This is an actual vinyl 45 rpm record I received a very long time ago from a man, an assistant prosecutor in Gadsden, Alabama. I was doing a story about this 30-something who wanted to be a judge. He was making news by railing against sitting judges in Etowah County, alleging ethical lapses and such.
Maybe I was committing an ethical lapse taking the 45, but i think its value then was under our company policy prohibitions.
The man running in Alabama for a U.S. Senate seat is now facing a wave of allegations of inappropriate sexual behavior with underage girls.
I’m not going to comment right now on guilt or innocence or the guilt and shame of the innocents.
But I do want to say that I have a regret about that time way back in 1982 when I, a cub reporter, was living in Jacksonville, AL for nine months covering Anniston, Gadsden and Talladega for the Birmingham News.
My regret: That I didn’t spend more time in Gadsden. More time covering Roy Moore.
Curious about the music? I’ll reserve judgement on that as well, but you can listen yourself.
MVC Rating: The Crossing 4.0/$$; Steeltown: 3.5, $$
The fact that I have two Big Country albums means I must have liked them a lot. Or at least the first one to make me buy the second one. I do like Big Country although haven’t listened to this band in years.
They sing in Scottish accents and make their guitars sound like bagpipes in a wall of sound that is rousing and dare I say, war-like
On a scale of their contemporaries the Alarm and the Waterboys, I’d place them ahead of the Alarm and behind the Waterboys purely subjective because I like all three. I got into the Waterboys because they walked to the precipice of something new – big music — thanks to Mike Scott.
Probably my two favorite BC cuts are “In a Big Country’ off the Crossing and ‘Where the Rose is Sown’ off of Steeltown. These are killer songs.
And both sound alike.
Which is my critique. Powerful sounds, roaring Scottish guitars in riff driven waves make them sound good. But up creeps a sameness that I think took away from how good these songs are. They wouldn’t be the first group accused of milking a successful song/sound. I mean there is no artist (except the elite of the elite who can make basic rock and roll sound new again all the time. The sound Big Country milks is especially good. Just don’t expect something that continues to evolve.
I remember buying this in Birmingham before I went away, perhaps in 1983 or 1984. I bought it in a predominantly black neighborhood, that if memory serves me, focused primarily on gospel music.
This is big booming Sunday-go-to-church music, which I am preparing to do to hear my wife, Interim Associate Pastor Catherine Oliver, deliver the sermon at 11 at First Presbyterian Birmingham.
This choir was directed by Lawrence T. Sneed.
It has old school gospel songs, ‘I Dreamed of a City ‘Called Glory’ and the MLK tribute ‘Let Freedom Ring’ and ‘And Jesus is on the Mainline’ and ‘I’ll See You in the Rapture.”
I h ave not been able to find this album on the Internet. Though I did find another from this same choir called “Why Can’t I.” I also believe I bought other records from this store, including gospel by Al Green and Little Richard.
Anyone with more information, let me know in the comments.
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.
ALBUMS: Beatles Alpha Omega (1972), The Beatles/1967-1970 (Blue Album 1973)
MVC Rating: Alpha 4.5/$$$$$/Blue 5.0/$$$$$
I want to write about the Beatles. I really do.
But I find I don’t have the words right now to describe what they did and what they mean. They were in my opinion the greatest rock band ever and possibly in the top 5 of greatest musical artists in terms of breaking new ground and influence.
But I gotta back that up, and right now I’m going to think about it a bit more as I go through my 678 vinyl records that I am reviewing for www.myvinylcountdown.com.
Meanwhile …., I’m going to offer up a little look at the two Beatles albums I have — again not a review of the music but a little story behind the origins of these two albums.
Two you say? Doesn’t sound like the Beatles collection of someone who thinks they are all that.
Well my two ‘albums’ are two anthologies totaling six vinyl discs in all. (Plus I have a lot, probably most of the Beatles catalog digitalized.)
One of the collections is a box The other collection I have is commonly referred to as the Blue Album which covers Beatles from 1967 to 1970. My brother had the Red Album which covered 1962 to 1966. If you have the red and blue albums, 2 records in each set, you have the essence of the group’s great work, but I would recommend the separate albums as well, especially Revolver, Sgt. Pepper and the White Album.
Now funny thing about the 4-record Alpha and Omega. It’s a bootleg. They call it a needle-drop bootleg because the bootlegger recorded these records right off the original records. Dropped the needle on a record on a turntable turned on a microphone and pressed the results in vinyl.
The sound quality is not supposed to be as good but I can’t really tell. The discs themselves contain songs in a peculiar order, sometimes alphabetical sometimes not. The only address on the albums is a P.O. Box from Asbury Park, N.J.
There’s also mixed in with the Beatles songs some solo songs such as McCartney’s Uncle Albert and Lennon’s Imagine.
