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7 Most underrated albums in MVC collection

Here’s the second part as promised:The Top 7 most Underrated Albums in my collection of 678. I know this is subjective but I have the insight of living with these records  a long time.

Rockpile ‘Seconds of Pleasure’ (feat./Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds) This is just easy to listen to, even easy to dance to. It sounds like fresh and rock and Roll every time you listen even though much of it harkens back to 1950s-60s rockabilly sound. This is a party record. Key songs ‘Teacher Teacher,’ ‘Play that Fast thing (One More Time),’ ‘Pet You and Hold You,’ and ‘When I Write the Book.’

The Undisputed Truth –Contemporary 70s soul music, mostly covers reinterpreted. A deconstructed ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and a blowout psychedelic ‘Ball of Confusion are highlights. Oh yeah, and the enjoyable paranoid classic ‘Smiling Faces Sometimes.’ That was their only original song on the album of covers, produced for Motown by Norman Whitfield. Another bargain bin find. They also do a funked up version of ‘I Heard it Through the Grapevine.’

 Spencer Davis/Peter Jameson ‘It’s Been So Long.´  I have to say this is one of the great lost albums. You can’t find it hardly anywhere. No traces of it on YouTube. Amazon  and EBay have some copies, last one I checked was $40 bucks. I don’t need it, I have a good condition vinyl but I really wanted to link to some music just to give you, my readers a taste. It is an acoustical classic. If I, just before I die could go to a bar or any small venue and have Spencer Davis and Peter Jameson play this album from top to bottom I’d know there was a heaven and I’d be in it. I had never heard of this understated beautiful record until last year, when I found it in a bargain bin for $1. I picked it because it looked interesting and I knew Davis to be a pioneer in blues rock in the UK during the 1960s, behind such well known songs as ‘I’m a Man’ and “Gimme Some Loving.” This is the kind of find that makes bargain bin hunting so rewarding. Yes it mellow. It is soul music. I just don’t know what to tell you to do to get a listen.

Jared Mees ‘Life is Long’ This is new vinyl (2016), which I don’t have a lot of because of its expense. But my sister from Portland sent me this and said the record store clerk thought I’d like this after she told him the kind of music I liked. The clerk made an awesome pick. This is funny, poignant, tuneful and smart. Hard to put in a category but I’d call it alternative folk. (From Portland. That explains something, no?) Blue Angels is a pretty song, but makes me wonder – do they do that? The Angel pilots? Other songs of brilliance: Life is Long; and Echo Chamber.

Neutral Milk Hotel ‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea’ Some of my alternative universe friends would argue with me calling it underrated.  Heck it is revered by record store workers across the globe. But for every NMH worshiper there are millions who have never heard about this eccentric gut-wrenching record inspired by the Diary of Anne Frank. (And a few who just don’t get it.) Here’s the title song. When I first heard the album and picked up the powerful subtle references to Anne Frank, I wept. Just a little.

The lead singer and songwriter Jeff Magnum and band worked out of my town, Athens, Ga., for a while. Leading to the cult status of this record, Magnum made  himself super scarce after this record hit (probably all digital in 1997). ‘Found’ living in NYC, Magnum was cornered for an interview in which he said he didn’t know if he would ever record again. This is really one of those  you have to listen to the whole album as it is all  tied together. But here’s some key songs: ‘Two-headed Boy’ – The story is that Magnum recorded this song all in one take to the astonishment of those in the studio. Also ‘King of Carrot Flowers.’

Richard and Linda Thompson ‘Shoot out the Lights.’ Depression, used properly, can be helpful to artists, if they can reach deep down inside of it, wallow in it and come out like a newly born infant, soggy and screaming. The album, ‘Shoot Out the Lights,’ recorded when the couple Richard and Linda were breaking up is depressing and cathartic. The saddest great rock and folk album of all time. Just look at some of the song titles: ‘Did she Jump or was She Pushed,’ ‘Wall of Death,’ ‘Walking on a Wire,’ and ‘Don’t Renege on our Love.’ Whew. But Linda’s voice is in top form and Richard’s guitar playing is as unusual in that it has its own voice. A voice that says stop, listen, hear what I’m going to say next.

