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Today is Silent Saturday

In youth sports they have a day when the sideline crowd of Moms and Dads must be quiet. No shouts of encouragement (Kick the ball!). No shouts of disparagement (Joey why didn’t you just kick it already?).

It’s called Silent Saturday. But as I found out, today is another kind of Silent Saturday, and it’s tied to Easter weekend.

I slowly became aware of this  when my wife, Catherine, associate pastor at First Presbyterian Birmingham, didn’t respond to my ‘Good Morning’ as I walked by on the way to the coffee pot.

The reverends Cat Goodrich and Catherine Oliver on Palm Sunday at First Presbyterian Birmingham.

I didn’t think much of it, she must be absorbed in her Easter preparations, I thought.

I got my coffee and my laptop and began my web-hopping, checking out news, AL.com and Greg Garrison’s  Easter coverage, my blog, and music videos.

Wow. No way!

I found  this video that  has more than 350 million page views. What? That’s a page view for everyone in the United States and then some.

The video was by a group called Disturbed and it was a cover of the old Simon and Garfunkel classic, ‘Sound of Silence.’ I watched the video,  very dramatic, even melodramatic. I can see how this is popular.

I went to show Catherine because I knew she loved the song. She used the music in a presentation  at her church in Athens,  Ga., in her youth and always cranked it up when it came on the radio. (Ha, funny, cranked up Sound of Silence.)

By this time I had forgotten that Catherine didn’t say good morning back at me. I came walking in with my laptop and said I wanted her to see a video. She made hand gestures. Eventually she spoke very softly and said she was coming out of her silence, and that this was Silent Saturday.

I Googled and found this from popular Christian writer Max Lucado discussing Easter weekend:

Jesus is silent on Saturday.  The women have anointed his body and placed it in Joseph’s tomb.  The cadaver of Christ is as mute as the stone which guards it.  He spoke much on Friday. He will liberate the slaves of death on Sunday.  But on Saturday, Jesus is silent.

Whoa. My brain gets a kickstart with back-up help from the coffee: I told Catherine the video was ‘Sound of Silence,’ a cover version. Her face conveyed a mixture of confusion and amazement.

How did you know? She thought I had pulled the video because of the day, which I really knew little to nothing about.

Anyway, it’s a heck of a video, and my only hint is that this version is befitting of a band called ‘Disturbed.’  Catherine and most pastors I know after six weeks of Lenten preparation and Holy Week might also be described as disturbed. But that’s another story.

Watch the video  below  (Looks like you may have to click through to play video but it’s well worth it):

Ca

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The Dave Clark Five — 541

ALBUM: The Best of the Dave Clark Five (1970).

MVC Ratings: 4.0/$$$

‘Glad All Over,’ ‘Bits and Pieces,’ ‘Catch Us if you Can,’ ‘Do you Love Me’ — the hits kept coming from this Fab Four plus One.

No, not really close to the Beatles  in both performance and songwriting, although ‘Glad All Over’ and “Because’ and ‘Can’t You See that She’s Mine’ — which the vocalist, Mike Smith,  vows to ‘keep on holding her hand — sound just like early Beatles. ‘Because’ is the name of a Beatles song — but not this one.

This is one of the better British invasion bands and there were many.

The interesting anomaly here is Blueberry Hill, the song  made famous by Fats Domino. Smith does some hard-kick vocals here, channeling, or trying to channel Wilson Pickett or Otis Redding and gets close enough to make it interesting.

It’s rock and soul and I like it.

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

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Dave Davies – 543, 542

ALBUMS: Dave Davies — AFL1 3603 ( bar code album 1980);  Chosen People (1983)

MVC Rating: Bar code — 4.0/$$$; Chosen People 3.5/$$

 Dave’s brother Ray was the Kinks Kreative soul. Dave was the guitarist, and a pioneering one at that. The riffs in early 1960s classics like ‘You Really Got Me’ and ‘All Day and All of the Night’ were much copied (e.g. Van Halen). One could make the case the distortion laden pieces paved the way for heavy metal.

