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John Anderson — 673, 672

ALBUMS: ‘Wild and Blue’ (1982) ‘Eye off the Hurricane’ (1984)

MVC Rating: Wild 3.0/$$, Eye 3.5/$$

Let’s call this ‘twang dang’ music. Anderson has the best twangy voice in country music. And he sings like a guy who would say ‘dang’ a lot, especially if someone messes with his beloved Everglades or if he were rejected by a girl named Charlotte Johnson.

Here are some  lyrics from “Seminole Wind:”

Progress came and took its toll 
And in the name of flood control
They made their plans and they drained the land
Now the glades are going dry
And the last time I walked in the swamp
I sat upon a Cypress stump
I listened close and I heard the ghost
Of Osceola cry

He apparently started his career singing in a rock band, but that voice ultimately led him down country roads. He’s from Apopka, Fla., which may not give him instant country ‘street cred.’ But having lived in Lake County, Fla., I commuted through Apopka every day for years and can tell you it’s got major components of rural southern living with a semi-tropical accent. It’s a suburb of Orlando but becomes rural as you drive to Apopka from Orlando. The huge, and I mean huge, Lake Apopka, polluted by years of industrial farm runoff, still has gators and big nasty catfish.

But away from the roar and rumble of 441, that lake still looks mighty purdy.

Especially with your sweetie on that front porch.

Just a swangin’.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

Lake Apopka (West Orange Chamber of Commerce

(Photo of Lake Apopka/West Orange Chamber of Commerce)

MVC Record Grades Explained
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America– 674

ALBUM: Holiday (1974)

Gotta hand it to these guys, the album starts with a short instrumental so soft that it practically stage whispers: Here comes some more soft rock.

Don’t mix this opiodic music with alcohol or you may have to call a somnambulance.

Seriously, ‘Tin Man’ and ‘Lonely People’ are two soft-rock mainstays, in the repertoire of every small club singer with an acoustic guitar. With George Martin producing, one can almost hear a little soft-rock Beatles with laid back vocal harmonies and pleasantly hooky melodies. But then the lyrics let you down:

This is for all the lonely people
Thinking that life has passed them by
Don’t give up
Until you drink from the silver cup
And ride that highway in the sky

Hmmmm.   Drink from the silver cup? Ride the highway in the sky?

If you are going to get George Martin to produce the album and do lonely people gibberish, give me something more tantalizing and obliquely weird like: ‘Wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door.’

But hey, it’s America.

Look at all the lonely people.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

(A betterAmerica choice not on this album):

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The Alarm – 675

ALBUM: Declaration  (1984)

This must be the first (and possibly only) punk hair band. I mean check out the hair on these guys. It’s the Farrah-Fawcett-in-a-wind-tunnel look.

And yet while they looked like Poison, they played more like the Clash,  raspily singing anthems with acoustic guitars a’blazing. “Blaze of Glory” and “Marching On” are like Welsh rebel yell versions of Twisted Sister’s ‘We’re Not Going to Take It.’ Or Big Country singing fight songs.

The bass player.

And they sound like they really might take up arms to fight for their right to party, while burning the midnight oil.

OK, I’ll stop.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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Aerosmith — 676

ALBUM: Get Your Wings (1974)

MVP Rating: 4.5/$$$$

This is a guitar hard rock album (though there is a saxophone on the first cut). Got this when I was living in Indiana at about 14 or 15. It was just the beginning of my record-buying ways. It was a time when I was listening to the Beatles, Stones, Who, Hendrix under the influence of my hippie foster (older) sister.

I also was drawn to other melodic hard rock such as UFO, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple and CCR to name a few. I also loved good old Top-40 radio (kind of secretly) as well as soul, Al Green, Wilson Pickett and JB.

On this 70’s record, when Steven Tyler did his now patented cat-hairball scream, it sounded so rock ‘n roll perfect. And when Tyler and boys were singing and living the rock n’ roll lifestyle, it seemed so cool. With all the expected touchstones: Sex (check), drugs (check), rock n’roll (check). And hey, they can play their instruments, especially Joe Perry on guitar. They’ve apparently weathered their self inflicted rock ‘n roll injuries and are still at it.

But check this earlier one out, if only to hear early Tyler screeches — before the throat surgeries.

He belts like a Jaggerized punk AB.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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King Sunny Ade — 678, 677

ALBUMS: Aura (1985), Juju Music (1982)

MVC Ratings: Aura 4.0/$$$, JuJu, 4.5/$$$

Ade was doing so-called world music before it was cool.

For decades he has been blending electric guitars, pedal steel, synthesizers and voice harmonies into a bubbly Nigerian stew.

For me it was Sunday morning music– a Sunny Sunday morning with bright rhythms rolling like a river, kind of the opposite of Kris K’s downbeat ‘Sunday Morning Coming Down,’ (which I love by the way.)

In Ade’s aural world, talking drums speak, and voices melt into choruses smooth as syrup. I have no Idea what the words mean. These two albums I have are from a time, early 1980s, when the world music thing became big. Ade was unfairly being billed as the next Bob Marley.

Both of these albums are excellent, but Juju Music is the best pick.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.