This is a good album that didn’t get played that much — not just by me but collectively the record buying public . But it launched some careers and served as a bridge between the love of country and western music and punk rock.
Lot of groups made a stab at it with varying degrees of success — the Beat Farmers, the Long Ryders (for whom Escovido played for a while., Jason and the Scorchers, and Rubber Rodeo.
Rank and File played it a little straighter than the aforementioned groups, whose songs dripped with irony. But Rank and FIle would b a nice find in a used record store.
If you iike country, rockabilly and a pinch of punk, this is up your alley.
Rank and File had moderate success, Guitarist Alejandro Escoveda put out some excellent solo abums and burned the house down at Bottle Tree (now defunct) in Birmingham some years ago. I thought it was one of the best small venue Friday night live shows I had seen.
Standing room only in a packed room the size of a middle bedroom, Escoveda let it rip.
My writings emanate from two places usually. My blog called www.myvinylcountdown.com Most of my writings are in there but not all and also there are different versions. The other place they start out are AL.com where if you search my name and find something like this:
Click on that and you have a nice flowing river of my stories. While I’m thinking of it, if you like my content in AL.com I would appreciate it if you would throw a little money my way, actually the company’s way, but tell ’em I sent you. It’s part of a campaign to keep us going. READ HERE.
I used to say that if I was limited to one album to play at a party it would be Dr. John’s Gumbo.
Swampy cajun with creole spices, a magical brew of traditional and current dance songs that, even if you can’t understand the words — are forced to dance by the driving zydeco beat. But guess what? In my experimental ‘sell-some-records’ mission linked here, It was one of the very first bought at my booth at the Alabama Record Collector’s Association. I think I sold it for $18. The price was good for me and the buyer. But, I’ve regretted it ever since.
But I had regrets about most I sold — and that’s why this was an experiment to see how I would handle, and how much money they could make. I sold 33 records for a little over $400.
So what I didn’t foretell was that I let go of a very useful album that could be played successfully at a party over and over again as if you had no other selections.
Now, if you’re paying attention you probably realize that you are in the Rockpile post. And you guessed it, it is the new successor to Dr. John. It was a one-album only gig for a couple successful musicians Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds
The album is a frothy brew of American rockabilly, and English pop helping push and shape the new genres of New Wave and Power Pop, who both have extensive catalogs of their solo work which this blog covers (HERE FOR EDMUNDS AND HERE FOR LOWE). The Rockpile album, as a listening experience, is a treasure. It’s kind of like Buddy Holly’s 20 greatest where there are no bad songs and even the sad ones make you happy.
Willie G. Moseley, senior writer at Vintage Guitar Magazine, contacted me to weigh in on the ‘Best Guitarist’ debate that I instigated last week with posts on this blog and AL.com
The debate was great. Many put forth that it isn’t a contest and that it is a matter of personal taste.
But we got names, lots of names. From Hendrix to Robert Johnson. From Clapton to Steve Howe. Ana Popovic to Jeff Beck.
Wait a minute, did we forget Beck? I’ll have to go check because before I got into the Yardbirds I loved to listen to ‘Blow by Blow,’ a jazz rock guitar album of the highest order. Steve Howe’s comes closes.
But Moseley came at me with a name I never considered.
Mike Oldfield of Tubular Bells fame. Yep, that Tubular Bells which accompanied the movie where the devil possessed a little girl. So I checked it out on YouTube a live Tubular Bells concert and, yes, indeed; it didn’t make me vomit and it nearly had my head spin around.
Mr. Oldfield puts forth some scintillating guitar runs, some supersonic laser beam tones. And Moseley said that album is his least favorite of about five Oldfield albums.
“I think any discussion of this subject should also address how much innovation a “nominated” guitarist exhibited/exhibits, Moseley wrote in an email, “be it style and/or tone and/or composition skills…as well as other possible factors.”
He continued: “With that in mind, I’d probably champion Mike Oldfield of Tubular Bells fame. Not only did he have a unique and lightning fast style, his album was, IMO, the first New Age album; i.e., it was so fascinating and hypnotic you couldn’t boogie to it; you were compelled to sit still and listen.
“In some of my lectures, I cite the original Tubular Bells as a “bookend” on the most productive half-dozen years in popular music history.
In the video above, the guitar is unleashed about the 5:20 mark.
“That said, the original is among my least favorite Oldfield albums. … There’s an orchestral-sounding passage on the sophomore album, Hergest Ridge, that reportedly has 72 guitars.
“Unfortunately, in more recent times Oldfield seemed to be mired in a “techno” mode for his newer albums. I used to call that sound “disco.””
Mosley also said he would place Randy California of Spirit not far behind Oldfield.
And so there you have it:
Oldfield officially becomes the most intriguing nomination for this honor of best guitarist of all time, a title which will likely never be bestowed.
