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Just what is it about this song in this Daily Journal, May 11, 2020.

Here’s an excerpt about a pretty amazing song. I just posted on AL.com:

Living on free food tickets, Water in the milk, From a hole in the roof, Where the rain came through, What can you do? MmmWhat is it about this song?It’s called ‘Love of the Common People,’ first recorded in 1967, it has been recorded by many many artists — some quite big , yet it always seems to be flying under the radar.“I’ve heard that before. Who sings it?” is the reaction I get most often when I play it for someone.Maybe it was at a friend’s house? Or your parents played one of its abundant iterations. I’ve heard that song before. Who sings it?From country singers to reggae versions to punk and soul. Waylon Jennings, John Denver, Elton John and the Everly Brothers.

TO SEE ENTIRE STORY GO TO

https://www.al.com/opinion/2020/05/just-what-is-it-about-this-song.html

Here’s the writer’s version of the song.

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Daily Journal, Sunday, May 10 (Little Richard and Happy Mother’s Day edition)

Happy Mother’s Day everybody. It’s Mom’s Appreciation Day or MAD as we call it. Actually, no It’s, of course Mother’s Day (for MD, what every mom wanted their son or daughter to grow up and be.} Well, we didn’t all become doctors but I’ve lived for the most part a wonderful life and I bless and acknowledge my mother’s assistance in that. Please try to empathize with our Moms. Today‘s a day where we stop and say I Love You.

(And a very happy BIRTHDAY, tomorrow May 11, to the love of my life, Catherine.

I also want t say RIP to one of the greats, Little RIchard, who is on my countdown albeit I don’t really have any vinyl of the rock and roll Little RIchard — rather I have a gospel record.

Little Richard, aka Richard Penniman from Macon, Ga., belongs up there with Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and the Beatles in completing the crossover mixture of white and black song stylings that melded in what we call rock and rollld.

His jagged falsetto and frenetic presentation of rock and roll songs had never been heard quite like Little Richard delivered them. His influences can be heard all over rock and roll, very specifically in Paul McCartney’s vocal yells and yelps.

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Daily Journal April 30, 2020, ‘A loneliness infected’ version

Strange days, indeed.’ –John Lennon.

A Loneliness Infected; Searching for meaning in quarantine

What are you doing? My wife asked.

“Just thinking.”

Its the umpteenth day of working from home and I feel a loneliness to my bones. And I got other people in the house, the aforementioned Catherine, my wife, and my daughter, Hannah, and her husband, Tom.

Just thinking.

Humans are social animals. We love to connect with other people. My daughters in their teen years would run out the door. Where ya going I’d holler from a comfy chair in front of a sports game.

Just hanging out , bye daddy, they’d say.

Call me, I’d yell back.

I was happy knowing they were happy ‘just hanging out.’

My wife was a pastor at a church in San Francisco so weekends she was always working. But I was happy knowing I’d go play basketball with ‘the guys.’ Hangin’ with the guys. And get home just as the daughters were running out of the door.

I had a soft chair, cold beverage and a TV. I was content.

I have to admit I’m having difficulty now finding that content spot as I quarantine against the coronavirus. Things are different now. I’m older, we all are older. I’m at special risk because of my Lewy body dementia diagnosis.

Maybe it’s self evident or too obvious that a little fear has creeped into my psyche.

Since the virus, I’ve often wondered and even asked people,: ‘What about the people who live alone.?’ I think there are many people lonely in a way they’ve never been before.

It’s a loneliness infected.

It comes with the exposure of our overwhelming vulnerability as humans on this planet. We are brought to our knees by a bug that we can’t see. COVID-19, like all viruses, are not exactly living beings, according to scientists.

FULL STORY CLICK HERE FOR WHAT’S POSTED ON AL.com

Keep checking myvinylcountdown.com for more countdown vinyl record reviews. I have Queen as the latest. Just before Queen ther was P.J. Proby, who has a story that is pretty rock and roll.

Here’s a couple of pertinent song from John Lennon.

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Daily Journal, 4/23, 2020, the Right Think version

As some of my columns go I didn’t expect to write a column when I was just fiddling around on my computer. And thinking.

