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Buddy Holly and the Crickets — 413

ALBUMS: Buddy Holly Lives  — 20 Golden Greats (1978 compilation)

MVC Rating: 5.0/$$$$$

I used this formula in a previous review and it is simplistic. Great artists are more than the sum total of who they listened to. But my lttle equation is: Chuck Berry + Buddy Holly = Beatles. It’s not an equation of who is best, it’s an equation of influences.

I tried to mess around with the Rolling Stones which might be Chuck Berry + Howlin’ Wolf = Stones? Didn’t work for me really. The Beatles clearly were taking in everything Holly was doing. “True Love Ways,” sounds like the Fab Four.

Listen to  ‘Rave On‘ with your eyes closed and you can practically see the Beatles up on stage singing that song.  Same with ‘Words of Love.’

The Beatles named themselves in homage to the Crickets.

Of course most are familiar with the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens. It was the Day the Music Died as proclaimed by  one of rock’s great songs, ‘American Pie.’

You can get a modern version of Holly in Marshall Crenshaw — who seemed to channel Holly on some very good records in the 1980s. But had Holly lived, he would have probably been pioneering  in a way beyond Crenshaw — like the Beatles were. Though intriguing, we’ll obviously never know what kind of music Holly would have brought us.

And with all due respect to Don McLean, musicians die, but the music, when it’s really really good, lives on.

Rave on, Buddy Holly.

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Dunking quest pushes the limits of 59-year-old’s body and soul (blog version)

When I was about 9 living in the Athens, Ga., I begged my mother to let me mow the lawn. Previous requests had been denied on account of “you’ll cut your leg off.”

That was the standard Mom line, kind of the go-to parallel of “You’ll put your eye out,” as immortalized in the boy’s pursuit of a BB-gun in the movie :A Christmas Story.”

Besides mowing, I also had been pushing for a BB gun.

I didn’t get one of those until about age 12. (A Daisy single pump).

But on the lawn mowing thing, she caved in earlier. Looking back, I’m sure Dad, who had some skin in the game, as the primary lawn mower helped come up with the idea to get the aptly named ‘push mower.’ That is a lawnmower with no gasoline, no engine and no motor-driven whirling blades to cut my leg off.

I didn’t know the nuances of lawnmowers; I was just happy to finally get to mow the lawn. So, I started one bright, hot and humid Saturday and golly it sure was hard to push. But I kept pushing, learning from some instruction to go up and down the lawn in rows leaving no grass in between. I hadn’t figured out the square spiral method of mowing yet where you made a big square of cut grass all around the edge of the lawn and descended with a spiral square until you had a satisfying tiny block of grass left.

No, on my first day, I realized this was no easy job. After about 20 or 30 minutes I had mowed two rows, came inside and declared I would finish later. Sunday came and I went at it, maybe knocking out three rows before quitting. I was hitting a rhythm. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, knocking off a couple or three rows each day in about 30 minutes of sweltering work. I remember skipping my mowing workout on Friday to play street ball with friends.

But on Saturday I finally finished. I had pushed that powerless grass cutter over every inch of the lawn in one week’s time.

Now for my big life lesson.

I invited my Mom out to see my handiwork. She said she was proud of me. And she said: “It’s time to start mowing again.”

“When?” I asked, fighting tears.

“Now,’ said Mom. “See how it has grown back on this side of the lawn?”

That is when I learned that life is dukkha __ one of the four Noble Truths in Buddhism is that much of life is suffering. My wife, Catherine, taught me the word decades later, learning it from her theological studies. But I learned the concept that hot day, leaning up against a silent, immobile push mower.

I’d like to say I kicked that mower and began stomping it to pieces. That’s what I was thinking anywa­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­y. But then I know if I did that my Mom would say something.

“Careful, you’ll cut your leg off.”

So, here I am 50 years later. I have a degenerative brain disease and I’ve made a vow to fulfill a bucket list item of dunking a basketball on a regulation 10-foot goal. I’ve never dunked in my life.

I started in October and I’ve promised updates on my quest to dunk by mid-July.

