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Summer Means Fun — 112

ALBUM: Summer Means Fun (1982, 2 records)

MVC Rating: 3.5/$$

Well it is summer, and here’s a summer album. The compilation is full of songs that you thought the Beach Boys did. And in many cases they did — just not here. For example, ‘Help Me Rhonda’ a song written by and performed by the Beach Boys and is represented here by a version from Johnny Rivers.

This ‘Hot Rod and Surf’ music on this album has lots of covers from lots of bands you probably never heard of:

Besides the Hot Doggers, there’s the Rip Chords (with 9 songs on the album), and Jan and Dean who have an obscure original called “Like Summer Rain.

The liner notes offer the key:

“The majority of the material comes from the very creative minds of two legendary California rockers named Bruce Johnston (who later joined the Beach Boys and was a long time member), and Terry Melcher (producer for the Byrds and Paul Revere and the Raiders).

So, many are covers but they are well done by a couple of guys close to the originals.

Melcher has been credited with helping to shape the sound of 1960s surf music in California, according to several sources cited by Wikipedia.

The music sound is swell but after listening to four album sides, they start sounding alike. In fact, in some cases I think they just change the chorus a bit and — voila — another song. Some, like ‘Hey Little Cobra,’ are unabashedly formulaic.

Later in his career, Johnston wrote ‘I Write the Songs,’ a monster hit for Barry Manilow.

Among the artists and the songs: Bruce & Terry on the title song ‘Summer Means Fun; The Hot Doggers, Surfing Safari; The RIp-Chords, ‘Hey Little Cobra.’ and Flash Cadilac and the Continental Kids, ‘Pipeline; and the ‘ Hot-Doggers, ‘Beach Girl.’

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The Spencer Davis Group — 113

ALBUM: The Spencer Davis Group (Golden Archive Series compilation)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$

‘I’m a Man,’ the tune is a 2 minute and 40-second blast of rock and roll. “I’m a maaaan yes I am, yes I am … ‘

It’s from 1967!! And it still sounds fresh, timeless.

And the very next song the 1965 “Keep on Running’ has a Steven Tyler-styled scream in it. Though the scream was short, it was effective and made me wonder if now’ 50-plus years or more years removed from this would teens today believe it’s a song that came out before their parents were born.

Oh, there were plenty other hard rocking and rolling bands out there at this time: Beatles, Who, Rolling Stones, Kinks. (Just to name the obvious British ones. The Brits were ahead of the curve on incorporating American blues music into rock and pop. And the Spencer Davis Group were ahead of many of their contemporary British blues rockers. At least on some songs such as ‘Gimme Some Lovin,’ ‘ and “I’m a Man.’

Steve Winwood was a co-founding member of the band. He went on to form the groups Traffic and Blind Faith.

Spencer Davis says in the liner notes: ‘I love that original Spencer Davis Group … I think it would have been great to tour the United States because, and I’m sticking my neck out here, I think Steve never sounded as good with Traffic, Blind Faith or Air Force as he did with this band.”

The other album I’m throwing in here is ‘It’s Been So Long,’ from Spencer Davis’ short-lived collaboration with guitarist Peter Jameson in the early 1970s.

The Jameson-Davis collaboration did have one very positive result, an acoustic album which is wonderful and a myvinylcountdown Blue Plate Special.

You can get this album incredibly cheap (I got mine for 50 cents). I later ordered a new copy for under $5. When I first bought this album I couldn’t find any listings for it — but since then I’ve seen a number of listings on Discogs, at cheap prices.

I don’t know how this album got overlooked — it is very melodic English folk-influenced music. I have listed it on my list of most underrated albums that I own.

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Cat Stevens/Yusuf — 115, 114

ALBUMS: Catch Bull at Four (1972); Teaser and the Firecat (1971)

MVC RATING: Bull: 4.0/$$$; Teaser 4.0/$$$$

It wasn’t until Cat Stevens accumulated a bunch of songs that I grew to appreciate him. WIth one exception — ‘Wild World.’ That song hooked me from the beginning.

‘Father and Son’ not far behind.

Both songs are on Tea for Tillerman. an album I don’t have. The radio was where I picked up on that song. The truth is, even though I have two of Cat Stevens biggest selling albums, I didn’t listen to them much because the hits were all over the radio, and I never spent the time to explore the songs that weren’t so famous.

Catch Bull at Four, for example has no hits and is a good album. Surprisingly, Catch Bull was one of his biggest hit albums. But Teaser was the breakthrough album for Stevens. It had Peace Train and the gorgeous ‘Morning has Broken,’ a song found in many Christian church hymnals. (Although he popularized the song, Stevens did not write Morning has Broken.)

When I did try out the albums I found some to be erratic. Several songs, I thought, were meandering and oblique (House of the Freezing Steel, for example.) It wasn’t until I got a greatest hits collection on CD that included all in one place “Wild World,” “Peace Train,” Father and Son,” “The First Cut is the Deepest,” “Morning has Broken,” and ‘Moonshadow,’ among others — that I paid attention. His voice and unusual vocal style grew on me.

