Top Ten Of The Week-Last One For 2009

Top Ten Of The Week and the last one for this decade

This is it ladies and gentlemen.  The last top ten of this decade.  I wish to thank everybody who has read and made comments over the past four years and seven years all told from various websites that are now gone and forgotten.  I want to thank Donna aka Brooksie for her contributions and even though she no longer posts much here she is still remembered fondly for her generous comments and music selections.

Thanks be to Mark Prindle and TAD for their input and encouragement.  TAD has a very good memory of the years of great FM undergound radio and his song selections sometimes have made it their way to this top ten. 

Thanks for all the MY SPACE Bands who become friends, espeically Liz Chaffe and her band Lizzy Williams and the son that I never had but love of music reminds me he could have well have been, the one n only Diggy Kat.

Thanks to Margaret from the Brains Tribute page for reminding me how great The Brains still are and we both still POed that Universal refuses to reissue The Brains albums on CD.
Damn it Andy McKaie, I'm sure if SONY music had their albums they would have been reissued by now and the world DOES NOT need yet another remastered reissues of Motley Crud.

Thank you friends of Mingles who came over when My Space was in their hayday, all of you have moved on and I don't really hang out at Mingles all that much.  And Starfire, it isn't Obama that's the cause of the problems that we have faced now but rather a screwed up government that can't control their spending.  I don't talk politics but I do know that I cannot stand lying Republcants who don't seem to get it that Obama was elected by the masses.  We still luv ya Starfire but me thinks you listen to too much Rush and Beck and I don't mean the bands.

And finally a big thank you to Sassy for 9 years of being a good friend, meeting in St Louis in 2000 and keeping in touch to become more than just a good friend but the missing piece in my life that was found this September.  If I can spend New Years Eve with just one person after the clock strikes midnight, I couldn't picked a better person to spend it with than you.

And now what has been the one constant, the Top Ten Of The Week.

1.  FM (No Static At All)-Steely Dan 1978  From the flop movie of the same name that came out 31 years ago, the FM S/T was basically songs from the likes of The Eagles, James Taylor and Linda Ronstandt and anybody was under contract to Irving Azloff.  It's a shame they never did include this song on Aja or Gaucho.  One of the more funkier songs that they ever put out.

2.  Commotion-CCR 1969  I believe I played this song a lot more on 45 than Down On The Corner but ya know this rocked pretty hard even for Fogerty and company.

3.  The Great Sun Jester-Blue Oyster Cult 1979  When BOC played this song at the 5 Seasons Center, this wasn't out on album but when they played it, they rocked big time.  When it finally came out on the Mirrors album, it sounded too damn polished for anybody's liking and I still think had they had Sandy Pearlman behind the controls, this would have been more dirtier sounding.  I guess they didn't care much for this song for they never did play it live in the five times that I have seen BOC over the years.  Co written with Mike Moorcock, who wrote some Sci Fi stuff for Hawkwind beforehand.

4.  Dance This Dance With Me-The Turtles 1969  From the Ray Davies produced Turtle Soup, this lesser known song had John Seiter singing lead instead of Flo and Eddie and it's kind of a moodier number than Happy Together.  Sometimes The Turtles never seen to get their due in terms of making some of the finer music of the 60s.  Side note: Seiter was the the drummer for Spanky And Our Gang and replaced John Barbata who moved on to Crosby, Stills & Nash (more about them later)

5.  Last Dance-The Raspberries 1973  Capitol screwed them over in the CD era, they put out The Capitol Collector's Series which include a  lot of their rocking numbers but later editions had more ballads and strictly stuck with their hits but this Wally Bryson number is a cross between country and power pop.  I tend to favor The Raspberries over Big Star in terms of Pop music of the 70s simply of the fact that when they put their mind to it, The Raspberries could rock hard.  Which is the point.

6.  Military Madness-Crosby, Stils, Nash & Young 2008 Taken from the Deja Vu Live album that came out late last year, this was originally on Graham Nash's Songs For Beginners.  I saw CSN on the RnR HOF concert on HBO and although they still have the harmonies, Steve Stills just cannot sing anymore.  Guess it's too late to get back to that garden after all eh?

7.  Smile-Uncle Kracker 2009  Basically this one has Sassy's name all over it. She sez this song reminds her of me for what reason only she knows but the video has her grandparent's town of Hale, Michigan and it's somewhat like Iowas.  Snows all the damn time there in the winter.  Crabby loves ya but I'll be dammed if I'm going to stick any Backstreet Boys or N'Sync on this list anytime soon.

