ALBUM: Love Tractor , ‘Themes from Venus’ (1988); Let’s Active, “Big Plans for Everybody.’ (1986).
MVC Rating: Tractor 4.0/$$$; Active, 3.5/$$$
I was disappointed to pull out my Love Tractor album and find that it was warped. I’m talking about a big warp at the inception of the record which makes it skip. Sadly I am probably going to have to throw it away. And that’s a shame because I remember it fondly. Another Warped Hometown Band.
I combined Let’s Active with this as well because it was part of a group of records that were my college soundtrack. Both had Mitch Easter connections and Athens, Ga., connections, my more or less hometown. Let’s Active was from, I believe Chapel Hill, a university town that followed Athens’ as an incubator for good music. Of these Love Tractor is more varied and a little bit more alternative or should I say Avant Garde.
They started out as a mostly instrumental band. When they found their words they were mostly super silly but cool super silly like “I Like My Power Tools.”
Let’s Active was often compared to REM but except for some trebly jangly-ness of the guitars I didn’t see them that like that. I thought they sounded more like Ryan Adams.
Love tractor had the wonderful ‘I broke my saw’ in the spirit of Big Fat Tractor by the Swimming Pool Q’s.
I received an offer to ask a few questions of dementia expert John DenBoer who is behind a Netflix documentary on dementia premiering today at a venue in Phoenix before going on Netflix May 1.
It is called ‘This is Dementia.’
I will say upfront that I am pleased the doctor is inspired to push for more awareness after his caretaker experience with his beloved grandmother. I am still a little uncertain why there is not more discussion specifically of Lewy body disease, but I haven’t seen the movie yet.
Dementia experts has documentary airing tonight(4/11/19)
If there’s an internal medical debate about what Lewy body is or even if it exists — some docs say it’s a different kind of Parkinson’s — let’s get to the bottom of it so we can properly research it.. DenBoer points out ‘vascular’ as a top type of dementia — as well as Lewy. Everyone agrees that Alzheimer’s Disease is No. 1.
He agreed with my worry about — and I’ve expressed it here before — a lack of awareness could hurt Lewy body’s quest for research dollars. A lack of awareness seeps into the whole system.
From the patient who can’t get a proper diagnosis to the patient rigged up to a brain stimulator which may be contraindicated for their particular type of disease. We need more doctors like DenBoer to keep asking these questions and, meanwhile, helping push non-invasive brain exercises to tamp down symptoms.
He’s also focusing on early diagnosis which I think may be the most important first step toward cure. The more time we have to study these patients and treat them whether its medications or brain exercises the closer we will get.
Here’s DenBoer with answers to 8 questions from me via email.
OLIVER: How did you become interested in studying dementia?
DENBOER: It was really a synthesis of a tough personal situation (my Grandmother, who I had a special relationship with, developing dementia) and my professional pursuit in the study of Geriatric Neuropsychology. These two things coincided, which galvanized my personal and professional mission to help people with dementia. My primary emphasis is to do this through early identification and mitigation of cognitive and functional decline.
OLIVER: Tell me about the Netflix documentary and what are some of the themes?T
DENBOER The documentary is entitled “This is Dementia.” It chronicles my relationship with my grandmother, my relationship with my patients, and my quest to impact this terrible disease. I feel that it is a realistic yet hopeful portrayal of the effect the disease has on people and their families.
OLIVER: There seems to be confusion over the types of dementia. I have Lewy body dementia, sometimes called dementia with lewy bodies. Can you briefly describe the differences in the types of dementia?
DENBOER: Dementia is an umbrella term to describe the general neurodegeneration of the brain. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, although vascular forms of dementia are also very common. Lewy Body dementia can also be fairly common. What makes this more complicated is that there are really no pure forms of dementia – all are typically combinations of each other.
OLIVER: What are the most promising areas of research for medications to stop or slow down the disease progression?
DENBOER: Unfortunately, research in the area of medications has not been very promising. By far the best way to slow down the disease is a combination of aerobic and cognitive exercise. Medication has been found to work at less than 5% efficacy. Unfortunately, there is nothing that we know of to stop the disease entirely.
OLIVER: My concern after learning of my diagnosis was that there was little awareness of Lewy body dementia, even though my understanding is that it is the second leading type of dementia after Alzheimer’s. This concerns me because if people don’t know about it they won’t get proper treatment – like Robin Williams who had Lewy body. Your thoughts?
DEBOER: Unfortunately, there is far too little awareness of all types of dementia. We do know about Alzheimer’s disease, although other forms of dementia (such as Vascular and Lewy Body) are forms that are not as well known. Our job as providers is to educate primary care providers of the important role they play in screening aging individuals and referring them to neuropsychologists and neurologists to perform more in-depth testing.
