(KTTC photo credit. Hull Library)
Last week, we had the Quad State Tornado ripping up 290 miles of the south. This week, we had a Shitstorm that had twenty four tornadoes reported in the Midwest, including a EF 1 pest that whopped Rudd Iowa in Floyd County. It took the roof off the library but somehow kept the books on the shelves, tho I'm sure the rain and wind ruined them. Cedar Rapids had 66 mile an hour winds at the airport. However, not much rain came from this system, which turned out to be a derecho, but was called a serial one rather than the August 2020 shitstorm which was a progressive one. The Wednesday storm was also responsible for the CR area hitting 70 degrees in December for the first time ever, the temp high was 72 degrees, Moline had 76 degrees, before the cold front and storm bringing derecho came around 8 30 PM. The winds howled all through the night and most of Thursday to which temps returned back to a cold and chilly 34 degrees. So far, we have yet to see a major snowstorm, we had a brown Thanksgiving, and it will look to be a brown Christmas since there is no major snow storms on the horizon. Which doesn't bother me at all. Rest assured, I'll have a white birthday next month. However if we have a brown birthday, it will be the first one ever in history that Thanksgiving, Christmas and Jan 24 will have no snow. But I betcha it will be white.
I'm finally getting over the COVID cold flu that leveled me most of this month and wasting what's left of my vacation and sick time as well, since getting exposed to this after a Black Friday Jam, that had five people test positive for the COVID virus. Although I was never at a loss of breath or taste or smell, it just made me more tired and most of that time I went from couch to bed and back again. I'll be in line to get the booster shot next month, hopefully it won't kill me.
Saturday, Keith Richards turned 78. And still kicking.
Bruce Springsteen sold off his music masters to Sony Music for half a billon dollars. He won't have to ever work again for a living. A lot of folks have been selling their catalog to the major labels for X amount of money. ZZ Top, sold their catalog to BMG for 50 Million. BMG has been very busy getting rights to music from others, namely Tina Turner, Mick Fleetwood and Motley Crud. At this point, I think it's safe to put them part of the major label group of Universal, Sony Music, and Warner Music Group.
As we have two more weeks left in this wonderful year, this will be my 20th full year of doing this thing we call Record Review, which started out as top ten review and bash project. To be honest, I have never thought that 2 decades of this would be a reality. However, the people that gave me the go ahead were part of the chat room and with that chatroom now history, most have moved on to other things in life. When R S Crabb's Top Ten Music News and Views went past its expiration date, it was renamed Record World in 2015. And it has been an on and off thing, but came back online due to the Singles Going Steady series to which I tried to keep the spirit of the 45 alive and well. At least 75 plus blogs were dedicated to the 45. In a virtual world of social media, it made me share my love of music and off the wall bands. Once in a while, I would strike gold on researching past bands and even a couple of them liked them enough to post them on their site for a month or two. I never did envisioned myself to catch on to SPIN or Pitchfork or for that matter Bob Lefsetz, who managed to call me out when he was trying out some outdated phone or something other. With him with was much ado about nothing. meanwhile Meanwhile, he continues with his newletter and of course, he'll get a few artists to come visit and comment on things (Betty Lavette wrote a charming reply in the most recent blog). He is on one side of the spectrum, I'm in the far other side, not noticeable to anybody. I don't visit Bob's site all that much, but once in a while I will. He did a nice tribute to Mike Nesmith. 50 plus years later the Monkees' music are still more memorable than anything new today. Mr. Lefsetz pays attention to the music world better than me. I am more interested to see what is found in the bargain bins or scratchy records. And my ratings are laughable compared to him. Most viewed the Junior Seau, Dirt Drifters blog from 10 years ago. No wonder why people give up blogging. Turns out the Dirt Drifter's blog ended up being a Draft Kings lite betting site it seems. I made a few adjustments and deleted that link. I don't allow betting sites here. Not music related.
