So named for the distinctive hue of his skin, the result of albinism, Winston Foster grew up an orphan in Kingston, Jamaica, according to Wikipedia.
Abandoned by his parents, Foster grew up in Maxfield Children’s Home and the Alpha Boys School where he became interested in music. As a young adult Yellowman performed in the reggae sub-genre called dancehall. He went on to became nearly as popular and well known as Jamaica’s reggae icon Bob Marley.
This record features renowned rhythm section Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, keeping tight the reggae beat throughout. In addition to the title track other reinterpreted songs include the Gambler, made famous by Kenny Rogers. On the album the title is “No Lucky in Gambling.’
He follows that with a reggae version of ‘Amen.’
Below is the album I have with a different version of Amen.
I’ve never been much of a Yes-man but I do appreciate their chops. I have what is considered by many fans their best (of more than 20 albums).
I have to say, I like its predecessor ‘Fragile’ better mainly on the strength of the song ‘Roundabout.’ But I can see how fans like Close to the Edge with its powerful guitar performance by the underrated Steve Howe.
This is commercial progressive rock which — as I have mentioned before is not my cup of cognac.
I like blues-based rock and roll and some folk, country, jazz and soul. Progressive rock is a long way from the blues. It often uses classical music as its lens. Sometimes it works as in this case with Bach lurking in Rick Wakeman’s organ fills and solos. And, hey, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say: Just listen to that bass by the criminally underrated Chris Squires.
But much of the time Yes and its prog brethren — Emerson Lake and Palmer, Genesis, and King Crimson to name but a few of the bigger names — sounds to me like a mish-mash.
Here, there is superb playing, but I don’t really know what Jon Anderson is singing about. “I get up, I get down.” That lyric sums up the listening experience.
ALBUMS: Greatest Hits (1976); A Retrospective (1977)
MVC Rating: 4.0 Greatest; 4.0 (Retrospective)
I don’t know her condition except from what’s been reported: that she has been diagnosed several years ago with Parkinson’s. Her singing voice — her ability to hit the right notes — was taken from her by this insidious disease. I have Lewy body dementia, which is basically Parkinson’s with a side of hallucinations at no extra charge.
I can empathize with Ronstadt when she says it makes her feel like a big dependent baby.
”It’s hard to ask other people to do things for me. I feel like a big demanding baby,” the 11-time Grammy winner said on the Rachael Ray show several years ago when she decided to go public with her disease..
In another interview: ‘They say people usually die with Parkinson’s. They don’t always die of it, because it’s so slow-moving, so I figure I’ll die of something. And I’ve watched people die, so I’m not as afraid of dying.
”I’m afraid of suffering, but I’m not afraid of dying,” she said.
Amen to that.
Ronstadt was all over the radio in the 1970s with her big voice taking on other people’s songs like Desperado by the Eagles; That’ll be the Day by Buddy Holly; When Will I Be Loved by Phil Everly; and You’re No Good,” by Clint Ballard Jr.. But my favorite song she did was ‘Long Long Time’ by songwriter Gary White.
The haunting and achingly melodic song wasn’t her biggest hit but I believe it to be, no only her best, but one of the great song performances in the last half century.
Both albums contain Long Long Time on it. Of the two albums, a Retrospective is probably the most interesting in that the two-record set does a deep dive into Ronstadt’s early career, grounded in more of a country feel. The other album has all of the hits and she had many.
I would not have guessed how the end of MyVinylCountdown would affect me. Is something supposed to happen?
I find myself slowing down, on MVC and in real life. The technical side of this thing is getting harder. When I was subsumed with hallucinations in 2020 I lost some of my know-how. Passwords, photos, videos, etc.
I used to take a photo of every album on the list and display it on my blog post, but for some reason I can’t upload photos onto the web page any more. But that’s OK; I just use links to video’s to give some extra element to each blog post.