8.  Remember Me I'm Gone-Motorhead 1982  This was the B Side to Iron Fist and didn't make the vinyl album of said name but Roadrunner Records did tack this on as a bonus track in the early 90s.  Back when Roadrunner Records was Roadracer and actually cared more about heavy metal insted of being corporate pigs and giving us watered down real metal (although I'll grant them some points due to Black Stone Cherry).

9.  What's On My Mind-Kansas 1976  This was released as a 45 but didn't break as Carry On Wayward Son did and classic rock radio rarely touches this song. Wasn't much into Kansas in my early years but later on I tend to pull out Leftoverture from time to time and yes, Monolith.

10.  Seven Turns-The Allman Brothers Band 1990 And finally, we come to end of the road and we look back on four years of Crabb at My Space with fondness.   I thought at some way The Crabb Top Ten would become so much bigger but the glory years of My Space are now gone and all we have left is equal to a town that was on Route 66 and then got bypassed by the interstate.  Sure we get some traffic from time to time but I think the majority  moved on to Facebook or Twitter or just gave up on new music all told.  Yeh, this song came out just about twenty years ago but I heard it for the first time this year and call it a lost classic and thought this would be a fitting finale to end the year.  The final hoorah for Dicky Betts it seems but it did pave the way for the world to be introduced to his replacement Warren Haynes.

And there you have it folks.  The Crabb Top Ten and the final one for this year.  I only wish we could have had more participation but we did the best we could and it's time to move on.  Thanks so much for your readership, and I will return somewhere, some other time.

Final song: Birds by Dan Fogelberg....It's over, it's over.

Music of 2009 Reviewed.

And finally we come to the end of the year with the albums that I bought.  Good or bad this concludes the wasted decade.

1.   Franz Ferdinand-Tonight (Domino 42:43)  B+
2.   Buddy Holly-Down The Line (Geffen 55:07-65:28) A-
3.   Fleet Foxes (Sub Pop 39:15) B
4.   Queen & Paul Rodgers-The Cosmo Rocks (Hollywood 59:00) B
5.   Uriah Heep-Wake The Sleeper (Hip O/Noise 50:44) B
6.   Morrissey-Years Of Refusal (Lost Highway 43:22) B
7.   Coolest Songs In The World Volume 8 (Wicked Cool 41:56) A-
8.   Neko Case-Middle Cyclone (Anti 74:00) B-
9.   Hoobastank For(n)ever (Island 38:30) D+
10. Thin Lizzy-Still Dangerous (VH1 Classics 45:26) B+

11. Tommy Keene-In The Late Bright (Second Motion 38:20) B
12. Steve Earle- Live At The BBC (MCA 75:16) B+
13. Willie Nelson-Naked Willie (RCA 48:58) B+
14. Songs That Made An Impact 2009 (DK Records 64:05) B+
15. Queensryche-American Soldier (Rhino/ATCO 60:37) A-
16. Keith Urban-Defying Gravity (Capitol 48:17) B-
17. MXPX-On The Cover 2 (Tooth & Nail 35:15) B
18. Gomez-A New Tide (ATO 43:46) B-
19. Filter-The Very Best Things (Reprise/Rhino 65:33) B-
20. Neil Young-Fork In The Road (Reprise 37:33) B

21. John Rich-Son Of A Preacher Man (WB 41:13) C+
22. White Lies-To Lose My Life (Fiction 45:05) B
23. Randall Bramblett-Now It's Tomorrow (New West 50:00) B+
24. JJ Cale-Roll On (Rounder 40:33) B+
25. Bob Dylan-Together Through Life (Columbia 45:33) A-
26. Melody Gardot-My One And Only Thrill (Verve 48:07) B-
27. Booker T Jones-Potatoe Hole (Anti 43:35) B+
28. Radio Moscow-Brain Cycles (Alive 44:07) B-
29. Heaven And Hell-The Devil You Know (Rhino 54:03) B-
30. Tilted Windows (S Curve 35:52) A-

31. New York Dolls-Cuz I Sez So (Atco 41:36) A-
32. Steve Earle-Townes (New West 45:04) B
33. Green Day-21st Century Breakdown (Reprise 69:13) C+
34. Gin Blossoms-In Concert (Cleopatra 69:19) B
35. Cracker-Sunrise In The Land Of Milk And Honey (429 36:39) A-
36. Rhett Miller (Shout Factory 42:00) B+
37. Steve Martin-The Crow (Rounder 46:46) B+
38. UFO-The Visitor (SPV 45:26) C+
39. Spinal Tap-Back From The Dead (66:00) B
40. Leonard Cohen-Live From London (Columbia) A

