It would be easy to dismiss this average white band as a great bar band and go with that. But they are actually a good bump above that description. They are an American band in the Grand Funk mode or blue-eyed rock and soul of Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels.
Rare Earth was from Detroit, and like Mitch Ryder’s great band, absorbed the Motor City’s soul music tradition.
Detroit Wheels had some funk and soul in their approach. Rare Earth was one of the first successful- all- white bands to be signed by Motown Records. (Others had been signed but never had a hit or achieved much success.) Some audiences called the band too white sounding and others called the band too black sounding, but a lot more liked the sound. One of their biggest hits was a cover of a Temptations song, ‘Get Ready’ which was a real jam — like 30 minutes of jam in concert. They were loud, both vocally and musically.
I saw them at an outdoor free concert in West Lafayette, Indiana, in around 1974 or 1975. Or, maybe that was the J. Geils Band (?). I don’t know. I do know I became familiar with Rare Earth’s songs around this time as they bombarded the radio airways.
‘Born to Wander,’ ‘Hey Big Brother,’ ‘(I Know) I’m Losing You’ and my favorite: ‘I just Want to Celebrate.’
Of all the psychedelic jam bands that came out around 1967-69 in the San Francisco Bay Area — the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin/ Big Brother and Holding Company, It’s a Beautiful Day — Quicksilver Messenger Service certainly was one of them.
I have tried to get into Quicksilver. John Cipollina plays great guitar. Their two big hits were ‘Take Another Hit’ and, ‘What About Me.’ They were good FM radio type songs. But when I had stop and listen to an entire album from the group, I begin to look askance at Hippies. And I was heavily influenced by the Hippie culture in the 1960s, despite my relative youth at the time.
I had a lifesize Jimi Hendrix poster on my wall right about age 13. I liked the San Francisco band called ‘It’s a Beautiful Day’ with it’s magic violin sounds. And although I’m not a lifelong Grateful Dead fan — I have started an older age appreciation for some of their work.
And don’t get me wrong, there was some talent but Quicksilver’s lyrics were a sequence of hippie cliche’s: “I’m always getting busted … and I believe in revolution …oh oh, what’s you going to do about me? ……If you stand up for what you do believe, be prepared to be shot down. … oooh oooh What’s you gonna do about me?’
Quicksilver is a good name for a heavy metal band, though.
Interesting prophetic(?} lyric from ‘What About Me:’
Your newspapers They just put you on They never tell you The whole story They just put your Young ideas down I was wonderin’ could this be the end
Here’s an excerpt about a pretty amazing song. I just posted on AL.com:
Living on free food tickets, Water in the milk, From a hole in the roof, Where the rain came through, What can you do? MmmWhat is it about this song?It’s called ‘Love of the Common People,’ first recorded in 1967, it has been recorded by many many artists — some quite big , yet it always seems to be flying under the radar.“I’ve heard that before. Who sings it?” is the reaction I get most often when I play it for someone.Maybe it was at a friend’s house? Or your parents played one of its abundant iterations. I’ve heard that song before. Who sings it?From country singers to reggae versions to punk and soul. Waylon Jennings, John Denver, Elton John and the Everly Brothers.
Happy Mother’s Day everybody. It’s Mom’s Appreciation Day or MAD as we call it. Actually, no It’s, of course Mother’s Day (for MD, what every mom wanted their son or daughter to grow up and be.} Well, we didn’t all become doctors but I’ve lived for the most part a wonderful life and I bless and acknowledge my mother’s assistance in that. Please try to empathize with our Moms. Today‘s a day where we stop and say I Love You.
(And a very happy BIRTHDAY, tomorrow May 11, to the love of my life, Catherine.
I also want t say RIP to one of the greats, Little RIchard, who is on my countdown albeit I don’t really have any vinyl of the rock and roll Little RIchard — rather I have a gospel record.
Little Richard, aka Richard Penniman from Macon, Ga., belongs up there with Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley and the Beatles in completing the crossover mixture of white and black song stylings that melded in what we call rock and rollld.
His jagged falsetto and frenetic presentation of rock and roll songs had never been heard quite like Little Richard delivered them. His influences can be heard all over rock and roll, very specifically in Paul McCartney’s vocal yells and yelps.
The multimillionaire record mogul was worried enough about the group to sue them for using Quincy as the name of their band. I’m getting this from a compilation of sources, blogs and bios, incuding IMDb’s profile, of one of the ex-band members, Gerald Emerick.
