I haven't been online here all that much at Record World but when I started getting junk comments from Blogger I could tell something was going on and much to my surprise, I had over 2000 views last month and not posting anything. I'm guessing the Russians are looking for something to read and they came to the far corner of the social media world to this site. The most views went to the original My City Was Gone Marion blog, which continues to bring them in. And Blogger continues to send me junk spam replies and it's a good thing I have to draw the line to that. Which is another reason why I pop in from time to time. To rid of spam junk and proclaim to the world I'm still alive.
So a bit of updates going on. John Shulz passed away, he was a musician in town that people spoke highly of. I might have met him at one time but I know those who played in his bands or had him teach them guitar speak very highly of. John Heim or Big Mo as we called him broke his neck in a fall and has been recovering in a Omaha hospital. We miss his bass playing at the jams.
Me and Julie are still together for 9 months now, she says we been together since Memorial Day of last year, either way we are together. The usual growing pains of what love brings of course, but she still remains the keeper of my heart. I still play and sing at various jams, I did score a paying gig last month but most of the time it's for the love of music. When I did play at my pay gig I did give half my winnings to Julie since she sang the best songs and people complimented her on that. I love her to pieces even though she can try my patience on some things. Which is common among most loving couples.
While things are going well for me, there are other things going on in this world that makes me think life isn't so great for some of my friends. I haven't posted anything about the joke of the white house. Or our worthless congresspeople. It's tough not to get caught up in the furor from both sides. Yeah, I have seen the pictures of the Trump Rallies and the grotesque pictures of them. I have heard complaints from the should have been voted out fucks like Orrin Hatch and our own Distinguished Charles M Grassley and the worthless pig hag Joni Ernst that the left are obstructing Brett Kavenaugh from being the new justice of the supreme court and I have to remind each and every one of these worthless cocksuckers about what they did to Merrick Garland a couple years ago. They wouldn't sign off on anything our last president did. When you dementia like Grassley or Hatch and can't remember that they obstruct Garland's conformation and then have the stay at home voters bring in Dictator Trumpus and then they sneak in Neil (ain't worth a shit) Gorsuch, do they think getting Kavenaugh in is going to be easy? It better not be. But since nobody bother to vote (46 percent by the way) we are now in a Republican mess that I don't know can ever be cleaned up. In the meanwhile, the Failed Reality Star continues to tweet away in the early morning hours with his bullshit and sits back and laughs. In the process Hatch and Grassley bitch about the Democrats obstructing the new Supreme Court Nominee but at the same time avoids talking to the people that call out their bullshit on social media. But then again, it's been a two party system, flawed in both parties but the lesser of the evils while still owned by big Pharma and Big Oil at least does turn to hear the cries of the public once in a rare while.
(Joe and Rizzo meet the Major League's WORST Umpire)
In the meanwhile The Chicago Cubs still are on top of the NL Central, when they look good, they look great but when they look like shit, look out. With the wind blowing out The Padres scored 4 times in the 9th and had shit umpire Angel Hernandez give them the game on a wide outside ball that was called for strike three and a 10-6 victory. Not that it mattered much, Jon Lester didn't pitch well and Randy Rosario, who's been running back and forth from Chicago to Des Moines suffered jet lag and gave up a home run and three more in the 9th. Still it's awful to watch the worst umpire this side of Joe West continue to fuck up the strike zone and get into many arguments. And yet Hernandez continues to be employed since he's blind and one eye and got cataracts in the other. Still he wonders why MLB won't let him umpire the post season games, well, that is simple when the other managers and teams think he does a shit job in their games. A shame that Trump can't deport him back to whereever he came from. Joe West sucks, C B Bucknor blows but none of them can't fuck up a game better than Angel Hernandez. He would make a good Republican Supreme Court Nominee though.
The former Vinyl King, Greg has married his Filipino FB friend Gina this weekend. Greg has given up record collecting in favor of being a preacher and follower of God. Once upon a time we used to have plenty of chats about music collection but we really don't do that any more. We're still Facebook buddies and I wish him and Gina well in their life together.
