Top Ten Of The Week-Fire And Rain

Here I am, in the old mildew area known as the mancave and once again trying to put back in order due to another fucking gullywasher.  Four times this year I had to put up with too much water in a leaky basement.  Even with a week away, I can't escape the crapfest that is Summer Storm Jerkoff which is now flooding up the east coast.  And in the west, they can't buy a storm but they got plenty of fires from dry storms.  If you're not baking, you're drowning in it.

Yep, James Taylor said it best, I've seen fire and I've seen rain.  And I wish I can see those sunny days that would never end.

 

This week's eye candy is Bo Vixxen.  Betcha you would like to win a date with her.  So do I. ;) Javier Padilla took the photo.  We'll see how long before this picture disappears again.

Top Ten Of The Week, brought to you by Buono's Pizza http://buonosmesa.com/



1.  Living On A Thin Line-The Kinks 1984   One thing I forgot to add in the blogs about the Last bargain hunts was that I got to hear my favorite radio station KCDX out in Florence and they still play the obscure single such as this forgotten Kinks number but they disappointed me so much that I gave up on them too.  They bill themselves the IPOD station, and they're right.  Sounds like an IPOD.  Which meant they played the same damn songs over and over no matter how obscure they are.  If you hear them more than twice a day, then it's overkill no matter what.  Which meant we got to hear Down By The River about five times, as well as Under Pressure, The Finer Things, even Lady Killer from Flash And The Pan which was great hearing it the first time, bout the 5th time not so much.  Ended up going to the airport listening to KSLX (100.7)  Odd thing about 100.7 was that somewhere out in Lake Havasu City they had a different classic rock station there and Tucson had a different classic rock radio station too.



2.  What Goes On-The Velvet Underground 1969  Another song played on KCDX although I only heard it one time.  On the flight to and from Mesa, I was reading a Velvet Underground book called Peeled, which is a very good and detailed story about the beginning and end of one of the most interesting bands of our era. Despite Andy Warhol and the bizarre beginnings, The Velvets were one of the best garage rock bands; when they had John Cale in the band you always got the feeling they were on the edge but when Doug Yule replaced Cale they became more of a bar band although Steve Sesnick moreorless killed the Velvets rather than Lou Reed although Reed's control freak persona was the cause of the breakup of the reunion band they had in 93.  In the meantime Yule was all but forgotten but for the third, Loaded and the sessions that later released as VU he balanced out Reed.  The curio that was Squeeze isn't bad but then again it's not exactly the real Velvets, just Doug and Ian Paice (Yes the Deep Purple drummer) who played on Squeeze.  But even Ian doesn't recall playing on that album at all.  Maybe he doesn't want to. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKODcZOHUtg



3.  It's Alright, It's OK-Primal Scream 2013  Bobby Gillespie continues to ride the vibe of glam rock, along with the noise he learned from The Jesus And Mary Chain but also visits kraut rock as well as Rolling Stones rock and roll on the new album More Light which goes on forever it seems.  I still love Primal Scream regardless, even to the point of buying the record new down at Zia's last week.  Cuz I have a funny feeling that Best Buy wouldn't have it.  The one out in Fiesta Mall didn't have it.  Told the female clerk out there working that their CD section is like my hairline, getting shorter and shorter each year.  And that's not a good thing.

4.  Thinkin' Of You-Loggins & Messina 1972  It would have been easier to include Your Momma Don't Dance, which was one of my favorite songs when I was in 5th grade but classic rock and oldies radio overkilled it.  I could have swore that CBS issued a single version which was much more different than the album cut which also graced The Best Of Friends throwaway best of.  The reason why i got the album in the first place was to hear the complete 7 minute 41 seconds of Angry Eyes which was a Beaker Street favorite. Probably sounds better with a beer and a joint too.




5.  Stompin At The Savoy-Babs Gonzalez 1947  I didn't find much in terms of obscure stuff but perhaps the best find came from going to (where else?) Half Priced Books in the 2 dollar section and finding a compilation of Babs Gonzalez' output for Blue Note.  Babs was one of the best scat-jive singers and if you ever heard any of his stuff you'll know what I mean.  Here he's backed by the great Tadd Dameron.



6.  Men Without Shame-Phantom, Rocker & Slick 1985  One of those albums that haven't been issued on CD till last year from Rock Candy, Mark Prindle was talking about how lame most of this album is but needless to say I like this record and still do more than he did.  After Brian Seltzer decided to go solo, the stray cats picked up journey man guitarist Earl Slick to make two albums for EMI.  Rock Candy, a import label specializing in hard rock finally released this for the first time ever.  They also reissued, for the first time ever, Head East Live.  On the down side they also reissued a couple Quiet Riot and Eddie Money albums, to which you can still get cheap here at home.