OLIVER: What also concerns me with Lewy that its lack of visibility will lead to less money for research than for example Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. Thoughts on that?
DEBOER: You could be right about that, unfortunately. When people think of dementia they usually only think of Alzheimer’s dementia. Honestly, I think this is a failure on the part of our national organizations (e.g., Alzheimer’s Association) to properly educate and promote awareness of the other (equally prominent) forms of dementia.
OLIVER: Any thoughts on what the causes of the various types of dementa are?
DENBOER: There are as many different causes of dementia as there are types. Each type of dementia has its own distinct etiology. The commonality across them all is the degeneration (i.e., shrinkage) of the brain. New and novel learning can help mitigate this decline (www.brainuonline.com).
OLIVER: What should people do first if they suspect that they or a loved one may have dementia?
DENBOER: The key is to recognize this as early as possible, prior to when they have dementia or mild cognitive impairment. MCI develops 5-7 years earlier, prior to the first beginnings of dementia. By the time people have noticeable symptoms of dementia the mitigative possibilities of the disease are greatly reduced. Typically, we can slow the decline associated with the disease if people are in Stage 2 or less. If people suspect that they themselves or a loved one may have dementia my suggestion would be to present to a neuropsychologist right away. Typically, the visit is covered by Medicare/insurance. They will undergo a 2-4 hour evaluation which will assess memory, attention/concentration, etc.. The neuropsychologist will tell you whether there is a suspicion of mild cognitive impairment or dementia. If there is, a visit to a geriatric neurologist is warranted; an MRI of the brain may be needed. All of this information will be used to make a diagnosis of MCI or dementia.A simple explanation of Lewy body:
Dr John DenBoer is a US-based dementia researcher and the creator of Smart Brain Aging (http://www.smartbrainaging.com/) – a company that helps delay the onset of dementia and reduce its severity, through a science-backed brain training program. Dr DenBoer was inspired to become an expert in the field after his grandmother was diagnosed. See www.smartbrainaging.com for more information.
Be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little ears what you hear — Sunday school song based on Bible passage in Luke
As a lifelong journalist, I’m all about information. Open records open meetings. Free speech. I say no secrets is the best way to run a government and, for the most part, your personal life.
But also in my experience as a journalist in Alabama, Florida and California I’ve seen burnout.
I learned to protect myself but you can’t always. I didn’t want to see the crime scene photos of Chauncy Bailey, a journalist and colleague in Oakland Calif. but after I pushed the photos away I snuck a glance. He was shot in the face with a shotgun.
I cannot unsee that.
Covering the cop beat in Birmingham years earlier a similar thing occurred when a police detective said “Hey this is what we were working on. He threw the envelope with photos of the crime scene. They watched me pull out a 70-something-year-old woman who was stabbed more than a dozen times. I passed the hazing of a cub cop reporter by not throwing up.
So I learned to avert my eyes and steel myself: When a decomposing body of a heatwave victim was taken out of her house; when a female murder victim was pulled from a quarry; when people broke down and screamed in anguish at funerals of children; when a man cried showing me the spot where he found his dying brother, carried by a tornado 100 yards from his house.
When I was offered to cover an execution while working at the Orlando Sentinel, I declined. When a woman threatened to jump off the Oakland Tribune building in a suicide, I chose not to watch as the street filled with onloookers.
But I heard the the eerie simultaneous gasp of the crowd below when she hit the pavement. I can’t unhear that.
I guess i am hoping to give you a strategy, however ineffectual, and as a warning, however meaningful it may be.
I am three years into a diagnosis of Lewy body dementia. The average lifespan after diagnosis is 4 to 8 years.
I am scared. I am sad. I am angry. I am resigned. All those things at different times but I’m also practicing my strategies learned in the past.
That doesn’t mean I will stop gathering information about my disease or listening to others’ experiences in memory care centers, in support groups and in YouTube videos.
On YouTube I watched John and Dawn’s achingly beautiful video. It shows what will likely happen to me. I doubt I will watch it again, because that would be too much. I’m linking it here but don’t watch if you are not up for it right now. Self protection.
I wanted to do something funny with this post. I was going to propose a Lewy body dementia free day. A day where patients like myself and caretakers like my super strong wife, Catherine, and my daughters Hannah, Emily and Claire could have a daylong respite from encountering, talking, reading, watching anything about dementia..Lewy Free Day.
