Another record breaking month of views and to celebrate it, we give you another Top Ten Of The Week!
Watta Guy!
I spent the day in Davenport, going through crates of records at the Salvation Army and of course down to Ragged Records for more 45s a couple out of print CDs. Bob at Ragged knows how to price and what sells although the two Vandenberg CD's were over 15 dollars, he still had the first album at 9 dollars used. Ragged continues to solve my 45 puzzle with 2 more singles from my youth that are in better condition than my old copies. Those got played to the point that the grooves were gone. Then it was off to Co Op in Moline to where I found a couple of out of print CDs. Most of the day I was fighting such a frigging headache and the car didn't have working AC so I'm surprised I survived the trip. Didn't see a need to go to FYE or Books A Million this trip.
With RAGBRAI over and July done, we're now in the final months of summer and county fairs with the Iowa State Fair in a couple weeks. Still plan to do a couple more out and abouts to these events (Styx is at Bremer County Fair Thursday) and maybe a return to Iowa City for more scouring of the scratchy black circles we call 45s before the college kids return and fuck things up down there. And of course the big event. Coming soon. Stay tuned..
1. Never Been In Love-Randy Meisner 1982 For a guy who played in both Poco and The Eagles Meisner still remains anonymous even though he had a couple hits off One More Song and this failed top forty for Epic in the 80s. Nobody really cares anymore since the Salvation Army in Moline had this single there the past 4 months begging me to pick it up for a good home. For the S/T 1982 album Meisner employed the guys from Heart plus Denny Carmissi on drums and Ann And Nancy Wilson doing backup. In a perfect world this song would still be played on classic rock radio but since the triple C's Corporation won't approve it you won't hear it. And yes the 45 has a edit to it so you don't hear the last minute and half of the song. Which may have been the reason why I quit buying 45s (new) at around 1985. But now do if the used 7 inch black circle is still in playable shape.
2. Jack The Ripper-Link Wray 1961 Punk rock in the early 60s, this song was so ahead of the times that it wouldn't be release till 1963 on the old Swan label, to which I found the 45 at the Moline Salvation Army. This copy is basically a reference copy, meaning it's been played so many times before and it's in bad shape but heck I've never seen anything from Link Wray anywhere. Rest assured that Rhino put both this song and The Black Widow, the b side on the Best Of Link Wray Rumble collection. Back when Rhino put together great comps and not the rehashed crap they're famous for nowadays. Back in the 60s, there were 3 great guitar players that rocked. Duane Eddy, the nice guy, Dick Dale, the surfing wildman and then there's Link Wray, bad all the way. Later The Raybeats took a crack at it and just about upstaged the original. Which is saying a lot.
3. Money-Pink Floyd 1973 Overplayed? Yes! But I was going through the archive and came across a freebie CD that came with the 500th edition of Rolling Stone of some hits of the classic rock era and Norah Jones on a Super Audio CD and somehow Rolling Stone got Pink Floyd to contribute a track to this. I have no use for Dark Side Of The Moon, it's not one of my favorite albums and classic rock radio plays the majority of the stuff off that album on the radio too. But I give Alan Parsons a lot of credit of the sound collage of all that change and cash registers in between both speakers and Dick Parry and David Gilmour duking it out on the instrumental break still is worth the price of admission.
4. Let That Liar Alone-Golden Gate Quartet 1938 Another oddball find was a Bluebird overview of a forgotten Gospel group that recorded for Bluebird/Victor in the late 30's. If you go by what Billy Altman was singing that perhaps that the GGQ may have pioneered rap music but then again, you have to include Cab Calloway, Louis Jordan, Louis Armstrong for that type of scat talk. The Nylons, I think got their inspiration from the Golden Gaters in the way they used their vocals for no music instruments. Later on Ray Charles would change the words of this song for the secular Leave My Woman Alone (later done by the Everly Brothers and Dave Edmunds).
5. Gravity-Soul Asylum 2012 New Soul Asylum are they still around you ask? Sure are and they made their best album in years with Delayed Reaction. It has a Replacements type of vibe to it, maybe Tommy Stinson playing bass has something to do with it. Dave Pirner at times gets a little lax and sometimes their albums go all over the map but I like their new album.
