These albums by members of supergroup bands going solo come to me with low expectations. They are usually forced at least in the musical sense by the artist working out of his role. That’s part of the appeal to the artist and part of the ego-driven decision.
Look at Diana Ross, they think. She didn’t need no Supremes.
Look at Mick Jagger’s solo work. He DOES need the Stones.
ROGER: Uh, Pete, it’s just a little side project like you did with Ronnie Lane.
But that side project — Rough Mix — was good! One of my favorite albums. One of the best songs in that Townshend-Lane creation is the song ‘Annie.’
Daltrey, who never learned to button his own shirt, put it all out there on “One of the Boys’ — ballads, rockers, a little country. Hoping something would stick.
Daltrey is a great rock vocalist and quintessential front man for one of rock’s greatest rock bands, The Who. But this album is fair at best. But not without ambition.
Best song (ironically): Avenging Annie.
I have Andy Pratt’s version of Avenging Annie — he wrote it. And you could certainly argue that Daltry’s is better.
Daltrey is a singer, an interpreter of other’s songs. Townshend did the lion’s share of writing of the Who’s classics not the chiseled, shirtless frontman with flowing blond hair.
Funny side note: In my album, which is a cutout has an advertisement sheet offering “RogerDaltrey Hologram’ pendant that makes Daltrey look like a cross between Andre the Giant and Thor.
So apopros that my alphabetical system provokes me to take a look at Danny and Dusty.
This all-star band, well, maybe minor league all- star, has some gut-barrel, singalong barroom music on it. ‘D’ for drunk, maybe?
This is a buddy group with Dan Stuart from the band Green On Red and Steve (Dusty) from Dream Syndicate. Members of those bands and the Long Ryders were the backing band.
I have some Green on Red somewhere, maybe disc, and this is reminding me of some great songs they did in the 1980s ‘post-psychedelic movement’ in the SF Bay Area. (To be honest, Green on Red sounded more country punk to me.) One song, I can’t recall it’s name, had a line it about ‘working at the Piggly Wiggly’ — it always made me laugh. I’ll try to find the song and post.
Now I live a block away from a Piggly Wiggly. But I also lived in the Bay Area for a decade and don’t remember ever seeing a Pig there?
Anyway, D&D is a fun listen, probably recorded most songs in 1 or 2 takes. The Dylan cover of ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’ is a different take, and not bad. (Still my favorite cover of that song is probably Guns N’ Roses version, though I never was huge GNR fan—I felt like I was too old to enjoy them. Odd, b/c I like some Chili Peppers).
Creedence Clearwater Revival officially ends my C’s. As you may be aware, I have been counting down my 678 vinyl records here on this blog before I succumb to a fatal degenerative brain disease.
I’ve been counting them down alphabetically, more or less. I’m not super strict on that. On the menu at the right you can, for example, click on A-Music and see all of the reviews I’ve done for bands or individual artists whose names start with ‘A’ — first, letter last name for individuals. So Hoyt Axton would be in the ‘A’s, (if I had any Hoyt Axton.) The Beatles would be in ‘B’ (I do have some Beatles.)
I started this blog in late September, 2017 with 678 records to do. I made the pledge to finish, so I’m going toe-to-toe with this brain disease, Lewy body dementia, while I do this. All the while promoting awareness of LBD, which most people don’t know is the second leading cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. The average life span for an LBD patient is 5 to 7 years after diagnosis. I’m about 18 months from my diagnosis.
Record-wise, I am at 552 (those numbers which you will find adjacent to each title indicate how far down that particular album is in the count.) So I have completed 126. (678-552=126)
As regulars know, a lot of my posts are not ‘countdown’ posts, or music related at all. Intermixed with my vinyl record reviews are ruminations on life, love, and the proper way to remove a pinto bean from a child’s nose.
I repeat, the goal here is to raise awareness of this godawful disease I have. Some things I write may be offensive to some people, for example I did a post where I create a stand-up comedy act which pokes fun of my disease.
Quick background: The disease is named after Frederic Lewy, doctor who noticed upon death that certain people presenting with dementia had an oversupply of a type of protein that doctors figure is killing brain cells; it is the same protein associated with Parkinson’s disease, only the proteins seemed to set up a larger camp, thus affecting both mental and physical faculties. (Yes Dr. Lewy had to open the lid to look at these dead folks’ brains.)