But like mowing the lawn with that push mower, training can be exhausting, hot, and discouraging when you see no end in sight. It can be body breaking and soul shaking.

As Little Feat sang: “It’s easy to slip.:

And I did.

But don’t bet against me just yet. After a multi-week layoff, I was back on the basketball court Wednesday night. The game was brutal on me. I won’t be dunking anytime soon.

In the meantime, on Nov. 9, I turned 59. Some days I feel every bit of my age and more.

Those who have been following my story know that I have Lewy body dementia, a form of dementia that is the second leading cause after Alzheimer’s.

To those following along – and bless you by the way – I have a blog where I am counting down my vinyl record collection numbering 678. It can be found at www.myvinylcountdown.com. I’m also an AL.com columnist and post a column using pieces of MVC (My Vinyl Countdown). My challenge, I see now, goes beyond exercising my body.

I’m operating under the notion that my life will be shortened. The average lifespan after diagnosis is 5-8 years or 4-7 years, depending on the source. I was diagnosed at age 56; I am now 59. But averages are averages and I hope to be a long living outlier – as long as my quality of life remains reasonably bearable.

I will tell you this: I feel way better than I feel two years ago. I attribute that to medications, early diagnosis, exercise, and music.

Stay with me, as Rod Stewart used to sing. Maybe just maybe you’ll see me defy not just gravity but health age and common sense.

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John Hiatt — 422 421, 420, 419, 418, 417,

ALBUMS: Bring the Family (1987); Warming Up to the Ice Age (1985); Riding with the King (1983); All of a Sudden (1982); Two-bit Monster (1980); Slug Line (1979).

MVC Ratings: Family 4.5/$$$$; Warming 4.0/$$$ Riding 4.5/$$$; Sudden 4.0/$$$$; Monster 3.5/$$$; Slug 4.0/$$$

John Hiatt with his voice evoking the best and, sometimes,  worst elements of Dylan and Elvis (Costello?) is a major example of when songcraft rules. And in Hiatt’s case it does.

And then some.

John Hiatt

I hopped on for the ride with  a cut-out, ‘Riding with the King,’ a talking boast of a song and album.  On the  cover Hiatt  is sitting  on a big bike (motorcycle).

“You May Already Be a Winner’ and ‘She Loves the Jerk’  are classic tracks here but the whole album is shot through with humor, mostly sardonic. Here’s “Winner’ about a poor sap who thinks he’s won a big contest.

I know you’re tired of the same old dress
I know the car’s been repossessed
I know this house is just a shack
But there’s this love we cant hold back

Would you like a beer with your TV dinner?
Oh, my darling, you may already be a winner

As you can see, I have six of Hiatt’s albums. That’s a lot for me to have of one artist.

As I’ve explained before, I am not a completist in my record collecting ventures, was always looking for new music.  I do have on CD, ‘Slow Turning,’ which may be Hiatt’s best work. It came out in 1988 about the time CD’s were available to the masses. I have a lot of records up to about 1987 or 88,  when CDs became the main vehicle. It was the Day the Music Died. Not really, I embraced digital formats and have only recently become enamored (my wife would say absorbed) with vinyl, probably because I had boxes filled with 678 records that I  had put up for decades before my rekindled interest.

.In Hiatt’s discography, the 1987   ‘Bring the  Family’ is still vinyl but one year later we have ‘Slow Turning.’

I think Hiatt is one of the top artists to come out of the 1980s — a decade that gets picked on a lot for rock music. But here’s lyrics from a rocker on the aforementioned ‘Bring the Family.’

Sure I like country music
I like mandolins
But right now I need a telecaster
Through a vibro-lux turned up to ten

[Chorus:]
Lets go to Memphis in the meantime baby
Memphis in the meantime girl

A little postscript: I never got to see him live. Catherine did though. She was offered tickets to a show north of Orlando in early 1990s. I had to stay home on this last minute deal because of kids, girls night out it was. Catherine said he was great live.

There was a small piece of drama that night. Seems Hiatt  had a stalker, a woman if my memory serves me was arrested for stalking Hiatt. Sounds like a John Hiatt song..

