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John Fogerty — 468

ALBUM:  John Fogerty (1976) 

MVC Rating: 4.5/$$$$

This is Fogerty’s first album after splitting with the outrageously sucessful Creedence Clearwater Revival. The first tune,’Rocking All Over the World,’ is  a riff-laden  anthem that sounds like — hmm who could it be? — Oh yes:  Creedence.-

Much of the album, for that matters, sounds like CCR. Although I can’t  put my finger on it, there seems to be slightly less ‘choogling’ energy in the songs as I remember was in the CCR  recordings. It could be my imagination. I’m talking about some of that soulful oooomph that you hear in ‘Long as I See the Light or the forlorn traveling musician song, Lodi.

‘The Wall’ and ‘Traveling High’ are throwaway rockers — Fogerty does his vocal thing but the songs are just not too strong — relatively speaking.

Jackie Wilson’s ‘Lonely Teardrops’  sounds like it was more fun for Fogerty than the listener. It’s not a bad cover but this is one of those times where I say, let the 1959 version stand.  Fogerty does inject with some nice retro guitar sound.

‘Amost Saturday Night’ is the other rocking standout in this group.  Catchy, another CCR sounding song that you’d expect to hear on the radio.

And as much as I thought the ‘Teardrops’ cover was unnecessary, I really enjoyed the Sea Cruise cover.  Go figure.

Overall, great stuff, especially for CCR fanatics — of which I am — or used to be anyway. They were one of my first favorite bands. I was about 10. So I have just about run my time with them. But every now and then (on Halloween?)) I like to put out some CCR and cranik it up because Fogerty could sing it.

“I see a bad moon a-rising, I see trouble on the way.’

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Watch: Birmingham singer covers ‘next big song’ about Alabama

Janet Chitty plays The Bigger Moon in Alabama

This is an opinion column.,  

Bruce Rutherford, an Alabama lover who lives in Texas,  last week or so, sent me a YouTube video of himself performing a song he wrote about Alabama.  I dismissed the song called The Bigger Moon of Alabama, at first, but then the little tune kind of stuck in my head. My motto is you have to pay attention to ear worms.

What if a great singer and full band did this song. Well, haven’t heard from Jason Isbell or Wet Willie.

I wrote about it.

But Rutherford tipped me off that his Birmingham friend and colleague in the singer-songwriter world on YouTube, has already done a cover like in the last  48 hours  (video below).

The singer’s name is Janet Chitty and I think her version demonstrates what I’m talking about. And that is, this can be sung many ways. Her version is slowed down. Rutherford’s is faster. But at least one commenter said it should be faster than Rutherford’s version (a speed metal version?) Nevertheless, the song is versatile, catchy and as I said yesterday rhymes Montgomery with succumbing —  how can you not appreciate that?

So now we know at least two versions exist. Listen to them and see what you think. Newer  version first of The Bigger Moon in Alabama.

 

 

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Peter Frampton — 469

ALBUM: Frampton Comes Alive  (1976)

OK, those who were teens in the 1970s, get out of your La-Z-Boys and find the  vinyl collection (warped and mildewed) you have stashed in the garage or basement closet.

Pull out your ‘Frampton  Comes Alive.’  I’m talking mostly  to white boys here because High School musical tastes were as segregated  as church. Except for the back parking lot crowd, where integrated groups would be listening to  Rick James AND Led  Zeppelin. Or Emerson Lake and Palmer AND George Clinton. But it seemed every white kid 15 to 18 years-old had Frampton Comes Alive in 1976.   I’m basing my anecdotal recollections on my own high school in Athens, Ga.  And there is obvious hyperbole here, but do you know how many records he sold?

Image result for how many albums did frampton comes alive sell
Frampton Comes Alive! sold 11 million worldwide and was the best-selling album of 1976  in the US, with 8 million copies sold. It’s been called the biggest selling live album of all time.
Frampton wasn’t particularly innovative, But  he was  good at what he he was doing — playing rocking guitar and looking good in an unbuttoned shirt.

The former Humble Pie guitar player on this album shared to the wider world a vocorder which allows you to sing with the guitar. It sounded a little like a robot as Peter would sing: Do you feel like we do?

My theory on how Frampton  Comes Alive became one of the best selling albums of all  time is the tremendous crossover with females and males. Not sure how to explain that.

