Half Price Books Finds

While Madison started selling museum 45s, our hometown had a few of note.  Which were cheaper and better.

Rock The Boat-The Hues Corporation (RCA APB0-0232)  #1 1974

Too Weak To Fight-Clarence Carter (Atlantic 45-2569) #13 1968

I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know-Skeeter Davis (RCA 47-7293) 1958

Bread And Butter-The Newbeats (Hickory 45-1269) #2 1964

Just As Long As I Have You-Don Williams (RCA  9119-7-R) 1990  #4 Country 

Gonna Move-Les Dudek (Columbia 3-10744) 1978

Kiss This-Aaron Tippin (Lyric Street ED-11282)   #42 2000  #1 Country

B side People Like Us #17 2000

Aaron Tippin's Kiss This is the first actual 45 that is associated with music in 2000 and after.   While Bullfrogspond called it an album cut, there was an actual 45 probably made for jukeboxes.  Tippin's output I have never cared much for, but this was the one that put Disney's Nashville label Lyric Street on the map. Perhaps this could have been a harder rocking song if you take the fiddles off.  B side People Like Us also got some airplay, Kiss This made number 1 on the country chart and number 42 on the pop side of things.  Given the crap heard on top 40 nowadays, it's unthinkable that this would have charted that high.  Rock The Boat had the Van McCoy drum thump tho he didn't produce it, but one of the finest R and B songs of 1974, even tho it was overplayed to death.   And sometimes the oldies stations will dust off to play. People Like Us sounds like Georgia Satellites. 

Don Williams, on this song had Barry Beckett and not Garth Fundis producing and Beckett had more keyboards into the songs, the One Good Well album is quite listenable.  Williams had some RCA success but two albums later, he would be gone.  B side Why Get Up was covered by the Fabulous Thunderbirds. The wacky Bread And Butter was and remains the best song by the Newbeats, with Larry (Parks) Henley, high vocal being the ID of the band.  Novelty songs like this don't get played much anymore but the 45 seems to be in pretty good shape.  Tough Little Buggy was written by Dave Allen, maybe the guy that wroteToo Weak To Fight, looked worse for the wear but plays fantastic, one of the more soulful sounds from Clarence Carter.  And it was surprising to see Skeeter Davis's song not making either the country or pop charts of 1958 

CDs

Battle Of The Bands (K Tel 1995)

Peter Tosh-Legalize It (CBS 1977)

K Tel put out three volumes of the Battle Of The Bands, which is really a look at the garage rock music scene in the mid 60s.  I still think those were the best of times rather than the crap rap and plastic pop that has no lasting value.  Of course, The Elektra/Sire/Rhino Nuggets box set has all of these songs and much more.  Funny how K Tel could cram 22 songs on a single LP but when CD came calling, they rarely went past 10 to 12 songs.  Even with 14, it barely crawls over a half hour but all the songs are classic. I Fought The Law, Lies, Question Of Temperature, Talk Talk, Pushing too hard, etc. etc.  Cheers for them finding the Gants Road Runner and Blue's Theme from Davey Allen and The Arrows (probably the hardest rock song the Odious Mike Curb ever put his name on this side of Crazy Horses). A Little Bit Of Soul always sounded great at night while driving home. The most obscure would probably be Shake (Ohio Express).  K Tel would continue to issue two more varied Battle Of The Bands albums but the first one is still gold.  As for Peter Tosh, Legalize It was his second Columbia attempt and the radicalness CBS Columbia got cold feet and drop him (the next album would be issued on Rolling Stones Records, the only artist not associated with The Stones was Mr. Tosh).  Equal Rights was probably the better of the two Columbia albums but for two bucks I figured it was still worth getting. Till Your Well Runs Dry, shows that Tosh can do soul music very well too.  

