This guitarist has a prolific resume. Founder of the band Grin, they put out some solid rock albums. He was in Neil Young’s Crazy Horse and later Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.
Meanwhile he put out a number of solo albums like this one in 1975.
When you have close to 700 albums, it’s hard to play all of them consistently. I don’t come home from work and say, gosh I really have to hear some Lofgren. But I should, you should too.. There’s a reason Neil and Bruce like him. He’s a rock and roll guitar player who has fun, plays loose and his music on this album and my two Grin albums sounds like the best bar band you just stumbled onto.
Highlights include Keith Don’t Go, fun homage to Keith Richards complete with Stones’ riffs. “Going Back,” a Goffin/King song shows off his piano skills which I didn’g even know he had.
I received an offer to ask a few questions of dementia expert John DenBoer who is behind a Netflix documentary on dementia premiering today at a venue in Phoenix before going on Netflix May 1.
It is called ‘This is Dementia.’
I will say upfront that I am pleased the doctor is inspired to push for more awareness after his caretaker experience with his beloved grandmother. I am still a little uncertain why there is not more discussion specifically of Lewy body disease, but I haven’t seen the movie yet.
Dementia experts has documentary airing tonight(4/11/19)
If there’s an internal medical debate about what Lewy body is or even if it exists — some docs say it’s a different kind of Parkinson’s — let’s get to the bottom of it so we can properly research it.. DenBoer points out ‘vascular’ as a top type of dementia — as well as Lewy. Everyone agrees that Alzheimer’s Disease is No. 1.
He agreed with my worry about — and I’ve expressed it here before — a lack of awareness could hurt Lewy body’s quest for research dollars. A lack of awareness seeps into the whole system.
From the patient who can’t get a proper diagnosis to the patient rigged up to a brain stimulator which may be contraindicated for their particular type of disease. We need more doctors like DenBoer to keep asking these questions and, meanwhile, helping push non-invasive brain exercises to tamp down symptoms.
He’s also focusing on early diagnosis which I think may be the most important first step toward cure. The more time we have to study these patients and treat them whether its medications or brain exercises the closer we will get.
Here’s DenBoer with answers to 8 questions from me via email.
OLIVER: How did you become interested in studying dementia?
DENBOER: It was really a synthesis of a tough personal situation (my Grandmother, who I had a special relationship with, developing dementia) and my professional pursuit in the study of Geriatric Neuropsychology. These two things coincided, which galvanized my personal and professional mission to help people with dementia. My primary emphasis is to do this through early identification and mitigation of cognitive and functional decline.
OLIVER: Tell me about the Netflix documentary and what are some of the themes?T
DENBOER The documentary is entitled “This is Dementia.” It chronicles my relationship with my grandmother, my relationship with my patients, and my quest to impact this terrible disease. I feel that it is a realistic yet hopeful portrayal of the effect the disease has on people and their families.
OLIVER: There seems to be confusion over the types of dementia. I have Lewy body dementia, sometimes called dementia with lewy bodies. Can you briefly describe the differences in the types of dementia?
DENBOER: Dementia is an umbrella term to describe the general neurodegeneration of the brain. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, although vascular forms of dementia are also very common. Lewy Body dementia can also be fairly common. What makes this more complicated is that there are really no pure forms of dementia – all are typically combinations of each other.
OLIVER: What are the most promising areas of research for medications to stop or slow down the disease progression?
DENBOER: Unfortunately, research in the area of medications has not been very promising. By far the best way to slow down the disease is a combination of aerobic and cognitive exercise. Medication has been found to work at less than 5% efficacy. Unfortunately, there is nothing that we know of to stop the disease entirely.
OLIVER: My concern after learning of my diagnosis was that there was little awareness of Lewy body dementia, even though my understanding is that it is the second leading type of dementia after Alzheimer’s. This concerns me because if people don’t know about it they won’t get proper treatment – like Robin Williams who had Lewy body. Your thoughts?
DEBOER: Unfortunately, there is far too little awareness of all types of dementia. We do know about Alzheimer’s disease, although other forms of dementia (such as Vascular and Lewy Body) are forms that are not as well known. Our job as providers is to educate primary care providers of the important role they play in screening aging individuals and referring them to neuropsychologists and neurologists to perform more in-depth testing.
OLIVER: What also concerns me with Lewy that its lack of visibility will lead to less money for research than for example Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. Thoughts on that?
DEBOER: You could be right about that, unfortunately. When people think of dementia they usually only think of Alzheimer’s dementia. Honestly, I think this is a failure on the part of our national organizations (e.g., Alzheimer’s Association) to properly educate and promote awareness of the other (equally prominent) forms of dementia.