6. Relentless-DLR Band 1998. Say what you want about Diamond David Lee Roth but the guy is a total showman, even though sometimes his albums go over the map like Soul Asylum. Eat Them And Smile got my nod over 5150 as the best album in the David Lee Vs Van Hagar era although 5150 turned out to be the best of the Van Hagar era. Didn't pay much attention to the rest of Warner/Reprise DLR era and the two tracks he added on the Best Of Van Halen album were filler. But in 1998, he quietly got some guys together to make the DLR Band aka Betty Page album and for the most part much of the album rocked. This got some airplay in 98 on Rock 108 and it turned out that it kicked both Van Halen 3 and the Sammy Hagar Mas Tequlia album's can. Nobody talks about the DLR Band album all that much and I found a copy of it for a dollar at the pawnshop. Stirred up some memories it did.
7. Caravan-Inspiral Carpets 1991 A forgotten band on the Madchester music scene, The Carpets paled in comparison with The Charlatans UK, Stone Roses, Dylans, Happy Mondays but they had a sound of their own in a cheesy Vox like organ that kinda reminded one of a spaced out Doors. For the most part their albums really didn't stand out, Life was their best, Devil Hopping their worst and The Beast Inside featuring this song was somewhere in the middle. Haven't heard the Revenge Of The Goldfish although I'm sure it's out there in the cheap bins should I decide to hunt for it. The sound is dated but it's when alternative was alternative and not what passes for alternative at your local Clear Channel/Cumulus station. Teenagers today don't have a clue who the Inspiral Carpets are....come to think of it most of y'all out there probably don't either. One of those dollar finds at Pawn America during the Madison grab bag hunt.
8. The World Ain't Changed-Warden & The Fugitives 1965 In the garage punk world of the 60s, bands were grouped into three groups. One was the Nuggets Group, a collection of semi famous people playing in bands before they went on to bigger and better things. Originally it was a 2 record set on Elektra (later Sire) before Rhino reissued it as a big 4 CD box set. The second group was the Pebbles bands, lesser known bands with regional hits to which AIP did their own box set of music. The third and final group was Teenage Shutdown, a German label that managed to collect the most unknown of garage bands on a series of CDs that could be found at the local Half Priced Book Store in your area. Most of these bands only managed to make one or two 45s before getting real jobs but in some ways these recordings are more rawer and unpolished than either the Nuggets or Pebbles groups. Little is known about this band although most of the melody and delivery of the words reminds me of a rewrite of I Can't Get No Satisfaction by The Stones.
9. Let There Be Music-Orleans 1975 Larry Hoppen died last week, he was the voice of Orleans and even though I have tired of hearing Dance With Me or Still The One, I usually end up playing this song if I want to hear Orleans. Didn't like their 1979 Love Takes Time for Infinity/MCA but I did enjoy One In A Million which came out on the ill-fated Radio Records in 1982 The forty five version takes most of the guitar lead out. Which is why I stopped buying singles for a while.
10. Dedicated To You But You Weren't Listening-The Soft Machine 1969 From the second album and I guess this is where Prog Rock started, either that or In The Court Of The Crimson King by rivals King Crimson. I can see why fans are taken by Robert Wyatt, probably one of the best cult artists out there. Hugh Hopper replaces Kevin Ayers on this one. Rumor has it that Frank Zappa's Absolutely Free played a big role in the sound of this album. Originally on Probe (an Command/ABC offshoot label) and came out on One Way in the 90s now finds a new home on Sundazed. Maybe I'll chance it on the first album. Or maybe the third when The Soft Machine retooled their sound into a more jazz fusion. Or maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.
Throwing Five More Into The Fray:
Sweets For My Sweet-The Drifters 1960
Against The Grain-Shadowfax 1988
The Midnight Special-Harry Belafonte 1962
Candy Man Blues-Little Feat 2012
Sweet Emotion-Aerosmith 1975
The magic number: 2,235
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