Madison Bargain Hunt March 2021

What was found

Chris Ledoux-20 Greatest Hits

Memphis Minnie-I  Ain't No Bad Girl

Johnny Winter-Hey Where's Your Brother

Beyond The Sea Soundtrack (For Mom)

Yoko Ono-Seasons Of Glass

Black Uruah-Red

The English Beat-Here We Go Love

Kevin Welsh-Millionaire

Jackson Browne-World In Motion

Jethro Tull-A Little Light  Music

The Greenhones-Pure Mono

Katydids

Bill Cosby-Himself

Jesus And Mary Chain-Darklands 

Neil Young/Crazy Horse Way Down In The Rust Bucket

And a few 45's 

It's was a actually a very mellow event going up to Madison.  I have never had a drive up there whereas I had something that piss me off and get mad.  But somehow I stayed cool, calm and collected, even though the Dubuque red lights and half wit drivers did their best to try my patience.  For CDs, this might have been one of the more disappointing efforts, tho most were two dollar stuff from Goodwill at various locations.   My intention was to find the Beyond The Sea movie soundtrack for my mom, which enabled me to buy the Memphis Minnie CD.  Strictly Disc had the new Neil Young/Crazy Horse.  Mad City Music X, had the 45's. to which I bought 35 of them.   A few were replacement copies of a few 45's in my collection that had seen better days.  However, the St Vinnies  Pickers Paradise got my donation, and perhaps I should have taken them to the Williamson Street.  I have a bad feeling those 45's were be tossed around and destroyed even more.

Since the Half Price Books still had the latest English Beat CD still there from last year, I picked it up.  Pawn America, which originally was at the location next to Home Depot/Cracker Barrel moved down to the former Rocky Rococco's building on Therier Street but didn't have any DVDs or CDs to speak of.  Half Price Books have started to charge more on their 45's, there's hardly any 50 cent buys anymore, and the prices for juke box copies is a bit outrageous.   Thankfully, the Williamson St Vinnies and Mad City Music X had them for a quarter a piece.  

Replacement 45s.

Lonely Boy-Paul Anka

It's Late-Ricky Nelson

Hello Mary Lou-Ricky Nelson

Where Were You On Our Wedding Day-Lloyd Price

Abraham, Martin And John-Dion

Hitchin' A Ride-Vanity Fair

I Know I'm Losing You-Rare Earth

Kansas City-Wilbert Harrison

Wild Side Of Life-Freddy Fender

Sorry (I Ran All The Way Home)-The Impalas 

Roundabout-Yes

Most came from my dad's record collection, but some got used as frisbees.  The Two Ricky Nelson 45's I had were in poor condition and I needed something more than G- record.  The Rare Earth I had as a 45 years ago but it may have been lifted or donated.  The Impalas, Dad wore the grooves off that record. Kansas City, was one of the original Box Of Records, but we tested to see if the record was unbreakable only to find out that it wasn't.  And the Dion was bought for the B side of Daddy Rollin' In Your Arms, probably the best blues song Dion ever.  The recent purchase of Wedding Day from Lloyd Price from Moondog Music still had a scratch that I couldn't buff out.  Roundabout, my original copy had a deep cut scratch that made the record unplayable.

Which leaves us, 36 other 45's found at either the St. Vinnies and Mad City Music X, to which I spent 2 and half hours going through 10 boxes of quarter 45s and somehow the record dude managed to let me hang 15 minutes after closing talking about the Jesus And Mary Chain best record.  I told him I liked Darklands best but he went with Stoned And Dethroned.   While my distaste for certain record stores and their museum 45 pricing, it's great to know that Mad City Music still manage to have a interchanging inventory of 25 cent 45s, priced to move.   

For the evening, I tried to rent a bike but they had processing issues (like i said, the trip always have one kind of snafu and this was it) so I basically strolled around Lake Monona and hung at the overview looking at the lake and reflect on the 27 years of popping up to Mad City to find music.  I didn't venture into State Street, it was late, and B Sides Records were closed anyway but we didn't have to worry about any riots unlike the last time I was there.  It used to be that Music Go Round had the good stuff, then I discovered The Exclusive Company (say it with me) before they left Madison a few years ago. Then Mad City Music Exchange came around and then the thrift stores, the pawnshops that had cds. It's odd that even in these days and times Madison never lost the music stores unlike Iowa City did.  Times have changed.  The internet was a far off dream in 94, CDs were the rage and people were dropping their record collection.    I didn't start collecting 45s again till 2002 and the floodgates opened.  Then the CDs quit selling, the pawnshops quit buying and the Thrift stores started taking them in.  The original Half Price Bookstore was in the Nakoma Plaza Strip Mall before Home Depor took over that spot. Tommy Thompson was there, then Jim Doyle for most of the early 2000s, then used car shyster Scott Walker came in, and I remember the sit in's, but Wisconsin had worse people in there, Ron Johnson The Fitzgeralds, Paul Ryan, a lovely bunch of GOP goobers.  Tony Evers is now in, but he's stuck with a GOP led congress.  Probably better than what we have for Iowa Yayhoos. But then again, the liberal faction didn't set well with me after they were looking for voters and I told them I was out of state.  Even Ian's Pizza pissed me off to the point I quit eating there.  The homeless and aggressive change chasers on State Street.  After the riots, State Street wasn't the destination anymore.  