OLIVER: Any thoughts on what the causes of the various types of dementa are?
DENBOER: There are as many different causes of dementia as there are types. Each type of dementia has its own distinct etiology. The commonality across them all is the degeneration (i.e., shrinkage) of the brain. New and novel learning can help mitigate this decline (www.brainuonline.com).
OLIVER: What should people do first if they suspect that they or a loved one may have dementia?
DENBOER: The key is to recognize this as early as possible, prior to when they have dementia or mild cognitive impairment. MCI develops 5-7 years earlier, prior to the first beginnings of dementia. By the time people have noticeable symptoms of dementia the mitigative possibilities of the disease are greatly reduced. Typically, we can slow the decline associated with the disease if people are in Stage 2 or less. If people suspect that they themselves or a loved one may have dementia my suggestion would be to present to a neuropsychologist right away. Typically, the visit is covered by Medicare/insurance. They will undergo a 2-4 hour evaluation which will assess memory, attention/concentration, etc.. The neuropsychologist will tell you whether there is a suspicion of mild cognitive impairment or dementia. If there is, a visit to a geriatric neurologist is warranted; an MRI of the brain may be needed. All of this information will be used to make a diagnosis of MCI or dementia.A simple explanation of Lewy body:
Dr John DenBoer is a US-based dementia researcher and the creator of Smart Brain Aging (http://www.smartbrainaging.com/) – a company that helps delay the onset of dementia and reduce its severity, through a science-backed brain training program. Dr DenBoer was inspired to become an expert in the field after his grandmother was diagnosed. See www.smartbrainaging.com for more information.
Kaleidoscope was a pioneering psych rock folk world music band from San Francisco.
ALBUM: ‘Incredible’ (1969)
MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$
If you like psychedelic banjo music you’ll love this.
Actually, I do. But it’s not for everybody. I became aware of this band because I’ve long been a fan of David Lindley who has put out some fun, eclectic music over the years on his own. And he also has been a fixture in Jackson Browne recordings and performances over the years.
Excellent on guitar, steel guitar, banjo – and assorted string instruments you may have never heard of. In his youth, Lindley won the Topanga Canyon Banjo Contest two years in a row back in tIhe 60’s, according to Wikipedia.
This band, Kaleidoscope, preceded Lindley’s work with Browne. It’s a product of the psychedelic 60’s but what separates it from some in this genre is the highly skilled playing of the instruments and its infusion of world music. And banjo.
It’s also an example of how now and again I decide to buy LPs.
I bought this just about a year ago for a few bucks. I saw it, saw the name David Lindley and pounced. I’ll be doing some Lindley reviews coming up after I finish the K’s .
One of the videos below is “Banjo’ and another is ‘Seven Ate Sweet’ a progressive instrumental in 7/8 time. Enjoy, or, at least, admire.
The Dave Clark Band’s ‘Bits and Pieces’ is a bad song made worse by a bad video. Check it out.
And I generally like DC5 songs, such as ‘Glad all Over.’ But ‘Bits and Piece’s’ is a good title for a blog post that has, well, bits and pieces.
And that’s what this is.
I ruminate on this as I come out of my recent post on one-hit wonders. I like most of the songs on my personalized wonder list. But I considered and tossed out a couple because they weren’t good.
I was reminded of this when I visited another music blog today, and it was featuring a post about Henry Gross and the love-hate relationship with the song ‘Shannon.’ Oh the memories. See this well-done website called SliceTheLife
I dislike — but secretly like –Shannon, kind of like ‘Brandy’ by the Looking Glass.. But seeing this post reminded there was an album by Gross called ‘Plug Me into Something’ that I remember hearing every time I visited a friend’s house. I have fond memories of that record but never bought it for whatever reason, probably because I heard it so much without paying for it. The friend also had the Brothers Johnson ‘Strawberry Letter 23,” which I did buy (the album, Right on Time, and is reviewed here.
Anyway the thing that had me laughing today was the Casey Kasem, he of Top 40 fame, go off the rails on Gross’ song, Shannon, about a dead dog. SliceThe Life gives more detail on that. Here’s the video.
Casey Kasem died a few years ago of complications of Lewy body dementia.
That’s of course the disease I have and awareness of the disease is a big part of this blog and my life.
I hope those weren’t early signs of LBD.
I hope Casey was just having a bad day and being a jerk on his own. But the fact is that this insidious disease can change personalities and behavior.
