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Rolling Stones, –227, 226, 225, 224, 223, 222, 221, 220

ALBUMS: Hot Rocks (1971); Between the Buttons, (1967) Get Your Ya Ya’s Out (1971); Metamorphosis (1975); Dancing with Edward (1974; Sticky Fingers, (1971); Exile on Main Street (1972); Undercover (1987); Tattoo You (1978); Love You Live (1977 ); Black and Blue (1976)

MVC Grade: Hot Rocks (5.0/$$$$$); Between the Buttons (4.0/$$$$); Get Your Ya Ya’s Out (4.5/$$$$); Metamorphosis (3.5/$$$); Dancing with Edward (3.0/$$$) Sticky Fingers (5.0/$$$$$, Exile on Main Street (5.0/$$$$$); Undercover (2.5/$$$); Tattoo You (4.0/$$$$) Black and Blue(4.5/$$$$) Love You Live (3.5/$$$).

What’s that sound all across America of people zipping up their pants, their coats, their purses. Listen:
zzzzzzzzzziiiiiiiiiiiiippppppppppppppp!

Oddly makes me feel secure knowing everything is zipped up.

Zip? And what better to zip with: A zipper.

I once bought a $120 pair of jeans marked down drastically because the thingymajigy used to pull up and mesh the zipper teeth, was missing. So I had to use my fingernails or bring a pair of pliers into the bathroom.

CAUTION: Use caution when you make sure you are clamping down on the zipper. A wrong placement and a tight squeeze can cause pain. Just be careful.

So a zipper is one of those words that when you say it out loud it sounds like the name of the thing that goes with the name. Come on you know what I’m talking about …. a word that makes a sound instead of a thought, I mean, not really that so much as it’s a pioneering use of the English language like Zonk! (or is that Zonk?)

What’s a Zonk and what does this have to about zippers? You mean Zonk is the sound a zipper makes? No Keith says, Zonk is like a Three Stooges smack to the head. Usually a smack that rattles you into dumboundedness.

I told Keith Richards that I already told him this was a Rolling Stones review for MyVinylcountdown.com. We need to be on good behavior.

OK, here we go:

Sometimes when the zipper method of merging works, the cars, as if driven by cooperative experts take turns merging, you first, me next, you next. (That’s called the zipper merge on American freeways.)

Well this is what the Rolling Stones did with Rock and Roll. They pulled all these disparate tangs into a big zip. If you don’t believe it, they actually show it on possibly their best album: Sticky Fingers. The original cover has an actual working zipper on the cover.

It’s a safe bet to name the Rolling Stones the best ever in rock evolution and revolution, pulling in the blues, some country, folk and poetic lyricism (Dylan influence).

The Stones did that as well with more of an emphasis on the blues. But that doesn’t mean they became the best blues players of all time.. The Stones became the best rock and roll band of all time because they could play, having internalized that strong mix of rural and urban blues, hooky chorus driven pop and early rock and roll, and let it rip. Or zip.

The Beatles pound-for- pound had better songs, better singing and playing, but the Stones were road ragged warriors. Paul and John had the words and questions. Mick and Keith had the exclamation points.

First you see the Stones and you look at these little punky kids (1960s) and the lead singer with the huge mouth, bodies flailing around and you wondered: Are they putting us on?

But the more your listen, the more you realize Jagger’s voice is perfect to carry this thing off, loud, ripped Chuck Berry and Bo DIddley chords, Watts and Wyman and Richards thrashing about.

And Jagger was singing (and writing along with Richards), songs like Satisfaction, Street Fighting Man, Gimme Shelter, Mother’s Little Helper,

Sorry but the Herman’s Hermit’s were not taking on revolution, the hypocrisy behind the pharmaceutical drug complex, or the advertisers brainwashing techniques.

Here some zippers:

Well this is what the Rolling Stones did with Rock and Roll. They pulled all these disparate things together.

If you don’t believe it, they actually show it on possibly their best album: Sticky Fingers. The Andy-Warhol designed cover has an actual working zipper on the cover. Merge.

