Back To School Finds From Mad City

But first, more passings to report.  Lee Perry, influential reggae pioneer died at age 85.   Ron Bushy, Iron Butterfly drummer went to the Garden Of Eden Saturday, he was 79.  And Trouble lead vocalist Eric Wagner died from COVID 19.  Fred Walk, who played in Linn County also passed away.  Ed Asner joined Mary Tyler Moon and Ted Knight in the great beyond on Sunday.  He was 91.

Four months ago, I went to Madison and found some 45's of note and so I decided to try that again.  I found 39.  For the first time  ever, I came home with a Atlantic yellow label, the Drifters Honey Love.  More about the finds later.

Madison in the fall.  School is back in sessions and plenty of young folks going up and down the campus. It pains me to find that all these great looking girls were born in 2000 and beyond.  40 years older, Grandpa Record Collector couldn't help but noticed them all over Trader Joe's on a busy Monday Night. The clothes might have been short and tight but everybody was wearing masks.  By order of the Governor of course.  In Iowa, our governor would give less a shit.  Still, having the O Kaysions Girl Watcher being on infinite loop everytime somebody would come around.

I managed to hit every thrift store but lost out on Strictly Discs which closed at 6 and I thought they were closed at 7.  Perhaps that was all for the best, but Mad City Music Exchange had 45s and a 50 cent CD sale going.  I did pick up an Alan Davey CD, but for the first time found a copy of Led Zeppelin's Rock And Roll (for 4 dollars mind you) but the beloved Clovers had From The Bottom Of My Heart in the two dollar bins.  A few impulse buys came to be.  The turnover from April was noted.  A bunch of Beatles singles were to be hard but they all looked like they have been played to death.  And I still yet to find a decent copy of Tom Dooley by the Kingston Trio.

CD's found

Is It Rolling Bob?  The Dub Mixes

MU-Jethro Tull

The Life Of A Minor Poet-Hugh Moffatt

Blow Up-The Smithereens

Two Lane Highway-Pure Prairie League

Voodoo Soup-Jimi Hendrix

Standing In The Shadows Of Motown

Captured Rotation-Alan Davey

Krupa and Rich-Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich

Exodus soundtrack

I Can Stand A Little Rain-Joe Cocker

The Fabulous Thunderbirds Live

Drunk With Passion-The Golden Palominos 

Jazz As You Never Heard It Before-Various

LP

Hunters And Collectors (A&M)

I love dub and Reggae music but the companion Dub mix to the original Is It Rolling Bob tribute album sucks.  Dub music should never be this boring.  So I sneaked it into Goodwill and donated it back.  That and M.U.  Tull best of came from the St Vinnie's Pick n Save place, for 95 cents I didn't get cheated at all. Voodoo Soup got raked over the coals for Bruce Gary overdubbing some drums into the mix. I don't think this is a waste album, in fact it is kinda nice and noisy at times.  The Dig and Save St. Vinnies had a big bunch of scratched up and messed up 45s, about 400 of em but none of them worth saving.  Whoever had them really played them to death but what to explained of the Donny Osmond 45's that were cracked, or The DeFranco Family.  Some interesting stuff came from the Decca Gospel Series but the mold and dust boogers made them a liability.  I dropped off some of my unwanted stuff to the West St. Vinnies and I suspect those will be making their way to the Dig and Save Vinnies.  By the way MU wasn't donated back.  Just the crap Is It Rolling Dub CD.

For the CDs found, Joe Cocker's Stand A Little Rain is uneven. Starts out great with Put Out The Light but way too many Piano and Joe only.  Two Lane Highway showed life after Craig Fuller and before Vince Gill,  Larry Goshorn wrote the title track that made the top 20 charts here in town and it has a country vibe like New Riders Of The Purple Sage were doing at that time, a balance of choice covers and neat originals. The Smithereens' Blow Up, had 12 songs and 47 minutes timing.  Problem was, too many songs that didn't stand out and questionable collaborations with others (Julian Lennon and Diane Warren).  This does sound like Pat Dinizio  was running low on ideals and songs like Girl In Room 12 tend to go past their expiration time.  Even Top Of The Pops should have been shaved down a minute. The record is still listenable tho.  The Exodus Soundtrack disappoints with the so called living stereo, which sounds more mono.  Alan Davey's Captured Rotation shows that Davey learned a lot being with Dave Brock and the 1980s version of Hawkwind to reimagined Space Ritual, The Call and Pre Med would fit perfectly in Hawkwind's music.  This came out in 2019 and was found for 50 cents at Mad City Music X and it compares favorably to Nik Turner's 2010's recordings in that space prog rock style of Brock and company.  I have yet to hear the latter day Hawkwind stuff, but Captured Rotation would sound great in surround sound.

I always get a kick out of the early CD's that touted the new cutting edge of CDs and how they were superior to vinyl.  Back then CDs cost around 25 dollars at the local Target or K Mart (you remember K mart don't ya?) in 1985.  Polygram issued Jazz Like You Never Heard Before as a sampler of their extensive back catalog from Verve, Mercury, Polydor Emarcy etc. to which 67 minutes were used on Compact Discs, since at that time they could go up to 74 minutes.  This leans toward MOR Jazz.  A cool take sax only for Sonny Rollins' Body And Soul, and Dinah Washington's Manhattan and ya can't go wrong with Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery.  The bullshit that Compact Discs were better only can be decided with how the original masters were remastered.  It used to be that we can hear the tape hiss, or the pops and clicks of metal parts from old 78s, but in all honesty, it was a hit and miss affair for the CD version.  Technology would get better and CD's would be reworked with better sound with 20 Bit mastering (the drawback was the LOUDNESS and compression that made some albums sound painful to listen to, and probably are cause for my hearing loss.  Dennis Drake's mastering is workmanlike since he was the go to person for CD reissues back then.  Nowadays, it's new vinyl is now 25 dollars or more new,  this was a 2 dollar special from Goodwill.    And they may get it back once I get done listening to it. 

In my original casting of the best jazz drummers of all time, number 1 was Max Roach but after hearing Krupa and Rich, this is where Buddy Rich becomes the all time jazz and perhaps greatest drummer of them all.  This live in the studio recordings showcases 5 songs that Rich and Krupa and their bands played on, though only  Bernie's Tune is where both of them do a battle royal to epic proportions. These 1955 recordings showed that Krupa while in fine form showed him passing the baton to Rich for epic drum solos and the two bonus tracks Sunday and especially The Monster is the reason why Rich is the best.  For jazz drum albums, this is Rich's statement.  Rock drummers should have this in their collection too. 

The Fab Birds Live is basically Kim Wilson and a pick up band but they got Kid Ramos playing guitar and late great Gene Taylor on keyboards and it's a fun time.  I think the shadow of Jimmy Vaughn does hang over the proceedings, but then again Wilson was more prone to old get down grit of Chicago n Memphis blues rather than the boogie years of Powerful Stuff and Tuff Enuff.  The misstep that was Walk That Walk, Talk That Talk was quickly forgotten.  Kid Ramos, is underrated and gives Live a memorable performance in the end. 

I missed out on the World Naked Bike Ride that was held on Saturday and better off that way.  The Madison bikes that I used were replaced by e Scooters that can only work when you had a smart phone. The weather was quite humid, even more so than the 2018 affair that I saw a few people get heat exhaustion and passed out and couldn't continue.  I had three big bottles of water that got very warm and all were gone by the time I reached the finish line.  Granted if I made it there, I would have been sidetracked by all these co eds going to the UW.   Better to have sun glasses and a bandit mask to keep my eyes from popping out on the road.

