Month: April 2021

ALBUM: South’s Greatest Hits (1977)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

This Capricorn compilation is a decent but flawed snapshot of what became known as “Southern Rock.” I was listening to the Allman Brothers and those young upstarts Lynyrd Skynyrd before that label was coined.

This record has those two iconic Southern Rock bands and plenty of other top-40 songs from Southern rockers. I have a small quibble with some of the choices: Elvin BIshop (Fooled Around and Fell in Love); Amazing Rhythm Aces (Third Rate Romance); and Dr. John (RIght Place Wrong Time). Bishop and the Aces songs’ don’t feel very Southern to me.

Now Dr.John is cajun-zydeco-rock — but I wouldn’t call it Southern. But I like the song! That would be like calling ZZ Top Southern music — Texas and New Orleans are two different ‘musics’ apart from Southern music is I guess what I’m trying to say.

Remember the founding Southern rock founding fathers the Allmans (represented here with ‘Rambling Man’ and Greg’s solo Midnight Rider. Southern through and through and their proteges in Lynyrd Skynyrd. This was mostly guitar driven blues-based rock with a good dose of country influence.

I need help from a guy I met in college who had a huge huge record collection but it was strictly Southern acts, complete catalogs of the Marshall Tucker band (represented here by ‘Fire on the Mountain, I’d have preferred ‘Can’t You See;): the Outlaws (who are represented by ‘There Goes Another Love Song’); Blackfoot (not here but had a hard Southern rock hit in ‘Train Train’); Charlie Daniels band (represented here by ‘The South’s Going to do it Again’); Wet Willie (represented here with ‘Keep on Smiling’); Barefoot Jerry (not represented here but they get a shout-out from the Charlie Daniels Band song featured here);) and the Atlanta Rhythm Section (Doraville).

ALBUMS: Credit in Heaven (1982); Love is the Law (1983); self-entitled (1986)

MVC Rating: Credit 4.0/$$$$$; Love is the Law 4.0/$$$$; self entitled 3.5/$$$$.

Some of my favorite artists are from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in cold-as-heck Minnesota: Prince, the Replacements, Husker Du, Soul Asylum and Peter Himmelman to name a few.

I used to live there as well from Grades 1 to 3 in the mid-1960s. We lived in Married Student Housing as my father was pursuing a degree at the University of Minnesota. I watched him trudge to school every morning on a well-worn path through the snow. Then I’d trudge to the bus stop to school.

It was so cold the fire department came every year in the winter and hosed down the field out back. The water would freeze , which turned into ice and voila, instant ice rink. I learned to play hockey, sort of.

Our housing complex was right next to the Minnesota state fairgrounds. I and several buddies would sneak into the fair without paying by crawling through the woods and under a chain link fence.

Bad boys, what you going to do.

My three best friends were from other countries: a Pakistani, an Australian and a mischievous Turk.

The hippie family two doors down disappeared in the middle of the night after he was drafted for service in the Vietnam war. We heard they relocated in Canada.

I tell you all this because it doesn’t surprise me that a varied and interesting amount of talent comes out of the Twin CIties in Minnesota.

The Suburbs was one of those, and, for a time in the 1980s, they appeared close to breaking out . They were headlining major venues in the Twin Cities, putting out an alternative vibe that combined funk, electronic, and jazzy rock and roll. They were a little like the Talking Heads with a nod toward the silly like the B-52s

But, alas, there would be no suburban flight.

After four studio albums , they called it quits in around 1988. They re-formed in the 90s and have been putting out some music and playing local venues.

Their albums all have some great music. I think if I had to reccomend one, it would be the Twin Tones double album ‘Credit in Heaven.’

Love is the Law’ was their first major label, (Mercury), and it is quite good, as well.

There were no car chases or bloody shootouts. And some of the most suspenseful scenes had to do with the lead character forgetting things.

But it was as intense and suspenseful as any movie I’ve seen in a long time.

Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of a man with dementia was a wonderful bit of acting,. The technique of seeing the confounding events through the eyes of Hopkins was an excellent way to make the audience glimpse what dementia is like.

As a writer with Lewy body dementia, I have been through most of the symptomatic presentations the film tries to portray.: Forgetting faces, time, and locations. Seeing and interacting with people who are not there.

