ALBUM: Best of New RIders of the Purple Sage ( 1976)
MVC Rating: 4.0/$$
With my Southern roots I grew up with country, country rock, folk rock and blues rock. On the west coast there was an equally dedicated group of musicians who played roots music before they called it roots music. That means a song might have banjo, pedal guitar, dobro, mandolin or other acoustical instruments.
They formed groups out there like New Riders of the Purple Sage with members Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh, of the Grateful Dead. I’ve written before that, probably due to my Southern roots, the Allman brothers were my pick for a jam band, not the Grateful Dead. But in the past couple years I’ve gone from dismissing the Dead to admiring and even enjoying some of their work.
The psychedelic bluegrass rock blend of the Dead can be seen in this Purple Sage record. (This ‘Best of’ culls from seven albums between 1971 and 1976) and includes a nice cover ‘Hello Mary Lou,” the song RIcky Nelson made popular.
There were also in the 1960s and 1970s some cool sounds from that genre by Kalaidoscope, featuring an young banjo prodigy David Lindley, later to play guitar (and other stringed instruments) with Jackson Brown’s band.
The West Coast also had the Byrds, Gram Parsons, Poco, and It’s a Beautiful Day working in the same territory.
Administrative note: I am doing this record now while I’m in the ‘O’s because I missed it in the ‘N’s. That’s going to happen as I go farther toward the end — which will be a thing. I started this with 678 albums and I am below 300 to go. But those 678 have likely grown by 100 over the past two years. Just guessing.
The group on another greatest hits featuring live music has this Stones’ cover:
ALBUM: Self-titled live single of Edge of Seventeen.
MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$$
Not sure what to say about this which I picked up for a dollar. It’s a single of Nicks singing a great Fleetwood Mac song, Edge of Seventeen.
Seventeen recorded live at the Wilshire Theater in LA on Dec. 13, 1981.
It’s a promo copy on Modern Music Records. Must be kind of scarce because Discogs lists the median price it sold for as $29.99. Ebay is offering it up for more than $50.
He’s no Justin Timberlake. He’s no Justin Beiber either. He pioneered the teen idol phenomenon probably before the mother of the Jonas Brothers was born.
Elvis was Nelson’s competition. And by some measures Nelson did pretty well in that match-up. From 1957 to 1962, Nelson had 30 Top-40 hits, more than any other artist except Presley (who had 53) and Pat Boone (38), according to Wikipedia.
A child actor at 8 on the popular The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, he went on to a successful musical and acting career in the 1950’s and 1960’s churning out hit songs like Hello Mary Lou, Poor Little Fool, and Travelin’ Man. His music sales waned some as the 1970s rolled around and his disillusionment with the record industry fueled perhaps his best song, ‘Garden Party,’ (not on this album).
The album Seven by Rick, which I picked up in a thrift store is good, light 50’s style music (it came out in ’62.)
Nelson died in 1985 when his own plane, a Douglas DC-3 crashed after it left Guntersville, Ala., en route to a show in Dallas. All seven aboard were killed.
He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. Take that Bieber!
Here’s a great album I picked up just about a year ago so not really a growing- up album. But I can make the link. Nyro wrote ‘Eli’s Coming’ a romping rock and roll radio hit for Three Dog Night off of a live album. I did dig that song at a pretty early age , 13 or 14.
Her original of that however is not on this one, which is an album of cover songs. The group Labelle sang throughout this album. The songs are soul and R&B that she grew up listening to in the Bronx. Song’s like the title cut, Jimmy Mack, Spanish Harlem and You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me. Now that i think about it, I was listening to these songs as well.
With Labelle chiming in, this gets real good real early. A real good record, worth looking for more of her music.
ALBUM: ‘Little Criminals’ (1977) ‘I Love L.A. promotional EP (1983)
MVC Rating:Criminals 4.0/$$; LA 4.0./$$
I recognize the talent, the barrel-roll piano playing, the sardonic voice, the intelligent if not overly ironic lyrics illustrated by his biggest all time hit ‘Short People.’
Sure it was a send-up of prejudice and discrimination, sung from the point of view of a narrator so over the top that you couldn’t believe the singer was for real. Could you
Some people did. I would say get over yourself. But I found myself disliking this song because in 1977 it shot to No. 2 on Billboard and the refrain “Don’t need no short people round here” was always on the radio.
I thought it was funny at first but some of my best friends were short people. I came to a point where I disliked the song. I do agree with Randy Newman’s take in which Wikipedia reports he said:: “I had no idea that there was any sensitivity, I mean, that anyone could believe that anyone was as crazy as that character. To have that kind of animus against short people, and then to sing it and put it all in song and have a philosophy on it.”[
But Newman is good at what he does. having written some good songs. On this album I particularly like ‘Baltimore’ and ‘Dixie Flyer.’ I also have a single of ‘I Love LA’ — another song where you can’t take the words at face value.
