds that I got to get UTIOG's the other keeper was this comedy farce from The Naked Trucker and some dude named T Bones and I guess they were country's answer to Tenacious D, the Jack Black parody band.  They made a couple shows for Comedy Central but dammed if I ever seen any of them. Nevertheless the source point song has to be Eddie Rabbit's Two Dollars In The Jukebox to which T Bones changed it to two dollars and a hand job, kind of reminds me of the Eddie Vespa song of Letter To My Ex Wife.  The highlight of Live At The Troubadour which made the album a keeper and not donated back to the Goodwill.  But then again I'm sure the CD's donated back may have been melted down from the Arizona heat.

10.  Dead Flowers-New Riders Of The Purple Sage 1974  Finally, Sony Legacy has finally decided to give the world the version of the Rolling Stones cover from Home Home On The Road on one of those thrown together comps called Set List.  Would have better had Home Home been reissued as a straight issue but I guess there were no takers, some of the live stuff got reissued on the revamped Best of New Riders CD.  The big bonus was the inclusion of some 1971 livedates at the Fillmore, although poorly recorded and to me not as good although the reason why it was issued was Jerry Garcia played on those dates. 

As they say buyer beware....