So I wrote up a little ditty about thinking. (Other stuff coming: a review on my Queen records and something about a Mixtape. And don’t forget my recent P.J {Proby review, a character indeed.)

Keep thinking folks!

Do our brains have an infinite number of thoughts?

By Mike Oliver | moliver@al.com

Think about it.

When you are forming a thought you could go in a million directions. Or, maybe an infinite number of directions.

I’m thinking right now of the beach. I’m thinking of the emerald blue water and white sugar sand, I’m thinking of lotion, and sunburn. I’m thinking about the coronavirus. I’m thinking of a story I read about two cats in different parts of New York who got the coronavirus.

“I wonder if dolphins get the disease,” I think. Stop!

Stop these thoughts, I’ve got to finish this column.

So think about it: Do we have an infinite number of thoughts?

No, you say?

When you die, your brain dies so that would end the thoughts, you aver. Therefore, the number of thoughts a person has is finite.

But wait a minute, what if we are talking about everybody’s brain, not just a brain. Or, let’s suppose we are immortal and the universe is infinite. Seems like we would have, or be capable of having, an endless number of thoughts?

Google receives 63,000 searches per second.

Of those searches, 15 percent have never been searched on Google, according to the SEOtribunal.com, which I found using Google. Never? Never!

That’s an astounding number of new queries if you think about it. That’s 229 million per hour and 15 percent would mean that 34 million Google searches each hour are searches that have never been made before.

Like, I just Googled: “Do dolphins get the coronavirus?” The answer is yes so it probably has been searched. OK, new search: “Given that dolphins do get the disease how far is a safe distance from an infected dolphin firing off snot through its blowhole? Well, 100 yards is the immediate answer, I think Google has had that one too. (So, you can see it’s hard to come up with something new to search.)

Moving on, I believe there may be an infinite number of thoughts.

I would like to see if that 15 percent of searches number holds steady over the years.

I’m dipping my toe, here, into the ‘infinite monkeys theorem.’ You know the one: If you give an infinite number of monkeys a typewriter and teach them to mash keys at random, the monkeys would eventually write the complete works of Shakespeare (or maybe Edgar Rice Burroughs). It’s true, in theory.

So I started wandering down this path of thought, when I was reminded of a measurement I do know.

And that is: The human brain has 100 billion brain cells.

I have Lewy body dementia and it kills brain cells.

But think about our mindpower. There are 7.5 billion people on Earth with (maybe) an infinite number of thoughts.

There are thoughts leading-to-questions-leading-to-cures for my condition, for Parkinson’s, for Alzheimer’s for cancer, and, yes, COVID-19.

So think people. Think.

And use Google when necessary.

Mike Oliver is an opinion columnist who writes about living with Lewy body dementia and other topical issues. Read his blog at www.myvinylcountdown.com.

Thinking story also published in AL.com w/ photos and videos.

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Daily Journal March 26 9:39 a.m. Central and so we wait

Hope everyone is safe and healthy. I have talked to some who have been infected with COVID-19 and they say it is one nasty bug.

I’ve had a few stories appear on AL.com. If you haven’t seen them, here are a few.

Q&A with Dr. Saag

Postponing my death is the least I can do

Italian doctors offer harrowing look behind the scenes

OK, It’s the end of the world, now what

I’ve added to the countdown several times in the last week or so, with posts on Pink Floyd, Elvis Presley, and Peter Paul and Mary.

I’m down 248 left to review from my 678 starting point — that means I’ve done 431 reviews — all posted here and available at your fingertips. Also there are probably about 100 other posts not specifically countdown related. Keep reading and thank you for all the kind words and support.

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Daily Journal (March 22, 2020) Priorities and Life edition

I heard a report that 800 people in Italy with coronavirus died.

In one day.

I am speechless. But I won’t be columnist, I mean column-less. For right now as I gather my thoughts I’d like to recommend a couple of tunes for hunkering down.

