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How to fight a fatal brain disease with vinyl records (slight return)

I just finished my vinyl countdown. And I’m alive.

Do those two things correlate?

Not obviously, but probably.

Five years ago, after receiving the diagnosis of Lewy body dementia, an incurable degenerative disease that has similar traits to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, I vowed to review my 678 vinyl records in a blog before I died.

With my post today of ‘Tres Hombres’ by ZZ Top, I have fulfilled my vow. The blog is www.myvinylcountdown.com. This blog version (slight return) is slightly different than the AL.com version.

Three ways the blog helped me slow my progression:

1. Hand-eye coordination. Finger acuity. Using my fingers everyday to type helps my memory, finding the right keys and spelling the words right.

2. Finding music. Intellectual acuity. Hearing songs you had forgotten about or rarely played. Busting out albums still in the shrink wrap. Again a memory challenge as the past comes rushing in. Finding some hidden gems worth $$$. Listen to Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk.

3. Organizational acuity. Do you want to organize by alphabet, or genre? Abba to Zappa, or bluegrass to Northern soul?

Thinking back to the day I started this blog (Sept., 16, 2017), I can say I really never thought I’d make it. I wondered about starting an office pool instead — but that would be just wrong.

This is more than an assessment and accounting of my records. This is about using blogging or any hobby as mental exercise and posting publicly to bring awareness to this little known, but not rare, disease.

At the time I made this pledge I didn’t know how long I had before dying — and still don’t.

The numbers on average lifespan after diagnosis are different depending on which source is used, but I was working off of 4 to 8 years. The Lewy Body Dementia Association rightfully points out that every person’s experience is different and some die 2 years after diagnosis and others keep on keeping on for 2 decades.

So I’m at 4 years three months with the blog and about 5 years with my diagnosis. I’m thankful for each new day.

I’ve been through some tough times when hallucinations consumed me. There was a period of time, weeks, months in 2020 when I couldn’t post anything, and I didn’t think I would crawl out of it.

It seemed as if I was living in another dimension or universe.

In my hallucinations, my house was not my house. Depending on the day, it was a counseling center or physical therapy operation where amputees would work out. Then at night it would turn into a research facility where I was the subject of their studies in a room with glass walls for observation and sometimes it was a nightclub.

I was talking to invisible people telepathically. (Wow! I never in a million years thought I’d write that sentence.)

I got to know the other people, or beings, and would engage them in these telepathic conversations. One time I asked Tom, — my son-in-law, — who is British but not an alien, I can assure you — to clear out what I thought was a party going on in the basement.

I went down and began talking to a being whom I could see right through. I asked who he was, where he was from and who all the others are. (It was kind of like the bar scene in ‘Star Wars).”

He said they, like him, were travelers made up of organized energy from the universe; he said something about radio waves and virtual reality. It made total sense when he told me. Now I can’t remember what seemed so real, and what I do remember, I don’t understand. But the general concept was that through virtual reality machines, people could leave their body at home and travel the universe. (Wasn’t this the plot of the Matrix?)

I wandered around the basement-turned-juke-joint full of floating apparitions. An incessant din of bells and bellows came from the elaborate video arcade games. The furniture was alive. I left the basement and came back after a while and it was cleared out. I thanked my puzzled looking son-in-law for shutting it down.

That’s just a few of the hallucinations that made up my days, full immersion hallucinations I call them. I’d also get less complex hallucinations such as a mouse running across the floor, or seeing people’s faces in tree trunks. Once I saw what I thought were people breaking into my car, I ran out, nothing there. But then I looked up and saw them laughing from across the street. It was a hallucination.

I started to learn, or think separately when hallucinating, which helped me control them in keeping my sanity, I would tell Red John, my nemesis in much of this, that he is nothing, that he was not real. It would drive him crazy.

On the medical side of things I started using a new type of medication called pimavancerin, or its commercial name NuPlazid. For me, it was nothing short of a miracle drug.

But that’s only one part of slowing down these rogue proteins that are attacking my brain.

Once the hallucinations stopped I could better figure this out, continue to exercise and eat sesame seeds (supposedly good for brain health.)

I give a big part of my success at keeping the demons at bay with the blog. I can’t tell you how many times I have had to fight myself just typing these words. The Parkinsonian symptoms of the disease make it feel like there are hidden force fields. Getting out of bed being suddenly stuck in the force field and can’t move until I bring my mind back around so its focusing on the task.

