Top Ten Of The Week-August In April

Feels like we went into Summer way things have been going around here.  85 on Saturday in Iowa?  Global warming baby!

Getting busy at work so haven't had much time to listen to tunes but we'll do our best to entertain you with 10 more shots to the dome.

1.  Life's Been Good-Joe Walsh 1978  I have a mansion forget the price, ain't never been there they tell me it's nice.  My brother hates this song with good reason, they play all the time on classic rock radio, like that's the only thing Joe Walsh ever recorded.  So why did I add this overplayed classic to the top ten?  Sounded like a nice track to lead off another top ten.  You're welcome.

2.  Pendulum-Lowen & Navarro 1995  Mark Lowen lost his battle with Lou Gehrig's Disease on March 23. He was 60.  Lowen and Navarro was one of the finer folk rock acts that came out in the 90s and all their Mercury albums have some classic tracks to them.  Even back then on this title track they were singing about the dark side of things and death but keeping a positive spin on things.  Didn't know much about them till I picked up some of their cds at the pawnshop for 3 dollars and then became a fan afterwards.

3.  I Wouldn't Give You Up-Ecstasy, Passion & Pain 1974  I was going to do a top ten by picking certain tracks off a forgotten Greatest Hits album called Heavy Hits which was the That's What I Call Music of that era.  Some great R and B tracks, couple great rock and roll number and then there's Once You Understand by Think, one of the most Godawful tracks of the 70s.  This got some airplay on the Chicago radio stations but don't think KCRG or KLWW ever played this.  Pretty good soul song with that famous MFSB backing band which features Earl Young on drums, or that's how it sounds to me.  Alas, it was released not on Philadelphia International nor Atlantic but Roulette Records which was coming to an end of a era due to some shady folks running that label.

4. Sour Times-Portishead 1994  Got this at the Springville Junk Shop (CDs for 2 dollars) and I didn't check them very well, this is scratched beyond repair but plays like new.  A MTV buzz bin classic, Portishead isn't for everybody but it does set the mood quite well for me.

5.  The Pusher-Nina Simone 1971 But it came out in 1974 on It Is Finished and Nina Simone covers the old Steppenwolf classic with a fire and brimstone.  GD the pusherman indeed.  Sometimes I think this version trumps Steppenwolf but then again Nina Simone was a original who dictated by her own rules.  She would move on to CTI for one album and then Elektra 15 years later but by then her voice was shot.  She could do anything, Tin Pin Alley, rock, blues, jazz, torch ballads even Hall and Oates.

6.  Do The Do-Howlin Wolf 1971   I was reading through the reviews at Amazon between the difference between the London Howlin Wolf Sessions and the infamous and reissued This Is Howlin Wolf's New Album, He Doesn't Like It and basically Chester Burnett aka H.Wolf hated the latter and with good reason.  What makes The London Sessions classic was that he had Eric Clapton playing guitar and having the Rolling Stones rhythm section Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts play on this.  Whereas This Is Howlin Wolf's Hated Album had a bad guitar player who sounds as if he just got himself a new wah wah petal and the rhythm section a bad version of Rotary Connection.  Marshall Chess didn't do Howlin Wolf any favors at that time even though Wolf was coming to an end of his music career.  Get On Down Records reissued the bad album last year and this year reissued Message To The Young, which also didn't garner good reviews either but it is in print for those who are interested to see a label try new ideas on their old bluesman and ended up with disastrous results.  For further disasters, Muddy Waters Electric Mud!

7.  Somebody Put Something In My Drink-Ramones 1986  Losing themselves in a bad Jean Beanvoir mix, Animal Boy was an album that Johnny Ramone didn't like, good songs, bad recording and he's got a point.  Perhaps getting the Plasmatics mohawk haired black bass player to produce would translate into better record sales.  Somebody thought  wrong on that.

8.  Wild East-Ian Hunter 1979  With Mick Ronson helping out, Ian Hunter still continued to make great albums and this track comes from his Chrysalis debut You're Never Alone With a Schizophrenic.  He also borrowed a few of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band as his band.  If you can afford it, buy the 30th Anniversary Edition   which gives you a second cd of live performances of his 1979 tour.  Martin Briley (Salt In My Tears) and Eric Parker (later of John Hall Band) was his rhythm section, which was also featured on the 1980 Welcome To The Club 2 record live double.

9.  Wabash Cannon Ball-Roy Acuff 1951  This is country music folks.  Whatever is on KHAK isn't.  Got it?  Class dismissed.

10.  Tell Mama-Savoy Brown 1988  In music history, it's hard to believe that Kim Simmons outlasted Foghat although Roger Earl has kept that band going after the untimely death of Lonesome Dave in 2000 and Rod Price 5 years later, but Kim Simmons has been the one remaining original member left after all these years.  He even recorded a new album a few months ago but Savoy Brown has more blues based than the boogie sonics of Foghat.   This was a top forty hit in 1971 but 16 years down the road, Simmons reconnected with Dave Walker and they put out 2 albums on GNP Crescendo in the late 80s.  Walker has always been my favorite of all Savoy Brown vocalists but on Make Me Sweat, he even covers a Chris Youlden song. The album is a fun boogie romp although some of side 2, the last couple songs are a bad attempt to sell themselves as pop rock.  But hey I found the vinyl album for a dollar and for a latter day Savoy Brown, it'll got me rockin and rolling, even on the remakes.  But the reunion wouldn't last too long, Walker would leave in 1989  and Simmons since then has relied on his name and good sidemen to keep it going.  And you can't blame him for that.

Three months after this posting, temps got up to 100 degrees on July 6, 2012.  And I noticed this blog has been getting more views than the latest top ten. And so it goes.