I guess he was proud of his work and I’m glad he learned something. But would you want your name associated with this this brain dissolving protein? Sure, I know his findings provide a starting place. Did he know I wonder that the disease was given his name? Did they have a little ceremony? |
Master of ceremonies: And we officially decree the name of this degenerative fatal brain disease to be Lewy. (clap clap) …And our next award tonight goes to Dr. Cancer …
Weird if you ask me.
But Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases are named after Dr. Alois Alzheimer and Dr. James Parkinson, respectively.
QUICK: Musical interlude from the super handsome Robert Palmer.
Doctor Doctor, we just gotta be sure
I got a bad need for Dr. Cure
No pill’s gonna cure my ill
Which will only get worse when I see the bill
All right fun’s over. Sit back and enjoy my blog. I’ve been averaging about five posts a week, but they come at all times and sometimes I miss a day or two.
If you’ve seen the latest post, explore the rest of the blog. Lots of stuff. Listen to the music.
The more I talk to people, the more I realize that knowledge or awareness of a certain type of music or singer or group doesn’t match mine. Surprise surprise, I’m a 58-year-old man going through vinyl records I bought when I was in my teens or 20s — in the 1970 and 1980s mostly. (CDs got big, then digital, shareable, files, then programmable Internet radio. I’ve used them all. But the vinyl is still closest to my heart and it conjures special memories.
Young people tell me about musical genres I know little about, trip-hop, folk metal, shoegaze, different mashed jazz types. I’ve been too busy hunting my Apple ID number to pay attention, it seems.
But I think I have a lot of music people have missed; that they would like. That’s what this is about. When I hear someone say, ‘I’ve never heard of Tonio K, I want to play a few songs for them. Or David Lindley’s solo stuff and his first group Kaleidescope. Or Leonard Cohen or Randall Bramblett. Or Cream or King Sunny Ade or the Plimsouls. Or Easybeats or Rockpile or the Swimming Pool Q’s or Bud Powell or Eddie Hinton.
Most of the time I have a video at the end of the post, watch ’em.
My 80-year-old plus mother said she actually likes some of the songs.
ALBUMS: Chronicle (1976); Green River (1969); Willy and the Poor Boys (1969); Mardi Gras (1972).
MVC Rating: Chronicle 5.0 Green River 4.5; Willy and the Poor Boys; Mardi Gras 4.0
In the liner notes. (Stop. Need to explain: Liner notes are essays, histories or any little write-up written on all that ample space on the cover, jacket or sleeves of records. It’s a way to give some history, preview the new record or point out something. They all but disappeared when CDs came out b/c space was so tight on the much smaller recordings.)
But I digress.
In the liner notes, Greil Marcus makes a reference to ‘striking a chord.’ Marcus is the godfather of rock writers who once wrote for Creem. Five points if anybody remembers that influential magazine. Anyway, I continue to digress. So Marcus wrote this in the liner notes to ‘Chronicle,’ the 20-song greatest hits double -record released after the group broke up.
So here in part is what he wrote:
“Making music against the grain of the post San Francisco pop music of the Sixties, Creedence struck a true chord with records that were clean, demanding, vivid and fast — with what might be called straightforward lyricism.”
The keyword here is chord. Listen to Creedence and you will notice rock and roll chords, minor chords that sound just right, rhythm guitar out front. Chords are different notes that make a nice sound when they get played together.
I could go a dozen ways in a post about CCR. My first two 33 and-a-third RPM LPs were ABC by the Jackson 5 and Cosmos Factory by Creedence Clearwater Revival (Up Around the Bend, Run Through the Jungle, Long as I Can see the Light.) Excellent stuff.
Loved both albums. I was into Michael Jackson early. Basically Michael and I were the same age so it was about 9 or 10 when I got into MJ. I remember Mama Pearl jumping out of the radio, and of course the best — ‘I Want You Back.’ Both of those albums, ABC and Cosmos Factory, are long gone from my collection. Although I think I still have Wilson Pickett’s 45 ‘Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool You.’ As I write this, I’m thinking now how I came to like such disparate music. J5 and CCR were far apart except for two things: they connected to a lot of people and had something you can’t manufacture — talent.
They were hit machines.
I remember I was about 9 or 10 when I got Cosmos Factory from my father who was out of town on a business trip and came back with the album. He knew I liked CCR because on long trips from Georgia to see grandparents in Texas, I’d flip the dials on the radio. ‘Looking out My Back Door’ was big then as was ‘Who’ll Stop the Rain’ which my mother loved. Probably ‘Rollin’ on the River.’