Lewy body dementia, like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s with Dementia, involves the destruction of brain cells by a naturally occurring protein. The protein, called, alpha-synuclein, gets into places of the brain it doesn’t belong, leaving trails of dying brain cells.

But you have, by some accounts 100 billion brain cells, and many aren’t being used, brain researchers say. I’m working by just thinking about it. I imagine turning those brain cells into replacements or helpers to the ones I have left. Researchers suspect that’s what happened in the renowned Nun’s Study where they found extensive evidence of Alzheimer’s disease in several nuns, including Sister Mary, who showed no visible symptoms while alive. But Sister Mary’s brain was marked by lesions, a sign of Alzheimer’s severe enough that it should have affected her cognition. Yet Sister Mary continued her extensive reading, daily walks, knitting. She lived to be 100.

That’s what I want to do. (No not become a nun, but live to 100).

The symptoms of these diseases can be similar, making diagnosis more difficult. But in general, if your first and early symptoms include tremors, foot shuffling but no significant cognitive decline, you likely would receive a Parkinson’s diagnosis; if you are having hallucinations, night terrors, and significant memory loss you would likely get a Lewy body diagnosis. Another protein altogether is involved with Alzheimer’s disease, which also destroys the brain. I was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s before I got a Lewy body diagnosis.

What’s Next?

I’m going to keep the blog up indefinitely. I have a lot more to write about. I’m going to stay active raising awareness for Lewy, and maybe we’ll get past this COVID thing so we can continue our Mike Madness basketball tournament, which raised more than $30,000 in its three-year tenure before COVID shut it down. And my music? What to do with all these albums. I’m still working on that. Oh yes, and before I go I am reminded of a Blood Sweat and Tears song:

When I die and when I’m gone/ there’ll be one child born in this world to carry on, to carry on

I just found out, I’ll be a first-time grandfather in May.

My daughter, Hannah, and her husband, Tom, are expecting a baby boy.

How’s that for a reason to keep on keeping on.

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King Sunny Ade to ZZ Top

You are invited to peruse my 678 reviews plus about 100 other posts on a variety of topics. The countdown posts are somewhat arranged alphabetically from African musician, King Sunny Ade, to ZZ Top. The collection, heavy on the pre-CDs-era of the 60s, 70s, and late 80s covers a range of musicians and bands and genres from Led Zeppelin to Carole King, from George Strait to R.E.M. from Sting to the Scorpions.

Also there’s a button on my home page that reads: ‘His and Hurricanes.’ It’s my playful parody of what the world may be like in the year 2525 (if man is still alive, if woman can survive). I worked on it for about a year, dashing off silliness when I had time, until I stopped to figure out an ending. I haven’t resumed it yet so this may also be something to finish now that I’m done with the big ticket item.

Lastly, I’d like to give credit to AL.com data reporter Ramsey Archibald for the graphic that is my home page. He used albums from my collection to make that colorful collage of record covers.

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The Zombies — 4

ALBUM: Odessey & Oracle (1968, RE: 2017)

MVC Rating: 5.0/$$$$$

Although Frank Zappa, whom I reviewed in my previous post, skewered the psychedelic scene, he might find the Zombies a little more difficult to do that to than others in this genre.

Why? Because the Zombies were good, and ‘Odessey and Oracle’ is an album that transcended the psych genre with its whimsical, melodic songs and cohesion.

The songs are perfectly arranged. The only glitch in the works is the album’s name spells “Odyssey” wrong. (Maybe they meant to do that but it sure kept my spell-checker busy.)

The most familiar and probably the best song here is ‘Time of the Season’ with it’s memorable refrain:

What’s you name? Who’s your daddy?

But there’s not a bad song in the bunch. It is a little on the short side but that’s better than too long– as in Iron Butterfly’s monotonous In a Gadda Da Vida, to name a random psych album from that era. The title song was 17 minutes –a whole album side, whereas 17 minutes of Odessey will get you six songs per side.

Notable songs on here include ‘Changes,’ ‘This Will be our Year,’ and, my personal favorite ‘Hung up on a Dream.’

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Zager & Evans– 10

ALBUM: Zager & Evans (1970)

MVC Rating: 1.5/$$$

‘In the Year 2525’ was big on the radio in 1969. The sweeping end of the world epic sounded like nothing else.