I am here to tell you readers, you have the right to shut me down if I act like that. I don’t advocate violence (especially against myself) but put a piece of duct tape over my mouth or something. Or just give me some ice cream, Chunky Monkey is fine.
In other bits and pieces. I see that, ironically I guess, the song by Europe called “The Final Countdown” was named one of the top all time one-hit wonders.
My Vinyl Countdown Salutes you. Here’s what VH1 said in this somewhat dated release:
On VH1’s 100 Greatest One-Hit Wonders, [Europe’s] Joey Tempest said: “It was quite a surprise that the song ‘The Final Countdown’ became such a big hit because it was written for the band, it was written for our concert, it was written to be the opening song in our concert. It was almost six-minutes long, it was never intended to be a short pop hit or anything, it was very much a surprise and its been used for all kinds of events, anything from Formula 1 to boxing. It’s been used for a lot, sort of like an anthem. I know there’s been some cover versions of it as well and I know when the Berlin Wall (fell), at the same time that all thing happened I know a lot of other people from that area saw the song as an anthem. I get a lot of letters about that. So its been interpreted in many ways.”
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.’
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.
MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$ (NOTE: I bought several months ago the latest reissue of George Harrison’s classic ‘All Things Must Pass,’ which I mention in another post.
Here the man who was one-quarter of the Beatles seems in good spirits.
But George is going to be passionate in a song defending his side. And George’s ordeal with the legal battle highlights the fine line between borrowing and plagiarism. (See Led Zeppelin.)
Harrison is so easy to listen to. Great, underrated voice and some good solid guitar playing and songs that, while not quite Beatles, you can easily hear at least one-quarter of the Beatles.
With “This Song’ he delivers a scathing (for him) rebuke of the plagiarism controversy. Of course George lost that dispute and the songs do sound very much alike. But I don’t think he did it on purpose.
This Song l
This song has nothing tricky about it
This song ain’t black or white and as far as I know Don’t infringe on anyone’s copyright
When the Beatles broke up I was just becoming aware of who the Beatles were at about 10 years old. My mother dropped me in downtown Athens at the Georgia Theater – yes that used to be a movie theater before becoming a music venue — where I went in to see ‘Let it Be,’ the bittersweet documentary of the Beatles recording one last time before breaking up. I was alone. Yes that’s kind of weird, but I’d often go see movies by myself as young’un. Saw ‘Vanishing Point’ my favorite B-movie when I was 12. But I digress.
Billy Preston played on Thirty-three and 1/3.
Beatles became my favorite band and probably shaped my future view of rock and roll.
When they broke up, it was hit or miss for me in getting their solo material.
My brother had ‘Venus and Mars’ and ‘Band on the Run from McCartney and listened to those sometimes inane — but rockin’ — albums. I never bought a Ringo record, bless his heart. I’ve had several John Lennon albums including his classic, but dark, first solo album.
The one thing I regret is not having picked some more Harrison, especially All Things Must Pass. I am going to pledge that I will use a coveted bucket list item to listen to All Things Must Pass all 3 records in the box from start to finish.
I’m looking for suggestions as we enter the Halloween season.
I’m just going to start with one song that is big time on my playlist right now. My NP is a Brummies song, and it really has nothing much to do with Halloween other than it’s “Haunted.”
Those who saw my Allman Brothers post know I’m less than a Grateful Dead fan. I used to live in Marin County where the band members lived, but it was years after Garcia had died.
Jerry could play guitar, but I never felt, I mean felt, their music. I realize a lot of their popularity was kind of cultish thing and involved the culture of altered states. So I have Terrapin Station album playing right now under the influence of an Advil and a beer.
Still don’t get it.
It seems a lot of what they do is based in roots music, or laid back bluegrass and folk/country with an electric guitar playing leader who saw his guitar solos as a positive outgrowth of his psychedelic drug-taking — kind of like spiders making webs after some hallucinogens given by scientists. It’s an actual scientific study (look it up here.)
The folky bluesy blend by the Dead is not bad but the music doesn’t stand out to me as do acts such as the Band, the Byrds or CSN&Y for that matter. Some of it is really pleasant rocking chair music in the vein of some of those groups, though.
Two full disclosures: I haven’t heard much beyond what I have (Terrapin Station) or on the radio. I pledge to listen to another album or two at some point.
Other full disclosure: I was a reporter in Orlando covering the Dead when they came in for a show. Must of been early 1990s. Central Florida meet thousands of hippie Deadheads..
I was assigned by the Orlando Sentinel to do the ‘color’ story which means looking for fun tidbits, capture the scene, find an angle.
I got tear gassed.