7.  Hey Gyp (dig the slowness)-Donovan 1965  Another love hate for an artist that made pretty good singles but crappy albums on Hickory, Castle/Sanctuary reissued his early stuff and basically I can see why Bob Dylan made lots of fun on Donovan, it's pretty second rate protest music with too much hippie dippy and The Animals did a better cover version of this song, but I kinda like it for it's boyish amateurish sound. B side to Turquoise, an awful folk song done even worse by an out of tune and off key harmonica squeal that predates Metal Machine Music.  UGH.



8.  You Got What I Need-Shooting Star 1980  Virgin Records signed them in the 80s and they made four or five albums in the Journey/Styx mode and had Elton John's producer help them on their debut album.  They managed to keep hold of their masters and later reissued them themselves but poor distribution found most of their stuff in the bargain bins.  The Salvation Army store in Casa Grande had something like 20 copies of their first album and one other, the 1983 Burning which does sound like Journey without Steve Perry.  The cheapest find of the AZ bargain hunts both CDs only cost me a dollar.  Side note:  I remember Jerry at Relics telling me to pick up any of their albums since they sold very well at that time.  Shooting Star did reunite at the end of the 1990s and made a album that I never heard but have seen in the dollar bins at the thrift shop.



9.  Young And Restless-Prism 1979  One more acknowledgement of KCDX, was on their IPOD cast was playing a song from this forgotten Canadian band from perhaps their best album which was produced by an up and coming Bruce Fairbairn and recorded by an up and coming dude by the name of Bob Rock.  Prism, like Shooting Star was more of a pop rock band but even more poppier than Shooting Star.  Didn't get into them till much later when they had their highest charting single in the states with Don't Let Him Know but by then Ron Tuback had left the band.  This may have not been the song that they played on the radio but I did find their Young And Restless CD at Zia's Tempe and that made a excellent choice for a road tune.



10.  St. James Infirmary-Bobby Blue Bland  1961  Last week, Bobby Bland died at age 83, he had been in failing health but I didn't think much of it, even when somebody at Zia's was playing this track in the background, I think this was at the Camelback Zia's.  Bobby had a distinctive voice that can be fine and mellow one moment and then a shout scream next line.  His sides for Duke in the late 50s, early 60s are required listening.  Gone but never forgotten, not as long as I live.

And now five songs heard on Phoenix radio stations

Paranoia-Klaatu 1980
7 + 7 is-Love 1966
Down By The River-Neil Young  1969
Whitchi Tai To-Brewer And Shipley 1969
Rain Dance-The Guess Who 1971



What I'll be doing the 4th of July is what I've been doing every other month this spring summer and that's once again trying to restore order downstairs from yet another fucking monsoon rainfest of last week.  Even coming back from vacation and seeing how things have gone to hell in a hurry makes me wish I stayed down in the desert.  However, it's monsoon season right now and they been having dust storms to which I saw the last night I was there.  And of course, the earwigs have made their annual annoyance once again, I just killed six of them since coming home tonight. 

We're past the halfway point of this shit year and so far much of the music of 2013 has been forgettable, and that includes the overrated John Fogarty's Wrote A Song For Everybody, the star studded appearances of country and rock stars trying to jump start a career that has been spinning the past five years and another attempt to lay claim to the CCR songs of long ago and far away. Make no mistake the originals are good but the new stuff basically comes across a tribute album that nobody will play after a couple times.  I love John Fogerty as much as anyone but this is the second straight album that I didn't buy but I did hear this at Hastings in Prescott last week and made notes.  The Proud Mary song is ruined by another don't yell at me chick singer (Jennifer Hudson) and whoever gave this piece of shit song five stars from Rolling Stone Mag is tune deaf, better to stick with Ike and Tina.  Only time John gets going is on the two new songs but then it's back to the all stars, the Zac Brown band, Keith Urban and Miranda Lambert and Brad Paisley.  Only thing missing is the CCR rhythm section but I think John burnt that bridge down that they'll never get back together which is a shame.  In the end, Wrote A Song for Everybody, John tries to play to the whole crowd and it fails him.  I give it a 2 and half stars rating.  And don't trust Rolling Stone Magazine for anything.

Whatever happened to Jason Everman you ask?  Read this: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/02/magazine/evermans-war.html?_r=0



Jim Kelly aka Black Belt Jones, a black martial artist and actor who was on Bruce Lee's Enter The Dragon has joined Bruce Lee in the great beyond. He was 67