With the missing of the 6 PM closing of Strictly Discs, that did save me a few dollars and a couple less CDs to add to the cache found.  Usually, Goodwill doesn't have much but the West Goodwill had three interesting cds, which I finally completed my Smithereens CD discography with Blow Up.  Hugh Moffatt's was something I never seen before and since it came from Watermelon, Austin TX record label, thought it would be worth a listen.  It put me to sleep on the way home. The Golden Palominos Drunk With Passion is a hard to find cd from Anton Feir's band collective, which had Richard Thompson playing guitar throughout.   Standing in the shadows of Motown, was the soundtrack to the 2002 movie celebrating the life and times of the Funk Brothers who were still alive at that time.  St. Vinnies had a Gene Krupa/Buddy Rich comp as well as the hard to find Live Fab Thunderbirds.  Half Price Books had Joe Cocker, Jimi Hendrix and PPL (East), the West had Ry Cooder's solo CD but I didn't see the need to buy that one.  Mad City Music X might have had 50 cent CDs but again, Alan Davey was the only one I bought.  Plenty of the forgotten 90s alt rock acts and of course Cracked Rear View just in case anybody wants one of the 15 million discarded Cds of that classic.

The thrift store finds are what I would expected anyway.  The promise of finding Give Live If You Want It or Between The Buttons at the dig n Save and finding a cracked case, missing book and chewed up CD of something other is par for the course.  I admired the dude watching the clerk put more copies of unwanted DVDs or CDs and making this a daily habit but for me I didn't have much time to waste and down the road I went.    Come September, the bargain hunting mobile will be back in familiar territory of river towns Dubuque and Quad Cities and will try my luck there again.  Still, Madison remains a fun town to go music picking and sunny skies and the beauty of Lake Monona.   And other things.

All told, 135 bikers did the WNBR 2021.

The Importance Of Charlie Watts

It's strange to find when a musician dies that people begin to remember the good things or songs that made them big.  Charlie Watts' passing is the big death of 2021.  As I continue to remembrance his contributions to rock and roll, I never realized how he influenced me.  He was a great drummer with the basics of drum kits and a sharp timing to the beat to tie the Stones together.   He could make the filler song something to remember. and with a great song, he turns it into a classic.  He never did drums solos, didn't have to.  He did things his own way, even cold cocking Mick Jagger in a 1984 early wake up call that didn't suit Charlie well.  A USA story gives great insight into the world of Charlie Watts, and his thoughts do mirror mine.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2021/08/24/charlie-watts-rolling-stones-drummer-mick-jagger/5577698001/

So as I'm trying to wake up to greet the world, in the back of my mind I'm trying to figure what would be the best songs to remember Charlie by. On Ronnie Wood's Slide On This, Charlie made Show Me sound like The Stones, With Howling Wolf London Sessions, Charlie took the blues beats of Earl Phillips and Fred Below and made the Wolf sound at home.   

I know there's others out there that have their own fave songs from Charlie's simple but effective drum playing.  But here's a few that showed why Charie ranks with the best, even if he didn't think he was.  But we know better right?

1)   Street Fighting Man-Rumors have it that Charlie played a toy drum set on this song, which came out in 1968.  Their best political number ever.

 

"Street Fighting Man" was recorded on Keith's cassette with a 1930s toy drum kit called a London Jazz Kit Set, which I bought in an antiques shop, and which I've still got at home. It came in a little suitcase, and there were wire brackets you put the drums in; they were like small tambourines with no jangles ... The snare drum was fantastic because it had a really thin skin with a snare right underneath, but only two strands of gut ... Keith loved playing with the early cassette machines because they would overload, and when they overload they sounded fantastic, although you weren't meant to do that. We usually played in one of the bedrooms on tour. Keith would be sitting on a cushion playing a guitar and the tiny kit was a way of getting close to him. The drums were really loud compared to the acoustic guitar and the pitch of them would go right through the sound. You'd always have a great backbeat"  Charlie Watts

2)   Emotional Rescue (1980)  Why the hell would I include a song like this in the top ten best Watts beats? Because Charlie lays down a instant groove with punctual accents on the one count.  In other songs such as Summer Romance and Where The Boys All Go, he actually makes the Stones sound like punk rock. Emotional Rescue might signal the beginning of the Stones period of subpar music but do not blame the drummer.  Anybody less and this would be a one star album.

3)   Get Off My Cloud (1964)  This one is tough to do.  The way that Charlie does the cha cha beat with a drum roll throughout the song is trying to do Neil Peart's complex beats. This song is an exercise in trying to duplicate the song in Watts' style the whole way through.

4)  19th Nervous Breakdown- How can anybody duplicate that thundering tom roll and cymbal crashes and make it look so simple?  

5)  Midnight Rambler.  The dirty Stones at their creative peak?  Could be, but Watts throws four different beat patterns in this song, a shuffle at the beginning and a straight rock beat before the pause and a call n response before speeding up the beat at the end.  

6)  Get Your Ya Yas Out-This is the record that shows the greatness of Charlie.  I always thought the drumming on this version of Sympathy For The Devil is one of the best beats ever.  Charlie had an interesting set up of one high hat on one side and two cymbals on the other side.  He didn't need no double bass and twenty cymbal lineup whatsoever.

7)  Hot Stuff-Black And Blue is an album that you love or hate, same as Dirty Work.  I thought the album was quite lazy, but Charlie lays down a Jamaican funky that makes a forgettable song worth hearing.    Another song to consider is Undercover Of The Night, perhaps the only memorable song off the Undercover album. Hot Stuff needed a edit (which came from the Sucking In the 70s comp) 

8.   What A Woman!-From Howling Wolf's London Sessions, to which Wolf got the elite to play on his album (Clapton, Winwood, Wyman, Watts).  Watts studied the style of the Chicago blues drummer and interpreted in his own way.  Which is why out of all the Chess artists that ventured over the pond to London, Wolf's album is the most remembered.

9)   Bitch (Sticky Fingers)  There's plenty to choose from Sticky Fingers for the ultimate Charlie beats (Moonlight Mile, Sway, Can't You Hear Me Knocking), but I'll go with the B side to Brown Sugar.  As if Charlie trying to play Keith Richard's riff on drums. 

10)   The Under Assistant West Coast Promo Man-It would be just as easy to put down I Can't Get No Satisfaction, but this B side is Watts at his most swinging best.  It fits the mood of Jagger's sarcastic vocals and Richard's Fannie Mae riff.

It's hard to pick the best ten.  The only time Charlie ever did a solo would be the end of Dandelion.  But he was the original drumming machine with songs like Jumping Jack Flash, Satisfaction. Shattered and many many others.   

So long Charlie, we'll be hearing you when we put another Stones record on.

https://www.spin.com/2021/08/charlie-watts-rolling-stones-best-songs/?fbclid=IwAR1ZmGRtL0X0iaDI5RIeMFSUu2DtDiRPhXJFNtjR4UzgGtyTTtvGkpjzjpg

 

On the subject of Charlie Watts, Don Everly, Tom T Hall, Toots Theilman

Oh Death, can you spare me for another year.

It has been a rough go for the classic rockers and country stars this past week.  Chicken Hirsh, drummer for Country Joe And The Fish died at the age of 81.   Toots Theilman, perhaps the greatest harmonica player that ever lived died after complications from a fall died on Sunday, he was 94. Phil Travers, sax player for UB40 also left us.  He was a very young 62. 

Death is never predicable, oh we would love to live as long as we would like and keep our glorious good looks and charm but time and age pecks away at every second and nothing we can do about it.  I have seen pictures of myself in the past six years of playing live and even I have aged much older than I did before I hit 50.  

Don Everly was part of the sweet harmonies with Phil Everly in the Everly Brothers, a duo that influenced you and me.  Everybody had a copy of 15 Greatest Hits and I grew listening to the hits, When Will I Be Loved, Bye Bye Love, Problems, their cover of Roy Orbinson's Claudette.  Their stuff for Cadence (Andy Williams did a great job keeping their music alive through Barnaby Records) is classic, the Warner Music years were spotty after a falling out with Wesley Rose but they managed to keep some great music with The Price Of Love, Man With Money, Love Of The Common People.  The RCA years were the end part one, The Mercury Years had Dave Edmunds producing them, Paul McCartney giving them a gift with On The Wings Of A Nightengale, but their last album was a travesty and that was all.  Once Phil died, Don was still around, and rumor had he had Phil's ashes with him.  With Sibling Rivalry there was still brotherly love.