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Van Morrison — 308, 307, 306, 305

ALBUMS: Astral Weeks (1968 ); Moondance (1970); Tupelo Honey (1971); ): St. Dominic’s Preview (1972 ); Hard Nose the Highway (1973); T.B. Sheets (1973 ); Common One (1980); No Guru, No Method, No Teacher (1986); World of Them (1973)

MVC Ratings: Astral and Moondance get top scores with 5. Both come with $$$$, but it might be hard to find in good condition under $20. Tupelo Honey, St. Dominic’s and No Guru comes in at 4.5 with $$$$ for Tupelo and St. Dominic’s; and TB Sheets at $$$; World of Them is 4.0 with a $$$.

Just after I learned of my illness, my wonderful friends and colleagues raised several thousand dollars to fund a trip to Europe. Ireland was one of four countries we visited on this ‘bucket list” trip. We went in this order: Spain, Scotland, Ireland, England and back to Spain where my daughter was living.

In Dublin, Ireland , I had to go see the Irish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was a small-ish building, having moved into a place that used to be a pub. I loved it but I had one major criticism, and told the museum people — who were good folks — about it. There was not enough Van Morrison. One could argue that he should have dominated that museum, based on artistry, talent and influence on the music.

They had lots of Thin Lizzy and U2. Don’t get me wrong I love both of those Irish artists. Check one of the streaming services for the Phil Lynot/Thin Lizzy documentary. He had an interesting life growing up mixed race in a 90-plus percent white population. His mother, the museum folks told me, still comes by the museum and visits, occasionally bringing memorabilia to display. There could be couple of things going on here. First, Morrison is considered ‘Dad-music.’ Not many under 30 could name three songs by Van the Man, or any at all, for that matter. Also, Morrison grew up in Belfast not Dublin meaning Morrison’s family and possible sources of memorabilia are in another part of the country.

In the United States, Morrison had a home north of San Francisco in Marin County. He said it was the place in the US that reminded him most of the rolling green hills of Ireland. I lived in that county some called paradise for a decade in San Anselmo. Van even wrote a song called ‘Snow in San Anselmo’ on one of his lesser known albums called ‘Hard News the Highway.’ The song says it hadn’t snowed there i n 30 years. It did not snow the 10 years I was there as the ocean moderated what was essentially a Mediterranean climate.

One morning in 2006, I came to play my usual pick-up basketball on Saturday morning at the Lagunitas elementary school. It was a game that had been ongoing for long time before I wandered up one day. On this day, a couple of players said they had seen Morrison the night before in a secret word-of-mouth event at this place in the San Geromino Valley called Rancho Nicasio — not far down the road where I played hoops every week. Damn, I said, why didn’t y’all call me! (I still broke out the y’all in California.) The Marin Independent Journal — a newspaper I had written for — said Morrison concert was the worst kept secret in Marin. Well, I didn’t know about it. Of course I’ve always had this feeling I was the last to know.

I don’t know what else to say about Van Morrison. He’s a rocker, a great writer. His songs are equally imbued with the blues and jazz. He always has great musicians around him. He sings a little like Mick Jagger if Jagger ventured deeper into jazz.

I’m not going to give a history here, that would be long. But he was in a band called Them in the beginning. He wrote a song called ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ whose opening riff is one of the most recognizable in rock. He journeyed through mystical observations. In the mid-to-later part of his career, he became a little more overt with use of Christian language wrapped around his deep spiritual explorations in words and music. Albums representing this would be ‘Common One‘ and “No Guru no Method no Teacher.’ And actually, thinking back, he’s always had that philosopher/poet quest that shape songs like “Into the Mystic,” or the whole album Astral Weeks, for that matter.

He’s still putting out music. I saw that an album is about to be released in November. Lastly, I’d like to make bring out some teaching points for lyricists and poets. I’m not saying I am that good at it, but I know good when I see it and hear it. Morrison’s style was to weave in and out of mystical explorations with repetitive chants and jazzy excursions. But he often wrote plain slices of scenes. a little portrait or a scene that draws you to a place so you can begin to feel what Van feels.

