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The Brains — 626, 625

ALBUMS: The Brains (1980), Electronic Eden (1981)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$;  EE: 3.5/$$$

Sometimes there’s a musical memory that is stronger than other memories. It starts in your mind but begins infusing the limbic system. It’s a mind out of body memory.

It was a night in Atlanta about 1980, could have been  ’81. I was with my later to be wife Catherine, my brother and his friends. We were walking up to the party central area at that time, Little Five Points. I first heard the synthesizer. As we got closer it got louder.

There was the chorus: Money Changes Everything …

Then whirling looping synthesizer sounds from the leader of the band, Tom Gray. The song is one that could easily end up on my Top 10, maybe Top 15  rock songs of  all time. Later Cyndi Lauper would make it a worldwide hit. But I still like this original.

I’ve got two cut-outs records of the Brains first two albums. They never made it really. In that regard they remind me of the Swimming Pool Q’s.  Great bands, great songs. Both from Atlanta. Both had strong guitar playing and didn’t for the most part let New Wave affectations ruin the effect, or the music. Great bands that deserved wider appreciation.

Back to Little Five Points,  I yelled to Cat. IT’S THE BRAINS.  (For free I might add, playing outdoors.)

And just walking up live at the time they were playing a truly transcendent song, well there is a memory. I still feel it.

Other good songs off of Electronic Eden, ‘One in a  Million’ and “Hypnotized.’ Off  of their self-titled debut, the punkish ‘In the Night’’ and ‘Gold Dust Kids’ and rocking ‘Raeline.’

But I challenge you to listen to ‘Money Changes Everything’ three times. You’ll then know what I mean when I say, ‘Gray matters.’

Here’s video  of Brains leader Tom Gray backed by Q’s singing ‘Money Changes Everything’ Live, followed by video of Cyndi Lauper smash hit cover:

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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Randall Bramblett– 627

ALBUM: That Other Mile (1974)

MVC Rating: 4.5/$$$$

I started counting the musicians credited on this album and got to about 15 before giving up.

But listen to this bluesy, jazzy minor masterpiece and everything fits. Sax, bass, drums, wah- wah guitar, steel guitar, steel drums, keyboards, congas – you can tell there’s a lot of music going here, but it plays to a whole; every note counts. The players give each other space and let the music breathe.

I was once decades ago offered $40 for this album. I think it is not so easy to find this one, his first. As you can see, I still have it. I didn’t sell.

Bramblett for a long time lived (and may still) in my hometown of Athens, Ga. Of course, this preceded the Athens explosion of talent in the 1980s led by B-52s, REM and Widespread Panic.

Bramblett was touring with the Allman Brothers and doing session work in Georgia. A multi-instrumentalist (saxophone, guitar, keyboards), he was a consummate musician, never showy. His songs get down and jam in a relaxed way, there’s an underburn to a lot of his work.

It’s go-down-by-the-river music, with a blanket and picnic basket filled with sandwiches, wine and mosquito repellent (I know something about Georgia rivers). 

At this river concert, depending on the song, you may hug your friend or you may get up and boogie.

In a review of this, Allmusic’ Dave Lynch says Bramblett’s songs were ‘literate and thoughtful.’

He once went to seminary with the intention of becoming a pastor.

‘The music surrounding his often heartfelt vocals was as powerful as the words being sung,’ Lynch wrote. ’Somehow both shimmering and swampy.’

The whole album is strong. If I had to choose standouts, I’d say That Other Mile, No Stone Unturned, I Caint and Everybody Got it on the Inside. This is timeless.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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Who Am I?

Who am I?

This is a philosophical question.

In song, The Who asked ‘Who are You’? Black Uhuru asked ‘What is Life’? Frank Zappa said, ‘Help I’m a rock.’

Some of you have pondered this question, I’m sure. Others think it is silly because it has no set answer.

As some of you know, I have Lewy Body dementia. My brain neurons are dying, being killed over time by excess  proteins. There is no known cure and its cause is unknown. But it’s the second leading cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s.

