#732: Third Annual Pipe Dream

That's right -- it's time for the 4th Annual TAD Awards, the yearly roundup of the best and worst stuff I heard and read over the previous year.
I started out 2013 listening to a LOT of Really Bad progressive rock -- and I'll be listening to more soon -- and I ended the year writing books and barely listening to or reading anything at all. But there's still more than enough to look back on for a best and worst list....
BEST NEW-TO-ME SONGS OF THE YEAR -- Kirsty MacColl's bitter, driving "Free World," and Van Morrison's ecstatic "Sweet Thing." "Free World" has great slashing guitar, driving choruses and verses, and Kirsty's great disillusioned, cynical vocal. Her lyrics are brilliantly sarcastic and cutting -- it's over with way too fast. Should have been a big hit.
"Sweet Thing" is the only song from Van's acclaimed ASTRAL WEEKS that I've ever been able to get into -- on it he sounds positively transported by love, and the playing behind him is pretty amazing, too. It's not a rocker, but the happiness in Van's voice is a pleasure to hear. And the lyrics are some of his most direct and revealing ever. You can see why he'd spend a career chasing this sound.
WORST NEW-TO-ME SONG OF THE YEAR -- Barclay James Harvest's "Dark Now My Sky" (1970). This is the kind of thing the Alan Parsons Project might have done half a decade later -- only Parsons and Co. would have done it BETTER. There's a long melodramatic recitation at the start, loud and meaningless guitar solos in the middle, massively overdone orchestrations, melodrama to the max -- it's a mini-opera, and it lasts for-freaking-EVER. Don't bother tracking this down -- it's 12 minutes you'll never get back. RUNNER-UP: BJH's almost equally-melodramatic and overdone "She Said," against heavy competition from half a dozen other songs on their "best-of."
BEST BEST-OF -- Junior Walker and the All-Stars' ESSENTIAL COLLECTION. Mostly pretty great party music. You can actually enjoy about a dozen of the 16 songs over and over -- it never really wears out. And the best tracks are where Junior SINGS. His sax playing is pretty great, too. RUNNER-UP: Booker T and the MG's VERY BEST OF. Some very good stuff here, but not quite enough catchy, upbeat R&B instrumentals....
WORST BEST-OF -- Barclay James Harvest's THE HARVEST YEARS. There are maybe half a dozen good songs here, out of 31. The rest is overly-melodramatic, uninspired, too-heavily-orchestrated -- what the heck were they trying to do? Did THEY even know? Best are the uncharacteristically simple rocker "Taking Some Time On," and the simple catchy love song "Ursula (The Swansea Song)." Both those could have been hits. Some of the early songs have an innocent charm. The rest are too heavy, too needlessly arty -- and there are stupid "heavy" rockers and heavy-handed blooze numbers that you'll never get through. There's even an orchestrated "Western drama." Save your money, buy BJH's GONE TO EARTH instead.
RUNNERS-UP FOR WORST BEST-OF -- The Strawbs' HALCYON DAYS and Be-Bop Deluxe's RAIDING THE DIVINE ARCHIVES. I like both these bands, and there's some good stuff on these discs. But these collections don't show off these acts at their best -- the Strawbs' package doesn't even have their best work with Rick Wakeman, it's almost like they were embarrassed that he was ever a member of the band. The Be-Bop could've used more tracks from SUNBURST FINISH, though "Maid in Heaven" is a real find that should have been a hit.
BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR -- I don't remember getting all the way through any non-best-of's, though Ghod knows I TRIED....
BEST MUSIC-RELATED NON-FICTION -- LET IT BLURT by Jim DeRogatis. The life and times of legendary '70s/'80s rock critic Lester Bangs. Great details and wonderful nostalgic mood -- I only wished there was MORE.
WORST MUSIC-RELATED NON-FICTION -- Edward Wincentsen's MOODY BLUES COMPANION. This self-published booklet is not what you might think it is. Too many typos, misspellings and major errors in fact to keep track of, the history of the band can be ... a little puzzling, and the last half of the book is all fans' stories about meeting the band. Doesn't even include a complete, detailed discography -- which would have been easy to add. Save your cash 'til the real bio comes out -- if it ever does.
BEST MEMOIR OF THE YEAR other than mine -- Linda Lou's BASTARD HUSBAND: A LOVE STORY. Though the book is about how Linda's marriage to her soulmate fell apart, there's a big laugh on practically every page, and a Christmas scene around the family dinner table that has GOT to get into some Christmas movie someday. You'll laugh a lot. Well worth your time.
BEST NOVEL SORT-OF -- Well, I guess it was Brian Aldiss's BRIGHTFOUNT DIARIES, since that's the only one I remember getting all the way through. But I wasn't very excited about it. Still, it DID show me how "easy" it would be to write a memoir....
BEST BOOK I DIDN'T QUITE FINISH -- Hunter S. Thompson's THE PROUD HIGHWAY. I've been nursing this collection of letters for MONTHS. I've made it up to 1965, when Thompson started writing HELL'S ANGELS, and I've still got a couple hundred pages to go. If I ever get finished, I'm sure it'll be just as solid (and overwhelming) as his other letters collection, FEAR AND LOATHING IN AMERICA.
BEST RADIO SHOW -- Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot's syndicated music-news-and-interviews show SOUND OPINIONS. It'll never replace LITTLE STEVEN'S UNDERGROUND GARAGE, but the guys at SO have done some great programs over the past year -- especially in-the-studio concerts with Savages, Aimee Mann, and others, interviews with producers Tony Visconti and Joe Boyd, and in-depth looks at the work of Nick Drake and Lou Reed. Their best and worst of the year and their annual Thanksgiving Turkey Shoot were all a hoot. They still feature a lot of critic's babies and new/Rap stuff I don't have much use for, but these guys have become an every-Sunday-night addiction for me. Hope you can catch them, wherever you are....
BIGGEST NEWS OF THE YEAR -- Hey, I wrote TWO BOOKS! You can get them at Amazon.com's Kindle Store RIGHT NOW! For $2.99! And there's another book already in the works....

I know this is what You Out There want to hear -- my next book is going to be a guide to Strange Music, to be called LISTEN TO THIS! I'm already 10 or so pages into it, mainly what I've got so far is a list of the artists I want to include, but I've already got a few entries/critiques written. Should be fun. And from The Moody Blues to Cromagnon, anything "Strange" or Different that I can remember hearing over the last 40+ years is going to be in it.
Should be done in about ... oh, six weeks or so, right? I'll keep you posted....
Happy New Ear!