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ELVIS PRESLEY — 256, 255, 254, 253, 252, 251, 250, 249

ALBUMS: Elvis: The Sun Sessions (1979); Elvis Golden Records (1958 RE); Girl Happy (1965); Elvis Pure Gold (1975); Moody Blue (1977); Elvis for Everyone (1965) Blue Hawaii ( 1961); Elvis Country (1971).

MVC Ratings (in order of above): Sun, 5.0/$$$$; Golden Records, 4.5/$$$$; Girl Happy 2.5/$$; Pure Gold, 3.0/$$$: Moody,3.0/$$$; Elvis for Everyone, 2.5/$$; Blue Hawaii 2.5/$$; Country, 2.5/$$.

People looking at my eight Elvis records may think that I’ve got a lot of money tied up in that. I mean Elvis, come on. Got to be worth lots.

Truth is most Elvis albums aren’t worth that much. Coupla reasons. They made a lot of them as, for a time, anything with Elvis’ name and picture flew off the shelves. Secondly they weren’t that good. Elvis made a lot of mediocre to bad movies. He made a lot of mediocre to bad songs that Elvis recorded for these movies.

If you look at my list of albums I have and the photo, the two albums on the far left are the most valuable. The rest you can find at a used record store in the $4-$8 range. Or in a thrift store for $2. The other two go for 5 or 10 times that. Of course there’s other Elvis music that is worth a lot. We sat next to a couple at the Alabama Record Collector’s Association a few weeks ago who had five Sun Label singles by Elvis. He turned down offers that were in the many thousands of dollars. They actually may be headed to a museum.

Elvis had his growth stunted with the movies. I’m sure he made a lot of money and helped Col. Parker make a lot but his best stuff was clearly in his early years, starting out in 1954 when he was a 19-year-old truck driver. up until the time he was drafted in the army. He served two years, came back still putting out hit after hit, but then chose a path that I believe stunted his growth as a musician. By his early 20’s he already had an everlasting discography with classics like Jailhouse Rock, Love Me Tender, That’s All Right, Mystery Train, Don’t Be Cruel and Hound Dog.

I remember when I was high school age we went to visit some cousins, relatively distant I believe and, the one my age they called Twinkle. We watched an Elvis movie marathon and I was drawn by Elvis even if he was cheesy. She seemed to have been interested as well over Elvis. (Or was it me?) I don’t know I was watching Elvis do the ‘Clam.’

He came back and did movie music, silly music like Do the Clam. He felt like an outsider on the whole British invasion with Beatles. He staged a comeback of sorts when in 1968, dressed in all black leather he went on live TV in a performance hailed as a return to form. But while he had some good songs in the later stages of his career, they were mostly Vegas production pieces written by other people (as was the case always with Elvis). In that era came out ‘In the Ghetto,’ ‘Kentucky Rain,’ ‘A Little too Much Conversation, and ‘Fever.’

In my eyes, despite the many things you can find wrong, Elvis was the King who brought R&B to a mass audience under the new name of Rock ‘n Roll. He was talented, charismatic, good looking and could sing and dance a little bt.

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Andy Pratt — 257

ALBUM: Andy Pratt (1973)

MVC Rating: 3.0/$$

After about 30 years of not listening to this record, I put it on the other day and have been through it about three times. Before I listened to it I read a description of Pratt’s music as ‘experimental.’

I bought this for his song, the original version, of “Avenging Annie.” I had Roger Daltrey’s cover of the song from his album ‘One of the Boys.’ I still can’t tell which version is better. I lean toward’s Pratt with that falsetto going. But Daltrey’s is a little more straightforward with his lead singer pipes.

But, yes, unlike the Daltry album which was had a couple of mildly interesting songs and then filler. Pratt is indeed experimental, at least when compared to Daltrey.

Pratt tends to go for esoteric dreamy mood songs, that feature a wide dynamic range. Soft singing, loud singing, soft singing, loud singing.

The problem is most have odd structures that upon this renewed hearing sounds like no structure at all. He has a fragile voice. I think it comes down to who has the best Avenging Annie and I say Pratt by a hair (In fact, Pratt and Daltrey have very similar hair.) . I gave Pratt the same grade I gave Daltrey.