So the question for me is pertinent .

As I have written earlier I am literally, albeit slowly, losing my mind. Does that mean every day I am a little less of myself? Or that I am myself at all?

What if my perception of myself is widely different from what others see. It could be a horror movie: ‘Invasion of the Alpha-synuclein Proteins.’

David Hume

Justin Caouette posting on the blog A Philosopher’s Take, asks if we rip a page out of a book, is it the same book? How about a chapter? How about if you blot every word out with Wite-Out?

Philosopher David “Hume says that all that “we” are is a bundle of perceptions at any given reference point, according to Caouette. “The ‘self’ for Hume, when perceived as something fixed through time, is an illusion. Strict identity claims are simply false when talking about ourselves as persisting through time. The bundle of perceptions changes with each experience, therefore, there is no one enduring ‘self’ that persists through each experience.”

So minute by minute we change. But is he saying we are not who we are two minutes earlier? Yes and no. I think.

Here’s more; “When I say “I will go home in an hour” I’m referring to the bundle of perceptions that is related by past experiences to the bundle that will walk out the door. I may be wrong in my claim that ‘I’ will leave in an hour (I may take longer or turn in sooner, but, I will leave at some point),  the ‘I’ is simply a quick and fast way of identifying who will walk out the door.”

So I’m following this, sort of. He brings up Alzheimer’s (I wish Lewy Bodies would be mentioned in conjunction with Alzheimer’s as another leading cause of dementia.)

“One need not have a fixed memory or even a good one to be a person or a self on this account. This gets us around those who have Alzheimer’s. They are still persons on this view.”

That’s nice.

For me this is all a Catch-22 because I am actively losing the thing, my mind, which  interprets my perceptions, of which I am a downsizing ‘bundle of.’

I may soon  be asking ‘Who are you?’ to loved ones. But I won’t be meaning it in a philosophical way.

So before this part of me goes away, I am thinking a lot about who I am..

Will Durant, channeling Aristotle in his definitive ‘The Story of Philosophy’ said ‘we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act but a habit.’

So who are you? Who am I?

Parent, weekend athlete, storyteller, son, daughter, music lover, prankster, hiker.

I do know this:

I am Lewy.

 

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Christmas Music: Unleashing the Beast

So we went out yesterday, the day after Thanksgiving and got a tree and spent a cheery evening putting it up and decorating.

Now the rule in our house, and it is my rule (rarely broken), and that is there is to be no Christmas music until AFTER Thanksgiving dinner. That’s because long before Dec. 25, maybe even before December, you will become physically nauseated when a happy holiday tune comes on if you start any earlier. (Holiday music tolerance varies from person to person).

(I’ve thought of setting the deadline back some like Dec. 15, but I think by Thanksgiving the dam is ready to burst. The fuse on the Christmas bomb has been lit and already blowing its confetti, ribbons and wrapping paper everywhere. There’s no stopping it.)

So, this year, like most years, I put the music on Friday while tree decorating with family. Now I have a few vinyl Christmas albums but I’m not reviewing those here.

My main listening device for Christmas music is my 120 GB ‘old school’ iPod (has about 7,500 songs on it now). There are  625 songs on my Christmas playlist. I’m going to post 15 of these using our random shuffle method.

That is, for those of you who have not played 5 at 5: Put your device on your Christmas playlist and hit shuffle. Then write down the first 15 songs you shuffle to. Feel free to post your list on comments to this post by clicking on the headline of the post. Here’s mine:

  1. Away in a Manger/Honey Boy (reggae)
  2. Let it Snow by Dean Martin
  3. Home for the Holidays by Perry Como
  4. Adeste Fideles  by the Roches .( I just bought the Roches Christmas album yesterday on vinyl, $2 at Reeds downtown Birmingham. Not bad for one of my  favorites, which I’ve long had on CD.)
  5. O Holy Night by Peter Holsapple
  6. The First Noel by Elvis Presley
  7. Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Los Lonely Boys
  8. Mysteries of the Christmas Mist by Sufjan Stevens
  9. The Wonderful World of Christmas by Elvis Presley
  10. Someday at Christmas by Jack Johnson
  11. Joy to the World by Sufjan Stevens
  12. Silent Night Medley by Hanson
  13. Gift of the Magi by the Squirrel Nut Zippers
  14. Greensleeves by John Coltrane Quartet
  15. Peace Child by the Indigo Girls

Overall, totally random, some good, some bad, some, well, nauseating. Happy Christmas everybody.

