Top Ten Of The Week-Get It While You Can

It's been a very tough year for the music world.  I'm not sure that if today's artists might have the same impact as the ones back then, I'm sure they'll be mention in a obit somewhere.  Once again I'm forced to relay the news that we lost two more icons of the music world to me but not to the major record companies or Cumulus Radio. I'm sure they never new a Howard Tate or Hubert Sumlin.  Sumlin was one of the best blues guitarist out there and if you heard Howlin Wolf on any of his 60's output you would have heard Sumlin's stinging guitar leads.  After Howlin Wolf passed away in 1976 Sumlin went on to a successful blues career before passing away at age 80.

Howard Tate is the lesser known but in no way less significant.  In fact he made some great singles for Verve in the 1960s and then moved on to Turntable and later Atlantic before disappearing.  When Mercury put out The Best Of Howard Tate-Get It While You Can, the liner notes that Tate vanished and wasn't to be found and thought to be dead but in reality he was still alive and serving the Lord as a Preacher in around Philadelphia.  Eventually, word got out and Tate was rediscovered once again, making a album called Rediscovered for Private Records that reunited him with Jerry Ragavoy (who also passed away earlier this year) who produced and wrote the majority of that album.  Tate would record twice as many albums as he did back in the past, making a decent live album for Shout Factory and two other albums before passing away from leukemia at age 72, getting a second chance to record music once again. http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2011/12/05/143141995/howard-tate-soul-singer-died-at-72

2011 is shaping up to be a year that death took away many of good musician and friends along the way this year.  It's been said that we all gotta go sometime but perhaps one would hope that they wouldn't all go at once.  I'm sure I'll be bringing that up again on my final observations of 2011.


Oh well it could be worse, you could be Limp Bizkit and Fred Durst parting ways with Interscope and Durst thinking it's all for the better.  Keep telling yourself that Fred and one day it might come true.  Gold Cobra, the comeback album for Fred and company bombed.  Hell I don't even think KRNA plays any of the Bizkit stuff including the worst version of Behind Blue Eyes ever.

Will we ever see a Limp Bizkit song on the Top Ten Of The Week?  This week you ask?

1.  How Bout That-Bad Company 1992  The forth and final album of the Brian Howe era was showing that the public was tiring of that Foreigner lite sound that Bad Company was putting out and Here Comes Trouble was the worst selling album of theirs since the horrid Fame And Fortune album of 1986.  Terry Thomas gave Bad Company some radio ready hits of the late 80s and early 90s and though this song got airplay Cumulus Radio has forbidden the rock station from playing this.  Wasn't much of a Brian Howe fan but upon further listening of his albums with Bad Company they fit the sound of the times. When mullets was the natural look and so was poofy hair.

2.  Shake For Me-Howlin' Wolf 1961  With big bad Hubert Sumlin playing that big bad lead guitar, one of the reasons why the rocking chair Wolf album was voted one of the ten all time blues albums ever.

3.  Don't Believe In Christmas-The Sonics 1966  Sorry to disappoint you folks with the bah humbug but Christmas Radio Cumulus killed off my Christmas spirit with the usual Christmas Gruel that they play.  In one hour time I heard three versions of Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, two from some coying pop tart singer, two versions of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town and a partridge in a pear tree.  Nevermind the fact that Vanessa Williams's Whitney Houstonized Do You Hear What I Hear has made any version sound like I want to throw the radio across the room, thank you and FU Cumulus.  I do have Christmas music at my disposable, I just haven't played it yet.  My mood would be more like Fear's Fuck Christmas but for now, I add this B side to Santa Claus 45 by The Sonics and this version can be found on the Bummed Out Christmas album from Rhino (which is out of print).  The Santa Claus A side is on Cool Yule (also out of print on Rhino).

4.  I Don't Mind And You Don't Matter-Face To Face 2011  Trevor Keith actually broke up this band about 8 years ago but decided the time was right for the world to hear a new Face To Face album and as a fan I always enjoyed his Southern Cal Punk Rock and Roll more than the other fast paced punk bands of that era. The only misstep that he did was the punk prog Ignorance Is Bliss and got such a backlash from it from FTF fans that he quickly recorded a followup album that was back to high speed punk pop.  If you play their 1992 Don't Turn Away and then Laugh Now, Laugh Later (the latest) back to back you won't notice much and that's a good thing.

5.  Fedora Satellite II-Pere Ubu 1993  I got them on the second coming when they regrouped in 1988 and then followed them from then on up till The Story Of My Life, the 1993 album for Indigo after one great and one so so album for Fontana.  By then Ubu was actually doing straight up alternative rock rather than the strange avant garde stuff they did for Chrysalis.  Certainly there's probably better songs to choose off Story Of My Life but for some reason this one stood out and was chosen over the other ones.

6.  Ever Since The World Began-Gary Myrick & The Figures 1980  Wounded Bird Records has done an amazing job reissuing albums from the lesser known bands of the new wave era.  I never thought I would see Combonation's 1983 Warner Brothers album make to CD before The Brains 1980 album (Perhaps Tom Gray should have recorded for somebody else but Mercury/Polygram/Universal since neither one of these entities want to reissue the album) but that's jumping the gun and I'm sure Combonation will have their very own selection on a future Top Ten.  Myrick, made two albums and a EP for Epic although his biggest claim to fame was not this great band but rather helping John Waite score a number one song with Missing You in 1983 to which Myrick would junk The Figures and try to take advantage of Missing You with a album of same like material for Geffen.  Wounded Bird not only added the complete album but 9 bonus live cuts to sweeten the deal and is worth seeking out.  Side note: drummer Jack White (no relation to The White Stripes' Jack White) would eventually marry and later divorce Katy Siegal of Futurerama  and Sons Of Anarchy fame (married with children as well).  Jack White was also a great drummer in his own way too.

7.  Good And Evil-Grand Funk Railroad 1975  B side to Bad Time and a little weird blues rocker to boot that clocks in around 7 minutes which on forty five was the rare case.  Critics of today don't understand the importance of Grand Funk of today but then again I don't understand the significance of Bon Iver and Radiohead of today either.  Or rap.  Or autotuner top forty.

8.  Bertha-The Grateful Dead 1972  For the past month or two I been trying to add a Dead song to the Top Ten but always seems like that once I got done putting out a top ten I once again would ignore them.  Not this week, in fact I went and got the 2 CD Europe 72 Part 2 CD that came out a couple weeks ago.  Best Buy had it selling for 10 dollars for 2 CDs!  A bargain.  Nevertheless if the Europe 72 version doesn't move me, then we refer the 1971 lead off from the S/T album.  Either was ya can't lose.

9.  Here We Are, Juggernaut-Coheed And Cambria 2010  Can't understand what this band is, they sound Prog Rock and the lead singer just about has Geddy Lee down for vocals.  They been on Sony Music long enough to have their own Playlist best of coming out and Wally World had it for 7 dollars.  I think it's a good overview although fans will tell me to seek out the original albums which kinda plays like a comic book.  Turn in the next album to pick up the story line or something like that.

10.  Get It While You Can-Howard Tate 2003  With Jerry Ragavoy on piano only, a bittersweet ending to the top ten since both producer/piano player and singer are now deceased.  Even back then, both of them knew that they would never pass that way again.  The 1966 single was covered by Janis Joplin and is the go to if you wanted to know how good sweet soul music could be.  The later version is for myself and a tribute to those who passed on this year.

And we'll leave it at that.