Top Ten Of The Week-Instant Record Collection

Has anybody noticed of the abundance of box sets of almost complete vinyl collections of certain bands out there, or cherry picked ones?  That seems to be the norm from the majors as they compile albums from certain bands in boxes of 5 or even more.  Times have changed in this day and age of why seek out the albums when you can get them packaged in a collection?
 
WEA has done that with The Cars, ZZ Top, Warren Zevon but in a cheap way, poor packaged album reproductions that scratches up the CD inside if you're not careful.  At least Universal has kept the jewel case principal with their Rush, Tom Petty and many other bands' box sets.  For 19.99 if you don't have them, and if you're like me you do in some configuration, you may finally go get them. Or just seek them out in the cheap section in the junkshop.

This week Chuck Berry turns 86.  Betcha never seen that coming?  Neither did I.

I've heard the new Gloom And Doom song from The Rolling Stones, I think it sucks.  No thought in the song writing whatsoever.  You made it to 50 years Stone boys, time to retire after that. Cuz we can't get no satisfaction.


Samantha Fish isn't playing in Davenport this Thursday as originally thought earlier in the year.  Which means no Davenport trip this week, and besides the weather is supposed to be rainy and cold.  Not exactly idea weather for bargain hunting either.  Closer to home, the former Hardee's on the edge of Anamosa is now Green Leaves Buffet to which I'm thinking is owned by the same folks that have the Green Leaves two doors from Half Priced Books.  Not exactly sure if its cost effective to have two Chinese food places in Anamosa but there's getting to be more food choices closer to home.  The recently opened Mexican place in Anamosa is highly recommended from myself.



One thing about Arizona 30 was how bad my snineses were messed up most of the time. The dry, dusty weather made it impossible for me to sleep half the time fighting a damn nose that either dried up or sneezed every other time.  I can't recall ever a time that I have problems with the air down there.  On a previous conversation I did note to a emailer that part of the reason why I do go out there is to enjoy my fave food spots in that state,  El Palacio in downtown Kingman always is a must if I'm that in that area.  El Molinaro in Tucson likewise.  But for good cheap eats, Del Taco hit the spot.  I've been known in the past to forgo lunch and drink too much pop and get a sugar buzz and a headache to boot.  Not this trip.  Next time will probably find me up north, around Kingman and hopefully from room 220 of the Kingman Motel 6, counting trains and getting a natural high over that.  Hastings and FYE were very good to me as well.

The Top Ten Of Week:

1.  Hospital For Sinners-The Wallflowers 2012  Does it pain me to say that these guys are now nostalgia acts and fall into the "are they still around" category?  Bringing Down The Horse, their breakthrough after laying a turd debut at Virgin 20 years ago, sold like 10 million copies to which 9.9 ended up in the return section or the dollar bins across the country.  Didn't listen to Jakob Dylan's solo albums but I did pick up the new Glad All Over album from The Wallflowers and it sounds interesting.  But will people buy it?

2.  Metal Will Never Die-David "Rock" Feinstein featuring Ronnie James Dio 2012  David and Ronnie go way back to the day of Elf, the boogie band that made a couple albums for Epic and MGM before David went on to form The Rods and Ronnie joined up with Rainbow, Sabbath and of course Dio.  This was added to the new Very Beast Of Dio Volume 2 which picks up after Ronnie left Warner/Reprise (although he was on Vertigo in the UK).  Problem was the record labels Ronnie chose didn't stay in business very long, he was on Mayhem, then Spitfire (which became Eagle Rock), and onto Sanctuary to which he made the classic Master Of The Moon album worth finding if you can find it.  He also some spotty albums such as Magicia which was a concept album so to speak and Killing The Dragon to which I still haven't traded in yet.  The Very Beast 2, does a very good job cherry picking the best tracks, but it also includes the odd This Is Your Life and the bonus material isn't up to Dio's standards, good for those who want it all but a bit too much for those who don't.  On this track, seems like Dio even out Spinal Taps Spinal tap on this cliche' by the numbers track. Nevertheless Ronnie James Dio still sadly missed and metal hasn't been the same since he passed in 2009, (has it been that long already?)

3.  Close To You-Saigon Kick 1993  One of the most misunderstood bands of the hair metal era, Saigon Kick was anything but hair metal and their albums were all over the place.  They could be hard rock like Ratt, and turn around and sound like Devo the next, or Alice In Chains or even Collective Soul to which was getting started after Water, SK's third album took a hit.  I dismissed them as hair metal till I heard their best of which you have to hear to believe. That may have been the downfall of Saigon Kick was that they were all things music and not one kind of genre.  Doesn't translate to sales but if you're open minded enough, you might be surprised yourself too.  Their biggest selling album The Lizard I have four copies and none of them could play on my CD player at home, something to do with the paint configuration on the print side of the CD which made it worthless in players.  Been trying to find the Wounded Bird reissue, now out of print too, thought I did but somebody stuck the original Atlantic CD in that case.