First this one called ‘Life is Long’ by Jared Mees of Portland. Click his one and listen to at least four songs (whole album’s great

It’s funny, it’s melodic, it’s off-center and it’s a joy to listen to. It’s called “Life is Long’ by Jared Mees out of Portland, Ore., where some of my favorite relatives live.

I wrote about them earier, see here

And this one: A famous man setting his priorities.

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Daily Journal March 13 (Friday the 13th edition vs. End of life as we know it edition and a little TLC, oops, I mean 10cc)

Hope you all saw my Top 5 playlist for the apocalypse or armageddon or end times — what ever you want to call it . Click here to start dancing in these grim times.

Other bits and pieces (not from the Dave Clark Five. ):

–My good buddy Chris Brown from Georgia , a reconnected friend from childhood sent me $100 dollar to buy an old relatively obscure album we used to listen to and laugh at. In support of MyVinylCountdown. The album is 10cc’s ‘How Dare You,’ a before-its-time musical theater about love and relationships with pristine musicality. I mean, for real, when the song ‘Don’t Hang Up’ ends there’s a dial tone. Not kidding — that was cool. Of course the album now languishes in garbage dumps and bargain bends because nobody now even knows what a $%^&* dial tone is.

Best line from that song: ‘When the barman asked what’s you’re drinking, I said marriage on the rocks.’

Chris, my brother, I sent you also another 10cc album in addition to that one. It’s called Bloody Tourists and is a little more commercial. It has ‘Dreadlock Holiday’ and that last song about the guy getting so drunk he ruins his night. It has amusing special effects.

It’s called the Anonymous Alcoholic.

— Look for a MVC story over the weekend about the most expensive records you can buy and how vinyl is still ruling.

–One vinyl note, the numbers next to the artists’ names on blog post indicate how many I have left to do. So, for example, now with Process and the Doo Rags there is the number 265, which means I have that many left to review. Starting at 678, I have reviewed and posted 413 records: 265 to go as we count down. There’s some really good stuff coming up as I roll into the last quarter.

I can’t say I’d keep you as entertained as NBA basketball and March Madness but I’ll give it a try.

Leave you with an apocalyptic song from David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, one of my fave all times. The album was purchased from me at the record convention by a good friend, Kevin. Here’s ‘Five Years.’

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Daily Journal March 10, 2020 (Let’s go back to the beginning and Pick up the Pieces.)

For those of you catching up, we did pretty well at the Alabama Record Collectors Association. Sold 33 vinyl records and made more than $350. (Although expenses certainly cut into the profit margin. Maybe a nice dinner out with Catherine.

We learned some things.

  1. Unbelievable high end records. I never knew there were thousand-dollar records at these kind of shows, or anywhere for that matter. But I saw several plus records in the $200 to $400 range.
  2. Know your product. More than once, people came up asking how much. The sticker had fallen off and was now stuck to the bottom of someone’s foot. But because I had spent hours researching price and applying those stickers in advance. Even with my memory impairment, I found I could give an educated price. I know my records pretty well.
  3. Keep it real. Don’t put a 100-dollar sticker on a $15 record ‘just to see.’ Your credibility may suffer and you’ll lose the confidence of the buyers. Know what its value is to the best of your ability.
  4. Negotiations: At these events, the buyers often counter. This is something I already knew, but it takes a few times to get back upon the horse. For example, guy walks up with five albums, a $30, a $20, a $10 and a $3. That totals $63. He says: ‘How about $50 for all.’ In this case I would likely go for that but I quickly look at what he has and note silently that the $30 record was already marked down from a researched price of $45. So I quickly counter: $55 and it’s all yours. Deal struck. I think I knocked something off about one-third of the transactions — so about 11 records. All of this is happening in an environment where the prices are fair.
  5. Hands off the merchandise. As hard as this was to do, you are really trying to make money. Don’t buy records and stuff –and don’t rent a hotel when you are only 15 miles from the Gardendale Civic Center. We didn’t do the former — at least not with records, I did however buy for my two daughters and their significant others rock and roll black T’s from the heavy metal contingent behind us — They were awesome — the people and the T’s. But we did get us a room. And that’s on me because I suggested it. Otherwise, Catherine was going to have to drive to and fro for two days, at night and morning with some other work she had to do in Birmingham on Friday. It was worth the extra $100 (free continental breakfast; I got a big greasy sausage patty and biscuit and gravy.) Catherine joked we won’t put the hotel on the record convention cost side of the personal ledger and count it as ‘staycation.’

