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Steve Howe — 414

 

ALBUM: The Steve Howe Album (1979)                             

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

I had forgotten how good this album is. Mostly instrumental, this album has  Howe showing off a precise and beautiful touch on guitar and other  string instruments. Songs are varied and probably would be  labeled progressive rock like his band Yes. But much of it is jazzy folk and a little country (English style.

But that doesn’t aptly describe the variety and quality of the music . ‘Pennants’  opens it up with  a riffy rock feel.  ‘DIary of a Man Who Vanished’ is melodic and enduring. ‘Meadow Rag’ i s what it says it is and very well played. ‘Cactus Boogie’ is too what it says it is. These songs are so disparate yet they all seem so familiar, like they belong together.

On the gatefold,  Howe shows off his instruments in photos.  Quite a collection includes a Martin 0018, a Kohno Spanish guitar. a Gibson Les Paul, a Danelectro Coral Sitar Guitar and a Fender Telecaster , among others. Probably well over $100,000 or way more for these precious instruments.

Speaking of worth. I don’t know how rare this album is but the Howe album I have fetches $20 to $30 on Discogs. If I remember, I bought this one new in Athens, Ga. during my freshman year at UGA, 1979.

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Robyn Hitchcock, The Hi-Lo’s — 416, 415,

ALBUMS: Suddenly it’s The Hi-Lo’s (1957, Reissue 1981); Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians, Globe of Frogs (1988).

MVC Rating: Hi-Lo’s 3.0/$$: Hitchcock 3.5/$$

Robin Hitchcok’s Globe of Frogs

OK I am doubling up as I am wont to do every now and then. I’m finishing up the H’s in the next few posts. Continuing on my way to review and reminisce about my 678-record collection. I’m doing this alphabetically (more o r less) and I still have more than 400 to go.

I chose to review these together mainly because they were the next two alphabetically speaking. But it’s an interesting contrasting combination.

This is a review of a 1950’s vocal jazz group and an alternative psychedelic folk rock artist . What can you say about Hitchcock, an artist who opens his liner notes with words like: “All of us exist in a swarming pulsating world, driven mostly by an unconscious that we ignore or misunderstand.”

The Hi-Lo’s meanwhile in this 1981 reissue of a 1957 album are all about fresh faced optimism, suits and un-ironic bow ties. The four men sing in harmonies and seem happy warbling away at songs like ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’ and ‘Stormy Weather. I listen to it when I want to go to something completely different in my collection. It’s surprisingly uplifting music.

Meanwhile Hitchcock sings songs entitled ‘Tropical Flesh Mandala’ and ‘Luminous Rose.’

If I were writing a traditional consumer guide I’d probably say ‘hey old folks check out the Hi-Lo’s they are like your old music. And say to the younger folks, dig the new Robyn HItchock album, it’s out of this world.

But I recommend the vice versa position. Kids meet the Hi-Los. Grown-ups see what psychedlic folk hipsterism is all about.  (It’s not too bad, I promise — except ‘Devil’s Mask‘  — live from Athens, Ga., — might blow some minds.)

So with both albums from divergent styles you can still say about both of them: And now for something completely different.

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Little things lead to something bigger (blog version)

Mike Oliver writes frequently about life and health issues and his diagnosis of a fatal brain disease, Lewy body dementia, on AL.com and his blog, www.myvinylcountdown.com
It’s the little things for which I’m thankful.
It’s the little things that bring joy to life on this spinning sphere of mud, rock, and water.
I’m thankful for the red Maple leaf that spins to the ground like a ballerina.
A quiet lake with the sun powering through the clouds. I am thankful.
I am thankful for small observations that invite a deeper reality. Living in the world is both illusory and concrete, full of heartache and pain. From the head, the heart and the soul.
A roaring ocean with storm clouds gathering at dawn like hungry white wolves.
I’m thankful for the moments that defy life’s suffering. Roller coasters, trampolines and front porch swings.
Butterflies and zebras and moonbeams and fairy tales.
Handpicked blackberries in a cobbler, hot with a scoop of fast melting vanilla ice cream.
An after dinner Thanksgiving walk. Holding hands.
The rust-colored poodle who thinks he’s golden, running the house like a greyhound after being let in from the cold.
Lightning and thunder and the inherited primal fear of it, a tiny injection of prehistoric adrenaline.
Understanding that disappointment is a manipulative device with a pinch of well meaning, but misplaced, love.
Yellow and red leaves of autumn like stained glass in November’s leaning light.
Pancakes and maple syrup, carb loading on a cold day.
A sincere compliment that makes you smile and stumble.
Hot yoga, frozen yogurt and boiled peanuts.
Sonny and Cher singing I got you, babe.
My 20-something daughter saying ‘I know this song.’
I am thankful for the little things.
They add up.
To a bigger thing.
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Roy Clark RIP — 424

