Half Price Books Finds

While Madison started selling museum 45s, our hometown had a few of note.  Which were cheaper and better.

Rock The Boat-The Hues Corporation (RCA APB0-0232)  #1 1974

Too Weak To Fight-Clarence Carter (Atlantic 45-2569) #13 1968

I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know-Skeeter Davis (RCA 47-7293) 1958

Bread And Butter-The Newbeats (Hickory 45-1269) #2 1964

Just As Long As I Have You-Don Williams (RCA  9119-7-R) 1990  #4 Country 

Gonna Move-Les Dudek (Columbia 3-10744) 1978

Kiss This-Aaron Tippin (Lyric Street ED-11282)   #42 2000  #1 Country

B side People Like Us #17 2000

Aaron Tippin's Kiss This is the first actual 45 that is associated with music in 2000 and after.   While Bullfrogspond called it an album cut, there was an actual 45 probably made for jukeboxes.  Tippin's output I have never cared much for, but this was the one that put Disney's Nashville label Lyric Street on the map. Perhaps this could have been a harder rocking song if you take the fiddles off.  B side People Like Us also got some airplay, Kiss This made number 1 on the country chart and number 42 on the pop side of things.  Given the crap heard on top 40 nowadays, it's unthinkable that this would have charted that high.  Rock The Boat had the Van McCoy drum thump tho he didn't produce it, but one of the finest R and B songs of 1974, even tho it was overplayed to death.   And sometimes the oldies stations will dust off to play. People Like Us sounds like Georgia Satellites. 

Don Williams, on this song had Barry Beckett and not Garth Fundis producing and Beckett had more keyboards into the songs, the One Good Well album is quite listenable.  Williams had some RCA success but two albums later, he would be gone.  B side Why Get Up was covered by the Fabulous Thunderbirds. The wacky Bread And Butter was and remains the best song by the Newbeats, with Larry (Parks) Henley, high vocal being the ID of the band.  Novelty songs like this don't get played much anymore but the 45 seems to be in pretty good shape.  Tough Little Buggy was written by Dave Allen, maybe the guy that wroteToo Weak To Fight, looked worse for the wear but plays fantastic, one of the more soulful sounds from Clarence Carter.  And it was surprising to see Skeeter Davis's song not making either the country or pop charts of 1958 

CDs

Battle Of The Bands (K Tel 1995)

Peter Tosh-Legalize It (CBS 1977)

K Tel put out three volumes of the Battle Of The Bands, which is really a look at the garage rock music scene in the mid 60s.  I still think those were the best of times rather than the crap rap and plastic pop that has no lasting value.  Of course, The Elektra/Sire/Rhino Nuggets box set has all of these songs and much more.  Funny how K Tel could cram 22 songs on a single LP but when CD came calling, they rarely went past 10 to 12 songs.  Even with 14, it barely crawls over a half hour but all the songs are classic. I Fought The Law, Lies, Question Of Temperature, Talk Talk, Pushing too hard, etc. etc.  Cheers for them finding the Gants Road Runner and Blue's Theme from Davey Allen and The Arrows (probably the hardest rock song the Odious Mike Curb ever put his name on this side of Crazy Horses). A Little Bit Of Soul always sounded great at night while driving home. The most obscure would probably be Shake (Ohio Express).  K Tel would continue to issue two more varied Battle Of The Bands albums but the first one is still gold.  As for Peter Tosh, Legalize It was his second Columbia attempt and the radicalness CBS Columbia got cold feet and drop him (the next album would be issued on Rolling Stones Records, the only artist not associated with The Stones was Mr. Tosh).  Equal Rights was probably the better of the two Columbia albums but for two bucks I figured it was still worth getting. Till Your Well Runs Dry, shows that Tosh can do soul music very well too.  

Madison Bargain Hunt March 2021

What was found

Chris Ledoux-20 Greatest Hits

Memphis Minnie-I  Ain't No Bad Girl

Johnny Winter-Hey Where's Your Brother

Beyond The Sea Soundtrack (For Mom)

