Week In Review: Kyle Oyloe, The Leaves Of Fall, Lou Reed

This didn't make the local music news wire, SPIN and Rolling Stone indifferent but we lost one of our great musicians in Kyle Oyloe, guitar player for many bands who died suddenly from a stroke at age 46 Thursday Night.  Plenty of the finest musicians packed the Rumors Bar And Grill for the Sunday Afternoon Jam which got extended by about 45 minutes due to many musicians who wanted to take the stage and play in the honor of Kyle.  Proceeds from the jam session will  go to Kyle's family.  Traci Olson, Julie Gordon, and a host of others took pictures of this event.

Plenty of highlights to choose from but perhaps the ones that stand out was Wooden Nickel Lottery doing two songs off their CD, the hi jinx of Craig Dewitte and Yours truly rocking to the old Chuck Berry signature song (you know what it is) with Dan Hartman looking on with amusement and Brook Hoover joining Julie Gordon on Spirit In The Sky.  Bart Carfizzi on keyboards, Herman Sarsby on drums.  Below picture  is Julie with Brook and the Surf Zombies.  Kyle was in The Meerkats years ago.

 Laughs tears and memories filled up the place along with the tunes.  In any case Kyle was sent out in style and I'm sure he would have approved as he is now jamming with the big boys in the great rock and roll stage beyond.  The place was chock full of jammers and well wishers , somewhere in this picture is R.S.Crabb lurking in the background.  And be easily found among the crew, right next to one of the more funky bass players to ever hit the stage.

It has been a slow music news week, the only thing mentioning was that 70 year old Richie Blackmore announced a handful of rock dates doing Rainbow/Deep Purple numbers with a to be announced vocalist, that is not Joe Lynn Turner nor Glenn Hughes.  The sports venue has Kansas City and  The Mets in the World Series, and Iowa had the weekend off and still managed to crack the Top 10 football teams in the AP and ESPN polls.  Meanwhile Iowa State got blown out again despite the efforts of Joel  Lenning  replacing Sam B Richardson as QB and making the final score a lot more closer than it actually was 45-27.  Part of the reason why the score was kept down was Baylor lost Seth Russell to a broken bone in his neck.  They do have next week off before a Thursday night romp with Kansas State.  For the Cyclones though things are not as rosy, Mark Mangino and Paul Rhodes had  a difference of opinion and Mangino was let go as offense coordinator. Whatever the reason Mangino will find another job soon, perhaps at Miami where Al Golden was shown the door after Clemson whitewashed them 58-0  As for Rhodes he may be gone, Iowa State outside of outlasting Northern Iowa and beating up on Kansas which has lost something like 25 games in a row and haven't been the same since Mangino was let go down there.

The Fall changing of the leaves from the trees to the ground has gone past peak, about two weeks later in the year (thanks to climate change and a warmer than usual fall) and I haven't been able to get out and enjoy things all that much, I got hit with the GD flu around the time of the Kyle Oyloe jam that I managed to gulp about 4 vitamin C pills to go shoot some pics around the area.  It's always beautiful around the Mississippi, and the fall tour peak will continue down river.  If you're in the area go out and see it, enjoy it before all the leaves are on the ground.

Lou Reed: Musician/monster/asshole  two years gone:

It's been two years since Lou departed from this world and we are hearing stories about how much of a jerk Lou really was.  Course that shouldn't detached the fact that he was a excellent musician and influenced me but he had such a snarky way of treating band mates and ex wives that perhaps he did have a screw loose in his head, or perhaps he was mad at the world.  Certainly there are valid points that The Velvet Underground is overrated, after all they played the same three chord patterns with Lou's outlook on life, but The VU did play a role in the influence of my music with various bands, The Townedgers forthstanding.  Solo wise, Reed's career was all over the place, some good music, some great music but also some of the most uneven albums of his career.  I tend to find his Transformer album to be overrated, although thanks is given to David Bowie to give Lou's career a boost, it's just too glam for me.  Berlin is perhaps the album that defines Reed's logic and who the man really is and not for the better.  It's not a pleasant album by any means but it is not unlistenable either. Rock And Roll Animal and Lou Reed Live is defined by the band that backed him up, Steve Hunter and Rick Wagner.  The one thing I notice is how Reed would go in different directions after each albums,  Sally Can't Dance, another uneven LP seemed to have Lou on the way to being a rock superstar before Reed put out four sides of feedback guitar called Metal Machine Music, the biggest FU album ever recorded.  Though I commend Lou's daring to do something different and it's not a total waste of time, but it's also something you can't listen through either.  At least with the 4 sided record you can change it over to something else.  Reed tried to make nice with Coney Island Baby but by then he was demoted to cult artist.

I find Lou's Arista period to be equally interesting.  If there was a label that needed a Metal Machine Music album that would be Clive Davis' baby.  The only album that interested me was not Street Hassle, the 1978 critics darling but rather 1980's Growing Up In Public, a record that might be Lou's answer to The Who By Numbers, although given Lou's nature  songs like So Alone might be mistaken for him being a good guy trying to get a woman rather than the bad Lou who would smack his woman out on a night around town.   I'm interested to hear Lou's attempt to go comedy with the overblown Take No Prisoners live platter to which he namechecks critics for bashing his music.  But even Davis couldn't provide hits for Reed and Reed went back to RCA for perhaps the most consistent batch of albums that Lou would do in his career.

Hooking with with Robert Quine and Fernando Saunders, and getting the love of his life Sylvia (at that time)  Reed got inspired by making The Blue Mask, which might be his best moment on record. The title track he develops Metal Machine Music into a rocking 5 minute blast of guitar and drums that he didn't succeed the whole four sides of MMM. I also loved Gun too. Legendary Hearts, the next album is a bit more accessible with a minor hit with Don't Talk To Me About Work.  Even better, New Sensations proved that Reed could write a commercial album tailored made for rock radio with I Love You Suzanne and My Red Joystick. By then Robert Quine had enough and departed and for the rest of his life hated Lou with a passion. By all means New Sensations would be the last Lou Reed album that was made for the radio and the rest of his career Reed would do albums to fit his moods.  Which were usually dark.  Mistrial, flopped badly and Reed would take his act over to Sire/Warner Brothers for the rest of his years.

The Sire years would have special guests along the way.  Maureen Tucker, the VU drummer would play on the New York album along with Dion.  A project about the late Andy Warhol would reunite with John Cale on Songs For Drella, a album that worked fairly well despite the acidity presence of Cale and Reed, a clash of airmasses coming together for a cause.  Lou took the idea of morality and death to a new level on Magic And Loss, another uneven effort.  And then the end times came around, The Velvet Underground did reunite in 1993 for a handful of dates.  But it was not bound to last, another major fight between Cale and Reed and the band was over, Sterling Morrison died in 1995.  The band went into the rock hall of fame in 1996 and for the last time would perform with a song in tribute to Morrison.

Reed continued to make interesting albums, Set The Twilight Reeling and Ecstasy were the last two meaningful records.  Later in life Reed would revisit Berlin in its entirety in the late 2000s and his last album was done with Metallica in 2011 called Lulu, an album that critics both trashed Lou and Metallica for putting it out, but in all fairness this was Lou Reed's album and he was in charge of the songs, Metallica was the backing band.  It's a mess of an album but it has some moments of greatness, even to the last 7 feedback later moments of Junior Dad.    To which Lou Reed came full circle and would spend the last days of his life with Laurie Anderson and living a somewhat peaceful life.

It's no secret that Reed hated giving interviews or music critics. Generally, he made no bones about that, or the fairweather fans who jumped off the bus after Metal Machine Music,  Reed like Bob Dylan, or Neil Young followed his own muse although his extreme showing of music styles would really tax the patience of his fans and even the hardcore.  Even in New York people were advised to stay away from Mr. Reed should you find him at the local eatery. Laurie Anderson somewhat made life a bit more easier for Reed but it still wasn't enough for Reed to continue to hate to do interviews. As for myself, The Velvet Underground albums are easier to take but there are a couple of Reed albums that I will play from time to time, Coney Island Baby, Rock n Roll Animal, New Sensations, even Growing Up In Public.  In order to play Lou Reed, you have to forget that he was an jerk and an asshole and with the accusations of him being a wife abuser it will give a different meaning to hear his songs.  But now being dead for 2 years is now bringing out the accusations that he was not a pleasant man to live with or being in a band with. And that brought out the best and worst in Lou.  But Lou did things to please himself and he follow his own musical vision with passion and verve. But Lou Reed always made it clear that it wasn't you that he made the music for, it was for him and him alone.  And Lou Reed never cares about you either, even after death he doesn't.  But his music is there should you want to take a peek into it.  After all, it's only rock and roll.  Or is it?