In the year 2525, if man is still alive, if woman can survive, they may find …

Turn it up, we are all going to die.

While some liked to make fun of the song, it was/is wildly popular. Some even called it prophetic. So what happened to Zager & Evans? One-hit wonders. I was curious, especially after finding and buying their follow-up album in a thrift shop. It had their follow-up single to 2525, a little ditty called ‘Mr. Turnkey.’

Therein lies a clue as to why they never burned up the charts again. The song was about a rapist who nails his hand to the wall in jail. As blogger Ira Brooker, tongue in cheek, noted:

Sadly, pop audiences inexplicably failed to embrace rape and self-mutilation and Zager and Evans quickly faded into obscurity.

But their hit, 2525, first recorded on a small regional label in Nebraska lives on.

In the year 7510, if God’s a-coming, he ought to make it by then, maybe he’ll look around himself and say ‘Guess it’s time for the judgment day.

Oh oh whoa oh.

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Robin Williams — 11

ALBUM: ‘Reality. What a concept’

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

I’d purposely passed over this and my other comedy records thinking I would keep it strictly to music. However, given that it’s Robin Williams who died by suicide after living with undiagnosed Lewy body dementia, it seemed like he belonged on this list. And I have a Robin Williams’ comedy album — I believe his first one.

I mean after all, it is why I am doing this: to raise awareness of this relatively common but little known brain disease. Robin’s case has shined a light but much more research is needed. And this album puts his super sharp mind on display.

Little did I know that 40 years after buying this album, I would meet his widow, Susan Schneider Williams, at a summit on Lewy body dementia in Las Vegas. I told her it the not knowing what is wrong with you that is the hardest part.

And even when we know what it is, we’re not sure what is happening because the disease can leave thoughts muddled..

The ‘reality’ album came out in 1978, the year I graduated from high school in Athens, Ga. I’m not sure what prompted me to buy it, other than he was an up-and-coming comedian with hilarious appearances on Johnny Carson and, later, David Letterman.

I thought this album was funny but not really as funny as Steve Martin’s comedy record, ‘Let’s Get Small,’ one I also had. There is one routine on the Williams’ album that shows off Williams’ imagination and rapid fire brain. It’s called ‘Come inside My Mind’ and it is classic Robin Williams, letting you peak inside his head as his jokes fail doing a stand-up comedy routine. Mayday mayday. His brain shouts at him.

Here is a nice list by Rahul Bansal of 41 inspirational quotes from Robin. See if you don’t agree that some are eerily prophetic.

OK back to the Y’s and Z’s as we finish this on out.

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The Youngbloods — 12

ALBUM: The Best of the Youngbloods (1967)

MVC Rating: 3.5

‘Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another right now.’

That lyric is probably one of the most remembered lines in rock music. Quick, who sang it?

Well, you’ve already got the answer in the headline. The Youngbloods weren’t the first to publish; their version was the most popular. But even that requires explanation. The Kingston Trio recorded a version in 1964. The Youngbloods did their version in 1967 but only went to No. 62 on the Hot 100 charts.

Meanwhile, the song was used in a commercial and re-entered the Hot 100 in 1969, climbing all the way to No. 5.

Singer Chet Powers wrote the song, but he is probably best known for his work using the pseudonym Dino Valenti in Quicksilver Messenger Service. He wrote and sang two of Quicksilver’s biggest hits ‘Fresh Air’ and ‘What’s About Me.’

‘Get Together’ has been covered many times. Nirvana used the famous line in their sarcastic intro to ‘Territorial Pissings.”

According to Songfacts.com:

“Get Together” stayed in the zeitgeist, with covers by Linda Ronstadt, The Sunshine Company, and The Staple Singers in 1968, but it didn’t break through as a hit until 1969, when The National Conference of Christians and Jews distributed it to radio and TV stations to support Brotherhood Week.”

For a band now considered one-hit wonders, the Youngbloods were good beyond their hit; The ‘Best of’ includes the hit along with popular album cuts and not-so-successful singles. Youngbloods lead singer Jesse Colin Young went on to have a moderately successful music career.

NOTE: An earlier version of this post had Chet Powers in the band. He wrote the song, but was not in the Youngbloods. He played with Quicksilver Messenger Service under the name Dino Valenti.