Lyric: I’m walking on a wire, I’m walking on a wire and I’m falling.

Too late, I jumped.

Here’s the title song. With Richard getting it out on guitar.

PJ Proby ‘Enigma’ This album is aptly named. The big burly Rock and Roller who looked and sounded like Elvis Presley and at one time had stage roles as Elvis and Roy Orbison. He is from Texas and his stepsister dated Elvis. He never made it big in the U.S. as a rocker or a silky voiced crooner a la some kind of Tom Jones Elvis amalgam, with a touch of Englebert Humperdink. But in Britain, they loved him. At least the people did. He kept splitting his pants – yes you read that right – he would split  his pants after some stage-hopping caterwauling and the crowd would go wild.  The country’s Committee on Moral Standards (Or something like that) ultimately kicked him out of the country. His wild career included a  stint with the Dutch progressive hard rock band called Focus,  on an album called Focus con Proby. Hocus Pocus was the mostly instrumental band known for its electrifying yodels on the earlier hit Hocus Pocus. This album, Enigma, from 1967 features his minor hit ‘Niki Hoeky,’ This song was also covered by Bobbi Gentry in a sultry performance on a TV show.

He also has a nice cover of the Rolling Stones penned song–Out of Time.’– that charted on Chris Farlowe’s version. Proby, whose voice could be Elvis, Little Richard and Wilson Pickett, chose the fat Elvis as his model with a slice of Humperdink and a dash of Tom Jones. He really never found himself. I have to say though: I am a fan. I have three records — want more.

Van Morrison wrote a song called ‘Whatever Happened to PJ Proby.” They sang it together, see here.

Here’s the second part as promised:The Top 7 most Underrated Albums in my collection of 678. I know this is subjective but I have the insight of living with these records  a long time.

Rockpile ‘Seconds of Pleasure’ (feat./Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds) This is just easy to listen to, even easy to dance to. It sounds like fresh and rock and Roll every time you listen even though much of it harkens back to 1950s-60s rockabilly sound. This is a party record. Key songs ‘Teacher Teacher,’ ‘Play that Fast thing (One More Time),’ ‘Pet You and Hold You,’ and ‘When I Write the Book.’

The Undisputed Truth –Contemporary 70s soul music, mostly covers reinterpreted. A deconstructed ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and a blowout psychedelic ‘Ball of Confusion are highlights. Oh yeah, and the enjoyable paranoid classic ‘Smiling Faces Sometimes.’ That was their only original song on the album of covers, produced for Motown by Norman Whitfield. Another bargain bin find. They also do a funked up version of ‘I Heard it Through the Grapevine.’

 Spencer Davis/Peter Jameson ‘It’s Been So Long.´  I have to say this is one of the great lost albums. You can’t find it hardly anywhere. No traces of it on YouTube. Amazon  and EBay have some copies, last one I checked was $40 bucks. I don’t need it, I have a good condition vinyl but I really wanted to link to some music just to give you, my readers, a taste. It is an acoustical classic. If I, just before I die could go to a bar or any small venue and have Spencer Davis and Peter Jameson play this album from top to bottom I’d know there was a heaven and I’d be in it. I had never heard of this understated beautiful record until last year, when I found it in a bargain bin for $1. I picked it because it looked interesting and I knew Davis to be a pioneer in blues rock in the UK during the 1960s, behind such well known songs as ‘I’m a Man’ and “Gimme Some Loving.” This is the kind of find that makes bargain bin hunting so rewarding. Yes it mellow. It is soul music. I just don’t know what to tell you to do to get a listen.

