PLAYLIST: Ups And Downs

The fall foliage is peaking around here and we're getting some nice red and yellow and orange leaves in the trees....falling into the ground or getting stuck between the cracks of the windshield and  door sides of the car.  The good and bad of fall.



So far college football season has their share of ups and downs as well.  The good: Arizona State taking care of Stanford 26-10  and getting some sort of revenge on them for last season.  The Bad:  Iowa messing up a 14-0 lead and Maryland outscoring them in route to a 38-31 victory.  Iowa seems to enjoy giving new teams into the big ten wins and this was no exception.  Problem is Iowa's defense is not good against decent runners and they have yet to play Minnesota and Wisconsin, both teams that have powerful running backs.  As of this writing, Floyd Of Rosedale seems to be packing his bags to go up north.  After a lackadaisical start but still with a winning record,  Iowa is beginning to play better teams than most of the cupcakes that they packed in their schedule this year.  One of the teams that did beat Iowa, Iowa State seems to have problems playing other teams that don't have the Hawkeye logo.  Texas beat them on a last second field goal, a minute after State tied the game.   Sam Richardson had a great game as QB and probably would have taken the Cyclones down the field, but he only had 3 seconds left and the Cal/Stanford lateral play didn't work.

 

A tale of two schools, Anamosa won their 7th straight game and if they win next week they'll make the playoffs (I think).  It won't be easy, they'll be playing Cascade. On the down side, Marion, which was in the playoffs last season is 1-7 with a 7 game losing streak.   Number 8 will be next week against C.R. Xavier, and Tony Perkins still is behind Les Hipple for all time victories.  He may have to wait next year to break the all time wins, pending if he doesn't get fired.  However, the sophomore team blew out their opponent 40-0 so perhaps Marion's bad season is just a fluke. We'll see next year.

 

Miss Melisa Mae, long time Twitter friend and blogger has formed her own company called Kitten Lingerie. It's to bring out the sexy in you, or your significant other. Just passing along the word, after all she's had to put up with my football nonsense on Twitter for five plus years now.  http://kittenlingerie.com/

The Xolodremont money train has taken itself out of here and I think we're back to our usual ratings instead of the inflated and patted numbers that I got too used to seeing.  We'll be back under 2000 views next month.

The final major bargain hunt will take this place this week but where I'm going I don't really know yet.  I have four choices to make:  St. Louis, Madison, Davenport or Des Moines.  Reading the double standard latest blog from Bob Lefsetz Time, he is spot on that we don't have much of it left, you can always have lots of money but you're time is at hand and every day you lose more of it.  Tell me something I don't already know Bob.  http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2014/10/19/time/

 

But then again Lefsetz is back to hounding how bad music has gotten and if you can continue to buy records and cds then you're part of the problem and not the solution if you're not streaming. To which a hearty fuck off Bob is warranted.  Since he's not interested in music anymore, he's talking about Red Bull.  But though the senility, a point is made that this year not one new release has sold a million copies.  The end result of mergers and old Baby Boomers that need to be put out to pasture at the last four labels standing. And the truth is, it's not going to get any better, only worse: http://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2014/10/16/not-one-artists-album-has-gone-platinum-in-2014/ 

In 1998, my last of Fantasy Football, I drafted Payton Manning in the draft and although he didn't give a lot of points that year it was enough for me to win the Fantasy title in my league for the second straight year but since then I haven't play it.  Years later Manning throws his record breaking 509 touchdown pass replacing Bret Favre, who ironically was my stating QB that season.  As you can tell a shortage of music news this week.  It's mostly sports.



For some reason I always get suckered into watching VH1's mainstay movie The Temptations everytime it comes on.  It's a very long 4 hour movie (2 and half hours if you cut out the commercial breaks VH1 is notorious for), originally a mini series.  Still inaccurate in some of the things David Ruffin died of a drug overdose and Mel Franklin, the lovable bass singer who died of heart failure in 1995 and not in the kitchen as this mini series suggested.  And David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks didn't do their solo deal till the mid 80s, when they did an album for RCA, with some help from Darryl Hall And John Oates helping them score a deal. (it was both Eddie and David that sang on Hall On Oates Live At The Apollo album). Despite the false provisions and how the movie depicted Ruffin, one thing stands clear: that The Temptations boasted three of the best soul singers in David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams (no relation to Otis Williams, the de facto leader of band).  And Smokey Robinson wrote the best suited song for Ruffin in My Girl, one of the best known and more recognized songs in oldies rock and soul.  Ruffins' self destructing ways and big ego and drug habits didn't help him http://articles.philly.com/1991-06-02/news/25789094_1_david-ruffin-emergency-room-drug-overdose

Equally as tragic was the suicide of Paul Williams in 1973.  A slightly more grittier vocalist than David Ruffin, Williams' vocal on Just My Imagination is one of his highlights, especially considering the circumstances of his heavy drinking and other illnesses that left him unable to perform most of the time.  Eddie Kendricks had a high sweet tenor but years of chain smoking would leave him to be a shell of himself and lung cancer claimed him in 1992.   While Otis Williams continued to lead various versions of the Temptations over the years, I think their best period was when Norman Whitfield worked with them on more socially consensus songs of the late 60s.  I find their studio albums a bit spotty but the Greatest Hits 1 and more so Greatest Hits 2 are the perfect introduction to what make the Temps so great. But Psychedelic Soul  a 2 CD set that is based upon the the best recordings that the band did with Whitfield is worth hearing as well, even as Whitfield continue to push the boundaries of soul funk with the full 12 minutes of Papa Was A Rolling Stone, to which a bass player and a drummer must had the total control and restraint of playing the same beat and simple bass notes that don't change during the whole song.  However, Whitfeld took it further with the almost 14 minutes of Masterpiece, to which the single edit was a much better listen.

After that the hits became few and far away, The Temps moved over to a disastrous time at Atlantic and made two subpar disco albums. Countless line ups continue to be in the band, even one time Spinners lead vocalist G C Cameron was in the band.  Their last top 100 appearance was The Motown Song, with Rod Stewart (#10 1991).  Basically they have become more of a slow jams R and B band and without the distinctive vocalists they once had, they simply became an oldies band.  As for the classic five lineup, only Otis Williams remains, the rest have passed on to the Great Beyond.




Playlist: (Peak Fall Foliage By The Cedar River: Photo from Trains Mag, too bad you can't see it, it disappeared) 

Rolling And Tumbling-The Strypes (Snapshot)  (Probably my favorite song of 2014)
Dust-Fleetwood Mac (Bare Trees)
I Can't Hide-Flaming Groovies (Shake Some Action)
Carry Me Back-The Rascals (See)
Long Hair Guys From England-Too Much Joy (Cereal Killers)
I Don't Care-Stevie Nicks (24 Karat Gold)
Running Gun-Marty Robbins (Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs)
Strangers-The Kinks (Lola Vs Powerman And The Moneygoround)
Detroit Made-Bob Seger (Ride Off)
Flight Of The Rat-Deep Purple (In Rock)

RIP Raphael Griffin-Ravenscroft.  That haunting saxophone you hear on Gerry Raffery's Baker Street?  That's his playing.  Also can be heard on Pink Floyd's The Final Cut and on a couple Bob Dylan albums.  Passed away yesterday from a heart attack.  Roy Anderson photo credit picture disappeared, what else is new?  Tired of replacing it so it was deleted.