Yoko Ono-Seasons Of Glass

Black Uruah-Red

The English Beat-Here We Go Love

Kevin Welsh-Millionaire

Jackson Browne-World In Motion

Jethro Tull-A Little Light  Music

The Greenhones-Pure Mono

Katydids

Bill Cosby-Himself

Jesus And Mary Chain-Darklands 

Neil Young/Crazy Horse Way Down In The Rust Bucket

And a few 45's 

It's was a actually a very mellow event going up to Madison.  I have never had a drive up there whereas I had something that piss me off and get mad.  But somehow I stayed cool, calm and collected, even though the Dubuque red lights and half wit drivers did their best to try my patience.  For CDs, this might have been one of the more disappointing efforts, tho most were two dollar stuff from Goodwill at various locations.   My intention was to find the Beyond The Sea movie soundtrack for my mom, which enabled me to buy the Memphis Minnie CD.  Strictly Disc had the new Neil Young/Crazy Horse.  Mad City Music X, had the 45's. to which I bought 35 of them.   A few were replacement copies of a few 45's in my collection that had seen better days.  However, the St Vinnies  Pickers Paradise got my donation, and perhaps I should have taken them to the Williamson Street.  I have a bad feeling those 45's were be tossed around and destroyed even more.

Since the Half Price Books still had the latest English Beat CD still there from last year, I picked it up.  Pawn America, which originally was at the location next to Home Depot/Cracker Barrel moved down to the former Rocky Rococco's building on Therier Street but didn't have any DVDs or CDs to speak of.  Half Price Books have started to charge more on their 45's, there's hardly any 50 cent buys anymore, and the prices for juke box copies is a bit outrageous.   Thankfully, the Williamson St Vinnies and Mad City Music X had them for a quarter a piece.  

Replacement 45s.

Lonely Boy-Paul Anka

It's Late-Ricky Nelson

Hello Mary Lou-Ricky Nelson

Where Were You On Our Wedding Day-Lloyd Price

Abraham, Martin And John-Dion

Hitchin' A Ride-Vanity Fair

I Know I'm Losing You-Rare Earth

Kansas City-Wilbert Harrison

Wild Side Of Life-Freddy Fender

Sorry (I Ran All The Way Home)-The Impalas 

Roundabout-Yes

Most came from my dad's record collection, but some got used as frisbees.  The Two Ricky Nelson 45's I had were in poor condition and I needed something more than G- record.  The Rare Earth I had as a 45 years ago but it may have been lifted or donated.  The Impalas, Dad wore the grooves off that record. Kansas City, was one of the original Box Of Records, but we tested to see if the record was unbreakable only to find out that it wasn't.  And the Dion was bought for the B side of Daddy Rollin' In Your Arms, probably the best blues song Dion ever.  The recent purchase of Wedding Day from Lloyd Price from Moondog Music still had a scratch that I couldn't buff out.  Roundabout, my original copy had a deep cut scratch that made the record unplayable.

Which leaves us, 36 other 45's found at either the St. Vinnies and Mad City Music X, to which I spent 2 and half hours going through 10 boxes of quarter 45s and somehow the record dude managed to let me hang 15 minutes after closing talking about the Jesus And Mary Chain best record.  I told him I liked Darklands best but he went with Stoned And Dethroned.   While my distaste for certain record stores and their museum 45 pricing, it's great to know that Mad City Music still manage to have a interchanging inventory of 25 cent 45s, priced to move.   

For the evening, I tried to rent a bike but they had processing issues (like i said, the trip always have one kind of snafu and this was it) so I basically strolled around Lake Monona and hung at the overview looking at the lake and reflect on the 27 years of popping up to Mad City to find music.  I didn't venture into State Street, it was late, and B Sides Records were closed anyway but we didn't have to worry about any riots unlike the last time I was there.  It used to be that Music Go Round had the good stuff, then I discovered The Exclusive Company (say it with me) before they left Madison a few years ago. Then Mad City Music Exchange came around and then the thrift stores, the pawnshops that had cds. It's odd that even in these days and times Madison never lost the music stores unlike Iowa City did.  Times have changed.  The internet was a far off dream in 94, CDs were the rage and people were dropping their record collection.    I didn't start collecting 45s again till 2002 and the floodgates opened.  Then the CDs quit selling, the pawnshops quit buying and the Thrift stores started taking them in.  The original Half Price Bookstore was in the Nakoma Plaza Strip Mall before Home Depor took over that spot. Tommy Thompson was there, then Jim Doyle for most of the early 2000s, then used car shyster Scott Walker came in, and I remember the sit in's, but Wisconsin had worse people in there, Ron Johnson The Fitzgeralds, Paul Ryan, a lovely bunch of GOP goobers.  Tony Evers is now in, but he's stuck with a GOP led congress.  Probably better than what we have for Iowa Yayhoos. But then again, the liberal faction didn't set well with me after they were looking for voters and I told them I was out of state.  Even Ian's Pizza pissed me off to the point I quit eating there.  The homeless and aggressive change chasers on State Street.  After the riots, State Street wasn't the destination anymore.  

