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Daily Journal, Aug. 6, 2019, ‘Daddy are we there yet’ edition (Updated)

On July 11, 2018, I was writing I would be done with My Vinyl Countdown in 30 months. That was 13 months ago and if I hold steady, 17 more months feels about right but as I show you later, that’s a brisk brisk pace.

321/17= about 19. So to finish this in 17 months I need to write 19 reviews a month. I may have overestimated myself at the time I wrote the earlier piece with that 17 month prediction.

To further explain: The big numbers you see in the artists’ headlines on my blog indicate the place that record is in the count down of my 678 albums..

At that last accounting I was on 458 records. That means MVC had just reviewed David Gates, a solo album by the lead singer for the group Bread, which gets a lot of hits on this blog. But that was 13 months . Now we are sitting at 321 with John Mellencamp. That’s 320 to go.

Math, ugh. 458 – 320 = 138 records reviewed in 13 months. PACE: 138/13= about 10.5 per month. That may be a little ambitious to think I’ll do 10 or more a month.

678 -321 = 357 is the number of musical posts done overall. 321/10.5 = 30.5 is how many months I have let if i continue at 10.5 per month.

My essays and stories number over a 100 aside of the music reviews. You have my permission not to read it all.

And, there is also the reality that the record collection has grown with some gifts and additional pick-ups. But as I have said earlier the 678 is the number I’m using for nowl. When we get to Zevon and Zappa I’ll look around and see records I bought after this blog started, gifts of vinyyl for me and for the cause. I estimate I’ll have 150 album left over. 678+150= 828. That leftover bunch will likely be added as an addendum? Or maybe just a list of what’s let over on this blog site.

Remember we should not fear the end. The end of the countdown, that is. This is not a O’Henry novel.

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Daily Journal, July 23, 2019, on raising money, raising awareness and having fun while doing it

Slow down hoss. Things are moving slower now. After that frenzied state of MikeMadness.

We raised thousands of dollars over the weekend for Lewy body dementia. It will pay for research for a cure of Lewy body, the second leading form of dementia after Alzheimer’s..

Yes, I still have it. The basketball tournament, the socializing, the games and rallying isn’t going to suddenly block the bombardment of destructive proteins trespassing in my brain. But I’ll be damned if it didn’t help on a several levels. This is living. Even when you know you are dying. There’s a ‘thing’ about it, maybe it’s human empathy I’m trying to express this ‘thing’ with this blog.

I got a nice comment on my blog the other day from someone who said he started reading this blog for the music reviews, but then became interested in learning more about the disease and says he has been hooked by my story as a person living with the disease.

This is exactly how I wanted it to work. His comments can be read in full in the comments section of this blog but he said:

Thank you for putting so much information out into the world in such a positive way, and spreading the word about LBD as you do. It’s not an easy subject to tackle, or to even talk about, and you seem to do both superbly.
I’ll admit that I got hooked on your reviews of your lp collection, as you seem to have some similar tastes as me, but then I found that along with the musical explorations, I was getting more and more interested in your story and your cause. Now I just can’t stop reading.
I hope this finds you well. I’m looking forward to more of your insights, and I enjoy going down the rabbit hole with each new post. I listen along to the artists as I read.

So what’s this about again? This is about families coming together. I had 20-plus relatives over to support the cause with money and with love. (My nephew Zach Cohen won the 3-point contest.)

We’ll have all winners listed in my next story when I firm up donation totals and ready the photos.

Still awaiting some donations to be processed. Hurry up if you’ve put it off. MikeMadness.org

Stay tuned to this website and AL.com for specific amounts raised and where they will go and lots and lots of pictures. from UAB which graciously donated the Rec Center facilities and Trim Tab Brewing where we got dunked, sang Karaoke and sipped beverages and ate delicious authentic tacos from a food truck . Great atmosphere, kids loved both the Karaoke and dunk tank as you might imagine.

Thanks Trim Tab for donating 10 percent of sales on Saturday to the cause.

My song for Saturday, or today for that matter is by The The. No, that’s not a typo: there are two ‘The’s. (And nothing else)..

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Melanie — 324, 323

ALBUMS:The Best of Melanie (1977): From the Beginning (1974)

MVC Rating: 4.0/ Best $$; Beginning $$

Melanie jumped into public consciousness with her Woodstock performance. Candles in the Wind Lay Down, Lay Down) is a showcase for her amazing voice projection.

Funny, how most people remember Melanie for a child-like nursery rhyme with sexual innuendos ‘Brand New Key.’ Song (to me) yucky.