4.  Further Than Heaven-The Hassles 1969  Another weird one, this comes from the band that featured a unknown Billy Joel and bass player Howie Blauvelt who was part of Ram Jam (Black Betty) but The Hassles sounded more like Vanilla Fudge than The Young Rascals to which United Artists snapped up to record two oddball albums.  I guess you can call this progressive rock since it goes on for about 7 minutes and sounds like somebody was listening more to Ummagumma than Near The Beginning or See.  Billy Joel pretty much disowned this era and when EMI tried to reissue The Hassles first album, Joel requested that they didn't and won out.  However Razor And Tie managed to throw the highlights of the Hassles into a 77 minute overview.  It's a period of the times and if you like Billy Joel, this is not the place to start, nothing even close to Piano Man (which is good).  But it would take him some time to get to that bridge, he and the drummer starting up a hard rock band Attila that made one Epic album.

5.  Cochise-Audioslave 2002  Ten years ago Chris Cornell got together with the guys in Rage Against The Machine to make three uneven albums but they never really topped this song in terms of classic rock. And probably had better luck had Brendan O'Brien mixing this up rather than the overrated Rick Rubin.  Little Steven included this on the now cheap to get CBGB's Forever Comp that led off Wicked Cool Records to which you could find for a dollar if you looked hard enough.  Wicked Cool Records was the best in terms of this era's garage rock and Little Steven tried his best to keep that going, even scoring a deal with Best Buy to distribute the CDs.  Five years later, Best Buy is cleaning out the inventory and you can get plenty of good deals from the now forgotten Wicked Cool acts (seek out Len Price 3, Stablizers, KO and the Knockouts as well as Volume 1 of the Coolest Songs In The World Series, Little Steven's modern day answer to Nuggets).

 





6.  Keep A'Walking-Sam & Dave 1962  B side to their first single I Need Love, this is your typical B side but to me it has a very infectious piano line and the call and response that made Sam Moore and Dave Prater one of the best soul duo ever but they were a good couple years from Stax and Isaac Hayes and David Porter.  This is pretty much gospel blues and soul in all of it's 1:47 glory.  I played it three times in a row when I first heard this. Must mean I must like it a lot.  I do.  The 45 version has a different mix than the LP.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gO6Y-qlOE8

7.  My Ding A Ling-Chuck Berry 1968  Chuck Berry has outlived most of his rock and roll contemporaries and being 86 he continues to play whenever he needs to pay the bills or when he's at Blueberry Hill down in ole St Louie.  Hard to figure in his career he's only had one number 1 hit and it was this old risque tune based on The Bees' Toy Bell.  Never cared much for the big hit and KCRG never did play it on the radio due to it's subject matter but he actually did a earlier version of this song with The Miller Band (led by Steve (Fly Like An Eagle) Miller) and it was a live version done in front of the hippies in San Francisco. Even back then Berry was very erratic on stage, for some reason he loved to shout out Ole every other time the songs ended.  In the 1990's Polygram reissued all of Chuck's forgettable Mercury output for a short while, the Live album actually featured bonus cuts, later on Rebound Records shoved this in the bargain bins missing a couple tracks off and on.  You can live without this but if you must try to find the Mercury album for all the Ole's you can stand.  Ole' Muthafucka.

8.  WTF-Heart 2010  From Red Velvet Car, or the first meeting with Ben Mink which proved to be such a success that they retained his services for the fun Fanatic.  One thing about the Wilson sisters, they do know how to rock.  Always have.

9.  Summer Day Reflection Song-Donovan  1965  Before Epic, Donovan made some great folk music that Hickory picked up and Sony Music did add on the Essential Donovan 2 fer that came in earlier this year.  Long time ago Bell Records cherry picked some of the better Hickory singles for a decent best of that I found and played and is now lost among the stacks upon stacks of LPs around here.  I'm in the minority here but always thought Sunshine Superman was too strange for radio and the version on the Essential cd still confirms that.  The king of Hippie Dippy Music, that is Donovan Leitch.

10. One Love/People Get Ready (extended mix)-Bob Marley & The Wailers 1984  From the Legend bonus tracks reissue this a moreorless a dub extension of the post dated release that made it to the charts three years after Marley passed on.  Marley and the Wailers really don't get much in terms of dub recordings, but this version does ride a nice groove.

Five more freaky tunes.

I Need Love-The Third Booth 1967  (Band from Canton Illinois that made a one off single for Independence Records and even though it was listed on the Pebbles Volume 1 series, it wasn't on the CD.  Not sure if the label corrected that, I'm not that interested in purchasing another copy for another omission.http://dereksdaily45.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-third-booth-i-need-love.html

Someone That I Used To Know-Goyte 2012
What Would Joan Jett Do?-The Launderettes 2007
I'm Not The Same Without You-Donald Fagen 2012
High Rolling Man-Neil Diamond 1972