Yes, there's still bargain hunts going on. Davenport trips, a couple of them, one had some okay finds, next trip nothing. I did pick up a used record case at Ragged Records, who will be opening up a new location in Rock Island next month. Thankfully the singles that I picked, a chewed up copy of Larry Finnegan's Dear One and an Atlantic reissue of So Fine were two dollars a piece. Originally Ragged Records had some nice museum pieces and I spent a few hundred dollars in the process, but they been picked fairly clean in the five years of existence. We'll see if the Rock Island location will have some new stuff when they open.
In the meantime, somebody dumped off a bunch of unopened LPs and promos at two Goodwill locations in town and I had a field day, picking up 24 new albums of varying degree. Best finds was Lee Hazelwood's Poet, Fool Or Bum on Capitol, Mary Hopkin-Those Were The Days best of on Apple, Georgio's Son Of My Father, Fanny Hill by Fanny, This Price Is Right by Alan Price, Washboard Sam with Bill Big Bloonzy and Memphis Slim, Focus Live At The Rainbow, Electric Prunes Mass In F Minor and a bunch of compilations. Alas, the Ellie Greenwich promo of Let It Be Written, Let It Be Sung had a scratch at the end of side 2 that made it unplayable and it's a shame. It's a great record. Alas, California Nights by Leslie Gore wasn't so great, nor The Graeme Edge Band Paradise Ballroom either. Which will be donated back again soon.
This Month's 45 finds.
Dear One-Larry Finnegan (Old Town 1113) #11 1962
I have no idea why I love this song so much. It's kinda like an answer to Runaway by Del Shannon although Del didn't have that sarcastic female voice saying I'm Sorry on the second verse. It also rocks pretty hard too.
So Fine-The Fiestas (Old Town 1962) #11 1959
Atlantic Oldies Reissue. Probably the greatest doo wop uptempo song ever made. Written by Johnny Otis.
Four 45s found at an Estate Sale
Hard Headed Woman-Elvis Presley (RCA 47-7280) #1 1958
Elvis in the 1950s could do no wrong. With his famed backup of Bill Black, Scotty Moore and DJ Fontana, he made the best rock and roll songs at that time. A shame that we can't back to those days of 60 years ago.
Love Me All The Way-Kim Weston (Tamla T-54076) #88 1963
Motown stuff, especially the old time Tamla label are like to me, like a flower to a bee, it attracts me. But this is not one of the better Motown numbers, it's a bit more slowed down to my liking. Weston wasn't one of bigger Motown sellers, Her Take Me In Your Arms struggled to number 50 and that was her biggest hit. B side It Should Have Been Me is slightly better and produced by Norman Whitfield.
Blowin' In the Wind-Stevie Wonder (Tamla T-54136) #9 1966
It's funny how we grew up hearing Stevie and how his voice changed over the early years. He was still 16 years old when he covered this Dylan number. Clarence Paul was the other singer on this song. B side Ain't That Asking For Trouble is more like it, uptempo Motown soul. Could have been a minor hit.
Hello I'm Johnny Credit-Johnny Credit (Johnny McCollum) Plantation PL-78 1971
A curio find. A Johnny Cash parody by Johnny McCollum. Is it memorable? Not Hardly.
Finally over the weekend, Cedar Rapids had their first Evolve Festival to which Kelly Clarkson and Maroon 5 played to a crowd that could afford the 385 dollar weekend pass or 88 dollar main event only. Plenty of my friends bands played, Four Day Creep, Pork Tornadoes, Kevin Burt, Cocked N Loaded. A good time was had by all. They also had the new bo art fest as well. But since I didn't want to deal with traffic and parking issues, I stayed close to home and did the Stone City Jam instead.
And that's the latest updates and bitchings. If ratings warrant another blog I'll be back.