41. Dead Weather-Horehound (Third Man/WB 43:55) B+
42. Judas Priest-Touch Of Evil Live (Epic 52:56) B-
43. Jayhawks-Music From The North Country (American 76:30) B+
44. Marianne Faithfull-Easy Come Easy Go (Decca 56:13) B
45. Marshall Crenshaw-Jaggedland (429 46:33) B+
46. Incubus-Monuments And Memories (Epic 61:11) B+
47. 54 40-Northern Soul (True North 41:00) B+
48. Clutch-Strange Cousins From The West (Weather Maker 48:55) B+
49. Mike Farris-Shout Live (INO/Columbia 74:25) A-
50. George Thorogood-The Dirty Dozen (Capitol 55:53) B+

51. Bottle Rockets-Lean Forward (Bloodshot 41:47) A-
52. Sister Hazel-Release (Rock Ridge 46:15) B
53. Jet-Shaka Rock (Horrorhouse/EMI 40:53) C+
54. Collective Soul (Roadrunner 40:16) B+
55. Delbert McClinton-Acquired Taste (New West 48:33) B-
56. New Riders Of Purple Sage-Where I Come From (Woodstock 74:23) B+
57. Super 400-Sweet Fist (Rock Ridge 51:12) B
58. Parachute-Losing Sleep (Mercury 38:52) B-
59. Saving Abel (Virgin 42:34) B-
60. Bombastic Meatballs-Meet The Meatballs (Warrior 56:03) B+

61. Mark Knopfler-Get Lucky (Reprise 52:09) B-
62. Pearl Jam-Backspacer (Monkey Wrench 36:38) B
63. Porcupine Tree-The Incident (Roadrunner 55:35) A-
64. Lynyrd Skynyrd-God And Guns (Roadrunner 49:39) B-
65. Miranda Lambert-Revolution (Columbia 51:05) A-
66. Drivin N Cryin-Great American Bubble Factory (Vintage Soul 52:45)A-
67. Status Quo-In Search Of The Fourth Chord (Eagle 58:00) B+
68. Manic Street Preachers-Journal For Plague Lovers (Columbia 45:39) A-
69. KI$$-Sonic Boom (Kiss Records 43:17) B+
70. Ace Frehley-Anomaly (Bronx Born 54:44) B

71. Alice In Chains-Black Gives Way To Blue (Virgin 54:34) B+
72. Mac McNally-Down By The River (Showdog 37:06) B+
73. Arvett Brothers-I And Love And You (American 50:44) B-
74. Monsters Of Folk (Shangrala 54:45) A-
75. Joe Perry-Have Guitar Will Travel (Roman/Mailboat 47:35) B+
76. Wolfmother-Cosmic Egg (Interscope 53:40) C-
77. Grizzly Bear-Veckatimest (Warp 52:46) C
78. Gov Mule-By A Thread (Evil Teen 67:57) B
79. Train-Save Me San Francisco (Columbia 43:30) D+
80. Love & Theft-World Wide Open (Carolwood/Lyric Street 40:00)B+

81. Leon Russell-Best Of Hank Wilson (Leon Russell Music 66:22) B+
82. Joe Cocker-Live At Woodstock (A & M 77:56) B+
83. Them Crooked Vultures (DGC/Interscope 66:22) A-
84. Norah Jones-The Fall (Blue Note 45:58) A-
85. Chickenfoot (Redline 62:16) B+
86. Foo Fighters Greatest Hits (RCA 63:44) A-
87. Tom Waits-Glitter And Doom Live (Anti 73:35-35:50) B
88. Dan Fogleberg-Love In Time (Full Moon 44:16) A-

Goodbye To The Crappiest Decade In History

We're five days away from the end of a decade that will go down as the worst in music history and so forth.  I am just about four years done here at My Space of comment, thought and top tens.

I am watching it snow.  Big fluffy flakes, not unlike the cold wet crap that gave us 14 inches two weeks ago, nor the inch and half of rain and freeze of this week but the kind of fluffy flakes to which people dream of white Christmases and hope they don't get into the ditch on icy roads.    It's been a strange year, a year that begin with change and still got the same old Governmental runaround.  Turns out that Obama wasn't the savior as people predicted, we forgot the idiots in the house and senate looking after the lobbyists interest and not you and me.    And of course the FOX News Fucks kept pointing that out and they're still POed after the Halfwit  and Neo Nazi got kicked to the curb.  And it turned out that the Neo Nazi was running things.