Odd.
I’m not exactly sure where I got this. My wife, Catherine, says she thinks it could have been her sisters or her brothers’. It’s possible I found it at a flea market.
I know I got my ‘blue’ album as a Christmas present from my parents at about age 12 or 13.
The Alpha Omega album was actually sold on late night TV in the US. Apparently copyright laws varied from the UK to USA and gave someone the audacity to just steal these off of Beatles records.There are several versions of this bootleg.
Apple Records apparently chose to come out with the red and blue albums shortly after the bootlegs to counter with an ‘authorized’ compilation. In fact a paper sheet included in my blue album says, “These are the only authorized collections of The Beatles. On Apple Records.”
At www.discogs.com where they sell and buy records, I found these notes on one of their web pages.
In January 1973, two pirated Beatles box sets appeared in the United States, Alpha Omega Volumes I & II: The Story Of The Beatles (Audio Tape Inc. ATRBH 3583). These four-LP collections were advertised on TV and radio stations in the Midwest and were sold by mail order. Instead of taking legal action, Capitol Records countered by putting out two official Beatles anthologies, The Beatles 1962-1966 (US: Apple SKBO 3403) and The Beatles 1967-1970 (US: Apple SKBO 3404). However, in March, a $15 million lawsuit was filed by manager Allen Klein on behalf of George Harrison, along with Capitol and Apple Records, against the manufacturers and distributors of the bootleg package, and against American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., who had been advertising it.
http://www.rarebeatles.com/boxsets/boxset.htm
Counting down my vinyl records before I die of brain disease.
This is really interesting. Mick Jones, exiled from the Clash, in 1985 decided to go avant disco hip-hop with a pinch of Zappa discordant sauce. Some of it is interesting, as I said, some is not so listenable.
I don’t mean that in a totally negative way. I admire the exploration. Big Audio Dynamite was looking for the next big bang.
Here’s how I’d describe one (or more) song passages: Gunshots amid the Ennio Morricone whip-snaps, guitar strums and radio free Europe broadcasts burst out of looping ska-like background music. Whew. What does that mean. Almost got to hear it to believe it.
One thing I would have nixed if I was in studio: drum machines. Already program-y sounding, the machine powered drums push it too close to ready made.
‘Sudden Impact’ and BAD are songs where the band’s vision comes together for fully functional and interesting dance music. Kind of like a funked-up Sandinista sound. If you don’t have Sandinista the near genius mish-mash by the Clash, I’d go there before you go here.
This came out in 1985 so I probably bought this from Chuck at the alternative WUXTRY in Birmingham.
From BAD on the album:
These are the things that drive me crazy
These are the things that make me mad
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.
It goes like this, at 5 p.m. (or any time you wish) pick up our music storage devices, whether they are I-Pods, cell phones or other and set it to random play all songs.
Then we share our lists and argue about who had the best list or laugh at what came up the fact that my first song was Justin Timberlake.
I have 7,494 songs in my I-pod. And due to some kid usage of my 120 GB I-Pod, there are some that I can’t explain like how Justin got on. I will post this and encourage others to post their results in the comment section (by clicking on the title of this post.
Post in comments by hitting the title of the post and scrolling to the bottom.
ALBUMS:The Great Twenty-Eight (1982), The London Chuck Berry Sessions. (1972).
MVC Rating: Great 28 5.0/$$$$; London Sessions 3.0/ $$$
What I have here are two Chuck Berry albums. One is his worst. And the other is his best.
The worst: ‘The London Chuck Berry Sessions’ features the song: ‘My Ding-a-Ling.’
My what?
My Ding-a-Ling
No, not mine. It’s his …bad little sing-along, ding-a-ling song and he has to live with it or would be had he not died earlier this year. RIP.
For the good stuff, we go to the ‘Great Twenty-Eight’, a two-record compilation of the best songs from the man they say invented Rock ‘n Roll.
“The Great Twenty-Eight” has classics, ‘Maybellene,’’Brown-Eyed Handsome Man,’ ‘Roll Over Beethoven,’ ‘Johnny B. Goode,’ and ‘Sweet Little Sixteen,’’
Rock stars around the world have stolen Berry’s guitar riffs. Guitarist Keith Richards alone has a loaded rap sheet of lifted Berry riffs throughout the Rolling Stones’ catalog.
‘My Ding-A-Ling’ is not one of those sampled songs.
Funny, or not so funny, is that of all of these great songs Berry wrote and performed, “My Ding-a-Ling,’ a 1972 novelty tune (a cover at that), was his only No.1 hit.
Seriously makes you question the wisdom of folks in the USA. The rest of London was mediocre live music.