Reviews:

Killing Joke-Pylon (Spinefarm 2015)

For melodic hard driving metal/rock the reunited original Killing Joke lineup continues to defy expectations and giving the middle finger to modern rock crap that Rock 108 plays but dares not to play Jaz Coleman and company.    They don't break new ground, they need not be, just like Motorhead and AC/DC you know what you're getting and they don't mess around either.  Gordie's guitar riffs played over and over till they're impaled in your brain, and there's no finer rhythm section than Youth and Big Paul Ferguson.  While their last album, while good, was somewhat in a holding pattern, Pylon is more into the muck like Hosannas From The Basement From Hell, their 2006 classic, featuring the last record with Paul Raven. With his passing, the original band got back together.  Certainly if you have followed Killing Joke since the reunion like I have, you get the impression that they found their mark even better than the early years. Lead off track Autonomous Zone sets the pace; 10 songs (shortest is 4:16, all but two go over 5 minutes) of repeated riffs, and Colemans' Gary Numan croon/Lemmy Yell shouts is the obvious sound.  I enjoy this straight ahead and in your face sound as well, the album gets better on the second side with Delete and I Am The Virus (which Coleman makes it sound like I am the walrus if your not paying attention) shaking the rafters.  It's Coleman who screams out what's wrong with this world, as if he's broadcasting the end of the world before your very eyes and ears but nothing you can do but bang your head and rock along with him and Ferguson's patented tribal drumming.  Their best since Ferguson's return.
Grade A-

The Blasters-Hard Line (Slash/WB 1985)

As rockabilly punk rockers they redefined Elvis and Fats Domino but on their albums Dave Alvin's songs echoed John Fogerty even down to Common Man and points for giving the Jordaniares, Elvis' favorite vocal to help out on Trouble Bound and Help You Dream.  Even the John Mellencamp produced stuff didn't distract them, Just Another Sunday and Colored Lights would have fit on Scarecrow.  But alas, this record would tear apart this band and the Alvin Brothers would not do much together outside of a couple Blasters reunions till last year when Phil and Dave made up and have made two blues based albums together.  The amazing scope of Dave Alvin's songwriter made this their best by far album together.  Almost to the point of  history comes alive, in the political world Common Man calling out politicians to their bullshit.
Grade A

Alan Klein-Well At Least It's British (Decca/RPM  1965)

A footnote in British Pop, Klein was kinda of a dry witted sort of lad that came up with what they called standard Brit music hall pop.  Klein was too British for the Americans to consider, he was the opposite of what The Beatles, Kinks, and Dave Clark Five were doing.  Very dry wit working class Brit humor, what else to explain the hiccup on Will You Ever Come Back Again, or perhaps I'm Counting On You, which might be the companion to The Yardbirds Heart Full Of Soul, which Klein sings about having somebody do him the favor and break the woman that left him heart so that woman gets back to him.   The original 12 track album does have a Joe Meek sound and influence, which is why RPM reissued this, in fact in 1962 Klein recorded 2 singles for Joe Meek, one including the oddball Three Coins In The Sewer, and Buddy Holly knock off Striped Purple Shirt, after all Meek was a Buddy Holly fanatic and most of his artists did try to record something akin to Buddy. The album after Meek, shows a lighthearted and humorful takes in Big Talk From A Little Man and 20th Century Englishman, which would fit perfectly for the Bonzo Dog Band and Monty Python.  Damon Alburn, would actually borrowed some of Klein's ideas and songs for his band Blur, which got me interested into listening to this in the first place.  You don't need to be British to enjoy this album, I find it jolly good fun, and a forgotten but essential piece of the traditional British Pop that America avoided back then.
Grade A-

Nik-Turner-Space Fusion Odyssey (Purple  Pyramid 2015)

Turner defied expectations and succeed on Space Gypsy, so for an encore he decides to go into the depths of space fusion and jazz on this 70 plus minute 10 songs of varying degree.   In his late 70s, Turner has his eye on Sun Ra as oldest fusionist, and this album echoes more of Gong, Frank Zappa, even In Search of Space Hawkwind but the source is Mahavishu Orchestra, which Billy Cobham plays drums on three songs.  If you're into this type of music you'll might want to take a listen to it, but for myself it tends to not be my cup of tea or Hawkwind but this is not bad.  Adjust The Future is 8 minutes of the same two chords repeated over.  Yes and Gong fans will dig this for Steve Hillage and Rick Wakeman on bonus track Random Acts Revisited with Jerry Goodman (Kansas, Dixie Dregs) on violin, and Billy Sherwood helping out recording the whole thing.  The music is forty years removed from today.
Grade B-



Waylon Jennings-Just To Satisfy You (RCA 1969)

I love Waylon just as much as Diggy Kat does but some of his late 60s albums for RCA really has his producers trying to fit him in with the Nashville crowd and it ain't working to Waylon advantage.   The title track was simplified for better use with Willie a decade later on, but you can sense the frustration in Waylon as Felton Jarvis adds too much of that polish Nashville sound too good for his liking.   The way Waylon wails I'm Doing all RIGHTTTTTTT to a strange arrangement of wah wah guitar on Lonely Weekends.  He goes one for two with the duet with Anita Carter, the best Rings Of Gold, the worst I Got You.  Even for Waylon's standards, this is too uneven.
Grade C+ 


Freddy Weller (ABC/Dot 1975)

For a latter day Raider, Weller held his own but he was a credible country singer and recorded for Columbia except for this one off for Dot in 1975.  Freddy rarely talks about this album, which boasted a number 52 hit with Stone Crazy, probably the only thing that rocks.  Most of the songs are paint by number mellow country, or corny country (Have You Ever Done It).  Kinda wished Collector's Choice would have found a spot on the best of for Stone Crazy when that CD was available.  Ron Chancey, hack producer really didn't do Freddy any favors either.  Probably the reason why this record is forgotten.  Weller would return back to Columbia a year later with good reason and better songs (Bar Wars).  The sound of Countrypolitian music of 1975, too polished and too laid back...and too corny.
Grade C

Why I Buy Vinyl By Henry Rollins (Via LA Times)

Every fiscal quarter or so, I meet with the accountants who handle my affairs. It’s usually to sign returns. I always ask if I’m doing anything financially irresponsible. They say no, but from the receipts, I seem to exist on small expenditures for essential items, and then the rest of my spending is almost entirely on music.

From the looks on their faces, I can tell that they find me a bit strange. I try to logic with them in terms they might deem rational. I tell them that records I bought for a few dollars many years ago have appreciated, and in a way, they are an investment — as if I have some freakin’ crystal ball and can tell that after my untimely demise, my Himalayas mountain range of vinyl won’t be half-lifing in a picked-over used store, heaped on top of the thousands of Burl Ives albums that are turning the Spike Jones records underneath them into a petroleum-based goo.

One day, I tell the accountants, when the going gets rough, I can … and that’s where my idea runs out of steam, because I don’t know what I would do with my records. More importantly, I don’t know what I would do without them.

We humans are incredibly adaptive creatures. We’ve had to be. The Earth has been trying to kill us off longer than we have been trying to choke it, but we’ve got the planet in our crosshairs and eventually — we will prevail!

From the beginning of human history, Mother Nature has waged a ceaseless war on Homo sapiens. Plagues, viruses, volcanoes with irritable bowel syndrome, tectonic plate hip checks and an army of creatures lurking in all corners, ready to envenom-ate, disembowel, infect or otherwise take us out.
The human response has been as you would expect: You fuck with us and you die. We have put the entire planet in a signature Ronda Rousey armbar, and even though the Earth is tapping out as hard as it can, for this gutless planet there will be no mercy.

Climate change is basically Earth on its back, involuntarily kicking its legs at the sky. It’s almost completely dead but still thrashing around.

After the Earth has been taught the ultimate lesson of who not to mess with, the victors — probably a small group from the banking industry, their lithesome playmates and a posse of good guys with guns — can jump up and down on the scorched, seedless, dead surface and congratulate one another on “staying the course.” Until then, we’re super busy mutating crops and livestock, and finding more efficient ways to annihilate each other as we overpopulate and put every single species on the endangered list by the mere fact that it is alive — for now.

Preening precariously at the top of the heap, humans don’t even want humans around! Yet we still hang in there, apparently getting off on the misery. We are sho ’nuff freaky and self-absorbed.
Despite catastrophic famine and systematic slaughter of millions of Soviets by their own leader, Joseph Stalin, thousands cried their eyes out when his casket rolled by in 1953. Men and women might still throw their hotel keys and knickers onstage when Dick Cheney makes appearances.
“My records are an investment — an investment in the preservation of what’s left of my sanity.”
We pine for the “good old days,” when people knew their place and things were better. The Great Famine, aka the Irish Potato Famine, wasn’t so bad! When life hands you a potato, mash it, fry it, etc.
If dolphins or elephants had a cable network called “Human Planet,” imagine the documentaries they would make about us. Scary!

Do you think the last person alive will take naked “selfies” if there is no one else to send them to? (I pose that question in an attempt to convince you that I’m really deep. I am well aware that it probably didn’t work.)

The point I am making is that I buy records because I medicate with music. It makes the day-to-day horror show of existence endurable. It’s like waking and baking but with a different stash.

This is what I can’t explain to the accountants, because it is way too intense for lunchtime conversation. In a way, my records are an investment — an investment in the preservation of what’s left of my sanity.

I am less an audiophile than I am a vinyl cat lady. You can never have too many records, aren’t they all just so wonderful?

I have been trying to send my best friend and fellow Cramps fan, Ian MacKaye, a live album of the band called Hogwild at the Nashville Rooms from June 1979, for a few weeks now. The Internet says there were 1,000 pressed, 500 in red and 500 in yellow. After I got a copy, which happened to be yellow, I played it and knew that Ian would dig one. So I found another copy and ordered it.
When the second copy arrived, it was on clear vinyl! I had to keep both because, well, they look so cool.

I found yet another and it arrived. In red. It has to stay here, too.

I found yet another, which the vendor assures me is red. This fourth copy will go to my good pal.
Next time Ian visits, I’ll enthusiastically pull out all three copies and, with great intensity, speculate as to what the clear vinyl version is all about, as if it’s a matter of great importance. He will do that thing where his face takes on an expression of infinite calm, as he says something about that clear record being real strange, you bet.

In closing, I just want to say that you, humans, have driven me to this vinyl addiction. If our species were not so hell-bent on extinction, I might momentarily leave the stereo and go to a park or something.