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Daily Journal the virus expert edition (March 14, 2020)

Well as I reported yesterday, the world is ending. But we made it through Friday the 13th.

I often talk about my fatal disease Lewy body dementia. Eventually after some conversation one of us will say ‘Hey we are all going to die.’ Death rate of those on earth is still 100 percent.

But me, I have a fatal disease and I don’t want to die ‘early’ from some damn virus. I want as many good minutes as I can get.

This COVID -19 virus is supposed to get widespread in Alabama, infectious disease expert Dr. Michael Saag. His op-ed piece which we published Friday paints a bleak picture., especially if we don’t act swiftly.

The piece is essential reading.

IMPORTANT BROKEN LINK FIX: There was a link to a New York Times graphic that Saag pointed out in his op-ed. The graphic a nice job in a simple way of how and why we need to stretch and slow the infection rate down. I checked the link this morning and it was broken but I found it here. I’m now going to go correct it in Saag’s op-ed.

Keep checking back here for more My Vinyl Countdown on the virus, the end of life as we know it or going stir crazy with no basketball. This is changing our lives in myriad ways.

TIP OF THE DAY: Don’t check your retirement funds. Not even worth adding that to the worry list.

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Hope. OK Peter take us there: (Crank this) ‘This too will pass’

Corona virus go away.

Peter Himmelman help us, let’s go:

This too will pass.

That song will heal your soul.

This Himmelman song will rock you out:

SEVEN CIRCLES

Related: OK so it’s the end of the world

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Daily Journal March 13 (Friday the 13th edition vs. End of life as we know it edition and a little TLC, oops, I mean 10cc)

Hope you all saw my Top 5 playlist for the apocalypse or armageddon or end times — what ever you want to call it . Click here to start dancing in these grim times.

Other bits and pieces (not from the Dave Clark Five. ):

–My good buddy Chris Brown from Georgia , a reconnected friend from childhood sent me $100 dollar to buy an old relatively obscure album we used to listen to and laugh at. In support of MyVinylCountdown. The album is 10cc’s ‘How Dare You,’ a before-its-time musical theater about love and relationships with pristine musicality. I mean, for real, when the song ‘Don’t Hang Up’ ends there’s a dial tone. Not kidding — that was cool. Of course the album now languishes in garbage dumps and bargain bends because nobody now even knows what a $%^&* dial tone is.

Best line from that song: ‘When the barman asked what’s you’re drinking, I said marriage on the rocks.’

Chris, my brother, I sent you also another 10cc album in addition to that one. It’s called Bloody Tourists and is a little more commercial. It has ‘Dreadlock Holiday’ and that last song about the guy getting so drunk he ruins his night. It has amusing special effects.

It’s called the Anonymous Alcoholic.

— Look for a MVC story over the weekend about the most expensive records you can buy and how vinyl is still ruling.

–One vinyl note, the numbers next to the artists’ names on blog post indicate how many I have left to do. So, for example, now with Process and the Doo Rags there is the number 265, which means I have that many left to review. Starting at 678, I have reviewed and posted 413 records: 265 to go as we count down. There’s some really good stuff coming up as I roll into the last quarter.

I can’t say I’d keep you as entertained as NBA basketball and March Madness but I’ll give it a try.

Leave you with an apocalyptic song from David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, one of my fave all times. The album was purchased from me at the record convention by a good friend, Kevin. Here’s ‘Five Years.’

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Process and the Doo Rags — 258

ALBUM: Process and the Do Rags

MVC Rating: 3.5/$$$

Long before Dave Chappelle’s hilarious I-Am-Rick-James- Dammit, Rick James was a crossover hit at my fully integrated high school in Athens, Ga. It was 55 percent white and 45 percent black in my day “Go 78.’

The back parking lot where students hung out for one more cigarette before running to class, vibrated on most mornings.

Blacks and whites jamming to Super Freak. Power boosted stereos buzzing windows and even some dancing along the way. Other crossover songs included ‘Play that Funky Music White Boy’ by Wild Cherry, and Brick House by the Commodores.

The white kids’ favorites Lynyrd Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker Band, the Outlaws and Wet Willie were Southern Rock and did not cross over as well. Foreigner, Bad Company, Heart and Journey were sort of MOR hard rock that appealed to a mostly white audience.