I'm surprised that I have survived this decade of 8 years of one of the worst presidents we ever had and by far the worst VP the world has seen.  I saw greed running rampant even to this day.  Crappy movies, crappy albums and American Idol to boot.  As I look back on this decade, I don't remember with fondness about anything all that much, in fact the more I forget about this decade the better.  Two major ice storms in 2006 and 2007 that wiped power out of here for a week, The dammed Parkersburg/New Hartford tornado that wiped out half of Parkersburg but somehow spared the Honourable Chuck Grassley pig farm.  And the tornado made it as far as around Dike to which had another tornado a year ago.  And the tornado that rocked through Iowa City and another around Anamosa in 2006 but somehow spared the new Wal Mart.  And 2008, the worst year ever in terms of weather, go from 62 inches of snow on the ground in April to a damn wet spring of rain every other day till 10 inches of rain on a swollen Cedar River, ballooned it to 31.3 feet and damn near took out most of the low lying areas in Cedar Rapids.  Apparently the 1993 flood wasn't enough we had to have a 500 year flood to go with that 100 year flood.  And I hope to God that I never had to deal such extreme weather shit ever again.

There wasn't very many highlights in this decade.  We bring in the new decade with my best friend and his wife and ex GF Olivia up in Dubuque and spent New Years going to Galena.  That was the high point and then things changed.  Losing Olivia to the next guy that she would eventually marry, then seeing my best friend getting married to his date a year later.  I did eventually start dating another west coast woman in 2001 but once 9/11 came around and a week long trip to Seattle became a wasted time something changed in her or she was too wacked on drugs, we parted on bad terms.  And for the next 8 years I didn't show much interest in falling in love and basically wrote the decade off by going on bargain hunts to Madison and Phoenix and watching technology bypass the CD into obsoletes.   The Pawnshops quit having big inventories of cds for me to check out but then again we were starting to lose the record stores around here, Relics, Rock n Bach, Ratz, Co Op all started shutting their doors up here, and the chain stores such as CDs Plus, CD Warehouse, Wherehouse Music, Sam Goody, Tower Records and FYE closing them down left and right.  In the end Best Buy won out but for the record and cd collector such as myself, I had to pretty much hit the road to find decent music stores. 

And we lost plenty of decent eateries along the way.  MiCasa in Mount Vernon, best Mexican Food place ever in this state closed up in 2003, Moreno's in 2006, Jimmy Jack's and Taco Time here this year.  Shakey's in Coralville was gone too.   But I managed to find other replacements to go to, Villa's Patio for one, Marco's Pizza another, El Rancho in IC likewise.  Something new will come around and replace the old and the cycle will repeat on and on.

Musicwise, I did okay finding things at Half Priced Books, which has become my second home and a much needed alternative music to find cheap as well as Goodwill and Salvation Army.  But after 35 years of reviewing new music and finding most of it wasn't that great, I threw in the towel and starting next year will focus strictly on music of the past and yet to be discovered.  We have 80 years to choose from and besides, the major labels don't put out great or even good music anymore, it's all crap and all rap and autotuned pap smear pop.   And after years of trying to find what's so musicial about Kid A or Yankee Hotel Foxtrot as these critics calls them the best albums ever in this decade, I shrugged my shoulders and said they suck and turned in my reviewers' card.  To me the best album of the decade remained The Beatles' 1 or Brian Wilson Presents Smile.  Radiohead didn't change my view at all, it just made me go back to listening to Pink Floyd from time to time.

My life is at the crossroads as after the infamous 2008 flood, I found myself three months later at Crookton Pass Bridge, outside of Seligman in late august and listening to the silence of the night and watching stars from above while trains came and gone.  I was alone at that time and figure that this was as good as it gets and really didn't want to return home.  I was tired of trying to keep the basement dry from all the damn water in the basement due to constant rains in May and June, tired of shitty winters and tired of remembering past realtionships that didn't go nowhere or thinking of past GFs that forgotten me long time ago.   Last time i did go out to meet somebody was four years ago and unfortunly two days before meeting up, my wisdom tooth shattered and I spent most of that time under a OxyCondin haze and the worst tooth pain imaginable.
So after that and almost getting scammed by some Russian chick, I became a Solitary Man.

To which my biggest supporter of the blogs took notice of this.  Not that I really cared all that much actually I did, but I met her during the 2000 St Louis Mingles Party and we chatted online off and on for most of this decade till she took a shot a courage and asked me out in August.  Like Brooksie, Sassy was a contributor to the top ten and little did I know that she was thinking of big plans for being together.  And so the St Louis Mingles Reunion Party of 2009 was only me and her but we did managed to see the sights, the music stores and in the end she became mine in the end.  Wasn't expecting that but it was planned that way.

So as we close down this decade, it looks like that I will bring in the new year's with my best friend and his wife but also with a new woman that has been here all along most of the ride.  I don't know what the next decade will bring, there will be chaos, there'll be tornadoes and floods and hurricanes and high gas prices to contend with.  I may not make it back here ten years from now.  I also can't say if I will continue to blog and put top tens together like i have been the last four years here and the last seven at the end of this year.  I remain hopeful, thats all we can do. 