Jared Mees ‘Life is Long’ This is new vinyl (2016), which I don’t have a lot of because of its expense. But my sister from Portland sent me this and said the record store clerk thought I’d like this after she told him the kind of music I liked. The clerk made an awesome pick. This is funny, poignant, tuneful and smart. Hard to put in a category but I’d call it alternative folk. (From Portland. That explains something, no?) Blue Angels is a pretty song, but makes me wonder – do they do that? The Angel pilots? Other songs of brilliance: Life is Long; and Echo Chamber.

Neutral Milk Hotel ‘In the Aeroplane Over the Sea’ Some of my alternative universe friends would argue with me calling it underrated.  Heck it is revered by record store workers across the globe. But for every NMH worshiper there are millions who have never heard about this eccentric gut-wrenching record inspired by the Diary of Anne Frank. (And a few who just don’t get it.) Here’s the title song. When I first heard the album and picked up the powerful subtle references to Anne Frank, I wept. Just a little.

The lead singer and songwriter Jeff Magnum and band worked out of my town, Athens, Ga., for a while. Leading to the cult status of this record, Magnum made  himself super scarce after this record hit (probably all digital in 1997). ‘Found’ living in NYC, Magnum was cornered for an interview in which he said he didn’t know if he would ever record again. This is really one of those  you have to listen to the whole album as it is all  tied together. But here’s some key songs: ‘Two-headed Boy’ – The story is that Magnum recorded this song all in one take to the astonishment of those in the studio. Also ‘King of Carrot Flowers.’

Richard and Linda Thompson ‘Shoot out the Lights.’ Depression, used properly, can be helpful to artists, if they can reach deep down inside of it, wallow in it and come out like a newly born infant, soggy and screaming. The album, ‘Shoot Out the Lights,’ recorded when the couple Richard and Linda were breaking up is depressing and cathartic. The saddest great rock and folk album of all time. Just look at some of the song titles: ‘Did she Jump or was She Pushed,’ ‘Wall of Death,’ ‘Walking on a Wire,’ and ‘Don’t Renege on our Love.’ Whew. But Linda’s voice is in top form and Richard’s guitar playing is as unusual in that it has its own voice. A voice that says stop, listen, hear what I’m going to say next.

Lyric: I’m walking on a wire, I’m walking on a wire and I’m falling.

Too late, I jumped.

Here’s the title song. With Richard getting it out on guitar.

PJ Proby ‘Enigma’ This album is aptly named. The big burly Rock and Roller who looked and sounded like Elvis Presley and at one time had stage roles as Elvis and Roy Orbison. He is from Texas and his stepsister dated Elvis. He never made it big in the U.S. as a rocker or a silky voiced crooner a la some kind of Tom Jones Elvis amalgam, with a touch of Englebert Humperdink. But in Britain, they loved him. At least the people did. He kept splitting his pants – yes you read that right – he would split  his pants after some stage-hopping caterwauling and the crowd would go wild.  The country’s Committee on Moral Standards (Or something like that) ultimately kicked him out of the country. His wild career included a  stint with the Dutch progressive hard rock band called Focus,  on an album called Focus con Proby. Hocus Pocus was the mostly instrumental band known for its electrifying yodels on the earlier hit Hocus Pocus. This album, Enigma, from 1967 features his minor hit ‘Niki Hoeky,’ This song was also covered by Bobbi Gentry in a sultry performance on a TV show.

He also has a nice cover of the Rolling Stones penned song–Out of Time.’– that charted on Chris Farlowe’s version. Proby, whose voice could be Elvis, Little Richard and Wilson Pickett, chose the fat Elvis as his model with a slice of Humperdink and a dash of Tom Jones. He really never found himself. I have to say though: I am a fan. I have three records — want more.

Van Morrison wrote a song called ‘Whatever Happened to PJ Proby.” They sang it together, see here.

Top 7 most underrated songs in MyVinylCountdown.com collecti

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7X7x7: Seven underrated artists, albums and songs, album in MVC collection (blog)

This is the first in a three-part series.



TODAY: The Top 7 Most underrated artists in my collection of 678-plus records

I’ll say it out front. This is a list story.

You know how much news sites love lists. You know why?