Pink Floyd, Yes, Led Zeppelin and to a lesser extent King Crimson were on a different plane. One of my black friends was a huge Emerson Lake and Palmer fan.

Parliament Funkadelic and George Clinton were like the heavy metal/Frank Zappa sub-genre of funk/space music. Does that make sense? No.

I got tired of the Southern rock thing and found Elvis Costello my senior year in high school, he had just come out with ‘My Aim is True.’ Had it on cassette for car playing. I pivoted again and it ultimately led me down a very expansive, if not winding, path of music appreciation.

So while there was crossover there was a lot of segregation of the music.

Super Freak was kind of dirty for the radio but it was infectious and a huge dance hit. Rick James, who took off like a lightning bolt got into some big trouble and spent time in prison. He died in 2004.

This group he helped create and produce, Process and the Do-Rags, was a throwback group to the black doo-wop and male vocal groups, like Clyde McPhatter and the Drifters or the Temptations.

They didn’t do well and disbanded after two albums. But they were rediscovered not long ago and there were some albums re-released from Japan.

They were probably ahead of their time as a retro male vocal soul and funk group. Can definitely see the Rick James influence with ‘Stomp and Shout’ and ‘The Bells.’ RIck was writer or co-writer on most songs.

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3 best vocalist performances in Rock music

My Vinyl Countdown has found its favorite rock vocal performances.

Here’s a list of the Top 3 overall, followed by a list of Top 3 male vocal performances (not including the Top 3 I previously named.) And, yes, Top 3 female vocal performances.

This is highly subjective. When I say performance I don’t mean necessarily live – it could be live or a studio version. Here we go, short and sweet.

1) Joe Cocker ‘With a Little Help from Friends.’ Live at Woodstock. This cover of the Beatles song was turned inside out and milked to an explosion of emotion. Seeing him sing it makes it all the more potent as he writhes and sways as he pulls out deep feelings and blasts them into the souls of listeners who know not what is happening

2) Janis Joplin “Me and Bobby’ McGee.’ The cover of the Kris Kristofferson song came as a surprise. No one thought the shrieking hellhound from Texas could wrench so much emotion out of what was a deceptively well-written vagabond song. She gets under and over the notes in an amazing show of restraint letting it out, cathartically, at the end with the most natural sounding ‘na na na’ chorus this side of Wilson Pickett’s Land of a 1,000 Dances.

3) Sly Stone ‘If You Want Me to Stay.’ With its thumping thunking bass line forcing you on your feet, This mid-tempo Sly song covers all the bases vocally, from yodel flip to falsetto and back to heavy chest vibrating low octaves. It has soul and it is making the soul work.

Quick hits male and female:

Top 3 (Male vocal performance other than the above)

1) Prince “The Beautiful Ones.’’ Oh my! Nothing to say when you get to the end.

2) Wilson Pickett Hey Jude Beatles version is great but Pickett with guitar session help from Duane Allman tears the cover off.

3) Elvis Presley Fever (I also considered Jailhouse Rock and Kentucky Rain.}

Top 3 (Female vocal performance other than the above)

1) Eva Cassidy“Over the Rainbow” a pop ballad, not really rock. But when you hear this live version of the classic song, sung in a DC area night club with only Eva’s voice and acoustic guitar, you instantly are told by the chills down your neck that this is singing. And Magic. Singer died too young.

2) Gayle McCormick “Baby, It’s You.” The Shirelles did it, the Beatles did it but nobody did this song better than the lead singer of A Group Called Smith.

3) Tina Turner “Better be Good to Me’ Tina was the real deal, singer, performer, and role model.

Honorable mentions Aretha Franklin ‘R-E-S-P-E-C-T and Hocus Pocus by Focus singer Thijs van Leer.

Hocus Pocus is one weird vocal.

And in signing off I’ll cheat with one more cannot be ignored vocal: Little Richard Tutti Frutti/Long Tall Sally

Suggestions, critiques – all welcome.

Also published in AL.com here.

BONUS QUESTION: Which one of these artists on the list are from Alabama. (Scroll down to see).

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Wilson Pickett born in Prattville.

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Daily Journal March 10, 2020 (Let’s go back to the beginning and Pick up the Pieces.)