In 2010 I'm sure the Crabb Music Review will continue onward but with a more eye towards the past and bands that I think should be noticed.  Im not on My Space any more. It's a waste of time and Justin Timberlake buying it out didn't help things either.  I lost most of the blogs before 2008.

In the end I survived the decade and so did you.  I don't have much hope for the next decade but if I do survive that, I'll be here to tout the moment.  But the odds are not in our favor.

We'll see.

The Best Records Of 2009

And so it comes to pass, our final best 10 records of this decade, the lost decade, the decade that sucked musicwise. I betcha half the albums that I have placed as 10 best in years past I don't even take a listen so why should this year be any different?

After 35 years of constantly hanging out on New Release Tuesday and reviewing albums I just cannot get into what passes for great music anymore. Radiohead is overrated and even Wilco have bummed me out half the time and most of the bands that i have followed that are still around are no longer the complete classic band that everybody knows. New Riders Of The Purple Sage still around you ask. Drivin N Cryin? Booker T? Actually they have been and even Queensryche I managed to take a listen to and actually enjoyed more than the average Rolling Stone critic who gives four stars to Wolfmother but only 2 and half stars to Alice In Chains.

Music has been a long love of this life and my impending retirement will still find me at Half Priced Books in the clarence bins, looking for things that I overlook in the first place but at this moment onward the new bands will have to go on without me. I tried getting into Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective and cannot. Paramore is for the younger generation, for myself I still remain faithful to three chords and good boogie, and if this ten best album list is full of boogiesonics then strip me of my credituals and banish me from Rolling Stone or SPIN. This is my final testament to what I think is the best of the year and the ones that will have still have shelf space and I'm sure I'll listen to them from time to time. You know you're getting old when you dont know who the hell SPIN or Uncut or NME is touting, or much less care. But these ten selections are my best of the bunch.

1. LEONARD COHEN-Live In London (Columbia) The man came out of retirement after his former manager left him high and dry and this 2 CD set captures him at the height of his powers. He never had much voice but he has more voice in him than Bob Dylan and he's so gracious with the audience and his band that you can't help but follow along with him. Not exactly rock and roll but it does swing quite well.

2. PORCUPINE TREE-The Incident (Roadrunner) The prog rock band of the moment, Steven Wilson puts together a 55 minite song cycle in 14 moments. Porcupine Tree, once they picked up Gavin Harrison on drums have become the best prog rock band that's out there and that includes the overrated and annoying Mars Volta. Four great albums in the row, this band is destained for classic rock in twenty years from now, when they switch the format over classic rock bands of 2000.

3. THEM CROOKED VULTURES (DGC/Interscope) What do you get when you cross a Queen Of The Stone Age, A Foo Fighter and Led Zeppelin musician together? Answer is some pretty damn good rock and roll that nobody plays much anymore.

4. MIRANDA LAMBERT-Revolution (Columbia) The best thing that ever came out of Nashville Star, Miranda continues to make great rockin country albums although I think this is a bit more rock than what they would like you to believe and Dead Flowers is one of Miranda's finest songs that she's written. This record feels a bit more unfinished despite it's 51 minite time but next to Porcupine Tree, Miranda Lambert has never failed to make an album lesser than an A minus.


5. DRIVIN N CRYIN-Great American Bubblegum Factory (Vintage Earth) First new album from Kevn Kenny and company in 12 years and still rocking out like they never left. I think this record is a bit more honest than Bruce Springsteen's Workin On A Dream. Kenny still loves that American Ruse it seems.


6. NORAH JONES-The Fall (Blue Note) No longer that jazz pop star that gave us Come Away With Me, Jones has quietly moved into a type of Americana that started with The Little Willies and progessed onward, she co writes a song with Ryan Adams who practially laid low this year and even though this record didn't sell as well as expected, I still think that this is her best record to date. Has to be since it made the top ten best of right?

7. MONSTERS OF FOLK (Shangra la) This is perhaps my favorite album from Mr. Saddle Creek himself Connor Oberst and Mr. My Morning Jacket Yim Yames and Mr. He And She M. Ward and whoever Mike Mogis plays in. It's been a good year for supergroups be it heavyweights or Independents. Sometimes folk but sometimes rock too, it kinda makes me forgive Yames or Oberst's last albums with their respective bands.

8. MANIC STREET PREACHERS-Journal For Plague Lovers (Columbia) The band that will not go away from Sony Music, this album was released in the UK a good half year before making it's debut in September. They found a bunch of unused Richey James lyrics and the guys put some hard rock and roll melody to them. This is the followup to their 1994 import only The Holy Bible if you think about it but whereas that album was pretty bleak, this record sounds a bit more upbeat.

