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Al Green — 445, 446, 447

ALBUMS:  Greatest Hits (Reissue: 1982 of 1975 release); Truth In Time (1978); Soul Survivor (1987)

MVC Rating: Greatest 5.0/$$$$; Truth 4.0/$$$; Soul Survivor/$$$

One of my favorite  artists  — all time.

I have three albums that capture the essence and soul of a man with essence and soul. He was the best at covering other’s work and elevating. But he wrote his own as well.

His earlier stuff collected on the hits album is classic R&B, soul. Some of the best made.

The Al Green-penned ‘Let’s Stay Together,’ ‘Let’s Get Married,’ ‘Call Me,’ and ‘I’m Still in Love With You’ all smolder with  love and hotter love. Green’s falsetto is the best. That’s not up for debate with me. It is the best.
His song, “Tired of Being Alone” is a timeless classic.

But it’s his cover of the  Bee Gee’s ‘How Can You Mend a Broken Heart’ that takes the prize for top, not to be too hyperbolic, perhaps Top 3, covers of all time. That is an emotional workout listening to Green sing that.

The only song not on the Greatest Hits that should have been is ‘Take Me to the River,’ a Green song covered quite successfully later  by the Talking Heads.

Green in 1974,  after some traumatic  life events and hospitalizations,  became a pastor. He leads a big church in  Memphis near Elvis’ Graceland. Over the years he has wavered between recording pure gospel music and a hybrid of popular, with God infused throughout.

Some of his ’80s’ work is as  powerful as anything he’s ever done. I got religion about three times listening to Soul Survivor and his sung version of the 23rd Psalm with a full gospel choir. In my copy of ‘Soul Survivor’ I was happy to find a 5X7 photo and a bio sheet.

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The Grateful Dead — 444

ALBUM: Terrapin Station (1977)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$

Those who saw my Allman Brothers post know I’m less than a Grateful Dead fan. I used to live in Marin County where the band members lived, but it was years after Garcia had died.

Jerry could play guitar, but I never felt, I mean felt, their music. I realize a lot of their popularity was kind of cultish thing and  involved the  culture of altered states. So I have Terrapin Station album playing right now under the influence of an Advil and a beer.

Still don’t get it.

It seems a lot of what they do is based in roots music, or laid back bluegrass and folk/country with an electric guitar playing leader who saw his guitar solos as a positive outgrowth of his psychedelic drug-taking — kind of like spiders making webs after some hallucinogens given by scientists.  It’s  an actual scientific study (look it up here.)

The folky bluesy blend by the Dead is not bad but the music doesn’t stand out to me as do acts such as the Band, the Byrds or CSN&Y for that matter. Some of it is really pleasant rocking chair music in the vein of some of those groups, though.

Two full disclosures: I haven’t heard much beyond what I have (Terrapin Station) or on the radio. I pledge to listen to another album or two at some point.

Other full disclosure: I was a reporter in Orlando covering the Dead  when they came in for a show. Must of been early 1990s. Central Florida meet thousands of hippie Deadheads..

I was assigned by the Orlando Sentinel to do the ‘color’ story which means looking for fun tidbits, capture the scene, find an angle.

I got tear gassed.

I don’t remember what the headline was but in my admittedly weak memory I recall this as headline: Deadheads Riot.

A  small band of Deadheads opened a couple of doors  at the old O-rena allowing those outside to rush the door. It got ugly with some police body slams,  numerous arrests and clouds of tear gas. I  was temporarily blinded by the spray.

I had to get the spray out of my eyes and write a story.

I guess when I was young and heard of the Grateful Dead I expected something wild,   psychedelic, but most of what I’ve heard from them has been rather tame, rioting aside.

I was aware of the Cowsill’s cover song of ‘Hair’ which mentions the Dead as an example of a band with no ‘bread.’ (Money.)

I knew that line from Hair at about 9 but never heard their music until FM radio listening in the md-70s.

Nothing new here. I do get that there is a lot of repetitive instrumental music, and I understand how that can be appealing as your musical brain rides the waves.  So part of my critique is about expectations. I  was expecting something groundbreaking or, at least, sounding like nothing else from the hippest hippie group of all time. Something closer to Zappa.

Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention put out the double record “Freak Out,’ in mid 1960s — that was freak out psychedelic music. You have to hear it to believe it.

But unlike Garcia,  who celebrated mind ‘expanding’ drugs, Zappa eschewed drugs. Famously he would fire you from the band at even a hint of use.  He is reported to have kicked Lowell George out of one incarnation of the Mothers because he was doing illegal substances.

Any way, I don’t mean to diminish the Dead, especially since I don’t know their body of work. Know the better known songs like ‘Casey Jones’ and ‘Truckin’ of course. Terrapin Station is good. I like it. But I wouldn’t follow a tour around the country and go to 12 concerts in a row over this.

