But it is the end of the regular season MiLB and the River Bandits clinched yesterday. The owner gave everybody free admission for yesterday clinching the top playoff spot, so today the Bandits were a bit hung-over it seemed. taking a 4-1 lead before Peoria came roaring back to tie things up. The strangest move was opting to go with Gavin Stupenski, who hit a home run earlier. And alas, he gave up four runs and a hit batsman which sent the bench coach into a F bomb tizzy and got excused in the 11th inning. It was only the second time a River Bandit coach got bounced. QC did score a run and had a chance to win it with a grand slam but Jake Mears struck out to end the game. It wasn't much of a crowd and the Palmer School of future Chiropractors went home after the 10th inning and missed a interesting 11th inning. Of note, there was a teenager that snagged three balls, a home run (Thomas Francisco), a foul ball and a ground rule double from Todd Lott. I found an extra ball and since the dude had three, I gave him number four and said it was a foul ball from Francisco. By the 11th, it was school night and the kiddies were long gone. Hell, I was the only one out in the berm area. I'm sure I'll be back in a couple weeks during the playoffs. Davenport is a great place to watch a baseball game. Quad Cities will be in the playoffs, Cedar Rapids Kernels are a game ahead of Great Lakes and Lake County for the second spot with 9 games left to play.
Quad Cities had 1,355 people show up, 1,300 were gone by the 11th inning. Strange how playoff games the attendance gets less n less.
I'm still amazed of finding CDs n LPs and some scratchy 45s, picking up what was salvageable from the Vet's Thrift Shop. Lavern Baker's classic Jim Dandy, suffered from a very bad scratch that I couldn't buff out, but B side Tra La La looks playable. Every store had some decent music and CDs. For 99 cents I couldn't pass up A Night At The Opera from Queen. Even the Salvation Army store in Moline had Fool For The City by Foghat (I didn't pick that one up since I had a copy). Goodwill, in Bettendorf, continues to impress with stuff like This Is The Moody Blues. Alas, Co Op Moline did not have the new James Mc Murtry album, to which I have to wait till end of the month to try my luck in Dubuque.
What Was Found:
LPs
Bobby Darin-Clementine
Bobby Darin-Clementine
Angel-On Earth As It Is In Heaven
CDs
Queen-A Night At The Opera
This Is The Moody Blues
George Burns-Young At Heart
Caribbean Nights-Various Artists
Run Run Rudolf-The Oil Christmas Compilation Volume 1
Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins-Rabbit Fur Coat
Mountain-Twin Peaks
Humble Pie-Rocking The Fillmore
Buddy Knox and Jimmy Bowen
Best Of Gerry And The Pacemakers
Wild And Swinging-Various Artists
Squeeze-Sweets From A Stranger
Ricky Lee Jones-Pirates
45's
Jim Dandy-Lavern Baker (Atlantic 45-1116) #17 1956 Tra La La #94 (B side)
There Never Was A Time-Jennie C Riley (Plantation PL-816) #77 1969
Butterfly-Charlie Gracie (Cameo 105) #1 1957
Philadelphia USA-Art Lund (Coral 9-62054) #89 1958
College Man-Bill Justis (Phillips Int. 3522) #42 1958
Bippin And Boppin (over you) Robert Byrd (Jamie 1039) 1959
Bippin n Boppin is a forgotten R and B tune, that I'm surprised the pickers didn't get this one after my pick of the litter of the Vets Thrift Store finds about six weeks ago. College Man was a bit more radical rocking (despite the corny singalong at the beginning), Justis will be remembered for Raunchy, but College Man is worth hearing. Philadelphia USA is more good time cheese pop that Dick Jacobs is famous for, the b side is total crap. Butterfly is Charlie Gracie copying Marty Robbins or Guy Mitchell and got a number 1 song for his effort. I had an earlier copy but it had a crack halfway through the record and I couldn't play it. Andy Williams covered this and scored a sizable hit. Jennie C had the big hit with Harper Valley PTA but she still had some minor hits on the pop chart with There Never Was Time, passable I guess but the record revealed more scratches beyond the surface. Which leaves us with Tra La La from Lavern Baker, which did better on the R and B chart. Georgia Gibbs' version did much better at number 24,compared to Baker's places 70 positions downward. This song was better suited for Georgia Gibbs. As mentioned Jim Dandy had a vertical rub scratch that rendered it unplayable.
This Is The Moody Blues was an album I grew up with and listened to quite a few times, I used to knick it from my aunt when she lived with us years ago and it still remains a decent overview of their classic 7 albums after Denny Laine and Clint Warwick (who?) left and Justin Hayward and John Lodge joined. At that time, Simple Game was not on any album (they did the song with the Four Tops of all soul groups) and this record had a more smooth out mixes of Legend Of A Mind and Watching And Waiting and others. Queen's Night At The Opera is a rare find in the junk shops and still commands a 7.99 used price at half price books. I always loved the beauty of 39, tho it became a nasty earworm that got me to rid of the cd. Since Ricky Lee Jones was seeing Tom Waits at that time, Pirates turned out to be a album that I wanted to hear since a few songs were about her and Tom. To be honest, I never cared for her first album and her Walter Becker produced album had some moments of greatness but she's always been an acquired taste. Just like Jenny Lewis. The George Burns is a curio, at age 84, he went to Nashville and cut I Wish I Was 18 Again for Jerry Kennedy and Mercury Records. Kennedy is a perfect fit for Burns, a nostalgic look at the past and some of the most damning lyrics, particularly I Wish I Was 18 Again. The 1980 namesake album might have been the better one to reissue and the female singers and goofy arrangements might be hard to take, but Burns remains charming as he sorts through these old time treasured classics which lasts about a half hour of the 14 songs. Caribbean Classics is Polygram's budget line Rebound Records, cherry picking through some reggae songs from the legends, adds Blondie and Billy Ocean for temptation and Bobby Bloom's Montego Bay, his 1970 one hit that garners jokes from time to time. Wild And Swinging is part of Capitol's ultra lounge series that came out during the Big Band revival craze. Thank you Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
The Bobby Darin Clementine album is interesting since it was part of Atlantic's bargain line of Clarion albums, something that I didn't know all that much about. Most were decent comps from the likes of King Curtis, Coasters and Drifters and Clarion 601 had a Beatles album out with some Beatles singles along with other tracks by the Swallows. Atlantic issued 21 albums on Clarion but never followed through on future editions. The Songs are basically in the style of That's All with collected singles and so so pop standards. All Night Long is up-tempo swing blues. Certainly, better comps are out but for a budget priced album it's fairly decent. The Angel album....I remember Angel getting called a lot of nasty names. for their glam rock moves and basically I was never imprssed with their output (White Hot and Sinful terrible albums) On Earth....sows the seeds of the 80's hair metal (Greg Gurffina moved on to 80's cheese bands with his namesake band) without them knowing it. I bought this since Eddie Kramer (Jimi Hendrix, KISS) helped out. If nothing else, they were way ahead of their time by about 10 years. Closer track Just A Dream sucks.