Quincy Jones who has set the record for Grammy nominations with 80 (he won 28) went after a New Wave band with no hits and just a little promise. Because they called themselves Quincy?
I picked up the band’s self-entitled album in a bargain bin I believe while I was in Auburn. 1980. The music is pretty good New Wave, power pop with some synth highlights. The songs bounce a la Boomtown Rats or Elvis Costello or the Cars.
Maybe it’s a collectible because it’s the first and only album (that I know of) under the name Quincy. The band was no match for Mr. Jones and settled out of court.
For their second album, their name was Lulu Temple.
After not much success, the band that had once been a frequent performer at CGBG’s, disbanded and went their separate ways.
All I can say is Quincy Jones. Wow. Lulu Temple. Wow. Wasn’t there a popular TV show about this time called ‘Quincy?’
I haven’t seen that Jack Klugman vehicle in a long time. Maybe it’s called something else now? I can I picture Jack Klugman smoking a big cigar yelling: “Quit calling me Lulu.”
Don’t worry, I’m still going to finish. I just believe I need to step it up.
My Vinyl Countdown, or myvinylcountdown.com, is still rolling, but needs some maintenance as I’ve piled on about 500 posts in less than three years.
Read About Me for a detailed explanation but in general, I’m counting down the 678 vinyl records I have collected over the years. Of my 500-plus posts, a little more than 400 are record reviews. I have about 230 of those reviews to go which will be another 18 months at the pace I’m going now. So, I need to accelerate.
Obviously this is not all about music; I’ve written quite a few post, essays, even poetry about the disease, some are here. Check the ‘categories ‘ and ‘archives’ buttons for more.
An associated fund-raising group called MikeMadness has staged a basketball tournament for three straight years resulting in about $40,000 combined toward awareness and research. Our fourth annual even was scheduled for July 25, 2020. We are watching the issues surrounding the coronavirus closely to see if and how we may have to make new arrangements. Stay tuned in to this blog, or AL.com, or MikeMadness.
My impetus to accelerate is not that I’ll be dying any minute from this incurable degenerative brain disease. But I will be dying any year. I’d like to accomplish this task with some cushion, big cushion.
In the mad swirl of advocating for Lewy body dementia, I’ve met Suzanne WIlliams Wright, Robin WIliams’ widow, And I was interviewed for podcast by Kerri Kasem the daughter of Casey Kasem, who also like WIlliams died of Lewy body dementia.
Alphabetically I just finished the ‘P’s’ and into the ‘Q’s’ with Queen. I’ve bought and received a good deal of albums during this time, but I’ve also sold about 40 or 50. One of my tune-ups is to correct my countdown numbers which appear in bold on the title headline of each bog post. Those countdown numbers are supposed to tell you and me where I am with these. I have found that in several places I’ve skipped adding the number. For example, I have on Van Morrison listed only one album when in reality I have about five. The error came in listing only one album for the countdown. So this is exciting in that it might move me up (down?) in the countdown. In other words, I’m farther along than I thought.
If I was really ambitious and forward thinking and savvy I would have all of these in a spreadsheet and keep track by updating every time I gain one or lose one.
Now readers, friends and family have worried that the end of the countdown somehow means the end of me. Not what I’m planning. I started this to raise money for Lewy body dementia research and awareness. When I get to 678 I am anticipating I’ll have overage which could be dealt with by simply adding an addendum to this blog, which has also been a regular feature at AL.com.
I’ll leave you now with reviews from the blog archives:
JANIS JOPLIN
Album: Greatest Hits (1973); Pearl (1969)
MVC Rating: Greatist: 4.0/$$$; Pearl 4.5/$$$$
NOTE: I added Pearl rather recently, not being able to resist its thrift store price and good conditionl. Half the tracks overlap with Greatest Hits. Pearl is a great classic album. I’m pretty sure I have pretty much all the Joplin I need as I also have a CD with something like 20 song.
—
Talk about pain — as we have been with the country songs of George Jones and Tammy Wynette — Janis Joplin was one hurting puppy.
Her voice was like no other when that inner turmoil came out.
That’s why the video in my last post of Janis and Tom Jones is something of a revelation. Tom Jones (coming to Birmingham soon) is a made for-Vegas, pop singer with a ladies’ following, some nifty dance moves copped from Elvis, and a strong strong voice in his own right. On this duet, Tom and Janis seem to be having much fun as they see who can out belt each other while shimmying around the dance floor to a small but raucous crowd of musicians and dancers.
