Flea market finds

Sunday March 26, 2006

Twenty-two albums! $42.50! Hope for the same amount, you enjoy your three new CDs or 42 iTunes downloads, o you hip cognoscenti sans turntables! Bwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!

First, we have the five title (six Lp)
Instant Rolling Stones Starter Collection:
SOME GIRLS
GOT LIVE IF YOU WANT IT (in mono!)
IT'S ONLY ROCK AND ROLL
THROUGH THE PAST DARKLY (BIG HITS, VOL TWO) (Not the stop-sign-shaped cover, unfortunately)
LOVE YOU LIVE (double Lp)

then, the
Mini UTOPIA Starter Set:
UTOPIA (self-titled first album on Bearsville)
TRIVIA (A 1986 album... don't even remember seeing this one when it was new. I also passed by a $2.00 copy of Rundgren's solo album FAITHFUL.)


...plus these other great hits

THE VERY BEST OF CONNIE FRANCIS
(this is a 1970s stereo reissue; undoubtedly some of the tracks are rechannelled; ah well)

Chubby Checker - LIMBO PARTY
(Cool Cameo-Parkway album)

Dizzy Gillespie and his Orchestra - GILLESPIANA
(A suite of pieces composed and arranged by Lalo Schifrin, mono, on Verve.)

Crosby-Nash LIVE
(1977 live set on ABC records. I have a Crosby-Nash live CD called ANOTHER STONEY EVENING... I don't know if this is the same stuff or not... haven't played this LP yet.)

Levon Helm - AMERICAN SON
(1980 solo Lp. Kinda remember when this was new... but it was sooooo long ago...)

Jimmy Smith - I'M GON' GIT MYSELF TOGETHER
(c 1969. How do I know? Tracks include "Spill The Wine," "Sittin' On The Dock of the Bay," and "Sugar Sugar." Do the math.)

Sonny Terry - SONNY IS KING
(reissue of a Bluesville-Prestige album featuring Sonny McGhee and Lightnin' Hopkins)

Diana Ross and the Supremes - REFLECTIONS
(Original stereo Motown Lp... title track is one of my favorite latterday singles of theirs; "In And Out Of Love," another great late single, is on here, too.)

Tommy Edwards - IT'S ALL IN THE GAME
(Original mono MGM lp)

Little Richard - THE ESSENTIAL LITTLE RICHARD
(Double pocket Lp of digitally remastered Specialty greatest hits. Ironic: I've been wanting to hear Penniman's version of "Baby Face" lately. And here it is!)

Fleetwood Mac - FUTURE GAMES
(1971; the first Danny Kirwan-Bob Welch-Christine McVie Mac album. Two tracks skip, but whattaya want for two bucks???)

Hoagy Carmichael - AT HOME WITH HOAGY
(Airchecks from 1944, 1952 and 1954, the 1944 shows "sponsored by Numade Mayonnaise")

Santo and Johnny
(self-titled album with "Sleepwalk")

Golden Earring - MOONTAN
(I bought this one for the cover. To this day, there's still something that feels ILLICIT about buying an album with a naked lady on the cover)

Beatles - REVOLVER
(This one was a disappointment and a lesson. Disappointment: the cover says MONO; I didn't inspect it closely and when I got it home, discovered the record was stereo. So now I have three stereo copies of this album. Lesson: READ LABEL CLOSELY!!!!!)

"We thought 'That's not too bad...'"
More on Buck Owens...

This item, from "Wire service reports" in the BALTIMORE SUN's online edition, says it all:

Buck Owens, the country music star who died Saturday at 76, was performing on stage just hours before he died at home in Bakersfield, Calif.

The cause of death was not immediately known, but the country music giant who charted 21 No. 1 country singles from 1963 to 1988, among them "Act Naturally," "I've Got a Tiger By the Tail" and "Streets of Bakersfield," had been in declining health after successfully undergoing surgery for throat cancer in 1993.

"He had come to the club early and had a chicken-fried steak dinner and bragged that it's his favorite meal," said Jim Shaw, a family spokesman and member of Owens' Buckaroos band. "After dinner, Owens told band members he didn't feel up to performing and decided to drive home. On his way to his car, fans on their way in told him they'd come from Bend, Ore., and how much they were looking forward to hearing him sing. Owens turned around and did the show."

"He mentioned that onstage: 'If somebody's come all that way, I'm gonna do the show and give it my best shot - I might groan and squeak, but I'll see what I can do,' " Shaw said. "He died in his sleep, they figure it was about 4:30 [a.m.], probably of heart failure. So he had his favorite meal, played a show and died in his sleep. We thought that's not too bad."

Buck Owens 1929-2006

Buck Owens died today at the age of 76.