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Neil Young — 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13

ALBUMS: Hawks and Doves (1980); Zuma (1975); Decade (1976); After the Gold Rush (1970); Everybody’s Rockin’ (1983); Old Ways (1983): American Stars and Bars. (1977)

MVC Rating: Hawks 3.5; Zuma 4.5; After the Gold Rush 5.0; Everybody’s 3.0; Old Ways 3.5; Decade 5.0; American 4.0.

I thank Neil Young for one of the best concerts I have ever seen. It was the 2004 fund-raising concert for the Bridge School for student with disabilities in California Young has two sons with cerebral palsy.

The annual concert, which started in 1986 by Neil and his wife Pegi, and ended in 2016 when Young announced in 2016 he would not host any more concerts. He cited ‘personal reasons,’ the Huffington Post reported.’

Young split with his wife Pegi in 2014 after 36 years of marriage. She was a driving force in the creation of the fund-raising event at Shorline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, located south of San Francisco not far from Neil and Pegi’s ranch.

Anyway, my daughter Emily and I drove through the city of San Francisco and arrived to a place I can only say is California-pretty, rolling green hills and mountains on the horizon.

Sitting in the ‘cheap’ seats — the ground — behind the built-in seating, we enjoyed wonderful acoustics in the lightly drizzling weather. What a line-up with Young, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ben Harper, Sonic Youth, Eddie Vedder, Tegan and Sara, Tony Bennett, Los Lonely Boys, and the headliner Paul McCartney. Paul ended the evening with a remarkably powerful ‘Hey Jude.’

I tell you all this because it was the first thing I thought of when I realized I was in the Y’s and my Neil Young collection would be enough to nearly take me home.

I started listening to Neil Young early in my youth, starting with the3- record set, Decade. It was about everything you’d want from Young’s 1970s work. I consumed Decade and it led me to other Young works like ‘After the Gold Rush,’ Harvest and Harvest Moon (which I apparently don’t have any more).’ Zuma was an underrated classic for me.

When I was still in California, Young put out an anti-war album ‘Living with War’ on which he blistered politicians, while giving voice to the families of soldiers.

If you are just starting out on Neil Young, Decade is the way to go. You might go to Rust Never Sleeps for a later incarnation.

Of course, Neil Young will forever be remembered by Alabamians as the one who wrote ‘Southern Man,’ (on After the Gold Rush) in which he skewers ‘southern man’ for slavery and racial abuses. Lynyrd Skynyrd famously replied in Sweet Home Alabama: I hope Neil Young will remember, Southern man don’t need you around, any how.

Neil, when asked by a reporter about the popular Skynyrd song, replied. ‘Sounds like they mean It.’

Young is a chameleon. I have one album called ‘Everybody’s Rockin’ which features Neil in a pink suit on the cover. The songs were retro schtick do-wop ballads with an echo on vocals to enhance Young’s thin, but emotive voice. Folk, country, rock, soul, psychedelia, doo-wop were all in Mr. Young’s bag of tricks.

I’m not sure if the concert shown in video below is the same one I took my daughter to where Paul McCartney was the headliner — but it very well could be that 2004 concert.

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The Young Rascals — 20

ALBUM: Groovin’

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$

The third album by the American band was and is a winner, from its crazy cartoon cover to the poppy bluesy sound inside.

Now you may (or may not) remember I did a Rascals post; the Rascals was a later incarnation of the band. This is the Youngsters third album and hit No. 5 on the charts back in 1967,

The title song, ‘Groovin’ went to No. 1 in 1967 and has been an enduring classic. ‘Groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon,’ croons lead singer Felix Cavaliere. (Or is that ‘sunny afternoon? It could have been a sunny Sunday afternoon. As they would be more apt to be ‘groovin’ on a sunny day rather than one with rain. So the correct answer is Sunday afternoon, I replayed it and looked it up. We’ll assume it wasn’t raining since that might lead to a totally different song like ‘Who’ll Stop the Rain.’

Forgive me, I just like to think these things out!)

Eight of the 11 songs were released as singles from this album, according to Wikipedia. They would drop the ‘Young’ from their name as they began to get bigger or older or both.

Here’s my previous post of those just plain Rascals.

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Yardbirds — 21

ALBUM: Favorites (1977 comp.)