As I inch toward the finish line –my 678 records reviewed — it gets more complicated. It’s like planning for retirement: It’s OK if you go past the target date if finances work out. But you don’t want to come up short.
With about 25 left to do, I’m trying to make sure I have enough of the good stuff.
I don’t want to be left at the end with a dozen albums that I really should have put on the list. The reverse is also true, I don’t want to come up 5 short and then fill the holes with those I had rejected for not meeting the criteria. The criteria being, that albums must have been obtained before the countdown started. (I have made some editorial decisions to allow some of these ‘unqualified’ albums on the list, however.) In a few cases I have made errors of omission by forgetting that the blog post contained two or more albums and incorrectly omitting the countdown number. See Led Zeppelin review. For now I’m just going to leave as is because there’s too much of a ripple effect by adding that second number. Heck, maybe I should end it with Mr. Zeppelin (insert smiley face Emoji here).
Jackie Wilson was a contemporary of the legendary Sam Cooke. They even sang together a few times and, as the story goes, they both tried to outdo the other.
They both were shot under mysterious, but different circumstances. Cooke died from his wounds, while Wilson survived and came back. But he was never the same.
I draw the comparison because they both are super talents that should be familiar to more people. Cooke actually made a good living before he was shot to death Dec. 11, 1964 at a hotel in Los Angeles.
Wilson never really achieved Sam Cooke level success during his lifetime.
While Wilson didn’t have quite the gospel roots as Cooke, he had a voice that could melt butter, a crooner who could hit all the notes.
When Elvis Presley was told Jackie Wilson was nicknamed the ‘Black Elvis,’ Elvis reportedly quipped: I guess that makes me the white Jackie Wilson.
Wilson got a nod from Van Morrison in the 1970s with the song, Jackie Wilson Said.
ALBUMS: Drippin’ Wet Live (1973); Dixie Rock (1975)
MVC Rating: Drippin’ 4.0; Dixie 3.0.
OK as this countdown winds down, I am again finding some I overlooked, mainly in the W’s, which has quite a few posts.
I’m pretty sure I am done with the X’s with the two groups X and XTC. So knock a couple of these W’s off, and we are on to Y and Z.
The Wet Willie albums I have don’t have their biggest hit (Keep on Smilin’), which disappointed me when I pulled this record out recently for the first time in what literally is half-a-century. And yes there is a throwback Southern fried vibe here, big on the electric guitar solos and harmonica. That’s All Right’ which starts the Live album shows what they are all about, taking an old Arthur Crudup blues song and rocking it out.
Jimmy Hall led the way on vocals. Their gospel and R&B sound was greatly enhanced by the female back-up singers the, Williettes.
Their live album was also one of their most successful records, showcasing the band’s strong musicianship. Think of it as Lynyrd Skynyrd’s live album ‘One More for the Road …’ without ‘Free Bird.‘ Good songs and good playing but no single transcendent song like ‘Free Bird.’
No fish catching for the first time in my last three or four outings at Smith Lake. That’s all well and good. I forgot my gloves and pliers, and I was worried about having to barehand the fish while digging a deep set hook or lure out of its mouth.
I always felt kind of bad for throwing fish back after doing that to them. I mean, here I am, using trickery to rip a bass out of the water while it pursues its constitutional right to seek food smaller than itself.
The sudden change of environment must seem to the fish like it has entered a different dimension.
Upon throwing the fish back in, I imagine it would feel a lot like I did last week before the getaway to the lake. I went to the dentist and received two crowns and replaced a bridge. At times during the two-hour- tooth chiseling, it felt like a hook was in my mouth. (Props to my dentist, though, for a job well done.)
As I was saying, I didn’t catch anything so that was one less worry off my mind as my wife and I sank into vacation mode. Vacation mode is where you put things into perspective and push sad thoughts away.
We sat on the dock, fishing poles by our sides, and inhaled fresh air. The trees were fiery, oranges, yellows and reds. They seemed to have been painted by children using water colors.
