Who does the best version of ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,’ the Bob Dylan song from the 1970s?
Watch for a post on that later this week but you can help by sending me suggestions. There’s of course Dylan’s version and Guns and Roses version which I would start at as reference points. There’s other good competition though.
Regular readers of this blog may miss stories that appeared in AL.com only. And vice versa.
Here’s two stories that didn’t get published here. I received good feedback from the one about Lennon and mixed response from ‘bloody fable.’
I’m coming up on some time off but keep looking a i will continue to post when needed or inspired.
NP (Now playing Pretenders and Tom Petty as I wade deeply into the P’s. I also have found a couple of stragglers from the N’s and O’s that i need to get up.
I’m not ready to judge the content therein but these three albums I received for my recent birthday are fantastic to look at.
From top left it’s Bright Eyes’ “Fevers and Mirrors.” That’s a mirror which actually reflects. So you are on the album cover.
Clockwise it is a new Peter Buck solo album called “I Am Back to Blow Your Mind Once Again.” It’s a picture with a Day-Glo shine featuring a bicycle in the foreground and Peter, of REM fame, looking out over the water in the background.
Across the bottom is the gatefold of “Country Squire” by Tyler Childers. It looks like the same Day Glo artist only there’s a barn a goat and a recreational vehicle involved.
This reminds me that it might be time to do another round of MyVinylCountdown cover art standouts. You can see what I did here.
I am 60 by the way, going into year four of my diagnosis of Lewy body dementia.
I told my wife, Catherine, it has been a wild ride the past few weeks, and I’ve been emotional. (I can get my shoulders rubbed with that.) Lots of life events. First a friend died at 58. It’s a sad sad story. She was my wife’s maid of honor in our wedding — and they were like sisters in high school when I started dating Catherine. Carole even lived with Catherine when her parents moved and Carole wanted to stay to finish her senior year in high school. I included a tribute in my lyrics post. I went to her memorial. I brushed away a tear or two.
A 3-year-old was found in a dumpster. I used to cover the cop beat and courts. I’ve written about vile acts and unfathomable cruelty. But like the proteins killing my brain cells, these stories are taking a toll on me over time. I ranted a bit in a column that I think shows those internal struggles.
I wrote a memoriam to a colleague whose birthday is tomorrow. He died 10 years go come Nov. 29.
I went to a wedding in Tallahassee where beautiful Megan was married to her longtime sweetheart. I had all three of my (grown up girls, a boyfriend and husband and my wife. We all crammed into a big rented van (seats seven) and sang our way all the way to Tallahassee.
Stairway to Heaven, Four Non-Blonds “What’s Up” “Free Bird” ‘Earl Must Die’ and “I Shall Be Released” as done by Kevin Kinney drew the loudest singalong response. Megan and her family had been back door neighbors in Florida. The girls used to talk through the privacy fence — that’s how they became friends. Next they started using ladders taken from each garage to climb over and play. Finally Jim, their father, and I said enough. We took a saw and cut a door out of the fence, added hinges and a latch which they could open from either side by use of a screen and, voila, instant two-home compound. It would not be unusual to wake up in the morning and find one of the girls from the other house going through refrigerator or vice versa. “Help yourself,” I’d say, rubbing sleep from my eye. Of course I cried at the wedding, but not as much as I wanted to. It took a manly effort not to. Stupid gender rules.
I get feedback from time to time that people don’t see my stories. One thing is most of my stories are online only and not in the newspaper, so you won’t see me much there — just occasionally. The other factor is I write a lot on my blog which you are reading right now: www.myvinylcountdown.com . Some of these blog posts go on to AL.com posts or vice versa. Good Idea to put that website address on favorites and check every day or every other day for new content. But then also every week I publish in AL.com and sometimes that post is on my blog and sometimes it’s not. One way to check for that is go to the ‘search’ button at the far right top of the AL.com website screen and type in my name Mike Oliver:Al.com. It should give you a list of recent writings of mine.
