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The Boomtown Rats — 629

ALBUM: A Tonic for the Troops (1978)

MVC Rating: 3.5/$$

Half of this album, the first side, is pretty good. Starting with Rat Trap, which is not a bad little  Springsteen knock-off with some Meatloaf thrown in. The next songs on side 1 flow  righteously through I  Never Loved Eva Braun to Like Clockwork. She’s So Modern ( ‘she’s so 1970s’ — ha ha) is one on the other side I like.

So I guess I need to explain because I was there, and into music at the time. The Boomtown Rats of Ireland were no huge deal, in fact just another one of many young groups rejecting the so-called dinosaurs of classic  rock, as defined by the Beatles, the Who and the Rolling Stones. The punks, like Sex Pistols, too often eschewed  musicianship in exchange for energy and the democratization of the performer-listener partnership or focused anger at traditions and institutions. New Wavers like the Rats took the energy from the punks but added funky wardrobe and perhaps actually played their instruments well.  In the end rock and roll evolved and came full circle. All rockers have their touchstones and nine times out of 10 it is the blues, Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley electric guitar chords as reinvented by kids long ago like John Lennon, Keith Richards and Pete Townshend.

Inject Bob Dylan’s and other influences from folkies and country into that mix and suddenly the words accompanying the music were important. The Rats? Enigmatic, literary, befuddling  and silly lyrics. They were clearly headfirst into New Wave with its higher level of musicianship and production. Which is OK if the songs were good. Quality is king unless you go the garage band route or the punk route — and that’s just taking off the filters and directly channeling Diddley, Berry, et. al.

Other notes: Perhaps ironically, Bob Geldolf, lead vocalist, went on to organize the benefit concert Live Aid, one of the largest fund-raising events of all time featuring many of the biggest acts of the time. It focused on hunger and starvation in Africa. The Rats also wrote and performed the worldwide hit about a California school shooting called, “I Don’t like Mondays” in 1979.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of a degenerative brain disease

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The Blackwood Brothers — 630

ALBUM: The Blackwood Brothers in Concert (1960)

MVC Rating: 3.5/$

I went through a period where I was really into gospel music. Earlier here I reviewed the Birmingham Community Choir and I probably bought  this in the same early 1980s time period in Birmingham.

I have further down on the alphabetical list  some vinyl by Rev. Al Green and some vinyl gospel by Little Richard.

Unfortunately my favorite gospel music is on digital: The Blind Boys From Alabama, the Dixie Hummingbirds and, especially, the Soul Stirrers featuring Sam Cooke. (See video below).

This album is rousing old school gospel.  Yes, and of course, it has How Great Thou Art.

And on Hide Me, Rock of Ages, basso singer J.D. Summer gets low,  slows it down and gets really low. Sounds like a purring tiger.

The back cover shown here has an ad for a high quality stereophonic Victrola. Looking at it. I want it.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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Blue Oyster Cult — 631

ALBUM: Agents of Fortune (1976)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

This is heavy but not technically heavy metal. I clearly bought this in high school on the strength of their song (Don’t Fear) The Reaper.

It was their best song and one of the great rock songs. It’s message best I can tell is don’t fear dying because there’s an afterlife. Romeo and Juliet, for example, are together in eternity.  Lyrics help me out here.

Valentine is done
Here but now they’re gone
Romeo and Juliet
Are together in eternity (Romeo and Juliet)
40,000 men and women everyday (Like Romeo and Juliet)
40,000 men and women everyday (Redefine happiness)
Another 40,000 coming everyday (We can be like they are)

Some controversy in the 70’s over whether song is about suicide. Band said no. But grim is the reaper, no kidding.

Now listening to the song is somewhat disorienting after Saturday Night Live’s famous ‘More cowbell’ skit, in which Christopher Walken doing his best Christopher Walken implores BOC’s new member (Will Ferrelll) to turn up the cowbell– just a titch.

I admire BOC for allowing Walken and Ferrell to desecrate such a serious minded rock classic. Unless they made a ton of money on that, then my admiration is not so much.