I have lots of Kinks records, bought mostly in my high school years in Athens, Ga. I’ll write more when we get to the K’s in www.myvinylcountdown.com

Ray wrote the lions’ share of Kinks song. One notable exception was  Dave’s  ‘Death of a Clown,’ one of the Kinks’ most poignant songs ever, and they did a lot of poignant songs.

The Kinks went through so many style changes, every album  was like a new band although all decidedly Kinks. They did English folk whimsy, straight-ahead rock and roll and  clever commentary songs.

Dave had a way of doing falsetto harmony behind Ray’s lead  vocals. I thought it was the coolest thing. Listen to one of their most famous songs, ‘Lola‘ to hear the brother harmonizing effect. It reminds a lot of Ronnie Lane’s style of singing, though with a rocking edge.

These two solo albums I  have are hit and miss. Dave shows off his guitar chops. On the bar code album, he puts the bar code on the the cover as the main art for the album, perhaps making the statement that his music is seen as nothing more than a commodity? I’m just guessing here.

Best song on bar code album, ‘Doing the Best for You,’  simple little melody on piano with crunching guitars. The Chosen People has a lovely song called ‘Give Me One More Chance.’

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

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Two words emerge that I don’t like

There are two words I really don’t like.

One of them is ‘merge.’

The sign on the highway orders drivers to merge.

It sounds like a command, a rude command at that. Merge!

[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
We can’t all do it at the same time. But we have to do it. The sign says so.

Now, what if I can’t merge.  The cars are too jammed together. Then, I need someone to  YIELD. I like that word.

The other word I don’t like is dementia. I have Lewy body dementia or (LBD). Sometimes it’s called Dementia with Lewy bodies.  Sometimes, people take the dementia out altogether and say Lewy body disease. But dementia is the most used and most accepted description. It is a word that broadly describes damage to the brain that affects cognition, memory, speech, etc. That brain damage can be caused by Lewy bodies (proteins) or Alzheimer’s or other brain diseases. Although we know the process of this brain damage, in cases like Lewy, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, we don’t know the cause of these diseases. And there is no cure.

So why don’t I like the word dementia? Well for one, it  is a root word of demented, which sounds menacing.

The word itself, demented, sounds too much like ‘demon.’ The dictionary says demon is a bad spirit or ‘one who acts as a tormentor in hell.”

The dictionary says demented means “driven to behave irrationally due to anger, distress, or excitement.”

Now that’s a little better than being in hell.  But if I’m driven to irrational behavior it’s because I am ‘driven’ to it.

 

Image result for yield sign

Because of my LBD, I have quit driving and am now being driven by other people: my wife, my daughter, my colleagues, friends, neighbors, church folk, Uber drivers. Just about anybody I  can flag down.

I must admit it has been an interesting life-changing adventure.  No longer in the driver’s seat, I’m on the passenger side.

The general consensus is that I’m one of the worst backseat (or passenger side), drivers  in the world.

It does allow me time to get work done via phone or laptop while someone else is driving. If I’m not gripping the seat with my white-knuckled hands

Or stomping the floor like I may find a brake on the passenger side.

I have so far resisted the urge  to discuss the correct method to merge with my drivers.

Take the zipper merge, for example, which according to my Internet research (Wiki) is a “convention for merging traffic into a reduced number of lanes. Drivers in merging lanes are expected to use both lanes to advance to the lane reduction point and merge at that location, alternating turns.”
Like a zipper.
But I usually keep these tidbits of information to myself, as I have seen my drivers get a little agitated when I ‘help’ them drive.
I usually save my instruction on my rides to things like: WATCH OUT FOR THAT TRUCK!
Um, oh, OK, we have the green turn arrow, I see that now. Sorry, I just couldn’t tell if that truck was stopping; it did roll a bit.
So I think I’ll hold onto that merge information until we put some time between my unnecessary shouting.
HONK HONK, the car behind us blares the horn because we are slow to merge.
I think of yelling, “Oh go merge yourself.”
But I yield.
Don’t want to act demented.

 

 

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Roger Daltrey — 544

ALBUM: One of the Boys (1977)

MVC Rating: 3.0/$$

These albums by members of supergroup bands going solo come to me with low expectations. They are usually forced  at least in the musical sense by the artist working out of his role. That’s part of the appeal to the artist and part of the ego-driven decision.

