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Frank Zappa– 9, 8, 7, 6, 5

ALBUMS: Freak Out (1966); Mothers of Invention Golden Archives Series (1970); Apostrophe/Over Nite Sensation (1973); Joe’s Garage (1979). Joe’s Garage Acts II and III (1979.)

MVC Ratings: Freak Out, 4.5/$$$$$; Mothers, 4.0/$$$$$; Apostrophe 4. 0/$$$$; Joe’s Garage 4.0/$$$$$; Joe’s Garage Acts II and III, 4.0/$$$$.

On the inner space of the gatefold is a quote from one who is only described as ‘A Noted LA Disc Jockey, who proclaims: No commercial potential.

This was after the release of the two-record, groundbreaking ‘Freak Out’ in 1966. True, in retrospect Zappa has had very few hits over the course of his 60-plus albums. (‘Valley Girl’ with his daughter Moon Unit, and Joe’s Garage are two that jump out.)

Zappa is hard to pigeonhole by genre — jazz, rock, classical, avant- garde, satire. He covers a lot of territory.

He is frequently ranked on best guitarists’ lists. He was an admirer of Edgar Varese, an experimental composer who once said: ‘What is music but organized noises?’

Joe’s Garage

Zappa’s first album with the Mothers of Invention, which included two members of the disbanded Turtles of ‘Happy Together’ fame, is considered a cornerstone of the psychedelic rock wave.

The influence was mind-altering substances. The psyche songs were typically longer with freak-out elements like fuzz and wah-wah guitar, distorted vocals, and unfathomable lyrics and long jams. While the ’66 album ‘Freak Out had most of these elements — Freak Out’s final album side was all one song ‘The Return of the Sun of the Monster Magnet.’

And while it truly was the kind of music that would freak you out (or laugh at the absurdity, it was also a colossal put-on or put-down by Zappa, who did not use recreational drugs and was roasting all things hippie. The biggest Psych-out here was that while listeners were freaking out at the music, the music was holding them up for ridicule.

One song, ‘Flower Punk’ on the Golden Archives best of Mothers’ was a parody of Hey Joe, the blues song made psychedelic by Jimi Hendrix.

Hey Punk, where you going with that flower in your hand/Well, I’m goin’ up to Frisco to join a psychedelic band.
I’m goin’ up to Frisco to join a psychedelic band.

“Help I’m a Rock’ is another song that skewers drug influenced music. Help I’m a Rock is repeated over steady percussion. Then the freak-out begins. ‘Who could imagine we’re going to freak out in Kansas (several voices join in singing Kansas, Kansas, doo doo doo doo.)

Joe’s Garage came out in 1979 when I was settling into Auburn University. I heard this on college radio and ran out to buy the album. (That’s the way it’s supposed to be; there was no streaming music that you pushed a button to get.)

I love the song chronicling the life cycle of a rock band. The album is thematic and uses several of Zappa’s trademark and puerile R-rated tunes such as ‘Wet T-Shirt Night’ and ‘Crew Slut.’ They were kind of funny to a Howard Stern audience, or 13-year-olds.

In the second album, two-record set called Joe’s Garage II and III, Zappa comes up with an excellent instrumental piece called ‘Watermelon in Easter Hay.’

Zappa got some exposure in the 1980s when he took on Tipper Gore and the PRMC.

Zappa obviously was a talent. (He died of cancer in 1993). I think some of his lyrics are sexist. Some were absurdist funny as in the song ‘Montana,’ he sings: ‘I’m moving to Montana soon to start a dental floss farm,’

And he has good advice: He offers this to those moving to Montana or anywhere there is lots of snow: ‘Watch out where the huskies go and don’t you eat that yellow snow.’

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Zager & Evans– 10

ALBUM: Zager & Evans (1970)

MVC Rating: 1.5/$$$

‘In the Year 2525’ was big on the radio in 1969. The sweeping end of the world epic sounded like nothing else.

In the year 2525, if man is still alive, if woman can survive, they may find …

Turn it up, we are all going to die.

While some liked to make fun of the song, it was/is wildly popular. Some even called it prophetic. So what happened to Zager & Evans? One-hit wonders. I was curious, especially after finding and buying their follow-up album in a thrift shop. It had their follow-up single to 2525, a little ditty called ‘Mr. Turnkey.’

