Townedger Radio 7-Percy Sledge RIP, The Golden Era Of Music?

I've known Bruce Stanley for over 20 years.  I knew him when he was down at Omni later Relics Records located in the hood part of town and we would sit back and talk tunes and bullshit throughout the years.  We have gone to seen a few bands, Big Back Forty, Blue Mountain, The Honeydogs to name a few and we were both trading CDs and albums to expand our musical horizons.  After all, it was he that told me about Scruffy The Cat, Blue Mountain, Matthew Sweet and even though Relics folded in 1996, we continued to talk tunes while he was selling music gear over at 16th Avenue Music in Czech Village (RIP). For the last decade and a half I could find him working at Siegel's Pawnshop and we continue to bullshit about music although the demise of music stores and Best Buy's continuing to shrink the CD section, we haven't had much to get excited about.  New Alabama Shakes?  Meh.  He hasn't said much good about the latest Iron And Wine but I admit that I never got into them.

We would try to wow each other in what we could find at the stores but lately, we talk about the good old days; the last true decade that great music, the late 80s alternative music scene before Nirvana.  He made a valid point that we were very lucky growing up in our era of the last of the great music.  Robyn Hitchcock, Lloyd Cole, Aztec Camera and the fond memories of Big Back Forty and Sean Beal standing behind us taking in a concert with The Honeydogs and then wondered what ever happened to him.  I think we were the biggest fans of that band.  I don't think the death of Kurt Cobain was the death of music, I think it was 1998 when Polygram got sold away to what would become the Universal Behemoth Empire, a Corporation so big, it refuses to issue The Brains Money Changes Everything album and has sued Rick Parashar's offspring for the tapes of Temple Of The Dog to which Universal claims that the late Parashar verbally agreed to hand the tapes over for 35,000 dollars. Or maybe it was Limp Bizkit and Nu Metal that was the beginning of the end.  Or perhaps it was Cumulus and Clear Channel turning every radio station into the same cookie cutter Corporate Radio with the same 23 songs played over and over.  I suppose 1998 was the cut off year, although there was still decent music being put out, it just didn't bring back memories like the golden age or rock and roll and Hippie Dippy Rock or Album Rock.

Nevertheless, Bruce and I talked about the vinyl revival and Record Store Day, to which both of us admit that if you have to celebrate one day of buying overpriced record store day specials just to play once and file away, it made no logical sense to blow 25 to 30 dollars on albums you used to get for 5 dollars back in the day.   We both thought that Cedar Rapids needs a record store of its own but again Bruce said that you're better off throwing your money down the loo and getting a better return.  In this day and age of certain old fart music insiders saying streaming is the future, who ever buys CDs and LPs are the problem, it doesn't make sense to open up a music store, only to have the goodies you have being bought up, and what remains is crap that nobody wants.  I saw that firsthand in going to Madison a couple weeks ago.  And the usual bitchings that going to thrift stores and Antique Malls, the luck is more miss than hit, unless somebody got lucky and posted their findings on a Vinyl appreciation face book page.   The great argument is that CDs are past their prime and should be retired.  I really don't think so.  A lot of my music reviews are CDs that I play in the car when I'm out and about and basically they're still as good as they ever were when I started buying them almost 3 decades ago.  But then again when a Cd is overcompressed and overloud then it's not such a good thing.  The loudness factor especially in the last decade really ruin certain albums of note.

The vinyl revival of the past couple years has gotten to the point that scavengers have brought out just about anything that is seen at the thrift stores and what remains is crap nobody wants.  Once in a while, there might be something obscure that the most savvy of scavenger record hunters will overlook but it's not too often.   I don't see people getting too excited over Carmen Cavallero.  Or most old country stuff if it's not Johnny Cash or Buck Owens.  It's odd but during the CD explosion, CDs would sell for 10 dollars used while LPs only were around 3 or 4 dollars used.  Nowadays, it's like Paranoid is 20 bucks reissue new whereas you can get it new for 5 or even less at a thrift store.  And what didn't sell or sold for a dollar or less now gets big bucks on EBAY or other places.  It really makes me wish I could have kept that ABC/Sire version of the First Ramones album on hand.  I didn't think the value would go up in value and that dollar lack of sense has made me realize I'll never find that album again.  The reissue of course but even the Rocket To Russia LP is much different than the one that I grew up listening to in high school.

I grew up on rock and roll and even in high school, I started getting into new wave and punk.  And then getting into the weird shit.  Wire 154, XTC Black Sea,  Iggy Pop, New Values, Devo and I would torture Dave Spich, a co worker by going over to his house, with a pizza from Naso's and the mentioned albums and seeing the strange looks on his face before he threw me and the pizza out the door.  Great times actually. XTC Black Sea Record Realm had that as a promo and I still have the Green sack cover that RSO put over the cover of the album, I think the record skipped on a couple songs.  I wasn't a fan of English Settlement but I ended up getting the Epic album that was a single album and not a double like the import was.  And imports were I could catch up on artists that didn't sell in the US, Doctor Feelgood, Hawkwind and Eddie And The Hot Rods come to mind.  It took a while for me to really get into prog rock of Neu! or The Soft Machine or Tangerine Dream but somehow over the years I did find and purchased and listened to most of Tangerine Dream's Virgin years.

Back in the 80s college towns had the best record stores.  BJ's in Iowa City replaced going to Musicland or Sam Goody, plus BJ's had a hell of a cut out record section, where they even sold The Beatles about 5 dollars under suggested retail price and I still have Let It Be, with a poster included. A Lowell Fulsom Kent album went unclaimed for years till I picked that one up.  The obscure artist like Crack The Sky as well.  When Real Records opened up, they were the place to go for Jazz and Blues.  But in the late 80s world, even Target and K Mart still had a decent album section as well.  The good old days, before the internet, and we still had real drive ins to go see a movie. Or playing video games at the mall.  And even having the chance to pick up girls at that video arcade too.  I miss those days, I really do.

I tend to look at the period of 1985 through 1997 as the last great influential era of music before everything got Corporate Rock and all the fun was taken out of.  Before autotuned chipmunks and processed beats and bad poetry passing as rock or country or whatever top forty is.  I been looking through the archives to remember bands that made it to the cutout bins and never heard from again.  The Velvet Elvis, Mach Five, Super 400, even to Dream Syndicate or  The Blood Oranges.  Even The Bottle Rockets have fallen off the map although they are still around.  Or The Backsliders from North Carolina.  There was more to just Uncle Tupelo which splinted into Son Volt and Wilco, I really dig deep and read the alternative magazines to keep up to date of who was up and coming.  But in these days and times, I just really haven't based much interest into the up and coming, but whoever was out and about 10 years or so ago I still keep an eye and ear out for. Such as Delta Moon whose new album is out.

I was looking through the archives and found the first Record Store Day was in 2009, at least to my knowledge it was and back then it was a celebration of the remaining record stores still in business and some odds and ends of exclusive RSD vinyl that while collectable was overpriced as is.  In 2009 I went to Real Records and later Record Collector and getting the MC5 single of Kick Out The Jams (MF version not brothers and sisters which I would rather have).  This year whatever I do will be a last minute decision. Half Priced Books will have a vinyl appreciation day Friday with 10 percent off new and used vinyl.  Will it be worth the effort to return to Davenport or Dubuque and thinking the local thrift store will have anything of value?  The logical thinking is no but I did file away a couple of 45s at Ragged Records for maybe future purchases and hope nobody knows about them.   In my opinion, Record Store Day is a ripoff, overpriced limited edition albums that the best titles are already gone before they're put out, however it does bring the crowds out to witness other deals or to see up and coming bands.  But then again I was always said that anytime I go to a record store is Record Store Day in my book.  Although the returns are less and less, once in a while I will find something worth mentioning.   And the weather is supposed to cooperate too. It's baseball season once again and perhaps if The Quad Cities River Bandits are playing home this weekend maybe I put another 200 miles on the car for a day of bargain hunting and baseball.  It depends on if I feel if it's worth it.  Even thinking about it tires me out.  We'll see.

Baseball season is now going and Cedar Rapids Kernels are 5-0 as of this writing.  I saw them win the home opener 8-3 over Beloit before a crowd of 1,752, of course the usual brat kids seated where I was at.  This team has the makings of playoff caliber provided if the players don't get promoted and the replacements don't take over.  Minor league baseball is the future of Major league stars and it's still a thrill watching them develop before your very eyes.  I have come to watch less baseball on TV anymore, WGN doesn't show the Cubs much anymore and TBS games are blacked out every other game.  Besides the weather is getting warm and there's other things to do than spend it sitting on the couch and falling asleep and missing much of the game.  KCRG has announced a baseball TV lineup but they're on 9.2 and guess what, we don't get that out here in the boonies, even with digital rabbit ears. 

A few things going on the music world.  Jack White and AC/DC played Coachrella over the weekend, some poor fan got hit by a train afterwards and died...Speaking of brain dead. Marco Rubio has joined the GOP clown bus, Hillary Clinton running for Democratic POTUS, in other words the usual bought and sold candidates out there. Republicans trying to eliminate the federal estate tax, star another war. Nestle continues to hoard the water in California,  them and the frackers.  Beam me up Scotty, no intelligent life here. 

