I've had Booker T and the MG's "Time is Tight" stuck in my head ever since I heard it for the first time in years on SOUND OPINIONS over a week ago. Can't shake it.
With work and road trips and waking up at home, here's some of what else I've been listening to lately:
Guess Who -- Rain Dance, Albert Flasher.
Move -- Message From the Country, Do Ya?, Tonight, Chinatown.
Jam -- That's Entertainment, Funeral Pyre, Strange Town, Down in the Tube Station at Midnight.
Hatfield and the North -- THE ROTTERS CLUB: Share It, Lounging There Trying, Big John Wayne Socks Psychology on the Jaw, Chaos at the Greasy Spoon, The Yes No Interlude, Fitter Stoke Has a Bath, Didn't Matter Anyway, Underdub, Mumps: Your Majesty is Like a Cream Donut (quiet)/Lumps/Prenut/Your Majesty is Like a Cream Donut (loud), Big John Wayne (live), Chaos at the Greasy Spoon (live), Halfway Between Heaven and Earth (live), Oh Len's Nature (live), Lying and Gracing (live).
Cat Power -- He War, Speak for Me.
Kirsty MacColl -- Free World.
Church -- Reptile.
Keane -- Somewhere Only We Know, This is the Last Time, Bend and Break, Your Eyes Open.
Pete Townshend -- A Little is Enough, Sheraton Gibson, Now and Then, Slit Skirts, Let's See Action, Empty Glass.
Todd Rundgren -- We Gotta Get You a Woman, I Saw the Light, Hello It's Me, Couldn't I Just Tell You?, Just One Victory, A Dream Goes on Forever, Real Man.
Journey -- Lights, Feeling That Way/Anytime, Patiently, Something to Hide.
Most of this is the same old stuff, though I hadn't heard "Albert Flasher" in over 40 years. The lyrics are REALLY silly -- proving again that it sometimes isn't what's said in a song so much as the way it's said & the rhythm and music that goes with it.
THE ROTTERS CLUB was Hatfield and the North's second album, from 1975 -- and I remember being disappointed with these guys Back When because they weren't as instantly-melodic as Caravan. Their (First Album) struck me as too complicated, with the continuous, intertwining side-long suites being a little short on memorable tunes. OK background music, but nothing to devote your life to.
I grabbed a cheap CD copy of ROTTERS CLUB a couple years ago & thought it was above-average at the time, but again nothing earthshaking.
Maybe it was just waiting for the right time to be heard.
Waking up last Friday morning alone in my own bed after running my ass off pricing & stocking a beer order at work the night before, out of the blue I put ROTTERS CLUB on while waking up. And overall it's really good waking-up music, light and melodic. It's always good to hear Richard Sinclair's singing, & the band's loopy non-sequiter lyrics keep things nice and silly.
There's some nice flute from Jimmy Hastings on "Didn't Matter Anyway" -- it could almost be Caravan. I've always thought "Fitter Stoke Has a Bath" was faintly sad -- there's an air of disappointment about it. "The Yes No Interlude" is sort of chaotic commuting music.
The rest of the album features Dave Stewart's sometimes-atonal organ, here toned-down a bit (maybe I'm getting used to it), Phil Miller's sometimes-jagged guitar (also muted a bit), & the lighter-than-air backing vocals from the Northettes. The best of this stuff sounds closer to National Health (which the Hatfields sort of morphed into), with their trademarked sound of the organ and guitar figures overlaid by the Northettes' airy vocals.
The big attraction here is "Mumps," the Hatfields' magnum opus, which winds through more than 20 minutes of subtle interplay, and it's worth it. The closing "Cream Donut (loud)" repeats the distinctive organ-led melody from the opening, though with more energy, and it's great to hear it again after the preceding 20 minutes -- even though this reprise doesn't go on long enough. Parts of this almost sound like Renaissance, no putdown intended.
The live tracks are a slightly different story: Hatfield live could apparently be a real monster, swinging with almost-Caravan-style riffing. Good stuff.
Of the other above tunes, I catch more and more of The Jam's "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight" with each listening. It was clear from the first time through why Paul Weller didn't want to go down there, but more details keep popping out at me with each listen.
I think Cat Power's "He War" is really great, but it's over with too quick, & I wish something else from her YOU ARE FREE album was as compelling. "Speak for Me" is close, but after that it's a big drop off....
...Hey, one of our Regulars at the gas station walked in a few nights ago wearing an Island Records 45 T-shirt. At first I didn't realize what I was looking at. Then when the lightbulb went on over my head, I about fell off the counter!
The shirt showed an old vinyl single with the green-and-white palm-tree design of the record company's logo, and was actually a sales pitch for Island's reggae artists. There were name-checks for Bob Marley and the Wailers, Toots and the Maytals, Lee "Scratch" Perry, and half a dozen more. A very cool fashion item, and probably a collector's item to boot.
The wearer said he was a sucker for the reggae stuff, and we kicked around that Island was very much the place to be for British artists in the late '60s and early '70s ... although the only other folks on the label that we could think of right then were all white Brits (Fairport Convention, Cat Stevens, Spooky Tooth, Free, Nick Drake, Richard Thompson, etc).
Probably the first time I've admired someone else's T-shirt in a LONG time....
Monday, August 12, 2013
Sunday, August 11, 2013
#705: Are you being served?
Haven't read much by Brian Aldiss. He was a pretty big deal in the British science-fiction "New Wave" of the mid-1960s, and his SF history BILLION YEAR SPREE (1973) was one of the books that kept me addicted to SF -- its long in-depth discussions of key novels in the genre gave me a long list of new stuff to read. (His updated history with David Wingrove, TRILLION YEAR SPREE, is pretty brilliant too, & updates SF's story into the mid-'80s.)
Beyond that, not much. "Poor Little Warrior" is a great little story that tells me something new each time I re-read it. Probably couldn't have grasped the subtle hints about Marriage Problems & how that motivated the time-traveling Hunter if I'd first read it as a teenager. Wasn't able to get into Aldiss's HOTHOUSE series.
But Aldiss's THE BRIGHTFOUNT DIARIES (1955) isn't science-fiction. His first book, it's a cute, quaint, short little novel about working in an English bookstore in the early '50s. Aldiss worked in an Oxford bookstore for awhile, so I trust some of it's autobiographical.
Not a whole lot happens. A man named Peter in his early 20's -- who's last name just happens to be Aldiss! -- works into his fourth year at the Brightfount bookshop. He moves out of his Aunt and Uncle's house & into his own apartment, & starts looking for "a suitable girl." The rest of the book describes his co-workers, average days in the shop, & the minor crises they face.
There's even a mystery: Peter's Aunt & Uncle are Not What They Seem. But which one is slowly going nuts?
By the end of the book, Peter hopes to someday earn a Decent Living Wage at the bookstore, the relatives' crisis is seemingly resolved, Peter seems to have found a girl to stay with (after sort-of falling in love 3 times in 170 pages -- the book covers 6 months of his life), & life goes on. No major crises, just a normal, quiet sort of life.
The atmosphere in the bookshop reminded me very much of the British comedy series ARE YOU BEING SERVED? -- eccentric, sometimes-grumpy shop assistants ... a certain pressure for the juniors to "know their place," etc. After 4 years on the job, shop-owner Mr. Brightfount tells Peter "We might make something of you yet!"
The characterizations are perhaps a bit thin, as you'd expect from a diary -- & parts of the entries are written in a kind of shorthand as people do when writing only for themselves. Women especially are rather skimped on characterization, except for Peter's Aunt & his sister-in-law.
One woman co-worker (who isn't much more than a name in the story) is repeatedly referred to as "our stupid office wench" -- I kept waiting for Aldiss to have her do something truly surprising to shock everyone, but this never happened. Normally I'd expect this kind of repeated emphasis to be used to make a point, but it didn't happen here -- a mistake I trust Aldiss wouldn't make later in his career. (Either that or he was grinding an axe against someone named "Edith.")
Even though not much "dramatic" happens, this is the first novel I've been able to get through in a year. I trust that's because Aldiss keeps it light and funny, even charming, all the way through. I'd always wondered what it would be like to work in a bookstore -- now I know, sort of. All the details are well-observed, and the story's clear.
It also got me thinking that maybe I should try to turn my record-store experiences into a novel. Ghod knows I've got the material....
(Coming soon: A review of Aldiss's BURY MY HEART AT W.H. SMITH'S, a memoir of his life as a writer....)
Beyond that, not much. "Poor Little Warrior" is a great little story that tells me something new each time I re-read it. Probably couldn't have grasped the subtle hints about Marriage Problems & how that motivated the time-traveling Hunter if I'd first read it as a teenager. Wasn't able to get into Aldiss's HOTHOUSE series.
But Aldiss's THE BRIGHTFOUNT DIARIES (1955) isn't science-fiction. His first book, it's a cute, quaint, short little novel about working in an English bookstore in the early '50s. Aldiss worked in an Oxford bookstore for awhile, so I trust some of it's autobiographical.
Not a whole lot happens. A man named Peter in his early 20's -- who's last name just happens to be Aldiss! -- works into his fourth year at the Brightfount bookshop. He moves out of his Aunt and Uncle's house & into his own apartment, & starts looking for "a suitable girl." The rest of the book describes his co-workers, average days in the shop, & the minor crises they face.
