While Zia's Records in the past would have new cds in the used bins as promos, they were hard to come by this trip, I did pick up the new Ian Hunter used and thought about getting the Dave Matthews Band latest for 7 bits but put that one back everytime, thinking somebody will bring that up to Half Priced Books used eventually. Hastings in Prescott had Band Of Horses on sale for 8.99 and while I kept that on the backburner to review, other stores had it a dollar more and a used Green Day Uno! for ten bucks which is too much. I have heard bits and pieces of that album and it sounds more like them going back to punk rock which may or may not be a good thing. What I heard didn't grab me as it did when Insommiac or Dookie came out, Nimrod remains lukewarm and Warning was better till they went for broke and hit a home run with American Idiot and then struck out on 21st Century Breakdown. Uno!, I got burned out on their hit single Oh Love thanks to Cumulus Radio playing it every other hour and I'm sure the punks back then are too busy to notice while they're raising their families and I'm not certain that 3 Green Day albums for the next six months is even too much for a fan but so far Uno is better than 21st Century Breakdown.
Who cares, right?
The sounds of the desert.
1. Sheila-Tommy Roe 1962 The sounds of Route 66 if you ever get up to where it leads on the Arizona side. Two towns on that route remain committed to the past of that road, Seligman, where the Snow Cap is at and Angel's Barber Shop and Souvenir Shop to where I stopped and scribbled something on their guest list book but my handwriting failed me as always and I'm sure they couldn't make it out either. The other town is Kingman to where I spent two days hanging off the balcony at the Motel 6 and counting endless trains running through town. Downtown old Kingman still has that Route 66 vibe and so does the pawnshop, the Circle K and the Salvation Army to which I always stop in to see what they have and sometimes find oddities such as the CB Savage album from Rod Hart a few years and this time out while seeing a handful of 45s finding a decent copy of this Tommy Roe hit, complete with the ABC Paramount logo and sleeve. Finding Tommy Roe singles on ABC Paramount has been fairly easy this year, Half Priced Books in Phoenix had The Town Crier as well. Tommy did a earlier version of this song which made its way to a long gone Pickwick LP but the second version is more akin to Buddy Holly. After all, almost 50 years of record collecting has seen this year that more of the forgotten forty fives of my youth I'm reacquiring again. Even if it means going out to the desert to get them. ABC Paramount 45-10329
2. Don't Let Nobody-Baby 1975 Another interesting find was at Zia's on Thunderbird in the fifty cent section of albums nobody wanted I came across a copy of Baby's first album which came out on Lone Starr but sold enough for Mercury to pick it up and remixed the damn thing. In comparing of the two versions the Lone Starr album is much more cleaner on the drums, the remix actually brings the record down a notch but since none of you out there know much about Baby it's moot to explain it. Long time ago Beaker Street used to have a Baby promo that even as a novice I was still searching around town trying to find it only to get blank looks from the so called hippies that supposed to know about music. Norman Petty produced their first album which was no way near sounding like Buddy Holly but rather three chord Texas rock n boogie. Still remains one of my favorite albums of the high school years. Although thank God that the copy I had was the Lone Starr Records version. Somehow their second album came out on Wes Farrell's Chelsea label and poor sales and lawsuit by The Babys (John Waite's Band) ended their career. Mercury SRM-1-1062 LP. They were quite popular here, playing a few times at the Surf Ballroom, Clear Lake IA in 1975.
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3. Sunday Morning-Spanky & Our Gang 1968 The candy stripe version of this was the one I grew up with unlike the later on Celebrity Series to which they took out the bizzare outro before the final verse and I have yet to find it on You Tube of this version. Had it on 45 years ago but there was a big crack that made it unplayable anymore but found a serviceable copy at Half Priced Books in Downtown Phoenix as well. B side was Echoes which got equal amount of airplay at my home too. Better known as Everybody's Talking, the Fred Neil version that Nilsson got a big hit out a year later. Mercury 72765
4. Promises, Promises-Lynn Anderson 1967 We have so many Lynn Anderson best ofs out there but most if not all just focuses on the Rose Garden and beyond years for Columbia but hardly anything about her years at Chart Records which was more honky tonk then the more steamlined country productions of Glenn Sutton years later. Lynn's mom Liz Anderson was one of the best songwriters out of Nashville and was also a country singer that had some minor success for RCA but Lynn had the bigger hits. Lynn had another big hit with a bluegrass remake of Rocky Top which I considered putting on the list but ended up going with this catchy chorus line of Promises, Promises, that's all I ever get. For my money they were better than then Judds in Mom and Daughter country, Mom wrote them and Daughter sang them.