RIP Percy Sledge.  Best known for the overplayed When A Man Loves A Woman one of the more bitter love songs ever written while some think it's a romantic ballad.  I tend to like Take Time To Know Her better, that doesn't get played very often and It Tears Me Up.  I think I had his greatest hits years ago. The hits were on Atlantic, but he later showed up on Capricorn and Infinity to name a couple.  Cancer claimed him at age 73.

Bill Withers will be in the rock hall of fame this weekend, and Rolling Stone wrote a fine article about Bill.  They don't make anybody like Bill anymore: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/bill-withers-the-soul-man-who-walked-away-20150414

Record Store Day and why it should be abolished. http://popdose.com/why-record-store-day-2015-should-be-the-last/

Richie Blackmore turned 70 on Tuesday and there's been rumblings from Joe Lynn Turner about getting Richie back on board for Rainbow and David Coverdale even mentioned that a Deep Purple MK 3 Reunion was talked about but that fell through, even more so after Jon Lord passed away.  Whitesnake's new album remakes some of the Deep Purple songs of that time in a new album.  Good idea but don't know if that's worth getting or hearing.   Outside of the usual Mike Portnoy stories or Megadeth rehashes Anti Music has in their site, not much going on in the music world.  Speaking of useless new albums featuring useless guest stars and bands past their prime, read on... 

Rod's Wonderful Record Reviews Of The Week:

Blues Traveler-Blow Up The Moon (Loud And Proud 2015)

You can tell a band is on its last legs when their new album they decide to enlist help from up and coming bands.  Blues Traveler has been around for over 25 years now, and they have returned with yet another change of labels and a sense of desperation to sound relevant today.  With all around nice guy Dave Grohl letting them record at his studio 606 Sound, John Popper and company gets a little help from long in the tooth teen ex idols Hanson, autotuned chipmunks 3OH!3, rappers Dirty Heads, over the hill punkers Plain White T's and Bowling For Soup (that's a name we haven't heard in about 10 years) JC Chavez and to have some country flavor, Jewel and Thompson Square appear as well.  The title is laughingly bad lyricwise and namechecking Willie Nelson on Vagabound Blues is just plain wrong.  This just does not feel like a Blues Traveler album, but rather sounds like guest stars doing their own thing and having Blues Traveler backing them up.  It's not totality unlistenable, in fact there's a certain guilty pleasure of hearing Jewel or Thompson Square or even Secondhand Serenade on Darkness We All  Need.  You hardly noticed B.T. until Popper does his trademark Harmonica solos on the songs at hand.  Perhaps this CD would have been more logical say about 10 years ago when most of the bands were making headway on the music charts back then.  Popper has stated that this was the band's manager's idea and the band went with it.  And they think they'll continue in this direction.  If that's the case, the Blues Traveler we all know and loved is gone forever.  Chances are this record will sink without a trace.  And believe you me, radio isn't going to play this either.  They haven't yet.
Grade C

Dwight Yoakam-Second Hand Heart (Reprise 2015)

Like Don Rich with Buck Owens, when they were together they made classic country from Bakersfield but when Rich died in 1974, Buck Owens would never scaled the upper reaches of country radio and his records became not as memorable.  To draw the comparison, when Pete Anderson produced Dwight in the classic years, all the albums had a quality of style, a styles of rockabilly, Elvis and modern country all rolled up to one.  Since the falling out with Anderson, Dwight has continued to make albums but the records were never as memorable.  Even his return to Warner/Reprise with 3 Pears there was something amiss.  Second Hand Heart owes more to the Rolling Stones rather than Buck and the Bakersfield sound all but gone.  Certainly the Keith Richards/Chuck Berry riff on She pretty sums up the album itself, Dwight is rocking out and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Dwight produces most of this, with a bit of help of mix master Chris  Lord-Alge  (90s alternative rock bands, Steve Winwood).  Dwight still has a good backing band but not as good as Anderson's led band, basically all irreplaceable, no Skip Edwards, no Taras Ponderink, no Jeff Christie or Jeff Donovan.  None of the songs are country sounding, Dwight leaves out the autotuners and bad rappers off his album, a very good thing.  The remake of Man Of Constant Sorrow is more Black Crowes than O Brother but everybody is having a good time.  Some of the songs need a good fadeout, Off Your Mind goes on too long, and the rest of the songs would song better on Outlaw Country on XM radio than K HACK. In the end this record gets the nod over 3 Pears but find the Target version of this album, which includes a 1989 demo of The Big Time, produced and played by Pete Anderson and compare it to the newer version.  It's more stripped down and to the point.  Who knows, maybe if they can meet halfway we could see Pete come back to produce the next effort which won't happen.  So until then, Dwight is on par with Buck Owens, without a key member or producer, the records are good but lacking something.
Upon a second listen, his version of Who Will Stop The Rain sucks and final track Nothing But Love not much better.  Sometimes Exclusive albums with bonus tracks are left off for a reason.  The 1989 demo of The Big Time proves that Pete Anderson is the missing link between a good album and subpar album.  Probably the most overrated album of 2015.
Grade C+

Percy Sledge-It Tears Me Up Best Of (Atlantic/Rhino 1992)

Percy is more in line with country ballads than pure uptempo soul and that's probably why I never warmed up to him that much.  Of course he couldn't top the blistering When A Man Loves A Woman but like I said in the blog, I like Take Time To Know Her which basically should have come into play 40 years ago on my part.  That said, Sledge specialized in the slower ballads although he does speed up Try A Little Tenderness, to which Otis Redding still owns but adds special meaning to Love Me Tender.  I'd love to see more uptempo stuff rather than the handful that Rhino issued. Of course Marlon Greene is all everything as producer and guitarist but who gives the songs that soulful groove?  None other than Roger Hawkins.  Which is why It Tears Me Up is worth hearing.
Grade B+

Joe King Carrasco And The Crowns (Hannibal 1980)

One of the best kept secrets of the 1980s was Carrasco, a smart ass from Texas that took the heart and soul of Augie Meyers and Sir Douglas Quintet and added some B 52s fun and excitement to their music. This is Tex Mex party rock and roll and all of side 1 rocks quite nice, even the Spanish sung  Federales is good time. But certainly the ghost of Doug Sahm can be heard on Don't Bug Me Baby,  I Get My Kicks On You and of course Bad Bad Girls which you can heard traces of She's About A Mover.  Of course it helps when Huey P Meaux is mentioned (He produced the best of Sir Douglas) and music lover Billy Altman produced, hands off and letting King and The Crowns do their own thing.  Being on a small time label Hannibal didn't help much but the record sold well enough for MCA to offer up a deal and King and The Crowns would make two just as good albums before going back to the indees for their classic Bordertown.  Secret weapon: Kris Cummings, who was the Kate Pierson to King's Fred Scnieder. Or maybe even Louis Prima and Keely Smith although Keely was never as fun as Kris was.  Jes saying.
Grade A-

The Spinners-The Original Spinners (Motown 1967)

Of course, the classic years were with Thom Bell and Atlantic in the mid 70s but before then, The Detroit Spinners were among the B squad of Motown groups that didn't get the big songs or productions but rather competent and listenable soul doo wop.  The connection between I'll Be Around and Truly Yours is that the vocalist is Bobby Smith and that producing them was Harvey Fuqua and William Stevenson which puts them more into Doo Wop at times with Tomorrow May Never Come and come to think of it, you can hear echoes of I'll Be Around to a lesser degree with Truly Yours which did managed to get some chart action in the mid 60s.  Since Harvey Fuqua wasn't as noteworthy as say Smokey Robinson or Holland/Dozier/Holland he tended to favor more of a dated soul sound such as That's What Girls Are Made Of or I'll Always Love You, a song that must have been a requirement of Motown singers to cover, The Isley Brothers probably the best version of said song.  The Funk Brothers band sound a bit less inspired but more polished on the numbers, The Original Spinners shows The Spinners still looking for a sound to call their own.  Later on, G C Cameron would come on board to give them a hit with the Stevie Wonder penned and produced It's A Shame.  To which later on The Spinners would lose Cameron as they left Motown for Atlantic but Cameron suggested one Phillipe Wynne to replace him and the rest they say is history.
Grade B



Steve Hillage-Motivation Radio (Atlantic 1977)

To me Hillage was part reason why the mid 70s Gong was tolerable, he seemed to be a calm among the storm of craziness that was Gong and Motivation Radio is more accessible and preferable to Gong. Somewhat progressive in a way but also suggesting something along the likes of Hawkwind, I enjoy Motivation and Light In The Sky leading up to the six minute Radio. Side 2 owes more toward Gong, with Saucer Surfing leading up the chaotic beginning of Waiting For The Spark.  A fine record despite a blah cover of Not Fade Away.  Sometimes it's better leaving the cover versions be.
Grade B+

 

Album of my youth: Tom Petty/The Heartbreakers Damn The Torpedoes (Backstreet 1979)

The first time I heard of Tom Petty was from a article in Creem Magazine and at that time they were talking about his latest You're Gonna Get It, the last album he did for Shelter (somehow TP got the masters back to that and the first album and Gone Gator has kept them in print). I think they were on The Midnite Special which I went out and got the 8 track.   I know radio did not play Breakout around here, when I first heard that one it was from the FM Soundtrack to the movie.  The movie wasn't so great, the soundtrack was the sounds of the 80s, a blueprint of Corporate Rock from Steely Dan's FM (No Static At All) to Billy Joel to the Eagles and of course Boston's More than A feeling.  I'm getting off subject here, but while reviews of You're Gonna Get It was lukewarm, I thought it was great enough to warrant a solid B plus with the hits I Need To Know and FM classic Listen To Her Heart, which believe it or not ABC edited the damn song.  But Shelter was running into financial instability and Petty moved over to the fledgling Backstreet label which ironically was part of MCA Records, to which Petty would have a love hate affair for the next decade and half.  But at that time he was on Backstreet.