Madison also had good times, After all, I participated in the World Naked Bike rides from 2016, 2017 and 2018 and went streaking through the city butt naked with a bunch of other folk.  Even my co workers can't believe I did that, nor Julie for that matter.  2016 and 2018 we took it all off.  And in the process got sunburned in places the sun don't shine.

And here I was on Monona Terrance, still seeing the the shrinking ice on Lake Monona, trying to put into thoughts and feelings on this bargain hunt.  For CDs, we really didn't find much groundbreaking stuff but enough to keep the drive home interesting.  Previous bargain hunts I figured that I would return, but this one felt different.  It felt like it was my final run, as if I was terminally ill person doing one last run before fading off into the sunset.  For once, I managed to grab a parking space next to St Vinnies On Williamson Street and managed to go through their forty fives without anybody going down the aisle.  And Mad City Music, I was left to my own devices and to my own personal space, going through boxes of records like a child on Christmas Day.    A fleeting moment in time, but somehow renders all the way back to 1963 when Mom was sorting through the Woolworth's record selection, to which the lure of the 45's section always turns full circle in this life.  

Somewhat like a 45 ya kno? 

 

The Final Bargain Hunt: Iowa City/Coralville

What was found:

Taste-Live At The Aisle Of Wright (Polydor)

Fleetwood Mac-The Pious Bird Of Good Omen (Epic)

Stone Garden (Gear Fab)

Pixies-Come On Pilgrim (4AD EP)

Nox Boys (Get Hip)

Robert Cray-Too Many Cooks (Tomato)

45's

Child Of The Times-Barry McGuire (Dunhill 4014)  #72 1965

Hey Mama-Climax Blues Band (Sire SI-358) 1972

You'll Never Tame Me-Bobby Rydell (Cameo C-167) 1959

Do I Love You-The Magic Ring (Music Factory MU-404) 1968

Plus

The Best Of Miles Davis (Blue Note)

Titus Turner-Taking Care Of Business 1955-1962 (Jasmine)

So anyway, my girlfriend was singing in Coralville so I decided to do a pre Madison trip and see what Iowa City had in store.  Of course I had to wait 15 minutes to get into Record Collector but blew 35 dollars on a bunch of 45s and off the wall CDs.    For the 45s You'll Never Tame Me was one of the sought after replacement copy 45s from Grandma's box of records and I always like You'll Never Tame Me from the start. Originally the A side, the other side, the horrendous Kissin Time made number 11 in 1959.  Note: Doc Pomus and Mort Shurman wrote You'll Never Tame Me, and they would write songs for Frankie Avalon and Fabian (Tiger, Strollin' In The Springtime). But then again I've been accused of putting too much attention to Rydell or Fabian or Tommy Sands or Johnny Tilloison and *ahem" Paul Anka.  Compared to the likes of Justin beaverbiscuits, I prefer them to Justin any day.  And of course I'm dating myself.   Hey Mama is CMB's boogie blues that didn't get much airplay but like the hoarder that I am, I figure I would bring into my collection.  Do I Love You, is that bubblegum pop this side of the Association or perhaps the Beach Boys or the Wall Of Sound, since Phil Spector co wrote this one.   Barry McGuire tried for second big hit with Child Of The Times with PF Sloan writing it, but it fell short of expectations. B side Upon A Painted Ocean is so so.  Makes me wonder if Eve Of Destruction B/W What's Exactly The Matter With Me is all the Barry that I need.  Tho I keep an eye out for the long deleted Anthology on One Way Records.

Record Collector had the first five CDs mentioned above.  I've been on the lookout for Rory Gallagher stuff with and without Taste and the Live At The Aisle Of Wright was found. The Fleetwood Mac Pious Bird is part of the albums recorded for CBS/Epic (imports can be found but Sony Legacy never bothered to issued those early CDs. Pious Bird shows the Mac slowly moving away from hardline blues and gave us the amazing Albatross and the original Black Magic Woman.  Come On Pilgrim is a fine 20 minute EP from the Pixies and The Stone Garden album is not the band from Iowa but rather a band from Idaho, which could compare themselves to Iowa's own Truth and Janey or the Iowa Stone Garden who might have made their own album.  They owed their sound to Cream and free form jamming. They only made a 45 to which the best song SF Policemen Blues and Stop My Thinking.  Bastard and Woodstock has a slinky Blue Cheer vibe to it.  To be a nice guy I bought a cheap 25 cent cd Nox Boys which is the better of the two unknown bands.   Jim Diamond (White Stripes) helped the band find their sound and vision which owes more to pub rock than White Stripes, tho the freakout album ending  Save Me sounds like Echo And The Bunnymen on Prozac.  For latter day garage rock, Nox Boys is one of the better albums of the 2010s.  Too bad you never will get to hear it on the radio.