On our first day, a beaver swam close to Catherine who was standing on the dock. She said, ‘Aren’t you a cute little otter?’
And that’s when the animal turned over and smacked his tail like a paddle in the water.
I was not an eyewitness.
But she made sure I would see the red moon.
On Friday, she woke me up around 2:30 a.m. to go stand outside and gaze at the moon, which by golly was red or reddish. I was in a daze. I was wearing shorts, a bathrobe with no shoes or slippers. It was freezing. My feet kept finding the sharpest rocks.
I said in my Chevy Chase at the Grand Canyon voice: ‘Beautiful, time to go now.’
But it’s the longest lunar eclipse to occur in nearly 600 years, she said, obviously thrilled with her job as tour guide of the night sky from somewhere near Arley, Alabama.
I wondered: How did I get so lucky to be in that small fraternity of people who get to stand on shards of granite and peer into the sky in 38 F weather, looking at something — now get this — named the Beaver Moon.
It was a good ‘vacay’ though. We built campfires, made S’mores, read books and watched much of the first season of ‘Bewitched’ on TV.
Oh. and just one tip to somehow tie all this into music: Don’t start thinking about the instrumental theme song of ‘Bewitched.’ It gets stuck in your head.
ALBUMS: Ain’t Love Grand (1985); See How We Are (1987)
MVC Ratings: Ain’t 4.0/$$$; See 3.5/ $$$
X is their name. It’s a good one if you have lots of documents to sign.
This Los Angeles punk-ish band was made up of Excene Cervanka on vocals, Billy Zoom on guitar and saxophone, D.J. Bonebrake, and John Doe, vocals and bass.
Is it just me or does X share some rock DNA with the B-52s, Athens, Ga.’s best little dance band?
Both have a lead female singer but use a lot of vocal interplay with a male band member. And they both have songs called ‘Love Shack.’ But, while the B-52s’ Love Shack was a worldwide hit, the X same-named song never got out of the starting gate. Well guess you could say the band X did get out of the gate as their ‘Love Shack’ was published a year or more earlier.
The similarities between the two bands end though when listening to the overall catalog — X rocks a lot harder than my hometown heroes.
I will disclose, if you like X, there are two albums of theirs that I would buy ahead of these two I have reviewed here: ‘More Love in the New World,’ and ‘Wild Gift.’ Not that these are bad, the other two are terrific.
ALBUMS: Skylarkin’ (1986); Waxworks — Some singles 1977-1982 and Beeswax — Some B-sides 1977-1982 (NOTE: B-sides album came with the purchase of Waxworks).
XTC’s songs hold up well because of their songwriting craft. The band managed to inoculate themselves from the excesses of the synth pop vs. protopunk scene in 1970s and 1980s England.
A Rolling Stone critic called XTC alternative music for people who don’t like alternative music.
The Waxworks collection shows how their songwriting evolved to beat the stigmatization of being labeled ‘alternative music.’ By the time the band issued Skylarkin, it was being compared to the Kinks, the Who and the Beatles.
That’s heady company, and it wasn’t all happy times. The band was involved in a years-long contract dispute with its label due to an unfavorable contract signed in their youth which gave them no ownership of their music.
Though they didn’t ever really hit the big time, they did make the Top 40 chart a few times. The band also became hot on college radio stations following a song on Skylarkin’ called ‘Dear God,’ with provocative lyrics such as: I won’t believe in heaven or hell, no saints, no sinners, no devil as well, no pearly gates, no thorny crown, you’re always letting us humans down ….I don’t believe in you, dear God.
The song’s irony is that it’s framed as a prayer to God, invoking the phrase ‘Dear God’ throughout, something I would suppose required a certain level of belief. I think that was the writer, Andy Partridge’s intention.
The album produced byTodd Rundgren has a great sound and flow with Beatlesque sound production.