It wasn’t too long ago the Grateful Dead had worldwide concerts and drew pilgrims, or Deadheads from everywhere.

With dozens of albums and high level fan loyalty I’ll bet the Dead have no lack of bread.

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Dunk? Me?

Did I say dunk?

Ha ha. Funny for a minute there I thought I said I would dunk by our next March Madness.

Funk. Yeah that’s what I meant. I would add more funk to my listening list and this blog.

Ha ha. Dunk.

Sandwiched between great athletes Buck Johnson and Trent RIchardson at MikeMadness 2018. Hoping their talent rubs off on me.

Well it’s the morning (or two) after and you can see my state of mind about my vow to dunk. AL.com colleague  John Archibald said if I do it — dunk, that is, — he will donate $1,000 to Lewy body disease research. I have unofficially heard three other colleagues say they would do the same thing.

Before I get too many pledges let me continue with more research. It’s not encouraging so far.

The $1,000  checks seem pretty safe. The more research I do, the more questions and doubts I have. I’m 58 and losing brain cells and muscle tone as we speak.

Then I read a long story in Sports Illustrated  about a guy at 42 who never dunked but embarked at a rigorous training expedition to dunk. And he did, eventually. His method? Four or five workouts per week  —  and it took him nearly a year. Not what I want to hear. A well-meaning commenter said that Spud Webb at 5-feet-7 inches can still dunk at 47.

Great.

Mike points to his defender John Talty where he is going to shoot from. That’s called swag.

 

 

Webb, who WON FIRST PLACE WITH A 360 DEGREE DUNK IN AN NBA DUNK CONTEST, can still dunk.

The closest model I have so far is this 42 year-old Sports Illustrated guy who at 6-feet-2 dunked for the first time. Did, did I mention, it took him a year of excruciating exercises?

I started today on my training nonetheless. I went to hot yoga with colleague John Archibald. It was great and I’m going to do it again — if they let me.

As I was preparing to go I realized I lost my glasses. I went back in the yoga room where it was now wall-to-wall people.

Excuse me  I lost my glasses I said as I stepped  over people in twisted poses and contorted faces. Their eyes expressed disapproval. All that and we ended up finding my glasses elsewhere — in the locker.

I have learned something in my research. I need to have ‘swag.’

I think that’s short for ‘swagger.’ That’s a place of supreme confidence that my YouTube watching has taught me that dunkers have swag. Mac McClung, a  viral video sensation in High School,  has swag. The phenomenon of McClung is at least partly a racial thing. He’s white and ‘White Men Can’t Dunk,” as the Wesley Snipes-Woody Harrelson movie  pointed out to America.

To make it all the more interesting McClung, who played for a small  high school  called Gate City in Virginia, is going to Georgetown where white basketball players over the past few decades have been more rare than a yellow cardinals.

But that’s a whole different topic and suffice it to say I am white and I can’t jump. I’m also 58. I also have Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disease that will likely end my life earlier than I was planning on. So, besides counting down my vinyl records on this website, I will now train to dunk.

I figure I have a good two  years before I finish my records. I credit my blog with being therapeutic, keeping my mind active. The dunk training will be a way to keep my body active.

I’d be lying if I said the disease hasn’t affected my memory and my muscle strength and stamina.

So here am searching for my swag and my glasses.

And I’ve always got the ‘out’ when I show up at Mike’s Madness next year and people start calling my name and asking me when I’m going to show the dunk.

Dunk? I don’t remember anything about a dunk.
Really?

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Steve Goodman– 447

ALBUM: The Essential Steve Goodman (1976)

MVC Rating: 4.5 $$$$

The best way to introduce Goodman is through the songs he wrote. Songs that were often made famous by other people.

  • City of New Orleans — Arlo Guthrie’s version made this a standard, covered by Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Chet Atkins, and Willie Nelson.
  • Somebody Else’s Problems
  • You Never Even Call Me By My Name   — This send-up of country music lyrics got an uncredited writing assist from John Prine. David Alan Coe made it a country hit.
  • Donald and Lydia
  • Jazzman
  • Don’t do me Any Favors Anymore
  • The Cubs Anthem — Go Cubs Go — His most sung song.

Goodman died of Leukemia in 1984 at age 36.

Fun fact: He was a high school classmate of Hillary Clinton in Chicago..

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Dunk or die trying: a 58-year-old man with a potentially fatal disease will dunk y’all (blog version)

It occurred to me the other day that I’ve always wanted to dunk a basketball.

So I’ve decided that by mid-July, about the time of our next Mike Madness basketball tournament to raise money for Lewy body disease awareness, I will dunk.

Bucket list item.

