Happy New Year - Here's the Dead Guy List

Lorna Doom (The Germs)
Peter Tork
Kim Shattuck (The Pandoras/The Muffs)
Hal Blaine
Dick Dale
Ranking Roger  (The English Beat)
Roky Erikson
Paul Whaley (Blue Cheer)
Scott Walker
Dr. John
Gary Duncan  (Quicksilver Messenger Service)
Johnny Clegg
Art Neville
Larry Taylor (Canned Heat)
Robert Hunter
Ginger Baker
Paul Barrere (Little Feat)

and this just in...
Neil Innes (Bonzo Dog Band/The Rutles)




Any omission of major rock star deaths in 2019 was intentional.  
Love doesn't always keep them together.
Cars and rock stars don't always mix.
Two tickets to paradise  - so long - longer the better.

One Hit Wonder with a Bubblegum Psych Hit - The Lemon Pipers

One thing to always keep in mind with one-hit wonders is that they never intended to start off this way.  There were always many attempts at getting a hit following the breakthrough.

The Lemon Pipers from Ohio scored a big hit with Green Tambourine in 1968.  An album was thrown together and really shines with the extended psych jams that close the record.  Unfortunately, with a bubblegum psych hit to their credit, they were ignored by the target audience.

Fast forward (well not so fast really) to their second (and final) album released a few months later

The Lemon Pipers - Jungle Marmalade (Buddah 1968)

I almost typed Green Marmalade without thinking.   

Anyway, A few tracks start the record that are obvious attempts to get another bubblegum psych hit.  

Side two is where it gets a little interesting.  Extended jams that must have been exciting  when performed in one of the psychedelic dungeons popping up on every street. 

A fan of dated psych lyrics, I'm particularly fond of 'You're on a dead end street without the sense to turn around!'

Might as Well....Jump

Never a big fan of Van Halen.   This band  - who never quite made it big time - threw a cover of on of their tunes on the B-Side to a single.....

I saw them open for Elvis Costello at one time.  It's post punk acoustic pop.    They took the Van Halen tune and did it in their own style.   A fun little curio.

Norman F_____ Rockwell

So this is the title of unaffected pop princess Lana Del Rey's latest whine fest.  I'm so edgy I titled my well promoted album with a title most newspapers will not publish in it's entirety.  Much like typing G_d, everyone knows what it means but are too afraid to write it.

Life it hard - we know sweetie - but would it hurt you to smile a bit while slowly walking to the bank. Do you think it would ruin your brand?

A recent spate of promo pictures has her posing in front of someone's very impressive vinyl collection.  Yes, we all agree that vinyl makes you hip these days. I'm more interested in the shelving.  It has more personality.

Those would go under 'F' Lana, not 'M,'

What album do you pick to hold?  Fleetwood Mac Rumours.  Gee, of all those records you pick this one?  You're so hip.  It's like she's pontificating about a record she assumes her audience has not heard.

So let's talk Norman Rockwell for a moment.  He was to the Saturday Evening Post as Mort Drucker was to Mad Magazine.  A populist illustrator whose work has been elevated to high art in some circles.  (Although I'm one of only a few who feel this way about Mort Drucker).   Both had a keen sense of humor and joy. Perhaps that's what Lana has a problem with.

The real Norman Rockwell did the cover of the Mike Bloomfield/Al Kooper live album recorded at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco in 1968.   So there hipster Lana.  Rockwell did have some links to the counterculture.

I love this record. The show was hastily thrown together after Columbia released an album of studio jams by two of  Dylan's mid sixties sidemen.  It features John Kahn, the bass player in pretty much all of Jerry Garcia's non Grateful Dead projects.




Ace musicians doing loose jams. What's not to like.

Austin Adventure

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Austin, Texas - one of my favorite cities.  I was accompanying my wife on a business trip.  I had the days to myself.  I have an office there and worked a day or two, but was on my own during for a few days.   I did what I always to when having free time in another city  - hit the record stores.  Austin is one of the best placed in the world for this.

I usually skip Waterloo as I get too overwhelmed.  My preference is a smaller curated store..

First stop - End of an Ear

They moved further south and now occupy a nondescript location with an ordinary sign and facade.

Next up - Antone's

The record store arm of the famous live music venue.

After evenings spent on Rainey Street, I hit Breakaway a few days later...

They recently expanded to the next storefront where they sell refurbished vintage audio.   On hand, they had the Technics I used on sale....

So here's my haul.  Too many for just one photo.

Country Music - Elvis Costello and a Bonus Rant

I recently completed a viewing of Ken Burn's Country Music documentary on PBS.   It took me back to the shock of punk/new wave icon Elvis Costello releasing an album of country covers.

Elvis Costello - Almost Blue (Columbia 1981)

Elvis and the Attractions descended on Nashville and worked out of CBS studios.  Elvis' fondness for county music lyrics should come as no surprise.  His work to date contained many of the same sensibilities and stories.

The back cover states the recording has 'no spoiler signal.'  A spoiler signal was a tone placed on recordings that supposedly made them unable to be home recorded.  The record companies believed  home taping was killing music.  This was never true in my book.  Home taping was a way of getting to know an artist before making a commitment.   Greed was killing music. 

Witness CD's when they were released.  At the onset they were expensive.  A promise was made once they hit total acceptance, the economy of scale would bring the price down.  We all know that didn't happen.