Madison also had good times, After all, I participated in the World Naked Bike rides from 2016, 2017 and 2018 and went streaking through the city butt naked with a bunch of other folk.  Even my co workers can't believe I did that, nor Julie for that matter.  2016 and 2018 we took it all off.  And in the process got sunburned in places the sun don't shine.

And here I was on Monona Terrance, still seeing the the shrinking ice on Lake Monona, trying to put into thoughts and feelings on this bargain hunt.  For CDs, we really didn't find much groundbreaking stuff but enough to keep the drive home interesting.  Previous bargain hunts I figured that I would return, but this one felt different.  It felt like it was my final run, as if I was terminally ill person doing one last run before fading off into the sunset.  For once, I managed to grab a parking space next to St Vinnies On Williamson Street and managed to go through their forty fives without anybody going down the aisle.  And Mad City Music, I was left to my own devices and to my own personal space, going through boxes of records like a child on Christmas Day.    A fleeting moment in time, but somehow renders all the way back to 1963 when Mom was sorting through the Woolworth's record selection, to which the lure of the 45's section always turns full circle in this life.  

Somewhat like a 45 ya kno? 

 

The Final Bargain Hunt: Iowa City/Coralville

What was found:

Taste-Live At The Aisle Of Wright (Polydor)

Fleetwood Mac-The Pious Bird Of Good Omen (Epic)

Stone Garden (Gear Fab)

Pixies-Come On Pilgrim (4AD EP)

Nox Boys (Get Hip)

Robert Cray-Too Many Cooks (Tomato)

45's

Child Of The Times-Barry McGuire (Dunhill 4014)  #72 1965

Hey Mama-Climax Blues Band (Sire SI-358) 1972

You'll Never Tame Me-Bobby Rydell (Cameo C-167) 1959

Do I Love You-The Magic Ring (Music Factory MU-404) 1968

Plus

The Best Of Miles Davis (Blue Note)

Titus Turner-Taking Care Of Business 1955-1962 (Jasmine)

So anyway, my girlfriend was singing in Coralville so I decided to do a pre Madison trip and see what Iowa City had in store.  Of course I had to wait 15 minutes to get into Record Collector but blew 35 dollars on a bunch of 45s and off the wall CDs.    For the 45s You'll Never Tame Me was one of the sought after replacement copy 45s from Grandma's box of records and I always like You'll Never Tame Me from the start. Originally the A side, the other side, the horrendous Kissin Time made number 11 in 1959.  Note: Doc Pomus and Mort Shurman wrote You'll Never Tame Me, and they would write songs for Frankie Avalon and Fabian (Tiger, Strollin' In The Springtime). But then again I've been accused of putting too much attention to Rydell or Fabian or Tommy Sands or Johnny Tilloison and *ahem" Paul Anka.  Compared to the likes of Justin beaverbiscuits, I prefer them to Justin any day.  And of course I'm dating myself.   Hey Mama is CMB's boogie blues that didn't get much airplay but like the hoarder that I am, I figure I would bring into my collection.  Do I Love You, is that bubblegum pop this side of the Association or perhaps the Beach Boys or the Wall Of Sound, since Phil Spector co wrote this one.   Barry McGuire tried for second big hit with Child Of The Times with PF Sloan writing it, but it fell short of expectations. B side Upon A Painted Ocean is so so.  Makes me wonder if Eve Of Destruction B/W What's Exactly The Matter With Me is all the Barry that I need.  Tho I keep an eye out for the long deleted Anthology on One Way Records.

