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Crack the Sky — 568, 567

ALBUMS: Safety in Numbers:  (1978); Animal Notes (1976)

MVC Rating  Safety 4.0/$$$; Animal 4.0/$$$

What is progressive rock?

I’m having this discussion with myself as I listen to my Crack the Sky albums, which have elements of prog-rock but also  traditional rock (without the roll).

Some might even say progressive rock is an oxymoron.

Rock n’ roll was music that boiled up in the 1950s as white musicians appropriated black rhythm and blues.

Mega bands like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin made gadzillions by stealing the music, giving it a makeover (turning up the guitar and winking as they over emoted vocals to great effect). I’m being a little flip here but not untrue. Groups like the Beatles and Stones took the songs to another place; they weren’t just note-by-note renditions.  But by using the old R&B as a base, they moved forward with their own sound. Besides Stones and Zep, think ZZ Top, Allman Brothers, Cream and Eric Clapton as examples.

But what about groups like King Crimson, Emerson Lake, and Palmer and the Moody Blues? Or, Queen, Soft Machine, Yes, and Electric Light Orchestra. And Pink Floyd, and Crack the Sky? These were groups that used jazz and classical concepts such as orchestral interludes, odd time signatures,  and virtuoso musicianship. Some pushed  it into avant-garde Dadaist music  like Frank Zappa and Beefheart.

These bands either were influenced more by jazz and classical or had moved so far away from an R&B base, that it was not heard in the songs.

Of course, lots of these bands crossed over. Led Zeppelin with its fantasy themes, multi-layered guitars and psychedelia, might be deemed progressive in some contexts, like ‘Stairway to Heaven’ for example.

But I’m leaving out some key influencers: the Who with their rock operas ‘Tommy’ and ‘Quadrophenia;’ the Beach Boys’ ‘Good Vibrations’ and the Beatles who were pioneers on all of it.

From their Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry chops out of the chute in early early 1960 to ‘A Day in the Life’ in 1967 which I would consider the classic example of a progressive rock song. It’s not only complex, lyrically and musically but it also is cohesive, despite many shifting parts.

So this may be a long way of saying, it’s those Beatles again. Yet they didn’t ignore their early American influenced rock n’ roll either, or ever.  In their last apearance on the top of a building in London they plaed ‘Get Back’ which is about as rock’n roll as you can get.

Crack the Sky is no Beatles. But the band’s song Safety in Numbers works well with it’s  opening guitar strum and catchy chorus even if that chorus is two cliche’ s bound together: “Cause there’s safety in numbers and numbers don’t lie.’

I like it.

Animal Notes is a little meatier. Invaders from Mars  sounds like a 10cc or Squeeze song. Strong progressive rock instrumentation.

There’s an interesting  song about Canadian Mounties, not kidding, which apparently at one point was supposed to be worked up into a concept album. Probably good decision to abandon that idea..

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

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The Cowsills — They should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — 569

ALBUM: “The Cowsills in Concert (1969):

MVC Rating: 3.5/$

I’m serious here.

The Cowsills deserve to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, alongside other family acts like Sly and the Family Stone, the Allman Brothers, the Staple  Sisters, the Jackson 5 and others. They could be in the family band section, if there was one.

I have to admit I just recently bought this record for $2 at Birmingham’s  Seasick Records, one of several great pre-owned record dealers in the area. Nice prices and nice selection for folks like me trying to do a blog on this stuff.. Although I have 678 of my own records to count down,

On a Cowsills fan website, there is a case made to put the ‘real Partridge Family’ in the Hall of Fame. (They are already in the Rhode Island  Music Hall of Fame, for goodness sakes.)

Among the myriad reasons they should be in the Hall, the  website post argues is that they wrote and performed the theme song for the TV show Love American Style. I loved that song and watched that show every Friday night,  as a youngster. It came on some time after the Partridge Family, I believe.?

This record was a nostalgia purchase. I couldn’t resist buying it. Because it tweaked early early rock and roll memories.

I remember in 5th grade coming over to a friends house in Athens, Ga., and my friend’s brother was dancing on the coffee table with ‘Hair’ going full blast. I think it also fueled my dislike of haircuts in the late 1960s, early 1970s.

