Sitting here hunting and pecking my keyboard this early morning until my meds kick in.
In the morning after 10 or more hours without the meds find me with my most outsized symptoms. Tremors and slow thinking to be specific.
But morning is my best writing time simply for its peace and quiet. Only distraction: Internet.
So, it’s like catching a wave. timing the meds. Which reminds me I’m going to see the Beach Boys in Birmingham next month. I could seriously use some ‘Good Vibrations.’
For right now, I’ll pull out some tasty record reviews from the archives after I tell you what I’ve done and what I will do over this long MLK weekend. Good weekend for having a dream.
Quicky recent ICYMIs: I almost ‘bought’ a record store.
I explored the subset of record collecting — 10″ 78s.
I gave readers a tour of my brain.
Coming up this weekend: A young man contacted me about his grandfather’s record collection and I enlisted my wife, Catherine, to drive a long way so I could help at this gentlemen’s request discern what he has. News reports of 78s worth thousands of dollars has, it is safe to say, people running to their attics or basements. The collection I looked at was spectacular, easily more than 2,000 mint condition 78s. But is there a holy grail in there? See what I find out in a column this weekend.
And lastly for another column coming this weekend: MVC as simple as 1,2,3.
My Vinyl Countdown by the numbers. I am getting closer to the 678 record reviews or record reminisces as I call them to bring awareness to my disease: Lewy body dementia. I’ll give you an update on my top wat my top 10 (or 15) musical countdown posts are and my top 10 or 15 non-countdown posts.
I’m in the ‘P’s in my alphabetic listing and the P’s are taking a lot of time, might turn out to be my biggest alphabet number so far, still to come Prince and Pink Foyd and a dozen or so lesser known, but good to great music. Music like John Prine, P.J. Proby, and Bud PowelI hope you will explore if you find what I write compelling you to give something new a whirl.
Now on with some reviews from the archives.
The Flamin’ Groovies
ALBUMS: Now (1978)
MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$
I was graduating from high school when this came out. Talk about retro.. This group was like something out of 1966. They cover ‘Paint it Black’ on this album like it was a new song.
‘There’s a Place’ cover sounds like the 1960’s prom band checking in on the Beatles.
All this came to me in the early 1980s.
I discovered this Flamin’ Groovies in a strange way. I was at the Birmingham public library doing some research and they had vinyl records that you could check out, like a book, and return later. This would have been mid-1980s.
I picked up a Flamin’ Groovies album called Groovies Greatest Grooves. It had the song ‘Shake Some Action,’which blew me away. It’s the sense of discovery that you live for as a record collector. Again I was looking for tunes not rare artifacts and that song was one good song. Cracker later recorded it and it was featured in a movie, all much later.
I made a cassette tape out of it that I have no idea whether I have or not.
The thing that made the Groovies groove work was that they played essentially covers or originals that sounded so close to their heroes, early Beatles, Stones, and Who. — with no irony. That’s what makes it great. Just a few guys from San Francisco playing songs they love from another era.
So, it wasn’t surprising to see that this 1978 album, a comeback of sorts, was produced by retro-man Dave Edmunds. “Yeah My Baby” written by Edmunds, and band members Cyril Jordan and Chris Wilson sounds like a long lost classic. Or long lost classic B-side.
The sound seems like it was coming through a B&W TV set.