The Robert Cray album came from Goodwill.  I rarely see the Tomato version of Too Many Cooks and it came out in 1980, when Robert was starting out. Over time Cray would eventually would sign up with Mercury Records and made Strong Persuader, one of the essential blues albums of the 1980s.  Salvation Army had the FM soundtrack on CD but I didn't want another CD with Cold As Ice on it.  Despite it all, Stuff Etc had nothing to offer, the Coralville branch is seeming to not buy CDs any more and the Iowa City had a couple of interesting things (Tina and the B sides)  but not enough for me to wanting to buy them.  Money And More still has the overpriced Blues boxset for 25 dollars.  As for Housewerks, they can go blow themselves. 

Record Collector is the last I C store selling cds, but they're more into selling vinyl.  I have been very lucky finding CDs there the past couple of times.  Wax Xstatic in Marshalltown has a grand opening for April 11 and the bargain hunting will go over there to see what I can find.  It will be the first excursion to Marshalltown ever, Wax Xstatic had a bit of bad luck due to a tornado destroying part of their business a couple years ago and the the COVID outbreak put them on hold, but they have a new place and here's hoping we'll go see what they got.  

The next Final Bargain Hunt goes to Madison one more time.  Since turning sixty, I am retiring from the big bargain hunts that have driven me the past 30 years.  But then again, those who have been following my adventures have heard me scream the LAST bargain hunt, The FINAL and the ABSOSLUTELY FINAL bargain hunt, but I do think the next one will be the last.  

To be continued as they say.  

March Madness from the Thrift Stores.

But first, striking it rich on the jazz CD finds.

Jimmy Smith-Prayer Meetin' (Blue Note)

Compact Jazz: Buddy Rich (Verve)

Dizzy Gillespie:  Swing Low Sweet Cadillac (Impulse)

Art Blakey-Mosaic (Blue Note)

Art Blakey Jazz Messengers (Impulse/MCA)

Freddie Hubbard-Night Of The Cookers (Blue Note)

6 Jazz CDs for two dollars a piece.  The Jimmy Smith has two bonus track of note,  Sam Jones is playing bass.  Usually Smith doesn't have a bass player, interesting in theory though.  The session features Stanley Turrentine on sax and it's a decent session with Quentin Warren on guitar and Donald Bailey on drums.   The Two Art Blakeys feature Wayne Shorter on sax.  The Buddy Rich best of got slammed by AMG but it does have Stompin At The Woodside and a drum battle with Max Roach on Toot Toot Toosie Goodbye.  Rich could be bombastic on drums but he can swing with the best of them on the mellow side with Late Date.  That's him singing on Between the devil and the deep blue sea, which eventually Rich decided to get behind the drums and away from the mic.   Night Of The Cookers is a two cd four song selection of 20 plus minute versions of Free Jazz and afro cuban rhythms, there's a since of humor, of Hubbard stealing a few notes of Camptown Races, but the out of tune trumpet sounds like a clash of Canadian Geese and the only decent track is Breaking Point.  The previous owner of this CD says good straight ahead jazz but way too many drum solos.  Which the latter was the reason why I bought this in the first place. 

Salvation Army Finds

The Heat In Harlem S/T (Sire/WB)

Grandpa Jones Live (KRB)

MCA Vintage Hits Volume 19 and 20 (MCA)