In the late 1990s after several life-changing events, including nearly dying of tuberculosis, Stevens changed his name to Yusuf Islam and converted to Islam. For years he wouldn’t play his old music or even any secular music. As Yusuf he eventually came back to playing his old songs about 2006 — as well as new ones. I have listened to the Roadsinger one of his first Yusuf secular albums. and though he’s singing in his old familiar voice, the songs are more spiritual and it doesn’t have any potential classic singles on it like his older albums — but certainly worth exploring if you are a big Cat Stevens/Yusuf fan.

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Addendum and update: ‘How I stopped my horrific hallucinations’

As I continue living with this disease, Lewy body dementia, I have some post-game analysis on one of the most terrifying stories I’ve written about all this.

The post, which is on this blog, is headlined ‘How I stopped the horrific hallucinations that threatened my family, my sanity and my life.’

I am writing to add some nuance to the declaration in that story that I took one wonder pill — primavanserin — and ‘poof’ the ‘hallucinations went away.

That’s an oversimplification and I am tweaking the post a bit to better reflect reality, and you know how much I appreciate reality.

I do believe in the ‘wonder’ drug, primavanserin (Nuplazid), and that it was instrumental in helping me climb out of my hallucinations and back into reality. But the issuance of that new medication was part of a total review and adjustment of all my medications.

We went to several doctors where I received prescriptions for a medley of medicines. I do remember believing that I could use the carbodopa/levadopa on a sort of use as needed situation which led to me overmedicating myself, I suspect.

Carbodopa/levadopa treated the Parkinsonian effects of my Lewy body dementia, enabling me to write, walk easier and rid myself of that horrible, hard-to-describe feeling inside. I now think the increased use of that carbadopa/levadopa coupled with doses of anti-anxiety medication, an antidepressant and seriquol sent me into a psychosis, driven by my Lewy body dementia, where I was immersed in an alternate reality.

Once dropped into this state of unreality I had a hard time communicating to my caregivers what I felt was going on.

We sought opinions from several doctors and settled on a plan from Dr. Kasia Rothenberg, MD, PhD, at the Cleveland Clinic. She added the Nuplazid, and cut back on doses of just about everything else I was taking.

I found it interesting that as my medications were re-configured, my hallucinations built a story around it.

In these latter stages of hallucinations, I had gained control again of my house and delivered a dramatic speech to my nemesis, Red John, and his family telling them they had to leave my house.

And I haven’t had the hallucinations since. Well, I should qualify that. I still see Red John and other cohorts in various patterns, in crumpled bed sheets,, in the windblown movement of trees and bushes. Red John is sometimes smiling like we were old buddies, other times the look will be menacing but I can make it go away by looking away. These glimpses are a far cry from the immersion into another world that I went through last summer. Thank God.

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Mason Ruffner — 116

ALBUM: Gypsy Blood (1987)

MVC RATING: 4.0/$$$

Straight ahead rock guitarist singer-songwriter who has a mountain in Birmingham, AL, named after him. No, no scrap that last one about the mountain. Turns out that was named after a geologist named Ruffner in the 1880s.

Mason Ruffner sounds a little like Tom Petty and his guitar playing a little like Petty’s Heartbraker bandmate Mike Campbell. Add a pinch of New Orleans and Boston bluesman George Thorogood and you’ve got Ruffner.

Ruffner is a more than accomplished musician and is in my estimation underrated. “Gypsy” is the guitar -driven hit here. “Baby I don’t Care No More,’ is a rollicking piano guitar piece that sounds like it’s coming straight out of a New Orleans bar. Wikipedia points out that he played with Bob Dylan and Dylan mentioned him in Dylan’s memoirs

“Ruffner played in Bourbon Street clubs like the Old Absinthe Bar. He was a regional star, had a high pompadour, a gold tooth smile with a tiny guitar inlaid,” Dylan wrote in Chronicles: Volume One.

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Roxy Music — 117

ALBUMS: Avalon (1982); MUSIQUE: The High Road (1983)

MVC Ratings : Avalon 4.5/$$$$; Musique 4.5 $$$

Over the years I’ve tallked to a lot of people about music. I’ve argued over albums that are underrated or overrated. I’ve talked about sound quality, which musicians are best at their instruments, and so on and on. It beats talking about the weather.

A lot of music lovers in my particular demographic i.e. balding older white males with mediocre dance moves, like or love Roxy Music. That may be a statement that is hard for me to explain. But, especially in Roxy’s later years( I mean early 80s), the group displayed a smooth sound with excellent instrumentals and a lead singer in Bryan Ferry who was the definition of smooth.

The High Road, a live EP from ’83, has two of the best rock covers I’ve heard: Jealous Guy (where they re-work the Lennon song;) and Like a Hurricane, Neil Young’s windy love song. This album is an EP with four song. But you get the two aforementioned songs on one side with about 15 minutes of music.

