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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.”

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Does the US have world’s best health care system?

Here we go again, as President Reagan used to say.

Once again an assertion of the old trope that the US has the world’s best health care system.

“We have the best health care system in the world,” said Dr. Chad Mathis, distinguished fellow at Alabama Policy Institute in a release that went out on May 27. “That is a statement you won’t often hear, but it’s true.”

Well, truth is sometimes in the eye of the opinionater. I recognize that much. But a quick swing around the numbers shows that the US is not at the top when it comes to health care.

According to the Commonwealth Fund: The U.S. spends more on health care as a share of the economy — nearly twice as much as the average OECD country — yet has the lowest life expectancy and highest suicide rates among the 11 nations.

.{This analysis is part of a series of Commonwealth Fund comparisons that uses health data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to assess U.S. health care system spending, outcomes, risk factors and prevention, utilization, and quality, relative to 10 other high-income countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.}

Now, Mathis should know a thing or two about health care. The Birmingham resident is an orthopedic surgeon. In the Trump administration, he served as a Senior Policy Advisor at Health and Human Services.

Mathis’ primary argument centers on how much better the US rolled out vaccination, than the problem-plagued European Union.

According to Mathis, “The United States produced and distributed the vaccine precisely because of our highly fragmented, highly customizable healthcare system. While not perfect, it can hold its own on the world stage.”

Fragmented it may be, but I don’t think that is a hallmark of its strength. As far as the rollout goes, the U.S.

Another recent report by U.S. News and World Report found 10 countries with the best health care systems. The U.S. ranks No. 22, falling seven spots on the list compared to 2020.

  1. Sweden
  2. Germany
  3. Denmark
  4. Canada
  5. Switzerland
  6. Netherlands
  7. Norway
  8. United Kingdom
  9. Finland
  10. Japan

Now I know the U.S. has a great medical care system. Some of my best friends and family are doctors and nurses and PT’s and such. We are great but we shouldn’t have 30 million uninsured; we shouldn’t have the most expensive health-care system as a significant size of our economy; and we shouldn’t have an obesity rate that is among tops in the world. Saying we are the best in the world thwarts our need to improve upon it.

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You’ve got the brains, I’ve got the brawn, let’s make lots of money

Just a little mental calisthenics to get me going. I took a few days off to enjoy the weather by a lake. Good time had by all except for the two fish I caught, bass, with an artificial lure off the dock. I put them back, and they went and told all their fish buddies to stay away from me for the rest of the time I was there.

I’m inclined to give you a blow-by-blow of these days I took off, but it would be duller than watching paint dry. Literally, as we had much of the house painted over the past week. It all went smoothly and that is great, but boring topic for my blog.

Couple of random thoughts as I continue my mental exercises for reentry into the blogging world:

–So, if you are retired, can you go on vacation?

‘Getaway’ might be a better word.

–If stocks are declining, why don’t we say they are ‘inclining’ when they go up?

— So does anybody have a strong visceral perception, like I do, of the Allstate television advertisement in which a man driving a BMW sings a duet with the hood ornament on his car?

I’ve got the brains, you’ve got the looks
Let’s make lots of money


This ear worm comes courtesy of the Pet Shop Boys, for gosh sakes. It’s called ‘Opportunities.’ And I’m riveted and appalled at the same time, though not sure why.

OK my mental calisthenics are up and I’m going to go back to reclining.

My Countdown to write 678 vinyl record reviews is still on track. I’ve got The Staple Singers and Spooky Tooth coming as I try to get through the ‘S’s in my alphabetical countdown. There are also those pesky straggling ‘R’s. So stick around and, I, hopefully, will do the same.

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Smokey Robinson and the Miracles — 123

ALBUM: The Best of Smokey Robinson & the Miracles (1979)

MVC RATING: 4.5/$$$$

This two-record set was something of a bargain package on Imperial House when I bought this more than 30 years ago, or so. Penny for penny, it was probably one of the best purchases I’ve made. Every song is good; some are all-time classics.

Most of that had to do with the pure-as-a-bell, falsetto, vocals and songwriting talents of the man they call Smokey.

He wrote 4,000 songs, according to Biography.com.

4,000 songs! Is that humanly possible? (Note to myself: Check that 4,000 number.) He did have 37 Top 40 hits. That is verifiable.