Tom T Hall was the greatest storyteller in country music, and the songs that he (and wife Dixie) wrote great songs for Dave Dudley, then branched out on his own with Salute to a Switchblade, Shoeshine Man, Homecoming and The Year Clayton Delaney Died.  Perhaps, Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine is his ultimate song.  I really didn't care for his list songs such as I Love or I Care, but they have some sort of nostalgic value, but his mid 70s hits like Faster Horses showed his expert storytelling into a hook filled country song.  To me, his best moment was the Magnificent Music Machine, his bluegrass album which foretold the future.  His Fox On The Run is the quintessential bluegrass songs ever, a cover the Manfred Mann song and he made it a bluegrass classic.  If you can find that album, it is worth the search. Otherwise, the Hip O Collection covers all of the Tom T Hall hits, not exactly all of his best songs but that was albums are for.

And Charlie Watts.  The heart of the Rolling Stones.  He was the one that kept Keith and Ronnie in line, but as they went off into wherever the hell their mind carried them, Charlie kept the beat and time.  When they were great, it was Charlie that was great and when they were bad, Charlie kept on and made them less bad.   He didn't do any drum solos (another reason why I look at him a drumming influence) but his drumming on Get Your Ya Yas Out shows his greatness.  He did so much with so little, later on, he would incorporate china cymbals for later albums (beginning on Emotional Rescue) as main crashes.  He was a jazz drummer but then took a crash course in Chicago blues and the talents of Earl Phillips and Fred Below as influences.  Charlie did play drums on the Howling Wolf London Sessions. Over the 50 plus years of being the Stones drummer, Charlie never missed one gig. And outstanding and perfect record. 

In the array of drummers.  Keith Moon was the most chaotic, John Bonham was the most bombastic and don't get me wrong they influenced me, but Charlie Watts was the most straightforward and tightest this side of Al Jackson Jr.  He influenced me in more ways than one.   Steve Jordan will fill in nicely but there is only one Charlie Watts.  To which this is the end of the Rolling Stones as we know them.    

What sad news about Charlie ….. the look and feel of the Stones will never be the same without him…. Irreplaceable.

RIP Charlie

Mick Avory (who drummed for the stones before Charlie joined them)

Hoarder 45's From Independence

CD 

Elvis Presley Loving You 

America-Alibis 

LP 

The Genius Of Esquivel 

45s

Every Now And Then Brenda Lee (MCA 51047) 1980 #26 Country 

I Guess It Never Hurts To Hurt Sometimes-Oak Ridge Boys (MCA 52342) 1984 #1 Country 

What I'd Say-Earl Thomas Conley (RCA 8717-R) 1988 #1 country 

She Deserves You-Baillie And The Boys (RCA 8796-R) 1988 #8 Country 

Oh Heart-Baillie And The Boys (RCA 5130-R)  1987  #9 Country 

Addicted-Dan Seals (Capitol B-44130) 1988 #1 country 

(it's always gonna be) Someday-Holly Dunn (MTM B-72116) 1988 #11 country 

I Didn't (every chance i had)-Johnny Rodriguez (Capitol B-44071) 1987 #12 country 

The Return Of The Red Baron-The Royal Guardsmen (Laurie R-3379) #15 1967

The Carpetbaggers Theme-Jack McDuff (Prestige 45-309)  1964

Before playing the Cabin Jam, I made a quick stop in Independence and cherry picked some 45's that I passed over the last time I was there.  The well worn grooves of Jack McDuff's Carpetbaggers showed greatly, but the record isn't totally trashed, despite five decades of no jacket and another two months of pickers going through the 45s at the goodwill.   Carpetbaggers wouldn't sound out of place of a thriller.  However there's a major scratch on the b side Pink Panther Theme, which might be the less interesting version from what I heard despite the cool McDuff organ solo.   The return of the red baron is silly fun, however the record isn't that great in shape.  The Brenda Lee single suffers from the same fate, too scratchy but this came from a jukebox. The Oak Ridge Boys single unplayable. As well as  Holly Dunn.

Baillie And The Boys was another period piece band from the country 80s.  Oh Heart was their first top ten hit. The band did write their own music Kathie Baillie and hubby Mike Bonagura with Al LeBoeuf.  Another of those songs that are not exactly my cup of tea.  But then again RCA/BMG was using crappy recycled vinyl that didn't last very long, I suspect that folks didn't play this song very much on the juke box.   She Deserves You is more memorable and benefits from better material making the vinyl.  Don Schlitz co wrote this which really helped the song.  Schlitz knows a good hook or lyric.  The Only Lonely One, the other song is pleasant. Baillie's voice I need to really listen to more than once to have it make an impression.  I may forego future releases from them.

Another country ballad from Earl Thomas Conley that made number 1. B side Carol could have been another number 1 as well. But I tend to look at the country ballads, just like pop ballads of the 1970s.  They served a purpose and could past for soft rock, such as Earl Thomas Conley's songs. Johnny Rodriguez would have his last top twenty single with I Didn't. B side I'm Not That Good At Goodbye captures the music he did for Mercury and Jerry Kennedy, This song and the rest of Gracias, the album he did for Capitol would be his last hoorah.  Dan Seals continued his number 1 chart dominance with Addicted, which is not exactly that impressive of song, nor is Maybe I'm Missing You Now, which makes me of John Ford Coley's vocals missing.

Most of these country songs came from the late 80s, to which might have signaled the beginning of the hat acts coming to change the mood or tone of Country.  Country Music of the 2020's is terrible as rap and plastic beats and third grade mentality has taken over.  Thank God for the women who are doing their damnest to get back to the country and perhaps someday they will.

The dangers of finding 80s singles anywhere is that most have the grooves wore off at the local pub or the usual juke box hickeys that turn out to be scratches.  If they play well, they might entice me to either seek out the CDs or bands I have not paid attention to just to donate them back to the thrift stores. For a batch of forty fives that looked good from these eyes, four of them were unplayable. That might be a first in the batch of things found.  Even the sorry shapes of the Vinyl Emporium findings  I had better luck playing. 

Country Music use of dated drums and keyboards have made some of the songs unlistenable.  It may explain why Baillie And The Boys didn't impress me much.  I suspect if I find their best of, I may subject myself to revisit to hear them in state of the art CD sound that was so cutting edge back then but not now as people flock to overpriced vinyl.  CDs remain the best value and accessibility. I enjoyed hearing the craziness that is Esquivel  and will take a chance on any CD of his that I come across.  Somehow hearing him in Mono just doesn't do him justice. 

In the case of wrong cd cover, GI Blues was actually Loving You from Elvis, which is probably better than GI Blues.  Some fun stuff, but the bonus tracks don't offer much.  Alibis, is a 1980 America album which is decent soft rock.  The beginning of the Capitol years this benefits from harmonies from Tim Schmidt and J D Souther and Mike Baird's harder rocking drums.  Dewey Brunnell's Hangover shows he can't do hard rock, but still for a album lost in the archives of history Alibis is worth a few more listens.

Woodstock Aftermath

At 11:10 am on Aug. 18, 1969, the Woodstock festival was over. It went down in history as one of the greatest events ever in Rock and Roll. If all of the acts that were scheduled and or invited to perform there would have, it probably would have taken a couple more days. Here is a list of 'the others', the ones that didn't make it or decided not to do the festival; (We took this from wikipedia, it is well put together)

Declined invitations and missed connections:

Bob Dylan, in whose "backyard" the festival was held, was never in serious negotiation. Instead, Dylan signed in mid-July to play the Isle of Wight Festival of Music, on August 31. Dylan set sail for England on Queen Elizabeth 2 on August 15, the day the Woodstock Festival started. His son was injured by a cabin door and the family disembarked. Dylan, with his wife Sara, flew to England the following week. Dylan had been unhappy about the number of hippies piling up outside his house in the nearby town of Woodstock.

The Jeff Beck Group: Jeff Beck disbanded the group prior to Woodstock. "I deliberately broke the group up before Woodstock", Beck said. "I didn't want it to be preserved." Interestingly, it was to have been the first time that Beck would perform with Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice. Also, Beck's piano player Nicky Hopkins performed with Jefferson  Airplane.