There's even a mystery: Peter's Aunt & Uncle are Not What They Seem. But which one is slowly going nuts?
By the end of the book, Peter hopes to someday earn a Decent Living Wage at the bookstore, the relatives' crisis is seemingly resolved, Peter seems to have found a girl to stay with (after sort-of falling in love 3 times in 170 pages -- the book covers 6 months of his life), & life goes on. No major crises, just a normal, quiet sort of life.
The atmosphere in the bookshop reminded me very much of the British comedy series ARE YOU BEING SERVED? -- eccentric, sometimes-grumpy shop assistants ... a certain pressure for the juniors to "know their place," etc. After 4 years on the job, shop-owner Mr. Brightfount tells Peter "We might make something of you yet!"
The characterizations are perhaps a bit thin, as you'd expect from a diary -- & parts of the entries are written in a kind of shorthand as people do when writing only for themselves. Women especially are rather skimped on characterization, except for Peter's Aunt & his sister-in-law.
One woman co-worker (who isn't much more than a name in the story) is repeatedly referred to as "our stupid office wench" -- I kept waiting for Aldiss to have her do something truly surprising to shock everyone, but this never happened. Normally I'd expect this kind of repeated emphasis to be used to make a point, but it didn't happen here -- a mistake I trust Aldiss wouldn't make later in his career. (Either that or he was grinding an axe against someone named "Edith.")
Even though not much "dramatic" happens, this is the first novel I've been able to get through in a year. I trust that's because Aldiss keeps it light and funny, even charming, all the way through. I'd always wondered what it would be like to work in a bookstore -- now I know, sort of. All the details are well-observed, and the story's clear.
It also got me thinking that maybe I should try to turn my record-store experiences into a novel. Ghod knows I've got the material....
(Coming soon: A review of Aldiss's BURY MY HEART AT W.H. SMITH'S, a memoir of his life as a writer....)
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
#704: This is the modern world
The Jam's epic future-Britain concept album SETTING SONS came out in 1979, just after I started working at the record store.
At first I hated it. It was so alien to me. I couldn't cut through the thick accents, and the choppy guitars, gritty subject-matter & back-to-basics musical approach was miles away from the arty progressive-rock I was mostly listening to at the time.
But then I realized there was a story being told here, and that helped. And though the details of that story painted a grim & depressing picture of England as I'm sure it was then -- when the only future possibilities for young people must have seemed limited to either going On The Dole or Joining The Army -- the overall effect was intense and powerful.
The album ended up being a series of brutal life lessons: Employers will work you hard until you can't work any more, the Army's just an excuse for getting killed, governments & politicians are all useless, even best friends will let you down. Jam leader/songwriter/guitarist Paul Weller didn't even offer playing in a rock&roll band as a way out of the mess.
SETTING SONS now works as an equally clear, brutal picture of life as it is in the U.S. today -- and as it has been for at least the last five years
I got used to the second side first. The rather lightweight side-opener "Girl on the Phone" didn't exactly help. But the rapid-fire guitar&drums intro to "Strange Town" would've woke anyone up. And the story -- about being a stranger in a whole new place & the adjustments you have to make -- would be easy for anyone to relate to.
And then came the kicker, as Weller explained (if I'm cutting through his accent accurately): "They all ignore me, 'cause they don't know/I'm really a spacer from those UFO's...." If this translation isn't right, it should be -- it sure gets the point across. Talk about being alienated....
This eye-opener led into what I consider the heart of the album, the next three songs: "Thick as Thieves" is a winding tale about lifelong friends who eventually go their separate ways due to forces they can't control -- but there's a sort of wistfulness & nostalgia in Weller's vocal, & the dramatic & driving intertwining vocals in the last verse are a knockout.
Now that they had my attention, the grim "Private Hell" was the first of these songs to really grab me by the throat. A sort of "generation-gap" song, a bitter portrait of a parent for whom all the joy has gone out of life -- the ending is about as grim & powerful as this album gets. Unforgettable.
"Little Boy Soldiers" is about going out to Play Army -- and about how that adventure could turn out. The ending is another brutal, ironic dead end.
"Wasteland" closed the side with a statement about the emptiness of life in England at the close of the '70s -- lightened-up by choruses of a tootling recorder. Punk purists probably hated it -- I thought it was pretty great.
Flip the record over and "Burning Sky" states the album's main themes directly & brutally -- life is beyond hard, and can you earn enough money to keep up? Because the pressure never stops....
Bassist Bruce Foxton's one song on the album is the classical/ironic "Smithers-Jones," about a lifelong bureaucrat whose job is eliminated without warning, leaving him with nothing to look forward to but an empty retirement -- sort of a distant cousin of The Kinks' classic "Shangri-La." The singing is accompanied only by a string section -- a production move also made by The Boomtown Rats on "I Don't Like Mondays."
"Saturday's Kids" is a look at Jam fans, or average British teens & young adults of the day -- it maybe doesn't add much, though it expands the bleak landscape against which these songs are set.
I admit I don't get all the political references, but "Eton Rifles" is another anthem about violence on the streets and in the country. Great singalong choruses & more slashing guitar from Weller.
The first side closes with the worst version of that old Martha and the Vandellas hit "Heat Wave" that you'll never want to hear again. Ghod knows why it's here unless it's just to fill space. Any of The Jam's bitter & brilliant later hits such as "Funeral Pyre" or "That's Entertainment" would have fit perfectly here.
There was talk after the album's release that a more extended concept was originally planned -- that the album's story was based around three childhood friends who grow up and apart after some unspecified future war. Perhaps Weller just didn't have time to finish all the songs, or the songs he had planned didn't cut it when it came time to record the album.
(Wikipedia confirms that a larger concept was originally planned, that the album as released was something of a rush job, & that "Heat Wave" & the previously-released-in-a-different-form "Smithers-Jones" were added to fill up the album. Wikipedia also says Sides 1 & 2 were switched for the U.S. release.)
I'm leaving something out of this review so far -- why this album had such a big impact on me, why I still play it now & then, though definitely not for "light entertainment."
Partly I'm sure it's because of the direct, slamming, in-your-face production -- the grim attack never really lets up. The slashing guitars & the great group vocals cements it.
And also, I'm sure, it's because at the time I never expected "a work of art" to emerge from "that punk-rock stuff" that I refused to listen to as A Matter Of Principle back then.
But most of all I'm sure it's because of the relentless atmosphere of grim, life-changing decisions that absolutely must be made Right Now -- against a backdrop of No Future.
It feels like Real Life. Especially these days....
At first I hated it. It was so alien to me. I couldn't cut through the thick accents, and the choppy guitars, gritty subject-matter & back-to-basics musical approach was miles away from the arty progressive-rock I was mostly listening to at the time.
But then I realized there was a story being told here, and that helped. And though the details of that story painted a grim & depressing picture of England as I'm sure it was then -- when the only future possibilities for young people must have seemed limited to either going On The Dole or Joining The Army -- the overall effect was intense and powerful.
The album ended up being a series of brutal life lessons: Employers will work you hard until you can't work any more, the Army's just an excuse for getting killed, governments & politicians are all useless, even best friends will let you down. Jam leader/songwriter/guitarist Paul Weller didn't even offer playing in a rock&roll band as a way out of the mess.
SETTING SONS now works as an equally clear, brutal picture of life as it is in the U.S. today -- and as it has been for at least the last five years
I got used to the second side first. The rather lightweight side-opener "Girl on the Phone" didn't exactly help. But the rapid-fire guitar&drums intro to "Strange Town" would've woke anyone up. And the story -- about being a stranger in a whole new place & the adjustments you have to make -- would be easy for anyone to relate to.
And then came the kicker, as Weller explained (if I'm cutting through his accent accurately): "They all ignore me, 'cause they don't know/I'm really a spacer from those UFO's...." If this translation isn't right, it should be -- it sure gets the point across. Talk about being alienated....
This eye-opener led into what I consider the heart of the album, the next three songs: "Thick as Thieves" is a winding tale about lifelong friends who eventually go their separate ways due to forces they can't control -- but there's a sort of wistfulness & nostalgia in Weller's vocal, & the dramatic & driving intertwining vocals in the last verse are a knockout.
Now that they had my attention, the grim "Private Hell" was the first of these songs to really grab me by the throat. A sort of "generation-gap" song, a bitter portrait of a parent for whom all the joy has gone out of life -- the ending is about as grim & powerful as this album gets. Unforgettable.
"Little Boy Soldiers" is about going out to Play Army -- and about how that adventure could turn out. The ending is another brutal, ironic dead end.
"Wasteland" closed the side with a statement about the emptiness of life in England at the close of the '70s -- lightened-up by choruses of a tootling recorder. Punk purists probably hated it -- I thought it was pretty great.
Flip the record over and "Burning Sky" states the album's main themes directly & brutally -- life is beyond hard, and can you earn enough money to keep up? Because the pressure never stops....
Bassist Bruce Foxton's one song on the album is the classical/ironic "Smithers-Jones," about a lifelong bureaucrat whose job is eliminated without warning, leaving him with nothing to look forward to but an empty retirement -- sort of a distant cousin of The Kinks' classic "Shangri-La." The singing is accompanied only by a string section -- a production move also made by The Boomtown Rats on "I Don't Like Mondays."
"Saturday's Kids" is a look at Jam fans, or average British teens & young adults of the day -- it maybe doesn't add much, though it expands the bleak landscape against which these songs are set.