Look at Diana Ross, they think. She didn’t need no Supremes.

Look at Mick Jagger’s solo work. He DOES need the Stones.

ROGER: Uh, Pete, it’s just a little side project  like you did with Ronnie Lane.

But that side project — Rough Mix — was good! One of my favorite albums. One of the best songs in that Townshend-Lane creation is the song ‘Annie.’

Daltrey, who never learned to button his own shirt, put it all out there on “One of the Boys’ — ballads, rockers, a little country. Hoping something would stick.

Daltrey is a great rock vocalist and quintessential front man for one of rock’s greatest rock bands, The Who. But this album is  fair at best. But not without ambition.

Best song (ironically): Avenging Annie.

I have Andy Pratt’s version of Avenging Annie — he wrote it. And you could certainly argue that Daltry’s is better.

Daltrey is a singer, an interpreter of other’s songs. Townshend did the lion’s share of writing of the Who’s classics not the chiseled, shirtless frontman  with flowing blond hair.

Funny side note: In my album, which is a cutout has an advertisement sheet offering “RogerDaltrey Hologram’ pendant that makes Daltrey look like a cross between Andre the Giant and Thor.

Oh, it’s $9.95 plus $1 shipping.

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Danny and Dusty — 545

ALBUM:  The Lost Weekend (1985)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

I’m in the D’s. Time to get down  and dirty.

So apopros that my alphabetical system provokes me to take a look at Danny and Dusty.

This all-star band, well, maybe minor league all- star, has some gut-barrel, singalong barroom music on  it. ‘D’ for drunk, maybe?

This is a buddy group with Dan Stuart from the band Green On Red and Steve (Dusty) from Dream Syndicate. Members of those bands and the Long Ryders were the backing band.

I have some Green on Red somewhere, maybe disc, and this is reminding me of some great  songs they did in the 1980s ‘post-psychedelic movement’ in the SF Bay Area. (To be honest, Green on Red  sounded more country punk to me.) One song, I can’t recall it’s name, had a line it about ‘working at the Piggly Wiggly’ — it always made me laugh. I’ll try to find the song and post.

Now I live a block away from a Piggly Wiggly. But I also lived in the Bay Area for a decade and don’t remember ever seeing a Pig there?

Anyway, D&D is a fun listen, probably recorded most songs in 1 or 2 takes.  The Dylan cover of ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’ is a different take, and not bad. (Still my favorite cover of that song is  probably Guns N’ Roses version, though I never was huge GNR fan—I felt like I was too old to enjoy them. Odd, b/c I like  some Chili Peppers).

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

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D-Party

Creedence  Clearwater Revival officially ends my C’s. As you may be aware, I have been counting down my 678 vinyl records here on this blog before I succumb to a fatal degenerative brain disease.

I’ve been counting them down alphabetically, more or less. I’m not super strict on that. On the menu at the right you can, for example, click on A-Music and see all of the reviews I’ve done for bands or individual artists whose names start with ‘A’ — first, letter last name for individuals. So Hoyt Axton would be in the ‘A’s, (if I had any Hoyt Axton.) The Beatles would be in ‘B’ (I do have some Beatles.)

I started this blog in late September, 2017 with 678 records to do. I made the pledge to finish, so I’m going toe-to-toe with this brain disease,  Lewy body dementia, while I do this. All the while promoting awareness of LBD, which most people don’t know is the second leading cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. The average life span for an LBD patient is 5 to 7 years after diagnosis. I’m about 18 months from my diagnosis.

Record-wise, I am at 552 (those numbers which you will find adjacent to each title indicate how far down that particular album is in the count.) So I have completed 126. (678-552=126)

As regulars know, a lot of my posts are not ‘countdown’ posts, or music related at all. Intermixed with my vinyl record reviews are ruminations on life, love,  and the proper way to remove a pinto bean from a child’s  nose.

I repeat, the goal here is to raise awareness of this godawful disease I have. Some things I write may be offensive to some people, for example I did a post where I create a stand-up comedy act which pokes fun of my disease.