Thanks for everybody’s support. I feel like I’ve been distracted from my music by other blog posts . So I’m going to jump on those. I finally am out of the ‘M’s’ unless I find some stragglers.
Couple other things. It was reported that Joe Henry, one of my favorite recording artisfs has Stage 4 prostate cancer. He’s my age. I don’t have him on vinyl thus he has not made my list. But now, maybe for my birthday I’ll get what I can that he does on vinyl. I have about five or so of his CD’s. My favorite I think is Trampoline followed closely by Scar and Kindness of the World.
So it’s been quite a week. I also filed the 12th and latest story, a fun, hopefully funny dystopian serial series that is at once silly and dumb. And to top it off it has no redeeming value. Gotta read it now, I hear you thinking. Must start from top, the first one and read in sequential order otherwise it’ll make even less sense than it does now. You can find them all in the website bar at the top that says Hisicanes and Hurricanes (A Serial Story)
I dedicate this post to Challen, a colleague at AL.com, who emailed me this morning to say he had Tonio K.’s ‘Life in the Foodchain’ cranking and thanked me for recommending it.
You know Challen, it’s kind of like carving the turkey, it’s kind of like mowing the lawn, everything gets to a certain dimension, winds up on the customer’s plane and then’s gone …
Here’s part of a post by Vintage Guitar magazine senior writer about a classic 7-string guitar and an Alabama man who owned one. In fact the Alabama man was integral in having it created.
Certain locations in the middle portion of Alabama are often cited as part of “Hank Williams Territory,” and for good reason—two thirds of a century after the country music icon’s passing, legends still abound regarding memorable Williams performances, as well as people and locations that inspired his songwriting.
However, one hasn’t heard too much about famous jazz musicians that hail from the same region, although Nat King Cole was born in Montgomery, and trumpeter Andres Ford, who was also from the Capitol City, gigged with Duke Ellington.
While musical genres such as country and western, rhythm and blues, rock and pop are usually saturated with (primarily-electric) guitars, notable jazz guitarists—Wes Montgomery being an obvious and handy example—have always had to compete with pianists, saxophone players, and other talented musicians plying their trade on their own respective instruments.
Jazz guitarist Relfe Parker Jr. (1918-2002) wasn’t famous, but he stuck to his guns regarding the music he loved to play. Moreover, he was the first guitarist to order and play a seven-string guitar handcrafted by a famous guitar builder (such artisans are known as a “luthiers”).
A resident of Wetumpka, Parker aspired to play jazz music for most of his life, even though he was compelled to perform other styles of music at times.Again you can click here for full story.
Also online at AL.com right now is a revisit to a song that one scientific study is the best they had found for lowering anxiety. Listen to the extended version (30 minutes) of the song and see if you can stay awake. There is a 24-hour version which I’ll try to find and post here. That means you could have reduced anxiety — by 65 percent these scientists say — all day long. (They should put it in dentists and doctors’ offices or wherever there is a stressful environment.
Here’s link. Remember don’t operate heavy machinery after listening to this: ‘Weightlessness.’
Willie G. Moseley, senior writer at Vintage Guitar Magazine, contacted me to weigh in on the ‘Best Guitarist’ debate that I instigated last week with posts on this blog and AL.com
The debate was great. Many put forth that it isn’t a contest and that it is a matter of personal taste.
But we got names, lots of names. From Hendrix to Robert Johnson. From Clapton to Steve Howe. Ana Popovic to Jeff Beck.
Wait a minute, did we forget Beck? I’ll have to go check because before I got into the Yardbirds I loved to listen to ‘Blow by Blow,’ a jazz rock guitar album of the highest order. Steve Howe’s comes closes.
But Moseley came at me with a name I never considered.
Mike Oldfield of Tubular Bells fame. Yep, that Tubular Bells which accompanied the movie where the devil possessed a little girl. So I checked it out on YouTube a live Tubular Bells concert and, yes, indeed; it didn’t make me vomit and it nearly had my head spin around.
Mr. Oldfield puts forth some scintillating guitar runs, some supersonic laser beam tones. And Moseley said that album is his least favorite of about five Oldfield albums.
