Posted on

Vinyl Negotiations: Records I didn’t sell

If you came here from my vinyl negotiations story at AL.com you are in the right spot.

If you have read that article you know that I sold three records at a recent record show in Gardendale:  Nick Drake’s ‘Five Leaves Left;’ ‘Buckingham Nicks’; and Electric Light Orchestra’s ‘OLE with yellow/gold vinyl.

I feel like I could have stayed and sold more but I felt drained. Here’s what I didn’t sell:

Led Zeppelin ‘Houses of the Holy’ (original pressing, Broadway address, Robert Ludwig initials in dead wax). I was asking $200 and was pretty firm about that price. Several expressed interest but no offers on that.

Jimmy Buffett ‘High Cumberland Jubilee’ (an early, early Buffett album). I was asking $20 but would’ve taken $15.

Keith Whitley ‘A Hard Act to Follow.’ Near mint EP with press release and 8X10 photo. Asking $50 but would have taken $30.

Scorpions ‘Virgin Killer’ and ‘Best of Scorpions’ (I was asking $15 each but would have taken $10 each.)

Dion ‘Runaround Sue’. Cover was frayed but Laurie label record pristine. I was asking $30. Probably would have taken $20.

Tips for vinyl negotiations.

Posted on

Old ears, wax and ‘I’m sorry, what did you say?’ (Blog version)

This is an opinion column.

I’m here today to talk to you about hearing loss.

What?

I SAID I’M HERE TODAY TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT HEARING LOSS.

What? We’re NEARING SLOSS? We’re FEARING FLOSS?

No, no, no. HEARING LOSS..

Hearing loss happens to all of us getting older. It makes you feel left out because you  can’t hear what they are saying behind your back anymore.

 I went to Costco to get some hearing aids but they took one look at my ears (two looks actually) and said I need to go see an ENT (Ear Nose and Throat doctor). So I did. I’m  supposed to put drops in my ears for a few days and go back next week to get rid of what was called an ‘occlusion.’

I understand that to be packed-in ear wax.

So gross. I’m writing about my own ear wax.

Hey Oliver don’t you write about music?

My answer: Hmmmm. Hearing loss and rock music. Wonder how that might be related?

Yes it is documented that loud music – just like loud construction noise, can be harmful to hearing.

My ears rang for days after the Who concert in the 1980s in Atlanta.

The music at concerts may not be as loud as it was in my day with the Who, Black Sabbath, AC/DC and KISS making ears bleed from coast to coast. Punk rock. Loud.

Healthline.com reports that long exposures to sounds over 85 decibels (dB) can cause hearing loss. Concerts tend to be about 115 dB or more, Healthline says.

Old man tip: Wear earplugs to concerts.

It’s like using sunscreen at the beach, a must do.

Don’t wait until you’re 50 to do it. Put them in now so you won’t have to put hearing aids in later. (Price check:  Hearing aids are expensive like $3,000 to $12,000 for a pair.)

Young ears brutalized by decibels turn into deaf ears as you age.  Besides the ‘occlusion’ I also have nerve damage. Do I need hearing aids? Stay tuned I’ll find out next week.

Now back to my vinyl records – or known by another name: Wax.

Mike Oliver who has Lewy body dementia often writes about living with that disease and other health and aging issues.. See his blog here.

Posted on

Mountain — 316

ALBUM: The Best of Mountain

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$

It might sound weird to describe this straight ahead hard rock band as influential. They rarely colored out of the lines. Guitarist and lead singer Leslie West took his direction early following Eric Clapton’s gritty blues rock as displayed by Clapton’s work with the Yardbirds and Cream..

But they did become influential in that they are one of a several bands mentioned as precursors to heavy metal. The Long Island, NY, group also had a big fan in fellow Long Island native Howard Stern. And they played Woodstock.

Leslie West’s guitar playing was admired and mimicked by later hard rocking heavy metalists. The crunching chords and cowbell (yes more is less) opening to Mississippi Queen was and is a staple of classic rock radio.

Key members of Mountain included West, Corky Lainge and Felix Pappalardi. I’ve had this record a long time and not sure where I picked it up but I think it was from my Athens, Ga., high school and college years. I hadn’t played it in a while prior to this review and it’s solid, rock solid.

Posted on

The Mothers of Invention (compilation) — 317

ALBUM: The Mothers of Invention (1970)

MVC Countdown: 3.5/$$$$

Frank Zappa records tend to be worth a little more in the resale market. This is a greatest ‘hits’ album of early stuff before Zappa put his name out front of the band, which was made-up of former members of the 60’s rock/pop group the Turtles.

I will be writing more about Zappa when I get to the Z’s. He can be brilliant and disgusting, often at the same time.

Meanwile, enjoy (if you are able) songs such as Wowie Zowie and Who Needs the Peace Corps and Flower Punk. This album had a median price, used, of $12 on Discogs; it’s probably the least valuable of my Zappa stuff.