I admit I don't get all the political references, but "Eton Rifles" is another anthem about violence on the streets and in the country. Great singalong choruses & more slashing guitar from Weller.
The first side closes with the worst version of that old Martha and the Vandellas hit "Heat Wave" that you'll never want to hear again. Ghod knows why it's here unless it's just to fill space. Any of The Jam's bitter & brilliant later hits such as "Funeral Pyre" or "That's Entertainment" would have fit perfectly here.
There was talk after the album's release that a more extended concept was originally planned -- that the album's story was based around three childhood friends who grow up and apart after some unspecified future war. Perhaps Weller just didn't have time to finish all the songs, or the songs he had planned didn't cut it when it came time to record the album.
(Wikipedia confirms that a larger concept was originally planned, that the album as released was something of a rush job, & that "Heat Wave" & the previously-released-in-a-different-form "Smithers-Jones" were added to fill up the album. Wikipedia also says Sides 1 & 2 were switched for the U.S. release.)
I'm leaving something out of this review so far -- why this album had such a big impact on me, why I still play it now & then, though definitely not for "light entertainment."
Partly I'm sure it's because of the direct, slamming, in-your-face production -- the grim attack never really lets up. The slashing guitars & the great group vocals cements it.
And also, I'm sure, it's because at the time I never expected "a work of art" to emerge from "that punk-rock stuff" that I refused to listen to as A Matter Of Principle back then.
But most of all I'm sure it's because of the relentless atmosphere of grim, life-changing decisions that absolutely must be made Right Now -- against a backdrop of No Future.
It feels like Real Life. Especially these days....
#703: It's a long way there....
Spent all of Monday on a LONG road trip, down to Salem, Ore., to meet my Girlfriend's Father. That all went fine -- I was MUCH more worried about whether The New Car (bought back around Christmas) would break down somewhere along the road than I was about meeting the GF's Dad.
The trip down was four hours on busy I-5. It was around 90 degrees at our destination outside of Salem. Just south of Portland, with the temperature outside the car hovering around 89, the GF FINALLY convinced me to give the air conditioner a try, & it worked wonderfully -- & I drove the rest of the way there in a dreamy haze. Ain't technology wonderful?
Got there, met her Dad & some of the rest of her family -- nice people. Talked a lot, had some good food, tried to stay cool. Around 7 or so, we figured it was time to head back home, & it was still around 85 outside.
So I had one of my BRILLIANT IDEAS & suggested we head for the Oregon Coast, where it would be at least 20 degrees cooler than the Willamette Valley. The car had been running fine all day, I didn't want to fight the I-5 traffic again, & I hadn't seen the ocean in 10 years. It would be a nice relaxed drive home for us, so...? She said if I was up for it, she was.
Four hours down, EIGHT hours back home.
I was an idiot. I couldn't guess distances right. I was familiar with the roads north of Tillamook, Ore., so I had some idea of how far the drive back home would be. & I knew it was only about 50 miles to the ocean. What I didn't know was some of the stuff we'd encounter along the way. Not that we didn't have a fun, interesting time....
Driving into the sun as we headed west from Salem. Winding climbs into the low Coast Ranges. We saw the Marine Layer of low overcast clouds coming in from a distance, then curved off to the north to head for Tillamook. Climbed up what I thought was the last range of hills between us and the coast....
And drove right into a huge fog bank. The temperature dropped from the low 80s to the low 50s in a matter of minutes. We'd gone from summer heat to winter cool in less than 50 miles.
In the middle of the thick, shrouding fog was a road construction project -- a 15-minute wait before a pilot car led a long line of us drivers through the five-mile-long pavement-resurfacing project.
But when we dropped back down out of that and came out of the fog, we drove through the rolling green farms and leaping forest-topped hills of Tillamook Cheese country. To see all this gorgeous greenery with lakes and inlets sprinkled all through it in the evening twilight was like seeing paintings of The Shire in Middle Earth. It was all quite pretty, seemingly deserted, & very quiet around 8:30 or so.
By the time we hit the coast at Tillamook, it was pitch-dark. & apparently on Oregon's North Coast the sidewalks all roll up by 9 p.m. We finally found a gas station to fill-up the car, & bought a couple mocha frappes for some caffeine to keep us going. And we kept heading north.
Put on some music to -- I hoped -- keep me focused and motivated: Journey, Pete Townshend, Todd Rundgren, Keane. When that started to get boring, I turned on the radio and found a few "modern country" stations to keep the GF happy. Heard some pretty good stuff, too -- done mostly by women. For me, country songs seem to have more depth of feeling when women sing them.
Drove through some beautiful coastal fishing villages, gorgeous lights sparkling on the water -- almost all of them closed down tight. Could see & hear the ocean but couldn't get close to it. At one point when the caffeine got to me, we pulled over & I downed some aspirin ... and I could hear the ocean waves roaring off below us. But I couldn't see a thing.
Drove through my old stomping grounds of Raymond and South Bend, Wash., both looking very quiet in the 1 a.m. darkness. Amazing how much stupid, petty crime happened in two such small, quiet towns while I was a reporter there.
Stopped for more strong coffee at Montesano, topped-off the car and dashed for home. Finally got back to the house around 3. Was a little shaky in places -- between Tillamook and Astoria it seemed at times as if the shadows on the road in front of me were sinking into the pavement in slow motion as the bright lights from the car made them vanish. More than once or twice I thought I was seeing things. I didn't mention any of this to the GF. I KNEW I'd been driving for WAY too long.
It made for an 18-hour day, most of it on the road. I will certainly try to NEVER do THAT again. My vacation's coming up in another two weeks, and I still hope to make it over to the ocean.
During the DAYTIME, next time....
The trip down was four hours on busy I-5. It was around 90 degrees at our destination outside of Salem. Just south of Portland, with the temperature outside the car hovering around 89, the GF FINALLY convinced me to give the air conditioner a try, & it worked wonderfully -- & I drove the rest of the way there in a dreamy haze. Ain't technology wonderful?
Got there, met her Dad & some of the rest of her family -- nice people. Talked a lot, had some good food, tried to stay cool. Around 7 or so, we figured it was time to head back home, & it was still around 85 outside.
So I had one of my BRILLIANT IDEAS & suggested we head for the Oregon Coast, where it would be at least 20 degrees cooler than the Willamette Valley. The car had been running fine all day, I didn't want to fight the I-5 traffic again, & I hadn't seen the ocean in 10 years. It would be a nice relaxed drive home for us, so...? She said if I was up for it, she was.
Four hours down, EIGHT hours back home.
I was an idiot. I couldn't guess distances right. I was familiar with the roads north of Tillamook, Ore., so I had some idea of how far the drive back home would be. & I knew it was only about 50 miles to the ocean. What I didn't know was some of the stuff we'd encounter along the way. Not that we didn't have a fun, interesting time....
Driving into the sun as we headed west from Salem. Winding climbs into the low Coast Ranges. We saw the Marine Layer of low overcast clouds coming in from a distance, then curved off to the north to head for Tillamook. Climbed up what I thought was the last range of hills between us and the coast....
And drove right into a huge fog bank. The temperature dropped from the low 80s to the low 50s in a matter of minutes. We'd gone from summer heat to winter cool in less than 50 miles.
In the middle of the thick, shrouding fog was a road construction project -- a 15-minute wait before a pilot car led a long line of us drivers through the five-mile-long pavement-resurfacing project.
But when we dropped back down out of that and came out of the fog, we drove through the rolling green farms and leaping forest-topped hills of Tillamook Cheese country. To see all this gorgeous greenery with lakes and inlets sprinkled all through it in the evening twilight was like seeing paintings of The Shire in Middle Earth. It was all quite pretty, seemingly deserted, & very quiet around 8:30 or so.
By the time we hit the coast at Tillamook, it was pitch-dark. & apparently on Oregon's North Coast the sidewalks all roll up by 9 p.m. We finally found a gas station to fill-up the car, & bought a couple mocha frappes for some caffeine to keep us going. And we kept heading north.
Put on some music to -- I hoped -- keep me focused and motivated: Journey, Pete Townshend, Todd Rundgren, Keane. When that started to get boring, I turned on the radio and found a few "modern country" stations to keep the GF happy. Heard some pretty good stuff, too -- done mostly by women. For me, country songs seem to have more depth of feeling when women sing them.
Drove through some beautiful coastal fishing villages, gorgeous lights sparkling on the water -- almost all of them closed down tight. Could see & hear the ocean but couldn't get close to it. At one point when the caffeine got to me, we pulled over & I downed some aspirin ... and I could hear the ocean waves roaring off below us. But I couldn't see a thing.
Drove through my old stomping grounds of Raymond and South Bend, Wash., both looking very quiet in the 1 a.m. darkness. Amazing how much stupid, petty crime happened in two such small, quiet towns while I was a reporter there.
Stopped for more strong coffee at Montesano, topped-off the car and dashed for home. Finally got back to the house around 3. Was a little shaky in places -- between Tillamook and Astoria it seemed at times as if the shadows on the road in front of me were sinking into the pavement in slow motion as the bright lights from the car made them vanish. More than once or twice I thought I was seeing things. I didn't mention any of this to the GF. I KNEW I'd been driving for WAY too long.
It made for an 18-hour day, most of it on the road. I will certainly try to NEVER do THAT again. My vacation's coming up in another two weeks, and I still hope to make it over to the ocean.