In some ways it was a success story on how Damn The Torpedoes came out of left field and became one of the classic rock albums of the 70s although the record took some time of getting going, beginning with Don't Do Me Like That and Refugee, now classic rock overplayed staples but one of those songs that if I play it in the car still sounds good, although countless repeats on The Fox makes you sick of hearing it.  Hooking up with hot shot producer and later label head Jimmy Iovine, the connection was perfect for the time.  Iovine has done wonders with other folks, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Nicks, however Iovine's production for Bruce Springsteen's Darkness On The Edge Of Town was muddy as hell, on DTT, Shelly Yakus (Blue Oyster Cult) brighten and polished up the Heartbreakers sound which made it radio perfect sound.

Over the 35 plus years of Torpedoes, the record did not wow me like Y.G.G.I.  It took plenty of effort to sit and listen through Refugee or Here Comes My Girl.  I was more into the power pop rock of Even The Losers or Complex Kid (Shadow Of A Doubt) or Century City or even the throwaway What Are You Doin In My Life, which is my favorite song off that album.   To which Classic Rock Radio doesn't play very often. Which is why it is my favorite song off that album.  Of course the variables of sound effects and odd things on the album showed Petty's sense of humor, the woman's voice at the beginning of Even The Losers, the Ping ping ping introduction before Century City and whatever the hell was at the end of What Are You Doin' kinda cheapen the album a bit but they do give the record something different. I suppose Louisiana Rain would have made a nice single of sorts or even Losers or Complex Kid, most of Torpedoes would have been perfect for the radio.  I am guessing this was Petty's high watermark album and anything after that would suffer, which they did on Hard Promises which begin a falling out period with MCA, when the label wanted to charge 8.98 and Petty said no and he'd would win that battle. By then Ron Blair opted out and the late Howie Epstein would take over.  For myself I got off the Tom Petty band wagon for a while before getting Let Me Up (I Had Enough) his 1987 underrated classic album.  Then Petty stuck it big with The Traveling Wilburys and a solo album Full Moon Fever which cemented his role as classic rocker, with a little help from Jeff Lynne.  Instead of keeping it simple, Petty then hooked up with Rick Rubin, who brought out the self indulgence with the bloated Wildflowers and Stan Lynch left after Into The Great Wide Open, replaced by Steve Ferrone (Average White Band) who has managed to stay in the Heartbreakers ever since. Ferrone is more professional but Stan Lynch was the driving backbeat, although a bit sloppy but perfect on the early Petty albums including Damn The Torpedoes.

The album has been remastered and reissued a few times on CD.  MCA issued the so so sounding Compact Price Series and then Universal and later Geffen restoring the inner sleeve pictures and on the last reissue the lyrics. And it's finally nice to finally read what Petty was singing.  Perhaps the song that speaks most out to me is Even The Losers, with the tag line at the coda, it's such a drag living in the past and for most of my life I seemed to be doing that, especially over some freshman girl in high school that I haven't seen since graduation.   Damn The Torpedoes the album, Tom Petty seemed to write songs that fit my moods or how I was feeling and didn't know it at the time.  And albums like these stay in my collection for that reason, they struck a chord with me that continues this to this day.  Even though Refugee and Don't Do Me Like That are still overplayed on the radio.
Grade A

TOWNEDGER RADIO: Broadcast number 7 (aired 4/15/15 on Lucky Star Radio)

Rose Of Jericho-Eleventh Dream Day
Not With A Bang-The Fanatics
Can't Stop The Music (he played it much too long) Hall & Oates
Lucifer Sam-Pink Floyd
Dirty Bird-Brant Bjork
Margo Known As Missy-The Judybats
Revenoor Man-George Jones
Let The Chips Fall-Jack Clement
Lynchin' Party-Bobby Bare (Happy 80th Birthday Bobby)
Wolfie (Demo)-The Townedgers
Silent E-Tom Lerner
Hold Me Tight-Ten Years After
P F Sloan-The Association
I Just Want To Make Love To You/Don't Want Your Money  Paraphernalia Tyrus
The Train-Ray Charles
Don't Let Go-Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen
You Can't Put Your Arms Around An Memory-Johnny Thunders

Singles Going Steady 23-Childhood Moldy Oldies

It's been a very radical couple of weeks as I have been taking the car out to many many places, Davenport two weeks ago, Madison last week and this week finishing up a two part visit to Iowa City's very own Sweet Living Antiques And Records, perhaps the last standing of hard to find 45s and LPs, even more so than Record Collector.  The Sweet Living owner kind enough to let me stay past regular business hours to sort through a few boxes of scratched up pieces of history, even amused that I would really dig deep into the collection of stuff.  I told him I love getting down on the floor and really sort through moldy and scratched up stuff hoping to find things of note.  Now it's getting to this stage of the game that the thrift stores have scavengers and collectors out there doing their best to buy up and sell high.  A major difference between Sweet Living and Record Collector is that Sweet Living has a bigger inventory, whereas Record Collector is specialty rock and roll and punk.  I tend to favor things that look appealing, and if the price is right I'll invest a quarter or fifty cents or more to hear what radio doesn't play.  Sweet Living Antiques and me go back to the days of that house on the edge of downtown Iowa City with records stored up two floors and the basement before a tornado destroyed it and he eventually moved out to the edge of town.  For a crate digger, Sweet Living still has a nice inventory of 50 cent records, but also a bit more higher priced stuff for four dollars and then the rare stuff up to the front with prices vary from 7 to 40 dollars.  Unless a 40 dollar single is pristine and high on the list I don't bother but if I look hard enough I'll come across a fifty cent forty five that will work wonders for me.

Although the Davenport and Madison hunts had some things of note, the Cedar Rapids Goodwill had some classic country to boot it was the Sweet Living stuff that opened up the door back to my growing up years.  A couple of the 45s date back to the original 45s that I used to have and somehow can't picture why my mom decided to buy a couple of them.  But then, the booze and cigarette joints would sell cheap 45s on the side for 19 cents or a quarter.  The early early stuff, of Ben E King, Ray Charles burned into my mind. Some came from my mom's big box of 45s to which I'm sure Aunt Virginia bought her share of stuff.  But I do think my mom was more into rock and R and B, whereas the senile sister was into Johnny Mathis or Doris Day.  Somehow this weird mix of music figured greatly into my listening habits as well.  And over the years and to this day, some of the more big band or pop stuff have surfaced itself into my collection.   While kids today are now brought up to rap and nu metal and Bro Job country, most of the influences back then came from the blues or Chuck Berry.   And I still think that the early years of rock and roll were the best of times.  The A side of the 45 was the hit but the B side would be more of what the band wanted to play, or their identity.  I have reached the age that new music today just doesn't speak to me like it once did, so therefore I'd rather seek out stuff from the past that I'm not familiar with or what radio don't play anymore.   And despite the odds I still find things.  I keep an open mind and if the record looks in good shape I'll take a chance.  And Sweet Living Antiques had the variety.  I did pass on some stuff, the records were in rough shape or I would talk myself out of Ernie Fields Chattanooga Choo Choo (I do have that on a best of CD) or Sandy Nelson Drums Are My Beat (ditto).  Certainly, there's lots of work to be done in sorting through sleeveless 45s but if I came across something not chewed up or in VG plus shape despite no sleeve, then it had the best chance of going home with me.  There were plenty of late 80s oldies reissues that looked good, Rhino and Collectibles included. Alas, most of what I have seen for Lloyd Price ABC Paramount singles too far gone but there was a reissue of a Specialty 45 of Ain't It A Shame that was worth 50 cents, and what I call a bargain.  And it went home with me and will have a home till the day I pass on.  And then I'm sure it will be available at a estate sale.

This edition of the Singles Going Steady come from the cream of the crop, the finds of the past three weeks. Even Record Collector managed to find me a piece of the puzzle of the music that I used to have on record till some got broken, or wore the grooves off and I finally found a replacement.  And a couple go way back to before my brother was born, when we were living in Lincoln Illinois and didn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out but somehow we had records and those records kept my interest, or simply corrupted my life.  I suppose that's not a bad thing.