Because you, my readers love lists. This time we are going 7X7X7.

That means: Three lists, with 7 spots each. I feel lucky. I am starting No. 1 of 3 today on my blog. I will smooth it all into one long story for AL.com by the weekend end.

The collection I have been using on my website, www.myvinylcountdown.com to raise awareness to my fatal brain disease, Lewy body dementia. As  I count them down, I stop now and again to write something different or pull out a story like this. The rules are simple. I make the picks. I can’t have any one artist on more than one list. John Hiatt does not qualify because I wrote an earlier post pretty much anointing him the most underrated artists of the 1980s.

I will provide links, please listen to the music, especially if you haven’t heard it. When we talk about underrated we are mostly dealing with folks that have lower name recognition but deserve better. But a band of renown could have an underrated song or album, for example. Also worth noting that since these are from my vinyl records, there’s a good chance that most will be older music from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, although there are some exceptions involving cases where I bought new vinyl. So here we go.

The Top 7 Underrated Artists from MyVinylCountdown.com

  1. Tonio K. – Those who know me well won’t be surprised at this choice. Tonio K. aka as Steve Krikorian debuted with Life in the Foodchain, a punky, intelligent tour de force in 1978. It is a legitimate classic with the title song, Funky Western Civilization and H-A-T-R-E-D, <Note language in that song that may be objectionable to some>standing out. The rest of his body of work is excellent as he followed Foodchain with an almost equally angry album “Amerika’ and later some spiritually infused albums with songs like ‘You Will Go Free’ that, with exceptions, deep-sixed the anger — but let fly intelligent, socially conscious music elevated by great writing.

Excerpt:‘ Funky Western Civilization’

They put Jesus on a cross; they put a hole in JFK; they put Hitler in the driver’s seat and looked the other way; Now we got poison in the water; and the whole world is in a trance; but just because we’re hypnotized don’t mean we can’t dance.

(Queue Dick Dale chicken scratch guitar and a river of melodic metal by Earl Slick and Albert Lee.)

 (2) 10cc — A British band that walked a fine line between art school pretension and brilliant pop songs. The music is full of biting satire, irony and good playing. The album ‘100cc 10cc’ is a compilation of early songs that is top-notch from top to bottom, including Rubber Bullets and the Wall Street Shuffle. Later they had some well-known singles, ‘I’m Not in Love,’ ‘Dreadlock Holiday’and ‘’Things We Do For Love.’ But they never rose to levels  expected given the talent here. They probably lost the cool crowd with the high charting bubble-gummy ‘Things We Do for Love.” They had to pay the rent you know, but some of their work such as the record ‘How Dare You’ experimented with jazzy, multi-layered sophisticated sound and sharp as a stiletto lyrics. Queen, though brasher and more theatrical, was influenced by this band.

(3) War — The band had some hits. Cisco Kid, Low Rider, Why Can’t We Be Friends. Those first two were some of the best songs on Top 40 radio at the time. ‘Friends’ was just kind of a ditty. Those who heard only the radio and didn’t get the albums were missing out on an extremely tight funk/jazz/rock band. I don’t think they ever got their due as true pioneers, perhaps overshadowed by Earth Wind and Fire, Parliament, and Sly and the Family Stone. But they could jam like the best of friends in songs like ‘Smile Happy‘ and ‘Four Cornered Room.’ BTW my two old War albums have terrific sound with a heavy bottom as this music needs.

(4) Gayle McCormick/A Group Called Smith

McCormick had the kind of voice that made you marvel where it came from, powerful as a bullhorn when she sang ballads and straight ahead blues and rock and roll. Despite her obvious break-out talent, with Smith (and a Group Called Smith after legal conflicts with another group — and, no it was not the Morissey group that came much later out of the UK.) The group and McCormick scored big with a song “Baby It’s You,” later picked by Quentin Tarantino to be used in ‘Pulp Fiction.’