Random Thoughts: TE Radio 13, Do It Yourself Social Media

It was a busy week, even as I was working both Saturday & Sunday, trying to earn back the money that was lost due to health care issues and car payments and basically missed out on the Sunday Rumors Popcorn Jam featuring Tiffany Z and the Acoustic Kitties hosting the jam.  Last time they did this, I was paired up with two of the finest musicians in town in Tommy Bruner and Jess Toomsen as Ross wailed away on Sitting On Dock Of The Bay.  One thing stood out, that I have been called the loudest drummer in jam sessions by a few of the faithful.  So I gave everybody's ears a rest while I worked the full weekend and the Acoustic Kats and Tiffany Z played to a packed house.  With all the songs that played by women singers the one that gets played most often is 4 Non Blondes What's Up, one of the worst one hit wonder songs of the 1990s.  Sure Linda Perry wrote and sang it but I have never a fan of that song then, nor now.  It's very screechy and mundane but in each jam session that one comes up.  Or somebody trying to sing Bobby McGee like Janis and sounding like a cat caught in a vacuum cleaner.  I still hold out hope that somebody will dust off Jennifer Trynin's Better Than Nothing in a future show, and if that woman is single and sings Better Than Nothing, I better marry her.

Most of the faithful did show up, except for the Starks who were playing a Sunday Afternoon gig in Walford as the Dunshee Moon and their shows are always fun to go.  Once the overtime at work winds down I'll be able to return to the Sunday Jams and perhaps the next time Julie Jules Gordon and company hosts it.

Football this season has been a tale of two different teams.  Arizona State which despite the return of Steve Bercovici has underachieved and Utah blew them out in a late game to which some grammar nazi was complaining about my use of words about the Utes being penciled in as champs of the Pac 12 South on a Twitter page.  Social media is a waste of time and carpel tunnel, even with 38,000 pointless tweets I don't have many followers outside of the robots that come in and out as followers.  I'm guessing BSB, whoever he is might be a Sun Devil fan or not,   After the third exchange I told him better write it in stone bud, the Utah running back just ran 62 yards for another TD in line that Utah came from a 18-14 deficient to score 20 unanswered points and a 34-18 going away victory.  Poor punts, fumbles and a lack of discipline turned out to be the Sun Devils fate.  Which means that Utah leads the division by 2 games and Arizona State, which got upstaged by USC and a drunk ex coach on national TV, can still play for a decent bowl but in any means winning the division is all but done.

The Iowa Hawkeyes are now 7-0 after taking it to Northwestern 40-10 and they continue to roll on despite key injuries and losing Drew Ott for the season.  Rick Canzeri, the hero of last week's win over Illinois got hurt in the first half and was replaced by Akrum Wadley, who rushed for 204 yards and four TDs and was named most valuable player by the big ten this weekend.  But of course, with the undefeated 7-0 comes out the know it alls at ESPN crying about the soft teams that Iowa is playing, nevermind that Baylor and TCU play in the big 12 and loaded up on cupcake teams as well. Which explains the high price of programming of cable, that you have to pay a washed out college sensation turned NFL flash in the pan crying about Iowa playing Cupcakes.  Illinois State is one of the best teams in the lesser division, and Pittsburgh who Iowa beat by Marshall (Can't make an extra point) Koehn's 57 yard field goal is 5-1 as well.  Being 7-0 at this time is a miracle upon itself by the Hawkeyes since they were picked to be in a rebuilding mode.  CJ Bethared continues to win games, even though he's been beaten up by the opposing team with a O line that are made up with makeshift players replacing injured starters, James Daniels a true freshman who got eaten up by Joe Shoebert in the Wisconsin win, came into his own as he moved Northwestern players out of the way for big gains by Wadley and the backup Derek Mitchell who ran into gaping holes in the Northwestern defense line for big yards.   While the snooty continues to be indifferent about the "soft" remaining teams Iowa has left, they are not as all cupcakes as they say, Minnesota still has Floyd of Rosedale, Indiana is still tough at home despite somehow blowing the game with Rutgers and Nebraska is still Nebraska.  With a much needed bye week to get C J some healing time, Iowa still remains in the driver's seat to get to the title game, to which ESPN announcers will jump on Ohio State or Michigan State or Michigan bandwagon without a second thought.  Even though Northwestern started out 5-0, major injuries has caused them to get shut out by Michigan last week and the defense had no answer for the Wadley running game.  Still, five games remain and despite the brain damaged ESPN flash in the pan college stars and NFL Failures of the past tell you, none are cupcakes, Minnesota still has Floyd, Indiana despite blowing the Rutgers game still hold their own at home and Nebraska always gives the Hawkeyes a game regardless. Going undefeated remains one of the hardest things to do in college football but the Hawks should at least win 10 games.  And they get this week off to heal up.  And they need some healing time.  Just don't listen to the ESPN hacks on your days off.

Of course the game of the week was seeing Michigan State win on the final play on a muffed punt snap and return for a TD to which Jalen Watts-Jackson  who ran it back is out the rest of the year getting hurt on that romp into the end zone.  But Social Media would like to kill the punter who muffed the ball. Blake O'Neill forever linked to Steve Bartman and whoever else got blamed for blowing ball games in the end. In fact the Michigan State equipment team already had the trophy to the locker room before the last play of the game.  While social media would like to hang the punter who dropped the ball, a finger should be pointed at the Michigan coach for not running the time out even with Michigan State with one time out remaining,  they should have ran it out, thus winning the game.  But strange things do happen in games, and some turn out to be star players of the moment in Watts-Jackson and some forever tainted in history by one play (O'Neill), and alas, Jim Harbargh who will somehow get out of this mess sooner than O'Neill later.  Beat Ohio State and Jim still be voted in as Governor.   That's football.

The social media outlets of Twitter, Instragram, Facebook and others is overrated in order to get the word out.   And in the 14 years of being on social outlets, the fan base and readership has never gotten over a a select few faithful readers and many spam artists and ghost followers who really don't bring anything to the table in comments.  But that's where I get the news from, social media outlets.  Corporate news stations like FOX or CNN is propaganda with five minute commercial breaks for Big Pharma and it's gotten to the point that it's not worth turning the TV on anymore.  To dedicate 14 years of my life to keep things from the past from going away completely and mentioning bands and 45s deserving of some recognition, this don't pay anything and sometimes I wonder if it's worth the effort.   The Singles Going Steady blogs, Forgotten Bands of yesterday and the My City Is Gone series are the ones that people seem to read more often than not.  Or maybe perhaps it's Blogspot way of saying that posting 155 views from Russia makes it worthwhile to continue.  Record World is me and nobody else and after posting a blog, I'm off to compile for the next and it's a hobby that I must love.  It certainly don't pay the bills.  It seems to me though, the major news I get from Facebook, is basically a lot of Left Vs Right clash of ideas, Trump Vs Bernie, Bernie Vs Hillary, Hillary Vs Trump etc etc etc. and even my left wing friends tend to get on my nerves as well.   Likewise, the ones who post Share If Your' Proud of Your Daughter, Son, Grand Daughter, Grand Son bla blah.  Or the threat of Share if you love Jesus/God, scroll/Ignore if you love the devil, bullshit like that.  Basically God and Jesus have other things to do than seeing if  5 billion people with facebook accounts scroll past such idiot memes and posters that somebody had nothing better to do than post idiot things such as Share or Scroll.  With wars going on, and Donald Trump still breathing there are more important things to worry about.  Or to have some grammar Nazi on Twitter saying you put the wrong word down on some pointless twitter tweet nobody gives a fuck about. If you have a good son and daughter so be it, we don't need to be reminded of it 24/7.   I do believe in a God, and he's a very patient and loving and forgiving God since he has to put up with my antics.  In the long run, it you get the same results if you post meme's saying share this pile of money and you'll get some soon.  Which is what we call around here pay day.  That would be this Friday.  It'd be nice to get that money that they posted in the memes but then again most of those pictures are total bullshit anyway. (see below)

The reality: (see below)

Still, the question remains if it's worth it to develop carpel tunnel to write weekly blogs and tweet and post nonsense on Facebook and thinking I'm making a difference.  The logical conclusion continues to be hit and miss and 99 percent of all blogs pass by without any comments.  Of course you can still post a comment here but the rules apply that no bashing or touting RayBeens or Porn sites. And that I take a look and approve them, well about 98 percent of them. It's fun to chat and talk music, not so much if you're dealing with a Trump fan or FGL/Bro Country fan.  Once in a while we'll strike a chord (Mom's Apple Pie, Swinging Steaks, Delta Moon/Brains) and the intention realized that somebody else cares about those bands or certain 45s and LPs.  So I keep plugging away, knowing that most blogs are a failed effort 99 percent of the time but that 1 percent of getting noticed is probably why I keep going. And fighting carpel tunnel and bad penmanship writing away from the keyboards.....

Georgia Van Berkum, one of our long time neighbors in Marion passed away, she was in Hospice after fighting cancer a while....James Benford passed away at age 91, he was a code breaker during the wars, I briefly dated his daughter Belinda a couple times in the mid 80s, thoughts and prayers go out to her and her family....And Jeanne Oldenburger, wife to Darrel of Darrell's TV in Marion and mother to the late Randy Oldenburger has gone to join her son into  the great beyond. She was 73....John Jennings, Nashville singer songwriter passed away from kidney cancer he was 61.

Cory Wells, one of the vocalists in Three Dog Night died Tuesday Night, the guess was a heart attack but if and when the updates come in, I'll post them.  He was 74

In 1920, Alberta Peat was born, later known as LaWanda Page.  Monday would have been her 95th birthday. One of my favorite comedians of all time, LaWanda when teamed up with Redd Foxx on Sanford and Sons would have a comedy war of jokes and barbs thrown at one another.  LaWanda is famous for recording some of the most X rated backroom comedy albums of the late 50s and early 60s and could rival Redd Foxx for most offensive.  But that's what I like about LaWanda Page.  Her albums could make Eddie Murphy look tame in comparison.

So much for the Chicago Cubs season as they once again got shut out of winning a game in the Championship Series and nobody could get Daniel Murphy out as he hit home runs in every fucking game.   The new Donn Clendenon so to speak.  Just like 1969 all over again.  Doesn't help the fact that The Mets lead in every game and scored in the first inning all four games. It shouldn't matter that the Cubs took out Pittsburgh and St Louis in the playoffs and nobody expected them to finish this far late in the year.  So with that, we'll remember the ultimate year that the Cubs had this year and hope they can build upon that.  And quit blaming goats, overzealous fans and other assorted bullshit that the media brings up.  Yet another team that was better to make it to the world series, been that way since 1945.

Hello Ivy Doomkitty ;-)

Choice Reviews:

The Chambers Brothers-The Time Has Come (Columbia 1968)

Probably their best album overall, The Chambers Brothers tended to add too much filler on their LPs and even their best ofs  tend to wear out their welcome but they ended up with a classic in Time Has Come Today and it's 11 minute glory.  Like the rest of the world I was brought up on the 4:45 edit that AM used to play late night.  However, remarkable B side People Get Ready is quite soulful and shows the Chambers' gospel roots.  Lesser known minor hit Uptown written by the future Mrs. Miles Davis is a pretty good James Brown sound.   I might be in the minority but I still love the two chord rump through In The Midnight Hour with the call and response the last couple minutes.  I have the original CD version, which leaves out the bonus tracks and you're probably better off to start there rather than the Best Of.  For Hippy Dippy Soul Music, you can't beat it.
Grade B+

The Dickies-The Incredible Shrinking Dickies (A&M 1979)

You heard of punk? This is Twit. So sez Robert Christgau in his brief and too the point seven word summary of this album.  And if you're not careful, this will grate on your nerves.  So, granted the twit punk explosion didn't take root in 1979 and even LA Punks didn't think highly of their sped up version of Paranoid by Black Sabbath and turn around and did speed punk versions of She and Eve Of Destruction. Not a lot of thought, just play fast and think of silly things to say I gather, and it's over in less than a half hour.  Best song is not You Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla) but Waterslide, to which The Dickies become, for the first and only time, real punk rockers and not twits.  Overall a silly album.  As for The Fabulous Poodles and Christgau calling them twerps, that's another matter.
Grade B-

Townedger Radio Broadcast Show Number Lucky 13 (Broadcast 10/21/15) Lucky Star Radio.
https://www.mixcloud.com/LuckyStarRadio/townedger-radio-13/

Playlist:

Listen To Her Heart-Tom Petty
Hearts In Her Eyes-The Searchers
Shadow Boy-Scruffy The Cat
For What It's Worth-Dave Bonham
Let's Work Together-The Townedgers
I Know You Rider-The Grateful Dead
50 Foot Queenie-P J Harvey
I'd Rather You Didn't Love Me-Willie Nelson
Kansas City Southern-Dillard/Clark Exposition
Long Time Gone-The Townedgers
Once In A While-Rod Albaugh And The Fluid
Me And The Boys-NRBQ
Mona Lisa Overdrive-Head Candy
Coast To Coast-Ducks Deluxe
It's The Law-Social Distortion
Boobs A Lot-The Fugs
Oh Well-The Rockets
Love Struck Baby-Stevie Ray Vaughan/Double Trouble 

Singles Going Steady 26-The Museum Pieces

Earlier in the month, I previewed a collection of 45s that I found for a dollar or less at various record stores and thift shops, the fun stuff so to speak.  In this edition, I take a look at the dollar and over.  The museum pieces, or records over 4 dollars.  The choice buys came from Ragged Records and from that special tub of unplayed unknown 45s that Bob had hidden in the aisles and told me about it.  I posted Cruel World, the 10 dollar find in a earlier blog.  In the past couple trips to Davenport I did managed to go through the countless boxes of 45s in the back that were not in the 45's room.  And ended up spending over 120 dollars in the two trips of going there.  Granted they were choice buys, I figured they were much different and harder to find.  I may or may not return there one more time before the snow flies, but as a seasoned bargain hunter and 45 collector I do have an idea of what I'm looking for.  And that is the obscure 45 of long ago and far away no longer played on radio and only on old record players.

In the vast archives, I found singles that have forgotten faces and forgotten bands.  Lee Hazelwood, The Fourmost, artists in transition or simply bands that made one single and disappeared from sight.  As well continuing to add records that used to be in my mom's collection and what I used to listen to when we visited Grandma Ambrose when we went to Lincoln.  God bless her for letting me listen to all that noisy singles of the past.  A few more of those singles are back in the collection, Johnny And The Hurricane's Red River Rock/Buckeye, Jimmy Jones Handy Man, Travis And Bob Tell Him No and probably the best known of the bunch.  In no particular order or price range, these 10 songs stick out the best.  For reasons I only know and not telling.

1.  Every Day And Every Night-The Trolls (ABC 45-10823)    #96 1966   They were from Illinois and owed a lot to The Shadows Of Knight in terms of their sound even though Johnny Pate (B B King) produced this single, it's a funny rocker about a overweight woman stalking the lead singer, which is part Gloria, Dirty Water and Steppin Out.  I'm surprised that Lenny Kaye overlooked this little gem when he was putting together the original Nuggets album, but the song didn't sell very well, it appeared at one week at number 96 in October of 1966, although it charted higher on WLS or the Peoria station.  This museum piece cost me 8 dollars.

2.  Mary Lou-Ronnie Hawkins  (Roulette 4-4177)   #26  1959  Ronnie's only top thirty showing (#26 in August of 1959) this features his backing band The Hawks which might have had a youthful Robbie Robertson playing guitar, however oldies radio doesn't play this very often.  It's surprising to note that Who Do You Love, didn't chart at all, perhaps it was too hard rock sounding for the Fabian/Pat Boone crowd.  Hawkins would still record from time to time, but the Hawks would later back Bob Dylan up and later became The Band.  And the rest is history.  Another 8 dollar 45.

3.  Funny What Love Can Do/We Didn't Ask To Be Brought Here-Bobby Darin   (Atlantic 2305) 1965    Bobby's return to Atlantic after four years on Capitol saw Bobby going toward a more folk rock sound, certainly he got that 12 string guitar Rickenbacker riff that Roger McGuinn did for The Byrds on the Gene Page arranged We Didn't Ask To Be Brought Here, and it's hard to tell what the A or B side was.  B side Funny What Love Can Do really is the telling song of Bobby going into a folk rock mood, somewhere along like what Dion was doing at Columbia at this time. An interesting idea and Funny What Love Can Do has been put on a couple of Bobby Darin best ofs, but We Didn't Ask...has yet to make a CD appearance.  The failure of the single to chart (#113 in the bubbling under side of things) caused Atlantic to rush out a pop song in the number 53 Mame, but Darin would succeed in getting the Tim Hardin written If I Was A Carpenter up to number 8 on the charts in September of 1966.  Which would be Bobby's last top ten single.  Bought this for 4 dollars.

4.  Five Feet High And Rising-The Shacklefords (Capitol 5478)  1965  It's strange to see that this single out all the ones that I did buy only cost 3 dollars, whereas Leapy Lee's Here Comes The Rain was a dollar more and I probably should have put that one back.  But The Shacklefords  was the folk group led by Marty Cooper and one Lee Hazlewood, who's gruff bass vocals can be heard in the background.  Marty Cooper seemed to be the lead singer from what I have heard of them. One of four singles that this folk duo issued on Capitol and I think one album too but none of the Capitol singles charted.  Lee would have better luck producing and dueting with Nancy Sinatra later on and forming his own record label LHI for a couple years.  He returned back to Capitol in 1973 with the failed single Nancy And Me. (Capitol 3611 1973).

5.  I'm Movin On-Johnny Nash (Warner Brothers 5336) 1963  He started out as a teen idol for ABC Paramount in 1957 and with Paul Anka and George Hamilton IV gave us The Teen Commandants, a very silly song about keeping on the straight and narrow. Still,he only had 3 chart placement singles, the best known Valley Of Tears was produced by Phil Spector in 1961.  Moving over to Warner Brothers, Nash stayed there for a year and ended up recording this uptempo teen beat cover of Hank Snow's song.  Stan Applebaum is the one that produced and arranged this and although reviews of this song were positive, it failed to chart.  Nash would became a journeyman, recording for Groove, Argo, Atlantic,  JoDa and MGM before getting a top ten hit with Hold Me Tight for JAD in 1969. A case in point that one of the main songwriters on that album was none other than Peter Tosh.  His number one single I Can See Clearly Now and the album of that name he had help from Bob Marley. And he managed to stay with Epic from 1972 to 1979 thereabouts.

6.  Here, There And Everywhere-The Fourmost (Capitol 5738)  1966  These guys could copy The Beatles, like that band they came from England and had a mersey sound to their music, a more conventional Gerry And The Pacemakers. The Fourmost did cover Beatles songs,  Their ATCO singles Hello Little Girl and I'm In Love were written by John and Paul. But unlike Gerry And The Pacemakers, The Fourmost never broke any singles on the US charts, although they made a noble effort of this Beatles cover, produced by Ron Richards of The Hollies fame.   And unlike the fab four, this song would not chart either.  Something found for six dollars.