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Eddie Hinton — 423

ALBUM: Very Extremely Dangerous (1978)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$

My memory of Eddie Hinton is a sad one.  He was playing at the Nick in Birmingham, or was it the Wooden Nickel still in 1985?

The small Birmingham mainstay was sparsely crowded. The college kids and 20-somethings didn’t have a clue who Hinton was. A Swamper. A blues singer who sounded a little like Otis Redding or Wilson Pickett. A man with a fan club in Sweden but little recognition in  his own state.

Near the end, he was picking up a few extra dollars mowing lawns.

My good friend, writer Tom Gordon, did an excellent piece for the Birmingham News dated April 4, 1985. The story was called ‘Rocker on the rebound.’  I wish I could link to it but can’t find it online. I  have a coffee stained   paper copy of the story that I keep  in my Eddie Hinton album, ‘Very Extremely Dangerous.”

On this night in 1985, Hinton was attempting to make a comeback.  I was there. And he was very, extremely drunk.  Long before Janet Jackson had a wardrobe malfunction, Hinton had one on stage that night involving the fly on his pants.

Hinton’s album ‘Very Extremely Dangerous’

He wasn’t well, and the power of addiction was on vivid display. He died in 1995 at the age of 51.  I do have the album. If you listen to a couple of cuts (on video below) you will understand why I call  him one of the best blues singers most have not heard.

Gordon in his 1985 piece describes observing Hinton singing in a Decatur recording studio. Gordon writes:

Later, after an hour or more of recording, his face shiny with a thin film of sweat, Hinton seems almost sheepishly shy when someone compliments his singing.

“I try to put all my being into it,” Hinton says.

Writer Bob Mehr in the Chicago Reader wrote about how people were often shocked when learning he was white:

British critic Barney Hoskyns, writing in Soul Survivor magazine in 1987, called Hinton “simply the blackest white voice ever committed to vinyl.”

In fact, Hinton’s likeness was famously and intentionally left off the packaging for his debut LP, 1978’s Very Extremely Dangerous. Hoskyns was backstage after a mid-80s Bruce Springsteen concert, where a few members of the E Street Band were singing along to the record, and recalls their reaction when he told them Hinton was white: “They were as dumbfounded as I was.”

Hinton’s voice draws the  attention, but it is his songwriting and  guitar work that frequently earned him a paycheck. Elvis Presley’s “Merry Christmas Baby’ — that’s Hinton on guitar. He played guitar on albums by Boz Scaggs, the Staple Singers, and Percy Sledge. He has had his songs recorded by Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Cher and Greg Allman.

So he achieved some success. But it was his voice that truly set him apart. He just couldn’t bust through to the stardom his talent deserved.

Listen to his rendition of ‘Shout Bamalama’ and hear the man’s soul.

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10 tips to remember better (blog version)

What were we talking about again?

I say that sometimes. As someone who has dementia, I am quickly learning what it’s like to forget.

Now where was I?

Oh yes, what we were talking about.  Asking that question is 9 times out of 10 helpful to jog the memory and get the conversation renewed in my experience.

I have Lewy body dementia, the second leading cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s. The disease presents with both memory and other cognitive problems as well as physical complications like tremors.

As people live longer, the number of people with diagnosed dementia is growing. Even if it’s not diagnosed dementia, forgetfulness increases as we age.

Here’s my Top 10 tips to remember better.