For those of you catching up, we did pretty well at the Alabama Record Collectors Association. Sold 33 vinyl records and made more than $350. (Although expenses certainly cut into the profit margin. Maybe a nice dinner out with Catherine.

We learned some things.

  1. Unbelievable high end records. I never knew there were thousand-dollar records at these kind of shows, or anywhere for that matter. But I saw several plus records in the $200 to $400 range.
  2. Know your product. More than once, people came up asking how much. The sticker had fallen off and was now stuck to the bottom of someone’s foot. But because I had spent hours researching price and applying those stickers in advance. Even with my memory impairment, I found I could give an educated price. I know my records pretty well.
  3. Keep it real. Don’t put a 100-dollar sticker on a $15 record ‘just to see.’ Your credibility may suffer and you’ll lose the confidence of the buyers. Know what its value is to the best of your ability.
  4. Negotiations: At these events, the buyers often counter. This is something I already knew, but it takes a few times to get back upon the horse. For example, guy walks up with five albums, a $30, a $20, a $10 and a $3. That totals $63. He says: ‘How about $50 for all.’ In this case I would likely go for that but I quickly look at what he has and note silently that the $30 record was already marked down from a researched price of $45. So I quickly counter: $55 and it’s all yours. Deal struck. I think I knocked something off about one-third of the transactions — so about 11 records. All of this is happening in an environment where the prices are fair.
  5. Hands off the merchandise. As hard as this was to do, you are really trying to make money. Don’t buy records and stuff –and don’t rent a hotel when you are only 15 miles from the Gardendale Civic Center. We didn’t do the former — at least not with records, I did however buy for my two daughters and their significant others rock and roll black T’s from the heavy metal contingent behind us — They were awesome — the people and the T’s. But we did get us a room. And that’s on me because I suggested it. Otherwise, Catherine was going to have to drive to and fro for two days, at night and morning with some other work she had to do in Birmingham on Friday. It was worth the extra $100 (free continental breakfast; I got a big greasy sausage patty and biscuit and gravy.) Catherine joked we won’t put the hotel on the record convention cost side of the personal ledger and count it as ‘staycation.’

So for the big reveal (drumroll please): I grossed $407, according to latest data available. I spent $75 for a table, $40 for nylon outer sleeves and $10 for inner sleeves and other expenses, taxes, meals and gas about $60, ate cheaply. Total spent: $185.

407 – 185 = 216. Like I said a super high-end dinner for Catherine and me. Or that rare Beatles record. … perhaps? (Oh, and there’s this wedding).

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Daily journal March 3, 2020, version: What is valuable? Let’s start with records.

This is a big deal. A lifetime accumulation of records. You’ve seen quite a bit on MyVinylCountdown. They are part of my life; they are touchstones; memory triggers of good times and bad.

I’m selling them.

Not all at once, But starting Friday (March 6) through Saturday (March 7) at Gardendale Civic Center I will be selling or offering up for sale somewhere in the neighborhood of 175 albums. That’s from my collection/accumulation of 678. That number was the count when I started September of 2017 about 6 months after my diagnosis of Lewy body dementia.

Even to those familiar with my blog, there’ll be some surprises I’m sure. I have some relatively higher priced 78’s and some cheap CD’s. But the focus will be on vinyl.

My overhead costs are already in the $150 range likely to rise — getting a table at the event ($75), bins (cheap laundry baskets ($25), plastic outer sleeves and inner sleeves ($40) and couple other doo-dads.

The most labor intensive part of this has been to value the records. How much to sell them for. My wife Catherine says I’ll probably overprice them because I want to keep them.

What? I say.

Have you ever heard Bad Company? They put the classic in classic rock. You wonder if $25 is too much? OK I’ll take some it down to $19.99. Jeesh.

Actually, I think I have my Bad Company (debut album) listed at $7. I keep second guessing myself on some of these. Maybe it should $6?

There are ways to assess value. I often use DIscogs and look at what the ‘Median” price is for sales. This works when their are plenty of sales to get a good median. I also look at Popsike which has records and what they sold at auction — eBay also offers those kid of numbers. It’s also good to look at prices the record is currently selling for on Amazon. Etsy is another one, although I don’t use that one much at all.

There are also sites that specialize in 78 rpm records.