The Doors were considered as a potential performing band but canceled at the last moment. According to guitarist Robby Krieger, they turned it down because they thought it would be a "second class repeat of Monterey Pop Festival" and later regretted that decision.

Led Zeppelin was asked to perform, their manager Peter Grant stated: "We were asked to do Woodstock and Atlantic were very keen, and so was our U.S. promoter, Frank Barsalona. I said no because at Woodstock we'd have just been another band on the bill." However, the group did play the first Atlanta International Pop Festival on July 5, as one of 22 bands at the two-day event. Woodstock weekend, Zeppelin performed south of the festival at the Asbury Park Convention Hall in New Jersey. Their only time out taken was to attend Elvis Presley's show at the International Hotel in Las Vegas, on August 12.

The Byrds were invited, but chose not to participate, figuring Woodstock to be no different from any of the other music festivals that summer. There were also concerns about money. As bassist John York remembers: "We were flying to a gig and Roger [McGuinn] came up to us and said that a guy was putting on a festival in upstate New York. But at that point they weren't paying all of the bands. He asked us if we wanted to do it and we said, 'No'. We had no idea what it was going to be. We were burned out and tired of the festival scene. [...] So all of us said, 'No, we want a rest' and missed the best festival of all."

Chicago, at the time still known as the Chicago Transit Authority, had initially been signed on to play at Woodstock. However, they had a contract with concert promoter Bill Graham, which allowed him to move Chicago's concerts at the Fillmore West. He rescheduled some of their dates to August 17, thus forcing the band to back out of the concert. Graham did so to ensure that Santana, which he managed at the time, would take their slot at the festival. According to singer and bassist Peter Cetera, "We were sort of peeved at him for pulling that one."

Tommy James and the  Shondells declined an invitation. Lead singer Tommy James stated later: "We could have just kicked ourselves. We were in Hawaii, and my secretary called and said, 'Yeah, listen, there's this pig farmer in upstate New York that wants you to play in his field.' That's how it was put to me. So we passed, and we realized what we'd missed a couple of days later."

The Moody Blues were included on the original Wallkill poster as performers, but decided to back out after being booked in Paris the same weekend.

Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, according to the Class of the 20th Century U.S. television special, is quoted as saying "A lot of mud at Woodstock ... We were invited to play there, we turned it down.'

Arthur Lee and Love declined the invitation, but Mojo Magazine later described inner turmoil within the band which caused their absence at the Woodstock festival.

Free was asked to perform and declined.

Spirit also declined an invitation to play, as they already had shows planned and wanted to play those instead, not knowing how big Woodstock would be.

Joni Mitchell was originally slated to perform, but canceled at the urging of her manager to avoid missing a scheduled appearance on The Dick Cavett Show.

Lighthouse declined to perform at Woodstock.  Which was good anyway. 

Roy Rogers was asked by Lang to close the festival with Happy Trails but he declined.

Procol Harum was invited but refused because Woodstock fell at the end of a long tour and also coincided with the due date of guitarist Robin Trower's baby.

Jethro Tull also declined. According to frontman Ian Anderson, he knew it would be a big event but he did not want to go because he did not like hippies and other concerns including inappropriate nudity.

Iron Butterfly was booked to appear, and is listed on the Woodstock poster for a Sunday performance, but could not perform because they were stuck at an airport.

Raven ( CRRK…who?)– attorney Miles Laurie, one of Michael Lang's lawyers set up a meeting with Raven manager, Marty Angelo and offered his band a spot on the lineup but only if they signed a contract with Lang to be Raven's record producer and 10% of future earnings. Raven turned down his offer based on the fact that the year before the band played at one of Woodstock's "Sound Outs" and the gig didn't go well. Lang assured them that his concert was going to be different. The band respectfully declined.

Crabb Bits: The Endless War, The Worst Cubs Team

We are at the halfway point of August.  Doesn't seem that long ago but it feels like a long time.  I managed to see Blue Oyster Cult come through Cedar Rapids and crashed the Blues Festival yesterday and got to see some choice quality entertainment from the local bands.  Yes, you can rely on Craig Erickson to put on a great show and Kevin (Big Funky) Burt likewise.  To be fair, Cedar Rapids and this area of Iowa have some of the finest musicians in town.  One of them writes a blog that nobody reads.

The bands that I play in never seem to draw anybody despite getting the word out.  Social media, hand bills, word of mouth, all ended up having people interested but coming as empty seats but I know I am not the only one who has bands that can't draw flies if we had a mountain of cowpies around.    I can count the people on one hand who went to the Williamsburg Blues Rox gig.  Tho the gig with Kat Blue n No Limits did slightly better.  But in the era of Covid and six feet apart, every show feels like playing in a morning after scene.  The No Limit Band, was a fill in, Kat Blue losing her band through defection or indifference. Blues Rox suffers from a fate of uninspired performances and a rough go of improvisation.  What the future holds is bleak, but I continue on, thinking we'll get somewhere. After all, The Jones County Fair has offered Blues Rox another slot for the free stage next year.  Here's hoping we don't have to compete with another Kane Brown rhythm track blaring through our PA system again.

The news are not so much enlightening either.  Haiti got hit with a 7.5 earthquake, we got two hurricanes Fred and Grace wrecking havoc and now the Taliban is ready to take over Kabul in the most endless and pointless war ever, the Afghan that started when W invaded this wasteland almost 20 years ago in September.  You think that the Vietnam war would have taught our leaders not to invade a country that is meaningless, nothing was gained from Afghanistan, to which even the Russians wrote this off as a lost cause.  The Taliban couldn't be stopped and even as the US tried to train the Afghan folk to defend their nation and democracy, that didn't stop the warlords and and trained soldiers to drop their guns and run.  For this, W Bush is the second worst POTUS of all time, invading a country that was no win from the start, but the late war hawk and forever burning in hell with Hitler and the rest Donald Dumsfeld (Rumfeld) invaded anyway.  And we have had 3 Presidents who had to deal with this mess, even the odious Trump decided to write this off and get the troops ready to come out.  Joe Biden,  who we are not that impressed is going have to get the troops out and let Afghans fight their own bloody war, to which they have been for thousands of years.  The Taliban patiently waited for 2 decades and then made their move to which the end result of Afghans and warlords jumping to the other side.  The fall of Kabul will be complete, get the troops out now.  Meanwhile the keyboard warriors continue to sprout off about this failed war and blaming Biden and Trump for that matter for the failure of this war.  Read your history they say, but make sure you go back to 2001 after 9/11 for which W Bush should be blamed for even invading this country and starting the endless war. The truth is there. 

The continuing story of the free fall Cubbies as they can't beat the piece of shit Florida Marlins,  pitchers can't get past the second inning without giving up a TD. In friday's 14-10 Marlins win, flash in the pan Azolay now 4-13, had a four run lead and gave it right back up before having a hamstring issue (or whiplash watching balls go out of the stadium) and Dan Winkler going through 6 batters and not getting an out.  By the end of this inning it was 10 to 4 and tho the Cubs made a gallant comeback, they fell short.  In this 10 games and counting losing streak, they had minor leads only to watch them vanish the next inning.  Yesterday, Zac Brown Davies managed to pitch a rare quality start and got a 4-3 lead before Sergio Alcantana booted two balls and Miami won again.   Seems as if the Cubs can't stand having a lead.  But then again,  they don't have a decent lineup, though Ortega have managed to get on base 18 straight games.  Hapless Ian Happ is on pace to strike out 200 times, Mike Duffy has been shit since coming back off I.R.  he's striking out more too.   The new look Cubbies might make it to 100 this year, a far cry from the hope and false promise of May.  Don't let the record fool you, the Cubs are the worst team.  Doesn't help when their owner is more interested in helping right wing nut jobs run for office and Jed Hoyer trading players for used jock straps.   BTW, Miami swept the Cubs. 11 straight losses and 11 more K's to go as well. 

Not to be outdone, The Baltimore Orioles show the world why they suck and why the Spanos family suck. They too have lost 11 in a row.  And a shoo in for 100 loses again.