I wish the film had a scene in it that would have given viewers more context.. I think it could have done easily with a scene at the doctor’s office, with medical staff explaining to Hopkins’ character the type of dementia it was, life expectancy and medications, etc. By leaving those and other elements out, the movie left the audience to figure out the sometimes impressionistic sequences of Hopkins view. of his world. But maybe that was the point.

Did anyone ever use the word Alzheimer’s in the movie? They must have but I didn’t catch it. I’m absolutely certain they didn’t mention Lewy body dementia, the second leading type of degenerative brain disease behind Alzheimer’s.. Frontotemporal, vascular, and Parkinson’s disease with dementia are other forms of dementia. Lewy body patients usually have the most hallucinations.

These are quibbles at most. The movie was excellent and will raise empathetic awareness to an increasing and scary bevy of dementias. We need early, correct diagnosis and more research into the types to improve treatments and increase lifespans.

Read Lewy body patient Mike Oliver’s experience with ‘horrific’ hallucinations here:

Blog is MyVinylCountdown.com Click on ABOUT ME. for more on what this is about.

I don’t really have a list, at least not one written down. So that number is a ‘guesstimate.’

But this one I have to write down: I woke up this morning and my dog was in my bed, just casually lying there.

Gus, a small, slightly overweight, 15-year-old Golden Doodle (subset Psychodoodle), isn’t supposed to be able to scale the heights of our bed, at least since we got a new one recently.

Gus used to be a regular when we had a much lower bed.

We bought the new bed about three months ago and it’s a good 3-feet off the ground. And Gus, we have noticed is getting older and more unstable with his feet. Like me.

Gus recently was unable to jump up into the car to go to the beauty parlor where my wife, Catherine, tells Kimberly, the proprietor of Bark, Bath and Bubbles, to cut it close.

Now Kimberly is a professional and could gussy up Gus to look like Cinderella (or maybe Prince Charming) if she wasn’t under orders by Catherine to give it a crewcut. He looks like a large rodent now. Nothing wrong with the rodent look, it’s very popular in the hot summertime. And it’s a great conversation piece on daily walks.

“What kind is that?” asks the lady with a perfectly coiffed standard poodle while widening her distance on the sidewalk

“A Golden Rodent,” I would like to say, but refrain.

I am getting off track, however.

The fact is my 15 year-old dog (about 78 in dog years) was lying on my bed looking at me with those expressive eyes when I woke up this morning. About 6:30 a.m.

Gus? How did you get up here? I said it more with astonishment than anger. Gus has a sixth sense about oncoming storms and often runs around looking for a safe place. At this early in the morning I did not hear any thunder or see lightning though. It did look like we were in a turbulent weather pattern. (It later hailed).

My whole point here is that… that… well Gus is going to die. And I, who am 61, will likely succumb earlier than planned due to my Lewy body dementia.

Now dogs are smart but I don’t know what they think about mortality. Do they know they are going to die?

I was in the room the last two times the family dog died. The last one, Molly, a yellow Lab, was very sick and had to be euthanized. Just before she was injected, her eyes, before they fixed, seemed to say, ‘Where am I going?’

Gus and I are watching each other, I believe. Like his sixth sense with the weather, Gus will probably know the time. But until then Gus is going to enjoy what he still can.

Even before the bed jump, I noticed Gus was running around puppy- like, in recent days, playing with his rubber doggie bone and generally being frisky.

Maybe it’s because it is Spring, renewal (and pollen) in the air.

Well Gus inspired me. Catherine, Gus, and I went on one of the best and most strenuous walks I’ve been on in a while. Though drained, I felt stoked. I had more energy, all inspired by Gus.

I’m going to rub behind his ears —his favorite thing— a little extra tonight.

UPDATE NOTE: After Saturday’s 3 a.m. lightning and thunder shelling, guess who was back in bed with us, for the second night in a row.