Quick background: The disease is named after Frederic Lewy,  doctor who noticed upon death that certain people presenting with dementia had an oversupply of a type of protein that doctors figure is killing brain cells; it is the same protein associated with Parkinson’s disease, only the proteins seemed to set up a larger camp, thus affecting both mental and physical faculties. (Yes Dr. Lewy had to open the lid to look at these dead folks’ brains.)

I guess he was proud of his work and I’m glad he learned something. But would you want your name associated with this this brain dissolving protein? Sure, I know his findings provide a starting place. Did he know I wonder that the disease was given his name?  Did they have a little ceremony? |

Master of ceremonies:  And we officially decree the name of this degenerative fatal brain disease to be Lewy. (clap clap) …And our next award tonight goes to Dr. Cancer …

Weird if you ask me.

But Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases are named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer and Dr. James Parkinson, respectively.

QUICK: Musical interlude from the super handsome Robert Palmer.

Doctor Doctor, we just gotta be sure
I got a bad need for Dr. Cure
No pill’s gonna cure my ill
Which will only get worse when I see the bill

All right fun’s over. Sit back and enjoy my blog. I’ve been averaging about five posts a week, but they come at all times and sometimes I miss a day or two.

If you’ve seen the latest post, explore the rest of the blog. Lots of stuff. Listen to the music.

The more I talk to people, the more I realize that knowledge or awareness of a certain type of music or singer or group doesn’t match mine.  Surprise surprise, I’m a 58-year-old man going through vinyl records I  bought when I was in my teens or 20s — in the 1970 and 1980s mostly. (CDs got big, then digital, shareable, files, then programmable Internet radio. I’ve used them all. But the vinyl is still closest to my heart and it conjures special memories.

Young people tell me about musical genres I know little about, trip-hop,  folk metal, shoegaze,  different mashed jazz types. I’ve been too busy hunting my Apple ID number to pay attention, it seems.

But I think I have a lot of music people have missed; that they would like. That’s what this is about. When I hear someone say, ‘I’ve never heard of Tonio K, I want to play a few songs for them. Or David Lindley’s solo stuff and his first group Kaleidescope.  Or Leonard Cohen or Randall Bramblett. Or Cream or King Sunny Ade or the Plimsouls. Or Easybeats or Rockpile or the Swimming Pool Q’s or Bud Powell or Eddie Hinton.

Most of the time I have  a video at the end of the post, watch ’em.

My 80-year-old plus mother said she actually likes some of the songs.

I think ‘How Do You Do’ is one. Me too, mom.

But i don’t like that I like it.

 

 

 

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Creedence Clearwater Revival–549, 548, 547, 546

ALBUMS: Chronicle (1976); Green River (1969);  Willy and the Poor Boys  (1969);  Mardi Gras (1972).

MVC Rating: Chronicle 5.0 Green River 4.5; Willy and the Poor Boys; Mardi Gras 4.0

In the liner notes. (Stop. Need to explain: Liner notes are essays, histories or any little write-up written on all that ample space on the  cover,  jacket or sleeves of records.  It’s a way to give some history, preview the new record or point out something. They all but disappeared when CDs  came out b/c space was so tight on the much smaller recordings.)

But I digress.

In the liner notes, Greil Marcus makes a reference to  ‘striking a chord.’ Marcus is the godfather of rock writers who once wrote for Creem. Five points if anybody remembers that influential magazine.  Anyway, I continue to digress. So Marcus wrote this in the liner notes to ‘Chronicle,’ the 20-song greatest hits double -record released after the group broke up.

So here in part is what he wrote:

“Making music against the grain of the post San Francisco pop music of the Sixties, Creedence struck a true chord with records that were clean, demanding, vivid and fast — with what might be called straightforward lyricism.”

The keyword here is chord. Listen to Creedence and you will notice rock and roll chords, minor chords that sound just right, rhythm guitar out front. Chords are  different notes that make a nice sound when they get played together.

