Top Ten Of The Week-Gateway To Summer

Back into the routine once again.  The rainy season hasn't really happened.  Usually at this point we get monsoons and thunderstorms and floods and of course last year was Joplin getting almost wiped off the face of the earth and 4 years ago was Parkersburg almost getting wiped off by a monster tornado and of course the football coach getting murdered by a deranged dumbass with roid rage.  The kids who had to deal with that are graduating from there and TV 9 had a nice report on them.

And people continue to die.  Robin Gibb finally crossed over Sunday at age 62 from cancer complications.  And it appears that Black Sabbath and Bill Ward will never play together again.

Mick Jagger actually did a great appearance on Saturday Night Live, the overblown warhorse dinosaur unfunny comedy show that Lorne Micheals will not retire and Kristian Wiig moving on to other things.  But Mick did tear it up with The Arcade Fire on The Last Time and The Foo Fighters on a Stones Medley.  And then doing a bash of Mittens Romney on Tea Party with Jeff Beck playing guitar.  Jagger ended the SNL season on a high note, despite the usual unfunny sketches that tends to make Saturday Night Live a burden to sit through.

Getting back to the weather, it's been a beautiful bunch of days of lots of rain and hardly any rain, which makes the rainy season a dry season here in Iowa.  Not even a thunderstorm warning most of the month, very strange indeed.  But then again it's been a very strange month indeed.  Even to a point that I was helping somebody with planting flowers.  Never did that before and doubt if I'll ever do that again.  I'm not a green thumb, unless it's mowing the yard.  The official start of summer begins with Memorial Day Weekend and maybe I'll go catch a movie or concert or hitting the walking trails since the ticks are out at Matsell's.

Final thoughts on Ann Arbor:  although they had Encore Records due to time restrictions and getting back home I didn't check out P J's Records nor Wazoo Records.  Otherwise I still be there.  And I didn't get a chance to try any food joints outside grabbing a couple dollar pizza slices and a big gulp at the 7-11 and chatting with the friendly but hurried lady up at the counter.  With temps in the high 80s I seem the be the big fool still wearing a jacket but for the most part the second go around at Ann Arbor, the people were a bit more friendly and not as oddball the last time I was there and this was on a Saturday.   In terms of record stores, Madison remains the place to go but if I had more time to check Ann Arbor out, I may have stumbled upon a few pawnshops with cheaper music than Encore.  Anyway, I came across an old article about Encore which is worth reading if you have the time.  http://www.michigandaily.com/content/local-record-stores-lede

I had a special guest line up to do this week's top ten but at the last minute he dropped out and couldn't do it and the list that was given to me really didn't fit my needs unless you're into the Don't Yell At Me singers we now call the Carrie Underwoods, Jessie J, Fantasia and other screamers of the chorus.   So you'll get some new things from me.  After all this is what I do best, I find them and play them and then broadcast them to you.  Brought to you by Faygo Pop.

Let go my Faygo!

1.   Baby Don't You Do It-The Who 1972   I think I added The Band's version of this song earlier in the month and really don't see a need to check back if I did but since MCA or Geffen or whatever Universal puts this stuff out on CD won't issue it on CD, I had to locate a better 45 copy then the scratched up one that I had.   With Keith Moon bashing cymbals left and right, this comes from aborted followup to Live At Leeds and I would have bought the album anyway.  Humble Pie actually did a version similar to this on their On To Victory album in 1980.

2.   What A Crying Shame-The Mavericks 1994   From a collection of CDs left behind from the Michigan move I was absolutely amazed on how great this album actually is.  I am not a big Mavericks fan, thought they were overrated but this album and the title track showcase how good a vocalist Raul Malo really is.  And produced to great effect by Don Cook who at that time was the go to producer.  I like Malo better when he's doing Dwight more than the Roy Orbinson that he does later on but I can see why this album went gold back in 94.  They never did top this album.  Sometimes 99.3 will play What A Crying Shame, not sure about KHAK nor KISS 96.5 but then again I don't listen to neither one.

3.  Tightrope-Chaser  1977   A strange little number from England.  Came out on Harvest over there but over here Capitol stuck it on the soul division side of things.  And I don't think these guys were black but they did come from the UK and got this song produced by Tony Clarke of the Moody Blues fame.  As far as I know the only single Capitol issued for Chaser although Harvest put out a few more singles.