Top 5 Christmas Albums

Here’s the Roches. Awesome:

 

 

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Black Uhuru — 628

ALBUM:   Anthem (1983)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$

You’ve got to have money to make money, sings the lead vocalist Michael Rose on Anthem. Not sure how successful they are/were, but Black Uhuru was definitey looking to cross over here. The Jamaican group had significant reggae  cred already.

This album is smooth, some dub, high production values, legendary bottom. And the lyrics, well, the album is called Anthem and has songs called What is Life, Botanical Roots and Solidarity. I think they are going down the traditional reggae road here.

When I first heard Bob Marley, it was like hearing Dylan or the Beatles for the first time. So different, so compelling. I have a few of his albums, (although whomever borrowed my Natty Dread record, I’d like it back now. It was my favorite and I can’t find it.) I also like Jimmy Cliff. The soundtrack to the movie ‘The Harder They Come’ is a good place to start,as an introduction to Cliff or reggae music in general.

Back to Black Uhuru, this album, crying out to expand their audience, is very good. I give it a thumbs up.

And I  especially want to note the ‘bottom’ of all this: Robbie Shakespeare on bass and Sly Dunbar on drums are a legendary rhythm machine. And you just get a taste here. Check out Sly and Robbie, a mostly  instrumental ‘solo’ album if you want to get into a groove. This ‘promotional copy’ I have includes a publicity photo and 4-page press release.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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The Boomtown Rats — 629

ALBUM: A Tonic for the Troops (1978)

MVC Rating: 3.5/$$

Half of this album, the first side, is pretty good. Starting with Rat Trap, which is not a bad little  Springsteen knock-off with some Meatloaf thrown in. The next songs on side 1 flow  righteously through I  Never Loved Eva Braun to Like Clockwork. She’s So Modern ( ‘she’s so 1970s’ — ha ha) is one on the other side I like.

So I guess I need to explain because I was there, and into music at the time. The Boomtown Rats of Ireland were no huge deal, in fact just another one of many young groups rejecting the so-called dinosaurs of classic  rock, as defined by the Beatles, the Who and the Rolling Stones. The punks, like Sex Pistols, too often eschewed  musicianship in exchange for energy and the democratization of the performer-listener partnership or focused anger at traditions and institutions. New Wavers like the Rats took the energy from the punks but added funky wardrobe and perhaps actually played their instruments well.  In the end rock and roll evolved and came full circle. All rockers have their touchstones and nine times out of 10 it is the blues, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley electric guitar chords as reinvented by kids long ago like John Lennon, Keith Richards and Pete Townshend.

Inject Bob Dylan’s and other influences from folkies and country into that mix and suddenly the words accompanying the music were important. The Rats? Enigmatic, literary, befuddling  and silly lyrics. They were clearly headfirst into New Wave with its higher level of musicianship and production. Which is OK if the songs were good. Quality is king unless you go the garage band route or the punk route — and that’s just taking off the filters and directly channeling Diddley, Berry, et. al.

Other notes: Perhaps ironically, Bob Geldolf, lead vocalist, went on to organize the benefit concert Live Aid, one of the largest fund-raising events of all time featuring many of the biggest acts of the time. It focused on hunger and starvation in Africa. The Rats also wrote and performed the worldwide hit about a California school shooting called, “I Don’t like Mondays” in 1979.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of a degenerative brain disease

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The Blackwood Brothers — 630

ALBUM: The Blackwood Brothers in Concert (1960)

MVC Rating: 3.5/$

I went through a period where I was really into gospel music. Earlier here I reviewed the Birmingham Community Choir and I probably bought  this in the same early 1980s time period in Birmingham.