5. Forces At Work-The Feelies 1980 When I was over at Wax Trax years ago and getting thrown out of that place for trying to locate the 2 dollar section, it may have appeared that the owner didn't think much of my attempt to find cheap music to enjoy on the long road back to Phoenix via Route 66 or Arizona 89, which is why he must be thankful that he don't have a Vegas Half Priced bookstore to contend with. No matter what HP Bookstore in your neck of the woods is, there's a chance you'll find something in the 2 dollar section to which the biggest find was finding The Feelies' Crazy Rhythms in the dollar bins out in the Mesa store. How did collectors over look this one I'll never know. A&M reissued this around 1990 and then took it out of print before Yep Roc reissued it in our most hated form, the digipak. Back then I wasn't much into the Feelies, nor for that matter Luna, both bands having that Velvet Underground vibe but nowadays sound much better. But of course for new music not being much memorable, we tend to seek out the things we overlook in the dollar bins. As the title suggests, Forces At Work.....
6. Shakin The Cage-The Zoo 1992 An extension of Mick Fleetwood's Zoo project, but this one was better known for Billy Thrope (Children Of The Sun) and Bekka Bramlett (daughter of Delaney and Bonnie) plus a few lesser known (Brett Tuggle later of Whitesnake) joining Mick Fleetwood for a one off. This song got plenty of airplay on the rock and alternative stations in Arizona, KUPD played the hell out of it (they don't dare now) but reviews of it were lukewarm at best. Bekka tends to oversing from what I can tell. Found this at Hastings in Lake Havasu City for a dollar.
7. So What-Miles Davis 1959 Another fifty cent find at Hastings, this one at Bullhead City and tended to be the perfect cd to play while traveling down the lonesome stretch of California 66. At least Arizona 66 had some places to hang out but once you turn on to 66 from US 95, there's nothing except if your lucky you'll get to see some trains passing by. The towns along the way of 66 are ghost towns and basically you don't want to hang around Essex too much without some local yokel coming after you in a old pick up truck with a gun. Route 66 as we knew it back then doesn't exist today, there's hardly nothing left and if there is, the taggers and graffiti artists have defaced them. However, the old Road Runner's Retreat is still there, sign intact and the old garage and restaurant still there although fenced off. Thankfully, nobody has tagged the place (thank God for small miracles) and I took about 20 pictures of that place before going another five miles to Ludlow and the now defunct Roy's Cafe and Hotel. Basically nothing more to see after that so I returned back to Kingman to which I would get there two hours later. But with the rising moon and the long endless highway, nothing fit the mood as well as Miles Davis and Kind Of Blue.
8. Mississippi Queen-Mountain 1970 Taken from the 1971 Vanishing Point soundtrack, another odd CD that I never saw but decided to get. Vanishing Point was one of the fun cult films of the 1970s to which Barry Newman raced a Challanger across the desert taking plenty of drugs to keep awake and trying to keep a step ahead of the cops who was chasing him. Cleavon Little playing the blind DJ that was rooting for him. This song had the scene of the naked motorcycle babe. And I can bet ya she doesn't look like that now.
9. When You Were Mine-Mitch Ryder 1983 I think Bob had a copy of this at his Ragged Records store but he was commanding a big price for it so I didn't think I needed it that much. Imagine my surprise of finding it down at (where else) Half Priced books in Phoenix for fifty cents. Nevertheless, Mitch made a album in the 1983 with John Mellencamp (aka Little Bastard) producing it and basically they drove each other crazy but even back then, Mellencamp had a love of the old time rockers to promote them for the new age. I have not seen his album Never Kick A Sleeping Dog on CD yet and it's a shame, it's a very good album. Written by Prince. Riva R-213
10. Do I Love You-Lake 1977 They were a German band but they had four albums released on Columbia and Caribou and a local label Renaissance based out of Arizona (now taken over by E1 Records Group, formerly Koch Records) reissued their albums and put out a best of in the process. Originally thought as a prog rock band, they remind me more of a cross between Supertramp and Pablo Cruise. They had a great vocalist in James Hopkins-Harrison who passed away a few years ago. This was a hit in Germany but hardly got looked at in the states.
Five more singles to include from the trip.
Need Your Love-Hawks 1981 Columbia 11-60500
Doraville-Atlanta Rhythm Section 1974 Polydor PD 14248
Little Old Man-Bill Cosby 1967 Warner Bros. 7072
5-7-0-5 City Boy Mercury 73999
Takes A Lot To Rock You-Dwight Yoakam Reprise 7-18846
Some albums from the desert that I was listening to while going from point to point.
The Feelies-Crazy Rhythms
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble-Live At Carnegie Hall
Miles Davis & John Coltraine 1956-1961
Best Of Sam Butera And The Witnesses
James Gang-Miami
Lake-Best Of
The Pursuit Of Happiness-One Sided Story
Inspirial Carpets-Revenge Of The Goldfish
The Zoo-Shakin The Cage
Dan Fogelberg-River Of Souls
X-See How We Are
David Johansen-Here Comes The Night
Willie Nelson-Stardust
Widespread Panic-Panic In The Streets
Bread-On The Waters (up to track 8 to which the CD wouldn't play anymore)
Mac McAnally-Knots
Los Super Seven
Blues Traveler-Live On The Rocks
The Lost Patrol-Songs About Running Away
Luna-Bewitched
Hall & Oates-War Babies
Frank Zappa-Grand Wazoo
Miles Davis-On The Corner
Vanishing Point Soundtrack