1.  Hallelujah Time-Oscar Peterson Trio (Verve Jazz VK 10302)  1963  One of the earliest forty fives that I have ever known and had in my collection I can't fathom the reason why my mom bought this 45, unless I pointed this out to her and she bought it instead of putting it back.  Which shows you the variety that has always a part of my collecting of music.  Like the rest of the original 45s  this one got used as a frisbee, and taken a magic marker too and the copy got thrown away years ago and I've been searching for it.  And finally found a decent copy at Sweet Living Antiques.  The Malcolm Dobbs Singers whoever they were do sing on this, after all Peterson is better known as a jazz artist, and this combination of jazz and gospel was the sign of the times. The B side Hymm To Freedom may have something to do with Martin Luther King.  I know the majority of y'all don't care but when I do come across a 45 from the past such as Hallelujah Time it is a big deal to me.  Especially when it took me a good 40 years to find a replacement copy.  Hallelujah indeed.

2.  That's Why I Was Born-Janice Harper (Prep F123)  1957  Another Sweet Living find, this 45 I recall from the big box of records that Grandma Ambrose used to have and for all intent purposes, this box of 45s send me down the road of record collecting and whatever I would find.  My mom and her sister would spent countless hours at the local Woolworth's for the latest and I tend to think Mom was more into R and B and rock and roll, whereas Aunt Virginia was into Johnny Mathis and Doris Day and probably bought this song. Harper was a pop singer in the style of Gogi Grant or Julie London, although this two minute over the top song reminds me of Here In My Heart by Al Martino.   Harper later recorded for RCA but then faded from view.  To tell you the truth, I wasn't that fond of it when I first it when I was young and fifty years later I'm still not that fond of it.  But hey, it's a promo copy, it might be worth something to you collectors out there.  B side Moonlit Sea is slightly better. 

3.  Ballad Of You And Me And Pooneil-Jefferson Airplane (RCA Victor 47-9297)  1967  Another strange buy but this time we were living in Webster City and I have no idea where I bought this from (Woolworth's maybe?).  Even in a small town, the record department was chock full of decent records and it was the sign of the times. Pretty much I ended up having a lot of the Doors stuff, Jimi Hendrix and The Airplane.  I think I like the Marty Balin numbers better than the Grace Slick hits, but the B Side Two Heads is such a big thumb at the nose of RCA trying to coax a followup to White Rabbit or Somebody To Love, that they resorted to the Paul Kanter tribute to Fred Neil, which managed to hit the local top thirty.  The original 45 I have got donated somewhere and I couldn't get a decent copy till Record Collector had this for 3 bucks.   If I thought about it back then, I could have taken the 45 off the wall at Fuddruckers by the Fiesta Mall.  That used to be my favorite Fudd's Burger place till they closed it down around 2005 or 2006.  Funny I can remember such trivial crap like that but can't remember where I put my car keys at.   B side Two Heads popped in at number 124 in 67

4.  Love In The Hot Afternoon-Gene Watson (Capitol 4076) 1975  Life sucked back in 75, I lost both Grandparents, I tried out for little league baseball and sucked at that and then threw my heart away to some girl up in Michigan that I would see one more time before she got married and had three kids before she turned twenty but 1975 was one of the best years for music, even country had some classic numbers such as Gene's ode to having fun with a Bourbon Street lady, probably a hooker har har.  Originally released as Resco Records 634, it hit number 1 on the local Texas charts before Capitol picked it up to make it a number 3 chart showing.  The signature fiddle at the end is worthwhile.  The success of that enabled Capitol to sign Gene up and he would have a few more hits then moved on to MCA, Epic and Warner Brothers.

5.  Big Star-Stark & McBrien  (RCA Victor PB 10314)  1975  Best known for Isn't It Lonely Together, Fred Stark And Rod McBrien was a soft rock duo that made a few singles for RCA and later Lifesong.  Stark sounds a bit like Jim Croce.  This didn't chart, the lyrics may have been a bit too depressing for public listening.  Nevertheless, Hall And Oates, and England Dan Seals and John Ford Coley had better luck and better songs that would get into the top ten.  Stark And McBrien basically on the outside looking in.

6.  They're Coming To Take Me Away (Ha Haa)-Napoleon XIV  (Warner Brothers WB 7726)  1966 reissued 1973  Jerry Samuels' first single was a recording of Puppy Love on the Vik label in 1956 and wrote songs for the likes of Sammy Davis Jr (The Shelter Of Your Arms A top 20 hit for Sammy in 1964) before putting out this little bizarre chestnut classic under the Napoleon XIV banner before Cousin Brucie called him out.  It did hit number 3 on the charts before Warners reissued it in 1973 where I heard the first time on KLWW FM after dark.  And despite it all, I never seen a copy of the 1973 single until I came across it at Sweet Living Antiques this weekend.  Rhino Records did reissue the whole album and few more oddities on The Second Coming.  Which is probably too much for most to listen through.

7. Sally Was A Good Old Girl-Fats Domino (ABC Paramount 10584)  1964  The antique mall has a record store called BDW or BRW (GD it can't never remember that place, fucking memory loss) and they have managed to impress me with their 2 dollar record selection of LPs and 45s, the latter a hit and miss but one of the few interesting ones is this forgotten number 99 chart scraper from Fats.  I only met the guy at this place once but he told me of another website that sells records, Adam and Eve Music Shop based out of Iowa City.  Which is no longer there.

8.  Mah Na Mah Na-Piero Umiliani  (Ariel AR 500) 1969  A number 55 hit single for Piero and featured in one of those XXX movies, this has actually seen life as a Muppets cover and even Georgio Moroder covered it himself.  In some ways this bit of nonsense reminds me of the Pipkins Gimme Dat Ding. Harmless fun back then but given the crap of Bro Job Country we have today, Mah Na Mah Na is Mozart.

9.  Midnight Oil-Charlie Blackwell (Warner Brothers 5031)  1959  A mystery man, Blackwell recorded a few sides for Warner Brothers, the only one that made any chart impression was this number 55 chart showing. Hard to tell if Warners was trying to market Blackwell as a teen idol, followup was the teen popper Kath-A-Leen which would have not sound out of place on a Frankie Avalon single.  B side None Of Em Glow Like You was barely a minute and a half and sounds like a Fabian throwaway.  More about the elusive Blackwell can be found here: http://musicweird.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-mysterious-charlie-blackwell-and.html

10.  Got A Match?-The Daddy O's (Cabot CA 122)  1958  Another WTF recording from the 50s, The Daddy O's owed more to Dixieland and The Firehouse Five rather than rockabilly which this song is part rockabilly and part ragtime.  It was so popular that it was covered by Russ Conway (Columbia UK DB 4166) , Lou Stein (Mercury 71328) and Frank Gallup (ABC Paramount 9931) .  Gallup's version petered out at number 57, and Conway's version was number 30 on the UK (not released in the US)  while Lou Stein's version didn't chart.  The Daddy's O's version was the highest chart position at number 39 in 1958. Gallup would later frequent the chart with the Kapp issued The Ballad Of Irving.  As for the Daddy O's, they were the one hit wonder band, in fact Got A Match was their only single.  They certainly were not rock and roll.  B Side the awful Have A Cigar! (not related to Pink Floyd in any way) which an expected father passed out cigars in waiting for the birth of his child, which he has to pass out two since he got twins. The fact of the matter, they were more The Four Freshmen than The Rock And Roll Trio.  Side note: Gallup's name was misspelled on the ABC single with a u. 

Broken Down On Life's Highway

21 years ago.  I was walking in the old sky walk hovering downtown Cedar Rapids when I bumped into an old acquaintance from my bar hopping days at De Sodas. Her name was Clarice.

The bar hopping daze (a better term) was working all week and then hanging down at Desoda's for a night of drinking and hearing overplayed crap tunes and hopefully getting a chance to dance with somebody.  Most of the times I went home alone.  There was a three week excursion with Christine that ended badly, a effort for making woopie and about 4 Jacks and Cokes that I didn't venture back to her place and somehow ended up being back at my home.  I was easily replaced as I tried to remember what was done wrong as like a three year old spoiled back she ran into the women's bathroom and wouldn't come out.  The new boy toy apologized  for her actions but I told him to enjoy her company while you can and wrote a Get Lost letter to her telling her growing up might help her in the long run.

Clarice was seeing Eddie, who actually third shift in our computer room and I remember her trying to burn my coat with one of her cigarettes as her and Eddie were discussing World Reform.  However that didn't work for long and I did ended up dancing with her on occasion till she dropped out of site around the 1993 floods.  When I saw her in on this day in 1994 we chatted a while, she gave me her phone number and I eventually call her and we got together to chat.  And then she became the significant other for three and a half years.

There are things that I remember about her.  She had three boys, two from her marriage and at that time was carrying Jessie, from another one nighter I guess you can call it.  John and Josh, the two boys were typical kids, they get into trouble as they would go outside and play with the other kids, they must have turned out good, they have not made the news in a bad way.  She lived in Wellington, on the infamous street where folks could by drugs at night and rap music boomed out of the speakers. To go home and not have a black dude on the steps of the apartment selling drugs was a rarity.  The place was a dive and the cockroaches didn't help things either.  Wasn't uncommon to watch TV and one of those dirty bugs crawl up your leg.  But the boys they liked me and Clarice would surprise me in certain ways.  At the beginning she was quite thoughtful.quite loving and full of surprises. Coming to her place, boys in bed with her wearing only a robe.  It really was good times.