During the DAYTIME, next time....
Monday, July 29, 2013
#702: All over the place
Hey, Mick Farren died. He was 69. Don't know a whole lot about him, except that with Lemmy he co-wrote the excellent dark rocker "Lost Johnny" on Hawkwind's above-average HALL OF THE MOUNTAIN GRILL album (1974). Farren was also a prominent member of the late-'60s British underground, & was quoted extensively in Johnathan Green's oral history about that scene & period, DAYS IN THE LIFE, which I read a few years back.
Farren was reportedly quite a character -- a music journalist & member of late-'60s punk-revolutionary band The Deviants. He occasionally released solo albums that had cool titles like VAMPIRES STOLE MY LUNCH MONEY. He also wrote a string of science-fiction novels, starting with the rock-flavored THE TEXTS OF FESTIVAL, which has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read for years.
Apparently Farren died after collapsing on-stage while performing with his band The Deviants. That seems an appropriate way to go out....
Hope you've been catching rock critics Jim DeRogatis & Greg Kot's SOUND OPINIONS, which airs here every Sunday night at 10 on the University of Washington's KUOW-FM. Last night's show was a "Buried Treasures" special, in which the guys pointed out some current albums worthy of more attention.
Normally this would be an immediate tune-out for me, but in my current state of Musical Boredom, I held on. They played a few things that weren't bad. Two songs in particular impressed me:
* "Counting," by a Chicago rapper performing under the name Autre Ne Veut, from his album ANXIETY. Maybe this is rap, but it sounded more like futuristic soul to me, with lots of whirring machine-like sounds & keyboard washes. & the lyrics were pretty desperate. Murmured, not rapped. Pretty haunting.
* "Irene" by Trixie Whitley from her album FOURTH CORNER. This also sounds like soul/R&B, with very strong vocals.
Some of the other stuff Jim & Greg played was above-average though not stunning -- still better than tuning-out. But I might have to check out the two artists above. Plus I really should look into Savages' SILENCE YOURSELF....
Next week, Jim & Greg are supposed to play The Greatest Rock Instrumentals Of All Time. Should be a great one....
The latest playlist, pretty much the same old stuff:
Three Dog Night -- Let Me Serenade You, My Impersonal Life.
Badfinger -- No Matter What, Day After Day, Baby Blue, The Name of the Game, Rock of All Ages.
Doobie Brothers -- Neal's Fandango.
The Church -- Reptile, Under the Milky Way, Metropolis.
Modern English -- I Melt With You.
Fleetwood Mac -- Oh Well, Why?
Van Morrison -- Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile), Domino, Wild Night, Cleaning Windows.
The Move -- Message from the Country, Do Ya?, Tonite.
Like the orchestrations & Pete Ham's apparently unpracticed vocal on Badfinger's "Name of the Game." & "Rock of All Ages" is a lot of fun.
The Church's "Metropolis" has some nice guitar work. Wish I could get into the rest of their best-of. & I'm still looking for a gorgeous guitar-drenched instrumental by them that I heard once on the radio around 1988 & have never heard since. Anybody got any ideas...?
Am more than halfway through Hunter S. Thompson's huge collection of early letters, THE PROUD HIGHWAY. For the past couple dozen pages he's been recounting his hilarious & painful adventures as a free-lance journalist in South America in the early 1960's. Some of his descriptions are laugh-out-loud funny. And an occasional line will stop my reading with a shock. The most surprising one-liner so far has been: "These guns will be the end of me." And that's exactly how it turned out. RIP....
Translating old posts into "Real English" continues here at the Back-Up Plan. So far, I've made it as far back as early May's post "The biggest missile base in the world." This rewrite work will be continuing....
On the way here are Kevin Ayers' BEST OF, Jim DeRogatis's KILL YR IDOLS, rock critic Robert Palmer's BLUES AND CHAOS, & two reminiscences by British SF writer Brian W. Aldiss: BURY MY HEART AT W.H. SMITH'S and THE BRIGHTFOUNT DIARIES. Reviews of all these are likely in the future....
Any musical suggestions? Please submit them below. If you know of any artists who mix British folk with loud guitars & keyboards & nice vocal harmonies (and aren't TOO expensive), they'd probably be right up my street....
Farren was reportedly quite a character -- a music journalist & member of late-'60s punk-revolutionary band The Deviants. He occasionally released solo albums that had cool titles like VAMPIRES STOLE MY LUNCH MONEY. He also wrote a string of science-fiction novels, starting with the rock-flavored THE TEXTS OF FESTIVAL, which has been sitting on my shelf waiting to be read for years.
Apparently Farren died after collapsing on-stage while performing with his band The Deviants. That seems an appropriate way to go out....
Hope you've been catching rock critics Jim DeRogatis & Greg Kot's SOUND OPINIONS, which airs here every Sunday night at 10 on the University of Washington's KUOW-FM. Last night's show was a "Buried Treasures" special, in which the guys pointed out some current albums worthy of more attention.
Normally this would be an immediate tune-out for me, but in my current state of Musical Boredom, I held on. They played a few things that weren't bad. Two songs in particular impressed me:
* "Counting," by a Chicago rapper performing under the name Autre Ne Veut, from his album ANXIETY. Maybe this is rap, but it sounded more like futuristic soul to me, with lots of whirring machine-like sounds & keyboard washes. & the lyrics were pretty desperate. Murmured, not rapped. Pretty haunting.
* "Irene" by Trixie Whitley from her album FOURTH CORNER. This also sounds like soul/R&B, with very strong vocals.
Some of the other stuff Jim & Greg played was above-average though not stunning -- still better than tuning-out. But I might have to check out the two artists above. Plus I really should look into Savages' SILENCE YOURSELF....
Next week, Jim & Greg are supposed to play The Greatest Rock Instrumentals Of All Time. Should be a great one....
The latest playlist, pretty much the same old stuff:
Three Dog Night -- Let Me Serenade You, My Impersonal Life.
Badfinger -- No Matter What, Day After Day, Baby Blue, The Name of the Game, Rock of All Ages.
Doobie Brothers -- Neal's Fandango.
The Church -- Reptile, Under the Milky Way, Metropolis.
Modern English -- I Melt With You.
Fleetwood Mac -- Oh Well, Why?
Van Morrison -- Jackie Wilson Said (I'm in Heaven When You Smile), Domino, Wild Night, Cleaning Windows.
The Move -- Message from the Country, Do Ya?, Tonite.
Like the orchestrations & Pete Ham's apparently unpracticed vocal on Badfinger's "Name of the Game." & "Rock of All Ages" is a lot of fun.
The Church's "Metropolis" has some nice guitar work. Wish I could get into the rest of their best-of. & I'm still looking for a gorgeous guitar-drenched instrumental by them that I heard once on the radio around 1988 & have never heard since. Anybody got any ideas...?
Am more than halfway through Hunter S. Thompson's huge collection of early letters, THE PROUD HIGHWAY. For the past couple dozen pages he's been recounting his hilarious & painful adventures as a free-lance journalist in South America in the early 1960's. Some of his descriptions are laugh-out-loud funny. And an occasional line will stop my reading with a shock. The most surprising one-liner so far has been: "These guns will be the end of me." And that's exactly how it turned out. RIP....
Translating old posts into "Real English" continues here at the Back-Up Plan. So far, I've made it as far back as early May's post "The biggest missile base in the world." This rewrite work will be continuing....
On the way here are Kevin Ayers' BEST OF, Jim DeRogatis's KILL YR IDOLS, rock critic Robert Palmer's BLUES AND CHAOS, & two reminiscences by British SF writer Brian W. Aldiss: BURY MY HEART AT W.H. SMITH'S and THE BRIGHTFOUNT DIARIES. Reviews of all these are likely in the future....
Any musical suggestions? Please submit them below. If you know of any artists who mix British folk with loud guitars & keyboards & nice vocal harmonies (and aren't TOO expensive), they'd probably be right up my street....
Saturday, July 27, 2013
#701: Back to CD's!
Restocked with CD's for what turned out to be the easiest Friday night at work in months. Also got started early with the music after calling a moratorium on News Radio -- because it just gets weirder & scarier & more twisted.
Here's some of what I've been listening to at work this week:
Brotherhood of Man -- United We Stand.
Box Tops -- Soul Deep, The Happy Song.
Bobby Darin -- If a Man Answers, Sermon of Sampson, All by Myself.
Brothers Johnson -- I'll Be Good to You.
Go-Go's -- Head Over Heels, You Thought, Forget That Day, Capture the Light, I'm With You, Can't Stop the World, Vacation.
Bangles -- Let it Go, September Gurls, Not Like You, Manic Monday, Dover Beach, Going Down to Liverpool, Be With You.
Rascals -- See, Carry Me Back.
Bob Dylan -- Like a Rolling Stone, Tangled Up in Blue.
Lovin' Spoonful -- Summer in the City, Darling Be Home Soon, Six O'Clock.
Doobie Brothers -- Neal's Fandango, I Cheat the Hangman.
Boston -- Used to Bad News.
Stevie Wonder -- I Was Made to Love Her, Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Dah-Day, For Once in My Life, My Cherie Amour.
Rolling Stones -- Happy, Tumbling Dice, Street Fighting Man, Gimme Shelter.
Rush -- Time Stand Still, Force Ten.
Cars -- Bye Bye Love, All Mixed Up, Dangerous Type.