Posted on

Kinks break

Those of you following this blog know I am a big Kinks fan, since my teen years.

They were a genre-defying band that were described in many ways: quirky, satirical, whimsical, a garage band , uber British, and so on. They got kicked out of the U.S. during the British invasion for bad behavior so they missed out on big fame for a while. Ray and Dave fought a lot and I mean physical brawls, tearing hotel rooms apart. Although Dave’s pioneering heavy metal guitar in early to mid-1960s with You Really Got Me and All Day and All Night brought attention, there came a lull. They went through a period where they were experimenting with concept album, mini-musicals if you will.

Most people, during that 1970s period turned away. The albums such as A Soap Opera, a splendid little story piece, or the Preservation albums, wound up in bargain bins or, worse, garbage. Many thought they were a lightweight band. They should have known better from the 1960s heavy metal  riffs, although even back then lead Kink Ray Davies wrote catchy little love songs (see Tired of  Waiting, Stop Your Sobbing, etc.)

One of their biggest songs ‘Lola’ was about a transvestite.

So when my buddy Michael Ludden, former boss, novelist and all around music lover turned me on to a video blues number by the Kinks, it was not only a further validation of arguments I’ve had with folks who think the Kinks never earned their rootsy stripes like the Beatles, Stones and the Who. It was somewhat of a revelation seeing the early Kinks performing a damn good Slim Harpo blues rendition, ‘Got Love if You Want It,’ worthy of the best of the Yardbirds or the Animals, at least. From deep cuts, I knew they did this kind of stuff now and then but to see the performance is eye-opening:

Posted on

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)..

Posted on

Meat Loaf — 326

ALBUM: Bat Out of Hell (1977)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

Meat Loaf motorcycle appears to be flying out of my computer keyboard.

Meat Loaf. That’s Mr. Loaf to you sonny.

Meat Loaf was who he was/is.

What he was was: A powerful singer, who produced a highly entertaining album as I was a senior in high school. Collaborator Jim Steinman wrote the songs and Todd Rundgren threw some of his magic potion in.

And man, did the Meat Loaf album capture a teen moment with humor and dumbed down imagery so that even the slowest among us could get it. A play-by-play featuring former baseball player and announcer Phil ‘Scooter’ Rizzuto.

Bombastic. Sure it was. World changing. Surely it wasn’t.

Unless you are the one being asked in a backseat moment:: ‘What’s it going to be boy, yes or no? … Do you love me, will you love me forever? Do you need me? Will you make me so happy for the rest of my life …”

And we know what rhymes with ‘life.”

Wiki says the album is one of the best selling of all time with 43 million copies sold. It was 343 on a top 500 greatest albums list by Rolling Stone.

Entertaining. Yes. It is like a teen movie, cinematic in scope. American Graffiti with a Springsteen reach for grandeur and a Rocky Horror Picture Show reach for vamp.

Cool fact: It was rejected several times and was really was a slow starter coming out of the garage. But it picked up big support in the UK and Canada before going nuts in the U.S.

Speaking of Ellen Foley –– she was back-up singer and sang the part of the young woman asking those hard questions: Yes, yes, yes, or no?

Posted on

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

Posted on

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.

Posted on

Daily journal: 6-29-2019 Brummies REO Speedwagon edition

From Left David Oliver, Mike Oliver, Susan Schneider Williams and Catherine Oliver.

Been a wild week, much of it spent in Las Vegas. More on that in this column at AL.com: Susan Schneider Williams.

Just got through playing one of my favorite albums of the past year or so: The Brummies’ “Eternal Reach.” You know why I am listening to it? Because I saw one of the best concerts I’ve seen in recent memory last night. The Brummies at the Saturn. Even ate one of those gigantic hamburgers from the man outside. The Brummies deny classification except I guess I’d put them under Beatlesqe. I’ve said it here before, they are a band to watch (and listen to). Dang that was tight last night.

So two days earlier I was at the Lewy body dementia international conference in Las Vegas (see Susan Williams story above).. After one long day, they had a pool party and they had listed (Live Music) in the schedule. We had no idea the live music was going to be REO Speedwagon as represented by lead singer and songwriter Kevin Cronin. Now this midwestern band had a huge career in the 70s, 80s and 90s. They were from Illinois but they were huge in my 1970 Junior High School named Klondike in West Lafayette, Ind. We took a picture and as we parted ways,he told me to ‘Roll with the Changes,’ and I told him to ‘Keep on Pushing.’ Seriously that’s true. So cool.

They became this big Top-40 band with the release of High Infidelity but they had been cranking out hard rock singles since 1972, Kevin came to the event because his mother had Lewy body dementia. His voice after 40 years of rock n roll singing, is not as strong but he entertained with another REO member dipping into the group’s deep bag of hits.

Kevin Cronin, lead singer of REO Speedwagon with Mike Oliver of myvinylcountdown.com