7.  Bad Side Of The Moon-Toe Fat (Rare Earth R 5019)  1970  Barry Gordy had much success with Motown soul but with rock and roll that was a different story.  In 1969 he drew up a label for rock and roll bands called Rare Earth, and signed a band with the same name, they made a single for Verve before moving to Rare Earth and being the only rock and roll success band for that label.  But didn't mean Barry Gordy didn't try.  He signed The Easybeats which they got a minor hit with St. Louis (R 5009) which stumbled into the top 100 at number 100.  Another band of note was UFO, which their space rock contradicted Motown soul and was a match made in hell, they would get better, ditching the space rock for a blues rock for Chrysalis.  And perhaps the odd band out was Toe Fat, a band featuring Cliff Bennett as lead singer and a couple guys would later join Uriah Heep.  For some reason Gordy thought that editing a 3 minute song down to 2 would be a good idea, in short, there wasn't much to chop off on this Elton John cover.  The cover art of Toe Fat's album is a classic by itself, the record is early hard rock metal.  Ken Hensley and Lee Kerslake would join Uriah Heep. More contradiction: the 45 picture sleeve considers Just Like Me the A side, but I have DJ copy that only has Bad Side Of The Moon on both side.  Therefore I consider that the intended single.  Of course it didn't chart either.

8.  She Was The Girl-Michael And The Messengers (USA 889)  1967   Somehow the connection to this band and Toe Fat was that The Messengers would later record for Motown but on different labels. For Window Shopping, they were assigned to Soul and produced by R Dean Taylor (Indiana Wants Me) in 1968 and would get a top ten hit with That's The Way A Woman Is (Rare Earth 5032 1971 charted #62). As for Mike and The Messengers, they recorded at least 3 singles for USA, this one the least known since 45 cat didn't have any information about this song.  Larry Weiss who co wrote this song, is famous for writing the hit single Help Me Girl for Eric Burdon And The Animals although The Outsiders covered this as well.  She Was The Girl sounds like them trying to be The Walker Brothers in terms of pop and scope. But for a six dollar buy, I didn't like this song much.  I was thinking they were more garage rock, but this song says they're not.

9.  Redwood City-The Nomos (Prestige 45-301)  1964  A mystery record that Bob at Ragged swore he knew nothing about, it was thought that it could have been a instrumental but since it came from Prestige, my guess it was a more jazz soul single and I was right. Further research shows this was a band of jazzmen with included Brother Jack McDuff on keyboards, Red Holloway on Tenor sax, Red Tyler on Soprano Sax, the rhythm section of Tommy Shelvin (Bass) and Joe Dukes on drums and a very young George Benson on guitar.  While Redwood City was the plug side, somebody on You Tube posted the b side Step Out And Git It which does recall more Booker T and Jimmy McGriff.  And like most jazz 45s, they were edited down to two minutes both sides.  This one cost 6 dollars.

10.  One of those days Sunday's Gonna Come On Tuesday-The New Establishment  (Colgems 66-5006)  #92  1969  Winner's of the 1967 Scoutarama contest for Teen Magazine, this groovy guys and chicks recorded a highly sought after single for Mercury Time For Everything in 1967 but 2 years later they would be recording for the label best known for The Monkees.  It's sunshine pop in the tradition of The Peppermint Rainbow and for their trouble, managed to hit number 92 on the charts in November of 1969.  Nicely arranged by Perry Botkin Jr, later of Nadia's Theme, although this song is pop and not rock.  Followup single I'll Build A Bridge didn't chart.  Soon Screen Gems sold their music publishing to EMI and Colgems would shut down, but not before The New Establishment tried one more time, moving over to RCA for the November 1970 release of Love Will Keep Us Going.  And was never heard from anymore after that.  This one got donated.

Week In Review-Battle Of The Blues Jams, The Crabbys 2015, CUBS BEAT ST LOUIS

Fall is in the air here, the days are getting much shorter, the sun sets now before 7 PM and the farmers are out in the fields.  As you can tell, I'm back behind the scenes here with a few more blogs this month, having caught up in the archives of The Townedgers over at blogspot, although the typing day in and day out is beginning to take a toll on these fingers.  The My City Is Gone original post garnered enough requests to do a followup.  A third in the series is planned, but this one will feature more of my archives rather than others on the net.  But that's still in the planning department.

The end of days must be coming, The Chicago Cubs did the unthinkable and after dropping the first game, won the next three and defeated the St Louis Cardinals 6-4.  After the Cards tied it up, Anthony Rizzo then took a pitch out into the bleachers and later Kyle Scharber smacked a long one into the stands.  Stat of the day was that the Cubs hit 15 Home runs in the series and a hard to believe 6 of them in game three, which the wind was blowing out of Wrigley.  For the first time in history, the Cubs won  a deciding game in the playoffs at Wrigley ever.  I'm not going to get into the superstition of Back To The Future Part 2, but at least we can finally put Steve Bartman to rest.  History is that and the future looks promising, with Kris Bryant, Kyle Scharber, Anthony Rizzo, Addison Russell (who got hurt in game 3), Javy Baez, Jorge Soler being the bright future that the future came into play much earlier than expected.  And of course veterans such as Dexter Fowler, Starlin  Castro had time timely hitting and home runs as well.  I also was impressed that the bullpen did a fairly good job holding the feared Redbirds in check.  Perhaps it was Joe Maddon playing his hunches and putting the relief pitchers in the perfect slot, Travis Wood, Trevor Cahill, Clayton Richard, even Pedro Strop and Fernando Rodney pitched great to get the game to Hector Rondon to save the game and striking out up and coming Steve Piscotty to end the game.  Will this be the year for The Cubs?  I hope so.

  Aftermath: (No idea why things are highlighted)

Kyle Schwarber's boom shot to the Budweiser sign out in the bleachers was found by an employee cleaning up the place the next day.  They decided to keep it up there as a reminder to the opposing pitcher what can happen if they hang a curve ball.

It's up here.

I'm winding down on my weekly jam sessions with the fellow musicians.  This Sunday I took the day off and went up to Dubuque to hang around the Mississippi and count trains off the river walk.   I'm not sure if doing The Crabby Awards for best places are worth doing but this year's best record store, I'm casting my vote for Moondog Music.  The usual places that I frequent are still worth going to, Ragged Records in Davenport, Co Op in Moline, Record Collector in Iowa City and CD's 4 Change, the other store in Dubuque as well.  But in the end, Moondog Music wins out because, next to Co Op Moline, they're open on Sundays and up till 9 PM, and I managed to find a bunch of 45s for a dollar apiece.  Where else can you find Get Me To The World On Time by The Electric Prunes and Sagittarius' My World Fell Down for that price.  Plus Moondog still makes an effort to get the new releases on CD as well.  And did I mention that they stay open till 9 on the weekends?  It's nice to have a record store that conforms to my schedule rather than try to plan around the 10 to 5 or 11 to 7 that most record stores employ around here today. It'd be different if I still lived in Arizona,  they would have my own little space at Zia's Records.

Best Record Stores in the area

1.  Moondog Music (DBQ)
2.  Ragged Records (Davenport)
3.  Co Op Records (Moline, Clinton)
4.  CDs 4 Change (DBQ)
5.  Record Collector (IC)
6.  The Source Bookstore (Davenport)
7.  Barnes And Noble (CR)
8.  Books A Million (DBQ, Quad Cities)
9.  Big Box Stores (Best Buy, Target, Wally World, K Mart, Shopko)

Best places for used records/CDs

1. Half Priced Books (CR-Marion)
2. Stuff Etc (CR, IC, Waterloo, Davenport, Ankeny)
3. Sweet Living Antiques (IC)
4. St Vincent De Paul (Waterloo, Madison)
5. Goodwill (CR, Marion, IC, Quad Cities, etc)
6. Salvation Army (Marion)

The thrift stores remain spotty and if you're there at the right place right time, you're bound to find something of value, to which I have always have had some sort of decent luck.  While vinyl sales have continued to go up, over 15 percent from last year, they still remain a niche buy and they remain overpriced although audiophiles will continue to tout their findings.  Problem is that some places do overprice their used vinyl and no matter how much I'd love to get the Fantasy S/T album, I'm not paying over 20 dollars for one. So it reminds the kindness of donors who drop their collection at the thrift stores to find the ones that got away. For me it's the ones off the beaten track, independent country 45s or something that won't get airplay on the radio.  LPs and CDs the same thing; you really have to sort through all the gospel praise stuff or pop crap, sometimes I do find a lost classic in Horace Silver Song For My Father for fifty cents at a Salvation Army Bargains store.

If your traveling up to Madison, beware of the stop lights and bad drivers and head over to 1) Mad City Music Exchange on Williamson Street, 2) Strictly Discs in the University District, 3) Sugar Shack Records.  Of course The St Vincent De Paul on Williamson Street is the place to get cheap 45s and LPs and while both Half Priced Books are hit and miss they do have a inventory and selection  of cheap music to seek.  Same as Frugal Muse in the Target Square.  The Goodwill and Salvation Army stores you're on your own.

Passings: Steve McKay, saxophone player for The Stooges Fun House album and rejoined the band passed away from sepsis, he was 66.  Smokin Joe Kubek, blues guitarist extraordinaire suffered a heart attack prior before playing Tuesday Night, he was 58.