She went on to record a couple of albums that are hard to find. I got a used copy of her first solo album which has some decent covers of popular songs such as ‘Superstar’ and ‘You Really Got a Hold of Me.’

The two Smith group albums, however, should be better known. There’s good hard rock and roll on these. Highlights: ‘Tell Him No,’ ‘Last Time,’ Let’s Get Together,’ ‘What Am I Gonna Do‘ and ‘Take a Look Around.‘ Oh and did I mention there’s some nasty organ and dirty horns on these, not to mention a bass player who gets under the songs and lifts..

(5) Peter Himmelman (Solo; Sussman Lawrence)

OK get the ‘newsy’ thing out of the way, his wife is Bob Dylan’s adopted daughter. On to the music which Catherine, my wife, and I would agree has been at many times the soundtrack of our lives — from Mission of my Soul to Rich Men Run the World ; from Woman With The Strength of 10,000 Men‘ to The Boat that Carries Us; From Raina (beloved Raina) to Angels Die.

When Peter learned I had Lewy body dementia, he sent me three vinyls of his music. Listening right now to ‘Fear is Our Undoing.‘ Brilliant song off of the brilliant record ‘There is no Calamity.’ )

A Minnesotan by birth now in California, Himmelman played in an indie band called Sussman Lawrence before going solo. He has been nominated for a Grammy for a children’s album and has written music for several TV shows. His songs are great and I can hear between the notes and words a search for that elusive truth that connects us.

(6) Ronnie Lane (Small Faces, Faces, solo)

Ronnie Lane was an elfin man with a lilting voice that worked to perfection when he was harmonizing, Lane embodied happy music, and yes probably happy hour music. He played his long necked electric bass like he was hugging a woman taller than he was.

The bass player was a founding member of Small Faces and Faces, two highly influential rock bands. ItchyKoo Park and All or Nothing were sizeable hits, at least overseas. And Ooh La La is a classic.

Listen to his music and try not to smile. You’d follow him out to the country side and he would lead like the pied piper to his dilapidated country farm. When Steve Marriott left Small Faces, Rod Stewart joined. Because the band’s name was based on Lane’s and other group members’ stature — they were all under 5-foot-5, they dropped the ‘Small’ when the 6-footer Stewart joined. Faces.

In addition to his fabulous singing and writing and playing with both Faces incarnations, he also had successful collaborations with Ron Wood (Mahoney’s Last Stand) and Pete Townshend solidifying his status as a top-notch collaborator and creator. The songs ‘Stone,’ ‘The Poacher’ and ‘Brother Can you Spare a Dime’ are standouts on his Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance album, which I have. (I also have Mahoney’s and Rough Mix plus lots of Small Faces and Faces, including the experimental concept album Ogden’s Gone Nut Flake.) The beautiful song ‘Annie‘ was one of the best on his Townshend project ‘Rough Mix. After battling Multiple Sclerosis for 21 years, Lane died in 1997 at 51.

(7)Joseph Arthur (Solo, Joseph Arthur and the Astronauts)

It’s hard to describe this prolific musician other than to say he’s been writing some of the best songs of the millennium. But there seems to be a million of ’em. His latest — or probably not latest at this point — but a recent one teaming up with REM’s Peter Buck. The album, ‘Arthur Buck,’ approaches ear weevil stages at about the fourth listen. It’s good and gets better the more you listen and figure out what’s going on. Arthur has a good two decades behind him. I’ve seen him in concert a couple of times in the SF Bay Area and he’s the real deal. As I said, he has so many great songs including, ‘In the Sun,’ in which he recorded several versions, one featuring REM’s Michael Stipe and the other featuring Coldplay’s Chris Martin — all for Hurricane Katrina relief. Other songs that he’s known for include ‘Honey and Moon,’ ‘Temporary People,‘ and ‘The Smile that Explodes, ‘I Miss the Zoo‘ and ‘Say Goodbye.’ Albums include. ‘Nuclear Daydreams,’ ‘Redemption Son,’ and ‘The Ballad of Boogie Christ.’ He is well worth exploring because even if you run into songs you don’t like if you keep looking you’ll find something that will change your life — or, at least, your week. And one close to my heart, a tribute to Robin Williams.