Record Collector had the first five CDs mentioned above.  I've been on the lookout for Rory Gallagher stuff with and without Taste and the Live At The Aisle Of Wright was found. The Fleetwood Mac Pious Bird is part of the albums recorded for CBS/Epic (imports can be found but Sony Legacy never bothered to issued those early CDs. Pious Bird shows the Mac slowly moving away from hardline blues and gave us the amazing Albatross and the original Black Magic Woman.  Come On Pilgrim is a fine 20 minute EP from the Pixies and The Stone Garden album is not the band from Iowa but rather a band from Idaho, which could compare themselves to Iowa's own Truth and Janey or the Iowa Stone Garden who might have made their own album.  They owed their sound to Cream and free form jamming. They only made a 45 to which the best song SF Policemen Blues and Stop My Thinking.  Bastard and Woodstock has a slinky Blue Cheer vibe to it.  To be a nice guy I bought a cheap 25 cent cd Nox Boys which is the better of the two unknown bands.   Jim Diamond (White Stripes) helped the band find their sound and vision which owes more to pub rock than White Stripes, tho the freakout album ending  Save Me sounds like Echo And The Bunnymen on Prozac.  For latter day garage rock, Nox Boys is one of the better albums of the 2010s.  Too bad you never will get to hear it on the radio.

The Robert Cray album came from Goodwill.  I rarely see the Tomato version of Too Many Cooks and it came out in 1980, when Robert was starting out. Over time Cray would eventually would sign up with Mercury Records and made Strong Persuader, one of the essential blues albums of the 1980s.  Salvation Army had the FM soundtrack on CD but I didn't want another CD with Cold As Ice on it.  Despite it all, Stuff Etc had nothing to offer, the Coralville branch is seeming to not buy CDs any more and the Iowa City had a couple of interesting things (Tina and the B sides)  but not enough for me to wanting to buy them.  Money And More still has the overpriced Blues boxset for 25 dollars.  As for Housewerks, they can go blow themselves. 

Record Collector is the last I C store selling cds, but they're more into selling vinyl.  I have been very lucky finding CDs there the past couple of times.  Wax Xstatic in Marshalltown has a grand opening for April 11 and the bargain hunting will go over there to see what I can find.  It will be the first excursion to Marshalltown ever, Wax Xstatic had a bit of bad luck due to a tornado destroying part of their business a couple years ago and the the COVID outbreak put them on hold, but they have a new place and here's hoping we'll go see what they got.  

The next Final Bargain Hunt goes to Madison one more time.  Since turning sixty, I am retiring from the big bargain hunts that have driven me the past 30 years.  But then again, those who have been following my adventures have heard me scream the LAST bargain hunt, The FINAL and the ABSOSLUTELY FINAL bargain hunt, but I do think the next one will be the last.  

To be continued as they say.  

March Madness from the Thrift Stores.

But first, striking it rich on the jazz CD finds.

Jimmy Smith-Prayer Meetin' (Blue Note)

Compact Jazz: Buddy Rich (Verve)

Dizzy Gillespie:  Swing Low Sweet Cadillac (Impulse)

Art Blakey-Mosaic (Blue Note)

Art Blakey Jazz Messengers (Impulse/MCA)

Freddie Hubbard-Night Of The Cookers (Blue Note)

6 Jazz CDs for two dollars a piece.  The Jimmy Smith has two bonus track of note,  Sam Jones is playing bass.  Usually Smith doesn't have a bass player, interesting in theory though.  The session features Stanley Turrentine on sax and it's a decent session with Quentin Warren on guitar and Donald Bailey on drums.   The Two Art Blakeys feature Wayne Shorter on sax.  The Buddy Rich best of got slammed by AMG but it does have Stompin At The Woodside and a drum battle with Max Roach on Toot Toot Toosie Goodbye.  Rich could be bombastic on drums but he can swing with the best of them on the mellow side with Late Date.  That's him singing on Between the devil and the deep blue sea, which eventually Rich decided to get behind the drums and away from the mic.   Night Of The Cookers is a two cd four song selection of 20 plus minute versions of Free Jazz and afro cuban rhythms, there's a since of humor, of Hubbard stealing a few notes of Camptown Races, but the out of tune trumpet sounds like a clash of Canadian Geese and the only decent track is Breaking Point.  The previous owner of this CD says good straight ahead jazz but way too many drum solos.  Which the latter was the reason why I bought this in the first place. 