He wrote songs often with collaborators and provided a bunch of songs to Motown acts such as the Temptations.

Ironically before I saw that 4,000 statistic, I bought a book called ‘How to Write One Song,’ by rocker Jeff Tweedy of the group, Wilco, and before that Uncle Tupelo. I haven’t cracked that book yet, but it made me wonder: Shouldn’t Smokey write that book? He could change the title to “How to Write Thousands of Songs.’ No? Guess you have to write one to get started.

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Dwight Twilley, Dwight Twilley Band — 126, 125, 124

ALBUMS: Jungle (1984); Twilley (1979) SIncerely (1976)

MVC Rating: Jungle 3.5/$$$$; Twilley 4.5/$$$$$; Sincerely 4.0/$$$$$

One of the great lost bands in the 70’s and 80’s. Their career stalled from almost the beginning. The early single ‘I’m On Fire’ charted at No. 15 with virtually no promotion and it sort of went downhill from there.

The band, it seems, went through the meat grinder in terms of record labels and contractual malfunctions. A good blow-by-blow on this by AllMusic.com. The group from Tulsa, OK, consisted mainly of Twilley and Phil Seymour. Tom Petty worked with the group for a time; and Susan Cowsill was a touring member.

Twilley was bargain bin fodder when I snagged my three albums in the 1980s. Lot’s of memories playing these albums (the first two anyway in college. The self-entitled Twilley caught my ears from the beginning with the song ‘Out of My Hands,’ a sad rockabilly tinged ballad with a slight echo. In fact that echo rockabilly sound created an ethereal, atmospheric sound that was standard on these two earlier albums I picked up.

The third album I bought was Jungle and seemed to be aiming for a wider audience, or should I say straining for a wider audience. The album spawned the single, ‘Girls,’ with a racy-for-its-day video.

The album but was overall hurt by overproduction. Twilley pulled back on his rockabilly and seemed to go straight for a commercial pop/rock album.

While Twilley’s career continued as he put out records of music he never released due to contractual disputes, outtakes in addition to new music.

His early status as a bargain bin pick-up has changed as his music is rediscovered; there are folks on Discogs selling some of it for upwards of $40 and $50.

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Having trouble falling to sleep?

My wife and I have settled on some dynamite ambient music that puts us out like a light. Maybe dynamite was not the word. More like woozy space music.

I wrote about this before. But I forgot to try it out more than once or twice and promptly forgot about it. Then I started having trouble going to sleep. Then I bought a pre-owned Pink Floyd re-mastered ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ and it reminded me of that post from several years ago.

I had described it as Pink Floy in their softer, repetitive passages. (No vocals). Or it’s like Electronic Dance Music (EDM) shorn of all that makes you want to dance.

In a study the Marconi Union music lowered anxiety by 65 percent.

So here’s what my wife and I do. I ask Alexa to play Marconi Union for two hours. I keep the volume very low.

Here’s my command from my bed: “Alexa, play for two hours Marconi Union.” (Putting the hours before the name of the song or group seems to work better with Alexa.)

Obviously you can play for 1 hour or 20 minutes or all night. We overcompensate at 2 hours because I’m usually out in 10 minutes or less.

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The Police — 127

ALBUMS: Synchronicity

MVC RATING: 4.0/$$$

This was supposed to be done, alphabetically, a dozen or so posts ago. But given the state of my record collection, it didn’t surprise me that I missed it. Records strewn here and there, flying discs to avoid, vinyl in wrong jackets. About what I expected would happen as I near the end of this 678-record countdown.

But it gives me a chance to compare back to back Sting’s solo LP and the Police band’s ultimate recording: Synchronicity has more energy for sure.

But not sure I can get down with the Captain Beefheart caterwauling on a chunk of side 1. It’s funny that on the same album, the Police put out the most popular, melodic, and lyrical song of virtually all time — Every Breath You Take — alongside its most experimental.

Side 2, on the other hand, is the Police at their best. Wrapped Around Your Finger, King of Pain and Tea in Sahara are good if not great songs in the Police reggae-tinged style.

So, except for the Ice-Cream-for-Crow shenanigans on Side 1, we have a fine album. (Although Tea in the Sahara foreshadows, the somber Sting solo album, which I pointed out in that review can be tedious.)