This was some family harmony tied to music by these long haired rockers who sounded like they crawled out of the bayou we just drove past in Louisiana. But they were actually from the SF Bay Area, Fremont, I think. A town that would be many years later where my employer ran the local paper there (in addition to a handful of other papers.)
One of the best and emphatic protest anthems against school violence (and war), was Neil Young’s ‘Ohio,’ played on this 1970 record with his on and off again band-mates. It , unfortunately, still resonates with current events.
That song is about the shooting death of four students at Kent State May 4, 1970, during the height of the Vietnam war protests and one of the better songs on this live two-record set.
TIn soldiers and Nixon’s coming; we are finally on our own; this summer I hear the drumming; four dead in Ohio.
This album is kind of controversial in that it is hated by some as a bloated artifact, loved by others for the classic songs and music.
I agree. On both accounts.
The extended jams are impressive but too long on record. Keep the song with jams, Ohio and Southern Man to name just two, just edit a bit. Save 20 minutes.
Keep all Neil Young songs. But get rid of such non-gems as 49 Bye Byes, and The Lee Shore, there’s another two or so worth pruning. Savings another 20 minutes. There you go, down to one album. And a great album. Less is more.
Young is clearly the stand-out and, as you’ll see later when we get near the end of my countdown, I have lots and lots of Young. One of my favorites. I finally got to see him live at his annual Bridge School concert in California with my daughter Emily. Paul McCartney was headliner. Videos below show CNSY doing an enduring classic, ‘Teach Your Children.’ and ‘Southern Man,’ an angry rebuke of southerners for some of the horrors of racism and slavery. Lynyrd Skynyrd fired back years later with a sharp rebuke of thier own, seemingly admonishing him for painting with a broad brush.
I hope Neil Young will remember, Southern Man don’t need him around, anway.
ALBUMS: Marshall Crenshaw (1982); Field Day (1983)
MVC Rating: Crenshaw 4.0/$$$; Field Day 4.0/$$$
I don’t want to say Buddy Holly-lite. Because I’ll bet that’s been done before in a description of Marshall Crenshaw.
So I won’t say it and instead say Buddy Holly-light. Because there is some pure holy Buddy Holly in there. Light not lite.
Had Buddy survived the plane crash, he likely would have progressed far ahead of Crenshaw right now. I say that because Buddy Holly was an incredible hit song writer whose songs have held up for decades. For goodness sakes, the Beatles themselves named their band in homage of Buddy Holly andthe Crickets.
Crenshaw’s good. He has a nice soothing sound, catchy songs about girls and, well girls.
Crenshaw is a singer-songwriter who creates song that are imminently fun and fast. Great to listen to at a dinner party out on the porch on warm spring day. Twangy guitars, strong vocals and great songs. It often all starts with song craft. If the songs sometimes may sound tossed off, that’s part of the point.
I went to work today really feeling it. Nope not in a good way. I was stiff and sore, not unlike most mornings, and not unlike many people in their late 50s.
But I was extra sore.
And I had some other problems that I won’t go into detail about. Let’s just say gastrointestinal, which is what people say when they don’t want to go into detail about it.
As I talk to more and more people, they seem sincere in their inquiries about what I feel like, um, maybe not so much the GI stuff. You may remember, I did a whole post about saying I was fine.
Well, i’m still fine, the good fine, and sometimes the bad fine — Feeling Insecure Nervous and Emotional.
Today was, I have to say, the acronym FINE.
So, I’m taking some time to do some pondering. Hope you will ponder with me.
The big question I sense people having but may be too polite to ask: What’s going on inside my head? After all I have an oversupply of proteins in my head, is killing my neurons (my mind). What’s going on in my head from the perception of someone’s whose head it is happening to.
I spent a lot of time on the road in 2011 talking to victims of one of the most explosive tornado outbreaks of all time. I spent nearly a year covering everything from search and rescue to funding issues to FEMA, most importantly stories of the people.
An aside: If you want to sit down for a nice spell and read about the April 27 event, here’s something I wrote on the first anniversary. If you get to the bottom of that one and want more, click the link to Part 2.
I wrote a lot after talking to people in Hackleburg, Pleasant Grove, Joppa, Pratt City, Smithfield Estates, Rainsville, and many other small and larger communities. There was something like 340-plus killed across several states, with the most (more than 240) in Alabama.