CLICK ON TITLE FOR FULL REVIEW
ROY CLARK
ALBUM: Guitar Spectacular! (1965)
MVC Rating: 4.0/$$
This one slipped between the cracks earlier, having now passed my “C” section. But upon hearing of his death today it feels appropriate to put it up.
He was 85.
AL GREEN
]ALBUMS: Greatest Hits (Reissue: 1982 of 1975 release); Truth In Time (1978); Soul Survivor (1987)
MVC Rating: Greatest 5/$$$$; Truth 4.0/$$$; Soul Survivor/$$$
One of my favorite artists — all time.
I have three albums that capture the essence and soul of a man with essence and soul. He was the best at covering other’s work and elevating. But he wrote his own as well.
His earlier stuff collected on the hits album is classic R&B, soul. Some of the best made.
The Al Green-penned ‘Let’s Stay Together,’ ‘Let’s Get Married,’ ‘Call Me,’ and ‘I’m Still in Love With You’ all smolder with love and hotter love. Green’s falsetto is the best. That’s not up for debate with me. It is the best. His song, “Tired of Being Alone” is a timeless classic.
But it’s his cover of the Bee Gee’s ‘How Can You Mend a Broken Heart’ that takes the prize for top, not to be too hyperbolic, perhaps Top 3, covers of all time. That is an emotional workout listening to Green sing that.
The only song not on the Greatest Hits that should have been is ‘Take Me to the River,’ a Green song covered quite successfully later by the Talking Heads.
Green in 1974, after some traumatic life events and hospitalizations, became a pastor. He leads a big church in Memphis near Elvis’ Graceland. Over the years he has wavered between recording pure gospel music and a hybrid of popular, with God infused throughout.
Some of his ’80s’ work is as powerful as anything he’s ever done. I got religion about three times listening to Soul Survivor and his sung version of the 23rd Psalm with a full gospel choir. In my copy of ‘Soul Survivor’ I was happy to find a 5X7 photo and a bio sheet.
A Loneliness Infected; Searching for meaning in quarantine
What are you doing? My wife asked.
“Just thinking.”
Its the umpteenth day of working from home and I feel a loneliness to my bones. And I got other people in the house, the aforementioned Catherine, my wife, and my daughter, Hannah, and her husband, Tom.
Just thinking.
Humans are social animals. We love to connect with other people. My daughters in their teen years would run out the door. Where ya going I’d holler from a comfy chair in front of a sports game.
Just hanging out , bye daddy, they’d say.
Call me, I’d yell back.
I was happy knowing they were happy ‘just hanging out.’
My wife was a pastor at a church in San Francisco so weekends she was always working. But I was happy knowing I’d go play basketball with ‘the guys.’ Hangin’ with the guys. And get home just as the daughters were running out of the door.
I had a soft chair, cold beverage and a TV. I was content.
I have to admit I’m having difficulty now finding that content spot as I quarantine against the coronavirus. Things are different now. I’m older, we all are older. I’m at special risk because of my Lewy body dementia diagnosis.
Maybe it’s self evident or too obvious that a little fear has creeped into my psyche.
Since the virus, I’ve often wondered and even asked people,: ‘What about the people who live alone.?’ I think there are many people lonely in a way they’ve never been before.
It’s a loneliness infected.
It comes with the exposure of our overwhelming vulnerability as humans on this planet. We are brought to our knees by a bug that we can’t see. COVID-19, like all viruses, are not exactly living beings, according to scientists.
Keep checking myvinylcountdown.com for more countdown vinyl record reviews. I have Queen as the latest. Just before Queen ther was P.J. Proby, who has a story that is pretty rock and roll.
Here’s a couple of pertinent song from John Lennon.
ALBUMS: Queen II (1974); Sheer Heart Attack (1974; A Night at the Opera (1975); News of the World (1977).
MVC Ratings: Queen II 4.0/$$$; Sheer 4.0/$$$; Opera 4.5/$$$$; News, 3.5/$$$
I was an early Queen adopter. And that’s saying something because Queen was so sonic in your face, bombastic and so not Bohemian that many had strong feelings strong negative feelings about Queen.
The critics pretty much panned the group. In a Village Voice review pompastic critic Robert Christgau gave Queen II a five -word dismissal review. He wrote: Wimpoid royaloid heavoid android void. C
Oh my Goid.