Kind of strange that this appealed so much to young kids. The song came from the Broadway musical of the same name, notorious for its nude scenes.  The song was also a #2 national hit for the Cowsills.  Not surprising as they turned it  into a silly but arresting pop single –which is the correct interpretation of such a goofy song — as opposed to the more serious take from the musical.

And, i’m not kidding you here: They could really sing and play as this live album shows. They were the model for TV’s popular  Partridge Family, and musically, they would have blown most of the Partridges back to their high school drama classes. Some were amazed at the Cowsills pulling off the  Beach Boys” Good Vibrations.’ live in concert — a difficult task as the Beach Boys themselves learned  because of the degree of difficulty playing Brian Wilson’s masterpiece. 

The Cowsills consisted of the mother, three brothers) and sister (Susan). The live album had lots of well-played covers and introduced me to tunes I would love later like Walk Away Renee, Monday Monday, Please  Mr.Postman and Good Vibrations. Devil with a Blue Dress.

This website has has  a dissertation’s worth of arguments for why the Cowsills should be in the HOF.

I see that others don’t find the value in the Cowsill’s concert disc that I, in my 40 years of record collecting say it warrants. Excellent music, family band cute, lots of drama  over the years and nearly virtuoso playing and, get  this, Discogs is listing this record at $1 plus shipping. What? Did they make 5 million of these things?

They should be as rare as a Bobby Sherman Remembering You record, I say.

I’m serious here. Sort of.

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

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Sam Cooke –570

ALBUM: Live at Harlem Square Club 1963 (1985)

MVC Rating: 5.0/$$$

I could listen to Sam Cooke sing anything. A telephone book? What’s that?

The menu at Olive Garden, maybe.

Lost too soon, Cooke was a soul singer who’s voice was smooth with a side of gravel. He could swing as evidenced by this wonderful 1963 music from the Harlem Club, re-discovered and released in 1985.

You want to ‘Twist the Night Away’, then take your handkerchief a round. Round and round. Now your dancing with the chicken slacks, er, the chick in slacks.

What if your baby been stepping out at least that’s what people say.

Sam says don’t get all violent about it, go home and  tell her:

Honey it’s all right
Long as I know, long as I know that you love me
Honey, it’s all right

(And as long as she  tells you it’s not true, he sings a little later).

But then again ‘You Send Me.’

Cooke’s biggest hit. He milks it at the Harlem: “I just want you to listen to this song right here.”

At first I thought it was infatuation
But, woo, it’s lasted so long
Now I find myself wanting
To marry you and take you home, whoa
You, you, you, you send me
I know you send me
I know you send me
Honest you do

Cooke could work a crowd. They burst out in singalong choruses nearly every song. Wish I was there.

Sam earned his chops on the gospel music scene with some magnificent God praising in a group called  Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers, which, if you’re into that kind of music, is some top of the line gospel.

Less than a year after this live show, Cooke was shot and killed in Los Angeles. Police ruled it a justifiable homicide, something the family has long disputed, according to a book by Fred Bronson called The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits: The Inside Story Behind Every Number.

This one was tough not to give a 5.0.

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

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Core of Rock (various artists) –571

still with its $3 sticker

ALBUM: Core of Rock, compilation, (Richie Havens, Tim Hardin, et.  al. 1970)

MVC Rating: 3.5/$$$

An odd mix of popular and not so popular from the 1960s and 1970s.

I’m looking for some thread to tie them together, but is kind of a hodgepodge , that includes blues folk and a jamming drum and flute solo from Blues Project.

Janis Ian, the brainy teenager who wrote ‘At 17’,  goes all Romeo and West Side story with ‘Society’s Child.’

Then there’s Cory Wells, formerly (or later)  of hitmeisters Three Dog Night who should have stayed with the pack  (or was this before he joined the pack). His two songs, with the band the Enemys, include a needless and poor version of Chuck Berry’s ‘Too Much Monkey Business.’

And then there’s Blues Project, hippie flute instrumentals– meh. And Van Dyke Parks is working his arrangement talents while humming Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

Richie Havens’ take on ‘I Shall be Released’ is good. But my admiration here was focused on Tim Hardin, the fragile-voiced war vet who wrote and performed one of rock/folk’s most straightforward and best song ever in a career cut short by a fatal drug overdose: Reason to Believe.

if I listen long enough to you

I’d find a way to believe that it’s all true.