Maybe the symptoms will go away for a day. Maybe that burning feeling on my neck will go away. That my fingers will return to their past nimbleness. I actually took typing in school and could get 50 to 60 words a minute. Now I find myself hunting and pecking.
What if we had one day a week as Lewy Free Day.
We all know that’s a pipe dream. But we can choose a day –i’ll say Monday — to mindfully focus on what is positive in our lives. Watch an uplifting movie, read something not about dementia. Make your favorite dinner or go out. Put off any non-urgent actions related to dementia care or research or talking about new symptoms until the next day.
Don’t even joke about dementia. Finger to lips to anyone who brings it up.
On this day, dementia doesn’t exist.
Lewy Free Day or, to broaden it out, Dementia Free Day. T-shirts could be made:
‘Dementia Free Day’ on the front.
On the back: ‘Don’t forget.’ (or vice versa.)
I’m putting my Dementia Free Day for Monday on my calendar.
ALBUMS: El Rayo X (1981); Win this Record (1982); Mr. Dave (1985} Very Greasy (1988).
MVC Rating: El Rayo X, 4,5/$$$; Win This Record, 4.5 $$$; Mr. Dave, 4.0/$$$; Very Greasy, 4.0/$$$$.
It’s been said that David Lindley can play any stringed instrument put before him. Just give him some string.
The eccentric looking musician — long unkempt locks, plaid shirts, psychedelic pants, bushy mutton chop sideburns — was the antithesis of smooth, suave So-Cal performer Jackson Browne, whom Lindley backed on much of Browne’s discography and live shows.
That’s probably why Lindley’s side projects were so much fun. His eccentricities — kept in check while playing a note perfect lead on ‘Running on Empty’ for example were finally his to accentuate.
And he did, mixing covers of obscure reggae rasta tunes, blues, country with scorching slide guitar and other instruments you may not know.
For example, on Very Greasy , Lindley is listed as playing slide guitar, Bouzouki, Saz, and mandolin. I know mandolin and slide but not the other two. Apparently they are lute-like instruments from Turkey and surrounding areas. (At least he used existing instruments with a track record unlike 10cc ‘s Godley & Creme who went noodling around with middling success on their self-made Gizmo.)
It should be noted that Lindley in his younger days won the Topanga Banjo/fiddle contest in California five times. From 1966 to 1970 he played in Kaleidoscope, a band he co-founded.
This is an interesting record from one of the founders of rock ‘n roll.
MVC Rating: 3.5/$$$$
Son of a church deacon, who severely punished Little Richard after catching his son wearing women’s clothes , Little Richard aka Richard Wayne Penniman clearly had some personal issues in his life — sexuality conflicts and substance abuse.
According to various sources including an autobiography, Little Richard’s father’s church duties in Macon, Ga., were augmented by a moonshine and nightclub business. So somewhere therein lies a reason or two why Little Richard bounced back and forth between being ‘born again,’ singing gospel and secular music that pushed the bounds that society had laid down for sexually explicit content at the time.
Long Tall Sally, Tutti Frutti, and Good Golly Miss Molly are three of his bigger hits whose vocal stylings influenced everyone from Paul McCartney to Wilson Picket.
The record company had to hire someone to clean up the lyrics forTutti Frutti, for example. This 1985 gospel record is not listed on Wikipedia’s discography although you can buy it on vinyl on Amazon for about $17. I bought this new back in 1985 after wandering into a store in one of Birmingham’s mostly black neighborhoods. That’s where I also found a Birmingham Community Choir record, which I feature earlier in my countdown.
This album is not well recorded and that’s why I give it a 3.5, rather than a 4 or better. It sounds like it was recorded in a cavernous empty church with one microphone dangling from the ceiling. An echo-ey and distant feel.
That said, the singer shows off an amazing voice and range. Glad I got it
ALABAMA NOTE: In one of his bounce backs to religion in the late 60s, he attended Oakwood College (now University) in Huntsville. It is a historically Black Seventh-day Adventist institution,
I just got word that we have agreed on a date with UAB which is donating the use of the UAB Recreation Center for 3-on-3 basketball games (and other hijinx) for charity.
We are raising money to fight this brain disorder that I have, along with more than 1 million other people.
It has no cure, no known cause and is fatal. It is the second leading cause of dementia behind Alzheimer’s disease. But few people are aware of Lewy, which physiologically is a cousin to Parkinson’s disease with symptoms similar to both PD and AD.
Trent Richardson drives like the football player he is at Mike Madness charity basketball tournament last year. The tournament is back again for its third year on July 20. More details to come. Photo — Trish Crain
In two years we have raised a total of more than $25,000 for research and awareness of Lewy body dementia. We started humbly with a $5,000 goal the first year and took in about $13,000. Last year we raised $12,000. (These numbers are coming from my math memory department in my brain which is currently under siege from rogue proteins, but I think they are about right.) I would love to raise $25,000 this year to push our total to $50,000.