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Daily Journal, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2019, Robot and Duck edition

I know I have promised by today to publish my personal strategies for beating Lewy body dementia. I may finish today. But I may not.

In the meantime I just posted my 11th chapter in a serial story which is pretty much a parody of dystopian stories, which I feel like are almost by definition are parodies or satire.

FOR ALL THE HURRICANE/HISICANE STORIES CLICK

NOTE: Some gratuitous cartoon violence and PG13 language.

Also ICYMI, I published this on AL.com about raising awareness of Lewy body dementia.

Still working my ‘most underrated albums’ story.

NP:

More later ..

https://www.al.com/life/2019/09/hi-im-louie-are-you-lewy-a-proposal-for-a-disney-duck.html

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His and Hurricanes (Part 11)

This is a serial story.

Scene: The Ocala People’s Forest in which lies Alexander Springs. Prosby tries to get to the portal in his efforts to go Underground to rescue Burneese. But dangers, such as lightning fast gators and the killer Abe Lincoln robot await.

Prosby was on high alert now. He’s was lucky to get out Boybando, even though he believed he could  have killed Justy with two well placed blows. He was walking the old 441 highway under a misty dark day. It was always a dark day these days, but this one was particularly dark. He passed Zellwood. He got close enough to Lake Apopka to smell it.

And hear the gators.

The gators over the decades had adapted to the algae choked body of water full of bones and submerged cars. They were smaller than the 10-footers you used to see there. But they were twice as quick and had more endurance when running.

A good 5 or  6 -foot  gator could top out at 25 mph for about 40 yards. The old way to escape a running gator was to serpentine, run side-to-side while continuing to go forward. The old big -300-pound-beasts beasts couldn’t follow the cuts and wore out after about 15 yards. But over hundreds of years there were fewer of the slower, big birds to catch and gators evolved to catch the smaller faster ones. Also squirrels, racoons, wild dogs and the occasional stupid human.

These new ones could catch you at about the 15 or 20-yard mark, bite off your foot so you couldn’t go anywhere, and drag you by your remaining foot to the lake . There they would submerge you in the water and let you rot for a few days in the pea-soup of a lake until the flesh fell off the bone – kind of like a cross between pulled pork and rotten sushi.

Prosby scanned the dark wooded area near the lakefront for the orange orbits that signal shiny gator eyes Seeing none, he kept walking.

The Ocala People’s Forest was no place to let your guard down as he passed by the towns of Eustis  and Umatilla. On the fringes of the forest in makeshift shacks lived drug makers who constantly fought each other, the meth makers versus the psychedelics producers who had a symbiotic relationship with the forest people, the descendants of generations of Hippies, societal dropouts who have camped in the forest for hundreds of years — and always stayed one step ahead  of the law, both local and federal. They lived deep in the enormous forest and at any given spot they were watching you – you couldn’t see them, but they could see you.

Prosby heard a voice, deep, forceful, robotic.

“Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field …”

It was Abe Lincoln the DIzney Bot. The  killer Dizney bot walked like Frankenstein out of a dense wooded area into the clearing about 20 yards from Prosby. The Lincoln bot droned on.

“We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives, that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground.‘

Prosby noticed the bot didn’t really have hands – but at the end of one arm was an 18-inch dagger, and on the other was a small whirling circular saw that he kept turning off and on. WHHHRRRR WHRRRR.

The bot was walking at quite a pace toward Prosby.

Prosby tried engaging. “Hey Abe, whassup? Nice morning to recite the Gettysburg Address, no:?’

Honest Abe didn’t appear to be lying when he said, “I am programmed to kill you and I will kill you.”

Prosby knew the portal – Alexander Springs — was about 100 yards into the thick wooded area where the bot had just emerged. He figured better now than ever and decided against running away. He would run, taking an arc around the bot, dive into the spring and make it to the portal. Getting inside the portal required a rather deep swim downward. You have to able to hold your breath for at least a minute to break on through to the other side.

