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Daily Journal 4-24-2019,

9::12 a.m: Typical start of the day spent about 10-20 minutes extra looking for stuff. I ended up forgetting my satchel of record albums. I usually take some records that I am working up reviews on, because sometimes liner notes are useful. The covers and the discs themselves often offer up the date released — although a surprising number do NOT do that which means an Internet search. There are also tidbits about who else joined the band to sit in on a song or whatever. Drummer Jim Keltner (Derek and the Dominos) is on half my records it seems, I swear, even a Peter Himmelman one. He must be in his late 70s?

Check-ins. Sleep. Fell asleep watching NBA so even though I didn’t get to bed until after midnight, part of that was sleeping on the couch. Pain. No spasms. No major tendonitis or arthritis or extraordinary Lewy sumptoms right now. Slow typing. Fine motor skills like typing are my most frequent unwelcomed symptom. I have basketball tonight. Mental Health. Good. No depression. No despair. Just middle of the road right now. Thinking with my brain about my brain, Albert Einstein and black holes. Played Dwight Twilley album before work. Great song: “Outta My Hands.”

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Daily Journal 4-23-2019

It’s nearly 8 a.m. I’m not typing well right now. It is increasingly taking awhile to get my hands working. This is my new Daily Journal. Every day I’m going to write about myself, most specifically healh-wise.. But there are no rules. The rest of my blog will continue as before, counting down my 678 vinyol records to bring awareness to this horrible brain disease I have: Lewy body demenia and I will still be filing longer form essays and ruminations and even news.

I was going to try to do this at night but I fell asleep in my bed with my fingers on the keyboard. NP is Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Cry for the Bad Man.’ I’m in the L’s in my countdown alphabetically. I m also listening to Led Zeppelin. I am usually through three album sides before I get to work.

Wow. Zeppelin and Skynyrd. Two totally different groups but co-equals in virtuosity, popularity and influence. Free Bird vs. Stairway to Heaven. Love em both. (although I barely listen to them any more after hearing those songs 1 (yes) 1 million times each.

Oh and because the journal will be a lot about me and the disease and its erosion of me, I need some health touchstones.: Sleep. Has been good although I had two of those extremely painful rolling muscle spasms this last week in my calves. It happens at night and I usually wake up yelling. Eating: Officially on South Beach low carb diet although I had a chocolate bunny yesterday, solid melt-in-your mouth-chocolate. But constippation is a battle I fight with prunes.. Mental State:. If my mentality was a state it would have a bumper sticker saying ‘Thank God for Mississippi.’ In other words, it could be worse. Pain I’ve had two painful rolling muscle spasms this week. It’s the kind where I feel like the rodents that I sometimes hallucinate are somehow making their way under my skin, into my my calf, and running amuck. Most of the time I am not in pain,however, and feel fortunate about that. The brain itself does not have pain nerve endings — it is my understanding, and I am thankful for that.

Watch for these updates every day.and I’ll keep the music flowing. Thanks to Lori Oliver, my sister-in-law, for suggesting this journal feature, saying it would greatly enhance my regular but sporadic posts on my health. I just look up to the universe and say let me keep words and I’ll make sure that I try to string them together into something that makes sense. (His and Hurricanes is the exception).

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Nils Lofgren — 358



ALBUM: Nils Lofgren (1975)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$

This guitarist has a prolific resume. Founder of the band Grin, they put out some solid rock albums. He was in Neil Young’s Crazy Horse and later Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.

Meanwhile he put out a number of solo albums like this one in 1975.

When you have close to 700 albums, it’s hard to play all of them consistently. I don’t come home from work and say, gosh I really have to hear some Lofgren. But I should, you should too.. There’s a reason Neil and Bruce like him. He’s a rock and roll guitar player who has fun, plays loose and his music on this album and my two Grin albums sounds like the best bar band you just stumbled onto.

Highlights include Keith Don’t Go, fun homage to Keith Richards complete with Stones’ riffs. “Going Back,” a Goffin/King song shows off his piano skills which I didn’g even know he had.

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The Left Banke — 361


ALBUM: The History of the Left Banke (1985)

MVC Rating: 3.5/$$

Rhino Records knows how to make something from not much. This decidedly minor group gets a cover with lots of photos, a plastic cover sleeve with Rhino’s catalog: Best of Troggs, the Nazz, the Standells, the Box Tops, and so on.