  1. Inventory. Before I go to work I take an inventory with my wife and caregiver Catherine. Cell phones? Check. Wallet? Check. Backpack with computer and accessories? Check. Shoes match? Check.
  2. Exercise. Get healthy. Exercise like you never have before. You’ll feel better, look better, and it may help you live longer. Cut back or quit alcohol and sweets and bad carbs in general.
  3. Play back.  Re-trace your steps literally and mentally. For example, if you find yourself in a room and are unsure why you  went there, go back in your mind and retrace your thought process. You can do that while going back to the room you started and see if that jogs your memory.
  4. Push back. Don’t be satisfied with your brain’s feeble attempt to block your memory. In my case, there are clumps of proteins called Lewy bodies after the doctor who discovered them, that are not supposed to be there. I know this sounds strange, but think about your brain. Ask it to improve. Ask your brain to fight back and remove the Lewy bodies. (See earlier piece ‘How to Hang on to a Memory.’)
  5. Writing I have found that I am not reading as much, especially books because I’ll often forget parts and have to go back and re-read. I’ve had  better luck with writing, which is what I do for a living, so that’s good. But just before I wrote that last sentence, I accidentally pushed ‘publish.’  And so now the story is live with only 5 of my 10 tips. The rest  are coming, hold on. <done>
  6. Visualize Recognize the face but can’t remember the name? Visualize when you met. Think back and  see if you can remember where you met and what was said.
  7. Disclose  When  you forget what you are saying or feeling embarrassed about not being able to remember, don’t hide your impairment. Tell folks that you have dementia and struggle with forgetfulness.  If you have Lewy body dementia, please share and explain as it is not well known, and often misdiagnosed. Hiding or trying to pretend your mind is still whip-smart takes too much energy.
  8. Same place. Keep your daily stuff, cell phones. wallets, purses in the same place every time. Where I  get in trouble is putting something down for a ‘second’ to attend to something else.  That ‘second’ expands to an hour or a day with lots of other thoughts and wanderings. Now you don’t remember where you put your cell phone.
  9. Keep cool.  Many years ago our daughters’ had a pre-school teacher who said “Nothing’s ever lost on God’s green earth.” It would settle a panicky kid or that kid’s parents. And it’s true in many ways. I have gone from being frantic to agitated to mellow about losing things. It will be found in time, I say. Stress, anxiety and depression are the enemies of good brain function, not a lost cell phone.
  10.  Doctor. If memory issues dominate your days or more than occasionally disrupt your day, go see a doctor. It may be serious like Alzheimer’s and Lewy body dementia or the memory loss may be normal aging. There are medications created for Alzheimer’s treatment that are used for Lewy body dementia as well.

 

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Ian Hunter — 426

ALBUM: “You’re Never Alone With a Schizophrenic” (1979)

MVC rating: 4.0

Hey, who am I to call out anyone for not being politically correct about a brain disorder.  But the album title did kind of make me wince. And wouldn’t it be ‘funnier’ if it was ‘You’re Never Alone When You Are a Schizophrenic.”

Ian Hunter, lead singer of the sturdy, straight-head Mott the Hoople, puts out his fourth solo record here (1979).

This is a good album, that I have neglected playing for years. Backed by members of the Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street Band, Hunter dishes some radio-friendly rock and roll.

Guitarist Mick Ronson is reasonably understated throughout most of the record. No major show-off solos in songs that had more of a Bowie/Jagger vibe. Ronson likely helped create that sound.

In “Just Another Night,” Hunter does an exaggerated, on-purpose, Mick Jagger vocal.  On ‘Wild East,’  Hunter enjoys hanging out in a  bad neighborhood.

And then there’s ‘Cleveland Rocks’ who many remember was a theme song for “The Drew Carey Show,’  — a rendition by The Presidents of the United States. It’s an anthemic rocker with some of those 80’s gratuitous synthesizer warbles and whoops.

‘Ships’ is the radio ballad, and it is syrup, topped off by a disturbingly bland cliche’. And so it didn’t surprise me that Barry Manilow covered this with some success. (The chorus cliche’? We’re just two ships that pass in the night.)

Live song below where Queen’s Bryan May jumps in.

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Joe Henderson — 427

By Guy MacPherson – Joe Henderson, CC BY 2.0, 4 WIKI

ALBUMS: Our Thing (1964, RE  Blue Note 1985)

MVC Rating: 5.0/$$$$$

Another Blue Note reissue. Another great jazz album.

It’s the bop era, late 50s, early 60s. The drumming is always setting pace. –doh doh doh chicka doe.

A little bass, boom boom de boom. Piano, tinkle tinkle.

Then Henderson blows the sax…. whaa whoa whaa whoa whee whah, wha whump.