Therein lies a clue as to why they never burned up the charts again. The song was about a rapist who nails his hand to the wall in jail. As blogger Ira Brooker, tongue in cheek, noted:

Sadly, pop audiences inexplicably failed to embrace rape and self-mutilation and Zager and Evans quickly faded into obscurity.

But their hit, 2525, first recorded on a small regional label in Nebraska lives on.

In the year 7510, if God’s a-coming, he ought to make it by then, maybe he’ll look around himself and say ‘Guess it’s time for the judgment day.

Oh oh whoa oh.

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Robin Williams — 11

ALBUM: ‘Reality. What a concept’

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

I’d purposely passed over this and my other comedy records thinking I would keep it strictly to music. However, given that it’s Robin Williams who died by suicide after living with undiagnosed Lewy body dementia, it seemed like he belonged on this list. And I have a Robin Williams’ comedy album — I believe his first one.

I mean after all, it is why I am doing this: to raise awareness of this relatively common but little known brain disease. Robin’s case has shined a light but much more research is needed. And this album puts his super sharp mind on display.

Little did I know that 40 years after buying this album, I would meet his widow, Susan Schneider Williams, at a summit on Lewy body dementia in Las Vegas. I told her it the not knowing what is wrong with you that is the hardest part.

And even when we know what it is, we’re not sure what is happening because the disease can leave thoughts muddled..

The ‘reality’ album came out in 1978, the year I graduated from high school in Athens, Ga. I’m not sure what prompted me to buy it, other than he was an up-and-coming comedian with hilarious appearances on Johnny Carson and, later, David Letterman.

I thought this album was funny but not really as funny as Steve Martin’s comedy record, ‘Let’s Get Small,’ one I also had. There is one routine on the Williams’ album that shows off Williams’ imagination and rapid fire brain. It’s called ‘Come inside My Mind’ and it is classic Robin Williams, letting you peak inside his head as his jokes fail doing a stand-up comedy routine. Mayday mayday. His brain shouts at him.

Here is a nice list by Rahul Bansal of 41 inspirational quotes from Robin. See if you don’t agree that some are eerily prophetic.

OK back to the Y’s and Z’s as we finish this on out.

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The Youngbloods — 12

ALBUM: The Best of the Youngbloods (1967)

MVC Rating: 3.5

‘Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another right now.’

That lyric is probably one of the most remembered lines in rock music. Quick, who sang it?

Well, you’ve already got the answer in the headline. The Youngbloods weren’t the first to publish; their version was the most popular. But even that requires explanation. The Kingston Trio recorded a version in 1964. The Youngbloods did their version in 1967 but only went to No. 62 on the Hot 100 charts.

Meanwhile, the song was used in a commercial and re-entered the Hot 100 in 1969, climbing all the way to No. 5.

Singer Chet Powers wrote the song, but he is probably best known for his work using the pseudonym Dino Valenti in Quicksilver Messenger Service. He wrote and sang two of Quicksilver’s biggest hits ‘Fresh Air’ and ‘What’s About Me.’

‘Get Together’ has been covered many times. Nirvana used the famous line in their sarcastic intro to ‘Territorial Pissings.”

According to Songfacts.com:

“Get Together” stayed in the zeitgeist, with covers by Linda Ronstadt, The Sunshine Company, and The Staple Singers in 1968, but it didn’t break through as a hit until 1969, when The National Conference of Christians and Jews distributed it to radio and TV stations to support Brotherhood Week.”

For a band now considered one-hit wonders, the Youngbloods were good beyond their hit; The ‘Best of’ includes the hit along with popular album cuts and not-so-successful singles. Youngbloods lead singer Jesse Colin Young went on to have a moderately successful music career.

NOTE: An earlier version of this post had Chet Powers in the band. He wrote the song, but was not in the Youngbloods. He played with Quicksilver Messenger Service under the name Dino Valenti.

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Michael Nesmith is dead and I’m not feeling so well myself.

I’ve used this headline before, borrowed from now deceased Atlanta columnist Lewis Grizzard.

I thought I should say a word about Michael Nesmith who died of heart failure Dec. 10, given the fact that the Monkees were a big influence on my 9-year-old self.