But I do love Melanie’s ‘Look What They’ve Done to My Song, Ma.’ Everyone who has been edited understands this sentiment.

I’ve got a couple of old Melanie albums. The anti-war Lay Down you would think would seem aged but to me it’s quite the opposite — it is powerful, especially when she’s singing with the Edward Hawkins singers as seen on the German video below.

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Mike Madness: Best one yet

The T-shirts were turned up to Purple.

Myself JD Crowe, John Archibald, and others who did not deserve such treatment, got dunked in a giant container of water — and that was after the main event.

At least 20 teams clashed on the basketball courts at UAB Rec Center fSaturday for the annual Mike Madnss basketball tournament to raise awareness — and money — for the little known and misunderstood disease Lewy body dementia. And we had a raucous crew at Trim Tab Brewing where I made a foolish attempt to moonwalk in my socks on a concrete floor while Karaoke-eying to MJ.

WIthout a doubt, it was the best Madness yet. The first year we raked in $13,000; last year, $12,000 — and we are still tallying but expect to pass each of those years. My ambitious moonshot goal of doublingup at $25,000,however, is likely out of the realm. Money will go to research at UAB and the Lewy Body Dementia Association.

Stay tuned for more numbers, team winners and more in social media, ALcom and this website: www.myvinylcountdown.com

So many thank yous to all who helped and contributed — which you can still do at www.mikemadness.org

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Exclusive interview with my brain

Mike Oliver, who writes frequently about his battle with a fatal brain disease,Lewy body dementia, finally gets some one-on-one time for this exclusive interview with his brain.

ME: Hey brain I need a report, what’s going on up there. I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for days.

BRAIN: Well you should know, it’s your brain up here.

ME: Don’t get smart, brain. Remember you sent me some wrong information yesterday. I thought I saw a herd of cats in our yard having a tea party. I knew instantly it was a hallucination of course.

BRAIN: Yeah that was my bad, these little alpha synuclein proteins are tough little critters; they put the alpha in alpha. They took a couple million of my neurons yesterday and slimed them.

ME: Oh that must have been why I got up at 3:30 a.m. and went downstairs for no reason. I woke up staring at a wall.

BRAIN: I tell you, while I, er, we, have billions of neurons, I can’t keep taking these kind of hits and do my job.

ME: Well listen to me, Brain, I appointed you head of this organization for a reason. I have to say you were the leading candidate by a wide margin over the heart. Don’t get me wrong, I like the heart, but I can’t always trust it.

BRAIN: Yeah I hear you. Too sentimental.

ME: I just need you to play smarter here. This is a serious thing, an inflow of unwanted alpha snoopy proteins.

BRAIN: That’s alpha synuclein … you are confusing words Snoopy is a cartoon dog and you heard alpha and went with the dog thing.

ME: Me?

BRAIN: Well, right, US I guess. The latest research is that the bad proteins may be coming from the gut and climbing up to the brain where they wreak havoc, especially on memory.

ME: Really? Who did that research?

BRAIN: Well you read the same article, right?

ME: Oh, I guess I did. Which brings up another thing my memory sucks, what’s going on with our memory banks?

BRAIN: Well the Tactical Team is holed up in a previous unexplored storage space for the memory. I think they are trapped there like Davy Crockett at the Alamo.

ME: Well, keep up the fight. We may not have the strength to beat them head-on, but we can surely out-think them.

BRAIN: Well that’s a good thought.

ME: Thank you.

BRAIN: Thank you? I thought of it.

ME: No you didn’t. You just processed it for me to know. Look we don’t need to waste time arguing, let’s go get ‘em.

BRAIN: Yes I agree, but I feel a nap coming on.

ME: Funny, me too.

Please help us with your donation or participation in MikeMadness, a basketball tournament (and much more) to raise money for research and awareness of Lewy body dementia and other dementias. Go to www.mikemadness.org to see how how you can help.
Story originally appeared AL.com

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Don McLean — 329, 328

ALBUMS: Believers (1981); McLean (1972);

MVC Rating: Believers 3.5/$; McLean 3.0/$.

You know it’s difficult to break into the entertainment business and make a career at it. Ask Don “American Pie’ McLean. He broke in big time by writing and singing one of the all time classic songs. But as good as that song was – and I loved everything about the song and would sing it at the top of my lungs in the car with my parents – it was like a lightning bolt a flash of mighty heat and light. And then gone.

