Top Ten Of The Week-So Long Momma Schminkey

Presenting our 100th post for this year.

Of behalf of myself, and The Townedgers,  we give a final salute and farewell to Evelyn Schminkey.  Once upon a time when I was playing in the Open Highway Band, later Paraphernalia, Duwayne's mom and dad would let us practice over at their house for most of 1982 and got to see us play at the old Pink Elephant in Cedar Rapids.  She always called the band "my boys" and was a wonderful lady.  She passed away today at age 78.  On behalf of myself, Martin Daniels, Jack Orbit, Geoff Redding and Mark Glarington we say thank you Momma Schminkey and will miss you from the bottom of our hearts.

https://www.murdochfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Evelyn-Schminkey-Meyer-32474/#!/Obituary

School starts in another week so perhaps if another bargain hunt planned for Iowa City, we should consider hitting there before the students get back?  Working the weekend has zapped a lot of energy out of me and basically haven't felt that inclined to go there.  Steve Earle might be a reason to go there since he's in town.

In the meantime this top ten showcases more obscure stuff and vinyl bought at Davenport/Moline.  I was bidding on a Searchers 45 but got outbid by the owner of said disc.  If that's the case, fuck him, don't need it since I have it on CD.

1.  Eighties-Killing Joke 1985  The band has been quiet since Jaz Coleman's conniption and meltdown of how The Mission and The Cult suck and haven't made anything worth a shit and then Coleman disappeared. No word of where he went but maybe Iceland has something to do with it?  A shame really since their latest album is quite good and continues the winning streak that KJ has been on since reforming in the 1990s.  This is their best known song of the 80s to which Kurt Cobain used the baseline for Come As You Are.  Dave Ghorl repayed the debt by playing on the S/T 2003 album.

2.  Hey Babe, Have You Been Cheatin'-Eric Andersen 1977  From Best Songs, a album that I found at Moline Salvation Army in pretty good shape considering that most albums that they do have there are scratched, thrown across the room and stepped on a few times.  Nobody gives records respect anymore.  Best known for Blue River, this best of actually takes 2 tracks off that album as well as a couple cuts from his Arista period and some live remakes of his Vanguard stuff.  Andersen tends to be too laid back for my liking at times but this lively country number shows he can step it up a notch.

3.  Burning Heart-Vandenberg  1983  Excellent guitar player but most of his albums were hair metal with a nod toward Judas Priest vocalwise.  But in the early 80s Adrian Vandenberg hit top 30 with this rock ballad which is one of the better hair metal ballads that never made any of those Razor & Tie Monster Ballads collections.  Of course the 45 cuts out half the guitar solo so had to go find the album which was a chore upon itself.   Still gets airplay on the real rock station.

4.  I'm With The Wrong One-George Jones & Jeanette Hicks 1957  The B Side to Yearning and recorded for Starday but later showed up on a cheap Mercury/Wing loss leader Country Boys & Country Girls. This is pure hillbilly music that you will not hear on country radio.  Time Life later put together a 40 Years Of Duets of George Jones and special guests, most featured Tammy Wynette and Melba Montgomery and worth your time if you should come across it in the cut out bins at your fast disappearing record store. Yearnin' can be heard, The Wrong One not much so.  One of those rare what is he talking about selections that I'm good for.

5.  Heat In The Street-Axe 1983  Best known for Rock N Roll Party In The Streets, this was the followup single and failed to capture the ears and hearts of America.  Started out making a album or two for the crap Curb label, then got rid of Mike Curb and started to rock out hard on their two Atco albums. While Offering was the better seller, Nemesis was better put together and had help from the guitarist from Blackfoot on a couple selections.  But this album made a bee line to the cutouts within 6 months.  Mike Osborne was killed in a car accident a year later.  Barth later made the uninteresting Two Hearts One Beat in 1986 and reformed Axe for a brief spell in the 90s.