Whatever happened to Preston Hubbard, famed bass player for the Fabulous Thunderbirds? Read here: http://www.riverfronttimes.com/stlouis/st-louis-stepped-up-to-help-this-famous-musician-but-did-he-actually-need-it/Content?oid=3029480&showFullText=true

I took Tuesday off from work to watch the Cubs play at Parlor City and I don't usually hang with the crowd to watch a ball game, I get very vocal and liberal on the F Bombs but when the final out was recorded, I sat back in shock to see what has happened, while most of the crowd cheered.  There were a few Cardinals fans in tow but once the Cub won out, the more vocal were Cubs fans.  It was also the Tuesday Night Jam Session, to which legendary  Bob Dorr showed up with his drum set.  While navigating the closed roads around New Bo, and trying to find a place to park up close, I waited for him to pass by while I was parking the car.  You can't miss him, he drives a SUV with Blue 40 for plates.  Eventually I must have gotten into the door before he arrived.   And he's perhaps the first person I seen, toting his drumset already put together through the door, although he didn't have a floor tom to beat, basically a small drums, a couple cymbals and high hat.  While he tell folk otherwise, he does keep a beat, and what better way to lead off a jam session with Sweet Home Chicago.   Even on a Tuesday Night and some of the best blues players in town, the crowd was half empty, although I did leave after three songs to get to the Wrigleyville Jams that I frequent and participate most of the time.  Certainly Dorr with Dan Johnson, T Bone Giblin and others put down that patented jazz blues groove that Bob does so well with The Blue Band, he knows his groove, it was just that I made an commitment to the  Wrigleyville jams.  Highlights included Mike Lint doing a good job of Drift Away, with me on drums, with us trading spots for Cant' Get Enough and me singing lead on a couple others, with the round mound of beats Terry McDowell working on the drums.   Somebody did post a video of Drift Away with me on drums, but even with dual jams around town, crowds was sparse at Wrigleyville as well.  Passing up a chance to jam with Bob Dorr in favor of the other place, I must have been out of my mind but in the end, I had better friends and musicians at the other place.  Hopefully I can do a jam session with Dan Johnson at Parlor City if and when time allows and if and when there's not a jam session at Wrigleyville on the same night.

Reviews:

Blackberry Smoke-The Whippoorwill (Southern Ground 2012)

While reviews of this album called this the best of 2012,  I tend to approach cautiously.  I do think their latest remains the best of the year but The Whippoorwill, while good, was B.S. trying to find their own groove.  At times they sound like a smarter Georgia Satellites, or a in transit Kentucky Headhunters, or the younger brother of The Bottlerockets.  A good cheating song is Little White Lie and it shows that Charlie Starr has been taking notes of Brian Henneman, the Bottlerockets leader, who's new album will be next on the review list.  Certainly Starr is too smart for Bro country and Lucky Seven and Leave a Scar are closer to southern rock than Americana country.  I'd probably like this record a lot more if they left off the moaning female soul singers that make listening to Crimson Moon or Everybody Knows She's Mine a chore to sit through.  Thankfully that got corrected on the next album, but in any case The Whippoorwill is a nice stepping stone to the classic record that would be Holding All The Roses.
Grade B+

Elephants Memory-Songs From Midnight Cowboy  (Buddah 1969)

Meeting up with John And Yoko would be the undoing of them, but in the late 60s, Neil Bogart signed them to his bubblegum label Buddah and Wes Farrell (The Partridge Family, Wayne Newton) would produce their first album.  Although they owed much to New Vaudeville Band and Blood Sweat and Tears, they also had a ear for Mothers Of Invention type of freakouts such as Super Heep and Old Man Willow.  While Carly Simon was once a member, Michal Shapiro is the female vocal and she re-imagines Everybody's Talking from a woman's point of view although it won't make you forget Nilsson or Spanky And Our Game.  There's some silly shit on here, Yogurt Song comes to mind, but overall I like the oddball Don't Put Me On Trial No More and Shapiro's revised lyrics to Crossroads Of The Stepping Stones.   Strange pairing of this band being on a label famous for bubblegum and a producer who more into teen pop, but this record does work well.  Too bad Frank Zappa never recorded them for Straight/Bizarre, they would have been a perfect band for him.
Grade B+

The Bottlerockets-South Broadway Athletic Club (Bloodshot 2015)

Something about Roscoe Ambel that gets the best out of Brian Henneman, who writes from a Midwestern point of view, more worldly than Bruce Springsteen in this day and age.  He could also do a children's album if he wanted too as evidenced by "Dog".  He speaks for all of us in lead off track Mondays (Everytime I Turn Around) that we hate Mondays, especially if you have day time jobs and have to give up early. He speaks for the worker who's in it for the money on Building Chrysler's, which might apply to the Volkswagen fiasco of the past summer of rates and hell with quality control.  But he believes in love and Big Lotsa Love.  While The Bottlerockets still made decent albums, none of them really stood out for me, but South Broadway Athletic Club is a fine return to form that made the 1990s album such as 24 Hours A Day a joy to listen to.  It's their best since that album.
Grade A-

Conterpoint: Robert Christgau:
Alt-country vet Brian Henneman is one of those guys who likes writing songs too much to quit. Weary evocations of the persistence of Monday and airbag duty at the Chrysler plant convince you music isn't his day job whether it is or not. Similarly, the long-haul passion of "Big Lotsa Love" makes you hope the perfect breakup lamentation "Something Good" is just poetry he couldn't resist whether it is or not: "World turns/Rome burns/Can't you hear that fiddle sound/Time flies/Elvis dies/It's all over but the shoutin' now." If you notice the material weakening toward the end, give him a break. He's beat. A MINUS

From Dan Johnson on the Tuesday Night Blues Jam

 The best Parlor City Pub & Eatery Jam we've had in a long time. Great job by Bob Bob Dorr and Jeff Petersen. Sheryl Petersen and some of the Blue band gang in the house. Charlie Morgan did a set with some family- Vince on harp, Tom on git. Barb Barb Myers realized a bucket listing doing Beatles with Bob, and immortalized him and the jammers with more Parlor City Jam Pizza Box Art. Some new faces, and Mike Swearingen sat in on a couple. And Greg Francisco with a bagpipe finale. Fun. Next week: Ryan Phelan and Richard Wagor. Thanks for your support.

I got to jam with Charlie Morgan on a few blues numbers back in 1993 thereabouts and Charlie has been one of my favorite musicians to jam with.  Had I known that our vocalist Mike Swearingen was there I would have waited.and jammed with him as well.  But I made a promise to show up to the Wrigleyville jam session.  A little advance warning and there could have been another mini Paraphernalia/Tyrus reunion.  Maybe next time.

Final word from  Bob Dorr about performing Spoonful next time he's in town.

careful what you wish for! Let's give this a try on Dec. 15.

Next Jam: The Acoustic Kitties host the Rumors Sunday show.  They're fun to watch and you too can join in the fun by jamming a few songs as well.

  

My City Is Gone-Marion Revisited Again

An earlier blog celebrated the coming and goings of my town Marion Iowa.  Growing up in the 70s there was somewhat of a small town paradise that no longer exists today.  Thanks to the some of my friends, Ken Jones, Mark Prouty a few others have preserved their memories on various sites.  Once again I pick and choose some of what used to make Marion a great place to live back then.

If only things could be like that again. (David Ray photo credit) 

Mark Prouty is one of my best friends that I used to hang around with.  This house he used to lived in was one of the coolest old time houses in Marion, and they were next to the train tracks where the old Milwaukee Road used to go through town. They would relocated to seventh avenue and this house ended up being set on fire for training.  Sad day in history to see it go up in flames (Photo Courtesy of Mark Prouty).

The old Derby/Coastal Mart on 7th Avenue.  This is where my dad managed this gas station in the early 70s and where I would be employed in the summer of 1979.  Had great managers in Barry Tritle and Doug Kidd, but the third managed was a dick.  He fired me, and I moved over to the Union 76 a couple months later.  To which that third manager stopped in to leave town, he got fired for taking money out of the cash register.   Poetic justice served.

I have yet to see photos of the old Twixt Town Drive In, The theater of choice when we were growing up and to which you can see the screen about a half block away going back into Marion.  It later became a drive in to watch hardcore R rated movies in the early 70s but later on, went back to more family friendly movie shows.  I recall seeing Up In Smoke up there in late 1978.  Sad to say the drive in closed up shop in 1981 and sat idle for four years before an up and coming store called Best Buy came and bulldozed the drive in down around 1984.  Amazingly, the drive in never got tagged by spray can welding idiots.

The Armar Ballroom. Where big bands and teen idols used to play up till around 1976 with this got bulldozed down in favor of a new Barlow's Store and some place called Applegate's Landing, a place where I got employed as a busboy and then got demoted to Dishwasher. It was not the best of times for me.   Fun fact, where this was located, Marion and Cedar Rapids still had wide open spaces and wasn't connected yet.  There was a gravel road that went back up to what we called Suicide Hill, a place where many kids used to snowboard downhill.  Had a few friends that broke a leg or arm going down that hill.

Next: The Viaduct from 6th street to Seventh Avenue.  Back in the 70s, this was a bit more tighter to get through, almost a one lane road so to speak but they widen it.  Once the trains stopped running through town, it became basically a forgotten right of way.  It might have made a nice walking trail but the city council decided to take it and they did sometime around 2012.  The buildings in the background would be torn down for the next stupid idea, a roundabout to be built in that area.  Which reminds me, that John Nieland is running for mayor again, the voters need to tell him to take a hike.

City Cleaners, being torn down for that upcoming roundabout.  It may be time for me to change my place of residence.  Mark Prouty also took this shot.  His mom and brother lives across the street. 

Memorial Hall. The left side then; right side now.  If there's anything of good coming out of the changes of Marion it has to be the transformation of Memorial Hall into hopefully a up and coming art and music place for people to hang out.  The folks at Campbell Steele are part of this changing of this historic building.   For the most part downtown Marion is going under changes.  With the closure of Irwin's Clothing there is talk of making that affordable apartments or more antique stores.  While I hope to see some good of changes in Marion, I remain skeptical especially of the forthcoming election and who gets in.   Will this town ever return to the good old fashioned days again?  The answer and guess would be no but at least we have memories of what used to make this town fun to live in are still around.