It was a song that crossed intergenerational boundaries. Singalong chorus, clever allegories.

The words were an elegy to Rock and Roll. Some took issue with the apparent conclusion that rock died (or at least lost its innocence the day Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and Big Bopper were killed in a plane crash. The song is smart has a good tune and McLean was the right voice for it.

So what happened after ‘American Pie’? I may have had the 45 at one time but mainly I listened to it on the radio and wasn’t buying many records around 1971. I know he had another minor hit with ‘Vincent,’ a good song but no American Pie. Last year, when I saw a couple of McLean albums in a bargain bin, I decided to see what this guy was like and why he didn’t do more songs that were that good.

So for $4, I have two McLean albums, a self-titled one and Believers. I came away underwhelmed. Not that these folk songs were bad. There were some very good songs, nice melodies, interesting words on here — but nothing took off to the next level. I think I would benefit from hearing from a big fan of McLean’s, someone who can steer me to what I’m apparently missing.

McLean may be talking about himself here in ‘Bronco Bill’s Lament” of his self-titled album.

“I’m an old man now with nothing left to say; but oh God how I worked my youth away; You may not recognize my face; I used to be a star; a cowboy hero known both near and far.”

Even if McLean has had some slow years, he looks back fondly at his career.

In a 2014 interview with the Advocate he said:

“From an artistic standpoint, I’m taken somewhat seriously, or appreciated, everywhere. I’m happy about that because this business can be cruel and demeaning. The years have been good to me because the stature of my songs has increased rather than diminished.”

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Flea Market vinyl: let MVC be your guide (blog version)

Reed Books has an interesting and eclectic mix of inexpensive used records including those going back into the 40’s and 50’s.

I love going to the flea market when there’s records involved. On the Fourth of July I pleaded with Catherine to take me to a 50 percent off sale.

To those just catching up: She thinks I have too many records and that I should be giving/selling records, not buying small stacks every time I walk by a bargain bin.

But, alas, my idea of counting down my childhood and young adult record picks has now morphed into something new. After a couple of decades in boxes, I now have my albums in a perfect ‘man-cave’ venue.

I am becoming (dare I say it) a collector. A bargain collector. Although there are new reissued vinyl records that I have bought or received as gifts, my big thing is going through dozens of Herb Alpert and Ferlin Husky and 101 Strings and Mantovani records to find a hidden gem.

I listen to something on vinyl every morning. I have become in my wife’s words: obsessive. Maybe so but at a dollar a record, i’m not putting too much of a dent in my bank account.

AL.com Version of this story

And I think music helps my condition: Lewy body dementia. Not only the music but the sorting, the alphabetizing, the checking for value — the highly entertaining event of learning of a new artist or song that you love and had never heard before.

Music collecting, if you are that way inclined, is a perfect supplement to the medications that those of us with dementia take. (as is exercise).

I didn’t intend to pick up my old records and become a collector — it just turned out that way with the added benefit of telling folks about dementia from one who has it.

Of course I’m biased but I think my blog might steer you to some albums that can be found as great bargains. See the ratings and expected ‘for sale price’ on many of my 300-plus I have already posted.

 

From Stevie Wonder’s ‘Hotter than July’ album:

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His and Hurricanes Pt. 10 (a serial story)

The 10th in a serial story of great expectations.

(SCENE: Boybando a wasteland of abandoned theme parks, restaurants and squatter filled hotels. The Creekers controlled most of the southern part of what used to be Orlando where the tourists stops once flourished. But Prosby was looking to the north, to the woods, to the Ocala National People’s Reserve.”

Prosby was less than two miles from Burnees, but he didn’t know that.

Staying in the shadows, he still felt a presence, like somebody tailing him.  Who’s there? He stopped and asked. He’d seen a figure in black garb, an overcoat maybe. Before you could say ‘Show time’ a Light came on, mostly in Prosby’s face. He knew he was circled by four men but they were shadows.

Suddenly in one melodramatic breath, that really was quite professional sounding, the four young man sang in unison: Bye Bye Bye.

Then broke it down: “I’m doing this tonight,” they sang: “You’re probably gonna start a fight.”

Now Prosby by this time had calculated his odd (singular because he could only come up with one). He needed to get the leader. Take him out and the rest will run like boys to the backstreet: Bye Bye Bye.

“Hello I’m Justy”, the leader said, walking over hand extended.

They shook hands and Prosby palms out said “Who are you and what do you need from me? If nothing, then I’ll be on my way.’