It's  a shame we don't have a decent overview of Grandpa Jones and this KRB is 10 at a EP timing of 19 minutes and has some poorly recorded live performances.  He could play banjo with the best but this is too much Hee Haw (just as bad as Josh "Hee Haw" Hawley) and not enough bluegrass.  Back to donation pile. The Heat In Harlem is a very good overview of soul and R and B classics plus 8 new songs from Lavern Baker, Little Jimmie Scott, Betty Boo, Paul Evans and Little Richard produced by Andy Paley.  The 16 originals are classics from Elmore James, Bo Diddley, Clarance Henry and the forgotten Willows with Church Bells May Ring.  The Paley produced tracks are a bit too polished for my liking.  Back in 1986 MCA issued 20 Vintage Rock albums, remastered with great care by Steve Hoffman  (Volumes 1,10) and 1987 added Volumes 11-20.  While Hoffman's name isn't on the the volumes, the guess is that he had something to do with the mixes.  Nowadays, these are nothing more than mixtapes of the past and Time Life has done them better but Hoffman did polished up the vintage tracks, probably way too good (the version of Born To Be Wild is complete including a messed up ending.  19 and 20 goes for the deep tracks like Nobody (3 Dog Night) Sookie Sookie (Steppenwolf) and Rock Around With Ollie Vee (Decca version) from Buddy Holly. I should knock the grade a half point for Incense And Pepperments (already on another Vintage Oldies album Number 3) but it's  a classic song so I'll let it be. 

For Iowa basketball, the Men's team led by Luke Garza had a great run at times but faltered when it counted.  Iowa did beat Wisconsin in the usually one and done Big Ten Tournament but Illinois whopped them big time Brad Underwood's Illinois squad did beat Ohio State in the Championship.  For Iowa effort, they get a number 2 seed starting off with playing Grand Canyon Saturday.   As for Garza, the Sporting News called him the player of the year and Iowa has retired his number 55 once he gets done playing.  For the Iowa women, Caitlin Clark was named Freshman player of the year as she dominated the big ten.  Iowa had a nice run of their own in the Big Ten Tourney up till Maryland outclassed them but Maryland is a great ball club.  The Hawk women played 4 tough games in 4 days.  Great job girls.

The Grammys TM.  yep that happened.

Billie Enlish won record of the year (yawn), Taylor Swift took home album of the year with Folklore. The Strokes took rock record of the year with their crappy album.  Miranda Lambert, despite the efforts of Jay Joyce won Country Record for Wildcard.   Body Count won best metal with Bum Rush. The late Chick Corea won 2 Grammys TM in jazz, the late John Prine won two for his last song. Kayne West got best Gospel album (yeah you read that right had you read this far), Billy Strings won best Bluegrass album, Bobby Rush's Rawer than Raw best blues album,  The late great Toots Hibbert won best Reggae album with Got To Be Tough.  Andrew Watt won Producer Of The Year.  If anything this 2021 edition gave tribute to the ones that passed away with (Corea, Prine and Toots) and it shows that Miranda Lambert can never be counted out, even tho I didn't care much for Wildcard but perhaps another listen I should take consideration. The Highwomen won for a country single off a album I didn't care much for either (the blame might be leveled at Brandi Carlisle who tends to oversing or Dave Cobb's cardboard box production). but the Dan and Shay with Justin Beaverbiscuits is a reason why the Weeknd boycotted the GRAMMYS TM in the first place.  As for up and comer Megan Thee Stallion, like Enlish, I have no use for their music.  The Body Count metal win is a surprise.  Black Pumas are the one to watch for the future.

Davenport Hunts: From The Source

What was found.

CD

The Kinsey Report-Powerhouse (Charisma 1988)

The Dry Heaves-Two Honkies In A Tub

The Temptations Greatest Hits

Face To Face-Over It (EP)

Bruce Springsteen-The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle

Mary Chapin Carpenter-Come On Come On

Chris LeDoux-Gold Buckle Dreams

Elvis Presley-Moody Blue

Page/Plant: No Quarter

Kansas-In the Spirit Of Things

Rolling Stones-Flowers

Lefty Frizzell-16 Greatest Hits

Santa Esmeralda-The Best Of

45's

A Swinging Safari-Billy Vaughn (Dot 45-16374)  #13 1962

This Bitter Earth-Dinah Washington (Mercury 71635) #24 1960

Here We Go Again-Ray Charles (ABC 45-10938) #15 1967

Three Nights A Week-Fats Domino (Imperial 5687)  #15 1960

Who Slapped John/Blue Jean Bop-Gene Vincent (Capitol F-3558) 1956

Some of these forty fives go back to my original collection, namely This Bitter Earth, Here We Go Again and Three Nights A Week.  A Swinging Safari is muzak surf music but I always loved the beginning hook.  That would later be used for an early episode of Jeopardy. This Bitter Earth might have been one of the original collection of 1964 singles that Mom might have had, but I didn't think it survived the first playing   Here We Go Again was a replacement copy of the one that I bought in Waterloo around 68. Three Nights A Week was part of the original Grandma's box of 45s in Lincoln.  All 45's came from The Source Book Store in downtown Davenport.  They still have the majority of quality CDs on the main floor but downstairs they have actually added about 10,000 CDs in the basement of varying degree.  To where the Santa Esmeralda and Left Frizzell came from.  They also had the Flowers from the Stones, the first Stones LP that I bought for a quarter at a long ago forgotten Salvation Army store in Uptown Marion.  I don't think Ragged Records has opened their Davenport store (sometime in April from what I have heard but Bob Harrington hasn't mentioned anything about a grand reopening.  