That’s right, I will throw it down on a 10-foot goal. This 58-year-old white man with a brain disease who has never dunked in his life, will SLAM.

Hah!

Colleague John Archibald heard me thinking out loud about this scheme and said, No, you can’t dunk. He laughed. Then he put his money where his mouth is: He said he will donate $1,000 toward  Lewy body research and awareness.

$1,000. Wow.

This man who plays basketball with me –and has half of my 4-inch vertical leap– must have some inside information. Oh yeah, he’s seen me play. My philosophy as I’ve aged is playing basketball without jumping because too much can go wrong when you’re in the air. But this won’t  be in a game.

There’ll be no big players ready to swat it away. I just rise up and BAM. I can visualize it. I can do it if I try hard and believe in myself. You can tell I just saw the Mr. Rogers bio-pic. Can you see Fred Rogers on the court? Soft blue sweater. He might be good. Never judge a book by the cover he used to say.

Despite Mr. Rogers’ well-intentioned philosophy, I have doubts bigger than Shaquille O’Neal,

This is where I need help.

I have several questions:

Does anybody know of anyone over 55 years old who can dunk?

Does anybody know of anyone who trained to dunk, especially later in life and accomplished it?

Does anyone know of someone with Parkinson’s or Lewy body dementia who can dunk. The muscles in my arms are getting weaker from the disease, I can tell. My outside shot has diminished some. But I still have bad days and good days. My legs, I don’t think have been affected strength-wise.

I hear there are machines today that target specific muscles that can help. I don’t want to buy a super expensive machine though especially if it has dubious outcomes. I always have the Y.

I want to dunk. I want to rise u p 8 inches above the rim palming the ball and slam it through.

Dear readers please respond but remember it’s not official yet, until I do a little more research.

Archibald Googled ‘who is the oldest dunker?’ The first answer was 63-year-old Julius Dr. J Erviing can still dunk.

Not sure that gives me much comfort. The best dunker in NBA history can still dunk.

Here’s how I break it down:

Against me: Disease and age.

Favorable to me: I used to be able to grab the rim (about 30 years ago). I am 6 feet and one-half inch tall.

I weigh about 185, having gained about 20 pounds over the course of a year.

I think I need to drop about 15 pounds or more to get to my old playing weight.

I know the odds are long, but if nothing else I’ll get in shape and it will give me another deadline – like counting down my 678 vinyl records at MyVinylCountdown.com .

Speaking of records, it should be a record of some type if I do indeed dunk.

Onward to research. (Typing, typing Into Google.):  ‘Was Mr. Rogers ever able to dunk.’

Slightly different AL.com version here.

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Godley – Creme — 448

ALBUM: L

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

Yes the album is called ‘L.’ This almost became a Frisbee when I first heard it. I was a big 10cc fan but this … this was 10cc stirred in with Frank Zappa and Dr. Demento. In fact in “Sporting Life” which sounds like a Zappa song, there’s a voice that sounds like Mr. Frank, so much so that I had to check out the credits — didn’t find him listed. Now I like some Zappa but let Zappa do Zappa.  I knew I wasn’t losing my mind when I heard this lyric:

“Does getting into Zappa mean getting out of Zen,’ is an actual lyric in ‘Art School Canteen which follows the Sporting Life and Sandwiches of You, a song I actually like.

This was the second album after these two left 10cc using a guitar synthesizer type of instrument they invented called ‘The Gizmo.’ Not sure what it does or sounds like even now. It might be that zither-sounding strum on ‘Sandwiches. bit no it’s not listed as being in that song.’

Ah, funny reference to their old fun hit ‘Donna is in ‘Group Life.’ Punchbag is interesting (as all this interesting) but I’m sure I’d understand it more if  I knew what ‘fourth form punchbag’ means.

The instrumental ‘Foreign Accents’ has some good funky and crazy sounding sounds but, again, I though they were showcasing the Gizmo and it’s not listed for that song.

All in all it’s an ambitious record, which I would expect from 10cc spinoff. But if is too Art School Canteen-ish. I’ll stick to my 10cc when  I want a little pretentiousness with my contentiousness.  Checking around on the Internets I find some crazy devotion to G&C, especially this album. I’ll keep trying.  ‘Business is Business ‘ at the end of the  album finally gets to the not so avant gard point. “That the record people  and people in general don’t get us and we hate M.O.R.’

Sorry, but I’m not in L  ove.

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Dexter Gordon — 449

ALBUM: One Flight Up (Reissue 1985)

MVC Rating: 5/$$$$$

Great jazz combo here from 1964. Led by Dexter Gordon, this is a jazz classic. I got as a cut-out reissue from 1985. If I see a cut-out or discounted record with Blue Note on, it I’ll buy, no questions.

