Playlist 4-2-14 3rd Time The Charm?

It's a weird feeling when spring comes around and you begin to see bits of green starting to take shape on the landscape after months of brown grass or snow cover that you really don't know what to make of it. With winter 14 now in the books and hopefully done with the below zero and snow, we turn our attention to spring and hopefully no major monsoons. It's been years since I been up in Washington state and the Seattle area but to the east of that in the mountains lies Oso Washington which got buried under a ton of a massive landslide that happened two Saturdays again.  In fact they had two massive landslides that faithful day.  It was a nice place to go through but there was always a sense of danger that a mudslide could and would happen.  They just didn't think it would happen this quickly and without warning.

A long time ago, my high school sweetheart Penny and I would begin a off and on courtship, back then I wasn't much of a catch (and still not much of a catch in this day and age) but most of our high school years she would be dating Karl aka Mudduck as everybody called him. Don't ask why I don't know the reason myself.  Over time and those who follow my antics on the Townedgers Music Page,  I have made songs and comments about our time together.  Water under the bridge as we cross it, she has made it official that she's going down the wedding bliss aisle for a third time with her high school sweetheart Karl.  Things are actually looking up for her, she recently can be seen as a door greeter at the Marion Wally World.  Although me, her and Karl have intertwined throughout the years, (Karl originally married Klancy and later divorced, she worked with me in my wilderness years as a day care worker, yes working with kids!), Penny and Karl reconnected through their 30th high school reunion, and now maybe spending the rest of their years together.  Seems like the perfect ending for them.  As for myself, there's the continuing search for music that I overlooked in the first place.  Music seems to be my mistress, or my meth depending on how you look at it.

The Mission Creek Festival starts up in Iowa City this week with the likes of Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, Jason Isbell being the main artists but they also plenty of working class locals trying to show off their wares. If you're in Iowa City this week, you should check it out.  For you bargain hunters, there's Record Collector, Sweet Living Antiques, Housewerks and the thrift stores for your crate digging needs of vinyl and this generation 8 Tracks, CDs.

After 10 years of using this trusty old Dell computer I believe it's probably time to replace it.  I just wasted ten minutes and the usual countless Shockware App hung up messages, or the stop running scripts messages that seem to make things worse than better. When things do work well, then it seems that us Americans and other corporations want to fuck things up so that they don't work.  Just like starting out, using the old unreliable dialup to get on the internet and then get disconnected at the wrong time or if my brother wanted to use the phone.  Three years into the hi speed life and now we're back to square one and the usual hangups if I'm researching something that my 2,000 fan base would check out before going back to the usual top ten suspects (Circumstances Beyond Control, Morgan Reese Fairhead, blah) and find useful, I'm now once again growing a ZZ Top beard waiting for the computer to thaw out from the continuous freezing.  And sometimes wonder if wasting all this time on line is worth anything.

Looks like Long Wongs, a part of the Tempe/Mesa music scene is finally closing for good. Originally part of the historic Mill Street scene (which I spent many a day there and having their famous watery spaghetti) they moved down to road due of rising rent and looks like it once again the case.  After April 1st, they will be history. http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/uponsun/2014/03/long-wongs-tempe-closing.php

Bill Nelson was part of Be Bop Deluxe and made a few albums for the old EMI empire which has crumbled and now is part of the Universal labels of dominance. Another victim being ripoff by the label, he writes up this life learning lesson that he suffered for his art and didn't get paid as well.  Maybe the music industry was a pipe dream all along the way. So here ya go, another horror story about the music industry.  http://www.jagshouse.com/music/billnelson.html

On a brighter note, Christine McVie has rejoined Fleetwood Mac for the 2014 tour, ending her 15 year retirement of living the obscure country lady life.  A possible new album in the forthcoming year that nobody will buy?  We'll see but it's nice to see her back in action once again.

Vinylisms:

Betty Davis-Is It Love Or Is It Desire (Light In The Attic 1975)

Some sinister voodoo funk from the former Mrs. Miles Davis, she's funky all right but she can't sing worth shit and it shows on the creaky title song.  Originally the second album for Island after Nasty Gal, Davis continued to push boundaries of sexy innuendo and suggested lyrics but a huge following out with Chris Blackwell shelved this album till Light In The Attic issued this with the rest of Betty's 70s output.  Using some unknown but very good New Orleans session-men, you can hear traces of Sly And The Family Stone and Funkadelic, more of the latter than former.  Betty who wrote songs for the Chambers Brothers and other folk of the 60s before turning on and getting Miles reinvents herself as the sassy and sultry sexpot on the soft porn Bottom Of The Barrel, (when she means get down, she means go south of the border young man) or the drunk party girl on Bar Hoppin' (kinda reminds me of the 1 oclock drunk chick at the old DeSoda's whooping it up).  She remains an acquired taste, especially on that so called screech of a vocal but in terms of porn funk, Lady Gaga knows nothing on the subject after you met Betty.  She could teach Miss Gaga or the old bag Madonna a thing or two about getting down.
Grade B