Salvation Army Finds

The Heat In Harlem S/T (Sire/WB)

Grandpa Jones Live (KRB)

MCA Vintage Hits Volume 19 and 20 (MCA)

It's  a shame we don't have a decent overview of Grandpa Jones and this KRB is 10 at a EP timing of 19 minutes and has some poorly recorded live performances.  He could play banjo with the best but this is too much Hee Haw (just as bad as Josh "Hee Haw" Hawley) and not enough bluegrass.  Back to donation pile. The Heat In Harlem is a very good overview of soul and R and B classics plus 8 new songs from Lavern Baker, Little Jimmie Scott, Betty Boo, Paul Evans and Little Richard produced by Andy Paley.  The 16 originals are classics from Elmore James, Bo Diddley, Clarance Henry and the forgotten Willows with Church Bells May Ring.  The Paley produced tracks are a bit too polished for my liking.  Back in 1986 MCA issued 20 Vintage Rock albums, remastered with great care by Steve Hoffman  (Volumes 1,10) and 1987 added Volumes 11-20.  While Hoffman's name isn't on the the volumes, the guess is that he had something to do with the mixes.  Nowadays, these are nothing more than mixtapes of the past and Time Life has done them better but Hoffman did polished up the vintage tracks, probably way too good (the version of Born To Be Wild is complete including a messed up ending.  19 and 20 goes for the deep tracks like Nobody (3 Dog Night) Sookie Sookie (Steppenwolf) and Rock Around With Ollie Vee (Decca version) from Buddy Holly. I should knock the grade a half point for Incense And Pepperments (already on another Vintage Oldies album Number 3) but it's  a classic song so I'll let it be. 

For Iowa basketball, the Men's team led by Luke Garza had a great run at times but faltered when it counted.  Iowa did beat Wisconsin in the usually one and done Big Ten Tournament but Illinois whopped them big time Brad Underwood's Illinois squad did beat Ohio State in the Championship.  For Iowa effort, they get a number 2 seed starting off with playing Grand Canyon Saturday.   As for Garza, the Sporting News called him the player of the year and Iowa has retired his number 55 once he gets done playing.  For the Iowa women, Caitlin Clark was named Freshman player of the year as she dominated the big ten.  Iowa had a nice run of their own in the Big Ten Tourney up till Maryland outclassed them but Maryland is a great ball club.  The Hawk women played 4 tough games in 4 days.  Great job girls.

The Grammys TM.  yep that happened.

Billie Enlish won record of the year (yawn), Taylor Swift took home album of the year with Folklore. The Strokes took rock record of the year with their crappy album.  Miranda Lambert, despite the efforts of Jay Joyce won Country Record for Wildcard.   Body Count won best metal with Bum Rush. The late Chick Corea won 2 Grammys TM in jazz, the late John Prine won two for his last song. Kayne West got best Gospel album (yeah you read that right had you read this far), Billy Strings won best Bluegrass album, Bobby Rush's Rawer than Raw best blues album,  The late great Toots Hibbert won best Reggae album with Got To Be Tough.  Andrew Watt won Producer Of The Year.  If anything this 2021 edition gave tribute to the ones that passed away with (Corea, Prine and Toots) and it shows that Miranda Lambert can never be counted out, even tho I didn't care much for Wildcard but perhaps another listen I should take consideration. The Highwomen won for a country single off a album I didn't care much for either (the blame might be leveled at Brandi Carlisle who tends to oversing or Dave Cobb's cardboard box production). but the Dan and Shay with Justin Beaverbiscuits is a reason why the Weeknd boycotted the GRAMMYS TM in the first place.  As for up and comer Megan Thee Stallion, like Enlish, I have no use for their music.  The Body Count metal win is a surprise.  Black Pumas are the one to watch for the future.