Of course it must have been all downhill from there. Not quite.
They later became at their peak, one of the most popular bands of all time.
Sure Queen II was heavoid but I was 14-year-old and thought the songs on the black side and white side (good versus evil) were really cool. Taking from the short-lived Glitter/Glam scene and heavy metal, Queen had musical talent on hand. Freddie Mercury, the lead singer with an amazingly powerful and wide-ranging voice, was also primary songwriter.
I never have had the self-entitled first album, although I’m familiar with it (the song’Tie Your Mother Down.’ particularly. Queen seemed to have pivoted after the critical slams of Queen II and released Sheer Heart Attack. It was a group of songs that that all sounded different, no connectivity whatsoever. There was, however, ‘Lily of the Valley’ which sounded like it belonged on Queen II.
A friend in my neighborhood in Indiana, who had introduced me to the group, said ‘They sold out, with Sheer Heart Attack.’ I didn’t agree.
(Shouldn’t we have been listening to John Mellencamp or John Hiatt in Indiana? Well, I moved before those two artists came to my attention).
In retrospect, it seems odd that some adolescent boys from Indiana known for its corn and a car race would be listening to Glam-rock British rockers. But we were, and still do.
The universal-ness of it all. Uh oh heavoid again.
So the scattershot nature of Sheer Heart Attack worked, mainly because of the big hit single ‘Killer Queen.’ This success set up the album ‘A Night at the Opera, which had the mega-hit ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ a single like perhaps no other. There have been other ‘songs-within-a-song’ before — ‘Uncle Albert’ by Paul McCartney, ‘A Day in the Life’ by the Beatles and ‘Paradise by the Dashboard Light’ by Meatloaf come to mind.
But none of those, although quite popular, I think equals the universal appeal of Bohemian Rhapsody with its outrageous blending of opera, rock and roll and romantic balladry.
About this time 1977-78, I was getting ready to graduate from high school and moving on in the state of Georgia. I inherited ‘News of the World’ from my wife, but it wasn’t the same Queen, and it wasn’t the same me.
I was ready to movoid down the road picking up other great music along the way. Like Mellencamp and Hiatt.
ALBUMS: Three Week Hero-PJP (1969); Enigma (1966): You Can’t Come Home Again (45 rpm) (1968): Somewhere (1967): What’s Wrong With My World (1968): Focus Con Proby (1977)
MVC Rating: Hero 4.0/$$$; Enigma 4.0/$$$; Home (45) 3.5/$$; Somewhere 3.5/$$; What’s Wrong with My World 2.5/$$; Focus Con Proby. (pending review)
I have written about Proby earlier when I named one of his albums one of the seven most underrated albums in My VInyl Countdown collection.
Proby’s story is certainly a wild one: he got kicked out of England; Van Morrison wrote a song about him; his sister dated Elvis; he played Elvis in a stage production; sang mostly rock and roll and ballads but at one point in the 1970s was lead singer for Focus the heavy prog band from the Netherlands in ‘Focus Con Proby.’ Focus is a group best known for their heavy metal yodeling song called Hocus Pocus.
First, a quick update on My Vinyl Countdown.com. That’s my website where I state my mission by vowing to listen to, write about and list (in alphabetical order) all of the records I have collected since, oh about age 12.
I’m 60 now. (I took about a two-decade detour into digital).
I am doing this to raise awareness of Lewy body dementia, which I have.
There is no cure for this disease, the second-leading form of degenerative dementia after Alzheimer’s. So yes, I am forgetful and I have tremors now and then. But thanks to modern science and miracles of their cost prohibitive I’m doing fine. My bank account may not be doing fine, but I am.
So anyway, I started with 678 records and have reviewed 438. Now I have about 240 records to go. (Give or take).
Thanks to everyone with the notes and kind words throughout this. It keeps me hanging on. (Got a Vanilla Fudge album to do when I get to the V’s).
Proby is one of those artists that I really didn’t know during my formative vinyl years. He’s one of several on the countdown that I have purchased more recently (past 3 years) as I started thumbing through bargain bins and thrift shops.
Coming home after a thrift store find I put on his Enigma record and immediately noticed the voice. It was an entity all to itself, Vegas, swamp rock, Elvis, Otis, Tom Jones — that voice channeled just about everything.