“I think any discussion of this subject should also address how much innovation a “nominated” guitarist exhibited/exhibits, Moseley wrote in an email, “be it style and/or tone and/or composition skills…as well as other possible factors.”
He continued: “With that in mind, I’d probably champion Mike Oldfield of Tubular Bells fame. Not only did he have a unique and lightning fast style, his album was, IMO, the first New Age album; i.e., it was so fascinating and hypnotic you couldn’t boogie to it; you were compelled to sit still and listen.
“In some of my lectures, I cite the original Tubular Bells as a “bookend” on the most productive half-dozen years in popular music history.
In the video above, the guitar is unleashed about the 5:20 mark.
“That said, the original is among my least favorite Oldfield albums. … There’s an orchestral-sounding passage on the sophomore album, Hergest Ridge, that reportedly has 72 guitars.
“Unfortunately, in more recent times Oldfield seemed to be mired in a “techno” mode for his newer albums. I used to call that sound “disco.””
Mosley also said he would place Randy California of Spirit not far behind Oldfield.
And so there you have it:
Oldfield officially becomes the most intriguing nomination for this honor of best guitarist of all time, a title which will likely never be bestowed.
A commenter mentioned Ana Popovich. And given that I have been for some time making a list of top guitarists who happen to be women, I looked her up on YouTube. And, indeed, she proceeded to make my face melt.
NOTE: I spelled Moseley’s last name wrong after I had spelled it right. Now it is correct: Moseley.
Commenters had a field day on an article I wrote for ALcom. Most of it was fine, rhetorical debate and discourse. Some of it was uncivil discourse, but I can take it . I’m a big boy.
And Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old environmental activist sure seems like she can handle it as well. And she probably didn’t need me rushing in to defend her. But I couldn’t help myself. Here’s an excerpt and link.
Now as the ‘host’ of my own website focused on music and raising awareness for the fatal brain disease I have, Lewy body dementia, I don’t usually jump into the treacherous waters of politics.
But, as a journalist with 30 years experience covering health care, politics, crime and mental health, I feel compelled to say something. Especially using my status as a dementia patient, on behalf of those with mental illnesses or disorders or diseases, for that matter.
To be clear I wasn’t motivated to write this because of the topic, climate change. I’m no expert on that topic. Although I tend to believe the much larger consensus of scientists who say there is human-caused climate effect, and it’s an issue we should deal with.
But I do know this — and it’s where I would usually start as a reporter : Follow the money.
I mean follow the money on both sides because there are millions and billions of dollars being spent to shape messages, create reports to support whichever side you want. I’m talking about oil companies, car companies, utilities, environmental groups. Look at who and how much is being spent to influence Congress — one study put the figure spent on climate change connected lobbying at $2 billion from 2000 to 2016.
And it is lopsided.
According to a study led by Robert J. Brulle of Drexel University, the sector that spent the most on climate change lobbying was the electrical utilities sector, at $554 million. The fossil fuel sector spent $370 million and the transportation sector spent $252 million during this time.
Environmental group made up about 3 percent and the renewable energy sector made up about 3 percent.
It reminds me of the health care debate where there is a lot of money spent targeting you, me, the whole country. As journalists we are supposed to get to the truth.
In countless cases journalists have shined the light in the dark corners to expose corruption. But in many instances we have failed, there are outlandish schemes to siphon taxpayer money going on as we speak. It’s not a Republican thing or a Demcrat thing. I’ve come to believe — and trying to not to get too cynical here –it’s a human thing. A greed thing. But I shudder to think about what would happen without a free and unencumbered press.
OK off the soap box.
Now it’s time to get funky. Perhaps appropriately. I’m going to try to review four funk/soul albums I have. I actually have more, but I’m not going to round up all of the funk here. Some of it — one I can remember off the top of my head — is the Average White Band, which I have already reviewed long ago in the ‘A’s.’