I think we can do it. I think this will be the most successful one yet.
Details of the tournament will be coming but mark the date: July 20, UAB Recreation Center. We have the gym all day and will start pretty early in the morning. Again stay tuned.
. Last year we had surprise visitors. Former NBA and UA basketball star Buck Johnson and former UA running back Trent Richardson joined us and even participated in a game or two
Little Feat and its leader Lowell George started with a foundation of Southern blues rock a la the Brothers Allman, added a touch of the Brothers Neville and topped it off with some funky Brothers Isley.
When I think of Little Feat I think of their song Dixie Chicken and the great swinging opening:
I’ve seen the bright lights of Memphis And the Commodore Hotel And underneath a street lamp I met a Southern belle Well she took me to the river, where she cast her spell And in that Southern moonlight, she sang a song so well
And the refrain that sticks in your brain like gum on a shoe on a hot day.
If you’ll be my dixie chicken, I’ll be your Tennessee lamb And we can walk together down in dixieland Down in dixieland .
Lowell George formed Little Feat after leaving Frank Zappa’s Brothers, er, Mothers of Invention. George said he was encouraged to leave Zappa because Frank, who eschewed drugs, didn’t like the drug references in the George song “Willin’. This is seemingly ironic given that the Mothers had released the psychedelic album of the ages in ‘Freak Out’ — but, oh yeah, with Zappa he wasn’t laughing with them, he was laughing at them. (Tripping hippies, I’m talking about).
‘Sailin’ Shoes’ was the second in a handful of consistently good albums. As the band started to fall apart in the 80’s, Lowell George went on tour behind a very good solo album, ‘Thanks I’ll Eat Here.” See MVC review,
He died in a motel room in Virginia, the victim of his appetites for drugs, alcohol and food, especially food. He reportedly weighed more than 300 pounds at death.
This was not one of my usual purchases. Meaning back in 1986, I was not a big punk fan. But I learned to love the Clash and later in the 1990s I really enjoyed Rancid after discovering their music while living in the SF Bay Area.
But SST-labeled Leaving Trains leaned more to Black Flag and the Dead Kennedy’s, which usually for me fell on deaf, and I mean deaf, ears. So even though Leaving Trains was perhaps closer to Black Flag than the Clash, they lightened it up a bit and played power chords with a Power Pop sensibility — like the Beat or the Nerves.
Led by semi-maniac Falling James Moreland, their album ‘Kill Tunes’ is considered — from what I’ve read to be their best. I remember having to order this, Chuck @Wuxtry Birmigham set me up,
David’s 1984 solo album, Raindance, is a tantalizing mix of soul, doo wop, hip hop and balladry.
And as vinyl on the used market it’s about $3 — a big bargain. <NOTE: This has probably gone up since writing this several years ago.>
His cranky rap song “Don’t Smile at Me” (warning language)* still makes me smile all these years later. I’m pretty sure I bought this after seeing James Taylor at Auburn University in like 1983 but the album says 1984 – and I was gone from AU by then.
He tackles all styles here, maybe too many, as if he finally gets to be a frontman and decides to show everything he has got. And he’s gotta a lot, this blue-eyed falsetto soul singer. Note: Don’t really know if he has blue eyes — that’s just the industry’s way of saying they are white singing soul. Like Hall and Oates.
Besides Taylor, Lasley has been back-up singer for a whole host of artists, including Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Aretha Franklin and Luthor Vandross.
He is listed in the credits of this blog’s countdown artist Garlland Jeffries.
On any given day, this album may be my favorite and this underrated British musician may be my favorite rock ‘n roll character.
Check out a documentary on this lovable guy on YouTube and learn about how he bought a rundown farm and began traveling to gigs in a dilapidated travel camper only to miss said gigs because it broke down. Took him days to travel to venues.
Lane died too early of multiple sclerosis on 1997 at age 51.
I have Ronnie Lane all over the place, my Small Faces and Faces records, a collaboration with Pete Townshend (see Annie) that’s excellent and collaboration on a movie soundtrack with Ron Wood. Love all the above. Except for Faces, the other albums have not yet been reviewed in my alphabetical countdown. (I’ve just started the L’s).
Lane first gained attention in Small Faces and Faces where they came up with ”Ooh La La’ and ‘Itchykoo Park.’
Lot of videos in this post but they work better than my words in explaining this whimsical Leprechaun. RIP Ronnie.