I have further down on the alphabetical list  some vinyl by Rev. Al Green and some vinyl gospel by Little Richard.

Unfortunately my favorite gospel music is on digital: The Blind Boys From Alabama, the Dixie Hummingbirds and, especially, the Soul Stirrers featuring Sam Cooke. (See video below).

This album is rousing old school gospel.  Yes, and of course, it has How Great Thou Art.

And on Hide Me, Rock of Ages, basso singer J.D. Summer gets low,  slows it down and gets really low. Sounds like a purring tiger.

The back cover shown here has an ad for a high quality stereophonic Victrola. Looking at it. I want it.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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Blue Oyster Cult — 631

ALBUM: Agents of Fortune (1976)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

This is heavy but not technically heavy metal. I clearly bought this in high school on the strength of their song (Don’t Fear) The Reaper.

It was their best song and one of the great rock songs. It’s message best I can tell is don’t fear dying because there’s an afterlife. Romeo and Juliet, for example, are together in eternity.  Lyrics help me out here.

Valentine is done
Here but now they’re gone
Romeo and Juliet
Are together in eternity (Romeo and Juliet)
40,000 men and women everyday (Like Romeo and Juliet)
40,000 men and women everyday (Redefine happiness)
Another 40,000 coming everyday (We can be like they are)

Some controversy in the 70’s over whether song is about suicide. Band said no. But grim is the reaper, no kidding.

Now listening to the song is somewhat disorienting after Saturday Night Live’s famous ‘More cowbell’ skit, in which Christopher Walken doing his best Christopher Walken implores BOC’s new member (Will Ferrelll) to turn up the cowbell– just a titch.

I admire BOC for allowing Walken and Ferrell to desecrate such a serious minded rock classic. Unless they made a ton of money on that, then my admiration is not so much.

But it is a strong song  and album. Rolling Stone wrote in a column called  “40 albums boomers loved that millennials don’t know:” Long before metal splintered into a myriad of genres, BÖC came to fame for its ability to appeal to both head-bangers and chin-strokers.”

Call me a chin-stroker, but I really like the above mentioned and about three other songs,  including ‘This Ain’t the Summer of Love.’

It’s hard to describe the band but I’ll try in 10 words: Jefferson Airplane* plus Moody Blues sprinkled with Rocky Horror  Picture Show.

*I’ve changed this comparison ingredient  for the third time now. First it was Aereosmith plus Moody plus Rocky Horror; then it was Grand Funk; Now I’ve settled on Jefferson Airplane because of the female voice. The Reaper song actually sounds like every other Moody Blues opening so I’m good there. And the vampire tattoo and death songs made me think of Rocky Horror.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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BoDeans, Blue Rodeo, The Bongos — 634, 633, 632

ALBUMS: Love and Hope and Sex and Dreams (1986)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$

I’m going three for one here on posts. Here are three albums, not much alike but a little. All produced in the mid-to-late 1980s, when music was straddling New Wave synth sound and the early throes  of what some call Americana. BoDeans was definitely pre-Americana or maybe not even pre.

Some of these three groups did well, but none became widely, wildly well known. Some cult-following fans may argue otherwise. (I have to say it takes a few seconds to get over the BoDean’s lead vocalist’s nasal sound,  which briefly sent me back in memory to our falsetto guy in Bread and Butter. Just brace yourself.)

The album,  produced by T-Bone Burnett (yes he gets around) named after a Mick Jagger proclamation in”Shattered,” wanted to set a bar, perhaps too high.

I  must say though, the first two songs on the album were the best  one-two opening of an 80s record album I’ve ever heard. The songs steam along, sounding as if they were one song with the ‘keyword’ being runaway or fadeaway. See video  of just one of those songs and I think you’ll get it.

ALBUM: Outskirt (Blue Rodeo, 1987)

MVC Rating: 3.5/$$

Now if the BoDeans were fledgling Americana pioneers, Blue Rodeo was Canadian and not so new sounding, despite their name.