Satire is funny. Satire is mean. Sometimes satire is funny because it’s mean. I get that. We get to make a choice about whether it’s funny or not and why or why not.
ALBUM: ‘Aerial Ballet’ (1980, reissue of 1968 album)
MVC Rating: 4.0/ $$
Harry Nilsson won a Grammy for Best Contemporary male vocalist for the song ‘Everybody Talking at Me.’ The song by Fred Neil is a strong Top 40 ballad used in the controversial (at that time) movie ‘Midnight Cowboy.’
The song feels a little like something Glenn Campbell or Joe South might have done. The other highlight, a song Nilsson wrote, is ‘One.’ I feel like I’m the only one who likes prefers the Three Dog Nights’ version.
Nilsson had a strong voice and was a good songwriter. One also might expect he would be a little more well known. After all this is the man who gave us that classic ‘Coconut’ remedy (Put the lime in the coconut drink it all up — Not on this album.)
I think Nilsson also did the definitive version of ‘Without You,’ the Bad finger song.
A few songs have Beatlesque overtones. Nilsson was a drinking buddy of John Lennon when Lennon temporarily broke up with Yoko Ono. They were wild then.
This is better than I thought. I bought this brand new in Athens, Ga., at about 17 or 18. I heard the song ‘Summer Eyes” on the radio and then trained my ears on the DJ’s voice as he said ‘New one from Nite City, which features on keyboards Ray Manzarak of the legendary Doors.
I like ‘Summer Eyes” still, Nite City and ‘Love Will Make You Mellow.’
I’m not sure if that’s what the radio guy said or not. But it’s pretty much what happened. I’d say half of my inclinations to buy something new came from either radio– which should be no surprise — or hearing a new one at the record store and asking who was on the turntable. This usually endeared me to most record store clerks except the orneriest ones.
“Hey man, what’s that playing,” I’d ask.
“Little band called Kid Creole and the Coconuts,” he’d say back. “You might also check out Dr. Buzzards Savannah Dance Band.”
“Cool, thanks,” I said.
I do have this one and Kid Creole and Dr. Buzzard thank you very much. Several great albums from those guys.
One of a pair of Kid Creole albums I have.
So how about Nite City? Doors collectors definitely. Like I said it was better than I remembered, and Summer Eyes could have been a hit. But overall this slice of 70s rock had lyrics that were too clilche’. Jim Morrison was slinging W.B. Yeats next to some of these lyrics:
When i walk in your fantasy/ Do I look like reality?
When I start talking like a Bantam cock/does your heart start beating rock rock rock.
From Allmusic.com: Manzarek’s keyboard work is as intelligent as ever, while guitarist Paul Warren and bassist Nigel Harrison (later of Blondie) play with gusto throughout. The weak link is Noah James, a decent vocalist who strains far too hard for a dash of the late Morrison’s lyrical abilities.
ALBUMS: Willie Nelson’s Greatest Hits (1981); Always on My Mind (1982)
MVC Rating: Greatest Hits 4.5/$$$; Always 4.0/$$
My early memories of these go back to my graduation from Auburn University, my marriage, and my first career-like job as special correspondent to the Birmingham News.
I worked out of a house I rented on 15 acres of land on Nesbitt Lake Road in Jacksonville AL. Rent $250 a month. It got cold out in the country with only space heaters.
I lived there with my newly wedded wife, Catherine. (H.S. College sweethearts. Still sweethearts.) My dog, Maggie, a Border Collie/Shelty -like dog, smartest I’d ever had. (No offense Lucy, Molly and Gus.)
I was out in this idyllic corner of Calhoun at the behest of my employer, The Birmingham News. We put up a rope swing on a hill in the front yard. We were still kids, Cat and I. And having the time of our lives on a weekly paycheck of $169 (After deductions).
My beat as a reporter was Calhoun, Etowah and Talladega counties. And it was a hard scrabble living for many who lived in this area. (Writer Rick Bragg grew up around these parts and he later bought his mother a house on Nesbitt Lake Road (after we left.) I later worked with Rick at the Birmingham News building downtown on 4th Ave North and 22nd Street.
But before I end this little pre-history, I have to say living out there could also be cold and lonely and very real and alive with insects, wild turkeys, deer, stray dogs, and occasionally a loose farm animal, like a pig who had wandered from across the street. One night we stopped at the closest establishment, a little restaurant and beer joint at the end of Nesbitt Lake Road, not far from town. We noticed some young people playing cards — nothing harcore here, it was UNO, a mindless popular game at the time. We took notice because we knew the game well.. The participants included soldiers from nearby Fort McClellan. We stayed a while watching them and talking.