The first two years were the best of times, however things would change and they started around the time that I had to go to ER to remove a burst appendix which laid me out for a month.  Taking advantage of the situation, Clarice brought a fairly new 1994 Corsica which she took me out on a test drive a couple days after my surgery and me still under anesthesia. By then, I moved her to a better apartment from the Wellington place and somehow the Cockroaches followed her over there too.  The big blowup came on the 4th of July, which for the first time we had words.  The spell was broken and we would go down the long decline.  And in the process bought a trailer to move her out of the apartments.  By then we weren't talking much, being intimate much less and I don't think I was over there that much.  The woman that sang Unconditional Love was looking elsewhere and no matter what I did never seem to please her and just irritate more.  The warm sunshine April afternoon of chatting ended on a cold Valentine's Day in 1998 when Clarice announced that she was seeing somebody else for six weeks and wanted to move in.  I told her, get my name off the trailer and we can be done with each other.  I would have to deal with her one more time when she was two car payments behind and I outraced the repo guy getting the Corsica back and trying to erase the black mark that she put on my credit report.  We were two months shy of being together four years but in reality it was three and a half, I saw her but twice in the trailer house.

Clarice was a plus size woman when we met.  By then I was more used to dating the heavier type.  And they are quite fun to be with.  She did managed to quit smoking for a while but she started back up after the fourth of July explosion but she did lived on Diet Coke.  She was into country but was open to different types of music, Bob Marley made perfect mood music. The last year and a half she underwent a major diet which she lost half her weight, suddenly I outweighed her.  As we together to a NCS company party she showed up a in a skimpy dress and managed to flirt with a couple co workers.  I think that was early 1997. We dressed up for the occasion.  And it's hard to fathom me in a three piece suit or seeing her in that skimpy dress perhaps it was in indication that she was ready to find somebody else. We weren't exactly getting along and it showed everything I showed up.  The A hole boyfriend too busy hanging out at Relics buying new music while she had to deal with her ex husband and three screaming boys did give an ill thought.  But then again she made it clear that when it comes to me and her children, I was strictly hands off.  But I still have pictures of the boys and of Jessie, the third child and he turns 21 this year.  And I wonder at times if he has met his real dad.  Or if John and Josh are now leading grown up lives.  I still cannot picture them being 26 and 24 now,  where does the time go?  Are they doing all right?  Sometimes that thought crosses my mind.  But as time goes on, I have not seen any of them since 99.  What would Clarice say to all these albums and stuff that I accumulated over the years.  I think she went along with it the best way that she could handle it. We did go see Blue Mountain and Kevin Salem play a acoustic set at BJ's in Iowa City but she had to get back to CR to get her boys so I missed out on that show at Gabes.  Although she never said it, I'm sure she thought it that I spent too much time at the record store, but as far as I know she never gave me the "it's the records or me" ultimatum but I heard the usual accusations of seeing another woman.  To which I told her I'm either at Relics or Rock n Bach or at work or at home.  Don't have time for another woman.  To which that fell upon deaf ears and sure as the sun rose the next day things would start all over again.

Life is a highway and every day I go down the road in search of something that I'll never find so I resort to the things I know best and that's collecting music.  I could have been a good husband or good boyfriend but forty years ago, I took a chance on a girl far away and that didn't pan out.  And then another girl in high school didn't help either and those two really sat the tone of a life that has been a music adventure and a love misadventure.  I really never did find the right girl when everybody was dating and I was scouring the cut out bins at Target.  I could count on one hand how many dates I had in the 80s and 90s before meeting Clarice.  While friends were settling down and starting families, I was collecting rejection letters from girls that my best friends would set me up with, or taking chances with undesirables, hell I was seeing a stripper from out of town thinking that was going lead somewhere.  And if you don't date on a regular basis, you really don't know what to expect from your significant other and that lack of knowledge came back to bite me on the butt on later encounters.    Even with the best of them, I found myself wondering what to do if they were still around.  In the end, it became too clear that I could never settle down;  I would just be wasting everybody's time and getting in their way.  I could blame Jeanette Ratliff for that, but only could look in the mirror to see who the real culprit is.

So I continue to search for what I haven't heard yet or continue to replaced the original records I grew up to with better shape copies.  And just live alone since I do that better than being with somebody.  It's a win win for everybody, I'm sure Clarice has a better man in her life and I continue to come and go and do the things that I'm used to doing.  And that will never change before I'm dead and gone.  And besides, it's much easier on my credit rating too.

Godspeed.

Week In Review: Stan Freberg, Cheese Cake Central.

I've been busy putting together another Singles Going Steady series but I have to comment on two passings of the week.  One of which Bob Burns, former Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer, who played on the first two albums was killed in a car accident Saturday in Georgia.  He was 64. When you hear the original version of Sweet Home Alabama and Free Bird, that's Bob playing drums.  The original Skynyrd is now jamming in the great beyond, with Bob joining up with Steve and Cassie Gaines, Allen Collins, Billy Powell, Leon Wilkerson and Ronnie Van Zant.  They're rocking in the heavens as they say.

The other big story is Stan Freberg passing away today at age 88 from pneumonia.  While in later years he hosted When Radio Was, a syndicated show that originally aired on KMRY back in the late 90s, Freberg is famous for his parodies of songs and satire of the late 50s and early 60s while recording for Capitol Records.  Many of his albums can be found in the used bins, including Freberg  Radio, which he coined the phase Pay Radio (You have to pay for it to hear it), which if you think about it, Freberg may have envisioned cable and pay TV in the future.  Rhino put together a 4 cd Box set of Freberg's stuff: Tip Of The Freberg, whereas Capitol in the US, put out Capitol Collector's Series to which the lesser offending and more well known songs and skits were used.  The 1951 infamous John and Marsha which hasn't dated very well, Freberg would use that for Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes Cartoon.  Some of the parodies didn't set well with the original artists.  Johnnie Ray was not amused when Stan parodied Cry into Try, until Ray found out that Try was actually enhancing record sales of Cry.  But Lawrence Welk didn't care much for Wunniful Wunniful which may have been the most perfect satire of the Mr. Bubbles himself.  But Jack Webb according to rumor liked his Joe Friday persona on Christmas Dragnet.

Freberg took over for Jack Benny on CBS radio for his short lived radio show but what stands out was that Stan didn't want any advertising from Tobacco or Beer companies.  Anything was fair game, but Capitol censored him on a parody of Arthur Godfrey (They submitted the sketch to Arthur, to which Arthur said no to it) or Ed Sullivan although Stan appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show a few times.  The greatest asset of Stan Freberg's career was his commercials back then were classic, from Ann Miller's tap dancing routine for Heinz Great American Soups https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY2VAIIQAj4 to Geno's Pizza Rolls to which Stan parodied Lark Cigarettes and having Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels as the Lone Ranger and Tonto make a cameo appearance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9aU-NBNADA

And of course the Sunsweet prunes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lpytcTqaAs

The Ann Miller Heinz commercial was at that time one of most expensive spots ever filmed. 

Stan Freberg's influences can be felt all the way to Weird Al Yankovic who had Stan on his short lived TV show in the late 90s.  Freberg left When Radio Was in 2006 but still continued to do voiceovers for cartoons, most notably Garfield And Friends playing Dr Whipple and Fluffykins. Weird All has cited Stan as his biggest influence.

In the end, Freberg was a one of a kind performer who was good at studying and parodying the latest trends of music of the 50s and even thumbed a nose at Joe McCartney, the infamous Wisconsin Senator. If there's was a negative, he wasn't a big fan of rock and roll of the early era and it showed in his deconstruction of The Platters' Great Pretender or Elvis'  Heartbreak Hotel or even Lonnie Donagen on Rock Island Line.  However I do think he was dead on some subjects, most likely Green Christmas to which in 1956 Freberg noted of the over commercialization of Christmas and it may be his most controversial but perhaps his finest recording moment.   Nevertheless, Freberg was a one of a kind.  His recordings may have dated themselves but rest assured that he might be the king of best commercials ever made.

He will be missed.  

A excellent overview of Stan's output can be found here: http://www.cyberonic.net/~atrain/comedy/freberg.htm

From the Archives: http://lahistoriadelamusicarock.blogspot.com/2011/06/pink-floyd-brain-damage-from-album-dark.html

Rastro's blog was one of the best things I read that mentioned me.  Hard to believe four years ago that radio is better than it is now.  Since then Bob Dorr's Backtracks got moved to Saturday Afternoons and he still does Blues Avenue and The Beatles Medley on Sunday Nights.  I used to promote his shows on a regular basis till a falling out happened. I'll give him this, he did play the requests but never mentioned me by name on the songs.  I guess I was wearing sun glasses at night  incognito and being mysterious as he would say on the sign off.  I don't promote his shows anymore but the ones that I did are still in the archives. 