So for the big reveal (drumroll please): I grossed $407, according to latest data available. I spent $75 for a table, $40 for nylon outer sleeves and $10 for inner sleeves and other expenses, taxes, meals and gas about $60, ate cheaply. Total spent: $185.

407 – 185 = 216. Like I said a super high-end dinner for Catherine and me. Or that rare Beatles record. … perhaps? (Oh, and there’s this wedding).

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Daily journal March 3, 2020, version: What is valuable? Let’s start with records.

This is a big deal. A lifetime accumulation of records. You’ve seen quite a bit on MyVinylCountdown. They are part of my life; they are touchstones; memory triggers of good times and bad.

I’m selling them.

Not all at once, But starting Friday (March 6) through Saturday (March 7) at Gardendale Civic Center I will be selling or offering up for sale somewhere in the neighborhood of 175 albums. That’s from my collection/accumulation of 678. That number was the count when I started September of 2017 about 6 months after my diagnosis of Lewy body dementia.

Even to those familiar with my blog, there’ll be some surprises I’m sure. I have some relatively higher priced 78’s and some cheap CD’s. But the focus will be on vinyl.

My overhead costs are already in the $150 range likely to rise — getting a table at the event ($75), bins (cheap laundry baskets ($25), plastic outer sleeves and inner sleeves ($40) and couple other doo-dads.

The most labor intensive part of this has been to value the records. How much to sell them for. My wife Catherine says I’ll probably overprice them because I want to keep them.

What? I say.

Have you ever heard Bad Company? They put the classic in classic rock. You wonder if $25 is too much? OK I’ll take some it down to $19.99. Jeesh.

Actually, I think I have my Bad Company (debut album) listed at $7. I keep second guessing myself on some of these. Maybe it should $6?

There are ways to assess value. I often use DIscogs and look at what the ‘Median” price is for sales. This works when their are plenty of sales to get a good median. I also look at Popsike which has records and what they sold at auction — eBay also offers those kid of numbers. It’s also good to look at prices the record is currently selling for on Amazon. Etsy is another one, although I don’t use that one much at all.

There are also sites that specialize in 78 rpm records.

I hate it when somebody explains to me for the 405th time that a product’s value is the cost a willing buyer and wiling seller agree to. Of course that’s obvious but there are so many parts of negotiation. Some love it and some don’t. I have come to enjoy it — to a degree.

The websites are certainly not magical I think the best assessment is made with your experience: ‘What would I pay for this?”

Some albums like my Bob Dylan box set ‘Biograph,’ I am choosing not to sell at the moment. I”ve got to have a few untouchables, windows to the past, where I can see and hear what got me here. “Oh but I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”

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Daily Journal (Feb. 26, 2020) Tighten up version

I got a column coming up this weekend that is too long but it’s early. As Mark Twain wrote ‘Sorry this letter was so long. I would have made it shorter if I had more time.’ NOTE: From memory, not exact quote.

So, what I’m writing about is my disappointment that there is not more awareness of Lewy body dementia. The old sore spot was resurrected last week when I received an 82-page, 16,077 word report on Alzheimer’s research. One of those 16K words was Lewy. One!

Again everything, money, publicity, public awareness is focused on Alzheimer’s. We’re going to change that.

Look for it on AL.com Saturday. Even though I went ahead and wrote it too long. Ranted too long. so like my old buddies Archie Bell and his buddies the Drells used to say: Tighten Up.

In other news, I’m gearing up for this Alabama Record Collector’s Association show on March 6 and 7 in Gardendale. I have a table and am ready to sell a portion of MyVinylCountdown.com records. From my eye. There’s a tear.

Here are some records I’m pulling out. I’ll probably put up for sale my A through D’s or E’s, about 150 albums or so. (You can see a list just by scrolling my blog starting from the A’s.)