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Meet the Brummies. New Birmingham, Alabama band startles — 471

ALBUM: Eternal Reach (2018)

Ladies and gentlemen: The  Brummiesl

I see what they are  doing.

Great harmonies good, tasteful but forceful guitar and just a pinch of psychedelia circa 1960s music. Throw that in the mix with a healthy slice of power pop and BAM Birmingham.

Brummies is slang for a Birmingham resident, that’s Birmingham, England. It’s a name  that reflects the bands British influence, especially the flood of music during Beatlemania and the British Invasion.

Eternal Reach is a great mix of genres  creating a  sweet sound full of harmonies and chorus. They cite the Beatles, Elton John, ELO,  Blitzen Trapper and My Morning Jacket as being among among their influences.

On the album there are a number of standouts.  I like ‘Norway’  which starts with ‘I’m sorry I didn’t come home for your birthday.’ In a few words it sets the tone magnificently.

‘Set You Free’ opens with crunching guitar and is  like much of the album, multi-layered . ”Haunted” is possibly my favorite piece on the album, with wide dynamic range, shown off on the opening three or so lines. The radio-friendly, ‘Drive , Away’ includes titillating vocal help from recent Grammy winner, Kasey Musgrave, and is probably most likely a hit.

The whole album is seductive, atmospheric, with just enough lyrical intrigue and musical crunch to sweep you in. It sounds like a long-lost classic, with modern accents.

There seems to be a lot of songs on the album — almost like they had a ‘hidden’ song or something.

Nice work Brummies.

 

 

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Steve Forbert — 472

ALBUMS: ‘Alive on Arrival; (1978); Jackrabbit Slim (1979); Streets of this Town (1988);

MVC Ratings: Alive 4.0/$$$; Jackrabbit Slim 4.9/$$$; Streets 4.5/$$$$.

I blinked once and it was gone..

A poignant line in his 1988 album ‘Streets of this Town’ digs at the heart of Forbert’s pathos.

I used to to think this was guilty pleasure music.  But after re-listening to Forbert I can throw the guilty out. This is just a pleasure — and part of that is because of  his  pain.  Forbert suffered early from  Dylan comparisons like all those at that time with a guitar  and a catchy songs that paint a picture. He suffered because of the high expecations, early success and youth. Look at the cover of ‘Alive on Arrival.’ He’s a baby-faced kid, albeit with a 50-year-old Rod Stewart/ Dylan-esque voice.

Forbert isn’t Dylan. He’s a pop-folk singer who slung his guitar over  his  back and left his crappy-but-it’s-mine Mississippi town for  NewYork city. His first album ‘Alive on Arrival’ was, at least side one, a slam dunk. He opened the album shutting a door on his past by calling Laurel, Miss., a ‘dirty stinking town.’

Forbert was from Meridian, which was near Laurel (can you smell it from there?)

Steve Forbert

For an in-depth Rolling Stone piece at the height of his initial success, go here.

That debut set up the expectations. He came out next with an album that had a blockbuster single ‘Romeo’s Tune,’ a momentary brush in 1979 with the stratosphere. I saw him on the heels of that second album and remember a great show in Atlanta at a small venue.

But alas, like many, the follow-up pressure seemed to have gotten the better of him for a while and he made the scene in New York but  watched his creative space get smaller.

From ‘I Blinked Once,  10 years after Romeo:

The  nineteen seventies was ten long years,

was  ten long years to sing a song

It kicked off madly with a New Year’s cheer

I blinked once and it was gone

Gone, gone I blinked once and it was gone

Looking from present, he has a strong body of work and has had excellent musicians behind him on various albums including Wilco and Nils Lofgren. In addition to these vinyl records, I have about three other Forbert CD’s,each good in their own way.

Favorite line from a good song called, January 23 – 30, 1978: “Some say life is strange, but compared to what, yeah.”

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Ellen Foley — 474

 

ALBUM: The Spirit of St. Louis (1981)

Talk about an eclectic resume.

Foley went from Night Court to the Clash to Meatloaf.

She was an actor on the  popular American comedy show Night Court and has done other TV and Broadway.. She later became an item with Clash band member Mick Jones and provided vocal back-up on the album Sandinista (Hitsville UK was one)>

Jones wrote ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go.’ about  Ellen.