Next day we found out a woman in the group shot a man to death at the table they were playing cards on, the result of a lover’s spat, the police said.
In this beat out in rural Alabama, I covered murder investigations , including Audrey Marie Hilley, dubbed the Black Widow because she killed her husband with arsenic, and tried to kill her daughter and other relatives by the same method. She disappeared after being charged and lived under aliases in different states for years before being brought to justice. She died of hypothermia in the woods near a prison she had escaped.
That was one of the wildest crime cases I remember covering. I believe one of the Birmingham’s Tom Gordon covered the trial. I did cover another case of Billy Wayne Waldrop, who thought it would be good idea to carve his initials in the body of a person he killed: BWW.. Waldrop was sentenced to death and was executed about 20 years ago.
There were other stories, the infield hijinx at the Talladega 500, the body of and unidentified teenager on the side of the road in Talladega, a visit to the abandoned house where a family was all murdered years ago. The door creaked open when I pushed it. It was empty. There was and old dusty calendar on the wall opened to the month and year the slaughter had occurred.
I also met and spent some time with an ambitious deputy prosecutor from Gadsden (or near Gadsden). His name was Roy Moore. Yep that Roy Moore, the former federal judge who became famous initially for his placement and then refusal to take out from the Federal Court building a large stone carving of the Ten Commandments.
For all of this, I worked hard learning the trade that involves asking questions and communicating to readers in a most timely fashion.
On my turntable nearly every night was Willie Nelson, his soothing but pleasant voice making everything all right. Occasionally, on the weekends, I’d put on the Stray Cats. Updated 1950s music. My two albums, one a two-record greatest hit, just about covered the highlights: On the Road Again, Whiskey River, Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain, Angel Flying too Close to the Ground (where he beats the hell out of his bass string on his guitar.) The guitar — Trigger — with the hole in it from wear. Of course his hit at the time was ‘Always on My Mind.’ Since it wasn’t on the Hits album (too new) we bought ‘Always on My Mind,’ album. it was my wife’s favorite song at that time.
Later when I moved downtown to Birmingham, I went to see Willie play at the Alabama State Fair. I was on the second row with about eight people from the Birmingham News.
The front row, at this outdoor concert with chairs. sat, wrapped in all sorts of leather, a biker gang. We tried hard not to spill any beer and cheap nachos on them.
A live album from 1977 by power popsters The Nerves.
ALBUM: The Nerves Live! (Recorded 1977; Released 2009)
MVC Rating: 2.5/$$$$
It’s apropos that I throw this in after describing Northern PIkes, the Canadian band, as sounding like some of the power pop music coming out of So-Cal. Specifically I mentioned the Plimsouls, the Beat and The Nerves. All of whom had some shared members such as Paul Collins and Peter Case.
I rarely buy new vinyl, I’m a bargain hunting sort of collector and I have a hard time paying $25 for a a record. Especially after getting some amazing records in the $1-5 range. It’s a little more work, sure, but that’s part of the fun.
So I splurged when I saw this Nerves record, a record of lost live tapes on violet vinyl I had the Plimsouls; I had the Beat. I enjoyed that music.
So this seemed a natural Christmas gift to myself two years ago, I believe it was WUXTRY in Athens, Ga. I don’t regret the purchase but and there is a but. This record sounds like hell. Like they only had one microphone hanging from the ceiling in a loud juke joint. You know why it sounds like that? Because it was recorded with one microphone hanging from the ceiling in a loud juke joint.
This is for archivists and completists, which on this one I took one step closer to becoming. I know many of the songs on this record already so I could pick them out and it was fun to see them in a setting in the wild like this. But for those interested in this genre, should probably start with some other albums by Peter Case or the Plimsouls or Paul Collins.
However when the inclination is just right, and you turn this up to about 9, you will be transported to this noisy bar called the Pirate’s Cove in Cleveland Ohio, May 26, 1977 with a noisy and melodic band power pop band called The Nerves.
I never thought I’d say I would like synth-disco music. And I’m not going to say it now.
It is synth disco and probably well done, I just don’t have strong feelings about it, one way or another. My idea of using synthesizers is like the Who’s use of synths in “We Won’t Get Fooled Again.”
But if you are at a disco with swirling lights and turquoise blue drinks and this comes on, I’m sure you’ll want to dance.
I admit it ‘s a taste thing. If you love Eurythmics, ABC, 80s loopy synthesizers you may like it. Allmusic.com said: “Work That Dream stands as a professional and entertaining set of sounds from an ’80s band that deserved international airplay.”
And that ‘set of sounds’ should be kept in the confines of a discotheque, I say.
I probably should have given it at least a 3.0 but couldn’t quite do it.
