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XYZ MyVinylCountdown

The headline is not meant to represent that childhood saying –Examine Your Zipper — we directed at someone with their fly open. Nor, is it meant to revisit the strange post I had here on my blog about the Rolling Stones and their zipper cover album.

This XYZ means alphabetically we are getting down to the end of my quest to count down and explore the 678 albums I have collected since childhood. XYZ means we are hitting artists whose names start with X, followed by Y, then Z. I have 35 slots to fill until that magical 678 number.

Now before we get too excited here, I have no grandiose plans, at least not yet, to somehow celebrate this accomplishment. I am going to keep my website up and, yes, I am most likely going to keep writing music reviews beyond the ‘official’ 678. I will also continue to write about Lewy body dementia and my living with it. I will likely continue to write my observations on other topics as well.

And there are some stragglers to deal with, records that were lost in my increasingly unorganized collection. I may, for example write a ‘soundtracks’ post or a ‘compilation’ piece.

So hang on, the big challenge — that I would finish the 678 before I die of this brain disease — appears very much in reach.

If nothing else it will be interesting to see which recordsing artists have names that start with X or Y or Z.

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Tom Waits — 33

ALBUM: Frank’s Wild Years (1987)

MVC Rating: 4.5/$$$$$

His voice sounds like Bob Dylan with a chest cold. His songs, full of muted horns, and simple piano tinkling, hearken back to Tin Pan Alley with a venture into beatnik culture.

From ‘Down in the Hole,’ which became part of the theme music of the acclaimed mini-series ‘The Wire:’ If you walk with Jesus, he will save your soul, got to keep the devil, down in the hole.

This lyric from I’ll Be Gone: Tonight I’ll shave the mountains, I’ll cut the hearts from pharoahs, I’ll pull the road off the rise, I’ll tear the memories from my eyes, And in the morning I’ll be gone.’

If you are intrigued by Joe Cocker singing jazzy Frank Sinatra style songs with enigmatic Dylan-like lyrics in a smoky San Francisco beatnik bar, Waits is your man.

My 1987 album on vinyl is kind of rare. You can pick this up on CD for $10 or $15 but the original 1987 press will likely set you back more than $50, at least.

You know who I thought of after listening to the album over several days. He sings like Louis Armstrong –the always hoarse ‘Satchmo.’

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Stevie Wonder — 34

ALBUM: The Original Musiquarium (1982)

MVC Rating: 4.5/ $$$$$

Growing up in the 1970s you would be hard pressed to turn on any Top 40 radio station and NOT hear a Stevie Wonder tune.

The visually impaired singer put out classic after classic and probably did more than anyone to bridge the difference between black and white listeners (save Michael Jackson).

If you want to re-live those years, Musiquarium is a great start. The two-record set features 11 Top 40 hits and five album tracks from 1972-1982. Songs include ‘Superstition,’ ‘Livin’ for the City,’You are the Sunshine of My Life,’ ‘Higher Ground,’ ‘Sir Duke,’ ‘Master Blaster (Jammin’) and ‘Isn’t She Lovely,’ among others.

Wikipedia called Wonder ‘a virtual one-man band’ due to how his incorporation of synthesizers and electronic music changed the face of R&B.

The child prodigy was signed to Tamla records at age 11.

My brother had Innervisions, a great studio album, put out in 1972 which had perhaps my favorite Wonder song. ‘Livin’ for the City.’ It was socially conscious, not self-conscious — so you could dance to it.

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The Who — 37, 36, 35

ALBUMS: Odds and Sods (1974); Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy (1971); The Who By Numbers (1975)

MVC Ratings: Odds 4.0/$$$$; Meaty 5.0/$$$$$; Numbers 4.0/$$$

I’m kind of surprised I don’t have more Who records. I was a fan of their rock operas: ‘Tommy’ and ‘Quadrophenia,’ but I guess I listened to them so much with friends who were Who fanatics, I just never bought them. (How I don’t have ‘Who’s Next’ is unforgiveable though.)

I do have Tommy as performed by the London Philharmonic but I obtained that just recently so I’m not counting it in my Countdown.

For my money Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy is one of the top greatest hits compilations of all time. It captures all the early stuff like ‘My Generation,’ ‘I Can See for Miles,’ ‘Substitute,’ ‘Pinball Wizard,’ and even ‘Magic Bus.’

These early song reveal a quartet of great musicians playing original songs (mostly by guitarist Pete Townshend).

Re-listening to the songs again after all these years had me focusing on the rhythm section — one of the best in rock music. John Entwistle on bass had few peers. Go put a Who song put it on and try to focus on the bass. He died several years ago. And Keith Moon — also deceased — was a maniac on the drums. Add lead sing Roger Daltrey and guitarist extraordinaire Pete Townshend and you had nearly the perfect band.

I think I sort of burned out on the Who after seeing them in concert in the 80’s and they were loud to the point of distortion and hearing loss. ‘Who Are You’ was an album I decided not to buy. The presage to this moving away from the Who was the movie version of Tommy. Roger Daltrey movie star and overexposure was starting to creep.

In 1975, I bought The Who by Numbers, which was low key and really good (probably one of their most underrated.) But radio picked up on ‘Squeeze Box, a novelty tune, and played it to death.

My wildcard in all of this is ‘Odds and Sods,’ a collection of early outtakes, alternate takes and just lost-in-the-vault songs.

The surprising thing was it had some real strong songs such as ‘Pure and Easy,’ ‘Too Much of Something,’ and ‘Put the Money Down,’ and ‘Faith in Something Bigger.’ My wife, then girlfriend, Catherine’s favorite ‘Now I’m A Farmer’ (And I’m digging, digging, digging, digging). The song is about getting out of the city and growing vegetables, even gourds. This was the Who’s back-to-nature song akin to the Kinks‘ ‘I’m an Apeman.’