In my interviews that question was always in my mind: ‘What’s going on inside your head?’ How are you going to cope with the total annihilation of everything you own, or the loss of loved ones?”
I’m not sure I was that direct in asking the questions but I believe I found the answers: in the sound of bulldozers, funeral processions, hammer on wood. and chainsaws. The rescue personnel, again from here and out of state.
That was the answer. But as those, who follow my blog know, I keep looking for bigger, different answers as well. What is our purpose? Why is there such suffering in the world?
Is it like what T Bone Burnett sings in the song, ‘Trap Door?’
You’ve got to suffer to know compassion You can’t want nothing if you want satisfaction
What’s going on inside your head Mike?
Today wasn’t the best day as noted earlier. My brain function feels sluggish. My head is buzzing a bit, which it is prone to do. My memory is fair. I’m shuffling when I walk. My basketball game? Not good at all.
It’s happened before and it will pass.
As long as I am chronicling this. I often get what feels like a low-tiered burning sensation on the right side surface of my ever-growing belly. I’ve kind of written it off as my skin reacting–stretching — to accommodate my new size. (Which, I am working to get off — about 20 lbs.)
I had fallen to one basketball game a week and am now back at 2 a week. Progress. My diet needs to get better. I have so many tips on diets, it’s like I blend them together and pretty soon I’m eating more, not less. (Thanks for the lemon meringue pastry Chez Fon Fon, dessert after eating what appeared to be a half-pound burger). So good. So not so good for me right now. (Of course, my internal argument spurred on by my remaining neurons is this: ‘You want some meringue pastry lavished with whipped cream, you should get it.’ I am quite susceptible to that argument.
Fear of leaving my grown-up children, Hannnah, Emily and Claire, my super supportive wife, Catherine, my siblings Julie and David, my parents, friends. Gus my dog. Nieces nephews. Inlaws, outlaws. The Earth!
There is fear, fear of losing.
Tornado victims can lose it all in a moment. Lewy body dementia takes it all away bit by bit.
At least I have the bits. And pieces. I am thankful for that.
I’m looking outside as I wrap this up. It’s still clear and pleasant outside. No sign of bad weather here in Birmingham. Good weather for now to be under it.
ALBUMS: The Best of Dolly Parton (1970); Best of Dolly Parton (1975); Dolly Greatest Hits (1982)
MVC Rating: Best (’70) 4.5/$$$; Best (’75) 5.O/$$$$; Greatest (82) 4.0/$$$
I’m jealous. My friend and colleague Greg Garrison, AL.com’s religion reporter for decades, drove to Dollywood Thursday night and had an interview Friday with Dolly Parton.
I’m Greg’s editor and he did the smart thing to call me AFTER he was on his way lest I would have ordered him to pick me up. I would have brought my three Dolly albums with me of course and asked her to sign them. Obnoxious that would be — at the least. So Greg, thanks for waiting on that call.
For my part, I am going to move Dolly Parton up the alphabetical scale of myvinylcountdown.com .
I’m almost up to the D’s anyway, which would make a good fit. You know, D for Dolly.
Dolly Parton is 72 and I am 58. About 50 years ago I became a fan. As young boy, about 8 or 9 or so, I saw her on TV, on The Porter Wagoner Show. Dolly was kind of a sidekick to Porter, the sequin jacketed country singer with slicked back hair.
As I said, I was about 8 watching B&W TV as Porter introduced Dolly singing her new song. ‘I Will Always Love You.’ That song become a minor hit at the time. And it was embedded in my 8-year-old brain.
Years later Whitney Houston took it to worldwide fame and many people thought it was a new song.
I like Dolly’s version better. Whitney could definitely power through with a voice almost too good to be true. But I blame Whitney, (rest in peace) for all of the vocal gyrations that led to and became overused on vehicles such as ‘American Idol.’
Couple things I learned or my memory was refreshed about: Dolly Parton has an incredible natural voice and sings songs like she means them which is the point of singing, no? Connecting with an audience.She sings with the right emphasis and uses the right inflection.
Her voice is the real deal. But not only that, she played many instruments, guitar, banjo and piano. And maybe more impressive than all; she wrote nearly all of her songs, some of which have become classics.
She had 25 No. 1 Billboard country hits. She did movies, some good, some not so much. But I enjoyed ‘9 to 5.’