On the song ‘And it Stoned Me’ from the Moondance album, see how Van sets the scene without over describing.

Half a mile from the county fair
And the rain came pourin’ down
Me and Billy standin’ there
With a silver half a crown

Hands are full of a fishin’ rod
And the tackle on our backs
We just stood there gettin’ wet
With our backs against the fence

Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Oh, the water
Hope it don’t rain all day

Oh the water, let it run all over me

He drops in detail but with a deft touch leaves a little wiggle room for you, the listener, to put in your own details: These kids, adolescents, had just been to the fair? Or were going? Had a silver half a crown.

I don’t know what the song is about. Or, wait, maybe I do: Life.

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Sergio Mendes, Walter Wanderley — 320, 319

ALBUM: Rain Forest (1966): Gentle Rain (1977)

MVC Rating: Forest 4.0/$$$; Rain 4.0/$$

And now for something completely different.

Samba! Brazilian! bossa nova? Organ music? Slightly psychedelic on the Sergio Mendez platter Gentle Rain.

Sergio was the unusual example of a Brazilian artist whose work was nearly exclusively done in the U.S. And is not all that well known in Brazil, according to Wikipedia. On my anecdotal accounts, there’s a lot of his work sadly sitting in bargain bins. He spent a career introducing Brazilian music to the U.S. and beyond: He’d take a Bacharach song like ‘Do you know the way to San Jose?’ and completely samba-ize it [patent pending, not to be confused with Simonize].

So Walter Wanderly, sometimes billed as Brazil’s No. 1 organist, was on the Gentle Rain album with Sergio and multiple musicians. Of these two I have, Wanderley’s Rain Forest is the one I would purchase. At times it sounds like the organ music played when hockey games cleared the ice between periods. Or mall music, sprightly yet warm. But then you start listening, really listening, it’s like a hypnotic.

Don’t need that second beer. Just flip the switch to Wanderley. It’s electric organ like a banjo always playing bright and happy music, only more soothing. The effect is rolling waves of controlled improv tightly harnessed by song structures.

I’m not kidding, I Iike this a lot. Happy Mall Music or old time skating rink music in 2/4 time it’s its own jazzy thing. There are lots of folks who collect Brazilian music and I can see why. But I can’t get lost down that rabbit hole though. Need to stay focused.

You may have wondered why Wanderley is here in the middle of the M’s alphabetically. It’s because he’s being ushered in along with Sergio Mendes.

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Mr. Big, Mouth and MacNeal, Men without Hats (1-hit wonders in the ‘M’s)-345, 344, 343

Oh this is going to be fun. I have three records here all coming up on the basically alphabetic format I have pioneered (which means they are in alphabetical order except when I decide they are not.)

They are essentially one-hit wonders, this trio of bands I’m lumping together. And their names start with’M.’ And they are sometimes good, sometimes bad and sometimes silly as heck. Bargain bin material for sure.

Men Without Hats –343

ALBUM: Rhythm of Youth (1982)

MVC Rating: 2.0/$

Canadian group hit it big with the Safety Dance featuring a bubbly 1980’s synth dance beat:

‘We can dance if we want to, we can leave your friends behind, because your friends don’t dance, and if they don’t dance, they ain’t no friends of mine.”

Probably everybody in the world has danced to this song. And probably everybody in the world has this record which sits and never gets played unless you put it on a 1980’s synth-dance music playlist. The only other song that captured my attention was
‘I Got the Message.‘

Mr Big — 344

ALBUM: Photographic Smile (1976)

MVC Rating: 2.5/$$

This is a strange group and album. Not to be confused with the LA-based Mr. Big which was even bigger. This UK-based Big’s only significant hit was ‘Romeo although ‘Feel Like Calling Home sounds like a single for the radio. The singer sounds and looks like the bad gang member leader who set the Warriors up in the Walter Hill movie The Warriors. ‘Warriors come out and Plaa-ay, clink clink go the bottles on his fingertips. i checked the liner to see if this cat “Dicken” was listed as playing bottles. Nope. Dicken (just DIcken) is the vocalists name and he seems to be a known entity in some corners of the UK music scene or at least was at one time.