Ratings for Record World are mixed but encouraging.  The most read pieces remain either The Brains or My City Was Gone.  Another head scratcher is a 2016 Davenport/Saloonatics  blog that got 20 views. Even on a hot streak, Record World has never ventured past 1500 views per month.  For all time views 2016 was the glory year.  Usually the Singles Going Steady series is used for reference.  Overall, with hardly any comments anymore, I'm just blogging to myself.  And the phony baloney of the farewell Final Posting proves I never have gone away.  Till The Brains issue their album or when I die, that will be the final posting.  Not that anybody cares that much. 

The County Music Hall Of Fame announced four more inductees in the 2021 class.  The Judds who dominated country radio till Wyonna went solo, Ray Charles, who's inventive ways of country arrangements in the 60s was way overdue in CWHOF, Pete Drake, producer and steel guitar legend and the curious one of Eddie Bayers, the first drummer to be included,  I'm surprised that Jerry Corrigan and F Murray Harman hasn't been there yet, but Bayers was first call drummer in the cowboy hat years.  Congratulations, a better choice of performers than the Jann Wanner Hall Of Fame. 

CD Finds

UB40-Labour Of Love

Black Stalin-Roots Rock Soca

Johnny Guitar Watson-3 Hours Past Midnight

Rick Estrin/The Nightcats-Contemporary 

Goodwill Dubuque had lotsa CDs.  Only problem was, they was lotsa CDs that were crap.  The two finds were UB 40's breakthrough album, all reggae covers, to which Red Red Wine was the surprise hit.  I never got on with this band, tho the 1980-83 did have some cool tunes. Black Stalin, is calypso with Jah reggae overtones, tho it goes on a bit longer than I would like.  Old Crabb Christgau gave both albums an A minus.  Perhaps I'll find the Geoffery Morgan album. For Black Stalin, Burn Dem is worth hearing.   Rick Estrin and The Nightcats came through town Saturday and owned the festival, therefore I had to find their most recent album Contemporary,  For Twenty bucks at the local show you could get the guys autograph it for you but since my resources went with that 35 holey Blue Oyster Cult T shirt, Moondog Music had the cd for 10.98.  To which I had enough change to buy the Johnny Guitar Watson album of the Kent/Modern years.  Moondog Music has begin to shrink their CD section,  they are more focused on vinyl, but however, Moondog still has a decent selection of new CDs, they have been very very good on having a decent section of blues CD to which Contemporary was found and fairly cheap. But as consumer's taste are going for vinyl now, CD's are on the decline.  But I tend to think that old will be new again.

Linn County Bluesfest 2021

(Jim Jacobmeyer: Photo)  (All other courtesy of the LCBS) 

After Friday's Blue Oyster Cult show.  We had the Cedar Rapids Bluesfest 2021, which returned after a year hiatus,  Opening act Ship Of Fools, was a junior high collective of  guitar players, a couple that I knew from jamming with them at the now lamented Parlor City Blues Jam.  

Next up, Craig Erickson and Sky Train, his longtime bandmates of John Hall (Bass) and Robbie Haskill (drums) plus Tommy Giblin (Keyboard) as he tore through his set of songs.  Then Kevin Burt gave a crowd rousing 45 minute set, with a soulful version of Inner City Blues and Long Train Running,  Dan Johnson (Bass) and the tight playing of Eric Douglas (Drums) kept things in the groove.

A half hour delay and headliner Rick Estrin and The Nightcats closed the set. Rick has a legend upon legends, growing up listening to the blues of Little Walter and influenced by Ray Charles and the Genius Sings The Blues Record.  His knowledge of Little Walter is shown on the Walter classic Off The Wall.  The Nightcats are no slouches either.  Chris "Kid" Anderson, produced the latest Kevin Burt album and the other cats played on that album  Lorenzo Farrell doubles as keyboard player and provides the bass tones on keyboard, but the secret weapon is former Little Richard drummer  Derrick "D Mar" Martin being the drummer and inspirational motivator who stole the show with his crazy drummer and facial expressions, which was worth the price of admission, but in the case of myself, a free show.  I wandered in from the hiking trail and was greeted by Phil Bo King and a few other of my jam friends at Rumors and Whisky Jo's.   Martin did a crazy drum solo that included the stage gratings, mic stands and Anderson's guitar, while doing a Michael Winslow impression of mouth percussion. 

It was fun but after a long slow song, the festival got shut down by a 10 o clock curfew and some bitchy assed neighbor complaining about the noise.  To which some people went home or up to see Evan Stock Band play at The Kickstand.  

Which was outdoors. 

Scott Sanborn came up to introduce Kevin Burt.  He's been behind the scenes due to Covid concerns but he is still alive and well and doing great.  I do miss him at the jams.

Kevin Burt, after his set, enjoying the antics of the Nighcats.

The opening act is Ship Of Fools, a collective bunch of kids learning how to play the blues and are the future of the CR Music Scene if they choose to continue down that path.  Kris Bries, now with Blues Rox was once part of this project that Craig Erickson teach and mentored.  I have jammed with a couple of these kids during the now history Parlor City Blues Jams.  If Covid didn't kill what's left of the music scene, you might be hearing from them in the future.

Blue Oyster Cult 8/13/21

Setlist:

Dr. Music

That Was Me

Before The Kiss, A Redcap

Golden Age Of Leather

Burnin' For You

Harvest Moon

Box In My Head

ME 262

Then Came The Last Days Of May

Career Of Evil

Godzilla

Buck's Guitar Solo (Buck's Boogie?)

Don't Fear The Reaper

Encore

Tainted Blood

Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll

Opening act:  Christopher Shayne 

(Tami Minnick: Photo)

In my lifetime, I have seen Blue Oyster Cult four times at the EnergyHouse aka Five Seasons Center in Cedar Rapids and the 1979 show remains a ultimate classic.  I got ears blown off, Albert Bouchard did the ultimate drum solo with Godzilla and the place was full of folks, beer was flowing and doobie smoke made everybody high.   The 1981 show with Whitford/St. Holmes and Foghat was quite good, tho by that time Rick Downey replaced Bouchard on drums.  Still impressive.  By 1983, BOC was changing even more, electric drums (ick) and about four songs off the Revolution By Night (Feel The Thunder, Take Me Away, Shooting Shark and Shadow Of California were played, none at this concert).  Cheap Trick opened. It was loud and still a good time.

Fast forward to 2021, the era of Covid and this concert felt more like a funeral gathering when we took our seats.  Times have changed, Albert and Joe are gone, Alan Lanier died a few years ago. Richie Castellano replaced Lanier, Chuck Miranda replaced Joe Bouchard (or Kasim Sulton) and Jules Radino (present since 2004) plays drums.   Eric Bloom and Donald Roesner (Buck Dharma) remain the two original members.  BOC was originally slated to play in December of 2020 but that got bumped to Aug 13 of this year.  The concert seating was six feet apart and there's wasn't much people at the front of the stage.  One of my friends, Tami, got chased back to her seat when she started dancing up front.  She never did know I was there.  My best friend bought me the ticket as a Christmas/Birthday gift.  I rewarded myself with a tour T Shirt for thirty five dollars, only to find that it had a tour inch hole in the shirt.  And there was a reason why I never bought any concert shirts at the show.

Opening act was Christopher Shayne, a hard rocking band from Tempe Arizona, home of The Gin Blossoms.  Christopher moves on to open for Molly Hatchet August 29, back in Tempe.  Bass player Mark Blades, sported a foot long mohawk, but the band was tight and spot on,  they did a creditable version of The Boys Are Back In Town.  They played for about 35 minutes.  Shayne mentioned that this band treked up here from the desert and took them 24 hours to get here.  They must have been trucking, it took me two and half days to get from Phoenix to Cedar Rapids when I moved there in 86.  For Southerwestern rock and roll, The Shayne Band has a bright future.