Knowing that you lied straight-faced while I cried

Still I’d look to find a reason to believe

I love Hardin’s voice. But Rod Stewart’s version is a forceful classic.

I realize this album was a bargain pickup so I, as I was wont to do, could glean two or three or four songs for a mixtape. I also used to discover new and good music on some of these hit-or-miss compilations. (Wait until i get you to one of my compilation purchases with a cool rave-up of a song that will make your ‘backbone slip.’ (That will be in the  M’s), I think.

 

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

 

 

 

 

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Ry Cooder — 573, 572

ALBUMS: Chicken Skin Music (1977); Borderline (1980)

MVC Rating.:  Chicken 4.0/$$$$; Borderline 3.5/$$$

This guy has been playing roots music for a long time. He likes the slide and plays it well.

When I say roots, I mean old time rock ‘n roll,  standards from various  genres, including  Hawaiian, Latin American, and Mexican.

Hard to pigeonhole. Maybe roots/world music.

Sounds like a mixtape titled “Eclectic Music from anywhere.”

Kind of a cross between David Lindley and Dave Edmunds and Los Lobos. He has worked with Lindley and it’s no surprise  he was in a band with the great Taj Mahal earlier in life.

In fact, he has quite the resume going according to various sources including a website about him.

He’s played and recorded with Captain Beefheart, Van Morrison, Neil Young, the Rolling Stones, and Eric Clapton — just a few in a long list of gigs over the years.

Rolling Stone’s David Fricke named him the 8th greatest guitarist in a 2003 top 100 list.

Probably his best work from my perspective was Buena Vista Social Club, an album of Cuban music which Cooder produced. The album was recorded in Havana in 1997 and was like a window finally opening, letting in (and out) the fresh air of musica cubana for the world. The two albums I have here are solid.  Chicken Skin Music is heavy on the island and Tex-Mex feel. Borderline, with a highlight ‘Why don’t you Try Me Tonight,’ is more old rock n roll with some Tex-Mex notes.

It’s easy listening in a good way. Both have a tossed off feel that may take some getting used to.  Check out the videos because his music shines in a live setting. It’s been a pleasant experience re-playing these after some years. Cooder’s music doesn’t jump you; it seeps in.

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

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Leonard Cohen — 574

AL

ALBUM: I’m Your Man (1988)

MVC Rating: 4.5/$$$$

Canadian, poet, novelist, singer, songwriter and musician. Which of these things does not go with Leonard Cohen.

Some would say singer. And yet, that, and songwriter are probably what he’s known most for. His song ‘Hallelujah’ has many great covers (Jeff Buckley,  Willie Nelson, k.d. lang, Justin Timberlake, just to name a few.) But some still enjoy Cohen’s own version best. I prefer Buckley’s but I do prefer Cohen’s version of Suzanne more than the interpretations by other singers.

Cohen whisper-talks in deep basstones. He doesn’t really sing. But it can be very effective as on his 1988 album, “I’m Your  Man.” On this album that I have on vinyl, Cohen uses more instrumentation than usual  to back  his whispery poetry. It’s right catchy. Highlights include the title song,  ‘First We Take Manhattan’ and probably the album’s best song, ‘Tower of Song.’  It’s kind of  like old white man rap.

With Cohen, it’s all about the words. He’s basically a poet, who learned to turn his provocative verse into song.  He was apparently in his 30s before he even used  music as vehicle for expression. He was a novelist and poet with several published works.

Cohen’s lyrics are always enigmatic, earthy and sophisticated at the same time.  Here’s some passages from ‘Tower of Song:’

 Well my friends are gone and  my hair is grey

I ache in the places where I used to play

And I’m crazy for love but I’m not coming on
I’m just paying my rent every day
Oh in the tower of song

Cohen died at 82 in 2016.
Rolling  Stone wrote:  Cohen was the dark eminence among a small pantheon of extremely influential singer-songwriters to emerge in the Sixties and early Seventies. Only Bob Dylan exerted a more profound influence upon his generation, and perhaps only Paul Simon and fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell equaled him as a song poet.
I would argue with Rolling Stone over that last statement. Lennon-McCartney,  Van Morrison and even Bruce Springsteen should be in that conversation.  (Springsteen would be more in the late 1970s.
My favorite Cohen lyric is from the song Anthem. Think about this one:
 