Town's Edge Motors, or what used to be TE Motors.  Once a big part of selling Toyotas and snowmobiles out in the area, It ended being a used car dealership before it became an auto parts store. The building is up for sale but the reality is that this will be torn down in the near future for new buildings.  But I thought I better snap a few photos before it is torn down. 

Week In Review: Gail Zappa, Billy Joe Royal, High Prices Headaches

The ratings have been tanking of late here in Record World.  Even with new stuff and Singles Going Steady, we have not cleared 100 views since last day of summer.  Even a last minute serge didn't top 2,000 views   Way things are going I'd be lucky to clear 1500.  I'm also aware of the loss of photos from the archives section.  When I copied and pasted them back then, whoever had the pictures up would take them down, thus leaving blanks in the blogs, including mine that disappeared.  Since this past year, I posted the pictures myself, and so far this method I have not lost any pictures.  I can't control the deleting pictures of previous blogs, unless I go to each and every one and saved them in my photos and then reposting them.  I have saved certain ones because they do mean something to me. I also lost certain 45s of the past thinking they could last forever, such as Nightmares by The Creation but that picture got deleted as well.   It's not high on my Honey Do list of saving each and every picture, but I hope that if they're still out in net land, they'll be here in Record World.

The Chicago Cubs won their wild card game, beating Pittsburgh 5-0 on a couple of home runs, one from Dexter Fowler and one from Kyle Schwarber, who's been the spark that got the Cubs going.  They seem to wake up from their sleep after being no hit by Cole Hamels.  Of course it helps when Jake Arrieta wins 22 games and had a 0.75 ERA since the all star break and after pitching this complete game gem that's even lower.  Cubs fans are really superstitious, they have taken the Back To The Future part 2 that in the movie that they won the world series in 2015.  If that holds true then the end of the world is in sight.  However, the St Louis Cardinals stand in their way in the first round of the playoffs.  While the Cards had their way with the Cubs earlier in the season, the last couple meetings have seen the Cubs win the series although not a sweep.  Not bad for a team that was still rebuilding, that The Cubs defined expectations and got into the playoffs via wild card.  This year has been a successful one at best, despite not being shown on WGN anymore (The Superstation USA light channel, not Chicagoland WGN which I wish we would trade for any day on our shitty cable company, Two Cans and a Nylon String Cable out of Springville Iowa). Still the Cardinals won 100 games this season and remain a favorite to make another world series appearance.  It's the first time both teams seen each other in the playoffs, but you never know.  Quad Cities had the best minor league record and it took Cedar Rapids two games to dispose of them.  You gotta believe quoted from the late Yogi Berra.

Passings include Gail Zappa, wife and watcher of Frank Zappa's back catalog after a long illness, she was 70.  If anything Gail was the perfect wife to the late great Frank and keeping a sharp look out of his music of the past.  A couple years ago, she signed up with Universal to which most of Zappa's music was reissued.  Son Dweezil continues to do the Zappa plays Zappa concerts around the country.  Billy Joe Royal, the guy who gave us Down In the Boondocks and Cherry Hill Park but also did a lot of Joe South's songs passed away Monday at age 73.  When the pop hits dried up, Royal went country and recorded a few albums for Atlantic Country.  He had been playing the oldies circuit in the 2000s before ill health forced him off the road and into retirement.

High prices continue to happen.  Gas prices went up a whopping 30 cents this week, due to the South Carolina Flooding, or so they say.  Fuck the working man and that 1 percent pay rise, getting offset by 10 percent price hikes on just everything  in life.  Cable continues the usual hikes for "programming" but that's bullshit, especially from our shitty cable company.  The analog feed they give us, continues to be fucking snowy and wavy lines at all times.  And if there's something worth watching, they decide to do those annoying blue screen emergency tests that you miss the punch line to a movie and it ends.  ESPN continues to pick and choose what games we can watch and if it's on ESPN FU then we won't see it. such as the Iowa homecoming game with Illinois this Saturday.  Every other channel has commercials going between shitty reality crap show or subpar crap like Two Broke Women.  Even Jerry Springer has cut deep into his show, where about 20 minutes of the show goes for commercial spots and the audience participation, what used to be a five minute highlight is now barely a minute.   But nobody seems to care anymore, even vintage shows are cut down to fucking 20 minutes.  Alfred Hitchcock Presents was a 25 minute show, but somehow ME TV managed to chop three minutes off each episode.  Who really watches TV anymore?  On Demand is one thing but I don't want to be ball and chain to a fucking smart phone.  I do enough of that on this computer as it stands.

Sirius XM priced themselves out me to be a subscriber.  Their price went up from 184 dollars to 204 on the renewal notice, and I can't afford that.  Their choices have gone way downhill from last year and even Outlaw County outlived its usefulness. So basically I called them up to cancel.  And the overworked sales associate started giving me other cheaper choices, I mean how many times you got to tell them no I can't afford it.  Maybe I should have said if you have a fucking way of me making more money I'd like to hear it but I have to eat and CDs are much cheaper than satellite radio anyway.  While Bob Lefsetz continues to tout Spotify, I tend to think he's full of shit and if I want on demand music, I'll put on a CD or LP.  Spotify might be a wave of Bob's future but I have lived without it so far in this life.  And chances are I'll continue to live without it till I'm dead.  Besides I'm not impressed with Pandora and their shitty song selection either.

And if anybody really gives a fuck, the Hall Of Fame Music Inductees (let's not call it the rock and roll hall of fame if Janet Jackson or NWA is involved) are Chicago, Yes, Steve Miller, Deep Purple, Los Lobos, The Cars, Chic, The Smiths  and a few others, the ones who get nominated will be ridiculed when the time is right.  I'm sure The Smiths and The Cars will get pushed in the doors, I'd to see Los Lobos, Deep Purple, Chicago and Yes get in but it's all irrelevant anyway.  It doesn't matter what I think, or what you think.

Over at the Review Consortium I take a look at the music of The Rockets, them being of Oh Well fame.  http://rscrabbmusicconsortium.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-rockets.html

The body beautiful and the usual snooty folks who call them pornography: http://www.buzzfeed.com/bradesposito/lush-go-naked?utm_term=.np2X4NV863#.ha9jMPAgQR

If you like 45s and want to find a place to buy them here ya go: http://www.45rpms.com/shop/

Time for new reviews of albums you should give a shit about (or not)

Collective Soul-See What You Started By Continuing (Vanguard/Concord 2015)

While nobody was looking The Concord Music Group bought out The Welk Music Group of labels, one being Vanguard and so Concord have been looking for trendy bands to be on that label.  Even if it means signing up Jam Band giants Widespread Panic and Collective Soul, a band that 20 years ago was on top of the music world.  Like Widespread Panic, a Collective Soul album is something you would know since Ed Roland hasn't changed the sound since coming on with the 1993 overplayed classic Shine.  And for the first seven songs, SWYSBC might have been their best album since Disciplined Breakdown, till Roland goes for a mellower sound and hope to hit the light rock radio charts with Memoirs Of 2005 and Tradition, both I can swear to you will not get played on KDAT.  I still like their harder rocking number although Roland's titles of songs are damn near lazy and not much thought,  (This, Hurricane, Exposed,Contagious, it goes on)  I like how they sound but put some GD thought into the titles Eddie.  However the highlight/lowlight  of the album Without Me, which starts out somewhat mellow, Roland and band into such bombast, you have to hear it to believe it.  The strings come out of nowhere and sound like Penny Lane, then the guitars go into something Queen would do and then the over the top ending, complete with a don't yell at me female singer screeching at the end, as if she's trying out for The Voice.    It may have been a very ambitious song for Ed Roland but to me the pompous bombast of the whole thing made me dotch the album a half grade.  For the first seven songs though it's vintage Collective Soul, the next three they rest on their laurels and then on the grand finale they raise for the stars and end up falling in the mine shaft.  A grandiose failure that is Without Me.
Grade B-

Queensryche-Condition Human (Century Media 2015)

Honest to God, this band found their stride after booting Geoff Tate out of the band.  Their second album with Todd La Torre, is a revelation, considering how precise that La Torre does sound like Tate and much better than Tate himself.  I have to admit that Tate did held them back as he dictated the band to do a covers albums, revisited and updated Operation Mindcrime 2, did an answer to Pink Floyd The Final Cut and then went bonkers with Consequences of Chaos, to which the band said enough.  They really do sound revitalized on their second album since cutting ties with Tate and there's a balance of power between that Mindcrime sound as well as Empire while adding elements of Rage For Order.  The title track is that blend of Rage For Order/Mindcrime and while Tate could only growl, La Torre can scream it with the best of them.  If anything, La Torre sounds too much of Tate and not enough of himself to give a identity but again, the prog rock metal of the band is their true I.D. Even producer Zuess, listened to enough of the early Peter Collins' produced albums to give Queensryche that sound that was brilliantly captured on Empire.  While arguments is that songs like Bulletproof or Toxic Remedy paled in comparison to Jet City Woman or Take Hold Of The Flame, they certainly a lot better than the crap I hear on Rock 108, this is more real rock that I remember from them than Five Finger Death Punch or the next Linkin Park wannabe.   I'll hold my judgement on Tate's Operation Mindcrime's new album on Frontiers till I hear that one, but I do know when both bands had their albums out after the messy breakup, Queensryche's S/T album walked all over Tate's Cleopatra CD.   And if this record is any indication of who's winning the ballad of the bands, Tate's second album is already in trouble.  Condition Human is an excellent carbon copy of what they used to do before their original singer got too full of himself.
Grade A-

Ticks-Sun Shinin' On Your Rain  (Medium Cool 1992)