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

Love that album cover. The album itself shows off the nimbleness and pecision of Clark’s finger-picking. In this one, he seems to want to show that he can do a little of everything, Spanish, jazz, blues, classical. A little heavy on the Latin easy listening numbers, but they do take you to a patio in Mexico or Texas.

When he decides to go fast on his acoustic guitar,   he blazes like Alvin Lee on electric.

I remember Clark from his Hee Haw TV days,  the corniest show that I couldn’t quit watching. “ If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all.’

RIP Roy.

 

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Jeff Healey — 425

ALBUM: ‘See the Light’ (1988)

MVC Rating:  4.0/$$

This blind Canadian guitarist died too soon, and I believe was underrated as a guitarist.

He died at 41 of cancer. As an infant he had a rare eye cancer which led to the removal of his eyeballs. He started playing guitar at 3 years old, putting it on his lap. It’s a method he used all his life.

His ballad-for-radio ‘Angel Eyes’ (written by John Hiatt) reached No. 5 on the charts in the late 80s. It was from the album ‘See the Light’ — the  title song is the scorching  closer of that album. ‘Angel Eyes’ is a better ballad-for-radio than Ian Hunter’s “Ships” which I just reviewed on MVC.

For good or ill, more people may remember Healey   as the blind leader of a house band in a rought and tumble nightclub in the Patrick Swayze movie ‘Road House.’ Yep that’s Jeff, basically playing himself.

I think this movie role probably caused a lot of folks to miss the forest for the trees. He was exceptional with his laptop guitar playing and often expanded his music into the jazz and blues realm. But he didn’t  make Rollihg Stone’s Top 100 guitarists, not necessarily a travesty, but an inexplicable oversight.

He has made other lists in the Top 10, however. And lists are lists — to judge for yourself, see the videos below:

Fun fact: He was a voracious collector of old jazz and blues records and played trumpet as well as guitar.

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How can I hang on to a memory?

This is an opinion column by Mike Oliver who writes about his diagnosis of Lewy body dementia and other health and life issues, here on AL.com and his blog.
This morning I had a memory from my childhood.
That, in and of itself, is not particularly newsworthy. But it did make me think how my brain is working.
I have a degenerative brain disease called Lewy body dementia, and I think my experiences can be useful to the medical community and the care-giving community – or anyone interested in what it feels like inside the head of a dementia patient.

Mike and Catherine Oliver help each other remember.