The band, which includes Donald Byrd, Art Taylor, Kenny Drew and Niels-Henning Orsted, is tight.

Byrd almost steals the show with his tasteful rapid fire trumpet runs, like automatic fire — pup, pup,pup – landing like marshmallows, soft and sweet. Particularly on his song, ‘Tanya’ which covers all of side 1.

Gordon was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in the jazz movie ‘Round Midnight.’

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Saddest songs involving death (Blog version)

Death is sad.
When it is a topic in a song you often have the ingredients for a tearjerker. 
I have a list compiled from readers and a separate list called Editor’s Choice, which follows the first list.
This idea originated from a review I did recently for My Vinyl Countdown of the song ‘Honey’ by Bobby Goldsboro.  I called it sappy but effective and manipulative. My mother loves it. I don’t so much. One of my grown daughters, Claire, called and said the saddest song in the world that I didn’t include was ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ by Peter Paul and Mary.
My wife Catherine was disappointed I didn’t mention Tonio K’s “You are there’  a song that both comforted her and made her cry after her mother’s death so many years ago. Still does. Me too.
Well it might have been a vision
or it might have been a dream
like a photograph of eden
it was like no place I’d ever seen

And you were there waiting for me
you shined the light when I couldn’t see
I stood at the gate like a stranger
and you were there waiting for me

That’s how these lists are though — debatable and up for challenges. But I will guarantee that if you stay long enough and listen to enough, you will need some tissue.
While I took readers suggestions, I am the final judge. My qualifications? I cry looking at my  dog, and I have a  disease, Lewy body dementia, which  will likely cut my life short. 
For the full story and the Top 10 Tearjerkers list  go here.
I can’t write about this without mentioning that a friend and colleague of mine lost a son this week and although I had not met the son, my heart and many hearts are broken.  We can and we can’t begin to understand the depth  of grief of losing someone you loved and cared for. I say can and can’t because many  have been touched by tragic deaths and everybody deals with it in their own way. As human beings we know so little about life and death. Except that it hurts. And it’s a pain that lives inside. And it’s a pain that makes one look hard for joy, something for balance.
It’s a pain that makes us ask “Why.”
Van Morrison, one of my favorite artists and spiritual advisers, sang: ‘It ain’t why why why. It just is.’
Sometimes I think of that and it makes me want to smack Van Morrison right in the nose.
Meanwhile for my daughters and wife:
https://youtu.be/z15pxWUXvLY
https://youtu.be/JI3tVMKmMM8
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Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five — 450

Vinyl 12-inch single  (1983): NewYork New York

MVC Rating: 5.0/$$$

I was an early listener to rap/hip hop but by the time it exploded I had pretty  much lost track. Here’s the legendary progenitors (so to speak) of rap music as we know it. Sounds funny and outdated now though still catchy  to a degree.

GM Flash put it on the map with ‘The Message.’ I got their second ‘big’ single ‘New York New York.’ It was like in my preceding review of Eddy Grant where I got the album released after his big hit ‘Electric Avenue.’

But I bought this one in Birmingham new after hearing ‘The Message’ a bunch of times. Kind of shows you how I think. I wanted the newer disc because I thought it would be even better than big hit. I thought it was better or at least similar, but sales did not reflect that.

New York New York big city of dreams, but everything in New York ain’t always what it seems

I also bought Kurtis Blow on vinyl about this time, called ‘Party Time,’ again not his biggest record. (That would be ‘The Breaks).’

On vinyl that’s about it for my hip hop collection. Though I have  on my iPod a number of rap artists, courtesy in many cases of my three daughters. Let’s see (rolling through my trusty 120 GB classic iPod)  I have some Lil’ Wayne, Beastie Boys, Rhymefest, Kanye West, Eminem, 50 cent,  and Nas. Most are songs singles not full albums though. But I’ve lost track of  the scene for the most part (since my daughters moved out).

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Eddy Grant — 451

ALBUM: Going for Broke

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$

I thought I had the album with his big hit: ‘Electric Avenue.’

But I don’t.

My album ‘Going For Broke’ is the album AFTER his big one. My album is pretty good, rock inflected reggae, which means it has rock guitar in it.  It’s not what I’d call real roots reggae, more of a fusion pop reggae.

On this album, he has a song “Romancing the Stone’ which was commissioned for the hit movie starring Kathleen Turner, however it was not used in the movie (except for a short guitar solo).  The song, a so-so piece of reggae pop, never succeeded at the level of ‘Electric Avenue.’

In Barbados, Grant operated a popular recording studio for years. He also wrote ‘Police on my Back’ recorded by the Clash, one of the better tracks on the Clash’s Sandinista album.

I have to say  after a few listens, this album is nice. Good playing, happy reggae beat. I’ll play it again and keep my eye open in record stores for ‘Electric Avenue.’