Geoffrey Lewis, best known for playing alongside Clint Eastwood in Every Which Way But Loose and other movies passed away at age 79 from natural causes.

The NCAA tourneys are now done.  U Conn was the dominate favorite and they showed that by downing Norte Dame by 10.  Wisconsin played the biggest game of the year by beating  the "we will go undefeated" Kentucky   Wildcats before running out of gas against Duke 68-63.  The referees were terrible in all stages of the game but make no doubt, the big game was them kicking Kentucky's rent a players 71-64, to which afterwards most of Kentucky's players declared for the draft leaving sleezeball John Calipari to find able bodied replacements for next season.  Certainly Wisconsin had one of the best teams but they simply couldn't beat Duke in the two games they played.  The Badgers lose Frank Kamensky, and three others and Sam Dekker is slated to go pro, but one thing is certain, Bo Ryan does have ways to get excellent players and even though next season will be a rebuilding year, he did managed to get them to the final four last two seasons.  Now only if he would put names on the back of the jerseys he would be a cool dude.

It seems that the Chicago Cubs do well in spring training, only to get back on a plane and back to the cold unfriendly confines of Wrigley Field and stink up the first game of the year and Sunday was no exception.  There should be a law forbidding any games played at Wrigley till May, it's cold as hell and the Cubs act as if they left themselves back in sunny Arizona.  New manager Joe Maddon, a new team and the same results of being shut out by St Louis 3-0 in what is being dubbed as Hell at Wrigley.  To which Tom Ricketts is undertaking a very long and expensive upgrade and keeping the bleachers empty as they work on renovations.  The Cubs have 3 catchers on the roster and neither one could throw out Cardinal runners as their wild throws went out to center field.  It seemed more that the Cardinals were at home than the home team themselves, going 0 for 15 with runners on base and anything well hit was held up by cold winds or Cardinal outfielders making great plays.  The biggest sufferers were the fans themselves, with all but four restrooms open and long waits didn't bode well for those that could afford 10 dollar Budweisers and ended up using the cups or the wall to relieve themselves.  The papers dub this Peegate and Ricketts did decide in adding about 30 porta potties to combat Peegate but it's regardless it's going to be a long season.  Don't think going to Wrigley will be on my list to do this year.  And I hope the Cubs bats do show up soon, otherwise having a well known overpaid manager isn't going to help.  He can't bat for them.

Record Store Day is April 18th.  This is the cash cow day that independent record stores owner hope that folks with lots of money will come spend it on overpriced exclusive LP and 45s.  Dave Grohl is ambassador and anything Dave does is great.  Since the inception of RSD back in 2009 I have tried to visit a store within driving distance, but the way I look at this is that anytime I go to the record store is considered RSD.  And this year I do not feel compelled to rub elbows with fellow collectors to find things that may appeal to me. Last three weekends I have done RSD in Davenport, Madison and Iowa City and I think I did quite well.  I could ask Bob Herrington to open up upstairs to find 45s but since Ragged Records will be busy, I don't think it would benefit me.  And of course since RSD is held during the rainy season, I'm usually fighting monsoons to get anything decent.  Right now the decision would be staying close to home and seeing what the thrift stores would have, unless the scavengers beat me to the bargains.

Record Reviews R Us.

Robyn Hitchcock-Fegmania! (Yep Roc Reissue)

Last week, I managed to find this CD via Rhino which was great but alas Another Bubble skipped which pissed me off so I ended up ordering up a new copy.  Back in the 90s Hitchcock granted release rights to Rhino Records (Back when Rhino was keeping the forgotten alive instead of rehashing classic rock crap that they do today) and he would then add bonus tracks and commentary to Grant Alden's liner notes.  Hitchcock has been the definitive alternative artist, too damn weird for radio and for cult fans only.  Which explains why I have 14 other albums from him.  Fegmania! reunites him with the Soft Boys rhythm section of Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor (renamed The Egyptians) and the original 11 track album shows Robyn stealing a page or two from The Byrds and Echo And The Bunnymen but Hitchcock's lyrical sense is his alone.  Fan favorite Egyptian Cream is vintage alternative classic rock and Another Bubble wouldn't sound out of place on Matthew Sweet's albums.  The bonus track Bells Of Rhymey is just about a perfect note for note cover of The Byrds and surprised that this didn't make it on the album.  I have intentions of donating the Rhino CD however, the bonus cuts do differ from the Yep Roc reissue.  On the plus side Yep Roc has better sound and mix, on the negative side the Rhino remains a keeper due to Grand Alden's notes, a demo and live version of Egyptian Cream, a demo of Insect Mother and Swingbeat, an outtake that didn't make it the Yep Roc issue.  The Yep Roc offers Lady Obvious, The Drowning Church and a instrumental of The Man With The Lighbulb Head.  The most interesting cut is The Pit Of Souls (Part 1-IV) which sounds like prog rock.  I don't know if Swingbeat being omitted from the Yep Roc album makes it that much stronger, and trading Egyptian Cream for The Drowning Church lessers or broaden the value, but what I do know is that Fegmania! the album is my favorite Robyn Hitchcock album and whatever copy you find is worth getting.
Grade A-

Lee Dorsey-Wheelin' And Dealin' (Arista 1990)

The late car mechanic got lucky with a nonsensical hit Ya Ya, based upon a made up song between girls was helped by having the great Allen Toussaint playing piano and arranging it.  Being part of the New Orleans scene Dorsey was helped by some of the finest musicians New Orleans had to offer and he took advantage of it. Despite it all, I find Working In A Coal Mine more fun than Ya Ya but Dorsey was a very underrated singer.  Just about all of his hits on Fury and Amy records are here, from Get Out Of My Life Woman, to Ride Your Pony, to a remake of Lottie Moe (sounds like The Meters backing him up with their patented funky beats) and Everything I Do Is Gohn Be Funky  (from now on). One of the earliest compilations done by Bob Irwin who later form Sundazed Records, this collection is mastered beautifully.  Nothing is taken off Lee's final album, ABC's Night People (recommended if you can find it) but Wheelin' And Dealin' is a nice overview of a forgotten New Orleans legend and shows more to him than just Sitting in la la, waiting for my Ya Ya.
Grade A-

Stan Freberg-Capitol Collectors Series (Capitol 1990)

Freberg's satire may seem dated nowadays but he did predict a future of pay radio and if anything, he was the master of making commercials but this best of, presents a glimpse of what Freberg could do best.  At his best he could parody Jack Webb and make it very convincing and the three skits on Dragnet theme (with Walter Schmann's arrangements, Freberg got the the composer of the Dragnet show, which is why it's one of the best moments of this album), and he was dead on about the commercialization of Christmas on Green Christmas, which still remains true to this day.  At his worst, his parodies of The Platters, Elvis and Sha Boom demonstrates a hatred toward rock and roll and doo wop (he was a jazz fan).  And the 1951 freak hit John And Martha has dated badly.   I recall a Sunday afternoon local puppet show used Banana Boat (Day O) to which Freberg is fighting a bongo player that doesn't like loud noises and is one of the better numbers on this compilation. Perhaps the best of the parodies was a Wunniful Wunniful (sic) Part un One and Part un Two) to which the Lawrence Welk person loses out to a runaway bubble machine.  I think when comparing other folk and their parodies, Homer And Jethro were much warmer and more receptive to rock and roll then Stan was, and even Spike Jones showed more respect toward the music that was putting his obsolete. There is a mean spirit that can't be overlooked on The Great Pretender or Try, the Johnnie Ray rip apart.  Overlook that and just focus on St. George And The Dragon or Little Blue Riding Hood and Green Christmas.  Freberg was a whiz in advertising and the modern business world and it shows on Green Christmas.  An uneven look into the world of Stan Freberg.
Grade B

I haven't posted much cheese cake of late, however Ivy Doomkitty continues to make cosplaying a fun fantasy as she dressed up to be Vampirella.  The hope is that we don't censored cuz of this or have your computer melt due to all that hotness.  But I'm thinking this is one of her best costumes ever.  She's offering this print for 15 dollars at her website.  I'll take three please! http://ivydoomkitty.storenvy.com/collections/202662-rocketeer-pinup/products/12765031-vampirella

Finally, Barry Manilow came out of the closet to marry his manager Wed, thus setting up the usual backlash, but in reality this didn't surprise me at all.  You hardly seen Barry with any woman throughout his history and his songs did twinge a bit toward the gay community.  I suppose this will give a whole new meaning of his hits It's a Miracle does sound a bit gay, and what if Mandy was a man?!  The thought that it was uncool to hate Barry Manilow but some of music he did does rock a bit.  New York City Rhythm could be considered the new YMCA, He did cover Ian Hunter's Ships and he put a new wave power pop spin on Some Kind Of Friend.  His underrated 2 AM Paradise Cafe album with the late Shelly Mann on drums is quite good although his revamping of the 60s catalog is a money making venture like Rod Stewart's Great American Songbook Series.  I tend to look at Barry with a bit more seriousness than the average critic, he's camp but he's got some campy good in him. So congrats to our new man and man couple. Tip, don't go to Indiana anytime soon.  They reserve the right to refuse service on gay and lesbians.