I hate it when somebody explains to me for the 405th time that a product’s value is the cost a willing buyer and wiling seller agree to. Of course that’s obvious but there are so many parts of negotiation. Some love it and some don’t. I have come to enjoy it — to a degree.

The websites are certainly not magical I think the best assessment is made with your experience: ‘What would I pay for this?”

Some albums like my Bob Dylan box set ‘Biograph,’ I am choosing not to sell at the moment. I”ve got to have a few untouchables, windows to the past, where I can see and hear what got me here. “Oh but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”

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Pink Floyd — 263, 262, 261, 259

ALBUMS: Ummaguma (1969) : Dark Side of the Moon (1973): Wish You Were Here (1975); The Wall (1979)

MVC Rating: Ummagumma/4.0/$$$$$; Dark Side/ 5.0/$$$$$; Wish/$$$$$ 4.5; the Wall, 4.5/$$$$$ (NOTE: All five dollar signs meaning at least $25 to get any of these in decent shape. Can pay many hundreds for certain Pink Floyd collectibles.)

By the way, which one’s Pink?

A classic line from a classic album.

The line from a meeting between the rock group and the record company executives, in a few words, captures the relationship or lack thereof between artists and the anonymous men in suits, a relationship that historically had been too often built on rip-offs and lies. Their only interest is that ‘Pink’ and his chums can sell more ‘units.’

Come on in have a cigar boys, the producer tells them.

“I’ll tell you the name of the game, boys,” the song goes. I”t’s called riding the gravy train.”

That on ‘Wish You Were Here” echoed a previous song, the ‘hit’ Money from the DSOM album: New car, caviar, four star daydream
Think I’ll buy me a football team…

Pink Floyd has become synonymous with the so-called Classic Rock genre. But back when I got it, there was not a lot like it. There was no ‘Classic’ yet.

Pink Floyd deserves their success. I thought they were out of this world when I first heard them. I think my girlfriend in Indiana in the 9th grade gave me ‘Dark Side of the Moon.’ And if I am not mistaken, i gave her David Essex who really had only one song I remember and that was Rock On. Cool song with a little rock-a-billy echo if I recollect.

Floyd was one of those bands that expanded the boundaries of rock and roll, starting with highly experimental sounds with space as a theme or touchstone. Albums like Ummagumma and Piper’s at the Gates of Dawn were long rides, with trippy special effects. It was the kind of music that your parents thought was all rock music. Ummagumma had extreme dyanamic range with soft passages you could barely hear followed by wine glass breaking shrieks. I don’t know what a banshee looks or sounds like, but I imagine it would sound like the end of the first side of Ummagumma.

And yes, there was an element of the music built to ‘freak out’ the psychedelic or stoned crowd. But as many artists have shown before and after those Ummagumma 60’s and Dark Side 70’s, you usually lose when you mess with the drugs.

Pink Floyd became one of the most successful group of musicians in rock history, or should I say music history. They reigned in their psychedelic influenced musical ramblings into something much more accessible and potent. Unfortunately along the way they lost a key band founder, Syd Barrett, whose drug use escalated and his mental health deteriorated. Eventually the band kicked Barrett out, although he remained a muse and influential inspiration for Pink Floyd’s other members.

From Wikipedia: “Pink Floyd’s most popular work drew on the power of what Barrett signified,” wrote Steven Hyden in his 2018 book Twilight of the Gods. “[E]ven after he was no longer in the band, his spirit haunted its records.”

The Floyd album and song ”Wish You were Here,’ was about Syd as was ‘Shine on You Crazy Diamond’ from the same album.

Pink Floyd’s trademark other-worldy sound and echoes, dipping in to free form jazz and touches of Classical music was Barrett’s foundation for the band led by David Gilmour and Roger Waters. A list of top selling artists of all time using data from  MTV, VH1, and Billboard shows Floyd with 121 million certified units sold. That puts them 8th on the list of all time sales leaders. The top three are the Beatles, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson.

By practically creating a new genre, Pink Floyd will go down as one of the most pioneering groups ever. There were other experimentalists. The Soft Machine, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Hawkwind, and Kraftwork. But none ever appealed to as many people. Dark Side of the Moon was on the charts (200) for an astounding 14 years.