For 13 CDs found, I'm surprised that I found that many.  8 of the 13 were under a dollar.  Most were not exactly needed.  The Dry Heaves I had to check out.  They come across like Foo Fighters and punk rock, disposable I suppose but fun. The Page/Plant and Kinsey Report have been in my collection before.   I ran into the same guy buying stacks of CDs at both Davenport Goodwill Stores, he bought mostly junk (Sugar Ray, Everclear)  The Davenport Salvation Army had no 45s of note, but I donated my collection of unwanted 45s to that place.  I'm not sure if the guy in charge of donations had a look of surprise or resignation, but I'm sure most, if not all will be gone the next time I return back into town. I'm not sure the reason why I bought them but I didn't have the Bruce Springsteen CD and The Kansas CD was thrown in for a quarter.    The Veterans Thrift Store had The Kinsey Report and Dry Heaves for 72 cents.  At least the jewel case is in good shape.  Stuff Etc, had Richard and Linda Thompson's Hoky Pokey on CD for a dollar.  Since I had a copy, I didn't need it. 

I didn't stop at Co Op Moline.  There was nothing new that I needed and I didn't think he had a good turnover of new cds the last time I was there.   Books A Million still had a collection of used cds, (mostly crap) and new CD's that were half off the regular price, also mostly crap.  Somehow, somebody priced a used Elastica Cd for 20 dollars!  Rough Trade had reissued the CD but you can still find the CD fairly cheap.

All of the thrift stores had their vinyl picked clean.   Like Iowa City, had I not gone to the Source store, this would have been another wasted trip.   Next up, a return engagement to Dubuque and Maquoketa, and perhaps a good time to rid more unwanted cds.

Appendix:  Maquoketa Finds/Half Price Books

Larry Norman-Shouting In The Storm

Larry Norman-White Blossoms from Black Roots

Larry Norman-Come As A Child

Tommy James-S/T

Billie Holliday-Ken Burns Jazz

Three CDs found by the Father of Christian Rock  Larry Norman, Shouting In The Storm has him backed up by Beam from a 1998 Finland concert.   Norman is best known for being in People! that had a hit with I Love You (the Zombies cover) and then went solo and made Just Visiting This Planet, his 1972 masterpiece for Verve/MGM.  While Norman was in good health, he did release a bunch of recordings via Solid Rock, but after his passing in 2008, most of the unknown stuff went out of print.  I didn't pick up the forth CD, which was remixes to Just Visiting This Planet (and perhaps I should have, if they still have it next week, maybe I will).  For Christian Rock and Roll, Larry Norman was even an outlaw to the gospel music circuit, most Christian stores refused to sell his music.  After hearing Just Visiting This Planet, I thought I'd be on the look out for his albums, they sell for big bucks via Amazon. 

Iowa City Bargain Hunts-Dealing With Shitty Business Practices

In the era of bargain hunting after 2020, the COVID issues and practices continue to annoy this bargain hunter when he goes 100 miles round trip only to find some places allow only 4 to 5 customers.  At least the Record Collector folks let me in.  The same cannot be said for the Housewerks folks, with their 4 person limit.  Deciding to come back later, I jaunted to Money and More Pawnshop (they still have the roots and blues box set from 1994, still for 25 dollars) and came back only to have the dingbat at Housewerks looking through the window and pointed to the sign saying that they were closed.  It was 4:35 PM.  They closed at 5.   It would have taken me about 10 minutes to scour their CD section.  It's things like this that makes me boycott them in the future.

I wouldn't say it was a wasted trip.  Record Collector had the music I needed and Stuff Etc, IC, had two cds as well.  I might have considered adding more My Morning Jacket albums back for 99 cents but decided not to..  Perhaps I should have bought more from Record Collector.

Things Found:

Paul K/The Weathermen-Achilles Heel 

Paul K/The Weathermen-Love's A Gas

Carlene Carter-Hindsight 20/20

Hooker And Heat Live At The Fox Venice Theater

Lloyd Cole/Commotions-Rattlesnakes

BR549-Tangled In The Pines.