6.  Solitary Man-T.G.Sheppard  1976  Never cared for his Warner Brothers albums since he sang mostly about cheating and loving cheaters but once upon a time he was one of the newbies that formed Melodyland/Hitsville, Barry Gordy's move into the country field, which basically had stars past their prime (Dorsey Burnette, Pat Boone) or oddball Ray Stevens type of corn porm (Jud Struck's Biggest Parakeets In Town).  Sheppard was the biggest seller for the Motown country  scoring hits with Lovin On (1977), Motels And Memories (1975) and this cover of Neil Diamond's song.  You really cannot fuck this song up, I heard great versions from The Sidewinders and the man himself.   The B side Pigskin Charade is just plain dumb as it uses cheating as football jargon.   Sheppard would top the charts with the I Loved Them All for the WB.  In other words, more cheating songs.....

7.  The Party Starts Now-Manitoba's Wild Kingdom 1990  Handsome Dick Manitoba used to hang out with The Dictators who made a few albums for Epic and Asylum but then this made this bargain bin classic for a MCA offshoot label called Popular Metaphysics (started by Sandy Pearlman of BOC production fame), home to another forgotten band called World  Entertainment War or something to that effect, they sounded somewhat like a Guerrilla Information Society.  I think I used a couple of their skits on the 1995 project called Underground Radio, which was hour long cassettes peppered with commercials and odd bits.   Nevertheless, Daniel Rey played guitar, left and then was replaced by Ross The Boss to which they actually became the Dictators again.  Andy Sheroff produced this and it fits in well with the Dictators sound.  American Beat reissued the CD in around 2008.

8.  Reruns-Chicago 1979  Been a while since I posted a Chicago song.  Taken off the forgotten 13 album.  Some fans and critics don't like that album but I always have although Phil Ramone's production never fit the Chicago sound quite well as James Guercio.   Less said about David Foster the better.

9.  Footsi Footsi-Wir(e)  1991  Robert Gotobed sat that album out so the guys in Wire renamed themselves Wir and made The First Letter for Mute/Elektra in 1991 which didn't sell and left many a fan scratching their head but actually I found this to be more listenable than Manscape or the unbearable Drill CD, The First letter isn't a total waste. KRUI played this a few times on the alternative Saturday Night show they used to have back in the early 90s.  Since the record didn't sell Wir was retired for another 10 years before Gotobed returned and Wire made a comeback album of sorts with Send. And still around although Bruce Gilbert left in 2004 and was replaced by Margaret Field.  Their last album sounded a bit like Roxy Music although I never did buy it.

10.  The Entertainer-Marvin Hamlisch  1974  And we end the top ten with another tribute to a legend who has left us.  Marvin Hamlisch is one of the all time best composer of movies and music has passed away at age 68.  Always seems that when we do a top ten at least one song is shared about the memory of a musician who passed on to the next world.  One of my favorite forty fives of the 1970s, everybody knows it was used in The Sting, which was adapted from Scott Joplin, one of the earliest musicians of the 1900s.  With the success of The Sting, there was a call for Joplin music or ragtime. Hamlisch also wrote The Way We Were which was a big hit for Barbara Streisand in 1974 as well.  Hamlisch continued to work on plays and movies up till his passing.  He was slated to work on something about Liberace.  The plus side The Entertainer, Marvin introduced us to Scott Joplin's works, on the down side, the song is used for ice cream trucks that drive through town.  Guess ya gotta take the good with the bad.

The next five.

Tall Cool One-The Wailers 1963
TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia)-MFSB featuring The Three Degrees 1974
Why-Robert Plant 1988
What's The Matter With You-Split Enz 1980
Rainy Night In Vancouver-Christopher Cross 1998

RIP  Stuart Swanlund.

Post Script:

I didn't make it to the Steve Earle book signing and recital of his new book or his concert afterwards, since I took last Monday off, I decided to hold off going to Iowa City till this weekend which will be just in time for the students coming back to University Of Iowa to start fall classes.

Tommy Roe plays in Dubuque later in the month so I may go see him play at the Mississippi Moon Bar.  

Arizona  this fall?  Looking more no than yes.  Stay tuned for the unexpected on this and other things that come into play.