The wool-hat wearing Nesmith was perhaps the most serious of the four-member Monkees, a pop/rock band formed for a TV show of the same name in the mid 1960s. It was an obvious attempt to tap into the enormous success of the Beatles. (Get it: Monkeys and Beetles!!!)

I was all in as a youngster. It came on Saturdays about noon after the cartoons were winding down. I probably knew Monkees songs before I even heard a Beatles song. ‘Here They Come,’ ‘Stepping Stone,’ ‘Last Train to Clarksville,’ and ‘Pleasant Valley Sunday,’ among other Top 40 hits.

So in reading the extensive Wikipedia profile of Nesmith, it was good to hear he had a full life before dying at 78.

Although all Monkees were supposed to have musical skills, the instrumentation for much of the featured songs on shows were done by studio musicians, a source of friction between band members, especially Nesmith, and the producers. Of the Monkees, Davy Jones, Peter Tork and Mickey Dolenz, Nesmith seemed to be the one with the most musical talent.

He wrote several of the Monkees songs, he formed a pioneering rock/country band, and he wrote songs for other people including the classic ‘Different Drum’ by Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys.

I have a hit single, 45 rpm, from Michael Nesmith and the First National Band, called Joanne.

The song is a plaintive love song complete with some octave climbing hiccups — yes this Monkee could yodel. Nesmith also worked on several film projects and won awards for his video work.

Other fun facts:

He was an Air Force veteran, trained as an aircraft repairman, and honorably discharged after a tour of duty.

His mother invented ‘Liquid Paper” and created a company around it which she sold for $42 million,

He received a Grammy for Video for his hour-long television program Elephant Parts.

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Neil Young — 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13

ALBUMS: Hawks and Doves (1980); Zuma (1975); Decade (1976); After the Gold Rush (1970); Everybody’s Rockin’ (1983); Old Ways (1983): American Stars and Bars. (1977)

MVC Rating: Hawks 3.5; Zuma 4.5; After the Gold Rush 5.0; Everybody’s 3.0; Old Ways 3.5; Decade 5.0; American 4.0.

I thank Neil Young for one of the best concerts I have ever seen. It was the 2004 fund-raising concert for the Bridge School for student with disabilities in California Young has two sons with cerebral palsy.

The annual concert, which started in 1986 by Neil and his wife Pegi, and ended in 2016 when Young announced in 2016 he would not host any more concerts. He cited ‘personal reasons,’ the Huffington Post reported.’

Young split with his wife Pegi in 2014 after 36 years of marriage. She was a driving force in the creation of the fund-raising event at Shorline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, located south of San Francisco not far from Neil and Pegi’s ranch.

Anyway, my daughter Emily and I drove through the city of San Francisco and arrived to a place I can only say is California-pretty, rolling green hills and mountains on the horizon.

Sitting in the ‘cheap’ seats — the ground — behind the built-in seating, we enjoyed wonderful acoustics in the lightly drizzling weather. What a line-up with Young, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ben Harper, Sonic Youth, Eddie Vedder, Tegan and Sara, Tony Bennett, Los Lonely Boys, and the headliner Paul McCartney. Paul ended the evening with a remarkably powerful ‘Hey Jude.’

I tell you all this because it was the first thing I thought of when I realized I was in the Y’s and my Neil Young collection would be enough to nearly take me home.

I started listening to Neil Young early in my youth, starting with the3- record set, Decade. It was about everything you’d want from Young’s 1970s work. I consumed Decade and it led me to other Young works like ‘After the Gold Rush,’ Harvest and Harvest Moon (which I apparently don’t have any more).’ Zuma was an underrated classic for me.

When I was still in California, Young put out an anti-war album ‘Living with War’ on which he blistered politicians, while giving voice to the families of soldiers.

If you are just starting out on Neil Young, Decade is the way to go. You might go to Rust Never Sleeps for a later incarnation.

Of course, Neil Young will forever be remembered by Alabamians as the one who wrote ‘Southern Man,’ (on After the Gold Rush) in which he skewers ‘southern man’ for slavery and racial abuses. Lynyrd Skynyrd famously replied in Sweet Home Alabama: I hope Neil Young will remember, Southern man don’t need you around, any how.

Neil, when asked by a reporter about the popular Skynyrd song, replied. ‘Sounds like they mean It.’