45's

You Can't Miss-Los Goledos (Atco 45-6539)  1967

There's So Little Time-Reparata (Big Tree BT 114) 1971

Wonderful Land-The Shadows (Atlantic 2146)  1960

The Relay-The Who (Track/Decca 33041) 1972

Sweet Lorraine-Uriah Heep (Mercury 73349) 1972

I didn't plan on buying anything but since they had The Shadows 45, I decided to pick up a couple more singles.  The Sweet Lorraine and Relay singles are a blessing to find but per usual 45 standards, Sweet Lorraine is edited.   The Paul K CDs have been up there, dating back when Kirk was alive and owned the store.  The Lloyd Cole Rattlesnakes album is my fave from him and I had that on CD.  I may donate it back later on.  The Carlene Carter is a best of that I wanted to check out and John Lee Hooker and Canned Heat together was blues rock fun.  The Los Goledos n Reparata singles are the oddball finds.  You Can't Miss goes well the with Muzak K mart crowd of The Maribma Baja Band, reminds me of the days of the blue light special.  B Side My Lise is pure muzak crapola.  Reparata has been around on various labels but I never heard any of it till I bought this Rupert Holmes penned There's So Little Time, the only single issued by Big Tree.  Just You is passable bubblegum pop.  Sweet Lorraine is a 3 and 20 minute edit, The Relay is the full 3:53.  It's always fun to hear the Keith Moon hootathon that is Waspman, to which the riff would be used later for In A Hand Or Face.  Somehow when that come out on the Two's Missing CD, John Entwistle was given writer's credit.  Moon is listed on the 45.

The Shadows, Wonderful land, like any of their Atlantic singles is a worth find and owes something to Duane Eddy and Jorgen Ingmann.  For a dollar, this was the find of the bunch.

Overall, the Iowa City, despite the disappointing Housewerks closing up shop earlier, was more miss than hit.  Had I not gone to Record Collector, it would have been a bust.  The Goodwill store had nothing and perhaps I should have gotten the Tool CD at Salvation Army but didn't see the need for that.  The Coralville Goodwill had a bunch of chewed up singles, the best one Handy Man from Jimmy Jones and it might have been in better shape than the one I picked up at Ragged at overinflated prices. The Coralville Stuff Etc, outside of Charlie Christian had nothing. 

Phil Spector, Mark Keds

 Death never takes a day off.  People die before being born again, or so it seems.  Here's a tale of two people, connected by music and redeemed by death.

Phil Spector, with his back to mono wall of sound is well known.  Beginning with the Teddy Bears' To Know Is To Love Him, the b side Don't You Worry My Little Pet, showed what Phil could do with a simple song, he added tons of backing vocals to make the song one of the first songs that I have connected in my life.  The Do Woppa Wanna over the female vocals, this wasn't your throwaway song and it would figured into the production of Spector's hits later on. 

Spector was a producer as well, producing Johnny Nash' World Of Tears for ABC Paramount, The Spectors Three I Know Why for 3 Trey but also Spanish Harlem by Ben E King for Atlantic and a few others before starting up Phillies with Lester Sill.  The Wall of Sound was born from the Ronettes with Be My Baby, and Spector using the finest musicians in LA known as the Wrecking Crew.  An Orchestra within the studio and just about any instrument that Phil could use all the way down to the caskenets (sic). Spector could arrange the hell out of a song and make it sound for the ages.  Best producer ever in the era of mono recordings.

Nevertheless, he viewed himself as a genius and he could be ruthless.  John Lennon called him the best producer ever, but Spector didn't do The Beatles any favors by adding way too much Orchestra on The Long And Winding Road, to which Paul McCartney revisited that album by editing out Spector's over the top arrangements for Let It Be Naked.  Spector hooked up with Leonard Cohen for 1977's Death Of A Ladies Man, an album that Cohen hated so much, he never bothered to used those songs for his live performances (note: Cohen did sing Memories but he called that album Grotesque .   Spector went all the way out to make Ike and Tina Turner's River Deep Mountain High into an album for the ages and when it bombed, Spector was never quite the same.  Perhaps the strangest album was him producing End Of The Century for the Ramones.  Contrary to rumor Spector never did hold the Ramones as hostage as any time to complete the record.