The three albums I have are about the perfect snapshot of her career in music. The 1970 best-of covers the early years and has a startling version of ‘Mule Skinner Blues’ complete with yodeling. Dolly makes you love yodeling even if you hate yodeling. This record also may have the definitive version of ‘How Great Thou Art.’
The second best-of (from 1975) has her signature songs that led her to the big time. ‘Jolene,’ ‘I Will Always Love You’ and ‘Coat of Many Colors’ and ‘Love is Like a Butterfly.’
The third album 1982’s Greatest Hits chronicles her crossing over from mostly pure country to a more pop sound that garnered bigger audiences but I didn’t like it as well as the earlier two albums.
It has such megahits as ‘Islands in the Stream’ and ‘9 to 5,’ from the movie soundtrack of the same name.
Videos below include a surprising cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ a classic 70s rock tune that few artists ever attempt to cover because the multi-layered original is considered definitive. And the early introduction of ‘I will Always Love You.’
This one appears nearly new, but I know it’s not. I remember buying this in Birmingham in 1986. Critically acclaimed, the band is in the same musical neighborhood of XTC and the Smiths, both of which I have on vinyl and will be reviewed later.
The Cure, led by Robert Smith, use personal song lyrics and create a dark ethereal sound that at times nears the neo-Gothic space of Sisters of Mercy.
I can see why my record looks so new: It is, taken overall, depressing and angst-filled, which I could only take in small doses. A renewed listen to this however reveals some strong musicality.
The Smiths provide a touchstone. Only the Smiths had a keener grasp on irony and humor. Also, the Smiths had Johnny Marr’s strumming and jangly guitar sound which was more suited for my earbuds anyway. The Cure are a bit icier, a little more electronic (in a punky way).
This is a compilation album of songs over time with some shifts in band members. (I think Robert Smith is the only remaining original member). As they evolved, some of the darkness went away for cheerier tunes, if not lyrics. Probably not lyrics.
An example is the Close to Me video below: The lyrics are not sunshine and light. At least from what I can understand. But the tune itself is quite poppy and catchy.
ALBUMS: Street Language (Crowell, 1983); Burton Cummings (1976)
MVC Rating: Crowell 3.5/$$; Cummings 3.5/$$
What a surprise to play both of these again. Remember I’m doing this in alphabetical order (sort of). So as I wind down the C’s I find these disparate but not so disparate albums.
I got my money’s worth, probably $3 each in 1980s dollars because there is some good music here.
Randy Crowell
Crowell may best be described as a country rocker. A little too commercial country for my taste, but there’s good singing and some good guitar and sax and a some really good, if not overproduced, songs. I’ve heard this is not his best album, which the consensus seems to be is ‘Diamonds and Dirt. But in a used record store, I think it retains its $3 value, maybe $4 if we gotta do the inflation deal. The opening two cuts are worth $3 alone. My favorite song, though, is Oh King Richard a catchy homage to legendary race car driver Richard Petty. Pretty good song.
Oh and Crowell covers a song (She loves the Jerk) by John Hiatt, who also plays on the record.
Burton Cummings on the other hand is a different cat. Lead singer of the Canadian band the Guess Who, he is often thrown in as one of the top rock vocalists in the biz, at least in the 1970s realm. Judging from the album cover and the video below, he also probably had the worst taste in jackets of any singer in Canadian history anyway. The video, with Burton in his pink jacket, does show off his storied vocal skills. (You’ll have to click twice to get to the video on YouTube but it’s worth it.)
But before he went solo, he and Guess Who bandmate Randy Bachman wrote an incredible string of hits (These Eyes, American Woman and Share the Land to name a few). Last I heard they were in a dispute over royalties, which Bachman claims benefited Cummings at the expense of himself. Not that Bachman should be hurting for cash. His post-Guess Who band, Bachman Turner Overdrive, had some major hits. (You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet and Taking Care of Business.)
So, Cummings’ solo album? Fair to middlin’. Voice is strong and he shows it off in a jazzy way.
Interestingly, Cummings covers ‘You ain’t seen Nothing Yet’ deconstructing it down to a piano bar lounge song. That takes away everything that was good about the song, namely the crunch of electric guitar introducing the stuttering title line.
This album, however, stands (get it) on ‘Stand Tall’ the song, anthem that was a wordwide bestseller. And if you sung it like Cummings, you’d probably keep the money too.