Maybe, just, maybe “My Ding-a-Ling’ could been nominated along with ‘Bread Butter” and “How Do you Do” as one of the best worst songs of all time. But alas, that contest is over.
So, I’m sticking to the Great Twenty-Eight.
All songs on it are, indeed, great. ‘Brown Eyed Handsome Man’ a subtle rock commentary on racism, is one of my favorites.
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.
ALBUMS: Highway Call (1974), Dickey Betts and Great Southern (1977)
MVC Rating: Highway Call, 4.0/$$$; DB and Great Southern 3.5/$$
I have here a Richard Betts record, and a Dickey Betts record.
Two records. Same guy.
But the bands are different and the music is a bit different, well maybe a teeny bit different.
I believe I like the Richard Betts better.
Whatever he called himself, Betts is one of the founding members of the Allman Brothers Band and these albums were side projects, which sound like Allman Brothers musicians doing side projects.
Betts along with Duane Allman became known for their twin guitar approach often running into extended, melodic jams with a jazzy blues home base.
This is a guy who won the Grammy for his beautiful instrumental, ‘Jessica.’
Highway Call gets my nod between these two because it, and this may sound strange, seems a little more tossed off. Kind of like a live set on the front porch in Macon, Ga. But you know it’s not tossed off when you have band members such as fiddler Vassar Clements and keyboardist Chuck Leavell. They just have a way of making music that goes into the wind and comes back in all the right places.
‘Highway Call’ is one of several standout tracks with a little country swing and nice piano from Leavell.
Dickey Betts and Great Southern strives for that feel but is a little more produced. It definitely has a more rock sound, e.g. ‘Run Gypsy Run.’ Both albums have some extended instrumental jams, conducive for relaxing.
And that, as you get older, is a good thing. And gives these records shelf life.
But if you are starting off on Southern rock, first go see Allman Brothers’ ‘Brothers and Sisters’ or ‘Eat a Peach.’
These are records I certainly bought used at Wuxtry in Athens, Ga. during my high school years.
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.
Here’s how you’d imagine Betts, just picking and singing on his front porch in 1974:
Here’s Allman’s w/Betts doing his Grammy winner, Jessica.
These brave women (and men), who have stared down death, have a lot to teach me and all of us with diseases that have no cure.
The video features a Bellamy Brothers song that is not even on the Restless album. Restless is good for those who like their country music smooth as Woodford Reserve Kentucky bourbon. But the music is a little less rootsy than I care for in my country. I do love some of the lyrics; the singing is fine if not slick; and the music playing is doggone good. Since my diagnosis of Lewy body dementia, I realized I see things differently, probably with a heightened sentimentality. But if they are all about raising awareness and promoting research into a deadly disease, they are all right by me.
The song on the video, we’ve all hummed a thousand times over the years and probably tried to get it out of our heads a thousand times more. It is the Bellamy Brothers biggest hit, but over 40 years they have had a stream of country hits and crossovers. Everybody with a radio is familiar with it.
Well the song suddenly became profound to me, if not for a minute:
Here’s last verse followed by the video.
It’s the season
Let your love fly
Like a bird on the wing
And let your love bind you
To all living things
And let your love shine
And you’ll know what I mean
That’s the reason.
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.
I was a sucker for these Rhino Records compilations of obscure and semi-obscure music.
The company put out ‘best of’ compilations of records by one or two-hit wonders like the Left Banke and Beau Brummels. I will review BB here but wait for the ‘L’s” for Left Banke. Rhino also picked up obscure but good original albums – not just anthologies and greatest hits. One of those was the Beat Farmers, which I earlier reviewed.
‘Laugh Laugh’ is Beau Brummels’ biggest hit and arguably, their best song. It has a sweet little melody driving along bittersweet lyrics:
Don’t say you can get any boy to call Don’t be so smug or else You’ll find you can’t get any boy at all You’ll wind up an old lady sitting on the shelf Laugh, laugh, I thought I’d die
Funny laugh laugh, right? No not really, but they’re working on that irony thing.
This was a big hit and deservedly so, I suppose. They get compared to the Beatles a lot but I’d put them more in leagues with the Kinks, in their early British Invasion stage. They seem like they could have done one of my favorite Kinks’ songs, ‘Nothing in this World Can Stop Me Worrying ‘Bout That Girl.’
But surprise! The Brummels were from San Francisco. And their later stuff starts turning toward a little psychedelia-tinged country.
Their songs are from a different time and place. ‘Laugh Laugh’ and ‘Just a Little’ and ‘You Tell Me Why,’ are songs you probably say you don’t know. Then you hear them.
Then you say: ‘Well, yes.’
Then …”well maybe.”
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.
tribute ‘Let Freedom Ring’ and ‘And Jesus is on the Mainline’ and ‘I’ll See You in the Rapture.”