Avalon is a full length album.’ More than This’ was a No. 1 single in the UK, but surprisingly never cracked the top 100 here in the US. The title song and ‘Take a Chance on Me’ are a few other highlights. If you like the sound I’d buy both albums. I have an anthology of all their work on CD, and it is good but does not have these albums on it, instead focusing on older material like ‘(Do) The Strand.’ Now, one of their better songs — from the album Siren — is called ‘Love is the Drug.’ I like the crunchy guitar sound in that song. Again I have that digitally.

You may also have noticed the cover of The High Road is featured (bottom right) in a collage-like display on my Home Page.

Also see Bryan Ferry.

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The Raybeats — 118

ALBUM: Guitar Beat (1981)

MVC RATING: 3.5/$$$

This is not your grandfather’s Ventures — the Ventures being the guitar-no-vocals band that enjoyed worldwide success in the 1960s and beyond with their melodic, catchy sound and virtuoso playing.

No, this is punk guitar picking ‘neo-surf rock’ band. They are now gone but I’d say they were the only ones to occupy this genre. Some of the songs are so avant garde as to be unlistenable even if you can appreciate the talent of the musicians. With some of their other songs such as ‘Searching,’ ‘Tight Turn‘ and ‘Calhoun Surf,’ you can catch a wave of twanged-up guitar and have a good time.

The drummer stands out. They also throw in some saxophone and organ. However, and I know I’m getting old, but I’d sooner put a Ventures (or Duane Eddy) album on the turntable than this one.

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The Spongetones — 119

ALBUMS: Torn Apart (`984)

MVC RATING: 4.0/$$$

I got one album of theirs. Wish I had more after listening to this again after all these years. And this was an EP, which means it was extended past the 45 stage — one and done on side one — but it’s not near as long as most full albums.

Beatlesque is thrown around a lot. So I won’t throw it out there .

I’ve heard the Beatles and these guys from Charlotte, N.C., are no Beatles. But the title song and ‘Now You’re Gone’ get pretty close.

‘Thanks from the band on the back cover to Don Dixon, Mitch Easter and ‘all of REM for hand claps on Maryanne.”

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The Staple Singers — 120; Wattstax: The Living Word –121

ALBUMS: Be What You Are (1973); Wattstax: The Living Word (1973).

MVC Rating: Be What You Are, 4.0/$$$$: Wattstax 4.0/$$$$$

Music fans owe a big debt to our churches. Our places of worship have been *fertile soil for the growth of some of our best known singers and musicians.

Little Richard, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Tina Turner, and Usher to name just a few.

The Staple Singers were one of my favorites along these lines. Their soulful gospel crossed over well to rock fans of the 1960s and 1970s with Roebuck ‘Pops’ Staple ripping some electric guitar licks behind the emotional gospel singing of his children, Cleotha, Pervis and Mavis. Daughter Yvonne replaced Pervis after he was drafted, according to Wikipedia .

Mavis was the star of the group with a deep soulful voice that was as chock-full of vocal asides, ‘oh yeahs,’ ‘Lord help me’s,’ and ‘y’alls’ — (Take my hand if you can, ‘y’all uh huh.’)

My record, ‘Be What You Are’ was among several that charted in the early 1970. My copy is in terrible condition, and I’ve just made a mental note to get it replaced. See I knew there was some reason I was doing this.

The other album I have is Wattstax, a 2-record set capturing the massive soul/rock fund-raiser held on the sixth anniversary of the 1965 Watts riots in Los Angeles. It was a coming together at the Los Angeles Coliseum of 100,000 people and every recording artist on the Stax record label.

The Staple Singers were featured on a full album side. Other performers on the record include Rufus Thomas, Isaac Hayes, Albert King and the Dramatics. The Staple Singers played one of their biggest hits: Respect Yourself.

The Staple Singers also were featured in The Last Waltz, the concert film directed by Martin Scorsese starring the Band. Mavis and family are true highlights singing the ‘Weight’ with the group.

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Paul Simon — 122

ALBUM: There Goes Rhymin’ Simon (1973}

MVC Ratjngs 4.5/$$$$

It’s the wonderful Paul Simon being Paul Simon. Great album featuring several classic songs. It’s Paul Simon, who on this record in 1973 got the word ‘crap’ on Top 40 radio.


‘When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all.’

I was 13 or 14 and was digging it. When you’re a teenager, you have to feel aggrieved about something. And so I was already identifying with how worthless high school was going to be — and I haven’t even gone yet!

The other song here that just killed was ‘Love Me Like a Rock backed by a gospel choir. Radio friendly singalong.

The two hits, ‘Kodachrome’ and ‘Love Me Like A Rock’ bookend the album with Kodachrome being the first slot and “Love Me” closes out the album on the second side. In between are mostly stellar songs that showcase Simon’s fantastic voice and songwriting. It also showed him stepping across genres and experimenting with world music which would later become a significant pursuit of his.

Back to Kodachrome. This is a well written song. I particularly liked the line:

Well now my lack of education hadn’t hurt me none, i can read the writing on the wall.

Made me think, I don’t know why, to Simon and Garfunkel’s Sound of Silence: “And the words of the prophets were written on the subway walls.”