That was two years aog and I’m trying now to finish the ‘M’s. And who knew so many artists last name or band names start with ‘M.’ And I had Muscle Shores Horns all queued up and ready to listen to and write when i realized I had several funk albums that I had found and bought bargain bin stuff after their letters had passed. So I will review them together under the “M’ for Muscle Shoals Horns, umbrella. I have Earth Wind and Fire, Kool and the Gang and Graham Central Station. (My Sly and Family Stone I’m keeping for the ‘S’s.)
Saturday, as we continue to zoom past the 2-year-mark of this blog I am going to check back in with the most popular posts on my site. Probably I’ll do two list with the Top 12 music posts, the top 12 non-musical posts, which would include everything from/Lewy body dementia/ health, basketball and ponderings on the meaning of life.
So I’m signing off for now, to ponder. And listen to ‘That’s the Way of the World’ by EWF..
Let’s call this my Daily Journal, (put date here).
I’m stuck right now. And p;art of the intent of this blog is to describe what is happening. I took an extra pill for my hands which don’t want to type.
Sometimes right after lunch I get more ‘Lewy.’ And I have several tasks ahead of me. Typing slow. I bounce around ideas in my head.. Lewy bounces them back. I can’t stay long on a train of thought. I think of a song. I feel calmer. I still do’t know how these columns are going to turn out. I have these great ideas but they slip. One thing I just remembered: What to do with CDs . I hope I saved the link. There was a beautiful bird bath.
Back to a story on what we are doing with the money we raised over the weekend. How much? What research is it paying for? Target alpha-synuclein proteins. How? Who won Mike Madness. Ask about nonprofit status. I’m feeling better. I got this. Though I just remember I need to read back over some of my posts because I was noticing typos but wasn’t in the edit mode. Now I’ve forgotten which post they are in. I think I have 400 posts or more llive.. I learned of a third person who told me they are reading the posts from top to bottom or bottom to top.
Uh huh.
This is my journal as it sits right now. 2:18 p.m. today July 25, 2019.
Everything is OK right now.
Back in at 3:11 p.m. Had news today from two acquaintances. Different situations: the on who received the diagnosis of Lewy body had been long seeking explanations for a variety of symptoms. He was in much pain physically and psychologically. He welcomed the diagnosis. Another person I’ve talked to is starting to exhibit some classic symptoms. He’s praying he doesn’t have Lewy body dementia, but he’s preparing himself for the worst.
I spent my weekend looking for my glasses. Or, at least a frustratingly disproportionate part of my weekend. But I found them. My ear buds too.
It’s Monday.. I was feeling especially Lewy over the past few days but it seems to have lifted. I am getting a ringside seat to the part of my disease they call fluctuating.
Musical reference for today, June 3 comes from Bobbie Gentry and her classic Ode to Billy Joe. You might remember the opening:
It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day I was out choppin’ cotton, and my brother was balin’ hay
Surprised Gentry didn’t find more success as good as she was on this song. She instead ended up more like Don McLean who wrote the brilliant American Pie. After that, as far as I know, he had minor hit with Vincent and then nada. Gentry put out some material but as I recollect she only had a hit with “Fancy” after Ode.
An example of Gentry’s great songwriting in Ode:
And papa said to mama, as he passed around the blackeyed peas Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense; pass the biscuits, please There’s five more acres in the lower forty I’ve got to plow And mama said it was a shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
Had lunch Thursday with some friends from the West Coast. Talking about San Francisco made me nostalgic. Good conversation, good lunch at Mile End deli. It was DELIcious. (Sorry).
I’ve been stop-starting on some stories that I need to focus on. There are so many paths for me to go down, that I need a compass.
I really enjoyed the use of the phrase city-savvy in a sentence — as an alternative for streetwise. What sentence you are asking? The one I just wrote. (Sorry again).
Stay tuned for details about an after party for MikeMadness 3X3 basketball tournament. The tournament is Saturday July 20 to raise money for Lewy body research and awareness. We have raised about $25,000 overall in the previous tournaments. This will be the third and I hope we can raise $25,000 altogether this year to bring our total for three years to $50,000.