The birds they sang
At the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what
Has passed away
Or what is yet to be
Yeah the wars they will
Be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
Bought and sold
And bought again
The dove is never free
Ring the bells (ring the bells) that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)
That’s how the light gets in

 Counting down my 678  vinyl records  before I die of  brain disease.
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Joe Cocker — 575

ALBUM: Joe Cocker/With a Little Help From My Friends (1969)

MVC Rating: 5.0/$$$$

When you see Joe Cocker writhing on stage, singing in his most gravelly-gritty Joe Cocker voice, having what appears to be an epileptic seizure, you just want to take a stick and poke him (from a distance).

“Bear. bear. are you all right?’

(Growl).: You feelin’ alright?
I’m not feelin’ too good myself
Well, you feelin’ alright?
I’m not feelin’ too good myself

Cocker had perfected the Ray Charles-Otis Redding growls and gravel throated singing style. Cocker turned it into a great career of interpreting other people’s songs. Popular songs from the Beatles, Dylan and Dave Mason.

Inexplicably he writhed, and contorted himself while singing; it was kind of a cross between playing air guitar, air piano and air drums with a touch of the palsy. All the while he is putting so much emotional grit in each word of a song.

“Well,  I’ll try with a little help from friends.”

Jimmy Page among those on Cocker’s debut album.

The sad bear eyes and vocals indicating great inner  turmoil made you want to take a thorn out his paw.

He had a good humor though about his seemingly uncontrolled histrionics.

In 1976 on Saturday Night Live John Belushi joined Cocker as Cocker and they both went through some contortions.

Although he went on to bigger things with Top 40 ballads (You are So Beautiful) and some duets (Up Where We Belong  w/ Jennifer Warnes), this album, his debut, was his prime rock and roll album with covers of Feelin Alright, With a Little Help from My Friends and Just Like a Woman.

Check him out on video.

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

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For the Collector, Vol. 2 — 576

Hope you can read the song list.

ALBUM: For the Collector Vol. 2  (4-record Laurie compilation)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$$

What a treasure trove. Here are 64 songs from 50s, 60s and 70s. Many that you know you know. Others you know but didn’t know you knew. Others you wish you didn’t know.

You know? What I mean?

Like right now I’m listening to Jimmy Curtiss sing “Laughing at the Rain.” I know this song but didn’t know I knew it.

This collection has a lot of Dion (8 songs) and a lot of singers that sound like Dion. But that’s OK, I love Dion (and the Belmonts). Most known artists like Del Shannon get two or three spots. But lots of one-hit wonderfuls, like ‘Doctor’ by the Five Discs, ‘Western Movies’ by the Olympics, and ‘The Normal Ones’ by the Brooklyn Boys. I believe it was a bargain special when it came out, but now I see it listed for $50 on eBay and it seems to be scarce.

Then you have the Chiffons singing ‘He’s So Fine,’ AND ‘My Sweet Lord’ – the song they sued and won a landmark decision against former  Beatle George Harrison over his  song “My Sweet Lord.’ Listening now. Yes, they sound quite alike in melody. He’s so fine. My sweet Lord. I wish he were mine. I really want see you.

Guess the Chiffons wanted to show how alike the two songs are.

You know plagiarism is a bad thing, I agree, but you know how stuff gets in your subconscious. I’ll go ahead and admit it, I am plagiarizing Robert Christgau right now. Except  his vocabulary is twice mine. So I’m really only plagiarizing half of his words. But its not the words. Look at ‘He’s so Fine’ and ‘My Sweet Lord’. The words are completely different. Same with Christgau and me. But it’s the melody, the notes, the zeitgeist. I am plagiarizing Christgau’s zeitgeist. And both of our album reviews  are in ALPHABETICAL ORDER. Although his is more alphabetical than mine.

OK moving on.

On the last record, the record compilers couldn’t resist bringing in Snoopy v. Red Baron by that great band the Royal Guardsmen. You know the Guardsmen, the RG baby. Never heard of them but I do remember the song, it was my favorite at 4-years-old.