Then there is a history on a sheet inside that is everything you would ever want to know about four anonymous guys in a band you’ve hardly ever heard of. That’s Rhino! I love them. Who knows? We document their history and some time in the future there is a Left Banke revival? Nah, but they did one thing that put them on the pop-rock map: ‘Walk Away Renee.’ It’s a pop classic, strings and all. (The version by the Cowsills on their live album is awesome and where I first heard it at about 11 years old.)


‘Pretty Ballerina’ was their other hit and it’s not so much. Two tracks are from the group Stories, which had a cool song about interracial dating/love affairs that was likely bold for its day called Brother Louie. Stories morphed out of the Left Banke in early 1970s.

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Lone Justice — 362

ALBUM: Lone Justice (1985)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$

This is Tammy Wynette and the Scorchers.

Country leavened belter Maria McKee delivers a hybrid punk country voice that is big and just a shade too sharp for my ears. No question she’s talented. But the LA band came with lots of hype.

One critic declared the self-titled debut the greatest album ever made, according to the band’s Wikipedia page.

Huh?

Just in the sub-genre of cowpunk, two out of three of my Jason and the Scorchers records match or exceed this.

They had a few singles but none did super well. The Tom Petty-penned ‘Ways to be Wicked’ is possibly the best.

I like the more country – leaning songs such as ‘Dont Toss Us Away’‘ and ‘Soap Soup and Salvation’ I love the album’s soft gospel closer, ‘You Are the Light.’

But after disappointing sales, they moved toward more mainstream rock and the band fizzled.

‘You are the light in my dark world, you are the fire that will always burn.’

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Love Tractor, Let’s Active — 364, 363

ALBUM: Love Tractor , ‘Themes from Venus’ (1988); Let’s Active, “Big Plans for Everybody.’ (1986).

MVC Rating: Tractor 4.0/$$$; Active, 3.5/$$$

I was disappointed to pull out my Love Tractor album and find that it was warped. I’m talking about a big warp at the inception of the record which makes it skip. Sadly I am probably going to have to throw it away. And that’s a shame because I remember it fondly. Another Warped Hometown Band.

I combined Let’s Active with this as well because it was part of a group of records that were my college soundtrack. Both had Mitch Easter connections and Athens, Ga., connections, my more or less hometown. Let’s Active was from, I believe Chapel Hill, a university town that followed Athens’ as an incubator for good music. Of these Love Tractor is more varied and a little bit more alternative or should I say Avant Garde.

They started out as a mostly instrumental band. When they found their words they were mostly super silly but cool super silly like “I Like My Power Tools.”

Let’s Active was often compared to REM but except for some trebly jangly-ness of the guitars I didn’t see them that like that. I thought they sounded more like Ryan Adams.

Love tractor had the wonderful ‘I broke my saw’ in the spirit of Big Fat Tractor by the Swimming Pool Q’s.

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David Lindley — 360, 359, 358, 357,

My four David Lindley albums.

ALBUMS: El Rayo X (1981); Win this Record (1982); Mr. Dave (1985} Very Greasy (1988).

MVC Rating: El Rayo X, 4,5/$$$; Win This Record, 4.5 $$$; Mr. Dave, 4.0/$$$; Very Greasy, 4.0/$$$$.

It’s been said that David Lindley can play any stringed instrument put before him. Just give him some string.

The eccentric looking musician — long unkempt locks, plaid shirts, psychedelic pants, bushy mutton chop sideburns — was the antithesis of smooth, suave So-Cal performer Jackson Browne, whom Lindley backed on much of Browne’s discography and live shows.

That’s probably why Lindley’s side projects were so much fun. His eccentricities — kept in check while playing a note perfect lead on ‘Running on Empty’ for example were finally his to accentuate.

And he did, mixing covers of obscure reggae rasta tunes, blues, country with scorching slide guitar and other instruments you may not know.

For example, on Very Greasy , Lindley is listed as playing slide guitar,
Bouzouki, Saz, and mandolin. I know mandolin and slide but not the other two. Apparently they are lute-like instruments from Turkey and surrounding areas. (At least he used existing instruments with a track record unlike 10cc ‘s Godley & Creme who went noodling around with middling success on their self-made Gizmo.)