She put out a couple of her own albums including this one I have on vinyl. It’s an oddball assortment of pleasant sounding songs  with avant garde touches such as those in the Salvador Dali song. All Clash band members play on this but are so unobtrusive you can’t barely  tell. (Maybe they should have intruded more).

Far and away the best song on this albums is ‘The Shuttered Palace.’   which  opens the album flush with innuendo.

To the sons of Europe: won’t you come inside
My shuttered palace and I am the bride
Now I’m a woman, I walk past your café
To the sons of Europe, I call out and say

<Check video below.>

‘Torchlight’ backed  by the Clash was also good.

She later became known for  her duet (with the innuendo stripped off) on Meatloaf’s “Paradise By The Dashboard Light.’

If you can find this one in  a  used or bargain bin setting it’s worth at least $5.

 

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How am I doing? Come, as we enter the Twilight Zone (BLOG VERSION)

How am I?

For an update I offer up Henry Bemis. He was the put-upon, bespectacled  bank clerk who accidentally locked himself in a bank vault. While inside, a nuclear war destroyed the world and  apparently all the people in it.

Except for Bemis.

Bemis was  in the Twilight Zone.

Henry Bemis

Bear with me if you know this 1959 black-and-white classic TV episode. I ‘m going to go over the story which has many levels and layers.

After all, we are talking about “a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity,” Rod Serling sedately states. “It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition.”

I’ve been there as a person living with Lewy body dementia. Between science and superstition. Shadows and light.

Before being locked in a vault  and before the bombs and before the endless stacks of  books, Bemis was a man who viewed the world as encroaching upon his precious time. Time to read the books he loved.

At home, his wife Helen Bemis put constant demands on him, wouldn’t even let him read  the  newspaper, for goodness sakes.

At work, his boss, Mr. Carsvile, also demeaned and belittled  him.  One day Bemis steals away to the bank vault to catch some valuable reading time, out of view of the boss.

Reading takes time. Do people read  like they used to? I’d say per word consumption has gone up but it’s consumed like a patient with attention deficit disorder.

I know I battle with my disease over my attention span.

I believe the reading public feels, like me, ADD-addled.

Technology pushes 300 channels through a skinny cable from pole to house, every house. The torrent of bits and bytes pours into laptops and phones held in the hands of billions. 24/7.

Bemis had his book and sturdy hiding place. Secured in the vault, Bemis was disoriented after the bombs did their work, the blasts blew the vault door open.

Bemis wanders out through the rubble, even contemplates suicide all the way to the point of putting a gun to his head. Then he sees. Hundreds upon hundreds of books lie in piles outside, blast-blown from a library. Bemis can hardly believe his eyes.  What’s bad for everybody, death by incineration, turns out to be good for Bemis. As screwed up as that is, it makes some sense as we watch.

He grins broadly at his good fortune.

“And the very best thing  of all is there is time now,” he says, picking up a large clock, amid the  books strewn about. “There is all the time I need and all the time I want. Time. Time. Time. There is time enough at last.”

A reader commented on one of my recent articles  involving oddball random sayings  about  life and death. The reader posted this offering: “Life sucks and then it ends.”

Cynical, yes, but enough of a truism to resonate with a lot of people. Bemis’ life did suck. It was mundane and tedious, always spent wanting more time to do the thing  he loves, too scared to take control of his life.

Then the bomb.

<GO HERE FOR FULL STORY>

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Fleet Foxes – 477

ALBUM: Crack-Up

I am going to keep listening to this  album. Even though right now I don’t get it.

The heavy two-records of vinyl comes in an elegant package, sophisticated design.

The music is slow, sometimes building building to, what? That’s what I’m trying to figure out. It’s one that, as with Father Misty’s Pure Comedy,  deserves more listens to figure out what it is  I cannot figure out. Josh Tillerman, aka as Father Misty, used to be the Foxes drummer. He left the band some time ago but you can see the connection still. between their sounds.

With Fleet Foxes, I started like I do with music, especially newer music like this. Ii ask the question::  Who do they sound like? Who did they grow up listening to?