(Deb Swearingen: Photo)

The BOC boys popped up around 8 and played for about 74 minutes, leading off with a surprise, Dr. Music from the 1979 Mirrors album.  They opened their 1979 set that same song.  But this is not your Blue Oyster Cult from years before.  BOC has now transformed into a casino type of band, playing a wide variety of their storied greatest hits, and they did play three songs off the new album The Symbol Remains.  The songs that they didn't play were noted, Hot Rails To Hell, Dominance And Submission, Astronomy).  And the biggest disappointment was no drum solo to Godzilla.  Rudino must have a off night,, too many drum stick twirls caused a missed beat on Golden Age Of Leather and was off the beat on the jam part of Last Days Of May while Costellano soloed.    

I think the crowd was around 750 to 1000 and it might have disappointed the BOC boys for I was surprised that after Roesner's guitar solo, they would launch into Don't Fear The Reaper, to which the crowd managed to get close to the stage and take pictures.   But as the stagehands begin to round up the drum cases and guitars for the next stop, BOC did managed to return to the stage, letting Castellano  sing Tainted Blood from the new album, to crowd indifference, it's not exactly a song you would want to play as an encore but at least BOC got it right and concluded the night with Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll, still a fixture in the set list and thank God for that.   But sometimes bands do have off nights and Rudino was quite sloppy tonight.  I know he'll rebound in the future next time they come our way again.  BOC moves on the Orland Park Ill tomorrow and Beaver Dam Wisconsin at the Dodge County Fair August 21. 

Hopefully the next time I buy a shirt at the concert, I hope there's not holes in it.  I didn't spend 35 dollars on a holy shirt. 

The Big Inland Hurricane One Year Later

CD Finds.

Every Motown Hit Of Jr Walker And The All Stars

1966 The Coolest Year In Music History 

Crazy about An Automobile 

The fun of doing this blog is trying to key this on a keyboard that ain't worth a shit.  I'm surprised I have not taken a hammer to this yet.

It was one year ago today that we had SHITSTORM 2021 come in an change everything along its wake. A lot fewer trees are in the parks, even a year later some people can't get back to their old places to get their things or rebuild.  The Tri State elevator survived the Category Four winds of 115 MPHs and blinding rain.  Today, the elevator has been torn down and the buildings that got ripped away have been rebuilt.  The barn at the DOT next to the landfill is still there and still in tatters to remind us of a year ago, when a storm came roaring out of the Dakotas and held firm for about 500 miles before finally falling apart somewhere in Ohio.   You can read about that fateful day via this link. https://rscrabb.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-perfect-shitstorm.html

At this point, we can finally call the 2021 Chicago Cubs season over and done with.  Another lousy sweep, this time by the White Sox,  we pull the plug when they hit 15 games back of first and with Milwaukee coming in to take another four games.  Well, it was nice of Craig Kimbrel to serve up a HR gift to Andy Ronaine, and let the Cubs tie the game but once again, the lousy bullpen gave up 4 runs, wet behind the ears Manuel  Rodriguez gave up a lead off HR and three unearned runs thanks to Duffy's error.  Cubs managed to get two runs back but fell short.  Then the offense took the rest of the series off, getting shut out on Saturday and washed up and the only pitcher remaining from the Dodgers no hitter, Zac Davies got shelled for 7 runs and pitched only 2 innings, He made Jake Arrieta looked pretty good. Kimbrel came back to his usual lights out stuff on game two and former Cubs Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease showed hack owner Ricketts and Jeb Hoyer why they should have held on them and not traded for the now departed Jose Quintana.  Trading Kimbrel this year to the Sox before the series was a stupid ideal, tho perhaps Nick Mangriel might be worth of something next season.  Certainly not year.  In the mean time, you can get the bobble heads of the three former Cubs and soon to be former Davies for 19.95.  I wonder if they redo them with Chapin being and Oakland A and Tepera and Kimbrel White Sox.  And a big X on Davies.   Thank you Tom Ricketts for trading Yu Darvish away to get this washed up pitcher, who may have pitched his final best performance in a Cubs shirt with that no hitter, to which afterwards a 12 game losing streak begin and they free falled from first to fourth place.  Pittsburgh seems to want the be in the crapper since they are 11 games back of fourth.  Doesn't help when the Cubs strike out 45 times in the three game series.  Growing pains suck, especially when hitters swing at anything but a strike.  

After the Wednesday Night disaster, Jake Arrieta was released.  The homecoming was a failure, but rest once this season is over and done with, nobody will remember this disaster of a season for Jake and the gutted Cubs.  The fantastic May came crashing down in June after the No hitter and the cubs bats going silent and pitchers that couldn't get past the second inning.  Jake will forever be part of the 2015 and the 2016 Cubs and the no hitters that he threw in both years. 22-6 with a 1.77 ERA in 2015 and a Cy Young award, that alone puts him with the Cub pitchers elite.  

The Milwaukee series has been bad bad bad, great great great if you're a Brewers fan.  Another 16 strike out again, another game to which Cub starter gives the Brewers a 7 run lead in the first and you may as well go home.  Hapless Happ must be doing better, he only struck out once, to which Corbin Burnes  the Brewer pitcher K'ed the Cubs bat 10 straight times.  I got nothing, says Jake Arrieta, who, once again had nothing and the Brewers did the cha cha  around the bases.  Could the Cubs lose the rest of the games this season?  They're doing their best to do that.  In the meantime, Chris Davis of the Orioles decided to retire.  Despite hitting 53 Home Runs in 2013 for the forever crapper dwelling O's, his battling average is what Hapless Happ is aiming for.  A .115 battling average for this season.  Davis' ongoing hip issues is the reason for retirement.   Milwaukee had no challenge, sweeping the Cubs in four with a 17-4 blowout, to which Professor Fuckup was no better than the disposed Arrieta and still there Hack Davies.  Anyway, this was the worst home stand for the Cubs. 0-7  with double digit strikeouts in each and every game.  They're on their way to a 100 losses and a top five pick.  Just like Ricketts and Hoyer planned when Yu Darvish was traded away for has been and draft picks, who we hope will be the future and not the also run like Zac Brown Davies. 

Enough of the Cubs, The White Sox came to the Field Of Dreams and Tim Anderson's HR in the 9th gave the Sox a 9 to 8 victory over the surging New York Yankees.  Yankees got 4 in the top of the 9th to take the lead but Anderson's 2 run shot was the winner.  A game for the ages, of course the ignorant folks had to show up. Namely Kegger Covid Reynolds No Show Ashley and Phony Joni  with hack Joe Buck and the other guy.   Pffft to them.   Also, rumored for next season, that other Chicago team.  Here's hoping we don't have to see the three clowns that pat themselves on the back every chance that they get.  BTW, if you lived in Dyersville, FOX blacked the game out, so you had to rely on other channels to get.  Ain't baseball wonderful?  End those motherfucking black out games. 

Passings: Mike Finnigan, keyboard player for Bonnie Raitt,  Crosby Stills and Nash band and projects and his own blues band died on August 11, from kidney cancer.  He was part of the Electric Ladyland sessions with Jimi Hendrix, fifty three seasons ago... Walter Yetnikoff, former CBS Records head honcho, who abrasive style got the better of him died Aug 8, he was 87.  Walter was instrumental in the rise of Columbia Records in the late 70s and early 80s and benefited from Michael Jackson's rise with Off The Wall and Thriller, and got Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney and the Rolling Stones to sign with CBS.  His drug habits and rowdy ways got him fired in 1988, but he later would try to reconnect with music in 1995 with his own label Velvel.  He did managed to sign The Smithereens and even reissued the Kinks RCA albums for a time.  For more insight into this man, seek his 2004 autobiography.  As for his claim of producing Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA, consider that wishful thinking.  

Music news:  Rolling Stones will tour again, but this time, Charlie Watts has to sit out due to surgery and will have Steve Jordan holding down the beat.  But as the Stones are now in the shadow of their 80s, Charlie did turn 80.  In the meantime, Mick Jones brings Foreigner to Cedar Rapids on Wednesday and Friday Blue Oyster Cult comes to town.  To which I'll get to see the latter. 