It should be noted that Lindley in his younger days won the Topanga Banjo/fiddle contest in California five times. From 1966 to 1970 he played in Kaleidoscope, a band he co-founded.







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BREAKING: Third annual Mike Madness charity tournament set for July 20

See AL.com version for updated version.

I just got word that we have agreed on a date with UAB which is donating the use of the UAB Recreation Center for 3-on-3 basketball games (and other hijinx) for charity.

We are raising money to fight this brain disorder that I have, along with more than 1 million other people.

It has no cure, no known cause and is fatal. It is the second leading cause of dementia behind Alzheimer’s disease. But few people are aware of Lewy, which physiologically is a cousin to Parkinson’s disease with symptoms similar to both PD and AD.

Trent Richardson drives like the football player he is at Mike Madness charity basketball tournament last year. The tournament is back again for its third year on July 20. More details to come. Photo — Trish Crain

In two years we have raised a total of more than $25,000 for research and awareness of Lewy body dementia. We started humbly with a $5,000 goal the first year and took in about $13,000. Last year we raised $12,000. (These numbers are coming from my math memory department in my brain which is currently under siege from rogue proteins, but I think they are about right.) I would love to raise $25,000 this year to push our total to $50,000.

I think we can do it. I think this will be the most successful one yet.

Details of the tournament will be coming but mark the date: July 20, UAB Recreation Center. We have the gym all day and will start pretty early in the morning. Again stay tuned.

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Last year we had surprise visitors. Former NBA and UA basketball star Buck Johnson and former UA running back Trent Richardson joined us and even participated in a game or two

So stay tuned. Many more details to come.

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Little Feat — 363, 362


ALBUMS: Sailin’ Shoes (1972); Hoy Hoy (1986)

MVC Rating: Sailin’: 4.0/$$$; Hoy: 4.0/$$$

Little Feat and its leader Lowell George started with a foundation of Southern blues rock a la the Brothers Allman, added a touch of the Brothers Neville and topped it off with some funky Brothers Isley.

When I think of Little Feat I think of their song Dixie Chicken and the great swinging opening:

I’ve seen the bright lights of Memphis
And the Commodore Hotel
And underneath a street lamp I met a Southern belle
Well she took me to the river, where she cast her spell
And in that Southern moonlight, she sang a song so well

And the refrain that sticks in your brain like gum on a shoe on a hot day.

If you’ll be my dixie chicken, I’ll be your Tennessee lamb
And we can walk together down in dixieland
Down in dixieland .

Lowell George formed Little Feat after leaving Frank Zappa’s Brothers, er, Mothers of Invention. George said he was encouraged to leave Zappa because Frank, who eschewed drugs, didn’t like the drug references in the George song “Willin’. This is seemingly ironic given that the Mothers had released the psychedelic album of the ages in ‘Freak Out’ — but, oh yeah, with Zappa he wasn’t laughing with them, he was laughing at them. (Tripping hippies, I’m talking about).

‘Sailin’ Shoes’ was the second in a handful of consistently good albums. As the band started to fall apart in the 80’s, Lowell George went on tour behind a very good solo album, ‘Thanks I’ll Eat Here.” See MVC review,

He died in a motel room in Virginia, the victim of his appetites for drugs, alcohol and food, especially food. He reportedly weighed more than 300 pounds at death.

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David Lasley — 365

ALBUM: Raindance (1984)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$

David’s 1984 solo album, Raindance, is a tantalizing mix of soul, doo wop, hip hop and balladry. 

And as vinyl on the used market it’s about $3 — a big bargain. <NOTE: This has probably gone up since writing this several years ago.>

His cranky rap song “Don’t Smile at Me” (warning language)* still makes me smile all these years later. I’m pretty sure I bought this after seeing James Taylor at Auburn University in like 1983 but the album says 1984 – and I was gone from AU by then.

He tackles all styles here, maybe too many, as if he finally gets to be a frontman and decides to show everything he has got. And he’s gotta a lot, this blue-eyed falsetto soul singer. Note: Don’t really know if he has blue eyes — that’s just the industry’s way of saying they are white singing soul. Like Hall and Oates.

Besides Taylor, Lasley has been back-up singer for a whole host of artists, including Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Aretha Franklin and Luthor Vandross.

He is listed in the credits of this blog’s countdown artist Garlland Jeffries.

*Now guaranteed higher clicks.