Young is a chameleon. I have one album called ‘Everybody’s Rockin’ which features Neil in a pink suit on the cover. The songs were retro schtick do-wop ballads with an echo on vocals to enhance Young’s thin, but emotive voice. Folk, country, rock, soul, psychedelia, doo-wop were all in Mr. Young’s bag of tricks.

I’m not sure if the concert shown in video below is the same one I took my daughter to where Paul McCartney was the headliner — but it very well could be that 2004 concert.

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YYY

The great, and I mean great, Van Morrison had a lyric in a song that sort of became a catch phrase in my life.

It goes like this: ‘It ain’t why why why, it just is.’

Van the man is a spiritual man, or, at least he was some years ago when he released the album Common One, an underrated work from the artist.

Some, me included, felt like this lyric took a load off our backs, trying to carry the weight of the world. Sometimes that’s not even as overbearing as carrying the weight of your own life. Others I think dismissed Van Morrison’s delving into Christian spirituality as an excuse to thwart those who continue to search for meaning on this third boulder from the sun.

Taken the wrong way, ‘it ain’t why why why, it just is,’ sounds a little like shut up and sit down.

But I won’t shut up. I’m going to keep asking why, knowing that the answer will come in time, or when time ends.

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The Young Rascals — 20

ALBUM: Groovin’

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$

The third album by the American band was and is a winner, from its crazy cartoon cover to the poppy bluesy sound inside.

Now you may (or may not) remember I did a Rascals post; the Rascals was a later incarnation of the band. This is the Youngsters third album and hit No. 5 on the charts back in 1967,

The title song, ‘Groovin’ went to No. 1 in 1967 and has been an enduring classic. ‘Groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon,’ croons lead singer Felix Cavaliere. (Or is that ‘sunny afternoon? It could have been a sunny Sunday afternoon. As they would be more apt to be ‘groovin’ on a sunny day rather than one with rain. So the correct answer is Sunday afternoon, I replayed it and looked it up. We’ll assume it wasn’t raining since that might lead to a totally different song like ‘Who’ll Stop the Rain.’

Forgive me, I just like to think these things out!)

Eight of the 11 songs were released as singles from this album, according to Wikipedia. They would drop the ‘Young’ from their name as they began to get bigger or older or both.

Here’s my previous post of those just plain Rascals.

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Yardbirds — 21

ALBUM: Favorites (1977 comp.)

MVC Rating: 4.5

Here is the group that has led to all those noisy guitar licks in heavy metal and hard rock.

It was early 1960s and a handful of white British kids became immersed in American blues, singers and guitar pickers. They learned the songs, for which they applied amplification and voila: The amplified blues chords have been heard in songs from Black Sabbath to Deep Purple to Blue Oyster Cult (hey, I could have used Green Day.)

The Yardbirds is a group that at separate times had Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Actually there was a short time when Beck and Page were in the group together, according to the liner notes written by Ira Robbins the editor of Trouser Press magazine.

Writing in 1977, when this compilation was released, Robbins said: ‘It only takes a little applied listening to current R-n-R to discern how much of today’s rock traces back to things the Yardbirds did almost a decade ago.‘

Now that was 1977 and this album is culled from songs of the 1960s. Listening to it you can almost make that same case. The blues riffs ring out on much less sophisticated equipment, perhaps, but the song remains the same (if I may pull from a Led Zeppelin song with Jimmy Page on guitar.)

Page, Beck and Clapton are revered like few others and on many lists of top guitarists. I guess I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the original Yardbirds: Keith Relf, lead vocalist and harmonica; Jim McCarty, drums; Paul Samwell Smith, bass; Chris Dreja, rhythm guitar; and Top Topham, lead guitar. Topham’s departure after six months made way for Clapton.

Somewhat ironically, Clapton left the band about a year later saying they were going too commercial for his purist sensibilities. Evidence was the song ‘For Your Love,’ Clapton said.

Well, that’s one of my favorite Yardbird songs (not on this album for some reason) and it was a worldwide hit lifting the band from obscurity.

I say it’s ironic because Clapton starting in the late 1970s has put out more than his fair share of commercial shlock. Some of it was OK shlock but shlock nevertheless. (Shlock is a nicer word than dreck, I believe).