August is winding down, school is starting and Arizona is on the crosshairs of the destination of Mr. S and the Bargain Hunting Network. Since the last trip was a blur, I decided to add two more days to the trip and maybe that will get me back to the north country to hang with the folks at Kingman or Seligman and do a zen trip to Crookton Pass once again. Even with the add on fees that Allegiant is notorious for, I still managed to snag a pass and a car to once again hit into the desert for fun in the sun. By then the monsoons will be done.
With the Arizona trip a month away this will mean that St Louis is not on the map this year. By adding two more days to the vacation it may mean less time to get the hell away from Packaging, the last spot of Dante's Inferno at our workplace when they start popping up and getting busy. Hell they even yelled at somebody who got back there two days after being somewhere else for hearing headphones and listening to tunes. The crap that we have to look forward to when the rest of Lucifer's gang return from wherever they were at. Madison will still be a place of destination before the snow flies. Forthcoming bargains will be one in Dubuque and perhaps Davenport when the talented Sam Fish makes a appearance October 18. Samantha has also become the most searched person on the Crabb site, passing my namesake and the now dead Domur Ru spam site she overtook over the weekend. Strange how things take off, it was two months ago that I found her latest album in the cheap bins and talked about it and then the viewers came out. Sad to say that it doesn't translate into record sales, Sam is on the German Ruf Label and nobody seems to carry any of the albums here. But in Kansas City, Sam is like the new Bonnie Raitt but with a Stevie Ray twist on guitar. She's only going to get better.
And the hardest working musician out there is Joe Bonamassa (GD it I can't spell his last name) who not only has a new live double coming out but a new Black Country Communion (their third in as many years) album next month. And there was a live BCC album this year as well. He just recently put out a new album Racing Toward The Daylight. I like his solo stuff quite well but Black Country I just can't get into since Glenn Hughes does the majority of lead vocals and basically he one of the vocalists that I can only take one song at a time which is why he best used in the Deep Purple Third Edition.
Coming to this state: brother Leon Russell in Iowa City August 30 and the next night Tommy Roe at Dubuque the 31st.
There was a house fire in Cedar Rapids that somebody I knew had to get out. Robin Bailey was one of the little tykes that I used to watch over at the old St. Wincesalus Daycare Center way back in 1979 back when I had a stupid idea of a career in daycare. The daycare thing only lasted one summer and I got booted out for being a bad influence on the kids said the Gestapo Ruth Mund who was head of that. Time went on, I think there was a fire that gutted that daycare, hard to say but it got torn down years later. Anyway Robin is now 38 years old and has a family of four to contend with but her and her companion and the kids got out safe. http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/Six-People-Escape-Morning-Fire-in-Cedar-Rapids-166698196.html
Hell I can't picture Robin with 4 kids but then again I may have seen her from time to time going to the pawnshop since they live down there in that part of town. Which isn't exactly the safest part of town.
This week's trax
1. Shine On Brightly-Starcastle 1978 Illinois' answer to Yes, they made four albums of varying degree and quality although Citadel, the third album was beginning to show more of a pop direction than the first two albums of prog rock. And really the vocals of Terry Luttrell are a far cry than the rock screamings he did on the first REO Speedwagon album, in this band he's more a mild mannered Jon Anderson which sometimes plays it too straight. Starcastle didn't sell a ton of albums but they did hang on to the Epic Records roster up till the 1979 Real To Reel (I'm sure I got the title backasswards like I usually do but too tired to look it up). In this day and age Epic would have dropped them after the first album but back then record labels did try to nurtured and let the band developed on their own. Terry now sings with the Tons O' Fun Band. http://www.tonsofunband.com/index.html
2. Do It In The Name Of Love-Micky Dolenz & Davy Jones 1970 Bonus track from the Monkees Changes album. From what I read in review guides that Changes, the last Monkees album got bad reviews and can't figure out why that was. They lost Mike Nesmith previously after the lackluster The Monkees Present and by then the teenie boppers moved on to other teen idols, namely David Cassidy or Donny Osmond. Changes was a return to the bubblegum sound of the first two albums and Jeff Berry produced it. Legend has it that the songs were from a scrapped Andy Kim album but I liked it fine. It was released and pulled from circulation a month or two later. With one last shot Micky and Davy recorded this fine but failed forgotten power pop song with nice harmonies from Boyce and Hart. To which all four would record a Capitol album five years later nobody bought. In the great rediscovery of the Monkees back in the late 80s Rhino reissued all of the Monkees albums and then some got deleted. Friday Music has reissued Changes to which I found already used at the Goodwill store. Bargain hunters know a good thing when they see it or if they don't they can resell it via amazon and at least make a small profit if lucky. But not gouge the consumer unlike some greedy fuck selling the Gary Myrick first Cd for 1,000 dollars on Amazon.
3. Christie Lee-Billy Joel 1983 For somebody that has had 8 of his albums in my collection I'm not a big Billy Joel fan, thought he New Yawk Rawk was a bit over the top but history has shown that Joel in the late 70s and early 80s had made some wonderful albums but I still refuse to have anything to do with Piano Man, one of the most self serving and overplayed classic crap still being played to death. But he has a way with style with 1980s going new wave with Glass Houses, getting serious on the overwrought Nylon Curtain and returning to a love of doowop and soul music on An Innocent Man to which I didn't buy till HP Books had it in the dollar bins. This may have been the only time he ever trumped Bruce Springsteen on the playful Christie Lee to which may be a song about a certain high priced Uptown Girl. And it turned out that maybe the piano man was the best fit for this certain high priced Uptown Girl.
4. Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dying Bed-Josh White 1933 Gospel blues done by a blues artist who was more in line with folk blues or gospel blues than the hardcore blues that Charley Patton did or Blind Willie McTell but more in common with Blind Willie Johnson, the best gospel blues singer ever played and was the angel blues player to the devil Robert Johnson although neither Johnsons was related. Led Zeppelin would steal a few of the verses to make up In My Time Of Dying 40 years down the road. White would record right up to the sixties for Elektra (and beyond).
5. Looking For Girls-The Pursuit Of Happiness 1988 Moe Berg had a unique of way of putting things before stating his real intentions. You can pretty much guess the end result.
6. Ballad Of A Thin Man-Bob Dylan 1966 I was watching the DVD of the infamous Dylan Electric Tour of 1966 which changed the face of music as we know it. Mickey Jones, who replaced a pissed off Levon Helm (he got tired of the booing before the world tour ensured) documented and took his camera to record some of the fun times and places he went to during that trip and although he sheds some light into the Judas statement and still doesn't know who muttered the Play Fucking Loud comment (he says it wasn't Dylan that said that) but his snare crack at the start of the song is like thunder of an oncoming monsoon. Jones played for Trini Lopez (That's him on the Live at PJs album) and Johnny Rivers before signing on to do the 1966 tour. The DVD could be found for five bucks at Half Priced Books. While Jones never did return to The Band after the tour (Dylan would wipe himself out on a motorcycle crash and would be out of commission for a good 10 months) he went on to join Kenny Rogers and the First Edition band and be a part of that for 10 years before making a career change and went into the big screen, usually playing bad guys or bikers. He best known for Pete Bilker in Home Improvement. However in recent years he is battling kidney failure and is looking for a donator. http://mickeyjones.com/ Here's hoping he can find one.
7. Save Your Loving (For Me)-Foghat 1975 Sure they're mindless but in my generation they were mindless boogie fun. Dave Peverett may have not been Paul McCartney but I'm sure he gave David Coverdale a run for the money with memorable lines like Rock On Until The Break Of Day...hey yeah! Foghat was my favorite band of the early high school years and although I don't play them very often, but when I do, I have a cheesy grin on my face when I hear them. B side to Slow Ride, it did get some airplay on the more liberal FM stations of the late 70s.
8. Everybody Have A Good Time-The Darkness 2012 Hey everybody guess who is back in town again. The Darkness with helium vocalist extraordinaire Justin Hawkins and boy does he got his Freddy Mercury going on for him. Or is that David Bryon from Uriah Heep? Hell, ya gotta love this band, they love their glam, they love their AC/DC and they love Queen. So much more into the 70s than any other band out there and they got their new album out on Wind Up, which is the first album that I ever brought from that label that gave the world Evanescence, Finger Eleven and some band named Creed. The new album is a throwback to Permission To Land after the last album broke them up for a while. I doubt if modern rock radio will give The Darkness any airplay since most of those dumfuck DJs used to poke fun at Hawkins for that OTT vocal exercise. I'm sure I'll probably play this song more than KRNA or KFMW ever will. Welcome back Justin.
9. Willie The Pimp-Frank Zappa 1969 Featuring Captain Howling Wolf Beefheart on vocals it's the only track off Hot Rats that has vocals and this showcases Zappa's excellent lead guitar playing. Make no mistake Zappa can play guitar when he wants to. After making three albums with The Mothers Of Invention, Zappa branched out to Hot Rats to which he added more jazz and fusion to his music. I think this is the most metallic he got up till Directly From My Heart To You on Weasels Ripped My Flesh. Both albums you either love or hate, no in between.
10. Both Sides Of The Line-Jason & The Scorchers 1982 Celebrating the life and times of Perry Baggs, who is one of the best drummers you never heard, he made his mark playing for Jason & company and when the original Scorchers got together, nobody could touch them. Terry Manning overproduced them on the Lost And Found album and managed to turn the drums up even on the Fervor EP that EMI put out as a feeler if there was a market for such cowpunk and roll. Co written with then unknown Michael Stripe, the lyrics are a bit cornball but the music is driving, in your face rock and roll to which wouldn't be heard by the masses but those who did got influenced enough to form their own band. While REM got bigger and bigger, Jason And The Scorchers remained a cult favorite which isn't bad but not enough to move to the ritzy part of town. Even at age 50, Baggs left us way too early. A sad event of times when the people we used to listen to when we were young are not longer around.
The next five:
Rockin Is Ma Business-The Four Horsemen 1991
When Animals Attack-Institute 2005
Stranger In My Home Town-Foghat 1980
Knife And A Fork-Rockpile 1980
This Old Heart Of Mine-Isley Brothers 1966
Selected albums that I have been listening to this week:
Changes-The Monkees (Friday Reissue)
Last Of A Dyin Breed-Lynyrd Skynyrd (Roadrunner new album)
Preaching The Gospel-Holy Blues (Roots n Blues/Columbia)
Live 66-Bob Dylan (Columbia)
Hot Cakes-The Darkness (Wind Up)
More Half Priced Books Findings:
Billy Joel-An Innocent Man
David Lee Roth-A Little Ain't Enough
Count Basie-Basie Meets Bond
The Pursuit Of Happiness-Love Junk
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