They were pretty much traditional country, from north of the border. Pleasant songs that surely seem to have been a good road for them. This is the first album  of about 20 they have recorded. Nice, relaxing, tuneful most of the time but every now and then they’ll turn the rock amp up to 7 and show some chops. ‘Pirhana Pool’ is a nice jazzy country playground for keyboards and restrained guitar accents.

ALBUM:  Beat Hotel (Bongos, 1985)

MVC Rating: 3.5/ $$$

So what is with these Beat names. Earlier I’ve reviewed Beat Radio, the Beat Farmers, and the Beat. Now the Bongos are in front of me with Beat Hotel, their album. You think they would use a  little imagination to separate themselves like, oh I don’t know, the Beatles.

This album is certainly not Americana or country in anyway. They are a talented band coming into  the 80s where rock music was transitioning between the commercialization of punk, the glorification of album rock or so-called classic rock and destruction of the democratization of radio. That’s a fancy way for me to say that everything started to sound the same on the radio. The Bongos had some nice tunes, kind of a tamer Beat. But of the three reviewed here the Bongos sound most dated,  now sure to make a nostalgic comeback as I write this.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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AC/DC’s Malcolm Young Died of Dementia

Malcolm Young, the founder along with his  brother, of the globally successful Australian rock ‘n’ roll band AC/DC died today.

Of dementia. His family said that.

So far, all of the news stories report dementia as a cause or contributor to Young’s death  but don’t describe it beyond that.

I wish they would because I have Lewy Body dementia, the second leading type of dementia  behind Alzheimer’s.

I was diagnosed at age 56 more than a year ago. With Lewy  the life expectancy averages 5 to 7 years after diagnosis.

Young was 64.

I am doing three things with  this blog  www.myvinylcountdown.com

  1. I am shouting for more funding for research, for more awareness of Lewy. Some believe the 1.4 million number often used to describe how many are affected  now is vastly understated. Some whom are diagnosed with Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s may actually have Lewy body dementia and there are some treatments for these diseases that are contraindicated for another and could be life-threatening. OK, believe it or not that’s one thing. Two more.
  2. Staying alive is important to me — but with my faculties intact. Right now I struggle to write this because my fingers don’t glide along the keys like they used to.  It’s part of the disease which affects me physically as well as mentally. I have set up this blog to review my 678 records (vinyl) that I have collected over the years. This has been a way to stay connected to my past and remember my love of music and music collecting. I look forward to trying to post every day, if not more. Be sure to check out the About Me page, and click on the post’s title if you want to comment.
  3. Now third is having fun. I want to chronicle and laugh about things I still remember. My music, my basketball, my family, my years in the  news business. That’s fun for me and hopefully will tie into my second rationale.

So I’m not really a fan of AC/DC.

I don’t own an AC/DC album. Of course I know their music as did every teen (male?)  in the late 70s with a car radio (w/power booster and 6X9’s in the back). My younger brother whom I’ve mentioned before in these blogs had the album ‘Back in Black,’ if not more. I always thought AC/DC was like asking for a drink of water and receiving a firehose to the face. Some folks like that.

But I did have some records that have a degree of separation connection to the band.

Malcolm’s younger brother was in the band, Angus (the guy in shorts). But his older brother, George Young, along with friend Harry Vanda were founders of the Easybeats, sort of the Australian Beatles. And they were good. Really good, way back when. Friday On My Mind was an international hit.

They later, Vanda and Young, formed Flash and the Pan and they were good and weird. Very weird.

George, who also produced a number of AC/DC albums, died only about a month ago. I haven’t seen a cause of death reported. I have albums — which I will review as I have been in alphabetical order — of Flash and the Pan and the Easybeats.

The Easybeats video that follows is an old favorite  of mine. Stay with it until the end and you’ll know what I mean when I say I hope he has kneepads on.

There’s also a good documentary on Australian rock from the Easybeats to AC/DC.