The year of bargain hunting was like anything the past 20 years. There was some great finds and there were some that was so so but I managed to document most of the misadventures of this year. Why, I really don't know but to check out what I did find. And I still think the Davenport hunt of the old vintage 45s found at the Disabled Vets Thrift Store was the best of the year. I went to Madison three times and came back with plenty of stuff. But in the end, Dubuque and the Quad Cities was closer and preferable over Iowa City and Waterloo. I did take my girlfriend up to Dubuque for her to EXP the bargain hunts but Moondog Music didn't have a decent inventory of 45s that day. I'd do better a month later. In the end, the obsession did boil over and it was decided that perhaps next year I'll be doing more with my girlfriend, then jump in the car and drive. This obsession did managed to kill off one I had ten years ago. However, my girlfriend loved me enough to buy Eddie Holland's Leaving Here for a Xmas present. To which she got a nice Taylor Mini for a gift.
If this year of the bargain hunting is summed up, it would be finding a lot of Elvis Presley stuff, be it, CD or 45s, even finding Do The Clam, not exactly one of his shining moments. Likewise Ricky Nelson's country period of the late 60s and early 70s. Analog Vault had plenty of quarter 45s that played nice. In other words, bargain hunting was very good to me.
Everybody is available, very few are desirable. From the fabled former A and R at Sanctuary Records.
While Bob continues to harp about the tending stuff, I found more outdated storage media in various formats.
CD's
An Introduction To KC And The Sunshine Band B+
Earl Klugh-Heart String B
Melissa Manchester's Greatest Hits B+
LP's
Judy Collins-Hard Times For Lovers C
Charlie Rich-The Sun Years. B-
45's
My Love-Wings (Apple 1861) #1 1973
Spirit In The Sky-Norman Greenbaum (Reprise 885) #3 1970
This Guy's In Love With You-Herb Alpert (A&M 929) #1 1968
Yesterday's Girl-Flo Ann Brown (Fraternity F-904) 1963
Special Delivery-1910 Fruitgum Company (Buddah BDA-114) #38 1969
Sugar Daddy-The Jackson Five (Motown M 1194F) #10 1971
and a replacement copy of Yes Tonight Josephine by Johnny Ray (Columbia 4-40893)
The silly little love song that is My Love, you either like or don't like but I find it more tolerable than Silly Love Songs myself. But the odd fact was that Wings were spinning their wheels on Wild Life and on Red Rose Speedway, which hasn't held up over the years. Herb Alpert scored a number 1 hit with This Guy's In Love With You which has aged better over the years. The 1910 Fruit Gum Company might have been the least of the bubblegum acts on Buddah but Special Delivery I remember from a cousin that had a copy of said song. Indian Giver might have been the better song but I like Special Delivery. The Flo Ann Brown song is a country number The Jackson Five an underrated soul number.
Judy Collins I tend to take or leave at times. In My Life probably was her best studio album for me, her best of all over the map and Hard Times For Lovers, she cast her lot with hotshot Gary Klein to revive her career, even to the point of a naked Judy gracing the cover of this 1979 album. I seriously doubt that she threw a poster of her fully nakedness, but the title track was a failed pop number. This goes way too close to Barbara Streisand territory, but hey the photos are sexy. There hasn't been any shortage of Charlie Rich's albums in the thrift stores but any of his Sun material is harder to find. This comes a GRT compilation and he was the most soulful of the Sun recording artists. As with albums from the 1970s, most of these are done in fake stereo and not mono.
An Introduction to KC and the Sunshine Band is all you really need, since it has most of the hits and choice cuts like Queen Of Clubs and Sound Your Funky Horn. A shame they didn't include the full version of Get Down Tonight or That's The Way I Like It, but it does cut out the excess fat of the original Rhino best of. And Earl Klugh continues to invade our collection with this 1978 mellow lite jazz album.
Passings:
Billy Conway-Drummer for Morphine/Treat Her Right, passed away from bowel cancer. He was 65.
Margaret Everly, Mother to Phil and Don Everly, passed away December 6 at age 102. She had both of them before she turned 20. Nevertheless, Margaret continued to write to fans up till her passing.