Knee-jerk reaction would be to call them a modern Fairport Convention, a big folk rock band. But Fairport songs are  more structured and are grounded in the European folk traditions. The Foxes run away from tradition  and  then shyly come back. Sometimes it just  feels like so much background music even though they are making valiant attempts to whisper in your head. Other touch tones I threw on the wall to see if it stuck: Roxy Music, Sade, Nick Drake, Arcade Fire,Robert Wyatt. Was going to say OMD (Orchestral Maneuvers  in the Dark, but OMD a little more poppy, as was Sade.

So I don’t know. Really hard to pigeon-hole, which is not a bad thing. Now if their multi-talented selves could figure out a way to avoid fading into the wallpaper. Again I’m coming at this with no context of their other work, and I’ll keep listening.

Another Ocean is a beautiful song but even it seems to fade into mist.

A commenter on their YouTube video said previous works have been more earthy and that this one is more watery. I’ll buy that.

 

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Jose Feliciano –479, Freddy Fender–478

jMVC Rating: Fender 4.0/$$; Feliciano 4.0/$$

ALBUMS:  Feliciano!  (1968);  Freddy Fender, The Story of an Overnight Sensation (1978)

No, I didn’t put these two together because they both speak Spanish. Jose Feliciano is from Puerto Rico. Fender is a Texan of Mexican heritage.

I’m looking to double up on occasion and these guys happened to be in the alphabetical line-up, side-by-side.

Feliciano

One of my all time favorite singing performances is Marvin Gay,e’s rendition of the National Anthem at an NBA all-star game in 1982.  Gaye turned the Star Spangled banner inside out with beautiful singing a light beat and left it folded properly like a flag. It was greeted with strong strong feelings on both sides, fans either loved it or hated it

That was kind of a barrier breaker leading to more stylistic interpretations of the song, the vast majority in a loving way (Roseanne Barr being the most memorable exception.)

Gaye was lambasted in some quarters for defaming the National Anthem.

And before Gaye there was Feliciano with his Latin tingd version filled with Spanish  guitar flurriesl   at tje 1968. World Series. He was riding high on his big selling Feliciano!  record, an album of acoustic covers of popular songs, with probably the Doors’ ‘Light My Fire’ being his biggest hit.

The New York Times, looking back at that performance wrote:

“In an era when pop stars try lots of different styles with the anthem, it’s hard to fathom that Feliciano, the blind Puerto Rican singer and guitarist known for “Feliz Navidad” at Christmastime, could stir anger with his rendition.

And at a time when the nation is sharply divided over athletes’ body language during the anthem, it is a reminder that the song that has an unusual ability to provoke.”

On his other songs, Feliciano enjoyed international fame. ‘Light my Fire’ is a good example of his style, bluesy Spanish music,, with jazz-like singing. To many strings, though.

Freddy Fender

Fender’s album title is an ironic play on the fact that one o f his biggest hits, ‘Wasted Days and Wasted Nights’ was recorded and published in 1959 but didn’t become a hit until the 1970s. Between those time periods Fender battled the bottle while in the Marines, and was arrested  for pot possession in Louisiana. He served three years in prison for that.

He is also known for ”Before the Next Teardrop Falls’ which is not on this album. The album is fun though as re-listening to  the ‘King of Tex-Mex.’  a golden country voice, proves.  His producer described his voice as being very honest  like Hank  Williams.

After his solo success, Fender joined the Texas Tornadoes, which I  have on CD and highly recommend. One TT album won a Grammy.  in 1991 Fender described the group to the Chicago Tribune :   “You’ve heard of New Kids on the Block? Well, we’re the Old Guys in the Street.”

 

 

 

 

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File’ (Cajun dance band) — 480

ALBUM: Cajun Dance Band (1983)

MVC  Rating: 4.0

Dance. That’s what Cajun music is about. I also get hungry for some of the best food in the world when I hear the music.

The group is named after a spice used in Cajun cooking:

Mix the ingredients: Cajun French singing, gumbo cooking, creole, zydeco, fiddles, accordions, foot stomping, and hand clapping. That’s what’s cooking by this band which was around for about two decades before clocking out in 2002.

It’s a party record and it makes you feel good. File it next to Dr. John’s ‘Gumbo.’

Certainly there’s a time and a place, but when there’s a certain energy in the air, I could listen to this album 10 times in a row.