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Mountain — 316

ALBUM: The Best of Mountain

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$

It might sound weird to describe this straight ahead hard rock band as influential. They rarely colored out of the lines. Guitarist and lead singer Leslie West took his direction early following Eric Clapton’s gritty blues rock as displayed by Clapton’s work with the Yardbirds and Cream..

But they did become influential in that they are one of a several bands mentioned as precursors to heavy metal. The Long Island, NY, group also had a big fan in fellow Long Island native Howard Stern. And they played Woodstock.

Leslie West’s guitar playing was admired and mimicked by later hard rocking heavy metalists. The crunching chords and cowbell (yes more is less) opening to Mississippi Queen was and is a staple of classic rock radio.

Key members of Mountain included West, Corky Lainge and Felix Pappalardi. I’ve had this record a long time and not sure where I picked it up but I think it was from my Athens, Ga., high school and college years. I hadn’t played it in a while prior to this review and it’s solid, rock solid.

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The Mothers of Invention (compilation) — 317

ALBUM: The Mothers of Invention (1970)

MVC Countdown: 3.5/$$$$

Frank Zappa records tend to be worth a little more in the resale market. This is a greatest ‘hits’ album of early stuff before Zappa put his name out front of the band, which was made-up of former members of the 60’s rock/pop group the Turtles.

I will be writing more about Zappa when I get to the Z’s. He can be brilliant and disgusting, often at the same time.

Meanwile, enjoy (if you are able) songs such as Wowie Zowie and Who Needs the Peace Corps and Flower Punk. This album had a median price, used, of $12 on Discogs; it’s probably the least valuable of my Zappa stuff.

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Moody Blues — 318

ALBUM: Days of Future Passed

MVC Rating: 4.0 /$$$

This is a trailblazer in mixing orchestral music with rock music.

Here it is the Moody Blues and the London Festival Orchestra conducted by Peter Knight, All molded into a dramatic and pretty song cycle. It was deep music for the 1967 contemplative hippie. To my ears now it sounds like music from the Bambi soundtrack featuring spoken word poet Rod McKeun. Next comes lyrics like: ‘cold hearted orb that rules the night.’

The two album-cut hits are Nights in White Satin and Tuesday Afternoon. I had a hippie foster sister for a while as my parents were helping somebody out of a jam.

Kathy loved the Moodies. The album ‘Question’ is their best in my opinion. Besides the title epic it also had a simple sad refrain called ‘Melancholy Man.’

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Sergio Mendes, Walter Wanderley — 320, 319

ALBUM: Rain Forest (1966): Gentle Rain (1977)

MVC Rating: Forest 4.0/$$$; Rain 4.0/$$

And now for something completely different.

Samba! Brazilian! bossa nova? Organ music? Slightly psychedelic on the Sergio Mendez platter Gentle Rain.

Sergio was the unusual example of a Brazilian artist whose work was nearly exclusively done in the U.S. And is not all that well known in Brazil, according to Wikipedia. On my anecdotal accounts, there’s a lot of his work sadly sitting in bargain bins. He spent a career introducing Brazilian music to the U.S. and beyond: He’d take a Bacharach song like ‘Do you know the way to San Jose?’ and completely samba-ize it [patent pending, not to be confused with Simonize].

So Walter Wanderly, sometimes billed as Brazil’s No. 1 organist, was on the Gentle Rain album with Sergio and multiple musicians. Of these two I have, Wanderley’s Rain Forest is the one I would purchase. At times it sounds like the organ music played when hockey games cleared the ice between periods. Or mall music, sprightly yet warm. But then you start listening, really listening, it’s like a hypnotic.

Don’t need that second beer. Just flip the switch to Wanderley. It’s electric organ like a banjo always playing bright and happy music, only more soothing. The effect is rolling waves of controlled improv tightly harnessed by song structures.

I’m not kidding, I Iike this a lot. Happy Mall Music or old time skating rink music in 2/4 time it’s its own jazzy thing. There are lots of folks who collect Brazilian music and I can see why. But I can’t get lost down that rabbit hole though. Need to stay focused.

You may have wondered why Wanderley is here in the middle of the M’s alphabetically. It’s because he’s being ushered in along with Sergio Mendes.

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Daily Journal, Aug. 6, 2019, ‘Daddy are we there yet’ edition (Updated)

On July 11, 2018, I was writing I would be done with My Vinyl Countdown in 30 months. That was 13 months ago and if I hold steady, 17 more months feels about right but as I show you later, that’s a brisk brisk pace.

