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Deep Purple, Detective, John Denver — 539, 538, 537

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ALBUMS: Deep Purple ‘Stormbringer’ (1974); Detective, ‘Detective’ (1977); John Denver’s; Poems  Prayers and Promises (1971).

MVC Rating:  Stormbringer, 3.5/$$$; Detective 3.5/$$; Denver 3.5/$$

ADDITIONAL ADDS (SEE NOTE BELOW) Deep Purple Made in Japan Live:45/$$$$; Machine Head 4.5/$$$$; Who do we  think we are — 3.5/$$$

I more or less have been untethered from the Internet, and thus my blog, for a long weekend out of state.

It was an accidental untethering. I forgot my laptop and phone charger. I really did. But it forced me to actually be more ‘there’ with family and friends. So, that was great. I  highly recommend forgetfulness in certain parts of your lives, forgiveness in other parts.

Anyway, I’m working my way through the D’s and thought I’d do a three-fer. Only other time I did three artists in one post on this blog was for the Bongos, Blue Rodeo and BoDeans. If you missed those, check them out. Some good music by those groups.

This time I have three records that are widely different except that they came out in the 1970s. They come at different turning points in these bands’ careers.

Deep Purple, Stormbringer

This heavy metal band is known for giving us the most recognizable (and simplest) riff in rock and roll history. At least it’s in that conversation. That rift being the crunching seven-chord sequence opening ‘Smoke on the Water.’

The riff is so well known it’s a cliche.  I’ve heard their are music stores (where they sell guitars) that have signs posted: “No Smoke on the Water allowed.”

Deep Purple has had some good musicians over the years. By the time Stormbringer rolled around, there had been several personnel changes. The album was basically the beginning of the end. The group still had (disgruntled) guitarist, Ritchie Blackmore. This was to be his last DP album before leaving and forming Rainbow.  He does blister the guitar on the way out of the door though. While some fans call this an underrated album, I hear a distinct drop-off from their previous two.

For those interested in Deep Purple I would recommend a live  album I no longer have (whoever borrowed it 30 years ago, please give it back, Nevermind keep it): The album is  Made In Japan and is actually worth a little money if you can find it.

On that album Blackmore’s guitar solo on ‘Highway Star’ is arguably a top rock solo of all time.

NOTE UPDATE:  After publication of this blog, AL.com’s J.D. Crowe, our in-house cartoon drawer and illustrator surprised me with not only ‘Made In Japan,’ but also a primo version of ‘Machine Head.’ Thanks JD, that puts me into the purple.

Detective

This is the debut album of this group and one of only two studio albums. They were signed by Led Zeppelin’s Swan Song label. (Bad Company was also on  that label).

Detective is heavily influenced by Zeppelin, probably to a fault. It’s hard to imitate the sound that Zeppelin created. To me Zeppelin teetered toward a parody of the blues, but avoided that pitfall by sheer will of outrageously creative playing and performances. In other words, they took the blues and made it their own.

It was a magical elixir that Robert Plant and company put together. I do think Detective is good and there are some rabid fans out there who say their live concerts were as good as any in the late 1970s.. To my ears, they were missing an ingredient.

What’s that ingredient?

I don’t know. That’s why it’s a magical elixir.

John Denver, Poems Prayers and Promises

OK, don’t hire a lawyer for the whiplash I am giving you right now.

John Denver after a Led Zeppelin soundalike band and the heavy guitar sounds of Deep Purple is like slamming on the rock and roll brakes.

This is not rock and roll ladies and gentlemen. This is a pleasant voiced singer-songwriter putting out his fourth album, a commercial breakthrough, which led to a  meteoric rise to celebrity-hood. With his golly gee outdoorsman image and environmentally friendly folky tunes, he won over middle America before tragically dying in a glider/experimental plane crash off a cliff in California.

This album has some covers such as ‘Let it Be’ by the Beatles which is somewhat unnecessary. But it has a couple of songs that made Denver a household name: Sunshine on my Shoulders, and (Take me home) Country Roads.  While I can tolerate Country Roads, Sunshine on my Shoulders makes me run screaming from the room; the only thing that could possibly be worse would be Detective trying to do ‘Stairway to Heaven.’

Still if you think you’d like Denver music, and many millions do, it’s probably best to start at one of his greatest hits albums.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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Derek and the Dominos — 540

ALBUM:  Layla and other assorted love songs (1970),

MVC Ranking: 5.0/$$$$

This is one of my all-time favorites, a true desert island album. I don’t know why this was so big an influence at about age 16. It was blues by a bunch of white guys who were  reportedly PUI (playing under the influence).

But they weren’t just any guys off the street. They were  Eric Clapton, whose transmogrification of black blues through his decidedly English filter earned him the nickname: God.

Then there was the 23-year-old guitar prodigy Duane Allman, already being whispered about in reverent terms whose time would end tragically a year or so later. The mythology was the he ran into the back of a truck hauling peaches. And that’s why the Allmans named the next album was entitled ‘Eat a Peach.’ The truth however was that he c

There also was the slightly obnoxious and opinionated Bobby Whitlock, a fine keyboardist, songwriter and singer. And carrying the bottom, drums and bass, were Jim Gordon and Carl Radle, among the best in the business. Clapton and Allman particularly were at a crossroads in their careers. Clapton zooming through the Yardbirds, Cream and Blind Faith. And Duane just getting ready for the spotlight in his familial band from Jacksonville, FL. and Macon, GA, the Allman Brothers.

They came together, looking for some kind of light. Clapton and Allman, who had never met, hit it off, personally and professionally.

The result a blues album of original material and some great classic blues like  Big Bill Broonzy’s ‘Key to the Highway,’ and Billy Myles’ ‘Have You Ever Loved a Woman’ (popularized by Freddie King). And a nice cover of Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Little Wing,’ a relatively new song at the time.

‘Bell Bottom Blues’ ached. ‘Why Does Love Have to be So Sad’ whip-snapped stinging guitar over Whitlock’s and Clapton’s alternating shouts of anguish. ‘I Am Yours’ consoled.

And of course there was  Layla, a rocket launched by the twin guitars of Allman and Clapton, a  rocker of break-up love, the pain boiling over and anger surfacing.

I tried to give you consolation
When your old man had let you down.
Like a fool, I fell in love with you,
Turned my whole world upside down.
Layla, you’ve got me on my knees.
Layla, I’m begging, darling please.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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Miles Davis — 541

ALBUM: Milesones (1958)

MVC Rating: 5.0/$$$$$

ALBUM: Milestones (1958)

MVC Rating: 5.0/$$$$$

I don’t know if it’s a Lewy thing but I’m enjoying this jazz more than ever.  I’ve played this Miles record, both sides about five times in the past two days.  It’s old  new jazz. (Also jumped into a Dizzy Gillespie record,  I’ll review in the G’s.}

It’s modern jazz, sometimes ‘played too darn fast’ Chuck Berry famously complained. It’s modern but it’s 1958, a year before I was born and a year before Davis gave us his masterpiece (IMHO) ‘Kind of Blue.’

But this one with  Cannonball Adderly and John Coltrane burned pretty well. I gave it a ‘5’ anyway. I remember buying this used at some kind of flea market in Anniston, AL.  Would have  been 1982.  I knew who Davis was but upon seeing the cover photo I felt like  I had to have the album. Pretty intense and cool looking dude. And that’s what his music looks and sounds like: Him.

Below, Miles and company play:

Counting down my 678  vinyl records  before I die of  brain disease.

 

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The Dave Clark Five — 541

ALBUM: The Best of the Dave Clark Five (1970).

MVC Ratings: 4.0/$$$

‘Glad All Over,’ ‘Bits and Pieces,’ ‘Catch Us if you Can,’ ‘Do you Love Me’ — the hits kept coming from this Fab Four plus One.

No, not really close to the Beatles  in both performance and songwriting, although ‘Glad All Over’ and “Because’ and ‘Can’t You See that She’s Mine’ — which the vocalist, Mike Smith,  vows to ‘keep on holding her hand — sound just like early Beatles. ‘Because’ is the name of a Beatles song — but not this one.

This is one of the better British invasion bands and there were many.

The interesting anomaly here is Blueberry Hill, the song  made famous by Fats Domino. Smith does some hard-kick vocals here, channeling, or trying to channel Wilson Pickett or Otis Redding and gets close enough to make it interesting.

It’s rock and soul and I like it.

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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Dave Davies – 543, 542

ALBUMS: Dave Davies — AFL1 3603 ( bar code album 1980);  Chosen People (1983)

MVC Rating: Bar code — 4.0/$$$; Chosen People 3.5/$$

 Dave’s brother Ray was the Kinks Kreative soul. Dave was the guitarist, and a pioneering one at that. The riffs in early 1960s classics like ‘You Really Got Me’ and ‘All Day and All of the Night’ were much copied (e.g. Van Halen). One could make the case the distortion laden pieces paved the way for heavy metal.

I have lots of Kinks records, bought mostly in my high school years in Athens, Ga. I’ll write more when we get to the K’s in www.myvinylcountdown.com

Ray wrote the lions’ share of Kinks song. One notable exception was  Dave’s  ‘Death of a Clown,’ one of the Kinks’ most poignant songs ever, and they did a lot of poignant songs.

The Kinks went through so many style changes, every album  was like a new band although all decidedly Kinks. They did English folk whimsy, straight-ahead rock and roll and  clever commentary songs.

Dave had a way of doing falsetto harmony behind Ray’s lead  vocals. I thought it was the coolest thing. Listen to one of their most famous songs, ‘Lola‘ to hear the brother harmonizing effect. It reminds a lot of Ronnie Lane’s style of singing, though with a rocking edge.

These two solo albums I  have are hit and miss. Dave shows off his guitar chops. On the bar code album, he puts the bar code on the the cover as the main art for the album, perhaps making the statement that his music is seen as nothing more than a commodity? I’m just guessing here.

Best song on bar code album, ‘Doing the Best for You,’  simple little melody on piano with crunching guitars. The Chosen People has a lovely song called ‘Give Me One More Chance.’

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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Danny and Dusty — 545

ALBUM:  The Lost Weekend (1985)

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

I’m in the D’s. Time to get down  and dirty.

So apopros that my alphabetical system provokes me to take a look at Danny and Dusty.

This all-star band, well, maybe minor league all- star, has some gut-barrel, singalong barroom music on  it. ‘D’ for drunk, maybe?

This is a buddy group with Dan Stuart from the band Green On Red and Steve (Dusty) from Dream Syndicate. Members of those bands and the Long Ryders were the backing band.

I have some Green on Red somewhere, maybe disc, and this is reminding me of some great  songs they did in the 1980s ‘post-psychedelic movement’ in the SF Bay Area. (To be honest, Green on Red  sounded more country punk to me.) One song, I can’t recall it’s name, had a line it about ‘working at the Piggly Wiggly’ — it always made me laugh. I’ll try to find the song and post.

Now I live a block away from a Piggly Wiggly. But I also lived in the Bay Area for a decade and don’t remember ever seeing a Pig there?

Anyway, D&D is a fun listen, probably recorded most songs in 1 or 2 takes.  The Dylan cover of ‘Knocking on Heaven’s Door’ is a different take, and not bad. (Still my favorite cover of that song is  probably Guns N’ Roses version, though I never was huge GNR fan—I felt like I was too old to enjoy them. Odd, b/c I like  some Chili Peppers).

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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Creedence Clearwater Revival–549, 548, 547, 546

ALBUMS: Chronicle (1976); Green River (1969);  Willy and the Poor Boys  (1969);  Mardi Gras (1972).

MVC Rating: Chronicle 5.0 Green River 4.5; Willy and the Poor Boys; Mardi Gras 4.0

In the liner notes. (Stop. Need to explain: Liner notes are essays, histories or any little write-up written on all that ample space on the  cover,  jacket or sleeves of records.  It’s a way to give some history, preview the new record or point out something. They all but disappeared when CDs  came out b/c space was so tight on the much smaller recordings.)

But I digress.

In the liner notes, Greil Marcus makes a reference to  ‘striking a chord.’ Marcus is the godfather of rock writers who once wrote for Creem. Five points if anybody remembers that influential magazine.  Anyway, I continue to digress. So Marcus wrote this in the liner notes to ‘Chronicle,’ the 20-song greatest hits double -record released after the group broke up.

So here in part is what he wrote:

“Making music against the grain of the post San Francisco pop music of the Sixties, Creedence struck a true chord with records that were clean, demanding, vivid and fast — with what might be called straightforward lyricism.”

The keyword here is chord. Listen to Creedence and you will notice rock and roll chords, minor chords that sound just right, rhythm guitar out front. Chords are  different notes that make a nice sound when they get played together.

I could go a dozen ways in a post about CCR. My first two 33 and-a-third RPM LPs were ABC by the Jackson 5 and Cosmos Factory by Creedence Clearwater Revival (Up Around the Bend, Run Through the Jungle, Long as I Can see the Light.) Excellent stuff.

Loved both albums.  I was into Michael Jackson early. Basically Michael and I were the same age so it was about 9 or 10 when I got into MJ. I remember Mama Pearl jumping out of the radio, and of course the best — ‘I Want You Back.’ Both of those albums, ABC and  Cosmos Factory, are long gone  from my collection. Although I think I still have Wilson  Pickett’s 45 ‘Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool You.’ As I write this, I’m thinking now how I came to like such disparate music. J5 and CCR were far apart except for two things:  they connected to a lot of people and had something you can’t manufacture — talent.

They were hit machines.

I remember I was about 9 or 10 when I  got Cosmos Factory from  my father who was out of town on a business trip and came back with the album. He knew I liked CCR because on long trips from Georgia to see grandparents in Texas, I’d flip the dials on the radio. ‘Looking out My Back Door’ was big then as was ‘Who’ll Stop the Rain’ which my mother loved. Probably ‘Rollin’ on the River.’

This was some family harmony tied to  music by these long haired rockers who sounded like they crawled out of the bayou we just drove past in Louisiana. But they were actually from the SF Bay Area, Fremont, I think. A town that would be many years later where my employer ran the local paper there (in addition to a handful of other papers.)

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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Dolly Parton — 555, 554, 553

ALBUMS: The Best of Dolly Parton (1970); Best of Dolly Parton (1975); Dolly Greatest Hits (1982)

MVC Rating: Best (’70) 4.5/$$$; Best (’75) 5.O/$$$$; Greatest (82) 4.0/$$$

I’m jealous. My friend and colleague Greg Garrison, AL.com’s religion reporter for decades, drove to Dollywood Thursday night and had an interview Friday with Dolly Parton.

I’m Greg’s editor and he did the smart thing to call me AFTER he was on his way lest I would have ordered him to pick me up. I would have brought my three Dolly albums  with me of course and asked her to sign them. Obnoxious that would be — at the least. So Greg, thanks for waiting on that call.

For my part, I am going to move Dolly Parton up the alphabetical scale of myvinylcountdown.com .

I’m almost up to the D’s anyway, which would make a good fit. You know, D for Dolly.

Dolly Parton is 72 and I  am 58. About 50 years ago I became a fan. As young boy, about 8 or 9 or so, I saw her on TV, on The Porter Wagoner Show. Dolly was kind of a sidekick to Porter, the sequin jacketed country singer with slicked back hair.

As I said, I was about 8 watching B&W TV as Porter introduced Dolly singing her new song. ‘I Will Always Love You.’  That song become a minor hit at the time. And it was embedded in my 8-year-old brain.

Years later Whitney Houston took it to worldwide fame and many people thought it was a new song.

I like Dolly’s version better. Whitney could definitely power through with a voice almost too good to be true. But I blame Whitney, (rest in peace) for all of the vocal gyrations that led to and became overused on vehicles such as ‘American Idol.’

Couple things I learned or my memory was refreshed about: Dolly Parton has an incredible natural voice and sings songs like she means them which is the point of singing, no? Connecting with an audience.She sings with the right emphasis and uses the right inflection.

Her voice is the real deal. But not only that, she played many instruments, guitar, banjo and piano. And maybe more impressive than all; she wrote nearly all of her songs, some of which have become classics.

She had 25 No. 1 Billboard country hits. She did movies, some good, some not so much. But I enjoyed ‘9 to 5.’

The three albums I have are about the perfect snapshot of her career in music. The 1970 best-of covers the early years and has a startling version of ‘Mule Skinner Blues’ complete with yodeling. Dolly makes you love yodeling even if you hate yodeling. This record also may have the definitive version of ‘How Great Thou Art.’

The second best-of  (from 1975) has her signature songs that led her to the big time. ‘Jolene,’ ‘I Will Always Love You’ and ‘Coat of Many Colors’ and ‘Love is Like a Butterfly.’

The third album 1982’s Greatest  Hits chronicles her crossing over from mostly pure country to a more pop sound that garnered bigger audiences but I didn’t like it as well as the earlier two albums.

It has such megahits as ‘Islands in the Stream’ and ‘9 to 5,’ from the movie soundtrack of the same name.

Videos below include a surprising cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ a classic 70s rock tune that few artists ever attempt to cover because the multi-layered original is considered definitive. And the  early introduction of ‘I will Always Love You.’

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.

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Cream –560, 559

ALBUMS: Wheel of Fire (1968);  Disraeli  Gears (1967)

MVC Rating: Wheels 4.0/$$$$;l Disraeli, 4.5/$$$$$

Listening to these now after all these years, they sound to my ears  like historical archives.

It’s like finding old Da Vinci sketches that were mind blowing at the time. But now while those flying machines are fun, they don’t really take you anywhere.

Hearing and evaluating these albums properly would be to project yourself to the late 1960s and so you could hear it for the first time. That electrified blues rock  must have been mind blowing upon first and early listens.

But it’s a little bit like when I was around 9 or 10  hearing Wilson Pickett and James Brown for the first time. This was so foreign from the bubblegum music of the day such as the Partridge Family, the Osmonds and Bobby Sherman. (I put the Jackson 5 in a category by themselves, beyond bubblegum.)

Still, you will notice, I give these records high grades because, well, they deserve them. Disraeli being my favorite gets 4.5.

‘Strange Brew,’ and ‘Sunshine of your Love’ were the two hit songs off of Disraeli Gears. ‘White Room’ off of Wheels of Fire was their second biggest selling single after Sunshine.

Listening to them as historic artifacts doesn’t mean they can’t be loved, but for me it’s more that I admire and wonder about some of these. Less blues on Disraeli and more of the  psychedelic tinge that for better or worse would go on to influence groups like Deep Purple, Sabbath and, even, Jimi Hendrix. Or was it  Hendrix, with a 3-piece band as  well , influencing Cream?

But no matter  the song, there was always the expectation Eric Clapton’s stinging guitar would come slip and lash. Jack Bruce on bass, Ginger Baker on drums and Clapton could surely make some noise for a three piece. I remember one of the Beatles responding to the question about how the Beatles got to be the best rock band in the world.

And one of the Beatles said Cream might  be doing some thing better or more progressive than the Beatles. Nice political humble answer.

Based on what I hear here?

Nah.

 

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Jim Croce — 561

The little sticker says “Time In A Bottle” from the ABC TV Movie starring Desi Arnaz Jr. “She Lives”

ALBUMS:  You Don’t Mess Around with Jim (1972).

MVC Rating: 4.0/$$$

The title cut, not to be confused with his hit, Bad Bad Leroy Brown, who if  you will remember is the ‘baddest man in the whole damn town’ (and we are talking Chicago here.)

These two well-done novelty-like tunes are very similar in tone and plot. But funny as they are, they don’t really reflect the bulk of his life’s work. It was a life crammed into a very short time. He was 30 when a small plane he was on crashed in Natchitoches, La., Sept. 30, 1973 upon take off. It clipped a pecan tree in darkness. He was headed for a show in Austin, Texas.

According to bio info, in no certain order, born in South Philly of Italian-American parents in 1934, married wife Ingrid, converted to Judaism, worked as a welder and contruction worker in  college, attended Villanova, enlisted in Army National Guard to avoid being drafted, had to go  through basic training twice due to his “authority’ problem.

He once said, the nation will be prepared, “If ever there was a war where we have to defend ourseles with mops.”

The table-turning bravado in his two ‘mess around’ songs notwithstanding, the body of Croce’s songs was bittersweet and nostalgic and tear inducing, especially when falling on  the  right person’s ears at the right  time. OK, Croce almost made me cry here with a couple of his sad songs on this, his third album.  He was a deft writer.

If I could make days last forever

If words could make wishes come true

I’d save every day like a treasure and then,

Again, I would spend them with you

Tears.  And then there’s this from Photographs and Memories:

Photographs and memories

All the love you gave to me

Somehow it  just can’t be true

That’s all I  have left of you

Gulp. And that’s not even including the song about asking his Mamma and Daddy to send him some money to Sunday Mission, Box Number 10. Or asking the operator to help place the call.

Maybe  all that heartbreak was behind why he had to write lines like:

You don’t tug on Superman’s cape

You don’t spit into the wind

You don’t pull the mask off the old  Lone Ranger

And you don’t mess around with Jim

Jim Croce never got to see his full success.

Many of his songs were released or went big after his death. He’s one of those artists where we say (sadly) if only they had lived, what music we would have.

Well, we were lucky that we got some very good music.

P.S. (Local note) Big Jim met his match in Croce’s song from Slim, a country boy from Alabama.  

Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.