I don’t remember what the headline was but in my admittedly weak memory I recall this as headline: Deadheads Riot.
A small band of Deadheads opened a couple of doors at the old O-rena allowing those outside to rush the door. It got ugly with some police body slams, numerous arrests and clouds of tear gas. I was temporarily blinded by the spray.
I had to get the spray out of my eyes and write a story.
I guess when I was young and heard of the Grateful Dead I expected something wild, psychedelic, but most of what I’ve heard from them has been rather tame, rioting aside.
I was aware of the Cowsill’s cover song of ‘Hair’ which mentions the Dead as an example of a band with no ‘bread.’ (Money.)
I knew that line from Hair at about 9 but never heard their music until FM radio listening in the md-70s.
Nothing new here. I do get that there is a lot of repetitive instrumental music, and I understand how that can be appealing as your musical brain rides the waves. So part of my critique is about expectations. I was expecting something groundbreaking or, at least, sounding like nothing else from the hippest hippie group of all time. Something closer to Zappa.
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention put out the double record “Freak Out,’ in mid 1960s — that was freak out psychedelic music. You have to hear it to believe it.
But unlike Garcia, who celebrated mind ‘expanding’ drugs, Zappa eschewed drugs. Famously he would fire you from the band at even a hint of use. He is reported to have kicked Lowell George out of one incarnation of the Mothers because he was doing illegal substances.
Any way, I don’t mean to diminish the Dead, especially since I don’t know their body of work. Know the better known songs like ‘Casey Jones’ and ‘Truckin’ of course. Terrapin Station is good. I like it. But I wouldn’t follow a tour around the country and go to 12 concerts in a row over this.
It wasn’t too long ago the Grateful Dead had worldwide concerts and drew pilgrims, or Deadheads from everywhere.
With dozens of albums and high level fan loyalty I’ll bet the Dead have no lack of bread.
Let’s step away for a second from music to reading, books, that is. I have a great friend, my former boss, Michael Ludden, who has a few books under his belt. His latest I have read and it is fantastic.
“Tate Drawdy” is the book’s title and the name of the main character. The book is a slow burn Deep South pulse quickener.
I have Lewy body dementia, as you who are familiar with this blog already know. That means books are more difficult for me now because every advancement is followed by a retreat as I work to gather my memories. It seems to be a little different when I’m writing because, well, I don’t know why. It’s like my fingers have muscle memory.
As I mentioned before, Ludden is my former boss. He was the editor who back in 1987 lured me from the Birmingham News to central Florida and the Orlando Sentinel. I worked with him there about a decade and I consider him a great friend and a fine editor. He was a key editor on a Sentinel Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative project on a sheriff’s department abuse of asset seizure forfeiture.
Ludden was the kind of an editor who wanted to sit down and talk about a story in a big picture sort of way before it was written. Then when he got a copy of the story, he wouldn’t say, ‘Move this comma over here, tighten up this section.’ No, Mike would say: ‘Explain to me what you are doing here?’
I remember getting defensive one time when he did that and he said, ‘No, I really like what you are doing here, I just want to hear you talk about what that is.’
Big picture. A journo lesson that stuck. Think about it macro before getting down to the nitty gritty.
Ludden sets this in Savannah, Ga., and even if you have never been there, you will end up smelling the life and decay of a humid coastal city that keeps its past close.
Ludden has an eye for detail, another practice he used to preach. The descriptions setting up a scene put you there. In the place and moment.
Here’s a passage describing the first meeting of the bad guy, John Robert Griffin and the good guy cop, Tate Drawdy.
In an interrogation room in the police station.
Griffin turned to face him. Standing motionless, a small grin showing his teeth. Nothing else changed. But in that moment Tate saw a piece of himself he’d never seen before, something he had thought might not happen to him, not until he was old and put up.
It made him dizzy, as if the ceiling had lifted back and now he was staring into a burning sky, hoisted up, swaying in the breeze, shadows fading in, fading out, slowly revolving, a vein throbbing behind his eye. His scalp tingling, his face suddenly wet.
He wanted to turn away.
He reached for his coffee, took a sip, set it back down. He kept his hand on the cup, feeling the heat. Told himself Griffin can’t read his mind, couldn’t hear his heartbeat. He counted to 10.
“Where’d you grow up?”
Ludden is also the author of ‘Alfredo’s Luck,’ another Tate Drawdy thriller set in Miami and ‘Tales from the Morgue,’ a tightly written noir-esque rendition of actual newspaper stories culled from Ludden’s journalistic experiences, including his time at the Orlando Sentinel.