“Hold on cowboy,’ Justy laughed, sending the others into a odd cycle of giggles that sounded like chirpin’ crickets. “We’re not through here. I  need a little dialogue here.”

“And then it’s Bye Bye Bye,” the way they sung it on queue was freaking Prosby out.

So what do you want to do. Prosby had managed to slip very close to Justy. Unafraid, Justy turned and they were nose-to-nose.

“No, I’m not going to kill you. You maybe useful to us later on,” Justy said.

Justy started to walk away. They all had leather jackets, the dressy kind. But most were barefoot and their feet were dirty and scraped.

“Oh, I understand you’re trying to find Burnees,” Justy said with a smile.

Prosby jerked his head up and began advancing — “Where is she? Where? If you have her I swear I’ll………..ZZSSTZZZZZZ77STZZ

The stun gun deposited the big spark in the back of  his neck. Prosby went down in a crumple.

After a few minutes, he opened his eyes and one-inch from his face was Justy.

“Don’t fuck with us,” Justy said. “We have an interest in seeing Burnees alive — but you? You? We are only interested in you as you can help us find her. Get it?”

Justy softened: “Listen, not looking to hurt you for real. But we need you to deliver.”

“Where is she?” Prosby was feeling out of sync with this young man.

“We believe she’s in federal custody in the Underground.  She was set for trial and will probably get death. Have not heard word one about what’s going on.”

“Where’s the portal?” Prosby asked.

“Best one to use is Alexander Springs. Once you get in, it’s easy. But be careful, it’s loaded on the surface with gators and Dizz Bots.”

Just last week, they say a man named Vanilla Ice Cream was attached to a kite by the Ben Franklin Diz Bot.

He was immediately sailed into the air and promptly electrocuted when the key taped to his forehead was struck by lightning. He still hangs in a tree. He was reported missing by his employer, MacyMart, where he did seasonal work during Christmas with packages.

He was a wrapper.

Justy stared at Prosby, then smiled: “We’ll be watching Prosby. Don’t make us find you.”

TO BE CONTINUED

Read the others in the series here.

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Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell – — 331

ALBUM: United (1967)
MVC Rating: 4.0/$$

Early Motown soul by two talented soul singers. Of course Marvin Gaye is one of the genre’s all time greats.

Sadly they both had careers cut short by tragedies.

Terrell, sadly was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had eight surgeries before dying in 1970 at age 24. Gaye was a close friend and some say he never got over her death and battled depression and drug abuse all his life, according to Terrell’s Wikipedia page.,Gaye was shot and killed by his father in an argument in 1984.

Their biggest song together ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ was huge. The song had a second life when Diana Ross and the Supremes covered it. The songs are tasty and make for easy soul listening but Mountain is clearly the best song here.

There is a song in here called ‘Somethin’ Stupid’ which took me aback as Marvin sounded like he had changed voices. He sang the song like one of the Herman’s Hermits. Now I don’t mean that disparagingly to either the Hermits or Gaye, it just doesn’t sound like Gaye. Listen below.

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Taj Mahal — 332

ALBUM: Anthology Volume 1

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$

This album is like a folk-blues version of Dr. John’s ‘Gumbo’ album.

Whereas Gumbo featured a lot of classics and standards of the various music styles surrounding New Orleans (zydeco, e.g.) Taj is doing the same thing with blues.

Both musicians are such well studied students of their music that each of those albums could be used as examples in a 101 class of their respective music interests.

This has Blind WIlie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues” and “Six Days on the Road” leading off side 1 and side 2.

A classically trained musician, Mahal can play multiple instruments. His father was an African/Caribbean singer. His mother, too, was musical. Taj said he realized over time that the music in his house wasn’t what was coming over the radio in the outside world. So he did what all good cooks do, he blended songs, layered on his influences — everything from hip-hop to jazz to old blues and country.

This isn’t on the album but if this obscure 1990s track from Mahal doesn’t get you up on the dance floor, gyrating like their is no tomorrow, then nothing will.:

Squat that Rabbit

Like Dr. John or maybe more than Dr. John, Mahal, sprinkles a few originals and they are good (see Corrina). Most selections, however,,. are old classics such as Statesboro Blues or ‘Fishing Blues.’

Wikipedia says: Mahal often incorporates elements of world music into his works and has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his more than 50-year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa, and the South Pacific .

Early in hi s career — 1964 — the three-time Grammy Award winner played in a band with Ry Cooder called Rising Sons. The album was not released at the time but apparently was reissued in the 1990s on Legacy.