My memory this morning was this:
I was looking at some pants getting for work, realized the pants were — unlike most of my pants – too loose in the waist. The pants would be literally pants on the ground after about five or six steps.
This triggered a memory: it was a sunny day in Auburn, AL,. I was a 5 or 6-year-old kid going out to play on Rudd Avenue (which I don’t think exists anymore. The road’s there, but the name changed for some reason.)
In my memory I am running to get to the creek we used to play in and then we’d likely walk in the creek to Prather’s Lake.
As I run, I realize I‘m having to hold my pants up. With both hands.
I only had two things on like every Auburn boy on my street in the 1960s: Underwear and short pants. And my short pants kept sliding down. Not cool.
Luckily. I had belt loops on my shorts.
My memory only lasted a split second, but it was very visual. I remembered I found a piece of skinny rope. It was only about 5 or 6 inches long. Not enough to go all the way around my waist. So. I couldn’t use it like a regular belt because it was too short.
I guess the idea just spontaneously erupted in my 5 or 6-year-old brain. I tied two front belt loops together with that little rope. Tailor made! The britches held up nice and tight now.
I don’t remember anybody ever teaching me that trick or ‘hack’ as it would be called using current nomenclature. But, indeed, it was a real ‘necessity-is-the-mother-of-invention’ moment.
I think of this, not because there is anything unusual or profound about it.
But it made me stop and wonder why my brain chose to furnish me this quite vivid memory of a past event with no relevance to anything, other than it was triggered by me looking at some pants.
Is it my brain saying: ‘Hey, here’s some info you used before in a separate waist-fitting pants escapade. Here, see if this will help you,’ my brain seems to be saying. Pretty dang complicated for a brain awash in clumps of protein named after Dr.Lewy, who discovered them.
Or maybe it’s a symbolic lesson about how the answer, the cure, is right in front of you, like the piece of twine.
I’ve got my brain sitting here right now — and at all times — inside my head.
What if thinking alone can literally change the brain?
Wonder where that thought came from?
I’ll try it.
-=-=-=-=–=-=-=-=-=-=
Here are five essential facts about Lewy body dementia from the Lewy Body Dementia Association.
  • LBD is a relentlessly progressive disorder affecting thinking, movement, behavior and sleep. On average people with LBD live 5-7 years after diagnosis, though it can progress as quickly as 2 years or as slowly as 20 years.
  • Despite its low public awareness, LBD is not a rare disorder and affects an estimated 1.4 million Americans along with their families and caregivers.
  • People living with LBD and their family caregivers need a high level of support from family members and healthcare professionals from the early stage of the disorder, due to early and unpredictable frequent changes in thinking, attention and alertness, as well as psychiatric symptoms like hallucinations and delusions.
  • LBD is the most misdiagnosed form of dementia. Getting a diagnosis of LBD typically takes 3 or more doctors over 12 to 18 months. The LBDA Research Centers of Excellence network includes 25 preeminent academic centers with expertise in LBD diagnosis and management.
  • Early diagnosis of LBD is extremely important, due to severe sensitivities to certain medications sometimes used in disorders that mimic LBD, such as Alzheimer’s disease and other medical and psychiatric illnesses. An early diagnosis also empowers the person with LBD to review, pursue and fulfill their personal life priorities before the illness progresses too far, review their legal and financial plans, and discuss their care preferences with their physician and family.
  • Contact Mike Oliver at moliver@al.com Also follow his stories, including his quest to dunk at 58 years old on AL.com or myvinylcountdown.com
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Grin — 442, 441

ALBUMS: All Out (1972); Gone Crazy (1973) 

MVC Rating: All Out 4.0/$$; Gone Crazy 3.5/$$$

Hey folks. Grin is not a household name but you vinyl record aficionados ought to seek it out.

It’s a band fronted by Nils Lofgren in the 1970s. Nils is not exactly a household name either but after his youthful foray in Grin, he became a member of  bands formed  by some major household names: Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street Band and Neil y Young’s  Crazy Horse. Not bad. Two of the best rock singer-songwriters of our era. (Actually Grin happened while he was in Crazy Horse.)

Lofgren is an excellent guitarist. But don’t come to Grin expecting life-changing music, like you might have found when you first heard Neil Young or Bruce Springsteen.

I think  those two saw a musicality from Lofgren that covered a lot of ground. I think they also must have seen some bright rock and roll fun spirit in his music. Lofgren is a classically trained musician (classical accordion, according to his Wikipedia page –is that a joke?). Glad he ventured into rock and roll as I  doubt I would ever be  blessed with his music if he was 2nd chair accordion in the Los Angeles symphony.

Anyway Grin is a fun garage band styled group from  Lofgren’s early life. The album covers are wild and they alone may be worth the $10 or so you may have to pay for a used copy.

What is a ‘household name’ anyway?

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Somebody needs to tell Ted Turner his brain disease is fatal (blog version)

This is an opinion column by Mike Oliver, who frequently writes about his own diagnosis of Lewy body dementia and other health, life and death issues.

So who told Ted Turner, CNN magnate, that his newly diagnosed Lewy body dementia is not fatal.

Is he just playing it down?

TedTurner.JPG

Because I’ve got news for him:  It is 100 percent fatal. You get it you die.

Like a  lot of diseases, right? No.

What Ted has, Lewy body dementia, shortens lifespans. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, on average, do not. (Some say Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s shortens life 2 or fewer years.)

There is no cure for any of these degenerative brain diseases.

Turner, the billionaire TV cable mogul, said in an interview today on CBS This Morning that he has been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia.

“It’s a mild case of what people have as Alzheimer’s. It’s similar to that. But not nearly as bad. Alzheimer’s is fatal,” Turner told Koppel at his 113,000-acre ranch near Bozeman, Montana. “Thank goodness I don’t have that.”