But it is a strong song  and album. Rolling Stone wrote in a column called  “40 albums boomers loved that millennials don’t know:” Long before metal splintered into a myriad of genres, BÖC came to fame for its ability to appeal to both head-bangers and chin-strokers.”

Call me a chin-stroker, but I really like the above mentioned and about three other songs,  including ‘This Ain’t the Summer of Love.’

It’s hard to describe the band but I’ll try in 10 words: Jefferson Airplane* plus Moody Blues sprinkled with Rocky Horror  Picture Show.

*I’ve changed this comparison ingredient  for the third time now. First it was Aereosmith plus Moody plus Rocky Horror; then it was Grand Funk; Now I’ve settled on Jefferson Airplane because of the female voice. The Reaper song actually sounds like every other Moody Blues opening so I’m good there. And the vampire tattoo and death songs made me think of Rocky Horror.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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BoDeans, Blue Rodeo, The Bongos — 634, 633, 632

ALBUMS: Love and Hope and Sex and Dreams (1986)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$

I’m going three for one here on posts. Here are three albums, not much alike but a little. All produced in the mid-to-late 1980s, when music was straddling New Wave synth sound and the early throes  of what some call Americana. BoDeans was definitely pre-Americana or maybe not even pre.

Some of these three groups did well, but none became widely, wildly well known. Some cult-following fans may argue otherwise. (I have to say it takes a few seconds to get over the BoDean’s lead vocalist’s nasal sound,  which briefly sent me back in memory to our falsetto guy in Bread and Butter. Just brace yourself.)

The album,  produced by T-Bone Burnett (yes he gets around) named after a Mick Jagger proclamation in”Shattered,” wanted to set a bar, perhaps too high.

I  must say though, the first two songs on the album were the best  one-two opening of an 80s record album I’ve ever heard. The songs steam along, sounding as if they were one song with the ‘keyword’ being runaway or fadeaway. See video  of just one of those songs and I think you’ll get it.

ALBUM: Outskirt (Blue Rodeo, 1987)

MVC Rating: 3.5/$$

Now if the BoDeans were fledgling Americana pioneers, Blue Rodeo was Canadian and not so new sounding, despite their name.

They were pretty much traditional country, from north of the border. Pleasant songs that surely seem to have been a good road for them. This is the first album  of about 20 they have recorded. Nice, relaxing, tuneful most of the time but every now and then they’ll turn the rock amp up to 7 and show some chops. ‘Pirhana Pool’ is a nice jazzy country playground for keyboards and restrained guitar accents.

ALBUM:  Beat Hotel (Bongos, 1985)

MVC Rating: 3.5/ $$$

So what is with these Beat names. Earlier I’ve reviewed Beat Radio, the Beat Farmers, and the Beat. Now the Bongos are in front of me with Beat Hotel, their album. You think they would use a  little imagination to separate themselves like, oh I don’t know, the Beatles.

This album is certainly not Americana or country in anyway. They are a talented band coming into  the 80s where rock music was transitioning between the commercialization of punk, the glorification of album rock or so-called classic rock and destruction of the democratization of radio. That’s a fancy way for me to say that everything started to sound the same on the radio. The Bongos had some nice tunes, kind of a tamer Beat. But of the three reviewed here the Bongos sound most dated,  now sure to make a nostalgic comeback as I write this.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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David Bowie — 637, 636, 635

ALBUMS: ‘Let’s Dance’ (1983), ‘Fame and Fashion’ Greatest Hits (1984), ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars’ (1972)

MVC Rating:  Stardust: 5.0./$$$$; Let’s Dance: 3.5; $$$; Greatest Hits: 4.0/$$$

It’s pretty simple. Get the Ziggy Stardust album. It’s so good. It’s one of the top 10 rock albums of all  time IMHO.

Now Bowie was a shapeshifter at the highest level. An artist in the real sense of the word. He was a trans-genre space oddity. He sold millions, changed musical styles like coats, and even had a worldwide Christmas hit duet with Bing Crosby.

If you want to broaden your Bowie collection like me, I would do what I did. Such simple advice. Get ‘’Let’s Dance’ the album and the greatest hits disc Iisted above. And of course as I said, get Ziggy first.

