I didn't have much time to write about Donald "Duck" Dunn, the influential bass player who played bass with Booker T and the MGs and with Al Jackson Jr formed in my opinion the best rhythm section ever, no offense to the Motown Earl Van Dyke Funk Brothers who are a hairline close second place, when Jackson and Duck were on top of their game, they couldn't be beat. Mostly famous for being part of the Blues Brothers when that came out, Dunn played just about everything for anybody.
While I was gone, Donna Summer passed away from lung cancer not related to smoking at age 63. She was the Queen of disco and in the 70s was heard on top forty radio but I never liked her Love To Love You Baby to which was the long 15 minute version of grunts and groans, kinda like the female answer to Barry White. Still don't like it today but my favorite Donna Summer song was the euro Kraftwerk like I Feel Love to which Giorgio Moroder the guy who gave us Son Of My Father shaped her up in a barrage of keyboards and actually made disco sound cool and kraut rock as well. 1979 Bad Girls, the album is her disco classic album which was her most rocking album. With Casablanca failing, she became one of the flagship artist signed to the newly formed Geffen Records with The Wanderer which was euro pop cool and 1983 hit number one with She Works Hard For The Money which still gets played regularly on radio. And 1988 her last top ten was the Stock/Aiken/Waterman produced This Time I Know It's For Real for Atlantic. But she really did go away, releasing albums up to Crayons a 2008 album for Epic. One of a kind it's been noted that I Feel Love may have been the pioneering single that started Electronica .
It's odd that 10 years ago we were bitching about the radio and how it sucked back then. The Telecom Act of 1996 the blame on this same old same old dead air waves and even though Sirius/XM radio was supposed to a return to the good old day, whatever station Pete's Place was playing showed that that station was no different than Fart 100.3. er Fresh 100.3, Detroit's answer to KDAT. Best variety seems to the same old shit tunes but what really killed it was the continuation of Train Soul Sister and Pink's Fucking Awesome (Pretty Pretty Please) in regular rotation to the point that I ended up getting that as a earworm one night. As much as I would like to say The River was Detroit's best station although I ended up turning it once It's Been Awhile from Staind popped on. Or Matchbox 20. Guess there's no such thing as real variety anymore. The Clear Channel/Cumulus or the Triple C Mafia' playlist is lesser than the CD's that I have here. Ann Arbor had a station that I managed to listen to more than 10 minutes, they played Jack White's latest plus a couple from The White Stripes. Chicago's WLS FM had some choice oldies of note (The Last Time, Shotgun) but it would be a good two hours before the friendly sounds of home and KUNI and Bob Dorr's Backtracks become to come in when I got to the outskirts of Dixon Illinois. But in the estimation of myself, FM Radio is dead, stinking up the airwaves, like the dead animals and blown retreads all over I 94 in Michigan.
http://www.939theriverradio.com/
http://www.fresh100.com/main.html
And finally, Billy Ray Cyrus' Acky Breaky Heart was a big hit 20 years ago and still gets lots of ridicule over the years but in reality it's no different than Keep Yo Hands To Yourself by The Georgia Satellites. It's dumb but it's got the music hooks to get people out on the dancefloor and even though Billy Ray might be blamed more for Hanna Montana, there's much more dumber songs out the radio (Check out your local country station if you don't agree). Laugh all you want, but Acky Breaky Heart pays the bills for ole Billy Ray.
I'm sure in the future a trip to Iowa City will be in the works but for now, I need to clear space and try to get the house in order before the invasion of earwigs return. After all, it's almost June.
The Encore CD's of note:
Roxy
Waylon Jennings-Waymore's Blues (Part 2)
Don Gibson-Look Who's Blue
Status Quo-Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon
Jerry Lee Lewis-Live At The Star Club Hamburg
Jimmy Webb-El Mirage
Hugo Montengero-Music From The Good The Bad And The Ugly
45's
El Diablo-ZZ Top (London 252)
Superman-The Kinks (Arista AS-409)
The Who-Join Together/Baby Don't You Do It (Decca 32983)
How Blue Can You Get-B B King (ABC-Paramount 10527)
PS. You may have noticed a slight chance here as I have been adding pictures of note, trying to sweeten up the site and in an attempt to get more readership here. I don't think it will add much more or not but we never know. As always comments are welcome and considered. Just don't ask me to review anything from Sheryl Crow or Carrie (Quit yelling at me dammit) Underwood.
Oh and read this about zombie stars from the dead from Chet Flippo. You'll love it. http://www.cmt.com/news/nashville-skyline/1685344/nashville-skyline-how-elvis-presley-and-other-superstars-became-zombies.jhtml
More 4.99 specials from Wally World/Best Buy
Led Zeppelin-Coda
Allman Brothers-Idlewind South
Judas Priest-Stained Class
Van Halen-Diver Down.
2 comments:
Glad to have ya back, Crabb!
The pics definitely does brighten up your blog a quite a bit. I can guarantee an uplift in your viewership a little through mostly Google searches for imagines. I've stumbled across a few of mine during my searches.
Sorry to hear about Nicole going back home, wish there was another way my friend...
Thanks for the welcome back Drew. I really didn't go anywhere on vacation it was just that we didn't have internet.
I think adding more pictorial stuff might help enhance the site. It's still a work in progress I haven't seen much in terms of higher ratings but I think having photos or links does a better job of trying to figure out what I'm saying or what I'm into or not. It's a tough job but somebody has to do it. ;)
Post a Comment