 4.  Knock Knock-The Humane Society 1966  Another free form freakout from the garages of long ago and far away and is on the Nuggets box set from Rhino.  Kinda reminds me of Them with Van Morrison.  Actually I didn't know I had this till somebody posted it as a lost hit of the 60s.  Came out on Liberty years ago, the other side was a version of Tip Toe Through The Tulips (done by Tiny Tim) which flopped as a hit. Their next single for New World, called Lorna  also flopped but the B side Eternal Prison  was another slab of punk garage fun.  As far I know, The Humane Society has the distinction of having both A sides ignored and the B sides being preserved on You Tube.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcoyH_iOMJo

5.  Wild Ones-Waylon Jennings 1994  Waylon returned to RCA for a one off album produced with Don Was and filled with guest stars and superstar session players (Kenny Aronoff, Benmont Tench).  Waymore Blues Part 2 it's called and it bombed and Waylon moved on to Justice, Ark 21 and Lucky Dog/Epic before dying in 2002.  I think it's his best album of the 90s but by then country music passed him by.

6.  El Diablo-Z Z Top  1976   Well ya know radio will play the hell out of La Grange, Tush and Gimme All Your Lovin but they will not touch anything off Tejas which may be the most underrated ZZ Top album of them all.  Warner Brothers did them no favors on re recording the drums tracks in the 80s but if you hear the original 1976 London drum mix, you get this spooky dry drum sound that reminds one of the wild west and the hombres that used to roam them.  If a classic rock station played more Tejas stuff I would be listening to them more often although I have to give The FOX credit of playing more obscure stuff on the weekends.  I think they played It's Only Love one time which floored me.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbTEaboup60

7.  Almost Cut My Hair-Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young  1970  Fucking hippies anyway.  Bob Dorr played this on Backtracks last weekend on the way home from Michigan.

8.  Green Onions-Roy Buchanan  1976   In trying to come up with the perfect tribute to Donald Duck Dunn, I had plenty of songs to choose from and of course there's a hitting live version featuring the MG's Live in Europe in 1967  but I decided to go with this boogie jam featuring the late great Roy dueling it out with Steve Cropper on guitar, Roy being the more wilder soloist.  David Galbardi, the former Tower Of Power drummer provides the beat.  Actually got to meet Galbardi at a drum clinic back in 1988 and the guy was terrific to talk to about drum techniques.  Alas, that same year Buchanan would get picked up for being drunk and put in a holding cell and ended up hanging himself.   A sad ending to a underrated guitarist who could kick major buns with his playing.

9.  Life Is A Highway-Chris LeDoux  1998  Nevermind Tom Cochrane or Rascal Flatts, LeDoux's version remains the best version out there.  It actually rocks harder than both versions to which gets lots of airplay on the CCC radio airwaves (The CCC stands for Clear Channel/Cumulus Monopoly).  Rest assured when you play this version somewhere out in the stars the old cowboy is grinning from ear to ear.  I miss Chris LeDoux.

10.  Don't Think Twice It's All Right-Bob Dylan  1963  With my mind and the top ten stuck between the 70s and the 90s I thought I would throw another chestnut folk classic from the 60s with the summary of the past week and all the things in life we go through.  It's feels very surreal after coming home and driving down US 52 somewhere in Illinois and thinking where the road leads till I got to Savannah and crossed the Mississippi to which like an old friend greeted me.  And the Wapsipinicon  which I drive next to on a gravel road.  I love Bob Dylan music more than y'all do, even Self portrait has some value to me (unlike you).  This song is my thoughts.

And so it goes.

Bubbling under:
Please Call Home-Allman Brothers Band 1970
Spinning Wheel Blues-Status Quo-1969
You Won't Have Buck To Kick Around No More-Buck Owens 1972
Two Heads-Jefferson Airplane 1969
How Blue Can You Get-B B King 1961

And a final thought.  You can't always get what you want, but if you try some time you just might find  that you get what you need.

Right?

 http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/158827-the-top-10-overplayed-songs-you-hate-by-artists-you-love/

Blame your CCC owned radio station for this.

http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/news/now-tabloid-blames-rock-for-teen-sex-and-drugs-issues/

Parody, myth or truth?  You Decide!