(A live album, David Live is also pretty good or maybe interesting as Bowie rearranged some of familiar songs.)

Now the ‘Let’s Dance’ recommendation might raise eyebrows. “It’s Bowie going disco,” goes the critique.

Well, he sort of pioneered quality disco, didn’t he? Fame and  Young Americans are the rare disco type songs that have shelf life, almost classics.

Bowie was one of the few white artists ever invited to the TV dance show Soul Train, singing Golden Years. Or should I say lip-syncing, not one of his finest performances.

But get this: The lead guitarist on the Let’s Dance album? Stevie Ray Vaughn, one of the best guitarists of all time. He’s scratching it up with his guitar chops over the heavy bass-line in this one. Still very fun to listen to.

Bowie always had good musicians. Guitarist Mick Ronson was on Ziggy.

From my three albums I can come up with a killer 10-12 song  mix, and I’ll do it in order of my favorite songs.

  1. Starman
  2. Five years
  3. Heroes
  4. Modern Love
  5. Young Americans
  6. .Ashes to Ashes
  7. Let’s Dance
  8. Suffragette City
  9. Moonage Daydream
  10. Changes
  11. BONUS: Space Oddity, Fame

Not a bad lineup from three albums. Start with Ziggy.

Counting down my 678  vinyl records  before I die of  brain disease.

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Kurtis Blow — 638

 

ALBUM: Party Time (1983)

MVC Rating: 3.5/$$

This is early, early rap, hip hop or whatever you want to call it.

I’d put this on at a party  and the white boys would actually get up and dance. Throw in a little Grandmaster Flash and it was hopping around time. Bad dancing. (Except for me, of course.)

I remember once at a small dinner party at our  house, I pulled out my rap collection of about three records, feeling kind of impressed with myself that I was on the cutting edge.

I think I put on “New York, New York (Big City of Dreams)” by Grandmaster Flash. This was early 1980s and we were living in Birmingham. This was the very inception of rap as a popular culture sort of thing. (That means white people were discovering it). Flash and Blow were pioneers, with “The Message” by Flash and “The Breaks” by Blow.

Again feeling a little too proud of myself, I asked a black colleague who was at the party how he liked it.

My colleague said he didn’t like rap. He liked hard rock, heavy metal.

Oops, one of those moments. Um, Mike I think it is time to flip the record on your STEREOtype!

 Yes man, and we will be serving the fried fowl a little later. 

But we were cool. He laughed.

I put on some Led Zeppelin.

Counting down my vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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Shelley Berman –639

ALBUMS: Outside Shelley Berman

MVC Rating: 3.5/$

Sounds like a 1950’s version of Seinfeld, perhaps crossed with a little bit of Lenny Bruce rage. He euphemizes some sexual content here, very slyly I might add.

He died this year but before that he was a character in Curb Your Enthusiasm, a show everyone recommends but I know little about other than Larry David stars.

Noted for accusing Bob Newhart of copping his one-sided phone routine where he pretends like he’s on the phone with some famous person from history. (See videos).

Bob pretending to be on the phone to Lincoln’s press agent, for example. “Your thinking of shaving? Um let’s  re-think this Abe,  sweetheart.” Or something like that.

I think Newhart won that spat when they realized a number of comics did that schtick.

He seems to be quick with the wit, funny even. A prototype comic of sorts.

But I can’t see flipping through my records and saying I wanna listen to some Berman  right now. I NEED BERMAN RIGHT NOW. No, cant see me doing that.

I prefer what I call the Steven Wright style:

“What’s another word for Thesaurus?”

Counting down my vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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Big Country — 641, 640

 

ALBUMS: The Crossing (1983), Steeltown (1984)

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.

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The Birmingham Community Choir — 642

Let God Into You, He Cares for You  (Date not listed)

Perhaps because it is Sunday. And perhaps because it is more or less next on my alphabetical list to count down my 678 records, I’m going to go to the Birmingham Community Choir.

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.

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The Beatles Mystery– 644, 643

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.