9. STATUS QUO-In Search Of The Fourth Chord (Eagle) The Quo has been around for over forty years and still remains unknowns in the US outside of Pictures Of Matchstick Men, but The Quo have continue to put out boogie woogie rock and roll that has been outdated for 20 plus years and they don't care and neither do I. I never get tired of this type of music ever.

10. NEW RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE-Where I Come From (Woodstock) Another band that has return from hiatus and on this record, they go for all out jamming to which 9 of the 12 songs go over five minites and all but one over four. And Robert Hunter co writes half the songs with Dave Nelson. Even with their classic lineup their albums were spotty and uneven at best but I do think this album is by far the most consistant listen even for it's 73 and half minites. They actually sound inspired and alive this time out. Took a while for me to warm up to this album but I do find this to be a good cd to listen while driving on that long lonesome highway to whereever I'm going.

Honorable Mentions
11. DAN FOGELBERG-Love In Time (Full Moon)
12. REM-Live At The Olympia (Warner Bros)
13. THE BOTTLE ROCKETS-Lean Forward (Bloodshot)
14. CRACKER-Sunrise In The Land Of Milk & Honey (429/SLG)
15. ALICE IN CHAINS-Black Gives Way To Blue (Virgin)
16. LOVE AND THEFT-World Wide Open (Carolwood)
17. CHICKENFOOT (Redline)
18. BOB DYLAN-Together Through Life (Columbia)
19. THE DEAD WEATHER-Horehound (Third Man/WB)
20. NEW YORK DOLLS-Cuz I Sez So (Atco)

Top Ten Of The Week-Christmas 2009

You know what is torture? I have had Feliz Navidad in my head for three freaking hours and then the next three hours I was tortured by Jewel's Hands making a very cranky crabb.

It's Christmas time once again. Seems like somewhere Jingle Bell Crock or Rocking Around The Christmas Tree is playing on the radio in this world. I'm sure Bobby Helms if he was still living would be making some royalties to live comfortbly, but here on Crabb Radio we tend to look beyond the same old same old. To the point that my christmas songs are the same old same old but I try to do my best to vary them. But I still get a charge out of hearing The Wailer's Christmas Spirit?!?

This year is a first of sorts for me. First year that i have a Girlfriend and is still around the last five months. Anyway, Miss Nicole wants to help out this blog by adding some Christmas Tid Bits and then yours truly will bring his idea of christmas cheer in music. Now, the lovely Sassy.

The largest yo-yo weighs 896 pounds.

Macy's is the 2nd largest consumer of helium in the world.

In Spain, midnight mass is called Misa de Gallo. The "Worlds Largest Christmas Tree" is located in California.

Christmas Card Lane is located in Tampa, Florida.

Gingerbread was originally a German tradition. Lebkuchen (gingerbread) is exported from Nuremberg, Germany to the US for Christmas. Johann Maelzel in 1820 invented the first speaking doll.

The first mass production of Christmas tree lights began in 1820. The largest functional cracker was 181' 11" tall and 11' 9" wide.

Nutcracker figurines originated in Germany in the 1700's. The first iron pair of skates were used in Scandinavia in the year 200 A.D. Christmas wasn't declared a federal holiday in the United States until June 26, 1870.

The first eggnog made in the United States was consumed in Captain John Smith's 1607 Jamestown settlement.

In 1836, Alabama became the 1st US state to declare Christmas as a legal holiday.

In 1875, the first Christmas card was printed in the US by Louis Prang, a Massachusetts printer.

Franklin Pierce was the first President to have a Christmas tree in the White House. There are 13 types of Christmas trees that have been in the White House, the most common is Blue Spruce Pine.

"Silent Night" was composed on Christmas Eve 1818. Sale of Christmas trees began in the US in 1850.

The worlds largest Christmas store is in Frankenmuth, Michigan. The name of the store is Bronner's. (note from Sassey: Not a bad store to go into and they have stuff that ain't Christmas related)

In Finland, Santa is called Joutupukki. Play-doh entered the market as wallpaper cleaner in 1956.

The Top Ten of Xmas Songs this year.


1. White Christmas-The Ventures Here at the Crabb house we enjoy those great guitar groups doing updated versions of Christmas songs. Don't know about you but The Ventures Christmas Album is a must for your holiday tunes.

2. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town-The Townedgers Of course the little lady would kill me if I didn't include a track from the best selling album of all time from the TEs but I have choice of what to play. Dedicated to all of the fans of this garage band from Anamosa Ioway.

3. Merry Christmas Everyone-Slade Glam rockers had this top ten hit in the UK and somehow does get played around this area from time to time. BTW has anybody gotten that Monster Ballads Xmas CD? Me neither.