Deep Purple -- Highway Star.
Steely Dan -- My Old School.
Journey -- Feeling That Way/Anytime.
Simon and Garfunkel -- Fakin' It, The Only Living Boy in New York, A Hazy Shade of Winter, At the Zoo.
Ronettes -- Be My Baby, Baby I Love You, The Best Part of Breakin' Up, I Wonder, Do I Love You?
Pam Tillis -- Homeward Looking Angel.
As you can see, this is basically The Same Old Stuff with a few new additions -- which I usually tripped over by accident....
Have already mentioned that the Box Tops' "Happy Song" sounds like something Dave Mason or Traffic might have done on an upbeat day. I don't think it's a Lost Classic or anything, but it is catchy & it does grow on you, & it definitely sounds different than "Soul Deep" or "The Letter" or the Box Tops' other hits....
The Bobby Darin songs are from an early-'60s EP my Cousin Carol let me have 45 years ago -- also not classics, but they're OK pop for the period, with some nice twangy guitar here & there. "If a Man Answers" is kind of funny. "All By Myself" is NOT the Eric Carmen #1 hit of 15 years later -- more sort of a light-hearted look at being lonely(?).
The Doobies' "Neal's Fandango" continues to get comments when I play it in the store. Think they really missed out on a hit with this one. From STAMPEDE.
Stevie's "Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Dah-Day" is as light & bouncy & charming as any forgotten Motown Top 10 hit, though I only heard it by accident between "I Was Made to Love Her" & "For Once in My Life." Why hadn't I ever heard it before? I'll have to go back & play it again, though it's obviously not a timeless work of art for the ages -- interesting that even Stevie's filler is almost as good as his classic hits.... From 20TH CENTURY MASTERS/BEST OF.
Why wasn't the Stones' "Street Fighting Man" a hit? Had to be the lyrics about revolution in the streets. If they couldn't get that played on the radio in '68/'69 it was probably never going to happen. Still haven't heard any "album rock" station play it, even though it (wisely) led-off their FORTY LICKS best-of....
Continue to be a sucker for the Ronettes, even though I don't think EVERYTHING they did was great, or sometimes even very inspired. But as soon as those gorgeous vocal harmonies kick in, I'm a goner. Ronnie's solo tracks "Why Don't They Let Us Fall in Love?" & "So Young" are iffy. But the rest are freakin' knockouts.
I still think "Best Part of Breakin' Up" (apart from Ronnie's sultry vocal) sounds like the Beach Boys snuck into the studio -- there's a real palm-trees-swaying-in-the-ocean-breeze vibe on this one; easy to see where Brian Wilson learned some of his production touches. "I Wonder" is still amazing, should've been a hit. & "Do I Love You?" is sweet & bouncy & bound to gain charm on repeated listenings.
I sat through practically all of the Ronettes' BE MY BABY best-of a year or two ago, but now I'm starting to wonder how much of it I actually HEARD. Will be investigating further....
More soon....
Here's some of what I've been listening to at work this week:
Brotherhood of Man -- United We Stand.
Box Tops -- Soul Deep, The Happy Song.
Bobby Darin -- If a Man Answers, Sermon of Sampson, All by Myself.
Brothers Johnson -- I'll Be Good to You.
Go-Go's -- Head Over Heels, You Thought, Forget That Day, Capture the Light, I'm With You, Can't Stop the World, Vacation.
Bangles -- Let it Go, September Gurls, Not Like You, Manic Monday, Dover Beach, Going Down to Liverpool, Be With You.
Rascals -- See, Carry Me Back.
Bob Dylan -- Like a Rolling Stone, Tangled Up in Blue.
Lovin' Spoonful -- Summer in the City, Darling Be Home Soon, Six O'Clock.
Doobie Brothers -- Neal's Fandango, I Cheat the Hangman.
Boston -- Used to Bad News.
Stevie Wonder -- I Was Made to Love Her, Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Dah-Day, For Once in My Life, My Cherie Amour.
Rolling Stones -- Happy, Tumbling Dice, Street Fighting Man, Gimme Shelter.
Rush -- Time Stand Still, Force Ten.
Cars -- Bye Bye Love, All Mixed Up, Dangerous Type.
Deep Purple -- Highway Star.
Steely Dan -- My Old School.
Journey -- Feeling That Way/Anytime.
Simon and Garfunkel -- Fakin' It, The Only Living Boy in New York, A Hazy Shade of Winter, At the Zoo.
Ronettes -- Be My Baby, Baby I Love You, The Best Part of Breakin' Up, I Wonder, Do I Love You?
Pam Tillis -- Homeward Looking Angel.
As you can see, this is basically The Same Old Stuff with a few new additions -- which I usually tripped over by accident....
Have already mentioned that the Box Tops' "Happy Song" sounds like something Dave Mason or Traffic might have done on an upbeat day. I don't think it's a Lost Classic or anything, but it is catchy & it does grow on you, & it definitely sounds different than "Soul Deep" or "The Letter" or the Box Tops' other hits....
The Bobby Darin songs are from an early-'60s EP my Cousin Carol let me have 45 years ago -- also not classics, but they're OK pop for the period, with some nice twangy guitar here & there. "If a Man Answers" is kind of funny. "All By Myself" is NOT the Eric Carmen #1 hit of 15 years later -- more sort of a light-hearted look at being lonely(?).
The Doobies' "Neal's Fandango" continues to get comments when I play it in the store. Think they really missed out on a hit with this one. From STAMPEDE.
Stevie's "Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Dah-Day" is as light & bouncy & charming as any forgotten Motown Top 10 hit, though I only heard it by accident between "I Was Made to Love Her" & "For Once in My Life." Why hadn't I ever heard it before? I'll have to go back & play it again, though it's obviously not a timeless work of art for the ages -- interesting that even Stevie's filler is almost as good as his classic hits.... From 20TH CENTURY MASTERS/BEST OF.
Why wasn't the Stones' "Street Fighting Man" a hit? Had to be the lyrics about revolution in the streets. If they couldn't get that played on the radio in '68/'69 it was probably never going to happen. Still haven't heard any "album rock" station play it, even though it (wisely) led-off their FORTY LICKS best-of....
Continue to be a sucker for the Ronettes, even though I don't think EVERYTHING they did was great, or sometimes even very inspired. But as soon as those gorgeous vocal harmonies kick in, I'm a goner. Ronnie's solo tracks "Why Don't They Let Us Fall in Love?" & "So Young" are iffy. But the rest are freakin' knockouts.
I still think "Best Part of Breakin' Up" (apart from Ronnie's sultry vocal) sounds like the Beach Boys snuck into the studio -- there's a real palm-trees-swaying-in-the-ocean-breeze vibe on this one; easy to see where Brian Wilson learned some of his production touches. "I Wonder" is still amazing, should've been a hit. & "Do I Love You?" is sweet & bouncy & bound to gain charm on repeated listenings.
I sat through practically all of the Ronettes' BE MY BABY best-of a year or two ago, but now I'm starting to wonder how much of it I actually HEARD. Will be investigating further....
More soon....
Thursday, July 25, 2013
700??!!
OK, let's keep this fairly brief.
When I started doing this stuff 4-1/2 years ago I had no idea I'd end up writing 700 posts. Crap, I thought I was All Written Out a couple of years ago and had nothing left to say.
But lately, stuff just keeps popping into my head, so I keep putting it here.
I'm not sure what I'm writing, exactly. But since a novel doesn't seem to want to come out, maybe I'm writing my memoirs here while I can still remember stuff. And that's OK with me.
I remain Musically Bored, so if anybody's got any suggestions, Now's The Time.
I can still get caught off-guard by stuff. Last night at work I was playing some tapes from my old Wyoming buddy Jim Yule's record collection, and was tripped up by some sort of good-timey male acoustic duo doing some kind of light-hearted party song, sort of a "Dear Mr. Fantasy" without the dragging length, over in two minutes without wearing out its welcome. It sounded like something Dave Mason or Traffic might have done when they were mostly-awake.
But I didn't remember recording it, couldn't remember who it was, probably hadn't heard it since 1996 when I made the tape. So I had to go home and check my files to clear up the mystery.
Turns out it was "The Happy Song" by the Box Tops, which I assume was the B-side of their great "Soul Deep." Which it sounds NOTHING like.
Not saying this is some Lost Classic for the ages or even a Great B-Side. But it was new and different to me, I didn't remember it, and there you go. Tracking down this kind of stuff is what this blog is supposed to be all about.
Something else that's struck me as odd recently: That post I did awhile back about Kevin Ayers' ODD DITTIES ("Sitting on the beach like Clarence in Wonderland," see below) has had 40 views so far. That's a lot for this blog. I never know what's going to get looked at the most, what's going to ring your chimes Out There....
Over the past few days I've also been going back and turning my older posts into "Real English." No more "shorthand" or texting-style. I've made it as far back as that "Dream 3" post at the end of May. Only 475 more to go!
The reason for this is ... for one, I got a comment awhile back that convinced me maybe it's time to Grow Up a little bit here. Not that I plan to start taking myself seriously....
The other reason is -- now more than ever I want to be understood, I want feedback, I want to know what you folks Out There think. And I'm never going to get that if the stuff I post here is too hard to read.
Plus it always helps to have a Mission In Life....