All of the wire service obituaries are leading by saying that Buck was the co-host of HEE HAW, but to me that sounds almost like marginalizing his importance to pop music.

Artists like the Byrds, Michael Nesmith, Gram Parsons and others were responsible for bringing elements of traditional country music into rock and roll. Conversely, Buck Owens was responsible for bringing elements of rock and roll into country. He bristled at the label "country," preferring to say that he played "American music." His best records (recorded in the early-mid 60s for Capitol!) fused the hard rhythmic, drums-and-guitar based sound of rock and roll with the swing and twang of country. Little wonder that the Beatles could cover his "Act Naturally" and make it sound at home in their repertoire; on tracks like "Gonna Have Love" and "I Don't Care" Buck had his own version of Liverpool going on.

The best boxed set I own is Rhino's 3-CD BUCK OWENS COLLECTION; the first two discs are, track for track, the best primer anyone could ask for in Why Buck Owens Mattered: just one great hard-driving, honky-tonk jukebox hit after another.

Favorite Buck Owens tracks (recommended downloads, if you please):
"I Don't Care"
"Hello Trouble"
"I Wouldn't Live In New York City If They Gave Me The Whole Danged Town"
"A-11"
"How Long Will My Baby Be Gone"
"Close Up The Honky Tonks"
"Second Fiddle"
"Before You Go"
and an obscure track from an album called ROLL OUT THE RED CARPET FOR BUCK OWENS AND THE BUCKAROOS: "He Don't Deserve You Anymore."

Rest in peace, Buck.

I'll do a Buck Owens tribute on my rahdio show Monday (8-9 am EST) so listen if you can!

"These kids and their-- uh, MY-- friggin' music!!"

I work in a college library, so I see a lot of 17-24 year old kids, and I've noticed more than ever that music that was popular back when I was that age (adolescence, roughly 1977-1988, also known as the Golden Age Of Music, haha) is still popular with kids that age.

To wit: as I sit here at my desk on the library floor, there is a 19-year-old girl sitting in the lounge area, her bookbag emblazoned with a PINK FLOYD patch... in other words, she's a fan of a band that not only made its last meaningful record and (for all intents and purposes) broke up several years before she was even BORN... but a band with band members who are old enough to be not only her parents, but her GRANDPARENTS.

I mean, have you seen a picture of Syd Barrett lately?

When I was that age (ahem!) most kids my age didn't listen to ANYTHING that our parents were into... there were a few weirdos (most of them my friends) whose parents were into classical and passed THAT along to them... but we really didn't know anyone whose parents were cool enough (or young enough) to have caught even the first wave of rock and roll. To most of them, rock 'n' roll smelled phony and false... a music sung, played, and written for the most part by cretinous goons and by means of its almost imbecilic reiteration, and sly, lewd, in plain fact, dirty lyrics managed to be the martial music of every sideburned delinquent on the face of the earth.... the most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it was their misfortune to hear. And we didn't much care for THEIR music either. It wasn't until I got into college that I actually started listening to my Dad's favorite, Frank Sinatra.

Contrast that with today. If you're my age (35-50) you can pretty much name ANY band or artist you were into at that age (13-24) and you'll see kids that age sporting the gear, clothes and swag and, if you were to pry into their iPod playlists, you'd probably hear some pretty familiar stuff... Beatles, Ramones, Black Flag, the Doors, Led Zep, Bob Marley... all acts that (again) were pretty much HISTORY before most college kids were even born.

This was their PARENTS' music and yet they in their youth have taken ownership of it. Which is cool, but in a way, it seems kind of weird to be sitting here seeing kids still listening and relating to artists and bands I was into before they were even born.

What gives?? More thoughts on this as they come to me...

Unkle Max Radio Show playlist for 3-21-2006
- or -
"Well... THAT Was Sure Fucking Annoying!!"
Really, today's show had to be the most ANNOYING SHOW I've done yet at this "station." Someone ought to be ashamed and embarrassed for the state the studio and the station is in. Unfortunately, since ~ I ~ was the one behind the mic, guess who's ashamed and embarrassed??

And just what was wrong? Let's see...

* Studio locked and inaccessible until 8:15 am. My show is supposed to start at 8:00 am, so by the time I'd gotten into the station, I'd already lost 15 minutes.

* Sound system in cafeteria inaccessible, so the station's on-campus listeners (few as they are) can't hear us.

* THE FUCKING BOARD IS STILL WIRED AND PATCHED WRONG!!! This annoys me no end. It's bad enough that the turntables don't have styli and aren't hooked up... or that the cassette deck isn't patched into the board so you can record your show if you want to... but of our FIVE CD players, only two work... and those are patched into the board wrong. CD 1 plays the left channel only, in the left speaker only; CD 2 plays the left channel only in mono through BOTH speakers. So you're only hearing one side of the stereo of every song that gets played, unless it's a mono record.
WHY DOESN'T THIS SEEM TO BOTHER ANYONE BUT ME??? WHY CAN'T THEY FIX IT???
Meanwhile, let's talk about the mics. The mic closest to the control board doesn't work; the mic four feet away from the board works. So in order to talk, YOU HAVE TO STRETCH SO YOU CAN'T REACH THE PLAY BUTTON FOR THE CD PLAYERS. This made between song chat or intros impossible.
And finally...

* The station was a mess: CDs out of cases all over the counter, papers and empty CD cases (non of which seemed to match the discs) all over... no PSA or ID discs.

The staff and management of the station talks sometimes about elevating the station from a "club" to an actual over-the-air, licensed by the FCC BROADCAST station. (Right now, WRFM is internet and on-campus only) While I admire their enthusiasm and ambition, such talk reminds me of a friend who took an intro engineering course at CMU, where the Japanese grad instructor instructed the students to construct models of the basic solids. One kid struggled to make a cone from the piece he'd been given, at which point the instructor grabbed the paper and snapped "GIVE ME! ENGINEERING MAJOR AND YOU CAN'T EVEN MAKE FUCKING DIXIE CUP!"

In other words, they've got a long way to go to get anywhere CLOSE to getting on the air.

But enough rantin' and ravin'... the playlist, for the three people who may have heard the show. Seriously, this is getting to be more trouble than it's worth.

Crosby Stills and Nash - "Blackbird"
A live cover of the Beatles tune, from an old vinyl entitled ALLIES (Atlantic Records); no idea if this one is on CD yet.

The Beach Boys - "Hushabye"
Their great cover of this tune, in a live version from 1964; track 35 on disc one of the GOOD VIBRATIONS: THIRTY YEARS OF THE BEACH BOYS boxed set on Capitol.

Elvis Presley - "It Hurts Me"
This is an outtake that Elvis recorded for his 1968 NBC TV special: a remake of his 1964 single "It Hurts Me." His vocal on this outtake is much more impassioned than on the original single; he sounds more emotionally invested in it. It's gotta be on CD, though I don't know which CD... I have it on an old vinyl of ELVIS: A LEGENDARY PERFORMER VOLUME THREE.

Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane - "Blue Monk"
From the recent Blue Note CD THELONIOUS MONK AND JOHN COLTRANE LIVE AT CARNEGIE HALL (Blue Note).

Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers - "Astral Plane"
From the great 2-CD set on Sanctuary, ROADRUNNER ROADRUNNER.

Merle Haggard - "Misery"
From Merle's 1970 Capitol album A TRIBUTE TO THE BEST DAMNED FIDDLE PLAYER IN THE WORLD, OR MY SALUTE TO BOB WILLS... the album that got me into Bob and into Merle, for which I am eternally grateful. Several original Texas Playboys appear on this album.

Neil Diamond - "Thank The Lord For The Nighttime"
One of those great Bang! records 45s from Neil's early days.

The Move - "California Girls"
A most unusual power pop treatment of the Beach Boys classic from the BBC SESSIONS cd of the Move. 1968 or 1969.

The Beatles - "Lovely Rita"
From the mono SGT PEPPER'S I found on eBay a couple weeks ago.

Crosby Stills and Nash - "Wasted On The Way"
Yet another live take from that ALLIES vinyl mentioned above.

Jan and Dean - "Summer Means Fun"
One of the best J&D album tracks ever, from their LITTLE OLD LADY FROM PASADENA album (1964) and good luck finding it on CD!

The Move - "Don't Make My Baby Blue"
Great loud rocker from their 1969 album SHAZAM!, which again, good luck finding it on CD.

Will this be the swansong of the Unkle Max Radio Show on WRFM? Stay tuned...

Flea market finds: March 5, 2006

The Beatles - RUBBER SOUL (Capitol T 2442) - An original mono copy of the US version of RUBBER SOUL. The cover was beat to shit (spine split and seam splits at the top and bottom with more than minimal wear) and the record didn't LOOK great (scratches, dirty) but once I took it home and got it cleaned up, it sounded great. A nice sounding mix. Two bucks. (More on the Beatles in mono to follow.)

Joe Pass - VIRTUOSO (Pablo Records) - Another two buck find: a near mint condition vinyl copy of the first in what became a series of the guitarist's solo takes on standards.

Julie London - JULIE LONDON (Sunset Records) - A ten song 60s budget compilation of songs from various London albums on Liberty (Sunset was Liberty's budget imprint). Stereo, in very good condition, except for a partially detached label on side one and a kind of tacky feel to the cover. Again, two bucks.