ALBUMS: The Deep End (1981): The Swimming Pool Q’s (1984); Blue Tomorrow (1986); World War 2.5 (1989). Single Little Misfit/Stingray (1981)

MVC Rating: The Deep End 3.0/$$$$; self entitled 4.5/$$$$$; Blue Tomorrow 4.0/$$$; World War 2.5/$$$; Little Misfit/Stingray 3.5/$$$

These little misfits started in the deep end and could never figure out exactly what sound worked best for them. They came out of Atlanta and obviously were exposed to a lot of Athens, Ga. music at the turn of the 1980’s. Songs like Big Fat Tractor, Stingray and Little Misfit. These songs fit right into the sound of songs like ‘Rock Lobster and ‘Private Idaho’ by the B-52’s.’

In a small theater hall on the University of Georgia campus I saw the B-52’s and have to admit didn’t know what to think of them. The Swimming Pool Q’s were the opening act.

The Q’s on their major label debut showed off an array of guitar driven songs tempered by the awesome voice of Ann Richmond Boston. Their two A&M albums were the best. You had several radio friendly songs in Celestion, Now I’m Talking ‘Bout Now,’ Blue Tomorrow, Some New Highway, and She’s Bringing Down the Poison and the Bells Ring. They were good musicians — Bob Elsey was and is an understated underrated guitarist extraordinaire hear it on ‘She’s Looking Good When She’s Looking.’ Jeff Calder was also a fine guitarist and believe he played keyboard as well.

Calder and Boston tempered each other or should I say Boston tempered Calder. Without the female voice of Boston, Calder’s voice came down like a sledgehammer and so did his songwriting. World War 2.5 had some good guitar but also a big swing into hard punk that made it hard to keep on the turntable.

Still, as a group they are one of my all-time underappreciated groups from that era. Their experience shows the fragility of success and the thin line between being multimillionaire rock stars — B-52s and R.E.M. (to name a couple of Athens, Ga. bands) and a group with some equally great songs that never caught on.

It’s not fair but neither is life.

ALBUMS: Let it Be (1984); Pleased to Meet Me (1987); Don’t Tell a Soul (1989); All Shook Down (1990)

MVC RATING: Let 4.5/$$$$$; Pleased 4.0/$$$$$; Don’t 4.0/$$$$$; All 4.0/$$$$$

The Replacements were nicknamed the ‘Mats’ short for the Placemats as they were called by some.

They were a mess. They were boozy and druggy. Their live performances were wildly different depending on who was mad at who or how much the guitarist had been imbibing or they just felt like doing KISS cover songs that night.

Their third album, ‘Let it Be,’ captured this reckless energy and is considered by many critics to be one of the best punk/alternative records of them all. (I’d like to put it up song-by-song against ‘And Out Came the Wolves ..’ by Rancid for best punk rock albums.)

The Replacements had something. Much of it to my older years I now find it to be a touch noisy and less connective to where I am in my life right now. I do still like some of their mid to slow tempo pieces. Like ‘Skyway,’ ‘Can’t Hardly Wait, ‘Sadly Beautiful and ‘Achin to Be.’

Paul Westerberg’s vocals, even the screamed ones, sound like he’s under control while systematically pushing out the angst.

I was amused to see a recent article on Variety.com about Baby Boomers and their harsh feelings toward making the word vinyl plural — as in ‘vinyls.

‘You can buy or play a record, but you can’t buy or play a vinyl,’ the argument goes. ‘There’s even a popular T-shirt that reads: The plural of vinyl is vinyl. 

Well I call B.S. on this feigned outrage.

It was (us) old people who started in with the ‘Internets,’ a derisive joke making fun of President George W. Bush’s use of the word. Soon it became a phrase used by many with a wink wink, nod nod.

And for no extra charge, I’ll give our youngsters who say vinyls even more information/ammunition.

The word ‘album.’

I grew up where an album meant a multipage book with pockets that you slid photos into, or a stamp album that displays many pages of stamps. Everybody had a ‘family’ album.

But that word has evolved to mean everything from a single 33 and 1/3 vinyl record to a compact disc with songs on it; or even a cassette. ‘What’s you got on tape? Oh I have the new Replacements album.’

I think the word mutated with the advent of LP’s. Before them were 78’s, which were made of thick acetate and usually had one song per side. These records often were sold as ‘albums’ in which multiple records were placed in sleeves into what looked like a book.

Variety says it seems the Gen Z crowd is behind the vinyls. Well Gen Z-ers now you have a counter to the Baby Boomer ‘outrage.’