A commenter mentioned Ana Popovich. And given that I have been for some time making a list of top guitarists who happen to be women, I looked her up on YouTube. And, indeed, she proceeded to make my face melt.
NOTE: I spelled Moseley’s last name wrong after I had spelled it right. Now it is correct: Moseley.
On July 11, 2018, I was writing I would be done with My Vinyl Countdown in 30 months. That was 13 months ago and if I hold steady, 17 more months feels about right but as I show you later, that’s a brisk brisk pace.
321/17= about 19. So to finish this in 17 months I need to write 19 reviews a month. I may have overestimated myself at the time I wrote the earlier piece with that 17 month prediction.
To further explain: The big numbers you see in the artists’ headlines on my blog indicate the place that record is in the count down of my 678 albums..
At that last accounting I was on 458 records. That means MVC had just reviewed David Gates, a solo album by the lead singer for the group Bread, which gets a lot of hits on this blog. But that was 13 months . Now we are sitting at 321 with John Mellencamp. That’s 320 to go.
Math, ugh. 458 – 320 = 138 records reviewed in 13 months. PACE: 138/13= about 10.5 per month. That may be a little ambitious to think I’ll do 10 or more a month.
678 -321 = 357 is the number of musical posts done overall. 321/10.5 = 30.5 is how many months I have let if i continue at 10.5 per month.
My essays and stories number over a 100 aside of the music reviews. You have my permission not to read it all.
And, there is also the reality that the record collection has grown with some gifts and additional pick-ups. But as I have said earlier the 678 is the number I’m using for nowl. When we get to Zevon and Zappa I’ll look around and see records I bought after this blog started, gifts of vinyyl for me and for the cause. I estimate I’ll have 150 album left over. 678+150= 828. That leftover bunch will likely be added as an addendum? Or maybe just a list of what’s let over on this blog site.
Remember we should not fear the end. The end of the countdown, that is. This is not a O’Henry novel.
My hands are in the hunt and peck mode now. Time to stop, shake them out and look for that ‘November Rain,’ I mean June Rain, out the window.
But first ..
A FUN SNAKE FACT: I read a story today about snakes, saying they aren’t aggressive and don’t attack, usually. It said when a snake bites a human, alcohol was involved 40 percent* of the time.
I say if nearly half our snakes are drunk, we better be even more careful.
* (update 40 percent, not 70 and that’s referencing humans not the snakes.)
It was the Irish version of Live Aid, with U2 kicking it all off with an anguished soul-killing version of Bob Dylan’s ‘Maggie’s Farm.’ I still can’t tell if that’s good or bad. Probably had to be there.
A general statement first. I don’t particularly care for most live records. ‘Most’ I say.” I like Cheap Trick’ and Dylan’s separate live albums from Budokon.
The Rolling Stones ‘Get your Ya Ya’s Out’ is old school rock concert stuff. I’ve heard cuts off Nirvana Unplugged that are surprisingly good live acoustic versions.
But it’s likely it was all probably better live, seeing about a dozen or two dozen Irish acts during a 14-hour marathon.
Some of the acts included: Tua Nua, U2, Chris Rea, Clannad, Van Morrison, The Boomtown Rats, Chris De Burgh, and a new version of Thin Lizzy which months earlier lost their frontman Phil Lynott due to a fatal drug overdose.
De Burgh’s expansive organ and guitar laden, ‘Don’t Pay the Ferryman,’ was a chartmaker in the US. DeBurgh’s MOR/classic rock style served them well in the oudoor venue
Christy Moore did a nice Irish song called Back in Derry which seemed to resonate.
The Irish concert’s goal was to help unemployment, which was a major national problem.
Thin Lizzy without Phil Lynott, lineup used in Self-Aid concert.
According to its Wikipedia page: The telethon raised millions of pounds for a job creation trust fund as well as over 1,000 job pledges.[The song chosen for the finale was “Let’s Make it Work”, written by Christy Moore and Dublin songwriter Paul Doran. Tributes were paid to Phil Lynott who had died just 4 months earlier, including a performance by a reformed Thin Lizzywith Gary Moore on lead vocals.[
Quick catch-up here on some of the things happening in MyVinylCountdown – land.
I’m firing blogs off left and right lately so keep checking this site for updates.
You can get new post alerts via email by going to the comment section. Here’s how to do that: ‘click on the title of the post, for example, Bobby Goldsboro’.
Then scroll down to bottom of post and you’ll see an email box. Click inside the box and a check-box asking if you want notifications.
The Bobby Goldsboro post, where ‘Honey the’ song is deconstructed by me makes me think of putting together a Top 10 list of tear-jerking songs.
Honey by ‘Bobby Goldsboro’
There I started. Now go. to the comments and add your challenger song or songs to ‘Honey.’ Or, you can email me your selection at moliver@al.com