Prosby ran.

The bot followed, stiffly but swiftly still speechifying:

“The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.”

Prosby saw the still waters of the spring and heard the WHHRRR behind him. There was little pain as the circular saw sliced into Prosby’s back like an electric knife carving a Thanksgiving turkey. It was a non lethal  wound Prosby thought. Defense was on his mind. He turned about 10 feet from the water to face the fake Abraham Lincoln who was running and winding up to do more carving. With the whirring buzzsaw advancing swiftly toward Prosby’s  face, he dropped to the ground on his sliced-up back and placed both feet firmly in the 250-pound life-sized robot’s midsection and pushed. Using the bot’s momentum against him, he pushed his legs like a squat sending Abe catapulting through the air. The bot completed a spectacular full flip before landing feet first in the spring.

Oh yeah. Prosby remembered with a smile, you never see Dizney bots swimming. In fact full submersion fries the bot’s circuits. Sparks shot out like Fourth of July fireworks. Abe thrashed around before slowly sinking like a melting witch.

The robot died gurgling the words of a long ago president who dreamed a dream for America. That the evil of killing, brothers and sisters, will be somehow turned to good.

’… that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, (gurgle) under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the (gurgle) people, for the people, shall not perish from ..(gurgle) …(silence) …..”

“The earth.”

Posby finished the last two words as the robot sank into the springs like just another stolen car into Lake Apopka.

Prosby drifted into unconsciousness.

This is the 11th in a series. Meant to be read in ascending order from 1 to 11 ….

To be continued …

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Daily Journal Thurday Sept. 5, 2019

Checking in to organize my thoughts. With the blog I can do these things — kind of like thinking aloud. As always appreciate help from the cheap seats. (There are no luxury boxes in my forum, sorry).

I’m working on a piece outlining my strategy to beat Lewy body dementia, based on my trial and error successes so far. I think it will be worthwhile for patients, caregivers, family and friends. This should be ready by Monday if not sooner, keep checking.

On the music front, I’m going to take a look at the most underrated albums, artists and songs in my collection (emphasis on IN MY COLLECTION). I’m still trying to figure out the format and the content. As always, I appreciate suggestions. I’m hoping to drop this over the weekend in close proximity of my regular My Vinyl Countdown column which points out that, in a way, Lewy body dementia is underrated in that it is often overlooked, misdiagnosed, misunderstood and not given credit for being the devastating disease it is.

NP: Gayle McCormick

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The Meters/Neville Brothers/Aaron Neville (solo) — 310, 309

ALBUMS: Fire on the Bayou (Meters 1975); Fiyo on the Bayou (Neville Brothers 1981) Make Me Strong (Aaron Neville, 1986)

MVC Rating: Meters, 4.5/$$$$$; Neville Brothers 4.0/$$$$; Aaron Nevile 4.0/$$$$.

Before the Neville Brothers were the Meters, playing New Orleans bayou roots music or whatever you may call it. I call it ‘swamp funk’ because there was some funky music going on. Art and Cyril Neville were in the Meters and the Neville Brothers.

Aaron Neville, who went on to become the best known of the four Neville brothers, as his voice, described as that of an angel singing, seeped into the public consciousness in a big way in during the 1980s. The Aaron album here is a compilation of early songs including the hit “Tell It Like It Is.” It might be the least expensive record here if you can find it. The Meters album is a collectible that will likely cost more than $25 (see MVC ratings explained) depending on condition.

Unfortunately my Meters record has a crack in it. Yet it still plays with very little surface noise right over the crack. I’ll keep it but likely will limit its playing time as I am worried it might damage my stylus. You should be able to find the Neville Brothers album for $10 to $15 in good condition (VG+).

I think I have reader in L.A. who might enjoy this Neville Brothers singing a classic ‘Brother John’ melded with Iko Iko (see video below).