Baseball fans in the 2021 era are more vulgar than ever before, and we will still get fucking morons, half crocked on crappy Bud light and high on bath salts running into the field in order to get ridiculed by us after they get arrested.  In the case of the stupid fuck running into the field and running away from security, little did he know that this girl would knock him into the seats with a tackle and calmly walked away from it all.  Your sweetheart of the week. Don't mess with the Rohan. Marissa Rohan that is. https://www.barstoolsports.com/blog/3377786/the-dodgers-ball-girl-who-tackled-a-fan-on-the-field-is-a-24-year-old-rocket?fbclid=IwAR0sNGGDs_mz5bg9MYoSkfX5RCc5QR-oKqbEYhv7GDVIypYnA9HsvTRwSpA

Shitstorm 2021 Jr came through around 4 30 and flooded the streets of Marion and knocked a few road signs down but it was a love tap compared to the one of last year.  

CD Finds:

AC DC-High Voltage

Miles Davis-Bitches Brew

Sugarland-Enjoy The Ride

Grateful Dead-Shakedown Street

Cesar Rosas-Soul Disguise

CCR-Credence Gold

Marty Stuart-This One's Gonna Hurt You

Martina McBride-The Way That I Am

LPs

Pops Staples

Lindsay Buckingham-Go Insane

In the on again off again saga of CD finds, we found a collection of odds n ends,  I rarely see Credence Gold, tho Chronicle is always out there somewhere.  High Voltage, I had once and wanted to hear it again. The Sugarland fixtation is basically from learning the songs for the band that I sat in last Sunday. Jennifer Nettles tends to grate on my nerves at times but there are some decent songs on the album that Kristen  Hall was jettisoned since she was old and in the way according to their Corporate Label.  Shakedown Street might be the best of the 70s era Arista albums an Rosas is part of Los Lobos.  Soul Disguise starts out great with Little Heaven and a good cover of You Got To Lose.  It coasted on down after that but it's worthwhile effort.  Martina McBride became a name to remember on the strengths of Heart Trouble, My Baby Loves Me and Independence Day, two of the three written by Gretchen Peters. The Way I Am is a winner album 

It seems that I've been on a 90s country kick listening to albums from the likes of K T Ostlin, Lee Roy Parnell and Marty Stuart whose love of country and old country is noted.  Tempted might be the best of the MCA albums but This One's is just as good and maybe better, Down Home is a keeper and Just Between You And Me shows Stuart's love of Jack Clement or Charley Pride, The King Of Dixie is his closest attempt to mainstream rock and roll.  The Johnny Cash appearance is worthy, the Travis Tritt cameo not so much.  I may regret getting Bitches Brew from Mr. Davis but for 4 dollars, it might be worthy of a listen.  

The CDs that start out this blog are compilations, the 1966 overview is assembled by Hal Lifson, a KRLA DJ that did put together another comp that nobody heard Music For Lonely Housewives, which was found in the cheap bins around 2005, worthy of hearing, tho 1966 cherry picks songs (All Music Guide bitched about the lack of the big hits but major label licensing issues is the reason why Motown was left off, or Columbia).  Ya can't argue with Lies (Knickerbockers), You Baby (The Turtles), These Boots Were Made For Walking (Nancy Sinatra).  The lesser known would be Nino Tempo/April Stevens All Strung Out, and Bobby Darin's If I Were A Carpenter, but perhaps the reason why those songs were included was that Varese Sandabunde would eventually issue albums from Bobby Darin and White Whale (which Tempo/Stevens and The Turtles were part of WW).  The TV theme are the key with Time Tunnel, Bat Man and Time Tunnel's themes were used.  It's a comp that is probably not that useful but the sound to all of these songs are damn near pristine.  Amazon has this out of print for 48 dollars used.

Crazy  About An Automobile, a specialty comp from Ace Records in the UK, the best in reissue albums and they dig deep into compiling an album about automobiles,  from the obvious (Rocket 88,  You Can't Catch Me,  Hey Little Cobra) to the more obscure, Jan and Arnie's Gas Money, and then Bucket T from Jan n Dean.  For 25 songs, this blows by in 56 minutes and never a dull minute and concludes with Nelson Riddle's Route 66 Theme.  Again, not essential but if you do come across a copy, take it home and give it a spin. 

Before Chronicle, Creedence Gold was the album that people had that wanted to hear the hits (to which the rest got issued on More Creedence Gold, since Fantasy Records knew how to fleece the band and the buyers, both got condensed into the more essential Chronicle but  I have never seen Gold used till recently.  And for the most part, all the songs deliver, tho I heard It Through The Grapevine needed an 45 edit to make it work in 1976.  CCR could jam when they wanted to (Born On The Bayou) and to an certain extent Susie Q..  Chronicles is what you need, Gold, is a luxury. 

A new thrift store A to Z Thrift in Coralville had some CDs and LPs, that's where the Pops Staples album came from, The Lindsay Buckingham Go Insane was from Goodwill.  Goodwill also had a mono clean copy of Ray Charles Greatest Hits but I didn't see the need for it, I might have picked it up had it been in stereo, but any Ray Charles clean copy ABC Paramount albums are worth investing. 

PS,  With Sugarland, it didn't help that Kristen Hall had practically the same name as Kristian Hall, the dude.   To which once again, I mixed up both players name.  I think it has been corrected tho time and age and my Demetria might say otherwise.  

The grand total of CD's found since July is now 86.  I am surprised of how many CDs have been found from donations to the cheap stores.   It also means I'm in need of serious help to quit buying so many subpar CDs......

Give Me Your Unwanted 45's Part 2

What was found

I've Got The Music In Me-Kiki Dee (Rocket MCA-40293) #12 1974

Hello It's Me-Nazz (S G C 45-001) #71 1969 #66 1970

I Believe In You (you believe in me)-Johnnie Taylor (Stax STX-1024) #11 1973

I Don't Blame You At All-Smokey Robinson/The Miracles (Tamla T-54205)  #18 1971

Everybody's Got The Right To Love-The Supremes (Motown M-1167) #20 1970

I Understand Just How You Feel-Johnny Ferguson (MGM K-12905) 1960

I Wanna Rock-Johnny Sardo (Warner 5014) 1958

Ding Ding Dong-Jive Tones (APT 45-25020) 1958

77 Sunset Strip Cha Cha-Pete Candoli (Warner 5039) 1959

Bristol Stump-The Dovells (Parkway P-827)  #2 1961

Big Brown Eyes-The Redjacks (Apt 45-25006) 1958

One Step Ahead Of My Past-Hank Locklin (RCA 47-7813) #14 Country 1960

You Are My Sunshine-Ray Charles (ABC-Paramount 45-10375) #7 1962

Look Into My Eyes-The Chantels (Carlton 555) #14 1961

Will We Start All Over Again-Hank Thompson (Capitol 4454) 1960

Mad-Dave Dudley (Mercury 72308) #6 Country 1964

When I'm With You-Sheriff (Capitol B-5199)  #61 1983, later reissued and hit number 1 1988

Who Slammed The Door-Little Caeser (RCA  47-7270) 1958 

Keep Your Hands Off My Baby-Little Eva (Dimension 1008) #12 1962

CDs

Sugarland-Twice The Speed Of Life

Sugarland-Love On The Inside

Tom Waits-Small Change

In the band that I'm sitting in with, they have a bunch of Sugarland songs that I needed to hear, but the best part of this is that I can find their CDs for a couple dollars or less at the thrift stores. Garth Fundis (Don Williams) produced the first album, with the disposed Kristen Hall leaving, and kewpie doll Jennifer Nettles and Kirstan (with an A) Hall being the main performers. There's a helluva lot of autotuner in Nettles' voice which kinda makes the songs sound wooden but they have a rock and roll vibe on Something More and Down In Mississippi (up to no good).  I wasn't that impressed when this album came out in 2004, but in the 17 years passing, Faster Than The Speed Of Life has aged fairly good despite the autotuned vocals but then, the quality of country music has really gone down the shitter.  Love On The Inside shows lesser autotune dependency, but Nettles tends to oversing at times.  Small Change is where Tom Waits really starts showing his weird side with The Piano Has Been Drinking (not me).  

Half Price Books had a interesting array of 45s of note.  Some soul music to speak of, but the Johnnie Taylor forty five looks to be a reissue from Fantasy Records when they took over Stax in the 1970s. Hello It's Me from NAZZ is a either a bootleg or a Collectibles reissue, the key is that the MO (Monarch Records), that the vinyl was hard pressed and not the soft version as per SP (Specialty Records).  Even as a reissue, it's probably the find of the forty fives this week.  Upon further listening, it is a bootleg copy, the mix is horrendous. 

These 45s may not been as hard rockabilly as the Davenport finds and the quality of I Wanna Rock falls short.  Warner Brothers at that time, was starting out and couldn't find that rock and roll star, till they got the Everly Brothers a couple years later,  Used Heart sounds geared toward the teeny boppers.  Sardo was a bit lighter than Johnny Tillotson so to speak.  Sardo would make one more forgettable 45 for Warner Brothers before disappearing. Pete Candoli's 77 Sunset Strip Cha Cha is what you expect, if you are interested, seek out the Warner single with Don Radke's straight version of that TV Theme. I'm surprised this didn't show up on a Austin Powers movie. B side Beer Barrel Conga continues the cha cha craze that never took off after 1960.  But then again, I'm a sucker for such forgotten stuff like this.

Jive Tones Ding Ding Dong, is a one hit doo wop group, with the mysterious E Price writing this and b side Geraldin, which makes me think of Reuben And The Jets, tho I doubt that Frank Zappa ever heard of them, Ray Collins maybe.  Even Don Costa adds a fun arrangement to Geraldine.   Johnnie Ferguson's I Understand Just How You Feel, the followup to Angela Jones, failed to chart on the top 100, a ballad not that different from the aforementioned Johnny Tillotson would have done, but it is a mystery why this song didn't chart, but the G-Clefs' version made it to number 9  a year later.  Ferguson did one more single for MGM and disappeared just like the Jive Tones did.   B side Flutter Flutter was co written with one Mel Tillis

A few soul singles pop up including Taylor's I Believe In You, Smokey's I Don't Blame You At All and The Supremes (without Diana Ross) Everybody's Got The Right To Love, which came off Right On, a album that had some fine soul sides (Up The Ladder To The Right, I Got Hurt, Bill When Are You Coming Back), had that on cassette years ago but the vinyl album is quite pricey, even if Diana Ross isn't on it.   My guess with the big hit of Tears Of A Clown, Smokey opted to try another uptempo song with I Don't Blame You At All, which may have been the last gasp of that great Detroit sound before Barry Gordy packed up and went west.  That rare classic Motown song you never hear anymore. The Dovell's Bristol Stomp is fun too, however the record been played a lot.  Quite Scratchy.

Kiki Dee used to record for Motown, actually Tamla and then Rare Earth, then she found her way to Elton John and managed to have her classic period in the mid 70s with I Got The Music In Me, which featured EJ's producer and some of his bandmates.  She could do MOR with Simple Melody, the B side. Recently I found a 3 CD overview of her career called Gold, which combines most of her work on Rocket, as well as some sides recorded for Liberty and RCA to go with the Tamla/Rare Earth recordings. CD 3 has way too many ballads, but CD 2 is worth hearing. 

The second batch of 45's the Redjack's record had a repeat scratch that made the record unplayable.  The Chantels Look Into My Eyes might have been a record from the old box of 45's that forever ruined me (this is a different record) but I do recall two Chantels 45s, one was Maybe and perhaps this one. Not as over the top like Maybe.  Mad, written by Tom T Hall, is one of the classic Dave Dudley songs, however this record got played a lot and is quite scratchy,  Don't Be Surprised is mellower. This probably was a jukebox copy.  Hank Thompson's Will We Start It All Over Again, didn't chart, which I find hard to believe but there were quite a lot of classic country songs from 1960.  A underrated a honky tonk number, note the echo on the vocal on the bridge. It Got To Be A Habit, continues Thompson's sense of humor that makes this song fun to listen to, and plenty of steel guitar and country piano.  Ken Nelson produced.  And finally A Hank Locklin number sweeten by the Nashville sound.  And the best of them all, Ray Charles, You Are My Sunshine, with Gerald Wilson arranging.  This may sound dated today but back then, Charles was inventing a new type of Modern sounds in Country n Western. 

Little Eva's Keep Your Hands Off My Baby made number 12 and was part of the mashed potatoes craze and was the follow up to the Loco Motion.  Surprisingly, the cheap recycled vinyl that was second rate back then actually wasn't too scratched up.  B side Where Do I Go, is not that remarkable, but it doesn't sound out of place from the likes of Leslie Gore.  Written by the Carole King/Gerry Goffin team.  And this is the first version of When I'm With You, by Sheriff, a minor band that had a middle of the top 50 chart placing in 1983, but five years later shot up to number 1.  The first single  You Reminded Me bombed, but When I'm With You did slightly better.  How it managed to hit number 1 years later might have been due to an inclusion on a soundtrack.  B side Living Without You, was a Boston soundalike knockoff, not bad but perhaps a change of pace on the jukebox.  Probably better than Give Me Rock N Roll, which was on the reissued 1988 45.  Arnold Lanni would become a producer later on.  The 1983 version is on the multi coloured Captiol  label, considered to the orange/yellow swirl one of the more beloved label from Capitol. Who's Slamming That Door was a one off single for Little Casesar on RCA and was kinda of rock and blues number originally done by Lou Stein.  Passable, B side I'm Reaching was slightly better.  A slight crack at the outer groove into the record but doesn't affect play.  Just something that I needed to hear. 

If you're not familiar with the deadwax initials, this will refresh your memory.

Pressing plant codes for LPs:

PR = Presswell Records Mfg. Co., Ancora, NJ 
LY = Shelley Products, Huntington Station, NY
SP = Specialty Records Corp., Olyphant, PA
MO = Monarch Record Mfg. Co., Los Angeles, CA
PL = Plastic Products, Inc., Memphis, TN
RI = PRC Recording Corp., Richmond, IN
AR = Allied Record Co., Inc., Los Angeles, CA
CT or CTH = Columbia, Terra Haute, IN
CP = Columbia (Pitman, NJ)
CS or CSM = Columbia (Santa Maria, CA; very infrequently)

Goodbye Dusty Hill (A Love Letter From His Wife)

After 19 wonderful years of marriage that ended too soon, I’ve decided to step out into Dusty’s spotlight to thank all of his fans, colleagues and friends for the overwhelming outpouring of love for The Dust.  It makes me hopeful he will not be forgotten.

He was the kindest, most gentle and caring man a woman could ever Hope to find in a lifetime.   Many don’t believe in fairy tale marriages but Dusty and I truly lived one!    We were inseparable.   

He wasn’t supposed to leave me or all of you.  That wasn’t the plan he and I had.   The plan was for another round of physical therapy, with a different approach,  to help his chronic bursitis.   The plan was he would return to the second leg of the tour in September.   

Early Wednesday morning my world and yours would lose a great musician and I would lose my greatest love.   He woke me up and we talked and as he was sweetly chatting with me he suddenly stopped and he was gone in an instant.   So, while I feel numb and lost and alone and in a million pieces, I know he will always be with me in my heart and soul and I will join him when the Lord calls me home to be with them.   It is my hope you will always keep him in your hearts.   He loved his fans and always remembered that without fans music is not heard. So, know he truly appreciated each and every one of you. 

  

Dusty was an avid tv and movie buff…always quoting lines and so I share an embellished quote from “This Is Us”  as my last love letter I send with him to his final resting place.

My Sweet Dusty,

The single most extraordinary thing I have ever done in my life is fall in love with you.   The single most extraordinary gift I have ever received in my life was for you to ask me to marry you.   I have never been seen so completely, loved so passionately and protected so fiercely.

I will be with you again.

Love you to infinity and back.

Your wife,

Chuck

I will lay my husband to rest tomorrow.   I would ask that you look to the heavens at noon and wish Dusty Godspeed.

With great love, respect and appreciation to Dusty’s fans, colleagues and friends,

Mrs. The Dust