PS I checked real quick Wikipedia on the Guardsmen. Let’s just say they had a hit with the Snoopy Red Baron thing and rode that dog for as long as they could. Here’s what Wiki wrote:

The Royal Guardsmen are an American rock band, best known for their 1966 hit single Snoopy vs. the Red Baron, The Return of The Red Baron”, “Snoopy For President”, and the Christmas follow up “Snoopy’s Christmas.”

I wonder where  Vol . 1 is?

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

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

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Nat King Cole — 577

ALBUM: Just One of Those Things (1958)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

It was a different time, a timeless time.

Nat King Cole was a smooth guy. Frank Sinatra-like in Cole’s crooning phase. My father tells me he was a big jazz guy with a trio in his earlier days. This album with a few pops and snaps has the brass blasting and retreating behind universal themed lyrics of love lost and found. “A Cottage for Sale” sets the tone with its title.

My favorite is ‘These Foolish Things Remind Me of You,’ partly because it is a great song but also because I had heard Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music do it. So I  had familiarity going in.

A cigarette that bears a lipstick’s traces
An airline ticket to romantic places
Still my heart has wings
These foolish things remind me of you
A tinkling piano in the next apartment
Those stumblin’ words that told you what my heart meant
A fair ground painted swings
These foolish things remind me of you
Ahh, timeless stuff. And you followers of my blog know I have spent some time thinking about time.
Cole was a great piano player and singer. He became in the late ’50s  the first black host of a TV series, a variety show.
He was born in Montgomery, yes, Alabama. But his family moved to Chicago when he was a tyke of 4.
As may be expected Cole dealt with his share of racism in the 1950s and 60s including an incident in Birmingham where he was performing in 1956.
According to the Birmingham News three  members of the Alabama Citizens Council attacked and tried to kidnap him before being thwarted by law enforcement.
He didn’t finish the concert and never again played in the South.

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

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Bruce Cockburn — 578

ALBUM: World of Wonders (1986)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

Cockburn, a Canadian folk singer, is smart, a great musician, serious, not so much the life of the party. A self-proclaimed Christian, Cockburn writes melodic dirges, melodic folk/country and melodic rants. Much is about politics.

Put another way, Cockburn is a dude who reads the NY Times and listens to  NPR every morning and absorbs it.

He’s smart and he’s pissed.

To be fair he has also traveled extensively on various human rights causes.

Look and listen to the lyrics of “And They Call it Democracy.’

North, south, east, west
Kill the best and buy the rest
It’s just spend a buck to make a buck
You don’t really give a flying fuck
About the people in misery
I-M-F dirty M-F
Takes away everything it can get
Always making certain that there’s one thing left
Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt
See the paid off local bottom feeders
Passing themselves off as leaders
Kiss the ladies, shake hands with the fellows
And it’s open for business like a cheap bordello
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
Have you heard of any other pop artists write songs railing against the International Monetary Fund?
I have to say as much as I admire his writing and Berklee College of Music training, I don’t and/or haven’t listened to this album much. It’s in mint condition. It is packed full of polemics and politics, good music, great guitar playing, but little humor.
Take my old adversary, Robert Christgau, well not yet but once he reads   my  blog he’ll turn into my adversary, I’m sure. The blatant plagiarism (on both sides). Look what he says about Cockburn in his same review or review of the same  album. Here’s his review:
World of Wonders [MCA, 1986]
Cockburn’s a very smart guy with as tough and articulate a line on imperialism as any white person with a label deal. Few singer-songwriters play meaner guitar, and as befits an anti-imperialist he knows the international sonic palette. Unfortunately, his records never project musical necessity. The melodies and/or lyrics carry the first side anyway, but though I’m sure Cockburn has some idea what the synthesized pans are doing on the cry of politico-romantic angst and the vaguely Andean fretboards on the Wasp dub poem, what the world will hear is the oppressive boom-boom of four-four drums. B  Robert Christgau.
Now that’s what I wanted to say.He stole it. Aha, but I stole it back, slightly altering the lede, the middle  and of course came up with a different ending.
I certainly missed the impressive boom-boom of four-four drums. Shame.
One thing to note: His Christmas album, titled just that, Christmas, is excellent. One of the  best of  my very extensive collection of holiday music (mostly digital).

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