The only Cd I could find out of all the crappy ones at Pawn America, which hard to believe five short years ago, I ended up buying like 40 of them in one sitting but they're not buying CDs anymore and what they have are forgotten alternative rockers or shitty dance rappers.  Ticks was led by Tom Hicks and they may or may not been from Decatur Illinois.  Although they were produced by Peter Jespersen and had Slim Dunlap play on one track and Brian Paulson co producing, Ticks were more influenced by The Jesus And Mary Chain or T Rex, or perhaps shoegazer music. Certainly they more interested in Jesus And Mary Chain of Automatic fame but there's a shadow of Darklands, especially on the mellower numbers.  A few of the songs seemed to be underdeveloped, almost in demo form.  Hardly much is known about Tom Hicks, who simply disappeared after the failure of this album.  But that is the love about finding a obscure band such as Ticks.  While not essential, Shinin On Your Rain  is a fine version of Tom Hicks' take on alternative rock of the early 90s, and incorporating a shoegazing type that is uncommon of midwestern alternative rock.
Grade B+

Blake Shelton-Reloaded-20 Number One Hits (Warner Nashville 2015)

For a while, Blake was on top of the world, raising the ire of the country traditionalists with Boys Round Here  and having misunderstandings with Ray Price, who Blake made nice to before Price passed away.   Perhaps he took the words of Boys Round Here too seriously, the breakup of his dream marriage to country babe Miranda Lambert shattered that myth of love conquers all which when I hear the love songs on this best of kinda leaves me a bit cold hearing them after their breakup.  The original Reloaded was perhaps a better overview than this one that features Blake's chart topping hits and I'm sure a couple remakes that could but probably hit the top spot.  In listening to this, I tend to like Blake's more uptempo stuff (Boys Round Here, sorry Farce The Music) and the duet with Ashley Monroe.  But when your major label puts out this kind of best of, it's a indication that they're ready to move on to the next Bro Country artist.  And the original Loaded best of, would be the one to get despite Boys Round Here or Lonely Tonight.  But I'm sure Warner Brothers will correct that mistake with another attempt of a best of a year or two from now.
Grade B

Sonny Rollins-Tenor Madness (Prestige 1956)

By all means I believe the golden age of jazz begins in the 50s with Miles Davis, leading the charge and Dave Brubeck on Fantasy was beginning to turn it into something progressive.  Monk, Clifford Brown even Charlie Parker in his last years, jazz was to classic music in the 50s as rock was is in the 60s and 70s.  Sonny Rollins has always maintained such a high standards of his work that he tends to dismiss it more than the listener appreciates it.  But on this album Rollins teams up with most of Miles Davis sidemen who would appear on A Kind Of Blue and the pair of Paul Chambers and Philly Joe Jones is one of the best jazz players holding the beat and Red Garland on piano is no slouch either.  The title track is historic for its the only time that John Coltrane would be on a Rollins recording and the battle between Sonny and John is worth the price of admission alone.  Next to Max Roach, Philly Joe Jones is one of the top five drummers in jazz and to me  second only to Max Roach.  Nevertheless, this is Rollins' album and is his show and even on the ballad standards, he finds way to keep the songs interesting, even adding a tag line to the end of The Most Beautiful Girl In The World, to a point that he makes this song his very own.  One of his best.
Grade A

Los Lobos-The Neighborhood (Slash/Warner Brothers 1990)

While the Los themselves distanced themselves from this 1990 album, I still find a certain charm to this. John Hiatt and Levon Helm helped on this record and perhaps they were put off by Jim Keltner's drumbeats on The Giving Tree, or perhaps Larry Hirsch's recording of this.  After all, this is the final song that Willie Dixon ever wrote (I Can't Understand) and for latter day blues it holds its own. Perhaps there's too much percussion on I Walk Alone, or perhaps Jenny's Got A Pony should have made for a children's album, but I don't consider this a throwaway album, a misstep maybe but a subpar Los Lobos album is better than anything from Poison or Locash.  Robert Plant did cover Angel Dance and Los Lobos still does the title track in their live set.  But the best track remains Emily, part power pop and part country.  Kiko gets the love and The Neighborhood gets the knock but for a throwaway album, I disagree.  It's not a perfect album but does have enough songs to be heard from time to time.  Robert Christgau missed the boat on his frowny face grade.  I wish I could make a throwaway album as good as this.
Grade B+

Truth & Janey-No Rest For The Wicked (Montross 1973 Thereabouts)

Something about this record leaves a high demand across the pond and even the local store has the CD for 75 dollars, which is a big chunk of change to hear this artifact from the past.  The record is the stuff of legends, a power rock trio from town led by Billy Janey (later Billy Lee Janey who continues to make blues rock albums on a regular basis). While the Cream and Hendrix references are there, the band most likely that comes to mind is Budgie and Dust, all power rock trios with a bit of  Axis Bold As Love Hendrix era, or Wheels On Fire Cream.  Steven Bock and Denis Bunce, are the rhythm section and they compliment Billy as well, although the progressive rock gets slightly overboard on the 9 minute Remember.  Even back then Janey shows his blues roots by covering I'm Ready, with the riff that he would use on his theme song about Stone City, and The Light, improvises with a bit of Little Wing.  The standout song is Ain't No Tellin', the Mississippi John Hurt, where Billy shows his lightning fast guitar picking, and does suggest that the future for Billy would be the blues.  Reviews have been mixed, some are fanatical about it, some think it's overrated, both valid points.  Billy Lee is a great guitar player and he'll be the first to tell you that personally if you should run into him at the local West Music in town.  And It's All Above Us gets dangerously close to Frank Marino Maxoom territory (which can be a good or bad thing depending on the listener).  He has many blues rock albums out there, but No Rest For The Wicked is the album that people ID him with.  And as they say, you can do worse.  I like it when I'm in the mood to hear it.
Grade B+ 

Lost Classic: Buck Clayton Jam Session-All The Cats Join In (Columbia 1956)
                      Buck Clayton Jam Session From The Vaults (Columbia 1988)

Many years ago, my dad bought home two boxes full of records that some guy gave him at the old gas station he used to work at.  Most of the albums were pure crap that nobody wanted between the beer drinking songs and German Marching Band numbers and polka numbers, but there was a collection of jazz albums that were actually pretty good and probably worth a lot more money now.  I remember Thad Jones/Gerard Wilson Brass Bag which came out on World Pacific but I had the Fontana Import.  Another one was highlights from the Jazz at Massey Hall concert with Dizzy, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Charlie Mingus and Max Roach.  And this minor classic from one of Buck Clayton jam sessions he was famous for.  Somewhat akin to the Norman Granz JATP series, Clayton's sessions had more flash and a more spontaneous sound than Granz.  Except for December 1953 date and song Lean Baby, the rest of the songs come from two March 1956 sessions.  The original album of All The Cats Join In I think have the better takes, Jam Session From The Vaults are the outtakes from that album plus After Hours which wasn't on the original album.  Hallmark has reissued the album via MP3 format, however a Spain box set of Clayton's jam sessions has the all the tracks listed but I'm not about to spend the twenty to see if they issued takes or outtakes.  The outtakes are something to behold, the title track All The Cats Join In, in alternative form is more looser and more in line with what Count Basie was doing at the time.  And I'm sure Out Of Nowhere, the vaults version would have been the perfect take till Coleman Hawkins' squawk at the end of his solo made that song useless, it really does stand out and not for the better. But as the season professional that Coleman is, he finishes it up and lets Al Ralshon take over on the piano.  Clayton still finds and gets some of the finer lesser known jazzmen to take the lead (J C Higginbotham, next to J J Johnson one of the best trombone players ever, trumpeters Billy Butterfield, Ruby Braff, Joe Newman on trumpets, Buddy Tate, Julian Dash and Coleman Hawkins on Sax, Milt Hilton and Walter page on bass and Bobby Donaldson with Jo Jones (not Philly Joe) on drums.  The alternative versions on From The Vaults are fine and After Hours is worth seeking out that album but the original album remains one of the better of the jam sessions that Columbia put out at that time.  And better heard on CD or LP rather than the tinny sounding MP3.
Grades:  All The Cats Join In A-   Jam Session From The Vaults B+

Forty years ago, KCRG Super 30 from October 10, 1975

1.   Get Down Tonight-K C And The Sunshine Band
2.   Ballroom Blitz-Sweet
3.   Bad Blood-Neil Sedaka/Elton John
4.   Feelings-Morris Albert
5.   Calypso/I'm Sorry-John Denver
6.   Dance With Me-Orleans
7.   Let's Live Together-The Road Apples (?)
8.   Who Loves You-The Four Seasons
9.   The Proud One-The Osmonds
10. Carolina In The Pines-Michael Martin Murphy
11. Lyin' Eyes-Eagles
12. It Only Takes A Minute-Tavares
13. S.O.S.-Abba
14. Rocky-Austin Roberts
15. Lady Blue-Leon Russell
16. I Only Have Eyes For You-Art Garfunkel
17. Miracles-Jefferson Starship
18. Daisy Jane-America
19. Solitaire-The Carpenters
20. Games People Play (They Just Can't Stop It)-The Spinners
21. Mamacita-The Grassroots
22. You-George Harrison
23. Ain't No Way To Treat A Lady-Helen Reddy
24. I Go To Pieces-Cotton, Lloyd & Christan
25. How Long (Betcha Got A Chick On The Side)-The Pointer Sisters
26. You're All I Need To Get By-Tony Orlando/Dawn
27. Send In The Clowns-Judy Collins
28. Feel Like Making Love-Bad Company
29. Never Felt Love Before-Felix Cavalaire
30. Too Many People-Melissa Manchester

Hit Bound

Our Day Will Come-Frankie Valli
I'm Still Gonna Need You-The Osmonds
Sky High-Jigsaw
What You Got-Duke And The Drivers
The Way I Want To Touch You-Captain and Tenille.