His weird behavior got the best of him and he could never finish an album.  Starsailor made him co producer but he only produced two songs from the Silence Is Easy album.   When he shot Lana Clarkson, he went to jail for her murder in 2009 and would remain in jail, till COVID took him out Saturday.  He was 81.

In my view, Phil Spector is the best producer due to the hits of the 60s and his profound influence on Brian Wilson.    He may have been in complete control of the artist, but he knew what sound to get, plus with a great array of L A musicians, he was mostly hands off to them.  Tho Leonard Cohen hated the album he was working with Spector, Death Of A Ladies Man is still a listenable record, likewise End Of The Century.  Spector may have missed the mark on the Cohen, Ramones albums but you might want to take a listen to Yoko Ono's Season Of Glass to which he worked on.  He did make Yoko sound fairly good.

Mark Myers (Keds) was the singer for Senseless Things, a 1990s UK band that made three albums, the best was The First Of Too Many, a CD that I found for a dollar twenty five at Only Deals.  Part shoe gaze and part UK oddity (like Ned's Atomic Dustbin) both NAD and ST shared Jessica Corcoran as producer.  The First Of Too Many was all over the place and at 16 songs may have gone on a bit too long, but Senseless Things had some decent background singer.  They had a minor hit with Best Friend and Got It At The Delmar could have fit in on alternative radio back in 1991.  The followup record Empire Of The Senseless tried to rock harder and didn't convince anybody and Sony UK gave Senseless Things the heave ho.    Mark Keds passed on January 10 at age 50 from an undisclosed causes.   He may have overdosed.   Below a great tribute to Mark from this link. 

https://wildeyemusic.wordpress.com/2021/01/12/mark-keds-rip/?fbclid=IwAR0o0ymcPgTp7wTGt3FCaUz7_II__68nUnQvRiTO7rrJ7RgG1ETYJZuU06E

Ben Harding (From Facebook)

Dear Friends,

It is with the heaviest of hearts that we have to tell you that, sadly, Mark - our singer, friend and main songwriter - is no longer with us. We understand that he passed away at his home during the early hours of this morning. As yet, the cause of death is unconfirmed.

It’s no secret that he had struggled on and off with drug abuse and a pretty chaotic lifestyle for a long while, and his health suffered substantially over the years due to this. While this had sometimes created friction within the on-off workings of Senseless Things and his other projects, we choose to remember the friend, the brother and the talent we’ve lost today.

Mark was truly passionate about his musical calling and he used it with a fierce determination - from establishing a way of touring and playing gigs - one where nobody felt excluded - to including explicit, outspoken political content in our songs (and insisting on releasing them, even at the cost of commercial suicide and record company dismay).

His greatest talent, though, was in exploring the everyday fucked-upness and absolute, unbounded joy of one-to-one relationships; of love, lust, loss, anger, grief and the ecstasy of the ordinary. That particular talent remained undimmed.

He was a remarkably prolific songwriter - and remained so through every incarnation - with an amazing ear for melody, churning out punk-pop hit-after-hit at his peak. Senseless Things would frequently work up three new songs per rehearsal and chuck them into the next gig, usually the following night. He carried that talent on through Jolt, the Lams, Trip Fontaine and, most recently, Deadcuts - all of whom will be feeling his loss at least as keenly as we do now.

Mark, particularly as a young man, had a virulent thirst and passion for culture and knowledge. He devoured books, film and other people’s music and passed them on to us and others, and referenced so much of it in his own work. It was Mark who took charge of our fan communications in the early years, spending days and days writing to people and organising gigs (and places to crash afterwards), making friends for life in the process.

He was beloved across the country, from Inverness to Plymouth, from Ipswich to Aberystwyth, and across the world, from Tokyo to California. It’s his passion and lust for life that will stick with us, and we’re truly thankful (we know Mark was, too) that we all got to do it properly one last time at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in 2017.

We love you, Mark. It seems cliched to say ‘gone too soon’, but damn, it’s true. He was only 50. It’s no fucking age to die. Our love and thoughts go out to his friends, his family, his loved ones and the ones who loved him.

We’ll be in touch with any further information/details as and when we receive it.

Mark Keds / Myers / Hammerton - Rest In Peace. Burn Bright, Ponyboy.

Love Ben, Cass and Morgan x

Also, Don Miller, vocalist for the Vogues passed away on Jan 10,2021 from natural causes. He was 80.  The Vogues are best known for Five O Clock World and the lush harmonies of Turn Around Look At Me, and Hey That's No Way To Say Goodbye.