321/17= about 19. So to finish this in 17 months I need to write 19 reviews a month. I may have overestimated myself at the time I wrote the earlier piece with that 17 month prediction.

To further explain: The big numbers you see in the artists’ headlines on my blog indicate the place that record is in the count down of my 678 albums..

At that last accounting I was on 458 records. That means MVC had just reviewed David Gates, a solo album by the lead singer for the group Bread, which gets a lot of hits on this blog. But that was 13 months . Now we are sitting at 321 with John Mellencamp. That’s 320 to go.

Math, ugh. 458 – 320 = 138 records reviewed in 13 months. PACE: 138/13= about 10.5 per month. That may be a little ambitious to think I’ll do 10 or more a month.

678 -321 = 357 is the number of musical posts done overall. 321/10.5 = 30.5 is how many months I have let if i continue at 10.5 per month.

My essays and stories number over a 100 aside of the music reviews. You have my permission not to read it all.

And, there is also the reality that the record collection has grown with some gifts and additional pick-ups. But as I have said earlier the 678 is the number I’m using for nowl. When we get to Zevon and Zappa I’ll look around and see records I bought after this blog started, gifts of vinyyl for me and for the cause. I estimate I’ll have 150 album left over. 678+150= 828. That leftover bunch will likely be added as an addendum? Or maybe just a list of what’s let over on this blog site.

Remember we should not fear the end. The end of the countdown, that is. This is not a O’Henry novel.

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Daily Journal, Aug. 5, 2019 Mass shootings redux

Another Monday morning. The big story is a pair of mass shootings in Ohio and Texas.

On May 19, 2018 I published this poem on this blog. Still relevant:

The News Today

I read the news today, oh boy

Who  is dead. Who is not. They train for this.

Active shooter drill. Lock the doors.

The door locks from the outside only.

Put a door stop in it.

The door swings  out.

The shooter  is coming. The shooter is active.

Right up the hall.

Silent prayer.

Silenter and silenter.

Where are the doors?

Just thinking during silent prayer.

Hey did you hear the one about arming the teachers in Alabama?

Just thinking during silent prayer.

Silenter and silenter.

Preschool teachers thinking about the best way to shield their students 2, 3,  and 4-year-olds.  With their bodies.

We’re going to be playing a little game let’s see how many can get in the bathroom.

Real drill in Birmingham, Alabama.

High school students thinking about that troubled guy. Is that a trench coat?  Is this guy  going to shoot me? Is that  guy going to shoot me?

High school kids making a last will and testament.

Bullet holes in stained glass.

Hey isn’t that how the light gets in?

Bullet holes in classroom windows.

Isn’t that where the light streams in?  Where the bullets get out?

Rejection to that connection. No more bullets, no more bullet holes.

You know,  I read the news today.

Oh boy.

How many holes in the dead, in the living.

We must count them.

We must count them all.

The End.


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Kinks break

Those of you following this blog know I am a big Kinks fan, since my teen years.

They were a genre-defying band that were described in many ways: quirky, satirical, whimsical, a garage band , uber British, and so on. They got kicked out of the U.S. during the British invasion for bad behavior so they missed out on big fame for a while. Ray and Dave fought a lot and I mean physical brawls, tearing hotel rooms apart. Although Dave’s pioneering heavy metal guitar in early to mid-1960s with You Really Got Me and All Day and All Night brought attention, there came a lull. They went through a period where they were experimenting with concept album, mini-musicals if you will.

Most people, during that 1970s period turned away. The albums such as A Soap Opera, a splendid little story piece, or the Preservation albums, wound up in bargain bins or, worse, garbage. Many thought they were a lightweight band. They should have known better from the 1960s heavy metal  riffs, although even back then lead Kink Ray Davies wrote catchy little love songs (see Tired of  Waiting, Stop Your Sobbing, etc.)

One of their biggest songs ‘Lola’ was about a transvestite.

So when my buddy Michael Ludden, former boss, novelist and all around music lover turned me on to a video blues number by the Kinks, it was not only a further validation of arguments I’ve had with folks who think the Kinks never earned their rootsy stripes like the Beatles, Stones and the Who. It was somewhat of a revelation seeing the early Kinks performing a damn good Slim Harpo blues rendition, ‘Got Love if You Want It,’ worthy of the best of the Yardbirds or the Animals, at least. From deep cuts, I knew they did this kind of stuff now and then but to see the performance is eye-opening: