Prices 4 books & music -- I Don't Get them.
Because I'm a low-budget guy, I'm constantly looking 2 Xpand my musical & reading horizons on the cheap. & I can't TELL you how much GREAT stuff I've found at (this is not a commercial) Amazon.com 4 A PENNY + shipping. You probly wouldn't believe me anyway.
The abundance of this Cheap Stuff convinces me that Billy Joel was right when he sang in "The Entertainer" that "If I go cold I won't get sold, I'll get put in the back in the discount rack, like another can of beans." When it comes 2 music & books, goodness & price have nothing 2 do with each other. You know how many 5-star books & CD's you can now get 4 a penny? More than you'll EVER read or listen to....
Of course your mileage may vary, but the more Xpensive stuff often makes no sense 2 me, the massive amount of $$$ people ask 4 stuff & Xpect that Some Fanatic Out There will pay. I'm not that fanatic.
4 instance:
David Sancious and Tone's 1976 jazz-rock/prog classic TRANSFORMATION: THE SPEED OF LOVE. Xcellent album in places, with cosmic musical themes & synthesizer riffs that R GUARANTEED 2 mess up your body-rhythms, + 1 gorgeous solo piano piece. Got my vinyl copy back in 1979 4 $5.99. Awhile back someone was selling a used copy on Amazon & asking $250! Yes, this album will Change Your Life -- but not THAT much.
SOME sanity has obviously dawned on sellers out there: You can now buy a used vinyl copy of TRANSFORMATION 4 a totally reasonable $4. But if you want it on CD, the price starts at $80. No.
But that's just the start of the insanity. Sancious' previous album, the not-as-startling or life-changing FOREST OF FEELINGS, is available on vinyl 4 a fairly reasonable $8. But if you want the CD, it's gonna cost you $455. & it ain't worth it, folks.
More weirdness? Sancious' follow-up 2 TRANSFORMATION, 1979's disappointingly average jazz-rock-pop TRUE STORIES, is $516.80 for the CD. THAT'S INSANE. I got my copy 4 $5 a couple years ago & was disappointed with it THEN. The released version of the album was messed-with by Arista Records, who pleaded with Sancious 2 come up with something reasonably commercial rather than the 4 9-to-15-minute instrumental suites he'd originally planned. If I could hear the album he'd ORIGINALLY intended, I MIGHT pay $500 4 THAT....
(BTW, if you'd be willing 2 buy a copy of TRUE STORIES 4 $500, PLEASE drop me your e-mail address or phone # in the comments below. I've probly got some other high-priced stuff around the house you might like 2....)
Another Xample: Cromagnon's 1969 brain-damage "classic" CAVE ROCK. My blogging buddy Crabby sent me a copy of this last year when I was musically bored, & it shocked & disturbed me 2 the point that I'll never play it again. But a few months ago, folks were asking $50 4 the CD. You can have MINE 4 $50 right now!
Here again, some sanity has prevailed: Currently you can get a copy of CAVE ROCK 4 $5. But if you want it on vinyl, it's gonna cost you $26. Ghod knows why you would want it at ALL, but again, if you're intrested, drop me a note below, etc.
I understand Rareness. I'm OK with that. If sellers want 2 ask from $190 2 $400 4 a copy of Dan Matovina's WITHOUT YOU: THE TRAGIC STORY OF BADFINGER, there's nothing I can do. I know the story, but I'd love 2 learn more, & reviews indicate Matovina got all the ugly legal (& other) details down brilliantly & with a lot of sensitivity. Copies of the book also come with a CD of music, outtakes, interviews, etc. I'd love 2 read/hear it. But not 4 $190....
Ken Sharp's OVERNIGHT SENSATION: THE STORY OF THE RASPBERRIES usedta B pretty high-priced, 2. Now it's a mere $40. & there's not even any gut-wrenching tragedies in that story.
10+ years ago, when I was a lot stupider about this Internet ordering stuff than I am now, I 1nce paid $140 4 an original Warner Books paperback copy of Jack Ketchum's horror novel THE GIRL NEXT DOOR -- supposedly The Ultimate Horror Novel, & very rare at the time. (Verdict: 4 stars, but it won't Change Your Life.)
& of course, Ghod got me back, Bcos 3 or 4 years later, Leisure Books reissued the novel 4 $3.95. & it's gone thru a couple more printings since then. Lotsa Ketchum's books tend 2 grab high used prices Bcos they appeared only briefly as paperback originals. Out on bookstore shelves & newsstands 4 a month & then Gone Forever....
Not so long ago, I paid $95 4 a copy of Sid Smith's Xcellent IN THE COURT OF KING CRIMSON, & I was more than satisfied with it. I think it's the best, most detailed book we'll get about that band until Rockin' Bobby Fripp writes his memoirs. Prices 4 it have gotten a little better -- you can now score a used copy 4 $59. But a new, updated version is reportedly Coming Soon....
Again, I understand Rareness & how that might boost prices. Grobschnitt's Krautrock classic ROCKPOMMEL'S LAND -- which features 1 charming 3-minute popsong called "Anywhere" & a 20-minute title track, & which I've bn looking 4 another copy of since 1978 -- is now available on vinyl 4 a mere $26. But if you want the CD you're gonna havta pay $90 2 $117. Why?
Deep-voiced & whimsical British prog-rocker Kevin Ayers' rare import-only outtakes collection ODD DITTIES will run you $40 on vinyl, but from $18 to $103 on CD. But he also has a best-of with mosta the ODD DITTIES songs you Need To Hear -- & it's only $3.
A copy of John Coltrane's ASCENSION on vinyl is $120. I saw a copy awhile back in a used record store 4 $75. But you can still get GIANT STEPS and A LOVE SUPREME 4 less than $5 on CD. & they're worth it.
Gentle Giant's rare imported GIANT STEPS best-of -- featuring a coupla songs you can hardly find anywhere else -- is $13-$26 on CD, $15-$52 on vinyl. The Giant's equally rare & import-only PRETENSIOUS best-of -- a better selection -- is $45 on vinyl.
Probly none of this stuff will ever make sense 2 me. The seller's motto is Whatever The Traffic Will Bear. I still Don't Get why people (and Capitol/EMI) ask such outrageous prices 4 Beatles albums that have never gone out of print....
But tonight while browsing 4 outrageous prices I found a vinyl copy of Space Art's A TRIP IN THE CENTER HEAD -- the best, most memorable synthesizer album I've ever heard, & I haven't heard a note of it since 1982 -- for only $9.98, & I am gonna GRAB that sucker.
Happy hunting....
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Monday, May 20, 2013
We're off again....
Me & Rastro's Fear and Loathing in Known Space blog has just been updated 4 the 1st time in 5 months. If you could use a comedy break, join the laffs in our tribute 2 gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson & science-fiction writer Larry Niven....
#671: Not quite the same old same-old
Still not much New going on around here. Took my usual bagfull of rock&roll motivational CD's 2 work this past week, then got bored & added some Country Women (Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Pam Tillis, Trisha Yearwood, Wynonna, Carlene Carter, Suzy Bogguss) thinking they'd motivate me -- then got bored with them & added some New Stuff. Here's how it turned out....
Moody Blues -- The Story in Your Eyes, Question, It's Up to You, One More Time to Live, You Can Never Go Home, I'm Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band.
Boston -- Used to Bad News, It's Easy, Hitch a Ride.
Kansas -- Miracles Out of Nowhere, Questions of My Childhood, What's on My Mind, Cheyenne Anthem.
Bangles -- Let it Go, September Gurls, Angels Don't Fall in Love.
Beatles -- Eight Days a Week, Ticket to Ride, Help!, Paperback Writer.
Mary-Chapin Carpenter -- Passionate Kisses, The Hard Way, This Shirt, You Win Again, Middle Ground, Downtown Train.
Pam Tillis -- Homeward Looking Angel, Whenever You Walk in the Room, I Was Blown Away, Melancholy Child.
Wynonna -- Tell Me Why.
When in Rome -- The Promise.
Be-Bop Deluxe -- RAIDING THE DIVINE ARCHIVE best-of: Jet Silver and the Dolls of Venus, Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape, Maid in Heaven, Ships in the Night, Life in the Air Age, Kiss of Light, Sister Seagull, Modern Music, Fair Exchange, Sleep That Burns.
Barclay James Harvest -- THE HARVEST YEARS best-of: Early Morning, Mr. Sunshine, Pools of Blue, I Can't Go On Without You, Eden Unobtainable, Brother Thrush, Poor Wages, Taking Some Time On, Galadriel, Mocking Bird.
New Order -- Regret, True Faith.
My Usual Collection of upbeat rock&roll CD's 4 work does keep me moving & motivated, but I'm BORED. I'm bored with all the old familiar motivational stuff, & I'm bored with mosta the new stuff I've recently tried unsuccessfully 2 break-in. & with the Really Bad new stuff, all movement & motivation grinds 2 a complete halt.
A couple nites this past week I got so bored musically that I even took 2 LISTENING TO THE RADIO. The music stations, I mean. & it didn't sound 1/2 bad....
Anyway.... "Passionate Kisses" is still a freakin' classic -- the version that's on MCC's COME ON COME ON, I mean. The later remixed version on her ESSENTIAL seemsta bring her voice more out-front & she doesn't sound 2 Xcited -- & that's not good. I'm also a sucker 4 "The Hard Way," "You Win Again," "This Shirt," "Downtown Train".... MCC hadda great run, but she needs a better best-of.
MCC wishes she hadda band as great as Pam Tillis did. The best of Pam's stuff is classic, especially the old Jackie DeShannon/Searchers number "Whenever You Walk in the Room," a bittersweet lovesong that shoulda been a huge hit. "Homeward Looking Angel"'s a great twangy heart-puller as well, & I've grown 2 love "I Was Blown Away," which along with its great lovestory lyric features a wonderful tho brief twangy-reel midsection. "Melancholy Child" is also 5-star stuff -- all these shoulda been huge hits. Whatever happened 2 this woman...?
Be-Bop? Well, SUNBURST FINISH is 1/2 of a great prog-rock album. 2 bad most of the best stuff from it wasn't included on their single-disc best-of. Bill Nelson always did flashy, melodic, dramatic guitar work, & some of it's just plain gorgeous. Even if the songs don't work, the gtr usually does. But his Bowie/Ferry-style voice puts me off a bit, like he's not entirely serious or he's implying more than what's in the songs.
Among what's here, "Maid in Heaven" is 2 brief & just about perfect. "Life in the Air Age" gets better with repeated listenings, the lyrics R cool, & I love the tired, resigned electronic squiggles at the end. "Jet Silver and the Dolls of Venus" sounds very much like a Ziggy-era Bowie piece -- & I assume was so intended. "Kiss of Light" was intended as a single, & continues the direct approach of "Maid in Heaven." "Sister Seagull" has some more really nice gtr, not sure about the lyrics.
My pick 4 Be-Bop's best is still the hugely dramatic "Sleep That Burns," with more great soaring gtr & a nice nightmarish lyric. Best thing about the mechanical chugga-chugga "Ships in the Night" is the sax solo by Bill's brother Ian. Both these R from SUNBURST FINISH, as is the mean-spirited "Fair Exchange." Why isn't "Crying to the Sky" here? It has summa Bill's most gorgeous gtr work. Even "Heavenly Homes" would B more representative, & it has more stratospheric gtr. & the driving "Blazing Apostles" would B a nice addition.
I'll get back 2 these guys -- they have just enuf talent & flashy pyrotechnics 2 keep me listening. Haven't figured out why their best stuff seems 2 have a Latin-like lilt 2 it...?
4 me, Barclay James Harvest is still in the running 4 Worst Prog Band Ever. I'd love 2 love them -- they're from the right period & they've got all the right parts, but they're SO uneven, & they have whole ALBUMS that never get anywhere near Good -- try out OCTOBERON or XII & see what I mean.... ROLLING STONE 1nce described them as "morose progressive rock," & there's a lotta truth 2 that....
Their best work is still 1977's GONE TO EARTH, where they rise above Average Xactly 3 times: On the gorgeous, moody "Spirit on the Water," the soaring "Hymn," & the crashingly melodramatic "Poor Man's Moody Blues." You might also wanna check-out their later "Ring of Changes" (their best ever!), "Play to the World" & "The Song They Love to Sing"....
But none of that's up 4 consideration on THE HARVEST YEARS, which compiles highlights of BJH's 1st 4 early-'70s albums 4 the Harvest label. The earliest of this stuff is very lightweight, pastel psychedelic pop, utterly harmless, tho they do know how 2 write a hook, & there R some darker undercurrents ("Mister Sunshine's not for me...."). On summa this, they sound like Syd Barrett's nervously straight younger brother.
"Brother Thrush" is the strongest, prettiest, catchiest of their early attempts at singalongs (even tho it's set after the end of mankind), & "Poor Wages" starts their moodier, more dramatic streak. "Taking Some Time On" is a solid fuzz-guitar rocker in much the same vein as Badfinger's "Rock of All Ages" -- they shoulda done more stuff like this. But some of this early material is just unsuccessful -- tho it was OK background music 4 mopping the floor at work.
"Galadriel" is a lighter-than-air portrait of an etheriel young woman, tho I'm not sure about the LORD OF THE RINGS reference. "Mocking Bird" is rather good -- until the huge orchestra starts thrashing around & swamps it. Completely overdone -- BJH never did know when 2 quit.
I'll B listening 2 more of this -- including the slightly-later orchestrated stuff, still hoping 2 find more hidden greats....
Hope you've all been catching SOUND OPINIONS, rock critics Jim DeRogatis & Greg Kott's syndicated weekly music-news-reviews&interviews show (aired here every Sun nite at 10 pm on the University of Washington's KUOW-FM). In recent weeks they've had interviews with producer Joe Boyd looking back at the work of Nick Drake, & with former New Order bassist Peter Hooke talking about Joy Division & Ian Curtis. The last of these included some trax that reminded me just how great New Order's "Regret" & "True Faith" R -- I should try 2 hear the rest of their best-of someday soon, & I WILL. The only Joy Division trax I've ever heard were the pieces played during this interview.... Jim & Greg also reviewed the Savages' SILENCE YOURSELF, & it sounds pretty intense, might havta check it out....
I still hava pretty-good-sized pile of mostly-unheard stuff here & will B going thru it in bits & pieces as I've done lately with the Strawbs, Be-Bop & BJH. In the meantime, if you know of some music that'll light up my life & relieve the musical boredom, feel free 2 drop it in the comments section below.
More soon....
Moody Blues -- The Story in Your Eyes, Question, It's Up to You, One More Time to Live, You Can Never Go Home, I'm Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band.
Boston -- Used to Bad News, It's Easy, Hitch a Ride.
Kansas -- Miracles Out of Nowhere, Questions of My Childhood, What's on My Mind, Cheyenne Anthem.
Bangles -- Let it Go, September Gurls, Angels Don't Fall in Love.
Beatles -- Eight Days a Week, Ticket to Ride, Help!, Paperback Writer.
Mary-Chapin Carpenter -- Passionate Kisses, The Hard Way, This Shirt, You Win Again, Middle Ground, Downtown Train.
Pam Tillis -- Homeward Looking Angel, Whenever You Walk in the Room, I Was Blown Away, Melancholy Child.
Wynonna -- Tell Me Why.
When in Rome -- The Promise.
Be-Bop Deluxe -- RAIDING THE DIVINE ARCHIVE best-of: Jet Silver and the Dolls of Venus, Adventures in a Yorkshire Landscape, Maid in Heaven, Ships in the Night, Life in the Air Age, Kiss of Light, Sister Seagull, Modern Music, Fair Exchange, Sleep That Burns.
Barclay James Harvest -- THE HARVEST YEARS best-of: Early Morning, Mr. Sunshine, Pools of Blue, I Can't Go On Without You, Eden Unobtainable, Brother Thrush, Poor Wages, Taking Some Time On, Galadriel, Mocking Bird.
New Order -- Regret, True Faith.
My Usual Collection of upbeat rock&roll CD's 4 work does keep me moving & motivated, but I'm BORED. I'm bored with all the old familiar motivational stuff, & I'm bored with mosta the new stuff I've recently tried unsuccessfully 2 break-in. & with the Really Bad new stuff, all movement & motivation grinds 2 a complete halt.
A couple nites this past week I got so bored musically that I even took 2 LISTENING TO THE RADIO. The music stations, I mean. & it didn't sound 1/2 bad....
Anyway.... "Passionate Kisses" is still a freakin' classic -- the version that's on MCC's COME ON COME ON, I mean. The later remixed version on her ESSENTIAL seemsta bring her voice more out-front & she doesn't sound 2 Xcited -- & that's not good. I'm also a sucker 4 "The Hard Way," "You Win Again," "This Shirt," "Downtown Train".... MCC hadda great run, but she needs a better best-of.
MCC wishes she hadda band as great as Pam Tillis did. The best of Pam's stuff is classic, especially the old Jackie DeShannon/Searchers number "Whenever You Walk in the Room," a bittersweet lovesong that shoulda been a huge hit. "Homeward Looking Angel"'s a great twangy heart-puller as well, & I've grown 2 love "I Was Blown Away," which along with its great lovestory lyric features a wonderful tho brief twangy-reel midsection. "Melancholy Child" is also 5-star stuff -- all these shoulda been huge hits. Whatever happened 2 this woman...?
Be-Bop? Well, SUNBURST FINISH is 1/2 of a great prog-rock album. 2 bad most of the best stuff from it wasn't included on their single-disc best-of. Bill Nelson always did flashy, melodic, dramatic guitar work, & some of it's just plain gorgeous. Even if the songs don't work, the gtr usually does. But his Bowie/Ferry-style voice puts me off a bit, like he's not entirely serious or he's implying more than what's in the songs.
Among what's here, "Maid in Heaven" is 2 brief & just about perfect. "Life in the Air Age" gets better with repeated listenings, the lyrics R cool, & I love the tired, resigned electronic squiggles at the end. "Jet Silver and the Dolls of Venus" sounds very much like a Ziggy-era Bowie piece -- & I assume was so intended. "Kiss of Light" was intended as a single, & continues the direct approach of "Maid in Heaven." "Sister Seagull" has some more really nice gtr, not sure about the lyrics.
My pick 4 Be-Bop's best is still the hugely dramatic "Sleep That Burns," with more great soaring gtr & a nice nightmarish lyric. Best thing about the mechanical chugga-chugga "Ships in the Night" is the sax solo by Bill's brother Ian. Both these R from SUNBURST FINISH, as is the mean-spirited "Fair Exchange." Why isn't "Crying to the Sky" here? It has summa Bill's most gorgeous gtr work. Even "Heavenly Homes" would B more representative, & it has more stratospheric gtr. & the driving "Blazing Apostles" would B a nice addition.
I'll get back 2 these guys -- they have just enuf talent & flashy pyrotechnics 2 keep me listening. Haven't figured out why their best stuff seems 2 have a Latin-like lilt 2 it...?
4 me, Barclay James Harvest is still in the running 4 Worst Prog Band Ever. I'd love 2 love them -- they're from the right period & they've got all the right parts, but they're SO uneven, & they have whole ALBUMS that never get anywhere near Good -- try out OCTOBERON or XII & see what I mean.... ROLLING STONE 1nce described them as "morose progressive rock," & there's a lotta truth 2 that....
Their best work is still 1977's GONE TO EARTH, where they rise above Average Xactly 3 times: On the gorgeous, moody "Spirit on the Water," the soaring "Hymn," & the crashingly melodramatic "Poor Man's Moody Blues." You might also wanna check-out their later "Ring of Changes" (their best ever!), "Play to the World" & "The Song They Love to Sing"....
But none of that's up 4 consideration on THE HARVEST YEARS, which compiles highlights of BJH's 1st 4 early-'70s albums 4 the Harvest label. The earliest of this stuff is very lightweight, pastel psychedelic pop, utterly harmless, tho they do know how 2 write a hook, & there R some darker undercurrents ("Mister Sunshine's not for me...."). On summa this, they sound like Syd Barrett's nervously straight younger brother.
"Brother Thrush" is the strongest, prettiest, catchiest of their early attempts at singalongs (even tho it's set after the end of mankind), & "Poor Wages" starts their moodier, more dramatic streak. "Taking Some Time On" is a solid fuzz-guitar rocker in much the same vein as Badfinger's "Rock of All Ages" -- they shoulda done more stuff like this. But some of this early material is just unsuccessful -- tho it was OK background music 4 mopping the floor at work.
"Galadriel" is a lighter-than-air portrait of an etheriel young woman, tho I'm not sure about the LORD OF THE RINGS reference. "Mocking Bird" is rather good -- until the huge orchestra starts thrashing around & swamps it. Completely overdone -- BJH never did know when 2 quit.
I'll B listening 2 more of this -- including the slightly-later orchestrated stuff, still hoping 2 find more hidden greats....
Hope you've all been catching SOUND OPINIONS, rock critics Jim DeRogatis & Greg Kott's syndicated weekly music-news-reviews&interviews show (aired here every Sun nite at 10 pm on the University of Washington's KUOW-FM). In recent weeks they've had interviews with producer Joe Boyd looking back at the work of Nick Drake, & with former New Order bassist Peter Hooke talking about Joy Division & Ian Curtis. The last of these included some trax that reminded me just how great New Order's "Regret" & "True Faith" R -- I should try 2 hear the rest of their best-of someday soon, & I WILL. The only Joy Division trax I've ever heard were the pieces played during this interview.... Jim & Greg also reviewed the Savages' SILENCE YOURSELF, & it sounds pretty intense, might havta check it out....
I still hava pretty-good-sized pile of mostly-unheard stuff here & will B going thru it in bits & pieces as I've done lately with the Strawbs, Be-Bop & BJH. In the meantime, if you know of some music that'll light up my life & relieve the musical boredom, feel free 2 drop it in the comments section below.
More soon....
Thursday, May 16, 2013
The Nazi Raves!
Over at THE GAS NAZI!, along with quickly-rising gas prices, I'm raving about the differences in work performance between men & women. This post will probly piss a lotta people off -- especially if you're a woman. Feel free 2 dive in....
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
#670: Fall 1973
It's the Fall of 1973 in Boise, Idaho, & Life Is Good.
I'm in 9th grade at North Boise Junior High, just starting 2 figure out what I'm good at & what's ahead of me. I'm on the school newspaper staff, writing silly comedy columns 4 my mostly-silly classmates. I know I wanna B a writer when I grow up.
I'm living in the basement of my parents' house on Bannock Street in the North End, just off of 23rd St., in a 2-tone brown stucco house from the early '50s -- & 4 the 1st time ever I don't havta close my bedroom door 2 get some privacy, because Xcept 4 calling me 2 dinner, nobody ever comes downstairs!
I'm writing in that basement -- tho I can't remember WHAT, & I'm playing the radio, & I'm reading constantly. Sometimes all 3 at once.
My Cousin Dave has joined the Navy, & somehow I've inherited sevral boxes full of his old science-fiction novels & short story collections, & old mid-'60s issues of GALAXY and WORLDS OF IF magazines, with stuff like Larry Niven's 1st stories, & classic old Harlan Ellison stories, Robert Silverberg, parts of Roger Zelazny's great CREATURES OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS, & LOTS more. I'd give anything 2 get these old magazines back now.
Among the books R Terry Carr's great BEST SCIENCE FICTION OF THE YEAR anthologies (with Graeme Leman's hilarious "Conversational Mode" & Joe Haldeman's gritty "Hero"), & tons of novels, & story collections from the mid-'60s that I'll never see anywhere ever again -- Tom Boardman's ABC'S OF SCIENCE FICTION, CONISSEUR'S SCIENCE FICTION, & probly even Harlan Ellison's OFFBEAT CLASSICS OF SF. All this stuff is rare & priceless now, & it's all long gone.
I trade-off almost all of it at The Used Bookstore that's a 2-minute bike ride from my house. I spend DAYS there, picking up newer SF magazines & stuff that I'm more intrested in. This starts a lifelong addiction 2 SF, kicked-off by discovering ANALOG magazine & reading George R.R. Martin's amazing & suprisingly erotic "A Song for Lya." & the 1,000's of paperbacks in the store R available 4 a 2-books-for-1 trade, or for 25 cents each.
Back home the radio is going thru a golden autumn. KFXD is kicking butt among pop stations in the Boise Valley, as it always did. They're playing stuff like Steely Dan's "My Old School," 10 C.C.'s "Rubber Bullets," Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Still ... You Turn Me On," Pratt and MacClain's "When My Ship Comes In," Cozy Powell's "Dance With the Devil," Austin Roberts' "One Word," The Sutherland Brothers and Quiver's "You've Got Me Anyway," Elton John's "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding," "Grey Seal" & "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," Matthew Fisher's "Interlude," Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells"....
Over on the FM dial there's signs of life, as KBBK uses their brand-new no-static-at-all computer-automated format 2 blast out Yes's "Starship Trooper," which I've never heard B4 -- tho I soon obtain a copy of Yes's YESSONGS & start playing it over&over on my tape-player....
On the radio at nite I can pick up Art Finley's talk-radio show from San Francisco, L.A. Kings hockey games from Los Angeles, oldies rock&roll from Vancouver BC Canada & Oklahoma City & El Paso, Texas, & all-news from Omaha. From right in town I get CBS's Radio Mystery Theater.
& if there's nothing good on the radio I've got dozens of cassettes filled with hits from the past few years & other silliness -- summa the hits go back 2 early 1971: The Wackers' "I Hardly Know Her Name," Kracker's "Because of You," Johnathan King's "Tall Order for a Short Guy," Billy Lee Riley's "I've Got a Thing About You Baby," Manfred Mann's Earth Band's "Living Without You," Joni Mitchell's "Raised on Robbery" & loads more, stuff it takes me YEARS 2 find again after the tapes fall apart -- The Royal Guardsmen's "Snoopy's Christmas," The English Congregation's "Softly Whispering I Love You," Five Man Electrical Band's "Absolutely Right." Some I never find again -- like Heaven Bound's "Five Hundred Miles" & The Road Home's "Keep it in the Family."
My record collection at this point is Nothing Much -- lotsa singles, but on albums only Neil Diamond, Bread, Lobo, The Carpenters, Three Dog Night, The Osmonds, Mike Oldfield. But when we visit my Cousin Jim's house, he's got a ton of albums left 2 him by Cousin Dave, & he puts on DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED and SGT. PEPPER and BEATLES '65 and The Monkees' HEADQUARTERS and The Turtles' HAPPY TOGETHER and Count Five's PSYCHOTIC REACTION and Tommy James & the Shondells' CRIMSON AND CLOVER, & tons more.
M*A*S*H and THE WALTONS are all I care about on TV -- MASH because it's so freakin' funny. & John-Boy Walton is my hero & role-model.
With Cousin Jim I ride my bike all over the city & never crash or get hit by cars. I somehow ride the bike all the way 2 the top of Highland View Drive -- 1/2way up the Boise Front, it seems like -- then turn & coast all the way back downhill, really picking up speed, & roll 1/2way across town thru the North End, somehow avoiding cars & signal lites & stop signs & traffic cops.
I've just turned 14 years old, & I'm likely never going 2 have this much totally innocent fun ever again....
I'm in 9th grade at North Boise Junior High, just starting 2 figure out what I'm good at & what's ahead of me. I'm on the school newspaper staff, writing silly comedy columns 4 my mostly-silly classmates. I know I wanna B a writer when I grow up.
I'm living in the basement of my parents' house on Bannock Street in the North End, just off of 23rd St., in a 2-tone brown stucco house from the early '50s -- & 4 the 1st time ever I don't havta close my bedroom door 2 get some privacy, because Xcept 4 calling me 2 dinner, nobody ever comes downstairs!
I'm writing in that basement -- tho I can't remember WHAT, & I'm playing the radio, & I'm reading constantly. Sometimes all 3 at once.
My Cousin Dave has joined the Navy, & somehow I've inherited sevral boxes full of his old science-fiction novels & short story collections, & old mid-'60s issues of GALAXY and WORLDS OF IF magazines, with stuff like Larry Niven's 1st stories, & classic old Harlan Ellison stories, Robert Silverberg, parts of Roger Zelazny's great CREATURES OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS, & LOTS more. I'd give anything 2 get these old magazines back now.
Among the books R Terry Carr's great BEST SCIENCE FICTION OF THE YEAR anthologies (with Graeme Leman's hilarious "Conversational Mode" & Joe Haldeman's gritty "Hero"), & tons of novels, & story collections from the mid-'60s that I'll never see anywhere ever again -- Tom Boardman's ABC'S OF SCIENCE FICTION, CONISSEUR'S SCIENCE FICTION, & probly even Harlan Ellison's OFFBEAT CLASSICS OF SF. All this stuff is rare & priceless now, & it's all long gone.
I trade-off almost all of it at The Used Bookstore that's a 2-minute bike ride from my house. I spend DAYS there, picking up newer SF magazines & stuff that I'm more intrested in. This starts a lifelong addiction 2 SF, kicked-off by discovering ANALOG magazine & reading George R.R. Martin's amazing & suprisingly erotic "A Song for Lya." & the 1,000's of paperbacks in the store R available 4 a 2-books-for-1 trade, or for 25 cents each.
Back home the radio is going thru a golden autumn. KFXD is kicking butt among pop stations in the Boise Valley, as it always did. They're playing stuff like Steely Dan's "My Old School," 10 C.C.'s "Rubber Bullets," Emerson, Lake and Palmer's "Still ... You Turn Me On," Pratt and MacClain's "When My Ship Comes In," Cozy Powell's "Dance With the Devil," Austin Roberts' "One Word," The Sutherland Brothers and Quiver's "You've Got Me Anyway," Elton John's "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding," "Grey Seal" & "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," Matthew Fisher's "Interlude," Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells"....
Over on the FM dial there's signs of life, as KBBK uses their brand-new no-static-at-all computer-automated format 2 blast out Yes's "Starship Trooper," which I've never heard B4 -- tho I soon obtain a copy of Yes's YESSONGS & start playing it over&over on my tape-player....
On the radio at nite I can pick up Art Finley's talk-radio show from San Francisco, L.A. Kings hockey games from Los Angeles, oldies rock&roll from Vancouver BC Canada & Oklahoma City & El Paso, Texas, & all-news from Omaha. From right in town I get CBS's Radio Mystery Theater.
& if there's nothing good on the radio I've got dozens of cassettes filled with hits from the past few years & other silliness -- summa the hits go back 2 early 1971: The Wackers' "I Hardly Know Her Name," Kracker's "Because of You," Johnathan King's "Tall Order for a Short Guy," Billy Lee Riley's "I've Got a Thing About You Baby," Manfred Mann's Earth Band's "Living Without You," Joni Mitchell's "Raised on Robbery" & loads more, stuff it takes me YEARS 2 find again after the tapes fall apart -- The Royal Guardsmen's "Snoopy's Christmas," The English Congregation's "Softly Whispering I Love You," Five Man Electrical Band's "Absolutely Right." Some I never find again -- like Heaven Bound's "Five Hundred Miles" & The Road Home's "Keep it in the Family."
My record collection at this point is Nothing Much -- lotsa singles, but on albums only Neil Diamond, Bread, Lobo, The Carpenters, Three Dog Night, The Osmonds, Mike Oldfield. But when we visit my Cousin Jim's house, he's got a ton of albums left 2 him by Cousin Dave, & he puts on DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED and SGT. PEPPER and BEATLES '65 and The Monkees' HEADQUARTERS and The Turtles' HAPPY TOGETHER and Count Five's PSYCHOTIC REACTION and Tommy James & the Shondells' CRIMSON AND CLOVER, & tons more.
M*A*S*H and THE WALTONS are all I care about on TV -- MASH because it's so freakin' funny. & John-Boy Walton is my hero & role-model.
With Cousin Jim I ride my bike all over the city & never crash or get hit by cars. I somehow ride the bike all the way 2 the top of Highland View Drive -- 1/2way up the Boise Front, it seems like -- then turn & coast all the way back downhill, really picking up speed, & roll 1/2way across town thru the North End, somehow avoiding cars & signal lites & stop signs & traffic cops.
I've just turned 14 years old, & I'm likely never going 2 have this much totally innocent fun ever again....
Monday, May 13, 2013
#669: The torture never stops
(No, this is not gonna B a post about Frank Zappa, but thanx 4 playing....)
In these recent newspaper-reminiscences I've posted, I've left out 1 of the main reasons I don't do that kinda work anymore.
Because it's a high-stress job, & as a reporter it's VERY easy 2 get people angry at you without even trying.
You usually don't see it coming, but folks can go off about the craziest things.
I had one angry woman call me up after a domestic dispute she was involved in made the front-page of the paper I was working at. Her husband got charged with assault with a deadly weapon -- a kitchen knife.
She wasn't mad about the story -- which quoted her kids telling police that Daddy said he was "going to cut Mommy's head off." That didn't bother her.
What she was upset about was the HEADLINE, which covered all the cases that got in2 court that week -- which included some meth-possession cases -- & which she said made her sound like a meth freak.
"All my neighbors and friends think I'm methed out of my head now," she said.
I explained that the story didn't say that.... That wasn't good enough for her. I READ THE STORY TO HER OVER THE PHONE, to make it clearer. She was still pissed about the headline. Finally I said I couldn't teach her friends & neighbors how to read....
After a downtown housefire on a Friday evening destroyed an apartment building & set-off some ammunition somebody had stored there, when I got in2 work on Monday I called the Fire Chief 4 more details about what happened. He didn't have 5 minutes 2 talk 2 me -- he said he was 2 busy running water lines 4 the new Fire Hall. He didn't want any of the other firefighters 2 talk 2 me about it, said I'd havta wait til he was available -- then hung up.
I called him back at 10 pm that nite, & he STILL didn't have time 2 talk 2 me.
But we were a daily paper. So I got what details I could from the Sheriff's Office & went ahead & wrote the story without the Fire Chief -- but left in quotes from him about how & why he avoided me.
& naturally, the next day when I got 2 work, the Fire Chief was in my Publisher's office, yelling at my Editor & my Publisher about what a backstabbing scumbag I was.
"I've lived here for 35 years and I don't have to take this kind of shit from you!" he yelled.
"I just want to know two things," I said. "Did I get any of the details wrong?"
"No!"
"Did I quote you accurately?"
"Well, yeah, but...."
"I'm outta here," I said, & left my bosses 2 argue with the Fire Chief -- who wanted 2 get me fired 4 not waiting 2 talk 2 him.
This kinda stuff happened ALL THE TIME. It was so stressful, the Publisher & I usedta have closed-door meetings 1nce a month so we could yell at each other & get all the stress out. Hopefully....
When we printed a photo on the front page of a fisherman's body that was fished out of the river after he'd been missing 4 a month, people called & yelled at us about that -- even tho all you could see was a big gray bag being carried by 4 guys.
When a prominent local lawyer ran 4 Mayor -- then got arrested on a meth-possession charge, I wrote the story. & then the Editor & I sat on it 4 3 days because we just weren't sure. This was a story that could ruin some1's life. Then our Publisher ordered us 2 get off the pot & run the story. We ran it on Page 2.
& the next day the Mayoral candidate called up crying. How could I DO this to her, she asked. I'd interviewed her, I'd been IN HER HOUSE! Her husband, also a lawyer, who was listening in on the phonecall, asked if they could've had a little advance warning about the story. I suggested that if they'd had any warning, they probly would've tried 2 stop the story being printed.
He laughed & said I was probably right.
I apologized 2 his wife, who I thot was a good person, & said I was sorry 4 how things had gone, & that I hoped it would all work out in the end.
She lost the election & never spoke 2 me again. I'm not sure what happened with the meth charge.
When I was in the Air Force, I got used 2 defending my writing against people who didn't understand what I did -- but who outranked me, so what they wanted was what went. I got pretty good at it anyway, even convincing some that I was right.
But in the Real World, everybody outranked me. No amount of Good Work I did (& I think I did a LOT) ever made it any easier. No doors opened more easily just because I was good at my job. There was never any big payoff or reward. There were never any "better" jobs offered than in-the-trenches reporter or small-town editor.
& I can't remember how many times people called at midnight or 4 am, spilled their guts 2 me 4 2 hours, & then said "This is all off-the-record, you can't use any of this, I never called you" ... even AFTER I told them at the start of the phonecall that I'd B taking notes.... But I always tried 2 B a Good Guy....
When I was in the AF, my old buddy & fellow editor Phil Guerrero had a joke about the kinda long stories I usedta write: "Keep typing 'til it makes sense!" 4 years, that was my motto.
But I got 2 the point where no amount of Xplaining made any diffrence, where everything was just 2 complicated, & I could no longer even find the main reason I was writing some things. 4 much of the last 4 years of my "career," I'd go in2 work on Monday morning, down a pot of coffee, write the entire front page of the paper, & go home that nite not remembering anything I'd written.
Journalism is a career 4 a young person with lots of time & lotsa energy & no social life. It's the kiss of death 4 marriages & families. You wouldn't believe how many divorced, alcoholic, unhappy reporters I met over the years....
& when I got 2 the point where I couldn't remember the basics, couldn't keep the facts straight, couldn't make any sense out of anything I was writing, no matter how much I tried 2 Xplain -- I knew it was time 2 retire.
That was almost 11 years ago, & I don't miss much of it.
In these recent newspaper-reminiscences I've posted, I've left out 1 of the main reasons I don't do that kinda work anymore.
Because it's a high-stress job, & as a reporter it's VERY easy 2 get people angry at you without even trying.
You usually don't see it coming, but folks can go off about the craziest things.
I had one angry woman call me up after a domestic dispute she was involved in made the front-page of the paper I was working at. Her husband got charged with assault with a deadly weapon -- a kitchen knife.
She wasn't mad about the story -- which quoted her kids telling police that Daddy said he was "going to cut Mommy's head off." That didn't bother her.
What she was upset about was the HEADLINE, which covered all the cases that got in2 court that week -- which included some meth-possession cases -- & which she said made her sound like a meth freak.
"All my neighbors and friends think I'm methed out of my head now," she said.
I explained that the story didn't say that.... That wasn't good enough for her. I READ THE STORY TO HER OVER THE PHONE, to make it clearer. She was still pissed about the headline. Finally I said I couldn't teach her friends & neighbors how to read....
After a downtown housefire on a Friday evening destroyed an apartment building & set-off some ammunition somebody had stored there, when I got in2 work on Monday I called the Fire Chief 4 more details about what happened. He didn't have 5 minutes 2 talk 2 me -- he said he was 2 busy running water lines 4 the new Fire Hall. He didn't want any of the other firefighters 2 talk 2 me about it, said I'd havta wait til he was available -- then hung up.
I called him back at 10 pm that nite, & he STILL didn't have time 2 talk 2 me.
But we were a daily paper. So I got what details I could from the Sheriff's Office & went ahead & wrote the story without the Fire Chief -- but left in quotes from him about how & why he avoided me.
& naturally, the next day when I got 2 work, the Fire Chief was in my Publisher's office, yelling at my Editor & my Publisher about what a backstabbing scumbag I was.
"I've lived here for 35 years and I don't have to take this kind of shit from you!" he yelled.
"I just want to know two things," I said. "Did I get any of the details wrong?"
"No!"
"Did I quote you accurately?"
"Well, yeah, but...."
"I'm outta here," I said, & left my bosses 2 argue with the Fire Chief -- who wanted 2 get me fired 4 not waiting 2 talk 2 him.
This kinda stuff happened ALL THE TIME. It was so stressful, the Publisher & I usedta have closed-door meetings 1nce a month so we could yell at each other & get all the stress out. Hopefully....
When we printed a photo on the front page of a fisherman's body that was fished out of the river after he'd been missing 4 a month, people called & yelled at us about that -- even tho all you could see was a big gray bag being carried by 4 guys.
When a prominent local lawyer ran 4 Mayor -- then got arrested on a meth-possession charge, I wrote the story. & then the Editor & I sat on it 4 3 days because we just weren't sure. This was a story that could ruin some1's life. Then our Publisher ordered us 2 get off the pot & run the story. We ran it on Page 2.
& the next day the Mayoral candidate called up crying. How could I DO this to her, she asked. I'd interviewed her, I'd been IN HER HOUSE! Her husband, also a lawyer, who was listening in on the phonecall, asked if they could've had a little advance warning about the story. I suggested that if they'd had any warning, they probly would've tried 2 stop the story being printed.
He laughed & said I was probably right.
I apologized 2 his wife, who I thot was a good person, & said I was sorry 4 how things had gone, & that I hoped it would all work out in the end.
She lost the election & never spoke 2 me again. I'm not sure what happened with the meth charge.
When I was in the Air Force, I got used 2 defending my writing against people who didn't understand what I did -- but who outranked me, so what they wanted was what went. I got pretty good at it anyway, even convincing some that I was right.
But in the Real World, everybody outranked me. No amount of Good Work I did (& I think I did a LOT) ever made it any easier. No doors opened more easily just because I was good at my job. There was never any big payoff or reward. There were never any "better" jobs offered than in-the-trenches reporter or small-town editor.
& I can't remember how many times people called at midnight or 4 am, spilled their guts 2 me 4 2 hours, & then said "This is all off-the-record, you can't use any of this, I never called you" ... even AFTER I told them at the start of the phonecall that I'd B taking notes.... But I always tried 2 B a Good Guy....
When I was in the AF, my old buddy & fellow editor Phil Guerrero had a joke about the kinda long stories I usedta write: "Keep typing 'til it makes sense!" 4 years, that was my motto.
But I got 2 the point where no amount of Xplaining made any diffrence, where everything was just 2 complicated, & I could no longer even find the main reason I was writing some things. 4 much of the last 4 years of my "career," I'd go in2 work on Monday morning, down a pot of coffee, write the entire front page of the paper, & go home that nite not remembering anything I'd written.
Journalism is a career 4 a young person with lots of time & lotsa energy & no social life. It's the kiss of death 4 marriages & families. You wouldn't believe how many divorced, alcoholic, unhappy reporters I met over the years....
& when I got 2 the point where I couldn't remember the basics, couldn't keep the facts straight, couldn't make any sense out of anything I was writing, no matter how much I tried 2 Xplain -- I knew it was time 2 retire.
That was almost 11 years ago, & I don't miss much of it.
#668: Now listening to....
Nothing much new going on here....
The List:
Strawbs -- Will Ye Go?, Part of the Union, Lay Down, The River, Down by the Sea, Tell Me What You See in Me.
Boston -- Used to Bad News, Don't Be Afraid, It's Easy, Hitch a Ride, Something About You.
Rolling Stones -- Happy, Tumbling Dice.
Modern English -- I Melt With You, Someone's Calling.
Jethro Tull -- Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day, Life's a Long Song, Living in the Past, A Christmas Song.
Pete Townshend -- Give Blood, Jools and Jim, My Baby Gives it Away, Misunderstood, Sheraton Gibson, Slit Skirts, Empty Glass.
Outkast -- Hey Ya.
Elvis -- Promised Land.
Steely Dan -- My Old School, Dirty Work.
Deep Purple -- Highway Star.
Camel -- Never Let Go, Unevensong.
I've given up on The Strawbs, 4 now. At their best they R VERY good, if you're in2 their British-folk/rock/prog approach (somewhere in the neighborhood of Fairport Convention, Renaissance, Illusion, Jethro Tull -- like that). But their very best work happens only occasionally -- the resta the time they're very Average. They have enuf great stuff in their Middle "Big Sound" Period 2 fill 1 solid CD. I'd suggest their best stuff, most worthy of tracking down, would include:
The Man Who Called Himself Jesus (live)/Where is This Dream of Your Youth? (live)/Down by the Sea/Hero and Heroine/Part of the Union/Lay Down/I'll Carry On Beside You/Keep the Devil Outside/Backside (Ciggy Barlust)/Ghosts/Grace Darling/New World/Ah Me, Ah My/Wherefore and Why.
In the latest batch above, "Will Ye Go?" sounds like the old folk-traditional/Byrds number "Wild Mountain Thyme," only rocked-up a little; it's not bad. "Part of the Union" (especially) & "Lay Down" R nice folk-poppy singalongs; "Union" has some funny lyrics. "The River" is another overwrought, melodramatic, metaphor-filled lost-love ballad. "Down by the Sea" is still pretty freaking brilliant, even with the rather awkward & melodramatic anti-climax near the end. But check out the HUGE start & finish!
I'm sorry, I wish I could get more outta these guys; I'm sorry I'm so picky. They should B right up my street. Maybe if I'd heard more of their work 30 years earlier....
Coming Soon: More Great Lost Singles -- FOUND! Starring Randy Edelman, Johnathan King, Billy Lee Riley, & possibly even more....
The List:
Strawbs -- Will Ye Go?, Part of the Union, Lay Down, The River, Down by the Sea, Tell Me What You See in Me.
Boston -- Used to Bad News, Don't Be Afraid, It's Easy, Hitch a Ride, Something About You.
Rolling Stones -- Happy, Tumbling Dice.
Modern English -- I Melt With You, Someone's Calling.
Jethro Tull -- Skating Away on the Thin Ice of the New Day, Life's a Long Song, Living in the Past, A Christmas Song.
Pete Townshend -- Give Blood, Jools and Jim, My Baby Gives it Away, Misunderstood, Sheraton Gibson, Slit Skirts, Empty Glass.
Outkast -- Hey Ya.
Elvis -- Promised Land.
Steely Dan -- My Old School, Dirty Work.
Deep Purple -- Highway Star.
Camel -- Never Let Go, Unevensong.
I've given up on The Strawbs, 4 now. At their best they R VERY good, if you're in2 their British-folk/rock/prog approach (somewhere in the neighborhood of Fairport Convention, Renaissance, Illusion, Jethro Tull -- like that). But their very best work happens only occasionally -- the resta the time they're very Average. They have enuf great stuff in their Middle "Big Sound" Period 2 fill 1 solid CD. I'd suggest their best stuff, most worthy of tracking down, would include:
The Man Who Called Himself Jesus (live)/Where is This Dream of Your Youth? (live)/Down by the Sea/Hero and Heroine/Part of the Union/Lay Down/I'll Carry On Beside You/Keep the Devil Outside/Backside (Ciggy Barlust)/Ghosts/Grace Darling/New World/Ah Me, Ah My/Wherefore and Why.
In the latest batch above, "Will Ye Go?" sounds like the old folk-traditional/Byrds number "Wild Mountain Thyme," only rocked-up a little; it's not bad. "Part of the Union" (especially) & "Lay Down" R nice folk-poppy singalongs; "Union" has some funny lyrics. "The River" is another overwrought, melodramatic, metaphor-filled lost-love ballad. "Down by the Sea" is still pretty freaking brilliant, even with the rather awkward & melodramatic anti-climax near the end. But check out the HUGE start & finish!
I'm sorry, I wish I could get more outta these guys; I'm sorry I'm so picky. They should B right up my street. Maybe if I'd heard more of their work 30 years earlier....
Coming Soon: More Great Lost Singles -- FOUND! Starring Randy Edelman, Johnathan King, Billy Lee Riley, & possibly even more....
Sunday, May 12, 2013
#667: The biggest missile base in the world
After 3 years in the Air Force spent coloring forms with yellow & purple markers at the Army and Air Force Hometown News Service, I begged 2 get out so I could get a real AF base-newspaper job -- & in June of 1986 I was sent 2 Francis E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne, Wyoming -- at that time the biggest missile base in the world.
I was thrilled 2 B at a base where there was actually Something Happening. But as with sevral of my AF assignments, I couldn't really Talk about what was going on. Tho the base controlled 200 ICBMs spread over a 12,600-square-mile area covering southeastern Wyoming, northeastern Colorado & western Nebraska, we could neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons in any particular location.
But everybody assumed those weren't just chewing-gum-warhead missiles sitting out there under the rolling hills of the Great Plains.
It took me awhile 2 find my footing. But soon I was writing & shooting photos 4 base-newspaper stories about security police patrolling isolated missile sites in the dead of winter as the gusty winds blew -60 degree wind-chill temps at them. We on the base newspaper tried our best 2 write "mission feature" stories showing how each job on the base contributed 2 supporting the mission -- but it wasn't easy. There was so much we weren't allowed 2 talk about....
I finally got the chance 2 interview & hang-out with a missile crew on-duty -- but it took a couple years of work & begging 2 do it, & I was only allowed 2 proceed after a reporter from the Omaha World-Herald newspaper beat me 2 it. I tried 2 do a John McPhee/NEW YORKER-style atmosphere-piece on the crew & their surroundings....
...& naturally, after all that work & all that begging, I couldn't take all that I'd learned & turn it in2 a story of a reasonable size 4 a base newspaper. I was always 2 ambitious 4 my own good, back then. The story never got printed -- it was too freaking LONG, there was 2 much neat atmosphere & 2 many great quotes I wanted 2 cram in. Months went by ... & finally I was told it would B better if I just gave up. I still have my 35 pages of notes. Not the last time I cracked under pressure....
1 story I was proud of was when I got 2 B on the site when the last of the support crews "switched-on" the 10th Peacekeeper/MX missile, 2 reach what the AF called "initial operational capability" at the end of 1987. That story DID get printed, & helped win me an award. & eventually 50 of the 10-warhead Peacekeepers were deployed across the Wyoming plains.
But usually we on the base newspaper didn't get quite so up-close & personal with The Mission. We wrote about stuff that grabbed our attention -- folks doing intresting work in the local community, intresting personalities, big base events, retirements, etc. I started reviewing strange music, movies & books.
After LOTS of encouragement, I started writing sports stories -- about a couple guys who ran in marathons, 1 AF doctor who competed in stair-climbing competitions & briefly got in2 the GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS (that story also made the front page of the local daily paper), the hilarious comedy of Youth T-Ball, & even the base's Chess Club.
& I found that writing sports gave me a freedom I usually didn't have in the rest of the paper -- the rest of the time we had 2 play it pretty straight.
But all the time I was looking 4 "light" stuff, more humor, cos working at the world's biggest missile base was a serious business.
I did pieces on Air Force Medals You Don't Want To Win, Air Force Bases You Wouldn't Want To Be Assigned To, & the comedy possibilities of Air Force jargon. I even snuck thru a piece about whether summa the older homes in Base Housing were haunted -- some of the houses dated back 2 the late 1890's. But it was a touchy subject, cos the base commander wanted it known that he'd tolerate NO GHOSTS on base.... I tried 2 take stuff lightly, use the paper as a sorta escape from everyday AF grinds & demands.
& I had a great role-model 2 learn from -- an Air Force Tech Sergeant named Gary Pomeroy, who'd been Strategic Air Command's Journalist of the Year for three years in a row. Gary could write stuff that would make me cry from laughing so hard. But he was tough, he'd been around. Brutally realistic, he thot my laughing fits were silly & juvenile -- but he was a great writing coach ... if you could survive his critiques.
When I wasn't working on the base paper, I was writing at home. I still had dreams of being Stephen King when I grew up. The first draft of "On Tour With the Little Green Men" (which I posted here awhile back) came out during my 3 years at FEW. A 40-page music piece called "The Landscape Player" (probly 2 long 2 post here, tho I think it's my best, most vivid story ever) also came out while in Wyoming. Neither of them ever got published anywhere.
The wife & I loved Wyoming, & 4 the 1st time in years we weren't homesick 4 Idaho -- even when the snowdrifts piled up over the front door of our mobile home. I made the mistake of telling people I'd stay at FEW permanently, since few AF folks seemed 2 want 2 visit Wyoming -- they thot it was as brutal & boring as, say, North Dakota or Montana. Or South Korea. Or the Aleutian Islands. & they were wrong.
But saying I'd volunteer 2 stay was probly the kiss of death. At the end of 1989, the news came that I was "the #1 non-volunteer" in the public affairs field 2 B sent overseas. & there was a job waiting 4 me in Ankara, Turkey.
So in Dec '89, that's where we went. At least I got 2 take my wife & my 2-year-old son. We were actually kinda Xcited about going. But it turned out 2 B 2 of the worst years of R lives....
I was thrilled 2 B at a base where there was actually Something Happening. But as with sevral of my AF assignments, I couldn't really Talk about what was going on. Tho the base controlled 200 ICBMs spread over a 12,600-square-mile area covering southeastern Wyoming, northeastern Colorado & western Nebraska, we could neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons in any particular location.
But everybody assumed those weren't just chewing-gum-warhead missiles sitting out there under the rolling hills of the Great Plains.
It took me awhile 2 find my footing. But soon I was writing & shooting photos 4 base-newspaper stories about security police patrolling isolated missile sites in the dead of winter as the gusty winds blew -60 degree wind-chill temps at them. We on the base newspaper tried our best 2 write "mission feature" stories showing how each job on the base contributed 2 supporting the mission -- but it wasn't easy. There was so much we weren't allowed 2 talk about....
I finally got the chance 2 interview & hang-out with a missile crew on-duty -- but it took a couple years of work & begging 2 do it, & I was only allowed 2 proceed after a reporter from the Omaha World-Herald newspaper beat me 2 it. I tried 2 do a John McPhee/NEW YORKER-style atmosphere-piece on the crew & their surroundings....
...& naturally, after all that work & all that begging, I couldn't take all that I'd learned & turn it in2 a story of a reasonable size 4 a base newspaper. I was always 2 ambitious 4 my own good, back then. The story never got printed -- it was too freaking LONG, there was 2 much neat atmosphere & 2 many great quotes I wanted 2 cram in. Months went by ... & finally I was told it would B better if I just gave up. I still have my 35 pages of notes. Not the last time I cracked under pressure....
1 story I was proud of was when I got 2 B on the site when the last of the support crews "switched-on" the 10th Peacekeeper/MX missile, 2 reach what the AF called "initial operational capability" at the end of 1987. That story DID get printed, & helped win me an award. & eventually 50 of the 10-warhead Peacekeepers were deployed across the Wyoming plains.
But usually we on the base newspaper didn't get quite so up-close & personal with The Mission. We wrote about stuff that grabbed our attention -- folks doing intresting work in the local community, intresting personalities, big base events, retirements, etc. I started reviewing strange music, movies & books.
After LOTS of encouragement, I started writing sports stories -- about a couple guys who ran in marathons, 1 AF doctor who competed in stair-climbing competitions & briefly got in2 the GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS (that story also made the front page of the local daily paper), the hilarious comedy of Youth T-Ball, & even the base's Chess Club.
& I found that writing sports gave me a freedom I usually didn't have in the rest of the paper -- the rest of the time we had 2 play it pretty straight.
But all the time I was looking 4 "light" stuff, more humor, cos working at the world's biggest missile base was a serious business.
I did pieces on Air Force Medals You Don't Want To Win, Air Force Bases You Wouldn't Want To Be Assigned To, & the comedy possibilities of Air Force jargon. I even snuck thru a piece about whether summa the older homes in Base Housing were haunted -- some of the houses dated back 2 the late 1890's. But it was a touchy subject, cos the base commander wanted it known that he'd tolerate NO GHOSTS on base.... I tried 2 take stuff lightly, use the paper as a sorta escape from everyday AF grinds & demands.
& I had a great role-model 2 learn from -- an Air Force Tech Sergeant named Gary Pomeroy, who'd been Strategic Air Command's Journalist of the Year for three years in a row. Gary could write stuff that would make me cry from laughing so hard. But he was tough, he'd been around. Brutally realistic, he thot my laughing fits were silly & juvenile -- but he was a great writing coach ... if you could survive his critiques.
When I wasn't working on the base paper, I was writing at home. I still had dreams of being Stephen King when I grew up. The first draft of "On Tour With the Little Green Men" (which I posted here awhile back) came out during my 3 years at FEW. A 40-page music piece called "The Landscape Player" (probly 2 long 2 post here, tho I think it's my best, most vivid story ever) also came out while in Wyoming. Neither of them ever got published anywhere.
The wife & I loved Wyoming, & 4 the 1st time in years we weren't homesick 4 Idaho -- even when the snowdrifts piled up over the front door of our mobile home. I made the mistake of telling people I'd stay at FEW permanently, since few AF folks seemed 2 want 2 visit Wyoming -- they thot it was as brutal & boring as, say, North Dakota or Montana. Or South Korea. Or the Aleutian Islands. & they were wrong.
But saying I'd volunteer 2 stay was probly the kiss of death. At the end of 1989, the news came that I was "the #1 non-volunteer" in the public affairs field 2 B sent overseas. & there was a job waiting 4 me in Ankara, Turkey.
So in Dec '89, that's where we went. At least I got 2 take my wife & my 2-year-old son. We were actually kinda Xcited about going. But it turned out 2 B 2 of the worst years of R lives....
Saturday, May 11, 2013
#665: Wyoming will be your new home....
After taking 10 years of the Air Force's BS as a public affairs specialist & base-newspaper guy, I jumped at the chance 2 Get Out & put-up with some Real World BS -- & took a job as managing editor of possibly the world's smallest daily newspaper: The Northern Wyoming Daily News in Worland.
I thot I could handle it -- I could work hard, I could handle stress, & I was charming & modest enuf 2 win over anybody.
But I didn't really know what stress was. In Wyoming, I found out.
There was an immediate culture shock. In Sept 1992 we moved from the San Francisco Bay area (home of the world's smallest Air Force base) 2 the geographical Middle Of Nowhere -- a charming, quiet little farm town surrounded by rolling hills & mountains, about 2 hours southeast of Yellowstone National Park. But there were no natural wonders in Worland -- just miles of empty countryside, cattle farms & hop fields & oil derricks. & the area's "local time" was somewhere around 1956.
We found a comfy old mid-'50s house with plenty of space for me, the wife & the 2 kids, with a huge basement "music room," & a heater good enuf 2 keep us warm even when it was -40 outside. & it was only 2 blocks from the school.
I dived in2 editing the paper, which proved 2 B a bigger challenge than I thot. Turned out the editor's job was 2 layout more than 1/2 the paper, slap in stories off the Associated Press wire, proofread all the local news, & write when/IF there was time. As a result, I didn't write much. So I wasn't very happy.
+ I kept running in2 longtime local residents who wondered -- & asked, very directly -- if The New Kid was gonna B able 2 "fix" the paper -- cut down on the misspellings & get the facts right & stop treating local law-enforcement with kid gloves & tell people what's REALLY going on....
That was the 1st part of my education. My REAL education didn't start 'til 2 years in when I gave up editing & volunteered 2 write full-time. Then I was MUCH happier. & even busier & more stressed-out.
I learned lotsa things. I learned that the Air Force had no IDEA what stress & overwork was. I learned that local residents had a WAY better idea of what national policies were gonna do 2 them than I did -- cos they lived with the impacts on their bottom-line every single day. When local farmers & ranchers were alarmed about NAFTA & claimed that it was gonna export millions of US jobs overseas & ruin them financially, I laughed at 1st. But they were absolutely right.
After that I kept my head down & wrote my ass off. I hardly ever talked politics with folks -- because even if I disagreed with them politically (or thot I did), most of my neighbors were really great people, absolutely salt of the earth: hard-working, dedicated, devoted 2 their families & their community. Just Bcos I couldn't see their small-town Republican outlooks reflected in national Republican views didn't mean we hadta argue.
Besides, I didn't have TIME 4 that. Even in a town as small as Worland (4,500 people), there was always something going on -- always car wrecks & house fires, & school board meetings & city council meetings & county commissioners' sessions. High school graduations, sports events, community events 2 publicize & then photograph.
In my "down" time I found lots of funny stuff 2 write about -- the computer glitch that sent 3-dozen Thanksgiving turkeys 2 a local woman's door (she donated them 2 the local senior center); the olde folks who replaced their dying front lawn with multi-colored old carpets after giving up trying 2 grow grass (this caused car wrecks in front of their house); the town council that called a pot-bellied pig 2 a meeting in a debate about the town's livestock ordinance; how a packet of Holly Sugar got a 5-second close-up in an episode of THE X-FILES (we had a Holly Sugar plant in town, & the investigation in2 how their product got on the show was worthy of an episode all by itself).
There were also plusses I never saw coming. Local politics could B a grind, but I got 2 interview the Governor, US Senators & Representatives -- names that made the national news regularly. & most of 'em were great people, way easier 2 talk with than I ever Xpected. The biggest shock of all came when I got a standing ovation at the Worland GOP's Lincoln Day Dinner my last year there -- the idea that all these staunch local Republicans could give me (then a hard-core Democrat, I thot) a standing-O just put me on the floor. 2 me it said I'd kept my balance & done a solid job & not disappointed my readers.
I also got my musical horizons Xpanded in Wyoming: I became a bit of a country music fan, grabbing great albums by Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Pam Tillis, Carlene Carter, Wynonna, Travis Tritt, Dwight Yoakam, & more. Wyoming was also where I 1st heard Rush's great "Time Stand Still." & where I FINALLY decided that maybe Led Zeppelin had some talent, after repeated playings of "The Battle of Evermore" & "When the Levee Breaks" & *GASP* "Stairway to Heaven"....
It wasn't all fun&games. People froze 2 death during the bitter-cold winters. People got hit by trains. 1 beloved local pastor died tragically during a hunting trip. 1 guy shot another by accident during another hunting trip. 1 local highschool sports star raped & murdered a woman & then dumped her body in the river. 1 woman & her hideous parents ended up in court in an incest case that made 60 MINUTES. 1 local guy walked in2 a bar, shot 3 people execution-style, then took the $126 in the cash register -- it was never clear if the $$$ was 2 pay 4 his child-support or 2 fix the engine in his truck.
After the last of these -- & the death-sentence trial that ate-up my every waking moment 4 a month -- my Publisher told me that he couldn't afford 2 give me any vacation time, & that he couldn't afford 2 hire any1 else 2 help me report the news.
So, after 6 years in Wyoming, I started looking 4 a new job. My wife & kids had been all over the state, 2 Yellowstone, & up in2 Montana -- but I never got there, Bcos I was almost always working.
After a couple months of sending out resumes, I got a call from a small weekly paper on the Washington coast. The area was beautiful, & the paper looked like it could use some help -- I'd B writing full-time again. So I gave my Publisher 3 DAYS NOTICE, & left 4 Washington at the very end of May 1998.
My Publisher warned me that as weird & stressful as the Daily News had been, the new paper I was heading 2 might B even weirder, even more stressful. I told him I couldn't see how that was POSSIBLE.
But he was absolutely right....
I thot I could handle it -- I could work hard, I could handle stress, & I was charming & modest enuf 2 win over anybody.
But I didn't really know what stress was. In Wyoming, I found out.
There was an immediate culture shock. In Sept 1992 we moved from the San Francisco Bay area (home of the world's smallest Air Force base) 2 the geographical Middle Of Nowhere -- a charming, quiet little farm town surrounded by rolling hills & mountains, about 2 hours southeast of Yellowstone National Park. But there were no natural wonders in Worland -- just miles of empty countryside, cattle farms & hop fields & oil derricks. & the area's "local time" was somewhere around 1956.
We found a comfy old mid-'50s house with plenty of space for me, the wife & the 2 kids, with a huge basement "music room," & a heater good enuf 2 keep us warm even when it was -40 outside. & it was only 2 blocks from the school.
I dived in2 editing the paper, which proved 2 B a bigger challenge than I thot. Turned out the editor's job was 2 layout more than 1/2 the paper, slap in stories off the Associated Press wire, proofread all the local news, & write when/IF there was time. As a result, I didn't write much. So I wasn't very happy.
+ I kept running in2 longtime local residents who wondered -- & asked, very directly -- if The New Kid was gonna B able 2 "fix" the paper -- cut down on the misspellings & get the facts right & stop treating local law-enforcement with kid gloves & tell people what's REALLY going on....
That was the 1st part of my education. My REAL education didn't start 'til 2 years in when I gave up editing & volunteered 2 write full-time. Then I was MUCH happier. & even busier & more stressed-out.
I learned lotsa things. I learned that the Air Force had no IDEA what stress & overwork was. I learned that local residents had a WAY better idea of what national policies were gonna do 2 them than I did -- cos they lived with the impacts on their bottom-line every single day. When local farmers & ranchers were alarmed about NAFTA & claimed that it was gonna export millions of US jobs overseas & ruin them financially, I laughed at 1st. But they were absolutely right.
After that I kept my head down & wrote my ass off. I hardly ever talked politics with folks -- because even if I disagreed with them politically (or thot I did), most of my neighbors were really great people, absolutely salt of the earth: hard-working, dedicated, devoted 2 their families & their community. Just Bcos I couldn't see their small-town Republican outlooks reflected in national Republican views didn't mean we hadta argue.
Besides, I didn't have TIME 4 that. Even in a town as small as Worland (4,500 people), there was always something going on -- always car wrecks & house fires, & school board meetings & city council meetings & county commissioners' sessions. High school graduations, sports events, community events 2 publicize & then photograph.
In my "down" time I found lots of funny stuff 2 write about -- the computer glitch that sent 3-dozen Thanksgiving turkeys 2 a local woman's door (she donated them 2 the local senior center); the olde folks who replaced their dying front lawn with multi-colored old carpets after giving up trying 2 grow grass (this caused car wrecks in front of their house); the town council that called a pot-bellied pig 2 a meeting in a debate about the town's livestock ordinance; how a packet of Holly Sugar got a 5-second close-up in an episode of THE X-FILES (we had a Holly Sugar plant in town, & the investigation in2 how their product got on the show was worthy of an episode all by itself).
There were also plusses I never saw coming. Local politics could B a grind, but I got 2 interview the Governor, US Senators & Representatives -- names that made the national news regularly. & most of 'em were great people, way easier 2 talk with than I ever Xpected. The biggest shock of all came when I got a standing ovation at the Worland GOP's Lincoln Day Dinner my last year there -- the idea that all these staunch local Republicans could give me (then a hard-core Democrat, I thot) a standing-O just put me on the floor. 2 me it said I'd kept my balance & done a solid job & not disappointed my readers.
I also got my musical horizons Xpanded in Wyoming: I became a bit of a country music fan, grabbing great albums by Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Pam Tillis, Carlene Carter, Wynonna, Travis Tritt, Dwight Yoakam, & more. Wyoming was also where I 1st heard Rush's great "Time Stand Still." & where I FINALLY decided that maybe Led Zeppelin had some talent, after repeated playings of "The Battle of Evermore" & "When the Levee Breaks" & *GASP* "Stairway to Heaven"....
It wasn't all fun&games. People froze 2 death during the bitter-cold winters. People got hit by trains. 1 beloved local pastor died tragically during a hunting trip. 1 guy shot another by accident during another hunting trip. 1 local highschool sports star raped & murdered a woman & then dumped her body in the river. 1 woman & her hideous parents ended up in court in an incest case that made 60 MINUTES. 1 local guy walked in2 a bar, shot 3 people execution-style, then took the $126 in the cash register -- it was never clear if the $$$ was 2 pay 4 his child-support or 2 fix the engine in his truck.
After the last of these -- & the death-sentence trial that ate-up my every waking moment 4 a month -- my Publisher told me that he couldn't afford 2 give me any vacation time, & that he couldn't afford 2 hire any1 else 2 help me report the news.
So, after 6 years in Wyoming, I started looking 4 a new job. My wife & kids had been all over the state, 2 Yellowstone, & up in2 Montana -- but I never got there, Bcos I was almost always working.
After a couple months of sending out resumes, I got a call from a small weekly paper on the Washington coast. The area was beautiful, & the paper looked like it could use some help -- I'd B writing full-time again. So I gave my Publisher 3 DAYS NOTICE, & left 4 Washington at the very end of May 1998.
My Publisher warned me that as weird & stressful as the Daily News had been, the new paper I was heading 2 might B even weirder, even more stressful. I told him I couldn't see how that was POSSIBLE.
But he was absolutely right....
Friday, May 10, 2013
#664: Currently listening to....
Five Man Electrical Band -- Absolutely Right, Money-Back Guarantee, We Play Rock and Roll.
Rascals -- See, Carry Me Back.
Mary-Chapin Carpenter -- Passionate Kisses.
Rush -- Time Stand Still, Force 10.
Albert Hammond -- Free Electric Band.
Chicago -- Questions 67 & 68.
Tracey Ullman -- The B-Side.
Strawbs -- Shine On Silver Sun, Down by the Sea, Part of the Union, Lay Down, We'll Meet Again Sometime, Martin Luther King's Dream (live), Why and Wherefore, Floating in the Wind, Absent Friend.
...Am moving in2 another musical-boredom phase -- have a big bag of 1/2-unheard CD's I've bn taking 2 work with me, stuff 4 further investigation, & I'm getting bored with THAT, 2. But I still stumble over some intresting things now&then....
Along with their 2 Top 20 hits, the Five Man Electrical Band's BEST OF also includes a handful of minor hits & some 1/2way decent off-the-wall stuff -- "Money-Back Guarantee" is silly & catchy & has some good choruses that stick in your head. & they try like hell 2 sell it. It was a minor hit. "We Play Rock and Roll" is all new 2 me -- a funny piece recalling a show the band played where there was allegedly no one in the audience under age 45, & the crowd kept calling 4 polkas & foxtrots.... The Band also try hard on this 1 -- a few more Xtra musical touches & it coulda bn a hit....
The version of "Passionate Kisses" included on MCC's ESSENTIAL seems 2 punch-up her vocal & mute the instrumental accompaniment -- & this is not a good thing, Bcos in this version, MCC doesn't sound as Xcited as her band & backup singers. It's sposta B a ROCKER.... ESSENTIAL isn't a bad cross-section -- it DOES include the Xcellent "The Long Way Home," but I miss "Downtown Train," "A Lot Like Me," "This Shirt," "Middle Ground," "You Win Again," "Come On, Come On"....
4 me, "Time Stand Still" is enuf 2 get Rush in2 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. & "Force Ten" is pretty freakin' great, 2....
Continuing 2 Xplore the Strawbs' HALCYON DAYS best-of (British version), & continue 2 B mildly disappointed. The end-of-the-world "Down by the Sea" is easily the best thing here, along with the over-the-top "Hero and Heroine" -- but EVERY great Strawbs song is pretty melodramatic.
But then you get 2 "Absent Friend," which has GOT 2 B a JOKE -- it's SO melodramatic, so overdone, even keeping in mind its low-key 3am jazzy-bluesy lounge-lizard setting. Coulda almost fit-in on mid-'70s adult-contemporary radio. But I couldn't listen 2 it without laffing, & mosta their stuff is meant 2 B Taken Seriously. Maybe by this point they were in on the joke?
Xample: "Martin Luther King's Dream" is pleasant enuf -- tho certainly not stunning, & has a grand enuf subject -- but they didn't include the great, angry live "Where is This Dream of Your Youth?" or the noisy live "Man Who Called Himself Jesus"? Why would they ignore their best stuff? Wary of giving Rick Wakeman 2 much space? Who compiled this?
*AHEM* Sorry. Meanwhile, "Part of the Union" is an Xcellent, hilarious pro-union singalong that coulda bn a hit in the US. "Why and Wherefore" is an Xcellent fiery rocker that -- according 2 the liner notes -- is made up of 2 British B-sides glued back-2gether. "Lay Down" is an above-avg singalong.
Have also started noticing how often leader/main songwriter Dave Cousins' subject-matter mostly comes down 2 the inhumanity of Man & shattered love affairs as contrasted against the gorgeous pastoralness of Nature. The good stuff is Really Good -- but will it B enuf 4 me 2 buy the American best-of ... or listen 2 any more of their original albums...?
More soon....
Rascals -- See, Carry Me Back.
Mary-Chapin Carpenter -- Passionate Kisses.
Rush -- Time Stand Still, Force 10.
Albert Hammond -- Free Electric Band.
Chicago -- Questions 67 & 68.
Tracey Ullman -- The B-Side.
Strawbs -- Shine On Silver Sun, Down by the Sea, Part of the Union, Lay Down, We'll Meet Again Sometime, Martin Luther King's Dream (live), Why and Wherefore, Floating in the Wind, Absent Friend.
...Am moving in2 another musical-boredom phase -- have a big bag of 1/2-unheard CD's I've bn taking 2 work with me, stuff 4 further investigation, & I'm getting bored with THAT, 2. But I still stumble over some intresting things now&then....
Along with their 2 Top 20 hits, the Five Man Electrical Band's BEST OF also includes a handful of minor hits & some 1/2way decent off-the-wall stuff -- "Money-Back Guarantee" is silly & catchy & has some good choruses that stick in your head. & they try like hell 2 sell it. It was a minor hit. "We Play Rock and Roll" is all new 2 me -- a funny piece recalling a show the band played where there was allegedly no one in the audience under age 45, & the crowd kept calling 4 polkas & foxtrots.... The Band also try hard on this 1 -- a few more Xtra musical touches & it coulda bn a hit....
The version of "Passionate Kisses" included on MCC's ESSENTIAL seems 2 punch-up her vocal & mute the instrumental accompaniment -- & this is not a good thing, Bcos in this version, MCC doesn't sound as Xcited as her band & backup singers. It's sposta B a ROCKER.... ESSENTIAL isn't a bad cross-section -- it DOES include the Xcellent "The Long Way Home," but I miss "Downtown Train," "A Lot Like Me," "This Shirt," "Middle Ground," "You Win Again," "Come On, Come On"....
4 me, "Time Stand Still" is enuf 2 get Rush in2 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. & "Force Ten" is pretty freakin' great, 2....
Continuing 2 Xplore the Strawbs' HALCYON DAYS best-of (British version), & continue 2 B mildly disappointed. The end-of-the-world "Down by the Sea" is easily the best thing here, along with the over-the-top "Hero and Heroine" -- but EVERY great Strawbs song is pretty melodramatic.
But then you get 2 "Absent Friend," which has GOT 2 B a JOKE -- it's SO melodramatic, so overdone, even keeping in mind its low-key 3am jazzy-bluesy lounge-lizard setting. Coulda almost fit-in on mid-'70s adult-contemporary radio. But I couldn't listen 2 it without laffing, & mosta their stuff is meant 2 B Taken Seriously. Maybe by this point they were in on the joke?
Xample: "Martin Luther King's Dream" is pleasant enuf -- tho certainly not stunning, & has a grand enuf subject -- but they didn't include the great, angry live "Where is This Dream of Your Youth?" or the noisy live "Man Who Called Himself Jesus"? Why would they ignore their best stuff? Wary of giving Rick Wakeman 2 much space? Who compiled this?
*AHEM* Sorry. Meanwhile, "Part of the Union" is an Xcellent, hilarious pro-union singalong that coulda bn a hit in the US. "Why and Wherefore" is an Xcellent fiery rocker that -- according 2 the liner notes -- is made up of 2 British B-sides glued back-2gether. "Lay Down" is an above-avg singalong.
Have also started noticing how often leader/main songwriter Dave Cousins' subject-matter mostly comes down 2 the inhumanity of Man & shattered love affairs as contrasted against the gorgeous pastoralness of Nature. The good stuff is Really Good -- but will it B enuf 4 me 2 buy the American best-of ... or listen 2 any more of their original albums...?
More soon....
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