The album ‘Photographic Smile’ is all over the place from hard heavy rock with Brian May-like guitar solos to lilting folk ballads to songs with a sprinkling of Chinese pentatonic  musical touches. The title song sounds like 10cc.

There’s talent with songwriting musical hooks and musicianship, but it’s somewhat negated by the wild swing in the music and mediocre to poor lyrics. Still, some of these songs have hooks that catch and stick.

Mouth and MacNeal — 345

ALBUM: How Do You Do

MVC Rating: 2.5/$

Well ‘How Do You Do’. Talking about hooks that catch and stick. The one hit from this group is one of those earworms. Now we had a little fun with Mouth and MacNeal earlier in this blog, naming the song ‘How Do you Do’ the Best Worst song of All Time.” I have to say we were heavily influenced by an old black and white video that was so amateurish, it was hilarious.

On record M&M sound OK. The Mouth, a big bear of a man, has a voice that could make beams fall at a construction site. They put their spin on “Heard it Through the Grapevine,” which is inferior to CCR’s or Marvin Gaye’s version — but not altogether bad.

Try this Mouth and MacNeal for something different::

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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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Al Green — 445, 446, 447

ALBUMS:  Greatest Hits (Reissue: 1982 of 1975 release); Truth In Time (1978); Soul Survivor (1987)

MVC Rating: Greatest 5.0/$$$$; Truth 4.0/$$$; Soul Survivor/$$$

One of my favorite  artists  — all time.

I have three albums that capture the essence and soul of a man with essence and soul. He was the best at covering other’s work and elevating. But he wrote his own as well.

His earlier stuff collected on the hits album is classic R&B, soul. Some of the best made.

The Al Green-penned ‘Let’s Stay Together,’ ‘Let’s Get Married,’ ‘Call Me,’ and ‘I’m Still in Love With You’ all smolder with  love and hotter love. Green’s falsetto is the best. That’s not up for debate with me. It is the best.
His song, “Tired of Being Alone” is a timeless classic.

But it’s his cover of the  Bee Gee’s ‘How Can You Mend a Broken Heart’ that takes the prize for top, not to be too hyperbolic, perhaps Top 3, covers of all time. That is an emotional workout listening to Green sing that.

The only song not on the Greatest Hits that should have been is ‘Take Me to the River,’ a Green song covered quite successfully later  by the Talking Heads.

Green in 1974,  after some traumatic  life events and hospitalizations,  became a pastor. He leads a big church in  Memphis near Elvis’ Graceland. Over the years he has wavered between recording pure gospel music and a hybrid of popular, with God infused throughout.

Some of his ’80s’ work is as  powerful as anything he’s ever done. I got religion about three times listening to Soul Survivor and his sung version of the 23rd Psalm with a full gospel choir. In my copy of ‘Soul Survivor’ I was happy to find a 5X7 photo and a bio sheet.

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The Grateful Dead — 444

ALBUM: Terrapin Station (1977)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$$

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.

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Steve Goodman– 447

ALBUM: The Essential Steve Goodman (1976)

MVC Rating: 4.5 $$$$

The best way to introduce Goodman is through the songs he wrote. Songs that were often made famous by other people.

  • City of New Orleans — Arlo Guthrie’s version made this a standard, covered by Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Chet Atkins, and Willie Nelson.
  • Somebody Else’s Problems
  • You Never Even Call Me By My Name   — This send-up of country music lyrics got an uncredited writing assist from John Prine. David Alan Coe made it a country hit.
  • Donald and Lydia
  • Jazzman
  • Don’t do me Any Favors Anymore
  • The Cubs Anthem — Go Cubs Go — His most sung song.

Goodman died of Leukemia in 1984 at age 36.

Fun fact: He was a high school classmate of Hillary Clinton in Chicago..