At least since "The poster-child for stressing-out" or "My Worst Moment" it's seemed to me there's nothing I CAN'T write about, as long as I have somewhere to start and a handle on what I want to say.
I've posted some things here in the past that I was actually scared to put Out There, that I thought were too revealing, that had me shaking before I hit that "Publish" button.
But these days I'm not worried about that stuff. Full speed ahead! (As soon as I finish putting stuff into English....)
I'll still be reviewing things, but these days more than ever I am a Low Budget Guy. So if I can hear or read something & keep it cheap, that's where I'll be heading.
I predict More Nostalgia ahead too, though I never know when the next one's coming or where it will end up....
Thanks for reading here. And for gosh sakes, let me know what you think. I've been waiting for years for someone to tell me I'm full of shit, & it ain't happened yet.... (Which doesn't mean YOU need to jump in, Crabby....)
More soon....
When I started doing this stuff 4-1/2 years ago I had no idea I'd end up writing 700 posts. Crap, I thought I was All Written Out a couple of years ago and had nothing left to say.
But lately, stuff just keeps popping into my head, so I keep putting it here.
I'm not sure what I'm writing, exactly. But since a novel doesn't seem to want to come out, maybe I'm writing my memoirs here while I can still remember stuff. And that's OK with me.
I remain Musically Bored, so if anybody's got any suggestions, Now's The Time.
I can still get caught off-guard by stuff. Last night at work I was playing some tapes from my old Wyoming buddy Jim Yule's record collection, and was tripped up by some sort of good-timey male acoustic duo doing some kind of light-hearted party song, sort of a "Dear Mr. Fantasy" without the dragging length, over in two minutes without wearing out its welcome. It sounded like something Dave Mason or Traffic might have done when they were mostly-awake.
But I didn't remember recording it, couldn't remember who it was, probably hadn't heard it since 1996 when I made the tape. So I had to go home and check my files to clear up the mystery.
Turns out it was "The Happy Song" by the Box Tops, which I assume was the B-side of their great "Soul Deep." Which it sounds NOTHING like.
Not saying this is some Lost Classic for the ages or even a Great B-Side. But it was new and different to me, I didn't remember it, and there you go. Tracking down this kind of stuff is what this blog is supposed to be all about.
Something else that's struck me as odd recently: That post I did awhile back about Kevin Ayers' ODD DITTIES ("Sitting on the beach like Clarence in Wonderland," see below) has had 40 views so far. That's a lot for this blog. I never know what's going to get looked at the most, what's going to ring your chimes Out There....
Over the past few days I've also been going back and turning my older posts into "Real English." No more "shorthand" or texting-style. I've made it as far back as that "Dream 3" post at the end of May. Only 475 more to go!
The reason for this is ... for one, I got a comment awhile back that convinced me maybe it's time to Grow Up a little bit here. Not that I plan to start taking myself seriously....
The other reason is -- now more than ever I want to be understood, I want feedback, I want to know what you folks Out There think. And I'm never going to get that if the stuff I post here is too hard to read.
Plus it always helps to have a Mission In Life....
At least since "The poster-child for stressing-out" or "My Worst Moment" it's seemed to me there's nothing I CAN'T write about, as long as I have somewhere to start and a handle on what I want to say.
I've posted some things here in the past that I was actually scared to put Out There, that I thought were too revealing, that had me shaking before I hit that "Publish" button.
But these days I'm not worried about that stuff. Full speed ahead! (As soon as I finish putting stuff into English....)
I'll still be reviewing things, but these days more than ever I am a Low Budget Guy. So if I can hear or read something & keep it cheap, that's where I'll be heading.
I predict More Nostalgia ahead too, though I never know when the next one's coming or where it will end up....
Thanks for reading here. And for gosh sakes, let me know what you think. I've been waiting for years for someone to tell me I'm full of shit, & it ain't happened yet.... (Which doesn't mean YOU need to jump in, Crabby....)
More soon....
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
#699: 8-by-40-foot trailer
After moving back home with my parents for over a year, early in 1980 Tina The Girlfriend & I pulled together our measly cash & moved into an antique 8-foot-wide, 40-foot-long mobile home on West Boise's main drag, Fairview Ave.
Located next door to a Wendy's, a used bookstore and pizza parlor were right across the street, & a record store was just around the corner. The location was perfect. & the price was right, because it was CHEAP. I was getting tired of sleeping on my parents' hide-a-bed in their living room. & I'm sure they were getting tired of me.
The trailer had Charm to spare. Built sometime in the '50s, it had cute little solid-wood cabinets & cute little closets & a cute little kitchen with a cute tiny refrigerator (and the world's smallest icebox) -- & an adorable little bathroom in which you could practically sit on the toilet, brush your teeth & take a shower all at the same time.
But you had to be FAST. The hot water for the shower ran out in about five minutes.
There were other bonus surprises: The trailer had a gas stove that had to be re-lit anytime you wanted to use it. So I'd stick my whole head into the oven, lit match in hand, search for the pilot light, and then BOOM! And I was ready to warm up some instant coffee. Needless to say, I didn't do that too often....
But the biggest surprise was when it rained. Then rain water would POUR out of the trailer's fuse box.
I'm still amazed we weren't electrocuted, or blown up in a gas explosion, or frozen when the hot water ran out. Oh, & in the winter, if you turned on the heater, it took about 20 minutes to START getting warm....
But we didn't care, it was OURS. We had privacy & a place to call our own, & the trailer was really comfy & charming -- if you ignore that I had to turn sideways to move up and down the hallway.
The place was crammed full of my music, my books, my rock&roll posters (some of which were stapled to the CEILING because there was no room on the walls), all of Tina's clothes and other belongings.... The living room was so small there was room for a loveseat on one wall (where I worked), and a small old wooden dining table with a chair on the other wall -- & just barely enough room to walk between the two.
There were other problems. The place was perfect for one person. For two, it was a little SMALL. And if someone got upset, there was nowhere to go.
I'd just become Singles Buyer for the local four-store Musicworks record-store "chain," & I took it with all the Seriousness of any job I've ever had -- Completely Seriously, And Don't Bother Me When I'm Working. When I first took over the work, I even took the job home with me, trying to get stuff organized. And bit Tina's head off when she tried to talk to me.
I don't blame her. I was a jerk. And we were probably too young to be trying to keep house together.
But we were so thrilled to have a place of our own, we didn't even realize what a run-down neighborhood it was.
Most of the other trailers in the trailer court were more beat-up than ours, though I don't remember any of them being much OLDER. The place really was pretty trashy, though I remember it as being pretty quiet. My cousin Jim lived right next door, & I wonder now how many of our arguments he must have overheard....
But we learned some strong People Skills while living there: We had one fairly obnoxious neighbor who lived across the court, & whenever she visited & started talking a mile a minute, I'd put on David Sancious and Tone's offbeat jazz-rock "Transformation (The Speed of Love)" as "mood music" -- and within 10 minutes the talky neighbor would be gone. Something about Sancious's odd melodic twists & turns would drive her out of the house. Worked every time.
Whenever the stress got to be too much (whether it was job-related or personal), I'd put on the Pretenders' first album -- and by the time I got to the glorious guitar meltdown at the end of "Lovers of Today" & the brutal kiss-off of "Mystery Achievement," I'd feel better. Because I knew that no matter how bad a day I might've had, Chrissie Hynde had lived through a bunch of them that were WORSE. That album got me through 1980 alive.
But after 9 months in the tiny trailer, things started going bad. I saw someone peek in our bedroom window one morning about 1 a.m., & when I moved to chase them all I saw was a flash of light running away. This triggered the first of several phone calls I made to the local police. I started sleeping with a club right next to the bed, just in case.
I had started reading the works of Hunter S. Thompson (THE GREAT SHARK HUNT, FEAR AND LOATHING ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL '72), & perhaps was seeing the world as more complicated & sinister than I had before.
A friend needed somewhere to live cheap, & the three of us moved into a twice-as-big trailer elsewhere in the court. It was much nicer & much roomier, though darker.
And people still kept trying to break in....
I don't think we stayed longer than three months before moving to an upscale two-bedroom apartment across town, which is another part of the ongoing story....
The last time I was in Boise I noticed the old trailer court had been bulldozed (probably YEARS ago) and replaced by more stores....
Located next door to a Wendy's, a used bookstore and pizza parlor were right across the street, & a record store was just around the corner. The location was perfect. & the price was right, because it was CHEAP. I was getting tired of sleeping on my parents' hide-a-bed in their living room. & I'm sure they were getting tired of me.
The trailer had Charm to spare. Built sometime in the '50s, it had cute little solid-wood cabinets & cute little closets & a cute little kitchen with a cute tiny refrigerator (and the world's smallest icebox) -- & an adorable little bathroom in which you could practically sit on the toilet, brush your teeth & take a shower all at the same time.
But you had to be FAST. The hot water for the shower ran out in about five minutes.
There were other bonus surprises: The trailer had a gas stove that had to be re-lit anytime you wanted to use it. So I'd stick my whole head into the oven, lit match in hand, search for the pilot light, and then BOOM! And I was ready to warm up some instant coffee. Needless to say, I didn't do that too often....
But the biggest surprise was when it rained. Then rain water would POUR out of the trailer's fuse box.
I'm still amazed we weren't electrocuted, or blown up in a gas explosion, or frozen when the hot water ran out. Oh, & in the winter, if you turned on the heater, it took about 20 minutes to START getting warm....