There you go my note-for-note rendition of Teeter Totter. which is an up B-flat blues, says a Youtuber. It is the only major key track in the set. I’ll try to pull a video of it.

Meanwhile, however many solos Henderson takes, the light but steady and ready Tap Tap Tap Tap continues on the drum and cymbal. This song I can watch the news to. Of course turning the volume off the TV.

Gordon’s music has a way  of putting the daily disasters in their place.

Its  more fun than progressive rock.

So putting that fun aside, this is seriously good jazz from a jazz rich era. The band is tight and Henderson’s keeps it all reeled in, even when it seems it’s not.

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MVC blog update, through the looking glass

Ever wonder what are those numbers near the title of each My Vinyl Countdown  blog item.

It is there at the top next to the singer’s name. Some know that’s the number of records left to go before having done them all. So for example, Broken Homes is 624 and that means 623 were lef  to review  at the time that was being written. THe Head and the Heart was the last blog I did so it is at the top of the website, counting down in alphabetical order. The H&H is at 429.

So if you knew nothing about the numbering, you could assess which letters I have been through by picking on of the Letter categories to your right.

For example I’m on the H’s now with Jimi Hendrix, Heart, etc. In C’s we had the Carpenter’s, Eric Clapton. There are more than 200 musical posts.

My goal for my records is 678 which I counted before I started this thing about 14 months ago. That number definitely won’t stand as I have been receiving records and yes, occasionally still buying, records. But 678 has been my number I’m sticking to until the end and then maybe we’ll start down an Odds ‘n Ends list with whatever’s left over

TO find older material, the search field works really well on laptop/desktop. Not so sure on mobile.

Upcoming: I’ve decided to file a short update on my fitness training each week, the quest to dunk.

My Bucket List item.

 

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The Head and the Heart — 428

ALBUM:  ‘Let’s Be Still” (2013)

Okay, here’s another from a relative, and a relatively new record at that. The Head and the Heart is the name of this earnest alternative folk group.

There seems to be a real genre beginning with this big band easy folk-rock, atmospheric music. Kind of like a mix of Fleetwood Mac and Fairport Convention. With a hint of and updated sounding Pentangle. (John Renbourne, look him  up).

Other artists such as the Fleet Foxes, Mac DeMarco, and to a certain degree Father Misty (originally in the Fleet Foxes) and Arcade Fire appear to be sharing some of this ground.

Some fine singing and harmonizing on this. Fun to listen to with your eyes closed in an easy yoga position.

Band members, should and probably do understand the increasing competition in their space, maybe due to  higher demand for the sound.

I’m leaving out to play some more of these newer ones that I haven’t listened to as much. This particular album has a very good soft jam thing working here.

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Heart — 435

ALBUM:  Dreamboat Annie (197

MVC Rating: 4.5 $$$$

5)

I owe Heart some money.

It was April in 1980. I was an Auburn University student. I was out walking and heard music from the auditorium or arena or whatever it was called.

Concert going on. I walked closer. Closer. Up a ramp. The door was ajar. Hmmm. Took a peek inside and there appeared to be no one at this particular door. Walked in.

Now this is where it gets fuzzy in my memory. I think I saw Blackfoot as the opening act. I know I saw Heart. My memory fails as to whether this was two different incidents or one. I’m leaning toward one. Anyway, that’s why I say I  owe Heart money — for the ticket I didn’t buy. Maybe I owe Blackfoot too. I’ll pay up if either of the bands’ members contact me.

I heart heart. Or, at least, hearted heart.

I was an early consumer of this hard rocking female-fronted  band. The female Led Zeppelin. I played Dreamboat Annie their debut ceaselessly in high school. Sure there was soft pretty stuff, which I secretly sang along to. But there was real rock and roll and real guitar licks especially in Magic Man and Crazy On You. Check videos below to get sense of their rock and roll acumen.

The reason I said I ‘hearted’ Heart because by college at Auburn, I was over them. I  didn’t particularly like the overplayed Barracuda and was lukewarm to the whole Dog and Butterfly thing.

But I’ll always dig Dreamboat Annie, the album which came out in 1975, the sweet spot of my high school days.