I don’t think Ted fully knows what’s coming. Maybe he does. But it sounds like Turner — like the vast public and, most troubling, the medical community — doesn’t have a clue about what he has.

The fact is that Lewy body dementia is not a form of Alzheimer’s disease and, not that a debate over ‘severity’ of the diseases accomplishes much, Lewy’s damaging symptoms can be equal to or worse than AD, if that’s even possible. Both kill the brain eventually and every step of the way you lose a little more control.

Turner said something else that goes to the heart of my mission:

“But, I also have got, let’s – the one that’s – I can’t remember the name of it.” (Bold emphasis mine.)

(MORE ABOUT THE UNDERDIAGNOSED DISEASE: LEWY LEWY, CALL IT BY ITS NAME)

Turner said, “Dementia. I can’t remember what my disease is.”

Too often patients don’t know what they got, some doctors know little about it.

I seek to raise awareness of this disease. I have — with generous help from the community — conducted two basketball tournament fund-raisers for Lewy body research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. I have written quite a bit about it for my blog and AL.com. Go to my website and click on the Lewy Dementia button for some of my writing.

Come join me Mr. Turner.

Robin Williams had Lewy body dementia, and it was undiagnosed. He thought he was  going crazy. The suicide I believe could have been prevented. The knowledge itself would have helped reduce anxiety. And with treatment targeted to Lewy body, not Alzheimer’s, not Parkinson’s, he might have had some good time left.

In the interview aired today, Turner said something that puts a point on what has become a mission of mine: Raise awareness for Lewy body. I write this right now on my laptop slowly in the hunt-and-peck mode because my right hand can’t type. Lewy body can present with Parkinsonian symptoms on top of the cognition issues.

Lewy body disease (LBD) is a umbrella term which covers Lewy body dementia, which I have. It’s been two years since I was diagnosed. I guess you would say I am in early stages and still highly functional.

But Lewy isn’t going anywhere.

Lewy body dementia will kill you on average 5 to 8 years after diagnosis. There are several sources for this including Mayo Clinic (other sources say  4 to 7 years or 5 to 7 years.)

Lewy body disease presents symptoms that include impaired cognition, and the kind of  tremors associated with Parkinson’s.

Lewy body dementia has changed my world.

MikeMadness T-shirts.jpgTrisha Powell Crain

You have a choice to get interested in what may kill you prematurely and do what I’m doing: Spreading the word. I’m a columnist for an AL.com and write about Lewy body dementia frequently here and on my music blog:  www.myvinylcountdown.com

I have never heard anyone describe Lewy body as being milder than Alzheimer’s. They are two different things and affect everybody differently. But Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s patients have less of a reduction in lifespan than Lewy body dementia patients.

Mayo Clinic says this:” Lewy body dementia, also known as dementia with Lewy bodies, is the second most common type of progressive dementia after Alzheimer’s disease dementia. Protein deposits, called Lewy bodies, develop in nerve cells in the brain regions involved in thinking, memory and movement (motor control).”

Let’s find a cure.

Reach me at moliver@al.com and see my blog at www.myvinylcountdown.com

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They don’t seem to forget Alzheimer’s; Why don’ they remember Lewy body dementia?

This is one of an occasional series of opinion columns on Lewy body disease, other dementias, and end of life issues written by a writer who happens to have the brain degenerative disease. A previous version of this appeared on AL.com.

As I’ve pointed out before, we live in a world where Lewy body disease is virtually unknown. That’s not good for the more than a million folks that have the second leading cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s.

That’s not good for the uncounted others who have it but don’t know they have it, either because the doctor didn’t make the diagnosis, missed the diagnosis, or the individual is passing off early stages of the disease as something else.

“It is shocking how few doctors, even neurologists, recognize this condition,” said Dr. Samantha Holden, assistant professor of Neurology at the University of  Colorado School of Medicine. “Alzheimer’s gets most of the attention, even in the research community, and DLB is relegated to the category of “Related Dementias”, which is unacceptable.”

Holden is also the co-principal investigator in the Lewy Body Dementia & Neurology Center of Excellence at the university.

Like me, Holden has been scratching her head over LBD’s anonymity. Part of it, we both agree is the complicated nature of the disease itself and its wide ranging symptoms, which leads to an alphabet soup of disorder names.

Holden says this chart is a great way to start understanding.