But we didn't care, it was OURS. We had privacy & a place to call our own, & the trailer was really comfy & charming -- if you ignore that I had to turn sideways to move up and down the hallway.
The place was crammed full of my music, my books, my rock&roll posters (some of which were stapled to the CEILING because there was no room on the walls), all of Tina's clothes and other belongings.... The living room was so small there was room for a loveseat on one wall (where I worked), and a small old wooden dining table with a chair on the other wall -- & just barely enough room to walk between the two.
There were other problems. The place was perfect for one person. For two, it was a little SMALL. And if someone got upset, there was nowhere to go.
I'd just become Singles Buyer for the local four-store Musicworks record-store "chain," & I took it with all the Seriousness of any job I've ever had -- Completely Seriously, And Don't Bother Me When I'm Working. When I first took over the work, I even took the job home with me, trying to get stuff organized. And bit Tina's head off when she tried to talk to me.
I don't blame her. I was a jerk. And we were probably too young to be trying to keep house together.
But we were so thrilled to have a place of our own, we didn't even realize what a run-down neighborhood it was.
Most of the other trailers in the trailer court were more beat-up than ours, though I don't remember any of them being much OLDER. The place really was pretty trashy, though I remember it as being pretty quiet. My cousin Jim lived right next door, & I wonder now how many of our arguments he must have overheard....
But we learned some strong People Skills while living there: We had one fairly obnoxious neighbor who lived across the court, & whenever she visited & started talking a mile a minute, I'd put on David Sancious and Tone's offbeat jazz-rock "Transformation (The Speed of Love)" as "mood music" -- and within 10 minutes the talky neighbor would be gone. Something about Sancious's odd melodic twists & turns would drive her out of the house. Worked every time.
Whenever the stress got to be too much (whether it was job-related or personal), I'd put on the Pretenders' first album -- and by the time I got to the glorious guitar meltdown at the end of "Lovers of Today" & the brutal kiss-off of "Mystery Achievement," I'd feel better. Because I knew that no matter how bad a day I might've had, Chrissie Hynde had lived through a bunch of them that were WORSE. That album got me through 1980 alive.
But after 9 months in the tiny trailer, things started going bad. I saw someone peek in our bedroom window one morning about 1 a.m., & when I moved to chase them all I saw was a flash of light running away. This triggered the first of several phone calls I made to the local police. I started sleeping with a club right next to the bed, just in case.
I had started reading the works of Hunter S. Thompson (THE GREAT SHARK HUNT, FEAR AND LOATHING ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL '72), & perhaps was seeing the world as more complicated & sinister than I had before.
A friend needed somewhere to live cheap, & the three of us moved into a twice-as-big trailer elsewhere in the court. It was much nicer & much roomier, though darker.
And people still kept trying to break in....
I don't think we stayed longer than three months before moving to an upscale two-bedroom apartment across town, which is another part of the ongoing story....
The last time I was in Boise I noticed the old trailer court had been bulldozed (probably YEARS ago) and replaced by more stores....
Monday, July 22, 2013
#698: Great Instrumentals, Oldies, etc.
Or: As the Boredom Turns....
Continuing to be Musically Bored, but this past week olde jazz & prog-rock instrumentals & underplayed Oldies from my old Wyoming buddy Jim Yule's 45 collection Did The Job to keep me moving at work. Here's The List:
Happy the Man -- Service With a Smile.
Group 87 -- One Night Away From Day.
Steve Tibbetts -- Ur.
Camel -- Sasquatch.
Pat Metheny -- Phase Dance, New Chautauqua, The Search, Ozark, Praise, The First Circle.
Lyle Mays -- Ascent.
Synergy -- Icarus.
Mark Knopfler -- Going Home (Theme of the Local Hero).
Keith Jarrett -- Country.
Renaissance -- Rajah Khan.
Deodato -- Also Sprach Zarathustra (Theme from 2001).
Sky -- Where Opposites Meet, Vivaldi.
Gryphon -- Lament, Ethelion.
The Nice -- America.
Miles Davis -- It Never Entered My Mind.
Also:
Van Morrison -- Caravan, Into the Mystic.
Neil Diamond -- Crunchy Granola Suite.
Gordon Lightfoot -- High and Dry.
Bob Dylan -- One of Us Must Know.
Billy Joel -- All for Leyna.
Fleetwood Mac -- Green Manalishi.
Roxy Music -- The Thrill of it All.
Shawn Phillips -- Bright White.
Frank Zappa -- My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama, Directly from My Heart to You.
Nektar -- Do You Believe in Magic?
Carolyne Mas -- Stillsane, Sadie Says.
Spider -- New Romance (It's a Mystery), Burning Love, Shady Lady, Everything is Alright, Crossfire.
Pretenders -- Kid, Mystery Achievement, Talk of the Town, Message of Love, Birds of Paradise, Pack it Up, Back on the Chain Gang, Time the Avenger, 2000 Miles.
From the Jim Yule Oldies Collection:
Fanny -- Charity Ball.
Uriah Heep -- Easy Livin'.
Guess Who -- Road Food.
Gordon Lightfoot -- The Circle is Small.
Lobo -- A Simple Man.
Blue Ridge Rangers (John Fogerty) -- Hearts of Stone.
Mason Williams -- Classical Gas.
Fendermen -- Mule Skinner Blues.
Trashmen -- Surfin' Bird.
Dramatics -- What'cha See is What'cha Get.
Freddy Cannon -- Palisades Park.
Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart -- I Wonder What She's Doin' Tonight?
Beau Brummels -- Laugh Laugh.
Dave Mason -- We Just Disagree.
Faces/Rod Stewart -- Stay With Me.
Rick Nelson -- Hello Mary Lou, Stood Up, Waitin' in School, Be-Bop Baby.
Steam -- Kiss Him Goodbye.
Dion -- Daddy Rollin' (In Your Arms).
Del Shannon -- Runaway.
Cowsills -- Hair.
American Breed -- Bend Me Shape Me.
Johnny Rivers -- It Wouldn't Happen With Me, Memphis.
Beach Boys -- Kiss Me Baby.
Elvis -- Promised Land.
Chuck Berry -- You Never Can Tell.
Joe Cocker -- Feelin' Alright.
Music Explosion -- A Little Bit of Soul.
Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels -- Devil With a Blue Dress/Good Golly Miss Molly.
Santana -- Everybody's Everything.
Gary Lewis & the Playboys -- Count Me In, This Diamond Ring.
Strawberry Alarm Clock -- Incense and Peppermints.
Association -- Windy.
...So, basically Nothing New here EITHER, but at least it kept me moving.
Response to most of this was pretty thin, except for those few who appreciated that there were Oldies playing -- "I can't stand the rap," one guy said ... & the married couple who walked into the store & saw me swooning to the Beach Boys' gorgeous "Kiss Me Baby." To go from that into Elvis -- well, what more could you ask for on a summer Saturday night...?
I have my own sentimental Olde Favorites in this list. I still think Spider sounds pretty great -- from Peter Coleman's trebly high-impact production to Holly Knight's solid pop songs & Amanda Blue's loopy vocals, these guys should've been famous. & drummer Anton Fig now plays with Dave Letterman's CBS Orchestra....
Carolyne Mas was hyped back in '79/'80 as a female answer to Bruce Springsteen -- I now think she sounds like a female Billy Joel -- lotsa New York accent & Attitude....
..."Rajah Khan" is the loudest, most ... forgive me ... "psychedelic" thing Renaissance ever did, a swirling mix of spacey Middle Eastern Arabian-Nights-type sound, wordless vocals from Annie Haslam, & great loud guitar. They should've gotten loud & -- comparatively -- dark like this more often....
...I still think "One of Us Must Know" is THE great lost Bob Dylan hit. It's got the same sound as "Like a Rolling Stone," the same great musical accompaniment, & the lyrics are hilarious.
...Steve Tibbetts' "Ur" is still the ultimate speaker-melting guitar piece. He's never cranked it up as loud again, it seems....
Consider everything in the above list Recommended if you've never heard it before.
Still accepting Musical Recommendations if anyone Out There has any....
More soon....
Continuing to be Musically Bored, but this past week olde jazz & prog-rock instrumentals & underplayed Oldies from my old Wyoming buddy Jim Yule's 45 collection Did The Job to keep me moving at work. Here's The List:
Happy the Man -- Service With a Smile.
Group 87 -- One Night Away From Day.
Steve Tibbetts -- Ur.
Camel -- Sasquatch.
Pat Metheny -- Phase Dance, New Chautauqua, The Search, Ozark, Praise, The First Circle.
Lyle Mays -- Ascent.
Synergy -- Icarus.
Mark Knopfler -- Going Home (Theme of the Local Hero).
Keith Jarrett -- Country.
Renaissance -- Rajah Khan.
Deodato -- Also Sprach Zarathustra (Theme from 2001).
Sky -- Where Opposites Meet, Vivaldi.
Gryphon -- Lament, Ethelion.
The Nice -- America.
Miles Davis -- It Never Entered My Mind.
Also:
Van Morrison -- Caravan, Into the Mystic.
Neil Diamond -- Crunchy Granola Suite.
Gordon Lightfoot -- High and Dry.
Bob Dylan -- One of Us Must Know.
Billy Joel -- All for Leyna.
Fleetwood Mac -- Green Manalishi.
Roxy Music -- The Thrill of it All.