4. The Little Drummer Boy-Harry Simeone Chorale  St Louis 2007, I found a picture sleeve of this 45 of this song that came out on 20th Century Fox Records but I can't think of going anyplace growing up to somebody's house that didn't have this number.  Sassy sez The TE version is better.  I prefer Johnny Cash's version that can be found on The Christmas Spirit.

5. Christmas Time Is Here-Vince Guaraldi One of the great family traditions is seeing Merry Christmas Charlie Brown although 45 years later it looks crudely drawn due to us being spoiled rotten by computer generated cartoons. Guaraldi, already a well known jazz piano player, he became better known for him scoring the old Peanuts cartoons.

6. Holly Jolly Christmas-Alan Jackson  Another Sassy suggestion.  I need to get that girl to start listening to other types of music outside of country and more country.
But then again she did took time and effort to compile the christmas facts.

7. Run Rudolph Run-Lemmy, Billy Gibbons & Dave Gorhl Everybody has done this Chuck Berry number but you haven't heard anything till you heard Mr Motorhead put the metal to this song, with help from Mr. ZZ Top and Mr Foo Fighter. Dig it or don't.

8. Santa Claus Is Comin (In A Boogie Woogie Freight Train) The Tractors Another suggestion by the lil' lady who threaten me with 10 hours straight of Feliz Navidad.

9.  Chirstmas In Dixie-Alabama  Guess which song was suggested by my other half?  Unfortly while trying to compile this week's blog, my regular rscrabb@ hotmail site is bogged down by something dragging it down so I'm using a backup and have to do a Plan B.  She gave about 20 suggestions and I think I used a couple of them on this one.  She's always loved this song the best in terms of Christmas music outside of The Townedger's Christmas album.

10. Step Into Christmas-Elton John  Growing up in the 70s outside of waiting for the latest from Foghat or Led Zeppelin was always waiting for what the UK Diva would bestow upon us for singles. For Elton John was the greatest singles artist in that time although I could do without Crock Rock or Bennie And The Jets.  On this, EJ actually outdo Phil Spector in terms of getting that seasonal sound.  Never did find the 45 when it was out at that time but I do have this song on about 4 other EJ albums.



on a side note perhaps the most tasteless christmas song ever put out....Homo Christmas by Pansy Division.  Taken from Rhino's Punk Rock Xmas CD of 1995, this celebrates gay sheningans under the christmas tree and has to be heard to be believed.    2nd most tasteless song....Fuck Christmas by Fear...Lin Ving must have been through the Best Buy line on December 23.

Top Ten Of The Week-Winter Sucks

It's pretty bad when I get stuck in my own driveway.  It's icy as hell, my brother has got way too many cars in the damn way here and I can't manuever the Crown Victoria worth a fuck in this damn ice rink I call a driveway.  And it puts me in a real bad mood.  Stuck in our own driveway, WTMF?


When they induct ABBA in the rock n roll hall of fame it becomes a joke.  I can see Genesis, I can see Jimmy Cliff, I can see The Hollies and The Stooges but I guess Jann Wanner would rather see ABBA make it there than KISS.  But it's pretty fucking bad when The Moody Blues isn't in there, nor Rush, Nor______________.  ABBA?!?  They're MOR Pop for fuck's sakes!.

Next week I hope to be in the Holiday spirit although I doubt it.  But my sidekick and contributor Nicole will host the annual Christmas top ten list.  She submitted 20 songs to the fray, we'll edited it down to a chosen ten.  Usually the rule of thumb is that 10 is the limit, anything more and people get put to sleep.

This week's songs of note:

1.   Stranded-Manfred Mann Earth Band 1980  I guess ole Manfred got stuck in Iowa from what the song starts out.  Which is why this album charted pretty high around here, it mentioned Iowa.  Stuck in my own driveway, watta bunch of.............

2.  In Walked Bud-Theolonious Monk 1958  Robert Christgau spoke so highly of this track that I decided to pull it out and listen to it sunday night and found that Johnny Griffin could have been the best sax player, best suited to the style of Mr. Monk.  That's saying a lot.  Christgau also says that there's too much Riverside product from Monk but he had Monk's Music, Brilliant Corners and Mysterioso, and Solo Monk.  Never heard the Town Hall Concert but from what i heard of, The Riverside years remains his best.

3.  Cars Hiss By My Window-The Doors 1971  Played on KUNI the other night, this is a slow burning blues to which John Morrison does some freaky wails at the end of this song.  Guess he was pretty stoned too.

4.  Kind Of A Girl-Tilted Windows 2009  I'm not very thrilled of the music of this year, particularly of what the mags tout as the best but I'll go with this mini super group of Cheap Trick, Fountains Of Wayne, Smashing Pumpkins and Zack Hanson!  I'm still working on the best of 2009 album wise and finding it's taking a bit more work than expected.