As you can see by the chart the broad category is Lewy body disease. That’s describing a brain disorder that creates the proteins believed to be the culprit of damage through brain cell loss. That includes Parkinson’s and Lewy body dementia. (Guess which one people have actually heard of.)

Both Parkinson’s and Lewy body, as you  can see, are sisters under Lewy body disease.

Alzheimer’s is not on this particular chart because it is not a Lewy body brain malfunction. With Lewy body disease, the proliferation of a protein, which when clumped together are called Lewy bodies. They are named after their founder, Dr. Friederich Lewy, a German neurologist.

And please understand I am not an expert in the science by any means.

What’s in a Name

So to recap and offer questions I have for further exploring.

Lewy Body Dementia (LBD) is an umbrella term taking in both Parkinson’s Disease with Dementia (PDD) and Dementia with Lewy Body (LDB). Are the proteins the killer here or are  they just what have been left at the crime scene and another unperceived entity is the triggerman?

Alzeimer’s does not fall under that LBD spectrum because it is a different type of malfunction in the brain. However, sometimes people get both — (Really? As if we don’t have enough to worry about.) What is the relationship between Alzheimer’s and Lewy body? If any?

I know this is confusing. But in many cases whether you have LBD or whether it’s PDD, eventually you will see the same (bad symptoms),  physical impairment and cognitive impairment. Although some diagnosed Parkinson’s may never get dementia, correct?

That’s because every Lewy is his own person and afflicts different folks in different ways. Which leaves wide paths for optimism that the symptoms may be slow and mild. That’s the hope for those with the disease but, of course, those hopes can also be dashed.

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Firesign Theatre, First Family 466, 465, 464

ALBUMS:  Firesign Theater: ‘Don’t Crush that Dwarf, Hand me the Pliers” (1970);  Eat Or Be Eaten (1985);  and, The First Family Vaughn Meader. (1962)

This is comedy which is hard to keep fresh once infused in beloved vinyl.

Firesign Theatre was a brilliant  comedy troupe from another time. America’s Monty Python, sort of.

They did live shows, radio and lots of records.

The two FT albums I have are considered among their best, ‘Dwarf’ is often cited as groundbreaking in 1970 when it came out. In 2005, Dwarf was added to the National Recording Registry, a list of sound recordings that “are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the U.S.’ Dwarf was also called by Rolling Stone Record guide as the best comedy album of all time.

I’m throwing in  a non-Firesign record,  Vaughn Meader’s First Family, a successful parody of the JFK White House.  It is definitely dated coming from 1962.  But you wouldn’t believe how popular this was  at one time.

Dwarf and Eaten use similar techniques even though 15  years separates them. Firesign use what I’ll call the ‘drop-in’ method of listener interaction. The listener is dropped in to the middle of something, anything,. It could be a fake advertisement, or the middle of a dialogue between friends.

But while it sounds random,  there’s a narrative thread running through, at least In Dwarf.  It’s a story about George Tirebiter,  a former child actor who lays around and watches late night TV. The narrative frequently is interrupted when Tirebiter changes channels.

Lots of a great work on the recording using voices on radios, TV, or telephones, ambient sounds galore and that effect where it sounds like someone is in another room. And walks by  in stereo.

WIth Firesign, the aural presentation is an art; the records demand audience attention to stay on their toes as funny bits just  parachute in without warning.

As I said earlier, humor on vinyl is a difficult medium to stand the test of time.  I’m guessing there’s not a lot of market out there for old comedy albums, unless deemed a classic.

But in some way I guess you could say  that about music.  There are timeless songs but there are also a  lot of songs that don’t date well:  I don’t think we’ll have to wait until 2525 to see if Zager & Evans had a point. And that was their best song!

One piece on the’ Eat or be Eaten’ album is an advertisement to see Bob Dylan live at the Met where he’ll be singing opera in Bavarian and German languages.

“It’s just like the 60s,’ the advertisement spokesman says. “No one can understand a word he’s saying. And that’s when Dylan’s at his best.”

Vaughn Meader’s White House with JFK was apparently  all the rage back in the early 1960s. It’s amusing in spots such as when all the world leaders gather together and give their sandwich orders.

But there’s a lot of jokes and laughing about stuff that in 2018 sounds sounds like an inside joke.

According to the Wikipedia page, the album,  issued by Cadence was honored as “the largest and fast selling record in the history of the record industry’ selling at  more than a million copies per week for the first six  weeks.

Can that be true?