That's What I Like About Phil Harris (The Good Music Company)

Better known as the voice behind the bear in Jungle Book, Harris had a fairly successful career in big band type of music although he kinda reminds of a white Cab Calloway.  In this day and age the youngsters don't care about this bygone era of music but this comp takes a look at Harris' RCA career of the late 40s and early 50s.  He covers a lot of country on here (Chattanooga Shoe Shine Boy, Smoke Smoke Smoke That Cigarette, Deck Of Cards) and oodles of pop standards which is okay. But no Bare Necessities  No liner notes whatsoever about the songs or about the man himself.
Grade B-

Godspell (Bell 1972)

You can tell it's another slow music day when you're putting up forgotten pop albums and rock operas. So back in the 70s Godspell was used for high school theatrical shows or the local amateur circuit for a musical. Nothing more going into music vocal class and doing Day By Day, which was a number 13 hit in 1972. But comparing this with Jesus Christ Superstar, this record is a more tolerant than the overblown JC Superstar album which I had at one time and then traded it in.  There's a certain charm to this, even though it's the dreaded musical, there's some rock elements and the Finale has a bit of prog in some of the song passages.  I get a kick out of Robin Lamont's flat sounding emphasis on the word Things as in Oh deal Lord, these "things" I pray when she 'sings' that line. It's probably the highlight of this rock gospel that used to be the rage when Jesus Christ Superstar was the rage and there was a scramble to come up with another rock gospel for the ages. This was more of a musical excursion than full blown out rock gospel as Truth Of Truths which was more of a answer record to Superstar although while I thought He's The Light Of The World was on Godspell, (Light Of The World is a different song) that song is on Truth Of Truths, an album got promoted big time on the old Powerline show, which showcased selected album cuts and throwing in a gospel proverb from time to time. Don't recall much of Truth Of Truths outside of the Osmond Brothers covering He's The Light Of The World, it was released on a small label and hasn't been out on CD and there's no plans for it to be ever reissued again. But Godspell still remains in print.   And still can be found on vinyl at thrift stores. It's  not perfect, most musical albums are not, the operatic numbers suck, but for a catchy ear worm like Day By Day it does fit perfectly in the K Tel or Have A Nice Day series. Useless trivia: David Letterman's sidekick Paul Shaffer plays organ on the Finale.  While credited on the Bell album, Shaffer isn't even mentioned on the Arista CD.  On a different note, David Letterman is retiring from the late show in 2015.
Grade B

Playlist of the week:

Candy's Going Bad-Golden Earring
Same Old You-Miranda Lambert
So Many Things To Say-Wishbone Ash
Move-Miles Davis
It's All Right Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)-Bob Dylan
Whiskey Bottle (Acoustic Version)-Uncle Tupelo
Don't Step On The Grass Sam-Steppenwolf
Southern Girls-Saliva
Have A Drink On Me-AC/DC
Self Made Man-UFO

Late news:

Trucker Kitty is gone. If there's any links that are still up, they do not work.   Best of luck to her.


The 80s tribute band to Hair metal, Poison and all things 80s Hairball has fired up their tribute band and will be making the rounds in the Midwest, they will be appearing at the Cedar Rapids Freedom Fest on the 21st of June (weather permitting) and  6 days later even appearing in Anamosa at the J n P Motorcycle Rally.  Plus the usual stops at the Des Moines State Fair, The Onatonna State Fair and many others before the last show of the year in Iowa City on August 23rd.  If you yearn to see real hair metal bands of that era instead, Guns N Roses, will be playing in South America with Duff McKegan subbing for Tommy Stinson as Tommy has some dates lined up with The Replacements. But for cheaper entertainment, you can't beat  Hairball.

Bob Lefsetz' April Fool Story (he's good at that) http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2014/04/01/apple-buys-beats/

One more link to add: Bro Country and Nu Metal, one and the same! UGH! http://goosefiles.tumblr.com/post/81325674104/why-bro-country-and-nu-metal-are-the-exact-same-thing

And of course, this final thought about KISS and the Hall Of Fame hijinx. Enough Paul Stanley about if Ace and Peter wear the facepaint and taking the band a step backwards.  We get it, you guys are never ever getting back together again but either the magazines or you continue to rehash it up and getting pissed off when the Hall requested the original get back together one more time. The last two albums were the closest sound you had back to the 70s and Eric and Tommy are good bandmates. Enough bickering, the Hall Of Fame doesn't mean shit anyway. Unless its fodder for the rock and roll tabloids out there.  Get over yourself Paul, we can't help it if Ace's solo album at that time was the best seller of all.  Ace hasn't come close of recapturing that album but it's a hell of lot better than what you and Gene put out at that time.  Move on.

Ivy Doomkitty Eye Candy Pic of Month:

The original photo got deleted. But we have this one.