Shawn Phillips -- Bright White.
Frank Zappa -- My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama, Directly from My Heart to You.
Nektar -- Do You Believe in Magic?
Carolyne Mas -- Stillsane, Sadie Says.
Spider -- New Romance (It's a Mystery), Burning Love, Shady Lady, Everything is Alright, Crossfire.
Pretenders -- Kid, Mystery Achievement, Talk of the Town, Message of Love, Birds of Paradise, Pack it Up, Back on the Chain Gang, Time the Avenger, 2000 Miles.
From the Jim Yule Oldies Collection:
Fanny -- Charity Ball.
Uriah Heep -- Easy Livin'.
Guess Who -- Road Food.
Gordon Lightfoot -- The Circle is Small.
Lobo -- A Simple Man.
Blue Ridge Rangers (John Fogerty) -- Hearts of Stone.
Mason Williams -- Classical Gas.
Fendermen -- Mule Skinner Blues.
Trashmen -- Surfin' Bird.
Dramatics -- What'cha See is What'cha Get.
Freddy Cannon -- Palisades Park.
Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart -- I Wonder What She's Doin' Tonight?
Beau Brummels -- Laugh Laugh.
Dave Mason -- We Just Disagree.
Faces/Rod Stewart -- Stay With Me.
Rick Nelson -- Hello Mary Lou, Stood Up, Waitin' in School, Be-Bop Baby.
Steam -- Kiss Him Goodbye.
Dion -- Daddy Rollin' (In Your Arms).
Del Shannon -- Runaway.
Cowsills -- Hair.
American Breed -- Bend Me Shape Me.
Johnny Rivers -- It Wouldn't Happen With Me, Memphis.
Beach Boys -- Kiss Me Baby.
Elvis -- Promised Land.
Chuck Berry -- You Never Can Tell.
Joe Cocker -- Feelin' Alright.
Music Explosion -- A Little Bit of Soul.
Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels -- Devil With a Blue Dress/Good Golly Miss Molly.
Santana -- Everybody's Everything.
Gary Lewis & the Playboys -- Count Me In, This Diamond Ring.
Strawberry Alarm Clock -- Incense and Peppermints.
Association -- Windy.
...So, basically Nothing New here EITHER, but at least it kept me moving.
Response to most of this was pretty thin, except for those few who appreciated that there were Oldies playing -- "I can't stand the rap," one guy said ... & the married couple who walked into the store & saw me swooning to the Beach Boys' gorgeous "Kiss Me Baby." To go from that into Elvis -- well, what more could you ask for on a summer Saturday night...?
I have my own sentimental Olde Favorites in this list. I still think Spider sounds pretty great -- from Peter Coleman's trebly high-impact production to Holly Knight's solid pop songs & Amanda Blue's loopy vocals, these guys should've been famous. & drummer Anton Fig now plays with Dave Letterman's CBS Orchestra....
Carolyne Mas was hyped back in '79/'80 as a female answer to Bruce Springsteen -- I now think she sounds like a female Billy Joel -- lotsa New York accent & Attitude....
..."Rajah Khan" is the loudest, most ... forgive me ... "psychedelic" thing Renaissance ever did, a swirling mix of spacey Middle Eastern Arabian-Nights-type sound, wordless vocals from Annie Haslam, & great loud guitar. They should've gotten loud & -- comparatively -- dark like this more often....
...I still think "One of Us Must Know" is THE great lost Bob Dylan hit. It's got the same sound as "Like a Rolling Stone," the same great musical accompaniment, & the lyrics are hilarious.
...Steve Tibbetts' "Ur" is still the ultimate speaker-melting guitar piece. He's never cranked it up as loud again, it seems....
Consider everything in the above list Recommended if you've never heard it before.
Still accepting Musical Recommendations if anyone Out There has any....
More soon....
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
#697: Take 2.1
OK, since yesterday's suggested radio format went so well (more than 30 views overnight, which is almost a new record for me), how about this one?:
TOP OF THE HOUR.
3 minutes of National & Local News. Then:
Deep Purple -- Hush.
Beatles -- I'm Down.
COMMERCIAL.
Steve Earle -- Copperhead Road.
Charlie Pride -- Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone?
COMMERCIAL.
Afro-Man -- Because I Got High.
Eminem -- Ass Like That.
COMMERCIAL.
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles -- You've Really Got a Hold on Me.
Aretha Franklin and George Michael -- I Knew You Were Waiting for Me.
BOTTOM OF THE HOUR.
2 minutes of National and Local News. Then:
ELP -- Fanfare for the Common Man (long version).
COMMERCIAL.
Bob Dylan -- One of Us Must Know.
Fanny -- Charity Ball.
COMMERCIAL.
Dave Brubeck -- Take Five.
Aaron Copland/Eduardo Mata/Dallas Symphony Orchestra -- Hoedown.
Uriah Heep -- Easy Livin'.
TOP OF THE HOUR.
Into 3 minutes of National and Local News....
(This updated version breaks up the commercials & music a little more -- which maybe most people wouldn't like; they'd prefer the four-track blocks of music in the previous format. But this is probably closer to Real Life radio....)
See how easy this is? Any trained chimpanzee could do it. & there's room for hits from all eras, album tracks, weird stuff, rock, heavy-rock, singer-songwriters, jazz, country, classical, comedy, blues (an area I'm pretty weak on) -- basically anything. It's not hard. It doesn't have to be so far out that listeners get scared away.
So why can't anybody do it?
No reason this format couldn't have "theme" hours -- the "on the road" hour (Born to Run/Running On Empty/Highway Star/On the Road Again, etc), or the "rain" hour (Who Will Stop the Rain?/Have You Ever Seen the Rain?/In the Rain/Rain, etc.) -- though those might get cliched pretty fast. & I'm sure it's been done on FM before. The key would be to have a little IMAGINATION about it -- something that seems in short supply at Radio these days....
Keep those kind donations coming, folks, & we'll make it happen. We want the airwaves!
I've reluctantly decided to delay my big cash-mongering trip to my "local" Half-Price Books store, since today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year so far, here. Don't want my big box full of vinyl to melt on the way there. But I'll keep you posted....
I really love Locus. Really. Even though lately it's become more&more like a list of "Which famous writers have died recently?" But I sure wish it was a lot more like Bookslut....
Still working my way through Hunter S. Thompson's huge selection of early letters, THE PROUD HIGHWAY. It's laugh-out-loud funny in lots of places, and amazingly shows off a lot more personality (and desperation) than his later letters collection FEAR AND LOATHING IN AMERICA (which is reviewed below under the title "Scrambling for $$$"). More on this eventually....
COMING SOON: It's Money That Matters....
TOP OF THE HOUR.
3 minutes of National & Local News. Then:
Deep Purple -- Hush.
Beatles -- I'm Down.
COMMERCIAL.
Steve Earle -- Copperhead Road.
Charlie Pride -- Is Anybody Goin' to San Antone?
COMMERCIAL.
Afro-Man -- Because I Got High.
Eminem -- Ass Like That.
COMMERCIAL.
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles -- You've Really Got a Hold on Me.
Aretha Franklin and George Michael -- I Knew You Were Waiting for Me.
BOTTOM OF THE HOUR.
2 minutes of National and Local News. Then:
ELP -- Fanfare for the Common Man (long version).
COMMERCIAL.
Bob Dylan -- One of Us Must Know.
Fanny -- Charity Ball.
COMMERCIAL.
Dave Brubeck -- Take Five.
Aaron Copland/Eduardo Mata/Dallas Symphony Orchestra -- Hoedown.
Uriah Heep -- Easy Livin'.
TOP OF THE HOUR.
Into 3 minutes of National and Local News....
(This updated version breaks up the commercials & music a little more -- which maybe most people wouldn't like; they'd prefer the four-track blocks of music in the previous format. But this is probably closer to Real Life radio....)
See how easy this is? Any trained chimpanzee could do it. & there's room for hits from all eras, album tracks, weird stuff, rock, heavy-rock, singer-songwriters, jazz, country, classical, comedy, blues (an area I'm pretty weak on) -- basically anything. It's not hard. It doesn't have to be so far out that listeners get scared away.
So why can't anybody do it?
No reason this format couldn't have "theme" hours -- the "on the road" hour (Born to Run/Running On Empty/Highway Star/On the Road Again, etc), or the "rain" hour (Who Will Stop the Rain?/Have You Ever Seen the Rain?/In the Rain/Rain, etc.) -- though those might get cliched pretty fast. & I'm sure it's been done on FM before. The key would be to have a little IMAGINATION about it -- something that seems in short supply at Radio these days....
Keep those kind donations coming, folks, & we'll make it happen. We want the airwaves!
I've reluctantly decided to delay my big cash-mongering trip to my "local" Half-Price Books store, since today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year so far, here. Don't want my big box full of vinyl to melt on the way there. But I'll keep you posted....
I really love Locus. Really. Even though lately it's become more&more like a list of "Which famous writers have died recently?" But I sure wish it was a lot more like Bookslut....
Still working my way through Hunter S. Thompson's huge selection of early letters, THE PROUD HIGHWAY. It's laugh-out-loud funny in lots of places, and amazingly shows off a lot more personality (and desperation) than his later letters collection FEAR AND LOATHING IN AMERICA (which is reviewed below under the title "Scrambling for $$$"). More on this eventually....
COMING SOON: It's Money That Matters....
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