Davenport 2017 Weekend

Three years ago, I went to Davenport and found perhaps the best collection of 45s.  Three years later, I only found five of note.  Not exactly historic but perhaps somewhat entertaining.  Sad to say a copy of Elvis Presley's Suspicion had a crack in it, as well a broken version of That'll Be The Day by the Crickets.  The grand total of all five 45s.  One Dollar and Two Cents.

Bargains were few and far between.  I did find come 50 cent CDs  Traffic, Far From Home, A Wicked Liz and The Bellyshakes EP, Dan Fogelberg's Exiles, Terry Riley In C.  I'll be back in Davenport in a couple weeks due to baseball playoffs

This weekend was the annual civil war series between the CR Kernels and the Q C River Bandits. While CR won the first game 6-2,  Quad Cities came back to win the pitchers duel 1-0 Saturday Night and then on Sunday Afternoon spotted a 5-0 Kernels lead to come back to win 9-6 and clinch the second half division title.   Chuckie Robinson and Abe Toro Hernandez hit back to back home runs and then scoring 3 runs in the fifth and 2 and the sixth inning.  QC relief pitchers held the Kernels to just one run in the final seven innings.  Quad Cities need to win one more game to have the best overall record in the minors this season.  They have seven games remaining, that should be easy for them to get.  Look for them to hook up with the Kernels again in the divisional playoffs in September.

(That's me watching The Dawn play outdoors.  Photo: Geoff Manis)

I had better trips to places, the fucking stop lights were unbelievable, every stop light was a fucking long red light that took 3 to 5 minutes to change.  Which of course gave us ample idiots and assholes going either 10 miles under the speed limit or 20 over.  The Driver Aggravation Squad out in triple force it seems, always seem like I had three or four in waiting, or 45 cars coming down Brady Street after waiting for one jackass turning left at the last moment.  Or dealing with snooty or indifferent waitresses or clerks.  Even thought Fabio Brothers Pizza said they have pizza slices up till 2 AM, the surly 4 eyed dingbat said they quit doing when I got there right before seeing The Dawn play.  Thanks anyway I mentioned, Sorry she said.  I rolled my eyes and said Don't Be, it's the way it goes and that's how my luck is going,  Don't patronize me if you don't mean it, you probably saved me from severe stomach pain from pizza grease anyway.   So it was off to see The Dawn, Davenport's favorite jam band play on top of the Great River Place on 2nd street.   They did play a lot of music off their new album Wooly, plus the two Led Zeppelin numbers they always do, a jam version of Trampled Underfoot and a more heavier version of Ramble On.  Among the interplay of Sean Ryan and band, the 9:45 Special came downtown and it was hearing the scraping of steel rail wheels among the music. Ryan remains a great guitar player in the style of Phish/moe. and others.  Since it was outdoors The Dawn was restricted to a 90 minute set which concluded with Watch Me Fly.  Derek Fortin remains an interesting but acquired taste at vocalist, but when Sean Ryan takes over on vocals with songs like Dance All Night and 1984, they get their collective groove on.   Later on the song Debra, some partying bride to be, stumbled out of the Damview Bar and proceeded to drop her cookies curbside while her friends tried to keep her head up. Poor girl had way too much to drink and it came back to really level her into submission.   By then the 9:45 Special finally rumbled off the Arsenal Bridge into downtown and into the evening night.   The next day, I would return back to the area and crossed the bridge onto the Rock Island Arsenal and back over the Mississippi River back into town and having the 5:15 shaking up the bridge, like a oversized vibrator or earthquake.  So I can crossed that off the bucket list.

Singles Going Steady Medley: Davenport Singles

When A Boy Falls In Love-Mel Carter (Derby D-1003)  #44 1963

A decent cover of a Sam Cooke song.  Carter's over the top soul singing is better known on Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me, his best known song and you can hear traces of his over the top singing on B side So Wonderful.  When A Boy Falls In Love is more my style.  Record looks beat up, plays VG-

10 Little Bottles-Johnny Bond (Starday 704)  #43  1965

Bond was more of a novelty singer, his version of Hot Rod Lincoln made number 26 in 1960, but this one of those drunken novelty songs which gives visions of Foster Brooks, or Ben Colter.  B side Let It Be Me is a straight up honky tonk ballad.

Grow Closer Together-The Impressions (ABC Paramount 45-10289)  #99 1962

Between Gypsy Woman and It's All Right, The Impressions next 4 singles didn't go past number 72 on the chart and to coin a phase Grow Closer Together didn't made much of a impression on the charts, making it at number 99 for one week in 1962.  Borrow a bit too much from Gypsy Woman but to these ears 'it's all right' (enough of the bad puns), B side Can't You See (no relation to the Marshall Tucker Band) is a r and b ballad, something like I'm So Proud.

Every Day I Have To Cry-Steve Alaimo (Checker 1032)  #46  1963

Chess Records branching out. Alaimo was a singer songwriter, probably rockabilly star that managed to score a regional hit with this Arthur Alexander number but I was more familiar with The Gentrys' version.  More of a pop and country slanted sort of number I first heard this on the MCA Vintage Collection that came out on CD that Steve Hoffman overseen the mastering.  B side Little Girl Steve co wrote with three other guys (Bobby Russell one of them) more bubblegum poppy like what Brian Hyland may have been doing at that time, or Bobby Vee.

The Touchables-Dickie Goodman (Mark X 8009)  #60 1961

The king of the cut in novelty record, to which records were sampled, this was Dickie's first charted single since the demise of Buchanan and Goodman  duo.  I did find a copy of the Flying Saucer on Lunaverse but for some reason I didn't see the need to pick it up.  It may have looked too scratchy but compared to some of these singles found, it might have played better than it looked.  But then again I have that on three other compilations.  But you have to hand it to Dickie, who recorded from a tape recorder and using his own scratchy records to make these novelty cut in classics.  The story line is a bit dumb but I still remain a sucker for cut in records.  B side Martian Novelty, is Goodman speeding up a unknown recording,  It's kinda fun to listen to if you ask me.