I could go a dozen ways in a post about CCR. My first two 33 and-a-third RPM LPs were ABC by the Jackson 5 and Cosmos Factory by Creedence Clearwater Revival (Up Around the Bend, Run Through the Jungle, Long as I Can see the Light.) Excellent stuff.

Loved both albums.  I was into Michael Jackson early. Basically Michael and I were the same age so it was about 9 or 10 when I got into MJ. I remember Mama Pearl jumping out of the radio, and of course the best — ‘I Want You Back.’ Both of those albums, ABC and  Cosmos Factory, are long gone  from my collection. Although I think I still have Wilson  Pickett’s 45 ‘Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool You.’ As I write this, I’m thinking now how I came to like such disparate music. J5 and CCR were far apart except for two things:  they connected to a lot of people and had something you can’t manufacture — talent.

They were hit machines.

I remember I was about 9 or 10 when I  got Cosmos Factory from  my father who was out of town on a business trip and came back with the album. He knew I liked CCR because on long trips from Georgia to see grandparents in Texas, I’d flip the dials on the radio. ‘Looking out My Back Door’ was big then as was ‘Who’ll Stop the Rain’ which my mother loved. Probably ‘Rollin’ on the River.’

This was some family harmony tied to  music by these long haired rockers who sounded like they crawled out of the bayou we just drove past in Louisiana. But they were actually from the SF Bay Area, Fremont, I think. A town that would be many years later where my employer ran the local paper there (in addition to a handful of other papers.)

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

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Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young — 550

ALBUM: 4-Way Street (1970

MVC Rating: 4.5/$$$$$

One of the best and emphatic protest anthems against school violence (and war), was Neil Young’s ‘Ohio,’ played on this 1970 record with his on and off again band-mates. It , unfortunately, still resonates with current events.

That song  is about the shooting death of four  students at Kent State May 4,  1970,  during the height  of the Vietnam war protests and one of  the better songs on this live two-record set.

TIn soldiers and Nixon’s coming; we are finally on our own; this summer I hear the drumming; four dead in Ohio.

This album is kind of controversial in that it is hated by some as a bloated artifact, loved by others for the classic songs and music.

I agree. On both accounts.

The extended jams are impressive but too long on record. Keep the song with jams, Ohio and Southern Man to name just two, just edit a bit. Save 20 minutes.

Keep all Neil Young songs. But get rid of such non-gems as 49 Bye Byes, and The Lee Shore, there’s another two or so worth pruning. Savings another 20 minutes. There you go, down to one album. And a great album. Less is more.

Young is clearly the stand-out and, as you’ll see later when we get near the end of my countdown, I have lots and lots of Young. One of my favorites. I finally got to see him live at his annual Bridge School concert in California with my daughter Emily. Paul McCartney was headliner. Videos below show CNSY doing an enduring classic, ‘Teach Your Children.’ and ‘Southern Man,’ an angry rebuke of southerners  for some of the horrors of racism and slavery. Lynyrd Skynyrd fired back years later with a sharp rebuke of thier own, seemingly admonishing him for painting with a broad brush.

I hope Neil Young will remember, Southern Man don’t need him around, anway.

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

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Marshall Crenshaw — 552, 551

ALBUMS: Marshall Crenshaw (1982); Field Day (1983)

MVC Rating: Crenshaw 4.0/$$$; Field Day 4.0/$$$

I don’t want to say Buddy Holly-lite. Because I’ll bet that’s been done before in a description of Marshall Crenshaw.

So I won’t say it and instead say Buddy Holly-light. Because there is some pure holy Buddy Holly in there. Light not lite.

Had Buddy survived the plane crash, he likely would have progressed far ahead of Crenshaw right now. I say that because Buddy Holly was an incredible hit song writer whose songs have  held up for decades.  For goodness sakes, the Beatles themselves named their band in homage of Buddy Holly andthe Crickets.

Crenshaw’s good. He has a nice soothing sound, catchy songs about girls and, well girls.

Crenshaw is a singer-songwriter who creates song that are imminently fun and fast. Great to listen to at a dinner party out on the porch on warm spring day. Twangy guitars, strong vocals and great songs. It often all starts with song craft. If the songs sometimes may sound tossed off, that’s part of the point.

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