MVC Rating: 4.5

Here is the group that has led to all those noisy guitar licks in heavy metal and hard rock.

It was early 1960s and a handful of white British kids became immersed in American blues, singers and guitar pickers. They learned the songs, for which they applied amplification and voila: The amplified blues chords have been heard in songs from Black Sabbath to Deep Purple to Blue Oyster Cult (hey, I could have used Green Day.)

The Yardbirds is a group that at separate times had Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. Actually there was a short time when Beck and Page were in the group together, according to the liner notes written by Ira Robbins the editor of Trouser Press magazine.

Writing in 1977, when this compilation was released, Robbins said: ‘It only takes a little applied listening to current R-n-R to discern how much of today’s rock traces back to things the Yardbirds did almost a decade ago.‘

Now that was 1977 and this album is culled from songs of the 1960s. Listening to it you can almost make that same case. The blues riffs ring out on much less sophisticated equipment, perhaps, but the song remains the same (if I may pull from a Led Zeppelin song with Jimmy Page on guitar.)

Page, Beck and Clapton are revered like few others and on many lists of top guitarists. I guess I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the original Yardbirds: Keith Relf, lead vocalist and harmonica; Jim McCarty, drums; Paul Samwell Smith, bass; Chris Dreja, rhythm guitar; and Top Topham, lead guitar. Topham’s departure after six months made way for Clapton.

Somewhat ironically, Clapton left the band about a year later saying they were going too commercial for his purist sensibilities. Evidence was the song ‘For Your Love,’ Clapton said.

Well, that’s one of my favorite Yardbird songs (not on this album for some reason) and it was a worldwide hit lifting the band from obscurity.

I say it’s ironic because Clapton starting in the late 1970s has put out more than his fair share of commercial shlock. Some of it was OK shlock but shlock nevertheless. (Shlock is a nicer word than dreck, I believe).

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Yes — 23

ALBUM: Close to the Edge (1972)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

I’ve never been much of a Yes-man but I do appreciate their chops. I have what is considered by many fans their best (of more than 20 albums).

I have to say, I like its predecessor ‘Fragile’ better mainly on the strength of the song ‘Roundabout.’ But I can see how fans like Close to the Edge with its powerful guitar performance by the underrated Steve Howe.

This is commercial progressive rock which — as I have mentioned before is not my cup of cognac.

I like blues-based rock and roll and some folk, country, jazz and soul. Progressive rock is a long way from the blues. It often uses classical music as its lens. Sometimes it works as in this case with Bach lurking in Rick Wakeman’s organ fills and solos. And, hey, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say: Just listen to that bass by the criminally underrated Chris Squires.

But much of the time Yes and its prog brethren — Emerson Lake and Palmer, Genesis, and King Crimson to name but a few of the bigger names — sounds to me like a mish-mash.

Here, there is superb playing, but I don’t really know what Jon Anderson is singing about. “I get up, I get down.” That lyric sums up the listening experience.

And you can’t dance to it.

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Coming to an end

I would not have guessed how the end of MyVinylCountdown would affect me. Is something supposed to happen?

I find myself slowing down, on MVC and in real life. The technical side of this thing is getting harder. When I was subsumed with hallucinations in 2020 I lost some of my know-how. Passwords, photos, videos, etc.

I used to take a photo of every album on the list and display it on my blog post, but for some reason I can’t upload photos onto the web page any more. But that’s OK; I just use links to video’s to give some extra element to each blog post.

As I inch toward the finish line –my 678 records reviewed — it gets more complicated. It’s like planning for retirement: It’s OK if you go past the target date if finances work out. But you don’t want to come up short.

With about 25 left to do, I’m trying to make sure I have enough of the good stuff.

I don’t want to be left at the end with a dozen albums that I really should have put on the list. The reverse is also true, I don’t want to come up 5 short and then fill the holes with those I had rejected for not meeting the criteria. The criteria being, that albums must have been obtained before the countdown started. (I have made some editorial decisions to allow some of these ‘unqualified’ albums on the list, however.) In a few cases I have made errors of omission by forgetting that the blog post contained two or more albums and incorrectly omitting the countdown number. See Led Zeppelin review. For now I’m just going to leave as is because there’s too much of a ripple effect by adding that second number. Heck, maybe I should end it with Mr. Zeppelin (insert smiley face Emoji here).