Crabb Bits: 3,000 Views!, Ray Collins Fontella Bass RIP

For the first time ever, we have clear 3000 views for the month!  Quite a feat upon itself!

Just two months ago, with rating drying up and really not getting much viewership here,  I made a comment about perhaps it's time to do a rethink and put this in the closet and make it become a archives for the bored.  But somehow and someway we have managed to really break out big time.  Of course we can blame it on the weather since it's too cold to do anything for bargain hunts.  It was a big deal when we hit the 1,000 mark the first time and then the 2,000 mark.  We had a nice summer but once the fall came around things drop off.  I did manage to make some slight adjustments to the blog.  With the help of Google and Bing I managed to find pictures and 45 covers (Courtesy of 45 Cat mind you) of the weekly top ten and it seemed like a good idea.   I actually kinda noticed that having pictures and illustrations have made the blogs a much more fun read.   Perhaps I should have done it sooner.  The pictures really come in handy. 

Rock and Roll And The Brains remains the biggest read with over 9,000 views and basically carry this website from being completely obscure.  I only wish it could translate it into getting The Brains 1980 album back in print, that would be wonderful. 

I have no idea what 2013 is going to bring, if I finally give up the ghost and just simply quit worrying about new music and just stick with what I have and what I know.  There's still plenty of obscure things and bands to cover and discover, I hope I can continue to do that.   While viewership is up, I haven't seen much in comments, perhaps the Captcha that Blogspot does is too complicated for even the anonymous readers to put up a comment but from past experiences the majority of them simply either troll or bitch too much even for me to make a logical reply back, or we simply have the porn spam that forced us to make adjustments.  Once in a while we'll get somebody to make a valid argument about a observation that they saw, such as the Pure Prairie League supporter.  Or the cousin of Sonny Lott that wrote a while back too.  If she's still around, I'm still here and still have Sonny in my prayers and thoughts.  I love the man, he made lunch breaks at NCS  fun when he was working there as a janitor.   You can post things incognito but you have to figure out what the hell the word is and the numbers that proceed it or ahead of it.  Otherwise I'd be fighting with the porn spam trolls all over again and still not in the mood for that.

2012 is going to go down in years as one of the more morbid years ever with the influx of people that I have known who have died.  Case in point: Ray Collins, original Mothers Of Invention lead vocalist who died at age 76 from a heart attack.  Ray to me, was the best vocalist that came out of Frank Zappa's bands who made Freak Out and Crusin With Ruben And The Jets classic albums in their own wake, but Ray didn't care much for Frank's Over The Top and goofy cynical-isms that became Absolutely Free and left soon afterwards although Collins would return for cameos on Uncle Meat and perhaps his most definite moment: Oh No from Weasels Ripped My Flesh.  Collins never did attempt to join other bands, simply dropping out to become a taxi driver and a dishwasher and ended up living a very frugal life,  a very private man but he did manage to take some time out and pose for a picture or two with fans of the MOI, to which if you ask Ray Collins what band he used to be in, he'd simply say MOI.   http://ultimateclassicrock.com/mothers-of-invention-ray-collins-dies/

More Ray Collins stuff off the internet: http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_12484780

Fontella Bass, had a big hit with Rescue Me one of most recognizable soul tunes of the 1960s also has checked out at age 72 from a heart attack.

Thanks for the memories The Exclusive Company.  Will miss this place when I'm in Madison.