5.  The Loner-Stephen Stills 1976  This actually got played on the old Q103 back in the day, long before my smarter half was born.  This is a more rocking cover of the Neil Young chestnut and I'm sure Mr. Young will make a presence on the top ten before I go to bed.  Stills' Columbia period while uneven did pull out some good songs.  One can't live on Love The One Your With all the time.

6.  Tonight Tonight Tonight-Genesis 1986  Speaking of which, the new HOF inductees show up with a top 30 hit from the overly commerical Invisible Touch album to which I'm still waiting what TAD thought about that record.  He didn't care much for Duke, the 1980 album that started gave Genesis a second chance.  Never liked Duke all that much either come to think of it.

7.  Sample And Hold-Neil Young 1982  To which Neil Young beat Kanye West, Lil Wayne and many more others of this shitty decade in Autotuning but at that time he used a vicorder and it gave him a voice this side of Pete Drake and Kraftwerk.  While ppl continue to bitch about Trans being a pile of crap, I actually still think it was a breath of fresh air when he did Trans and still like it very much today.  Actually got to see Neil Young do his Trans concert on USA back around 1982 with Nils Lofsgren, Bruce Palmer and Ralph Molina and it kinda funny to see Neil and Nils chase each other around the stage talking computerese.

8.  Journal For Plague Lovers-Manic Street Preachers 2009  Title track from the Manic's latest album and featuring words by Richey James who vanished into thin air about 14 years ago.  Their new album is very good and may make my 10 best of the year but I sense that the melody of this song recalls Spirit Of The Radio and Limelight from Rush. Somebody in that band listens to Rush.

9.  See The Light-Green Day 2009  I didn't care much for their lastest album, it sounds like American Idiot Part 2 and the production was overblown half the time but I do like this finale off 21st Century Breakdown.

10. Sleigh Ride-Davie Allen & The Arrows 2007  I don't listen to christmas music all that much and the only two albums that I heard was Rotary Connection's Peace and Fuzz For The Holidays, the latest Christmas offering from the dood who gave us Blue's Theme way back in 1966.  I plan on pulling out The Ventures' Christmas Album before the 25th but this version from Mr Allen is borderline avant garde and very noisy and I don't think the old ladies on day shift would enjoy hearing this song.  I remember a long time ago putting together a Christmas music mix tape with songs from Bob Marley, Foghat and the Dance Hall Crashers and the only song they wanted to hear was The Singing Dogs' Jingle Bells.   Today, ppl get annoyed when they hear the Singing Dogs but you have to admit that it took a lotta takes to get that right and I do smile a bit when I do hear that.  Let's face it, we're going get stuck hearing Jingle Bell Rock or Rocking Around The Christmas Tree twice every half hour.  I rather much perfer a little fuzz for my holidays.  Such as from Davie Allen.

....
Stuck in my own fucking driveway.....*sigh*.

Stupid People Part 1,242,303

It's no secret that our recent neighbors who moved in about a couple years ago have not been well received in this part of town. They tend to leave the garage door open at ungodly hours and nothing like watching Mrs. Deliverance sit on her big fat merry go round, smoking a damn cigarette and watching TV in the garage. Mr. Deliverance to which my brother calls Mr. No Balls had a following out. They bought this yappyassed beagle for the past couple years who barks all damn day long and then they went out and got another damn dog who I saw running up and down the road barking at cars and anything that passes by while there's no sight of the idiots that watch it. They can't take care of the beagle, why the fuck are they having another dog in the yard? I made it clear to these yayhoos that if this damn dog comes into our yard that all bets are off and if this yappy MF barks, we may have to turn them for animal cruelity. We may have WW 3 with The Delieverance Family on their animals and lack of care.

I have no idea what they do, but they have at least four boys, one a teenager, the other two in their early teens and now a baby that they tote around the yard. They have snowmoblies to go tearing up the ditch with, they have a ATV in the summer so they can drive around town and raise up dust and plenty of cars to go around. As far as I know the boys seem to stay out of trouble but I think my brother bitches more about their damn animals than I do.

It's too bad that everytime we get new neighbors the IQ goes down a bit in Springville/Viola. Three years ago, we had some half wits that moved in, and were total trailer trash and had something like 8 people living in that house before a fire came along and forced them to move back to Wellington Heights. The house sat empty for a while before somebody came out to buy it, rebuild and remodled it and once again sold it to the Delieverance Family. Too bad, we all didn't pool our money together, outbidded the fucks and tore the damn thing down to the ground. But that's the way life seems to be sometimes; you never get the good, you always get the stupid.