Also a Lucky Millinder big band compilation and a Roy Eldridge big band compilation, the titles of which I can't remember at the moment (I'm typing this at work) but those also were two bucks each.

Meanwhile, from eBay...

Elvis Presley - WORLDWIDE FIFTY GOLD AWARD HITS (RCA) - A really nice original RCA pressing of this four-Lp boxed set, with the photo book included... and the vinyl isn't Dynaflex, but is a nice heavy pressing. The only major defect here is that the front and back of the box are separated (the paper tape hinge is torn). As with the Beatles above, I will be writing more about this one.

The Beatles - "Kansas City" b/w "Boys" (Capitol Starline 6066) - I found two copies of this on eBay recently: a kind of beat-up copy of the US Starline issue (with the green swirl label) and a near mint condition copy of the Canadian Capitol Starline reissue dating from the late 70s-early 80s. Both are in mono and feature the same mixes. As always, Capitol's EQs on these singles was HOT... I don't know if they're the same mixes as appear on mono copies of THE EARLY BEATLES and BEATLES VI... I don't own a mono copy of THE EARLY BEATLES so I can't check that one, and I haven't compared the version of "Kansas City" on BEATLES VI to the one on this (these) 45(s).
A third time: stay tuned for a post on the Beatles' mono records on Capitol... I have a mono copy of SGT PEPPER on its way to me, so I should have plenty to say about it.

Unkle Max Radio Show Playlist
Monday, March 6, 2006 8-9 am EST
WRFM

General comments:
1 - A much harder rocking show than I've done recently.
2 - The station STILL hasn't fixed the board. Both CD players are mono: one CD player plays only the left channel through both speakers, and the other CD player plays only one channel through one speaker. I don't see why they'd want to fix this; I mean, it's not like hearing both channels of a stereo recording is IMPORTANT or anything.

Paul McCartney - "Vanilla Sky"
(Live version of this track from his BACK IN THE USA cd)

Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers - "New England"
(From the Sanctuary double CD ROADRUNNER ROADRUNNER)

Utopia - "That's Not Right"
(From the import CD DEFACE THE MUSIC on Bearsville. I don't think this title has been issued domestically on CD. One of my all-time favorite albums; a great tribute-in-spirit to the Beatles.)

The Beatles - "All My Loving"
The Beatles - "Things We Said Today"
(Speaking of whom... two tracks from disc two of the LIVE AT THE BBC set.)

Mighty Blue Kings - "Baby You Rich"
(An oft-played favorite of mine, from the R-Jay CD COME ONE, COME ALL.)

Carl Perkins - "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"
(I actually prefer Carl's version of this song, the title track from his 1959 Columbia album, to Jerry Lee's hit. Wilder in a way, if that's possible. This is a Sony Special Products CD reissue; I'm not sure if it's still in print or not.)

Elvis Presley - "I Got A Woman"
(From that great first RCA album.)

Blue Ridge Rangers - "Workin' On A Building"
(John Fogerty's first solo album, on Fantasy. Great vocals, as always. Unlike some of the tracks on this album, very loose feel... on a couple tracks on this Lp, the instrumental tracks were almost mechanical.)

Sir Douglas Quintet - "In The Jailhouse Now"
(A great early '70s SD5 track from one of my favorite CDs, Demon Music's THE ROOTS OF DOUG SAHM.)

The Beatles - "Some Other Guy"
(Another track from LIVE AT THE BBC.)

Elvis Presley - "Hound Dog"
Elvis Presley - "Money Honey"
(Comment would be superfluous.)

Dick Dale - "King of the Surf Guitar"
Dick Dale - "Surf Beat"
Dick Dale - "Take It Off"
(As I stated on the air, I've always wished I was the guy screaming in the background of "Surf Beat." If I was a woman, I'd probably wish I was one of the singers on "King Of The Surf Guitar," on which the DRUMS AND BASS were not audible because the ^&*%$#!!BOARD IS WIRED WRONG!!!!!! Not that that's an ISSUE with me or anything...)

The Move - "Do Ya" (Demo)
The Move - "Blackberry Way"
(Two by the Move: "Do Ya" is actually a take of the song that the group intended for airing on the BBC but never submitted --it's a bonus track on the recent MESSAGE FROM THE COUNTRY reissue-- and "Blackberry Way" is a track from the group's LIVE AT THE BBC collection.)

Frank Sinatra - "The Days of Wine and Roses"
(Seems a strange way to end this show... but my friend Judy was listening, and she wanted to hear some Frank... and actually, it wasn't incongruous. One of those great Nelson Riddle charts, this is the title cut from a 1964 album, and is one of the last Riddle-Sinatra records of the 60s to not feature that godawful roller rink organ that Nelson stuck into the arrangements on the STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT album.)