More Cheese Cake photo and thoughts. 

 When a skinny woman complains to me about their 120 pound body... I often find myself wanting to punch them in the face with my HUGE ass - I mean, don't you?..... Just because I'm a plus-sized girl... Does not mean I want to commiserate over weight problems... From London Andrews.

Week In Review: Madison, Copy Protected CD

It grieves me to say this but this week's trip to Madison in search of things to take home may have been the most disappointing since finding only one cd in 1996 but back then I wasn't looking for records.  So, this was the most disappointing bargain hunt ever.  Competing with the scavengers out there, the pickings were very slim; even less than the trip that I made up there last July.  It's really beginning to make no sense to even suggest going to their Goodwill's or Salvation Army. None, nix, nothing found at all three Goodwill stores and the Army.  There was a resale store on Washington that had about 6 boxes of albums (no 45s) and the anticipating of finding anything worth nothing, quickly became disappointment unless I was into Anne Murray.  Then I would have completed her discography on this trip.  Or have about 1000 classical albums to listen to.

The continuation of stores closing, Savers was closed on the west side which meant the east side had most of the garbage there.  I liked the west side store better although the location wasn't quite the best place to have a business, plus it was 3 doors down from Best Buy, which continues to shrink even more cd area to the point it's not worth going there anymore.  The only thing worth nothing was the new live Van Halen album but then I didn't see the need to buy it so I didn't.  The best record store in Madison is Strictly Discs; they have gotten much better in having decent music than Mad City Music X and Sugar Shack Records, which I spent about two hours trying to find something to buy.  The clerk up there was very nice to me but there was this dude who would vacuum the carpet and then would spend countless times at the counters playing with the pennies on the counter.  I also couldn't figure out why the records were not in their sleeves either.  It's annoying not to have the CDs in the jewel cases, even more when the vinyl is locked up.  So in the end, the only notable singles i got was With Pen In Hand by Billy Vera (Atlantic 2526) and a copy of Little Bit O' Soul by The Music Explosion (Laurie 3380) which is interesting that the record has Little Bit O Soul as the B side with I See The Light the A.  To which record programmers thought the B was a better hit single. And they were right.  I tried to snap a few pictures inside, but the GD flash went off and shocked me and the end result was a fucked up picture.  However I did get the front of the store without any problem.

Mad City Music X had lesser stuff of note and even their 45 selection was picked over and the 50 cent stuff is total played to death jukebox records or just plain crap and better just to leave out front with a free records sign.   The mercy CD sale  was The Best Of Belly.  Even the loads of dollar albums, they had nothing I really wanted and I begin to wonder if coming up to Madison was even worth the drive of finding bargains.  In general it's been like this anyplace I go to, no shortage of Country or pop stuff of the 50s or 60s. Anything rock and roll and it's trashed.  Just like going to Savers and seeing a Vee Jay Beatles 45 of Please Please Me/From Me To You which would have been the find of the day had the record been in better shape.  Bargain hunting is a crap shoot, this time out instead of hitting a jackpot, I ended up with snake eyes and not a lot of things to write home about.  There was a Sally Jane Hoakum MGM 45 I would have liked to have but the record was warped.  So much for that.

Which lead to Half Priced Books and the east side had large amounts of Bobby Darin 45s but I pretty much had them all and I really didn't see the need of Mame by Louie Armstrong.  Found nothing at the east side but the west side had a few things of note, a Best of Lee Dorsey one of them  Pre Played would have had the find of the trip with Robyn Hitchcock Fegmania! but the second song fucking skips in the cd player and i can't find anything out of the ordinary.  Of course the Pre Played folks like to buff them up after you buy them and I wish they would cut that out.  That might be the reason why it skips, which means I might have to go search for a better copy on Amazon and hope that somebody has it reasonably priced.  It might be one of Robyn's best albums ever. And the song it skips on Another Bubble rocks.

Last July I donated about 50 singles to the Williamson Street St Vincent De Paul Thrift Store and believe it or not about a quarter of them are still up there (go figure).  I guess nobody wanted the Firefall nor Silly Milly by Blue Swede or What Kind Of Fool Am I by Rick Springfield to which the scavengers took the damn sleeve off the record, so I put it back on there. I guess that Grand Funk Railroad is not in big demand for my copies of Walk Like A Man and Shinin On are still there, picture sleeve in tact.  But even as I sorted through the usual suspects I did come go home with 5 singles, nothing earth shaking either unless America's Horse With No Name or Bread's Mother Freedom trips your trigger.  And I'm not sure that I Wanna Go Back from Eddie Money was one of the 50 that I donated last July but I took it home all the same. Unlike the Davenport singles most of the 9 singles I bought, most are just plain Meh.   And Pawn America's Cd section is now basically down to a one side of the usual crap nobody wants.  Either Pawn America isn't taking CDs in anymore or people aren't bringing them in.  I thought about buying a Paiste Signature 14 inch glass crash cymbal for 50 dollars (that is a steal; on a side note, I seen a few more Paiste cymbals of note and cheap too, a innovations crash cymbal, a high end Signature ride for 250 dollars (still cheap) and a 10 inch Rude splash).   But since I'm winding down on my drum playing career, I didn't think it was cost effective to purchase something that would gather dust after a while.  Pawn America has been great in getting Paiste cymbals in on the cheap, for CD's however, five years ago it was the place to be; five years later it's not.  The CD era is over and Pawn America isn't taking anymore in.

But it wasn't a total waste of time.  Strictly Discs had the best deals and I found the latest Status Quo and the recent Tony Joe White Complete Warner Brothers Records in the used bins.  The Tony Joe White the bargain of the day, seven dollars for the two cd set. Plus at least they had some decent albums in the dollar bins.  The major vinyl is downstairs and I managed to while away the hour looking through their collection, but not buying anything else.  Which means the next time Strictly Discs will be one of the places to stop at, Mad City Music X as well.  Anyplace else outside the thrift stores would be a waste of time and effort.

I didn't do State Street this time out. I basically just rented a bike and did about 25 miles of bike riding up and down the bike trails all around Madison and managed to have a better time watching the girl joggers and bike riders ride on by.  Springtime brings out the best views it seems.  I only watch, I'm just too old to really go after somebody.  It's not easy being 30 years older and can only watch from afar.  But its probably better that way.

Since Iowa raised the gas tax, gas prices in Wisconsin were about the same or a few cents cheaper.  The cheapest was PDQ's gas for 2.31 a gallon.  And of course there was the usual supper at Cracker Barrel next to the motel I usually stay at.  Hardly anybody was in my part of the building, so it was very quiet.  The biggest news was the Tony Robinson incident, with his mom going to Washington to do a protest.  I've seen the makeshift memorial where Robinson's life was ended and there was a report that his mom called 911 when Robinson was going through a mental issue but somehow the policeman managed to give Robinson a pep talk and got him out of his funk.  The second time later on would provide a more negative end result.

Monday's weather was cloudy and cool, Tuesday was slightly warmer and better bike riding weather. On the drive up to Madison, I did come across the area where they got a foot of snow and a week later from Platteville to Mineral Point the fields were still covered in snow.  Thankfully it was all melted when I made it to Madison.   I did stop at the Platteville Goodwill and although I found no cd or records of note, I did find a book, The Diary of Frida Kahlo; A Self Portrait.  I bought the book because of the Mexican place in Solon called My Frida, and somehow the book interests me. She led a very interesting but a hard life which she portrayed in her paintings and her thoughts.  I guess that book may be the bargain of the trip, certainly it kept me up late trying to decipher her meanings.   Worth the 1.57 that I paid for the book.

It was a good thing that I postponed the trip a week, the original day I was to go up there, a freak snowstorm dropped about a foot around Prairie Du Chein and about 7 inches around Mineral Point and Platteville, four inches fell in Madison.  Snow was still on the ground around Mineral Point but Madison's snow melted by then.  Monday ZZ Top played there and on Saturday Belle And Sebastian will be there to play.  If I've known that I may have waited till Saturday to go see B&S. Outside of the usual one or two dumbass drivers and wayward bicyclists, the trip was uneventful.  Even with the Tony Robinson issues, things were according to plan.  However the Chinese buffet at World Buffet in Monona was awful. For 14 dollars you'd think they would keep some fresh chicken and broccoli in the damn buffet area.  Good service though.

Another blog site to tell you about in Blogspot.  This is Jamie Lee Fritze's Sound Woman site.  She's a big lover of records and music.  Sounds like the perfect woman for me but she's taken.  You can read about her latest vinyl adventures here: http://asoundwoman.blogspot.com/

It escaped my mind at the time but it was 10 years ago that Sony BMG gave us the copy protect CD to which you could not make duplicates (there was a way that you could and some did), beginning with Velvet Revolver's Contraband and lesser known and forgotten bands like The Dead 60s and Van Zant to name a few.  EMI did this as well for certain albums (Idlewild's third and less interesting album) but this technology along with the rootkit virus that renders computers useless if you played the CD in your computer really begin the the consumer being fed up and CD sales slid big time and have never recovered from this problem.  Today DVDs are still copy protected, but the rootkit problem forced Sony BMG to recall the problem discs and replaced them with regular unprotected cds. By then it was too late but that was happening back in April of 2005.  Doesn't seem that long doesn't it.  When you're on the computer it isn't.

Reviews:

Delta Moon-Low Down (Jumping Jack 2015)

The continuing saga of Tom Gray and Mark Johnson continues.  In the past 10 plus years of doing Delta Moon, they continue to travel the backroads of southern swamp blues and rock, this time out adding a bit more of a Little Feat sound to which I'm sure Franher Joseph was inspired by Sam Clayton of the Feat.  The last two albums they were under Red Parlor but now back to Jumping Jack.  The covers are Down In The Flood by Bob Dylan and Skip James' Hard Time Killing Floor Blues.  This time out The Moon incorporates more background singing and the ladies return, Anna Kramer and Francine Reed, the latter adding more gospel soul to Flood and Nothing You Can Tell A Fool.  As always Tom Gray continues to show his dry sense of humor on tracks like Open All Night and Wrong Side Of Town and as always Mark Johnson adds some of slickest guitar slide leads and so does Tom.  In a nutshell this comes across as blues but for myself I still look at Low Down as well as the rest of their albums as good old fashioned swamp rock blues, somewhere to the left of Tony Joe White and to the right of CCR with an wink and a nod to the old bluesmen of long ago and far away.  I love this band and basically everything they have done I love just as much.  And was quite flattered when I ordered up the Cd last week and they got it here in three days and everybody autographed it.  And God Bless Tom Gray, one of the best musicians out there that really cares a great deal about Delta Moon fans.  And on the bucket list; to have them play here in this neck of the woods. They always put on a fun show.
Grade A-

Status Quo-Aquostic: Stripped Bare ( Fourth Chord/E.A.R. Music/Eagle 2014)

Overlook the sight of sixty something nude rockers and you got a fairly nice album of unplugged Status Quo numbers that ranged from their best known Pictures Of Matchstick Men to which a combination of strings and acoustics turned it into a more modern number, that's even better than what Camper Von Beethoven did years ago.  While Francis Rossi is still in fine vocal form, Rick Parfitt sounds a bit strained.  Perhaps 22 songs over 70 minutes does lean toward overkill but if you're a fan of Quo and for that matter Rockpile, Aquostic is a nice addition to your Quo collection.  For that matter, none of the songs go over 4 minutes and The Quo revisits songs up to Rock Till You Drop, to which that song really doesn't fit and perhaps taking five songs off their 1973 Hello album is about three too many.  I passed on the reunion Original Quo Live album simply because nobody had it in stock and this CD was a promo copy.  Without the trademark Quo electric boogie rock, the unplugged album opens up a new insight, that after album 50 years together The Status Quo can unplug and rock out, but they never sounded more country either.  Credit  guest accordion wiz and former Dave Edmunds helper  Geraint Watkins for that.
Grade B+

Tony Joe White: The Complete Warner Brothers Studio Recordings (Real Gone 2015)

It's easy to see why Elvis loved Tony Joe; an excellent songwriter and storyteller.  Polk Salad Annie keeps the money and the memories going. After being on Monument for the hit, he moved over to Warner Brothers for a uneven five year career, the best having Peter Asher produced his WB debut and then White continued to strip his sound down to barebones acoustic swamp blues.  Not that the second album The Train I'm On is bad, or the even more stripped down Homemade Ice Cream, which sounds like picking on a open camp fire and fishing.  Even Trolls Like To Rock And Roll is that storytelling humor that we come to expect out of Tony Joe, or They Caught The Devil And Put Him In A Jail In Endora Arkansas.  And then there's love song of I Got A Thing About You Baby, which Elvis did turn into a top 30 hit.  But still Tony Joe White is at his best, with horns backing him up on the funky Don't Let The Door Hit You In The Butt, his final Warner single and fitting finale to a label that became indifferent to him.  If you want a better overview, Warners still has the best of TJ White with his Monument sides and hits but it left out Don't Let The Door.  The Real Gone has all of the Warner Brothers stuff, all three albums and all singles collected.  And anything associated with Gordon Anderson, it's well put together and annotated.  As they say, real music from the swamp.
Grade A-

Israel Vibration-This Is Crucial Reggae (Sanctuary/Ras 2005)

One of the more offbeat vocal reggae bands, this compilation album is during their stay at RAS in the 1990s. A decent harmony group but by 90s standards they were behind the times although they had nice harmonies. For a mix cd overview, this is nothing special, most of the songs go skanking by like a warm summer breeze. Run But You Can't Hide and the live Strength Of My Life are the highlights but this is not something I'd play on a regular basis.
Grade B-

William Bell-The Soul Of A Bell (Stax 1967)

You can't go wrong when you have Booker T and the MGs back you up and for the journeyman Bell, he's best known for the 1961 soul single You Don't Miss Your Water, redid for this album.  First side is slow jam soul and although he tries his best, he can't top Otis Redding's I've Been Loving You Too Long and Otis made Bell's You Don't Miss Your Water his own.  A bit too many ballads I think but Bell does add more soul on Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye than the Casinos did, and finally the rest of the album goes more uptempo on later songs like Any Other Way and You're Such A Sweet Thang although I am certain that's Issac Hayes helping out backing vocals.  Bell does sound like Eddie Floyd and like Floyd was resigned to the back seat to Otis but overall, The Soul Of A  Bell is a nice minor soul classic.
Grade B+


Nina Simone: Saga Of The Good Life And Hard Times (RCA 1997)

Paul Williams re imagines some of the unreleased songs that Nina Simone did back in 1968, considered by some to be her most radical and best period.  Simone at times could be good and at times be erratic, especially during her later years but I think the reason why most of the songs were not released was that they weren't as good as the released stuff that she did with Silk And Satin or Nina Sings The Blues to which the alternative take of Do I Move You appears.  The Martin Luther King Suite featuring her Mississippi Goddam does cook and so does her banter of telling folks to get into it.  The later version of Ain't Got No/I Got Life is more moving although I do think the song is somewhat goofy.  The songs with Nina alone with piano are fine listening for a couple times and even the organ solo on Music For Lovers is unique in a Muzak sort of way. Just like the rest of the album.
Grade B-

Liz Damon's Oriental Express (White Whale 1970)

Madison was devoid of anything in value for records at the thrift stores and I spent wasted hours going through boxes and boxes of crap nobody wanted at a resale store, and  I decided to spend a dollar on the last artist that charted anything for White Whale Records, the label famous for The Turtles and fucking them over.  Liz Damon is not rock and roll, she's easy listening muzak all the way, somewhere along the lines of Up With People or Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66 without the latin groove.  White Whale didn't permit much, no mention of who played and sang, a picture of Liz in front and the band playing live at a casino on the back cover.  And we get muzak covers of the hits of 1970 be it, Close To You or Everything Is Beautiful and the obligatory Beatles songs off Let It Be (guess which ones).   I can't slam this record, it's relaxing and perfect for winding down after a long day at work but again it's not rock and roll.  Damon will forever known as that one hit wonder 1900 Yesterday to which is probably the most lively thing on this record except for that electric guitar lead on Let It Be.  To which after the song is over, you can turn off the light and fall asleep.  It's mellow.
Grade B-

The Life And Times Of: : Butch Walker

Upon the few artists that have managed to make an impact in rock in the late 90s, Butch Walker is an enigma. At times, he can make a fairly listenable album and on the next one make a forgettable turd.  Originally part of Marvelous 3, their two Hi-Fi/Elektra albums I tend to favor Ready Sex Go over The Hey Album.  The latter having minor hit Freak Of The Week and the other a better song selection.  While critics rave over Walker's solo period, you really don't need to look no further than the aptly titled Left Of Self Centered, his one and only Arista album that is the most consistent.  Walker does borrow some Cheap Trick here, some glam there and a touch of grunge and power pop and it does have a sense of humor.  Not so with the dull and boring Letters, one of a handful of albums Walker did for Epic.  Butch rebounded with The Rise And Fall Of Butch Walker And The Let's Go Out Tonites, a handful name to name a band.  But I believe it's his best next to Left Of Self Centered.  Although credited as a wonderkind producer, he did jinx The Donnas on their 2nd Atlantic album Gold Metal, which did not live up to the name in record sales or reviews and The Donnas' faded from view.    He has figured in producing the likes of Weezer, American Hi Fi, Pink and Avril Lavigine to name a few.  He continues to do solo work and his last couple albums was with The Black Widows.  I haven't paid much attention to those albums or the ones when he was in SouthGang, which had two albums out on Virgin before the band got tired of the label's bullshit and split up.  In terms of pop music nowadays (or at least in the late 00's) chances are you would have heard Butch Walker production in Fall Out Boy and even country with Keith Urban.  To me, Butch's albums to get are the Marvelous 3, Ready Sex Go and Left Of Self Centered and all can be found in the cheap bins.  As for fan interaction with Butch, I heard complaints of him using their photos of him without given credit, a sure sign of a left of self centered rock star.  He tends to be overrated but if he checks his ego at the door, he does know to craft a good album from time to time.