He was not moving the needle much in the U.S. but the UK seemed to love him. He was like Bizarro World Elvis: or Tom Jones playing Mick Jagger in a movie about the Stones; or Johnny Cash if he had grown up in Ireland during the 1950s and 60s and was heavily influenced by Van Morrison.
(These are fun, I could go on but I’ll restrain myself.)
The ‘accident’ sparked so much audience reaction that it happened again ……..and again. I couldn’t find any stories that detailed how many times it happened. But an oversight office on moral turpitude basically had Proby thrown out of the country.
PJ Proby’s albums were often a hodgepodge of styles looking for a theme. Some real gems however found within.
About the music. I would recommend Enigma which has his single ‘Niki Hoeky’ a Deep South novelty tune in the vein of Tony Joe White’s ‘Polk Salad Annie.’ Or about anything Jim Stafford would do.
Proby’s vocals jump comfortably from falsetto to hard rock/soul back down again.
The man knew he had a voice and that was possibly his downfall.
On stage he knew he could wow anyone when he opened his mouth to sing. But his ability to sing any type of song also meant that he recorded any type of songs — as if he was going for the shotgun affect and seeing which style will stick
The problem, which comes clear in the very-good-but-disjointed ‘Three Week Hero., ‘ is that he thinks it’s all too funny, like a comedian who has no sense of when to quit repeating the punch line. His exaggerated bumpkin accent on the opening title song on Hero has no reasoning behind it, context.
It’s bizarre as if he was brushing up to be on TV’s Hee Haw.
In another really good song he sounds like Johnny Cash — only better!
Then he airs out a completely gut wrenching Otis Redding like vocal on a song that made me readjust the listening device. He covered ” It’s so hard to be a N-word.’ No, I’m not going to write it).
It’s a song written by Georgia civil rights activist and African American Mable Hillery. I was brought up that white people never use the N-word so I questioned the appropriateness of a white man singing. Here’s Mable’s version.
And here is Proby’s version with the backing of a group of four men called the New Yardbirds.
Yes, the New Yardbirds were John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. It is believed to be the first time the future Led Zeppelin members recorded together.
NOTE: This song is part of a 3-song medley that also includes ‘George Wallace came Rolling in this Morning.’
Off the same album is this one which sounds like it could have been a single.
This has hardly been a ‘Daily’ journal. Sorry about that.
The coronavirus has been a big distraction. Too light a word, distraction. It’s been a scary life-changing event for most. If you’ve been following this blog, you’d think that all I’ve been doing since April Fool’s Day is listening to piano music.
Holy Titanic, that’s not the case!
To catch you up on what I’ve been doing these past few weeks, I’ll start with the point where I realized this was a huge deal.
It was Friday, March 13, and after an exchange of emails with Dr. Michael Saag that started the previous day, I received and read an Op-ed piece Saag sent me and it really opened my eyes. In clear straight ahead prose Saag laid out the pending crisis from transmission to infection to possible runaway contagion and worldwide shut-down. Saag’s piece was a hard-hitting , fact-filled, Paul Revere call- out.
I felt Saag’s sense of urgency now . The AL.com headline published Friday evening:
On Saturday I talked to Saag again about some of the emails he had received from doctors he knew on the front lines in Italy. The emails painted a vivid and tragic scene: overrun emergency departments, bed shortages, medical staff weeping as they helplessly watched patients die. That story published Sunday, I believe.
Many of these stories were getting 10s and even hundreds of thousands of page views. Saag’s Friday the 13th Op-ed has had half a million page views to date. Millions were reading AL.com stories and our hard-working staff of several dozen have written and are writing hundreds of stories.
I have been in this business for 40 years at three major news organizations from Florida to California and have been involved in stories that have had major impacts. But in terms of public service and changing lives, the alarm bells — once we started ringing them — probably helped slow this thing down by educating the public. And while I’m viewing this through the lens of AL.com, I think it is true of the news media in general. It is a great example of where the value of journalism shines.
The reason: The coronavirus has hit our economy with a wallop not seen a long long time. We make much of our money from advertising and businesses are slashing those advertising dollars. And of course, some business will not survive.
What do we do? Keep on keeping on. In the meantime if you are so inclined, we announced a new way for readers to help:voluntary subscriptions. We hope enough readers will chip in $10 per month to help us do our job keeping the public informed.
I’ll leave you with a song I have adopted as my own personal coronavirus song by one of my favorites:
